how to keep sane in maddening, wonder-filled world

'You'd have to be half mad to dream me up.' 

Lewis Carroll. Alice in Wonderland.

... and if one more person tells me we didn't plan the birth days of our children very well, I will shout at the top of my voice "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!"

How curious it is that we almost all share the same month to celebrate the day we came to our wonder-full lives.

How wonder-full that the youngest two share the same celebration, friends, party, celebrating themselves, and that daddy parties on down in the same week too.

How lucky am I, that I have one week of pure, unadulterated service to my loved ones, celebrating my children and husband. That the rest of life is put on hold while I concentrate my efforts in pure love, intent and purpose, that my whole being is poured into the family mould.

Divine timing.
Everything happens at the right time.

And so it has been this week.

A family's celebration in love, wonder and awesomeness.

My boy showered in love and boats and car cake and berry smoothies and a day just for him, before we moved on to the next day with horses, unicorns, tea party and sleepover, ending the week with a tea party for our very own Mad Hatter, Alice, Doormouse and all our friends.

"Have I gone mad?"

"I'm afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are!" Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

Still living without a conventional fridge, the night kitchen being one awesome place to set chocolate and cake icing, the outdoor toilet block being another! meant that everything was made the night before each birthday. 

Thats four birthday cakes in one week! 

I am so great-full that we're raw! 

No worries with regards to burning, sinking or forgetting vital rising ingredients. No cutting into shapes. Just bunging it all together, adding flavours til the taste was filled with wonder and shaping it by hand like putty at your finger tips.

“Yes, that's it! Said the Hatter with a sigh, it's always tea time.” Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

And the joint celebration being a tea party ... I focused on jam tarts, jam, eat me cookies to get those kids big, drink me kombucha to make e'm small and love heart chocolates to expand their hearts. 

And endless rounds of tea. With locally supplied raw milk! To keep the parents at bay!

And this year I gifted myself with kindness and let go of the need to do it all. 

I added up the hours prepping, the price of the raw ingredients and saw that in some ares, overall it was madness not to reach out and pay for help.

 I let myself buy the kombucha, the milk and the raw chocolate to top the Mad Hatters cake. How could I pass up a raw bar that's named 'Wonder'?! 

And I asked our tea party guests to bring some food for the table. And that alone enabled me to keep a wee bit of sanity in an ever growing mad week.

At the very least, I knew that everyone would delight in the sweetness of the day!

100% happiness guaranteed

You haven’t got time to take a day off.

Yep! I totally resonate with that statement. After all, I’ve made it my mantra for…I can’t even count the years.

And I still find it challenging to take a whole day off. 

Not checking the overload of other peoples schedules in my inbox, breaking the family routine, not making three meals a day, every day. Stopping reading, talking, helping someone with regards to work.

I find it more manageable to take bite sizes of time off…like when I’m asleep, or in the shower, or in the car on my own in between dropping and picking up children from various playdates, classes and sleepovers. Time off in my books is the weekly shop without kids, playing on social media, reading a book on biz, helping a friend in need.

Taking a day off is the most important factor of living life more. 

Without that day to yourself to do whatever it is you like to do to rejuvenate, recuperate, revitalise and rewind, life naturally winds you up and spits you out leaving you spiky, exhausted and no use to anyone.

Go on, try it! Take one whole day off to yourself.

Yes, I know you’re really, really busy and you can’t possibly do it today. 

Maybe next week sometime…go on…dig your heels right back into that stuck in the rut you’ve made yourself.

I can't possibly take today off because I gotta write a blog, fix the toilet, pack up the kids lunch, fill in trenches, prepare dinner, make beds, chop wood. 

I hear the mantra. I know wotcha saying!

I’ve been overwhelmed with the routine and needs of life, family and everything. My creativity has lain in a crumpled heap alongside the trug of clothes that should’ve been folded tidily away into drawers sometime last week. My physical needs have demanded I take some time out as I hammer away at the keys. My productivity rates slid down the scale as I put myself down the back alleys of self care, alongside the remains of chaos and overwork.


So, what is it that’s impossible to put off? 

What’s so urgent that it can’t be timetabled into another day, gifting yourself some well deserved rest, play and self care?

I gifted myself with a day last week. 

My day of work became a day for me. 

I had to be pushed outa the door…my beloved thought it was the best idea I’d ever had! I got permission from someone else, and I still had to take the leap of faith that my life wouldn’t crumble around me while I was looking after number one.

And you know what?

I came back joy-full, free, relaxed and happy. My head was busting with new ideas for famliy happiness, business prosperity and solutions to challenges had been answered while I took myself for a bush whacking exercise into my back yard of the wild. 

Sunning myself on the beach, dunking my head under the waves and giving myself a virtual swim, looking out at the horizon rewired my neural patterns, put life into perspective, gave me back my freedom and perspective on life, the universe and everything.

In fact I was so fully charged that I had the most productive week ever!

And taking advantage of losing power at home during a weekend rainstorm, therefore loosing the ability to make gourmet meals, do the never ending laundry and checkin in on the ‘lose an evening to facebook’ game, I gifted myself more than free time. 

I supped up the energy of recharge and turbo powered my way through the next workday, giving myself the freedom to book my next day off the following week.

Go on, I dare yah! Gift yourself with a day off tomorrow!

How solar power's making me fat

I've fallen off the wagon.

It didn't take me long!
In fact, I hadn't even started my month's green smoothie fast yesterday, when I threw a hand-full of brazils into my wide open yawning mouth ... at seven in the morning, while trying to light the fire with sodden wood.

I was very excited that now my baby of nearly three years has pretty much weaned himself off his mama's living milk. I was gonna be able to clean myself out in the first week of my new year.

Who was I trying to kid!
Not thinking through this idea, looking at what I was devouring and when and why ... just throwing myself whole heartedly into fasting without a thought was probably not the best of ideas to get started.

No plan

No goal in sight

No willpower!

Just a half hearted attempt at feeling lighter, cleaner and gifting myself with a boost of love.

Why the fast?
I've unintentionally put on weight. Quite a lot actually.
I'm beginning to wear those winter hide-me-away clothes again.

Then there's my eldest's beauty-full comment on my birthday. She loves me coz i feel like sloppy porridge.
YEEK!

I feel slower, lower energy, heavy and lacking some of the unlimited energy that I usually bound with.

And then there's the photos of me splashing in the ocean in my birthday suit! My daughters lithe bodies in contrast of my own beauty-full voluptuous body highlighted at last what I already new.

I'm getting fat.

And the reason for gaining unwanted fat's no rocket science.

Too much fat 

Too much sugar

Too many calories

Not enough water

Lacking in exercise

Not enough sleep

Incorrect balance in life

I had a giggle about binging on nuts so early in the morning ... and if that's how bad it got, what's the problem?

Of course, there's no problem..I just don't feel comfortable at the excess weight that's been creeping on since I changed my life, going off grid, relying on too little solar power to keep me turbo charged through the colder days.

The dehydrator that we used to rely on in the winter months to conveniently consume our days worth of seeds and nuts in handy pack-'em-up sized pizza bread, crackers and chips, and the fridge that we lack to conveniently store pre-made meals has meant that although we've been eating fresher and lighter meals, mainly in the form of salads, I've not been sprouting grains, seeds and legumes as much, and have been lavishly filling up instead with dried fruits, nuts and generous helpings of avocado, chocolate and coconut oil.

It's like it's Christmas binging every day!

Lacking solar power as the sky dumps blankets of rain on us, means more than the garden of greens resting in hibernation. Without enough electricity to keep a dehydrator bangin' out health-full staples, I've been grabbing food in it's natural state and relying on dried staples to fulfil all of my emotional and physical needs ... which has created a platform of addiction to sugars and fats.

A house that can get unbearably cold due to lack of insulation and sodden clay beneath our wooden stilted floors, means that my body has started to insulate itself.

And again, none of this is a biggie.

To convert this given energy into a state of a highly functioning body, I just need to up my exercise regime.

Into maybe a marathon a week at current gorging.

Obviously walking up and down the hill is not raising my heart beat enough to use the excess calories that I'm feeding myself these days. So, I've either gotta find some time to raise my heart beat tenfold, or I gotta cut down on the sugars and fats.

Especially together!

Fat loves to snuggle up to the sugar, where it stores it for later, rather than converting it into super fuel glucose.

So, here's my updated plan.

Run to my new Creative Space via the beach

Chop wood, collect kindling, run and play more outside with the kids, creating warmth from the inside out.

Stick to a handful of nuts and seeds each day

Fill up with super green smoothies

Limit myself to one avocado per day

Eat two main green salads, brimming with sprouts

and the two biggies:

Make time for myself for exercise

Get some more sleep

Don't get fooled into thinking that eating health-fully will keep you in tiptoptastic condition.

Keep an eye on what you're consuming and when and why. Empowering ourselves with the knowledge that food is energy utilised to get us from A-Z, revitalising, repairing and rejuvenating our bodies and mind, helps us power our life and gets us naturally, living life more.

It doesn't matter whether you're on the healthiest lifestyle or hammering the middle aisles of the superstore ... if you don't get a good balance, then somethings gotta give.

Being Responsible

I am responsible for my life. 

Listening to my inner voice and trusting that internal guidance has taken me over the stepping stones of my life, leading me to my dreams and beyond into life that is yet to be realised. 

I love food. 

Food has been a constant source of inspiration, well being (emotionally if not physically!) and a way of showing my love to those around me.

In the early days though, I had to delve deep into faith and know that all would be well when, due to various self-destructive motivations, my body began to fall apart.

I continued to ignore the messages my body was sending me to slow down, 

go inside and listen. 

Instead, I carried on to near collapse. 

It took a long time to realise and react. 

I recovered myself by removing one lifestyle and gradually built up another in it’s place. 

And I have to tell you…life never looked so great!

Becoming physically exhausted and unable to mentally stabilise, my body began to react strongly to most food types. With help from professionals, I was pulled apart from my beloved food and reintroduced to it over a period of two years. 

A decade later, I feel two decades younger, have gained a new body and have healed at a higher level.

And I'm now able to nourish people with love through foods I know are the best the planet has to offer. Healing and empowering not only loved ones, but supporting and awakening the spirit within, sustaining our planet, celebrating our aliveness.

We all have different lifestyles, jobs, commitmentments, bank balances and motivations. 

Eating raw, living foods is something that we all can incorporate into our lives at some level and reap the benefits. 

By just adding a juice, smoothie, a salad or more fruit to our daily diets will have incredible effects over the long term. No one need to feel that they will be missing out on anything either. By simply allowing your body freedom from the tedious job of digestion, you will be rewarded with more energy and vitality. 

Your beautiful body can concentrate on repairing tissue, replenishing cells and gifting your brain with enhancing nutrients. 

Accessing supersonic powers through supersonic foods is something to be grateful for daily, and the longer you implement it in your lifestyle, the more you will want it in your life.

This is an inspiring way of living. 

By taking responsibility for the choices that I make encourages me to choose the thoughts that benefit me. 

That includes what I put in my body. 

By removing toxic foods, beauty products and negative thoughts, my day is lighter, happier and present. 

I am in the driving seat. 

Loving my life, loving myself, loving all around me.

I love my life pie

Crust

1 cup walnuts

1 1/2 cups soft dates

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/ Pop all the crust ingedients into your food processor, adding the dates slowly. Process into a dough-like consistency.

2/ Press the dough into a pie pan.

Filling

1 cup pitted dates

1 cup water (or thereabouts)

1 tbsp cinnamon, ground

8 ripe persimmons, peeled and sliced

3/ Excluding the persimmons, blend the filling together until well mixed.

4/ Mix together with the persimmons and lay on top of the crust.

Invite a favourite friend over, share your pie and create your dreams together.

stokin' the fire within

Sitting out on the deck basking in an english summers day…

we luxuriate in the fact that it’s midwinter in New Zealand and we’re relishing lunch outdoors! 

OK, the air’s nippy enough to be wearing socks and a cosy hoody, but isn’t that the ravishing bit about winter? 

And fires? 

Admittedly, the fire’s on indoors, gently keeping the hot water tank full, and at the ready to take off Jack Frosts icy touch in the morning.

Beach fires have been lit and friends gather as the sun lays its’ head behind the ranges of the national park. Children flit about burning bare bottoms with sand slides and the elders swap their weekly chatter and philosophise over Matariki, super-full moons and the footy.

What to share around a fire?

Blankets, mead, music and love. And feast on familiar hearty foods. 

Wracking my brain for a raw dish to share with fellow foodies is not on my list of priorities. Gathering beach clodder and having a fun day at the local markets, eating lunch al fresco is.

feelin' blue? go for green ...

Life’s our choice. 
It’s up to us how we feel, where we go and who we choose to share it with. 

My beloved and I have recently made huge choices to create a life that we wanted to live. 

And that meant leaving loved ones, a family home, a country, a hemisphere. 

In short, we left one life to create another.

I know without doubt that our raw food lifestyle enabled us to do this. Lifting us up instead of keeping us down, making us feel lighter, happier, clearer about stuff. 

We stopped stuffing down our emotions, let them rip forth and dealt with the rubbish.

It wasn’t that pretty. 

Some people say that it’s OK for us, it comes easy. 

Some say we’re lucky, they don’t have that opportunity. 

I say whatever you want, you go and get it as no-one else can do it for you.

warming up to raw foods

I‘m heating my food!

The decidious trees are hitting the limelight with technicolour dream coats, snow has touched the mountain tops and although enjoying an indian summer, the hours that snuggle close to the darkness tempt us to light the fire.

I’m getting alot of folk asking, ‘How do you do it? I couldn’t eat salads all winter…my body needs cooked food.’ 

There’s a misconception about raw foods having to be cold.

 In fact, alot of our food is warm, either through gently heating or adding spice. 

When food is cooked, it’s boiled, fried, and roasted until it’s so hot, we have to wait until the meal is cool enough to stop burning the skin from the roof of our mouths! Preparing raw and gently heating, we get close to the same temperature, the bonus being we get to keep all the good stuff.