It’s nice to end the day feeling better than you started. My plan was to get to the Stress-Less Expo, organized by Gainesville Holistic Health Center with the support of the Tony Robbins‘ team and Dahn Yoga, among others, to begin raising awareness and funds for the Whole-listic Children’s Foundation‘s project to create a holistic…
Healthy Eating
Life purpose manifesto: Why I want to start a business
One step forward, two steps back. After yesterday’s post on my health journey and optimism for the future, I hit something of a wall last night that had me questioning myself and the purpose that had seemed so crystal clear just hours earlier. I tearfully emailed my energy work practitioner at 11:30 p.m. when, wide-eyed…
Reflections on the healing journey: summer into fall
“You’ve come a long way,” said the Total Body Modification practitioner as I listed my areas of improvement along with my concerns. When I started seeing her in the spring, I was struggling, as noted in “Morning with a High-Maintenance Mama.” I’d come out of a bad winter cold and a digestive crisis but was…
Summer events for the green and healthy family
All the events that are fit for green and healthy families this summer into fall 2013. Share what I’ve missed and I’ll add it! Friday, July 5: Book Release and Signing Party for Beyond Bacon by Paleo Parents bloggers Stacy and Matt, Red Apron Butcher, 8298 Glass Alley, Fairfax, VA, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 17:…
Paleo Parents pen new book, Beyond Bacon
My daughter learned how pigs sound from our trip to Polyface Farms just after she turned two. Since then, every time she’s gleefully snorted, I smile knowing she gleaned that skill right from the source, frolicking right alongside the pasture-raised pigs at Joel Salatin’s farm in Swoope, Virginia. Maybe she’d first picked it up in…
June events for the green and healthy family
Here is a round-up of June 2012 events for your green and healthy family. Leave a comment for others I should add! I hope that in May you submitted your school’s information to the International School Grounds Alliance so they can document what is happening in schoolyards around the world. See http://greenschoolyards.org/ for more info!…
Parenting in the land of compromise
Welcome to the June 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting in Theory vs. in Reality This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants are sharing how their ideas and methods of parenting have changed. *** The surprises…
A snapshot of health: tired adrenals
In the past few weeks, I’ve had to cancel some appointments for my own healing because my children were sick and I didn’t have childcare. I got so down, I canceled even more that I could have made; I got overwhelmed and started to question how I was ever going to feel better. It felt…
April events for green and healthy families
April in the DC area is bursting at the seams with events to help you get connected to the earth and focus on your health Here’s a quick look at some of the great offerings for natural-minded families around DC this month. April 13: NoVA Outside Early Childhood Outside Conference: Lens on Outdoor Learning, 9:00-1:00,…
Morning with a high-maintenance mama
If “high-maintenance” means “requiring a lot of attention,” put my picture by the definition. With all the things I’m having to do these days just to make my body function (or to figure out what that even means in this shifting landscape of health), I feel like my children’s lives are passing me by, and…
Yoga as birthday gift
I turned 40 on Monday. On my birthday eve — last Sunday — I had the most beautiful yoga class with a small group of friends. I walked in anxious and grumpy and walked out grateful and open-hearted. This weekend, I am off on a retreat through Beloved Yoga at the lovely Kent Manor Inn….
Reading is fundamental (and so is writing)
I did not go to my child’s school to read in my pajamas today. Does this make me a bad parent? I’m going to vote no. I did have his dad pick him up some new non-flame-retardant-sprayed pj’s at Hanna Andersson yesterday (for the “it’s organic and in the mall” price far above Costco rates)…
A retreat and a reboot
Parenting really does make you tired. That’s the conclusion I reached after being away from my family for 32 hours and returned full of pep. For someone who’s had one of the toughest emotional months in her adult life recently and some physical challenges, it’s saying a lot to feel so good about the weekend….
Chameleon season, in weather and in health
Something bizarre this way comes. And goes. Last week was the most bizarre week in the atmosphere outside my windows — and also the one in my body and heart. It went from a chilly Sunday to a rainy Monday (after the school system made a super snafu and called for a snow day) to…
Food for thought
I can’t stand it. After 27 days of writing poetry, I want to write about nutrition! Aside from the fact that tomatoes are out of season and that I didn’t preserve any local ones, and aside from the fact that I’d once all but banned even gluten-free pasta from our house as a processed food…
Lessons from my children’s first teacher
What I want my children to learn from me Singing is your heart smiling out loud. Passion is that heart getting warm, and flexible, and strong. Quiet is laying your head on a pillow, gently, as though it were a feather on a cloud. Food is a gift we give ourselves, our mouths for joy,…
Upcoming conferences & events for healthy living
It’s hard to keep track of all the amazing events coming up in the next few weeks! Here is a snapshot. Let me know what I should add! Thursday, October 18 Holistic Moms Network Arlington/Alexandria chapter presents: “Breathing Techniques” Learn about different breathing techniques and how they can contribute to health and wellness from VitalSelf…
Gluten-Free Expo returns to D.C.! + Giveaway
The Celiac Disease Program at Children’s National Medical Center is all about getting and keeping kids healthy and is hosting the second-annual DC Gluten-Free Expo this afternoon and evening at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 1201 K Street NW from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. If I’d eliminated gluten from my diet as a child, my…
Investigating Ayurveda + a giveaway
Last spring, my sister-in-law advised me that the best thing I could do for my health would be to give myself a daily oil massage and to have a consistent schedule of sleeping and waking. And that would include a midday nap. Right. According to her, yoga instructor Charlotte Clews, when she advised me last…
Blooming trees and buzzing Bs
Eighty degrees in March, and nothing is at rest. The flowers are up, stretching their arms after nary a winter’s nap. The magnolia has exploded into blossom way before its time, dropping its once-precious petals onto the ground where they turn slipper and slimy like a million mini banana peels. After she sat down on…