Picking a New Computer

Our family has depended on my old laptop from college since we got married. (And we're celebrating our 5th anniversary this month!) For graduation, my parents got me a Dell Inspiron 600m. It's been so good to us.

But however attached and loyal I might be to my things (my old 1999 Sentra would be another example), it doesn't change that things get old and worn out. Especially electronics.

So, when I began getting what around here we call the Blue Screen of Death, my husband began preparing me for the worst. We had a friend work on the computer, which helped it hobble along another six months, but recently it's been freezing up, randomly shutting down, has a pink tint to the screen, and manages to let all sorts of new "errors" come up. When it just plain stopped working for a whole day last week, it was time to order a new one. Since my husband and I have been talking about it for at several months, we knew almost exactly what we wanted. Here was our thought process.

Three things dominated our decision:
1) Available money
2) Portability
3) Brand/Quality

Available Money: We are cash buyers, which means if we don't have it, we generally don't spend it. We hadn't saved up what we wanted for a new computer, so we talked back and forth about the value in getting a cheaper, possibly refurbished or bottom of the line computer until we'd saved up for what we wanted.

We only considered this (which would have us spending more total money in the long run) because we absolutely have to have a computer at home. If we didn't have our small businesses, we could have let the computer die and then waited until we could buy another one.

In the end, we came into some extra money and didn't need to make this decision. However, I think it makes good financial sense to either wait entirely to get a new computer, or to get a cheap interim computer until you can save up. Going into debt for a gadget should not be an option, in my opinion. Think appreciation vs. depreciation.

Portability: Do we go desktop or laptop? This was a short conversation. We travel a lot, go to different wifi hotspots often, and want the option of doing our business wherever we want to be. A desktop would be nice for sometime later, but for now, with only one computer, a laptop is what we need.

Brand/Quality: This whole sickness with my computer has been going on for nearly a year. I was just plain sick of it (haha). It's incredibly annoying to have a laptop on hospice. When we began thinking of which brand computer to buy, the fact that I'd always had glitches, viruses, and unexpected problems with my Dell became a factor. It hadn't bothered me that much, but if we could improve on it, I wanted to.

Enter the Mac cultists. Why is that most Mac users are walking advertisements for the brand? That, my friends is the question. They don't get viruses, they say. It doesn't shut down, or give you the blue screen of death. When researching it (yes, research every question you have, and every comment you read or hear!), it looked as though there were occasional problems, but that for the most part, the Mac groupies weren't exaggerating.

We took the plunge and decided to go Mac. After that, it was mostly a decision of speed and size. We wanted something fast enough to handle our movie watching and downloads, but we're not gamers so we didn't need much. After debating the epic 13" or 15" question, we ended up with this beauty yesterday:


Macbook Pro 15"

For more info:
http://store.apple.com
http://dell.com
http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/2004/10/mac_or_dell.html

How to (Not) Eat Well When You Travel

We just got back from a weekend trip to see family. Even though it was a great visit, I was exhausted the whole time. I'm pregnant, which means eating well isn't a plus, it's sort of necessary if I want to feel good enough to act like a human.

If you want to eat well when you travel, follow this one tip and you will: bring your own food. That's it. Easy peasy.

Only, I didn't do that this time, and ended up having lots of bagels, sugar, juice, muffins, bread, chips, etc. for my meals. It was awfully tasty, but I couldn't fit enough fat and protein into that to get the energy I needed.

Here's a Quick List of items I normally bring with me for meals/snacks:
avocados
whole-milk yogurt
cheese
nuts
butter
peanut butter
fruit as a utensil for eating pb

Just this short list of items can add a lot to meals, or completely substitute for one. If I happen to have a half gallon or more of raw milk, I'll bring it along, mostly because I don't want it to sour before I get back. Everyone in our family enjoys these foods, so they get eaten up.

What else is on your short list of travel foods?

How to Fight Off the Nasty Cold

My family - all four of us - are fighting a summer cold. Sore throats, headaches, congestion, all in varying degrees.

What do you do about it if you don't have a doctor who writes you a prescription for these sorts of things?

Of course, I'll say the obvious and remind you that we do absolutely nothing but rest and relax. Sick bodies aren't supposed to be active bodies.

But here are home remedies I use for my family (do your own research, use your own discretion):

LEVEL 1: As Soon as Symptoms Appear

-Cranberry juice (a great detoxifying agent): the real deal, not Ocean Spray. Buy cranberry concentrate from your health food store (HFS) and mix it with water and a few drops of liquid stevia if you need it sweet.

-Kombucha provides probiotics, detoxifies, and has B vitamins to supply energy.

-Vitamin C (we like Emergen-C).

-Coconut Milk is anti-viral and antibacterial, and has good fats to nourish our weak bodies. I used to give my kids a tsp. every morning before breakfast, and I should do it again!

-Fresh veggies, and small amounts of fresh fruit.

-Strictly limit carbs and sugar. Absolutley nothing "white". Studies have shown that sugar actually feeds cancer, and has an immediate impact on our immune system when it hits the bloodstream. Refined sugar is oh so bad for us.

Level 2: It's Getting Worse and We're Supposed to Go Out of Town Tomorrow!

-Goldenseal is the antibiotic of my medicinal herbs world. I only use it when things are really bad. The only time I've busted out this nasty herb is when my son got a parasite (from a public splash pad!) two years ago. Nothing helped. I began giving him goldenseal (mixed in concord grape juice) and he began feeling better the next day. Honestly, I would use this if I'd been trying to get the kids to feel better for several days and hadn't seen any improvement. Or if we were supposed to be travelling soon and good health was a must! :)

-Oil of Oregano is what the adults in the house take. And you might not want to wait this long to start taking it. The moment I feel the scratchy feeling in my throat, or that achy feeling in my body, I take a few drops every 15-30 minutes until I feel better. I have yet to get sick when I do this!

Of course, it's contraindicated during pregnancy (as are many of my "bitter" herbs that I like to use when I feel ill), so it's taken me a bit longer to feel better.

Here's a tip on how to take oil of oregano: Take a sip of water and hold it at the back of your throat. Have someone else (or use a mirror, so you can see what you're doing) place a few drops of the oil at the back of your throat in the water and swallow. Quickly chase with the rest of the glass of water. If you don't do this, be prepared for a horrible burning feeling in your mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. This stuff is strong!

Really, you shouldn't be getting sick all that often, if you're eating well. The only reason we're all sick is that for the last few weeks I haven't cooked much at all due to this early pregnancy nausea and exhaustion. Fast food will kill your immune system very quickly!

Here's hoping that our health holds out for travelling!

Fever Blisters, Oh My!

Aren't they horrible? I've had them my whole life. They ruined picture day in 5th grade, and made me self-conscious around my boyfriend in 9th grade. I hate them. Some call them cold sores, some confuse them for canker sores. But they are what they are: a horrible virus that rears its ugly head on or around my mouth.

I've tried various things throughout the years. I've tried Campho-Phenique, and Abreva, but it would still take several days (even over a week) to get better. I finally got smart and began thinking about how to be proactive. When I felt that hot spot on my lip slowly get warmer and larger, I would run to the bathroom and dab hydrogen peroxide on it. It worked sometimes.

Then, in college, I began changing my diet. It looked a lot less typical and lot more "traditional" - with more raw foods, fermented foods, fatty foods, and way less carbs. (You can learn more about it through the Weston A. Price foundation website.)

One side effect that I didn't notice for several years was how infrequently I got a fever blister. Before, I knew to expect several a year. Before I knew it, however, it had been several years since one came to the surface.

In the last 2 years, my diet has - eh, hem - suffered a bit with the growth of our family, and so has my health. I've fought off more colds and illnesses, and have noticed that more fever blisters have been trying to come up.

I've never been entirely happy with how hydrogen peroxide worked preventively, and so when one nearly came up last week, I scrambled for how to nip it in the bud.

And, Eureka!

I grabbed a q-tip and my handy bottle of Swedish Bitters (which does have camphor in it), the ickiest concoction of bitter herbs you've ever tasted. I've learned the past few years how good bacteria helps your immune system, and bitter/spicy things will fight off the bad things.

One little dab of my Swedish Bitters and the hot feeling was gone. Instantly!

So whereas my diet has proven the best way to avoid fever blisters, I know now exactly what to grab if one does surface!

And by the way, I'm curious to see if other virus/bad bacteria-fighting herbs (like oil of oregano, or goldenseal) would have the same effect on fever blisters...That's for another time, I suppose.

How to Deal with Morning Sickness

[Necessary Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, or a midwife, or any kind of medical practitioner. This is just my own opinion. Do your own due diligence, please!]

Know the feeling of waking up and the first thing you become aware of is wanting to throw up?

Some people believe that morning sickness is the feeling women have when their liver is overwhelmed in early pregnancy by the huge increase in estrogen, the exponentially increasing presence of the hcg (pregnancy) hormone, and the toxins being released while the fetus is being implanted.

If it is liver-related, some of the best things you can do is to prepare your liver for the onslaught. "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure." Or something.

If you are trying to conceive, why not do a liver cleanse? Make sure you're eating well, and consuming lots of liver supporting foods.

If you're already pregnant, consider taking dandelion root or milkthistle. I'm taking dandelion root right now. I'm sitting at 9 weeks pregnant, and have found this dosage to be helpful: 2pills in the morning, 1 at lunch, 1 at dinner, 1 right before bed.

Now let's do symptom control. I'm having the hardest time this pregnancy. It's hard to find any food or drink that doesn't make my stomach turn, but here's what I've found helpful (consumed whenever my body decides it's okay):
-Lemon water (fresh water with a good squeeze of real lemon juice - you could also try seltzer water)
-Kombucha (if you can handle it - try diluting it)
-Raw milk (find a source here) (and if you're skeptical, take a look at this)
-Homemade chicken broth with a pinch of celtic sea salt(roast a chicken, put the carcasse in a pot, fill with water and simmer for 12-24 hours - or have someone else do it!)
-My favorite: sip on old-fashioned, lacto-fermented pickle juice

When I keep myself full of liquids (esp. these liquids), I feel much better. The trick, of course, is to get over the queasiness enough to drink them. Catch 22, eh?

Also, if like me, you're having trouble eating enough so that you end up feeling sick from not eating (another catch 22...), a friend suggested I set the clock and drink something every 1/2 hour and eat something with fat in it every hour. Not something big, but something. If you're hungry or thirsty, you're body is already reacting to the loss of liquid or nutrients - meaning, you're too late. Stay ahead of the game to feel better!

Lawn Edging

We've been doing yard work and one task is to install edging along a fenceline of beds. The Renegade Gardener has the best tutorial I've found on installing the black, plastic edging. Seriously. Installed properly, the cheap edging is actually an option.



http://www.renegadegardener.com/content/94plasticedging.htm



I wish we'd found this before we bought the more expensive steel edging to replace the black stuff. User error, indeed.

How, Where & What We Eat - and Still Feel Good About It

Our family lives in a Purgatory-like state of healthy living. Despite our desire for good health and our very good intentions, we never have made it to the Promised Land of all homemade food and the absences of refined oils, sugars, carbs, artificial flavors or just plain crappy food.

We're in the in-between, and in this life we anticipate always being there to some degree.

A friend of ours described it to me this way. There are three factors at play:

Sometimes you have more time (like when you're a single, college student), but you don't have much money, and you need it be convenient since all you own is a microwave.

At a later stage in life, you have more money (like after you've married and have a salary position), but you have no time (two toddlers!), and convenience is moderately important (since you've become narcoleptic from a lack of sleep the past two years).

Other times (like once your children have left the house, you're retired, or you have older children), you might find yourself with an abundance of all those things.

Either way, your life circumstances will play a role in how healthy you will live right now - and even if you have a lot of all of these resources, you will always be making compromises because this just isn't a perfect world.

If you commit to doing as much as you can, but know that you just can't do it all, you'll be doing well. And even if you are the most passionate, driven, committed health nut out there, don't be surprised if you wake up one day to find yourself eating Sonic, or heating up a frozen pizza, or buying that gallon of ice cream. Life happens.

With that said, know that once you walk out your door, you are giving up anything close to the ideal. The ideal only happens in your own kitchen.

So, Where Do We Eat?

Our priority is to 1) avoid refined carbs and sugars, 2) avoid processed anything (veggies, meats, fruits, etc.), and 3) avoid artificial ingredients. Your own research and conclusions about health may lead you to have different priorities.

We tend to eat at:

Wendy's - I get the chili and a caesar salad

Chick-Fil-A - I get the nuggets (no sauce), a salad, maybe a few fries

Taco Cabana - I get the fajitas or taco salad

Local Restaurants - Local mediterranean, mexican and asian restaurants are great!

Where we eat, and know we shouldn't:
Chicken Express - A gift to Southerners

Taco Bueno - Another trademark of the South

Chili's - Yummy MSG-flavored foods we know and love

Supplements We Take to Counteract Fake Food:

Cod Liver Oil - Gross but builds a Super Hero immune system.

Coconut Milk - Supplies good fats and is anti-bacterial/viral.

Homemade or Store Bought Fermented Foods - like sauerkraut, pickles (for store-bought, try Bubbie's brand), yogurt (try Brown Cow brand).

Raw Milk - I know, I know, but we haven't died or become ill yet and pasteurization kills every good thing about milk. Become informed.

Apple Cider Vinegar - Puts good bacteria in our stomach which modern foods (like my treasured Chicken Express) destroy.

Despite how frequently we eat out now, we still manage to be pretty healthy, and without (too many) regrets about our choices.

Growltiger's Last Stand

I used to have cat problems in the garden at my previous house. At first, I would go outside to the front porch in the morning and smell something awful. It took several days to register that it smelled like a giant litter box mixed with dirt. Ick.

I searched and asked around and finally came up the idea to collect those gumball seeds from sweetgum trees.

Photo by Jacqueline

I spread them around every flower bed I had and my problem disappeared! If you happen to have access to them, they were lifesavers!

I've also heard you could use toothpicks (I tried that, and it's not fun to insert hundreds of toothpicks in your garden! And they're not kid-friendly - ask me how I know). Another option is to use cayenne pepper or other strong pepper, but I was nervous about it hurting my plants, or getting in my eyes when I worked in the garden.

Here are more ideas if nothing else seems to work!

P.S. If you're not familiar with T.S. Eliot, he's great.

Direct Mail is Your Small Business' Friend

If you've been scratching your head, thinking, man, I need to send about 50 (or 5000) letters/postcards/booklets, but really don't want to do use my printer or go to Kinko's, or do all that addressing, stuffing and licking myself, then here's a great solution:

Click2Mail

Click2Mail is an online mailing service. You can design and send - or upload your own and send - letters, postcards and booklets using their service. You can also upload your own mailing list (similar to a mail merge data source), or you can purchase mailing lists. Their prices are reasonable (I sent 86 postcards for $36), they work fast (2 days from upload to shipment) and are pretty easy to use. And it's all-inclusive: I gave them the document (and edited it myself), the mailing list, and wham! It's sent. Especially with letters (no stuffing or licking!), it's oh-so-convenient.

My one beef with them so far is that they don't have samples of their paper colors. So "Green #65" didn't mean anything to me, and I was afraid it'd be too dark. Of course, it was just the right type of bright green for a mailing, but still, I would have liked to have seen a sample rather than have to contact customer service. (If I completely missed this on their website somehow, let me know. I'm always looking for another way I have mortified myself.)

From the website, you get the feeling that anyone from an individual (like myself) to larger firms use Click2Mail for their marketing. Some people have complained of slow shipment from Click2Mail, and bad quality if you're using graphics. If you don't like Click2Mail, some alternatives out there are:

Vistaprint
Postcardmania
GotPrint
OvernightPrints

Now, if you're sitting there scratching your head wondering, why in the world would I NEED to send 50 (or 5000!) postcards, letters or booklets, here's the answer:

Cheap Marketing!

As annoying and tacky as it may be sometimes, you get results with direct mail. Typically, you can expect anywhere from a 3-6% response rate, meaning that 3-6% of the people who receive your mailing will respond to it. That may sound low. It is. Compared to the tried and true, old-fashioned marketing my Grandpa used, it is low.

My Grandpa used two main methods of advertising: 1) newspaper ads and 2) word of mouth referrals. In fact, his business grew into a business because of word of mouth, and it became somewhat of a staple in the area because of word of mouth as well.

Unless you have mass-appeal products (in my Grandpa's case, carpeting and, later, salons), the "shotgun" method of marketing that is newspaper ads might not be cost-effective or bring in as many quality leads (calls). I would like to hear marketing gurus talk about how effective word of mouth still is. But with niche products (which so many new, small businesses have), you might want to consider marketing to a niche audience.

Targeted marketing with direct mail is a great way to find potential customers for your unique product. The trick, obviously, is to find the list of these niche customers. You can buy mailing lists (as on Click2Mail or from any number of marketing companies). You can also find them yourself. Create a list of people you know who might be interested in your product, send them a letter and offer a small cash referral for another customer they bring to you. This direct mail/word of mouth hybrid might work out well.

I am NOT a marketing expert (I have other friends who are!). But I watched my Grandpa start and run two small businesses in his life. I'm hoping that by taking notes - even with my different goals - it might just give me a good place to start...

Being a Good Christian vs. Trusting Christ

I wonder if the Christian life isn't so much about giving up what we want as about learning to recognize what it is we really want.

I've felt most of my life it was wrong to want anything that I couldn't have or shouldn't have. What I mean is, I thought it was sin to WANT something, if I didn't have it. I thought that I was sinning when I wanted the kind of relationship someone else had, or felt angry that someone mistreated me, or that I don't want to take care of my kids at the moment.Except that, despite this conviction, and the many times I've tried to repent of this, it has never helped me deal with the fact that I WANT those things. What do I do with those wants?

The best example I can think of was the teaching I heard in high school that God wouldn't send you your spouse until you wanted Jesus more than you wanted to be married. That sounds right, except that well, it doesn't work. All that happened was that I ended up trying to want Jesus so that I could get married. I understood the biblical concept of loving God more than anything else, but that didn't change my heart and desires.

What if the Christian life isn't about trying to beat your heart into submission or putting all your energy into convincing yourself to be and think and do just what the Bible says? But about seeing what you want, and looking for that until you really find it?

In the marriage example, I wanted desperately to be married. I waited, longed, dreamt, begged, cried, schemed and prayed for a husband. And isn't that natural? To want to never be lonely, to be loved, to be comforted, to have a faithful friend, to have the security of a promise? It seems to me to be a good thing. A great thing! It's how we're designed, and is there in our hearts from the moment we're conceived.

So what do you do with that? Most people do what I did and do. They look for a way to get it. And that makes sense. The simplest solution is a spouse, but you can also try to meet that need in your dad, your best friend, your adoring fans, or your sweet children.

Then the hard part comes: they're not giving you what you want. They're not loving like you want, they're needing too much from you, they're hurting you, angering you, disappointing you. It makes you angry, because you NEED them to be a certain way and they're not.

This is the crisis we all find ourselves in, and a Christian must decide what he will do about it. He has the option to deny the truth (by telling himself that he is being selfish and wrong and must ignore these feelings, while his anger might become bitterness and then resentment) or he faces his fears and stares at the sad/frightening/hopeless facts. He looks at himself. He looks at his spouse or father or friend or child. And he sees. Really sees. They can't make him happy. He thinks about other things that might help, too. But travelling to this place, having this job, or being friends with those people won't help either when he realizes what it is that he truly wants.

He wants Jesus. He wants everlasting love, infinite patience, perfect grace, delighted affection, and an easy burden. The Christian sees this sad and wonderful truth. Sad because you are full of longing for it now, and yet you know you can't have it now. And you know these people and things can't give it to you. Sometimes the fear takes over because you know that you are left without options if you want happiness right now. It's hopeless at times, because in our weakness, our faith waivers and we wonder if we will ever be happy at all.

But it's wonderful too. Because now you see how you can stop running; you see a future hope that overshadows the anger you feel sometimes, that answers and makes sense of your sadness in having broken friendships and imperfect parents, and shows you where you can go with all these intense feelings. You have a promise that you will one day have all this figured out and will get what you want. You have a promise that you will have God Himself; and life has proven that He's what you really want after all.

This is Good News to me. I actually got what I thought I wanted - a wonderful husband, two beautiful children, a home, a garden - and it was devastating to find myself angry, sad and hopeless. I was thankful for all that God had given me (they're wonderful things!), but I couldn't ignore my heart. And my heart said I still want more.

Praise God that I can want more. I need more. I'm not sinning by wanting more. I am coming closer to Jesus by wanting more. And praise God that my wanting more has led me to Him, and not further from Him. This hope also lends me freedom from other feelings that I hated. I no longer have to be at angry at those who are not meeting my needs, because I know that they couldn't anyway. When I remember my hope, I can serve others sincerely because I am confident my own needs will be met too (but not by them).

I am also free to want the things this world has to offer. Having a loving husband, sweet children, a nice home, a beautiful garden, extra money and time for leisure do two things for me. First, they give me a taste of heaven and of how great it will be when my desires are fulfilled. They are only a taste, but they are so nice!

Second, they constantly remind me that I can't have the real deal, the full experience now. As much as I love my husband and treasure his love for me, being married is a constant reminder that no matter how deep his love runs, it's an imperfect love and just not enough. Although painful, it's good to see that these earthly pleasures will never completely satisfy me, and I must keep seeking Jesus. I can accept loss or suffering or inconvenience or not getting what I want in an honest way (it makes me angry! it makes me sad! it feels unfair!), but with a hope that has an answer for me.

I may or may not be right. But if the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus made a way for you to be with God, doesn't that beg the question: what's so great about being with God? And if you discover, through the disappointments in your life, that He is offering what you long for most, then you have a lot more to think about than how much you're sinning.

How to Travel the English Countryside

If you've ever read any of Jane Austen's novels, then you'll be among the crowd who knows without a doubt that visiting the English countryside is on your list of 'things to do before I die'. I mean, really:

Countryside Devon by Anna Cervova

Check out this one, too:
Low Wray, Lake District, England by Ben-UK

I've had several years now to daydream of the lands that Austen wrote about, and the places she had seen, and often wondered if they were all as beautiful in person. Austen was actually from the Lake District herself; was it as endearing as she described? If you've wondered yourself, why not plan to go someday?

After researching, I've decided that, although I am a nature-lover, I am not loved by nature, and would rather not face her head on in tents and long hikes that last from sun up to sun down. Instead, I would rather take up a nice room at an inn in a larger town (Manchester or London, for example) and take day-trips to areas by bus. From there, you can hike to several villages during the day, but be back in time to relax in the city by late afternoon.

Here is great way to go about it.

And here also is another traveller's perspective, this time on Derbyshire (the setting of Pride and Prejudice).

Just imagine taking long walks along secluded footpaths, strolling from village to village, taking breaks in pubs to drink the finest beers, to have welcome hospitality, stunning views, and the quiet hum of country life. If you ever go, please send me pictures! That's all I have for now. Well, that, and another sit-down with my dear friend, Jane.

2010 Goals

1. Get control of our weight.

2. Get Kelly healthy, physically and emotionally.

3. Finish Frasier!

4. Build business.

5. Pay off one of our loans.

6. Finish kitchen cabinets.

7. Install new raised beds, and conquer tomatoes.

I'm noting these on the blog so that at the end of the year, I can see how we did.