‘Letting Your Children Grow Up’ Mantra

sunset
Posted on April 1, 2011 by gypsychant
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Do six sun salutations to allow your chakras to open.

Close your eyes and cross your arms over your chest and gently hold your throat with both open hands. You are opening your throat chakra and your heart chakra at the same time. You are healing your throat chakra and heart chakra simultaneously.

Repeat these words letting your own words mix in with the words below. Allow words to flow, let your own words take over if they want. Trust your instinct and allow what needs to be said to be said, what needs to be felt to be felt.

Trust !!!

I am trust, I am love, I am perfect vibration, I am whole, I am strong, I am able.

My children are love, My children are perfect vibration, My children are strong, My children are able.

My children are as capable as I am, I have given them what they need to go out into the world and be strong.

I trust that they are smart, safe, strong, able, sweet, confident. I let go of the control to think only I can make it better, or do it better or make everything alright. They can make everything better, do it better and make everything alright. They can do it just like I can do it. They are ok like I am ok.

I release control over this and I trust this process in life called growing up and becoming capable beings. It is what I have worked all these years to make happen. It has happened. The time is now to trust, to see the perfect vibration in every cell working in harmony as it was designed to work.

In all this I give thanks. A-ho.

Now release your hands and arms from your body, open your arms wide, exposing your throat and heart to the universe. Trust the universe to be kind and joyous to your open heart. Let your love shine for all to feel and embrace.

 

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“ZRBTT, oh no, please don’t give me a ZRBTT”

Posted on March 24, 2011 by gypsychant
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Do you know what a ZRBTT is?
How can you raise a baby without knowing what a ZRBTT is? It should not be allowed.
The Urban Dictionary say’s this, “creating a seal between a human mouth and flesh (commonly the stomach or arm) and then blowing, producing a fart-like sound.”
It goes on to say:

This word was first introduced on “The Cosby Show”, (Season 2, Episode 11) and explicitly spelled out “ZRBTT“. It was also clearly pronounced without the final “r” sound given here. It was spelled repeatedly by several characters. The subtitles as aired on the show spelled it “Zurbitt” when Bill Cosby was pronouncing it as if it were a real word. Part of the joke of this word is that it’s a nonsense spelling without vowels.In the episode, Vanessa was practicing for a spelling test, and Rudy kept interrupting, asking what a series of nonsense letters spelled. The following, including spelling, is taken from the subtitles as transmitted.

Rudy: Vanessa, what does “Q-N-G-H” spell?Vanessa: Nothing. Give me another word.Rudy: What does “Z-R-B-T-T” spell?Vanessa: Nothing!Rudy: How come when you spell it’s a word and when I spell it it’s nothing?Vanessa: Dad, I’m studying very hard for the spelling test, and she keeps asking dumb questions.Cliff: I don’t think anybody asks dumb questions. What’s your problem?Rudy: What does “Z-R-B-T-T” spell?Cliff: “Z-R-B-T-T” spell? Uh… That’s zurbitt. Zurbitt… uh.. You know what I think a zurbitt is? I just remembered. A zurbitt is this:

So when you are yearning to hear a giggle from your little one, try landing a giant ZRBTT on there tiny little bellies.

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Facebook Angel

Posted on March 17, 2011 by gypsychant
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Facebook is as amazing as it can be harmful. A red square with a number pops up on my message box. I open it to reveal a picture taking me back to 1994. I look intently into the eyes of a newborn I am holding; the senders precious bundle I was honored to assist into the world.

I’ve had such a blessed life. Sometimes it all gets away from me. Time has a way of insulating past events with particles of everyday busyness. This insulation is nothing more than a thick layer of dust left hidden someplace I thought no longer existed.  Out of the blue someone wipes away the layers of dust particles revealing something so raw and beautiful that it jerks my body into an outburst of sobbing. Tears flow like a tsunami. Raw emotions release me to a place of humbled existence. My life has been full of some incredible gifts bestowed to me by the lives I have been honored to brush past.

I sob out of enormous gratitude to those who have allowed me to enter into their most intimate heartfelt moments of their lives: the births I have witnessed, my children that choose me, the smile from a stranger that dared to share eye contact, opening the window to their heart for even the briefest of moments, nature’s caress, nature’s challenge, the musical twisting around my soul. I sob for every moment life allows me to bear witness to so many others, youth and adult, who cry out for acceptance and connection and I become reassured as I watch a community reach out unconditionally and take hold of that hand that is grasping.

I sob in sorrow when love gets taken over by fear. I sob in sorrow when fear gets held captive by hate. I sob once more when hate gets mistaken for strength and power, when the only true way to have strength and power is through love.

One true moving force helping me start everyday with my heart open is to bath myself in the gratitude I have for every humbling moment in life that was graced by love, warmth, touch, song.

My heart may seep with burning open wounds made by paper cuts of hate filled words, scornful eyes, seething lies. I lather these open pustules with wild aloe thoughts and the sun and healing oxygen allowed to bath a heart that has been left open to the elements, trusting that healing energy has power over the spore laden environment caused by a darkened coffin.

I sob tears of joy for my acceptance of my dark moments and for the strength to walk, sometimes crawl through the darkness understanding the light is waiting for me, waiting to warm me with its healing rays of strength and joy so that when darkness falls again, which is understood as part of life’s balance, I will once again bath in the darkness, opening my soul to life’s lessons, putting one foot in front of the other trusting it will once again move me to the light. This is the Yin/Yang roller coaster I am humbled to ride.

As for this Facebook moment that drew me to my knees, I give a heartfelt thank-you for the mother whose love for her son and her midwife gave me a roller coaster ride I will gladly stand in line for over and over.

 

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Top 10 Family Vacations in the Caribbean & Mexico

Posted on March 11, 2011 by gypsychant
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Trip advisor put out an article called

Top 10 Family Vacations in the Caribbean & Mexico

Top on the list is Paradise Island. Here’s what they say:

The main attraction here is the massive Atlantis Paradise Island Resort and Casino. While Atlantis may be best known as an adult playground, it actually boasts an impressive list of kids’ activities. You’ll find waterslides, an amazing aquarium and more pools than you can count. And the kids’ clubs aren’t just glorified (and boring) babysitting—your kids will beg you to go away so they can play with their new friends. Which means this might actually be paradise for parents.

I have to agree that Atlantis is fun and full of eye popping things to look at along with the beauty of the Caribbean Sea.

It is a bit on the hyper-stimulating which I like once in awhile.

But if you are looking for an alternative, a healthy vegetarian diet, yoga and meditation for families with children a bit older, maybe 10 and up then I would recommend The Sivananda Yoga Retreat. This retreat is on the same island as Atlantis…Paradise Island. It is on a 5 acre parcel. You can bring a tent and camp or stay in a private cabin. You share the same beach as the vacationers staying at Atlantis but I can guarantee you are paying a lot less to visit that beach.

 

Sivananda beach path

Sivananda beach path

When you leave the retreat you do not feel like you need another vacation, you are healthier, and more at peace in your heart. This is if your children agree to go and are happy there. If the whole time they whine because they want to go to Atlantis then I would either do a day trip to Atlantis or stay in Atlantis or rethink where you want to go.

Have you ever taken your kids on vacation or a day trip and they are happy all day long, then they get tired and something triggers emotions in them and suddenly they are miserable?

How many times have you taken your children on vacation, spent lots of time planning the trip, lots of money on the trip, only to have your children end up still unhappy?

 

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What’s in your Chicken Nugget?

Posted on February 11, 2011 by gypsychant
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chicken mcnuggets in their natural habitat

Organic Authority has a post called What’s in Fast Food Chicken? (Hint: It’s not chicken)

It talks about how fast food nuggets are full of crap. I knew this but never knew it was this gross.

It list McDonald’s nugget ingredients but the sad part is this is a new and improved nugget since a Judge ordered it changed in 2003.

Here’s some quotes from their post:

Frying chicken is fairly simple, if a little messy. You dip pieces of chicken into a mix of egg and milk, roll them around in flour and spices, then cook the chicken in sizzling hot oil until the pieces are brown, crispy and delicious.

But wait! Don’t forget to add a dash of dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone that is also used in Silly Putty and cosmetics.

Now add a heaping spoonful of tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), which is a chemical preservative and a form of butane (AKA lighter fluid). One gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse,” according to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives. Five grams of TBHQ can kill you.

Chicken only accounts for about 50% of a Chicken McNugget. The other 50% includes a large percentage of corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and other completely synthetic ingredients, meaning that parts of the nugget do not come from a field or farm at all. They come from a petroleum plant. Hungry?

Full ingredient list for a Chicken McNugget (from McDonald’s website):

(click the tiny word that says nutrition if you go to their site. These ingredients pop up.)

White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.

Full ingredient list for my mother’s fried chicken:

Bone-in chicken pieces, egg, milk, flour, canola oil, salt & pepper.

Photo credit: Chargrillkiller

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100 Things About Me

Posted on February 10, 2011 by gypsychant
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100 Things

Eric Watermolen of Eden Journal inspired me to write this post.

He wrote a very moving list of 100 things about himself, said it really made him ponder.

So I will ponder away and do his challenge of writing this in one sitting, with no break till it’s posted.

If anyone else wants to try this, I will do a guest post, just email me.

Here goes.

  1. I love my life and give thanks for it every day.
  2. I know at any moment, everything can come crashing down by some serious injury or illness, so I give extra thanks for every moment that is free of major drama.
  3. I grew sprouts and sold them to restaurants in 1981..
  4. I love to listen to my breath, it relaxes me.
  5. I love to write on the beach, listening to the waves and letting the breeze smooth all the rough edges of my aura.
  6. Yoga is amazing, I believe it helps heal the body.
  7. I am certified yoga instructor.
  8. I am a certified Childbirth Educator x3.
  9. I am a certified Infant Massage Instructor.
  10. I am a certified labor assistant x2.
  11. I am a midwife.
  12. I have delivered over 200 babies.
  13. I am an herbalist.
  14. I did Outward Bound in North Carolina for a month when I was 18.
  15. I went to college, majoring in Crop Production.
  16. I changed my major to Turf Management my second year.
  17. I am a djembe drummer, not great but I can keep a strong beat.
  18. I can teach basic beading, loom beading, crochet beading but I can’t crochet yarn very well.
  19. I am really good at giving hand and neck massages.
  20. I started drawing again and find I like it.
  21. When I draw, I often say to myself, “trust in yourself” when I start to doubt.
  22. Every night before I go to bed, I go in my closet, which is really big, and lay back on my yoga ball and stretch out my back. Ahhh.
  23. I have a 16 year old daughter who is always inviting her girlfriends over.
  24. My daughters girlfriends always bring fast food with them and it really stinks of grease.
  25. My whole family except for one son, hates fast food.
  26. I have four children and had two miscarriages before them.
  27. I have gotten pregnant four times in July which produced two live births, April 12 and April 13, two years apart. (My miscarriages were both in September.)
  28. I love American Idol, the only TV show that I can ever remember what time and day it’s on.
  29. It is impossible for me to have any type of routine that is consistent, believe me, I have tried.
  30. I love vegetables. Read more »
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Chakra Momma

Posted on February 4, 2011 by gypsychant
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Chakra momma

Chakra Momma drawn by Jeanie

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Fruit is Nature’s fast food

Posted on January 18, 2011 by gypsychant
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Pardon me if I add a post that comes from a somewhat political satire commentary, one that I find very interesting to watch at times, by the way, but this post is just to get you to think about how we are manipulated by someone that wants to make a buck at the expense of your health and the health of the planet. It is a simple product really. One you might find completely harmless at the grocery store.

You will pass by it and your kids might pick it up with a smile and say, “buy this one, I want this one”.

You will think, “OK, if I buy this they will be happy and not bother me the rest of the shopping trip.” So you put it innocently in your cart and take it home thinking, “I bought something healthy for the kids, I bought them a natural fruit snack.”

The kids like it so much you make it a regular on your shopping trips.

I can write this because I have fallen victim to it. Consumerism at it’s finest.

But this product I am about to tell you about seems really ridiculous when you watch Steven Colbert’s segment about it.

Sometimes comedians have the best method to waking us up.

PepsiCo just came out with Tropolis, an edible fruit that makes it convenient to eat fruit anytime. Steven Colbert does a segment on his show about it. It is a horrible addition to plastic non-recyclable waste.

Pepsi said  “…our hope is that this new nutritious snack will give [parents] yet another way to give their children fruit goodness…”

Colbert say’s “I think this is great because fruit, in it’s current form, is impossible to eat. Look at this banana, how do I get into this thing,” as he takes out a hammer and starts pounding on skin and all.

He say’s he has a problem with the fact the packaging is non-recyclable and proceeds to say, “You can’t eat the pouch. Get engineers to make some sort of apple snack encased in some sort of edible skin, that would be a real break through.”

A picture of an apple appears.

Oh, that’s already been done by mother nature but pepsi can’t make as much money on that concept.

The part about the apple is 45 seconds into it. It’s won’t make you laugh hysterically but it is food for thought. (I couldn’t get just the apple part but that is the ony part I am referencing)
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Thought for Food – Fruit Pouch, Doritos Ad & Super Big Gulp
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive
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Homeschool-Home Sweet Home

Posted on December 15, 2010 by gypsychant
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My daughter, Raina, wrote this essay for her English paper. I think it was worth posting.

Home Sweet Home

Most children in the United States wake up each morning and hurry to do a routine they have done, what feels like, a billion times before. They get ready for school. There is a growing number of children that are not part of this routine and don’t prescribe to the lifestyle that schools set up. These children are homeschooled. Popular opinion is that conventional schooling is the most effective form of educating children, but the rising opinion, in the present time, is that homeschooling is the best way to educate children.

There are a large number of people who would like to say that conventional schooling is the only way children can effectively become educated. Conventional schooling includes being taught in public, private, or charter schools. The main reason that these people feel that conventional schooling is better is because the children are taught by teachers with a degree and homeschoolers are taught by their parents. The other arguments that they propose is that homeschooled children have low standardized test scores, low college acceptance, and are socially hindered. All of these beliefs are convincing, but they contain errors and can be disproved.

The growing number of people who have found errors in these beliefs have turned to homeschooling and realize that it works out amazingly. Homeschooled children don’t actually suffer with the issues that the people who are pro-conventional believe they do. The main argument for children who are homeschooled is that they have intrinsic motivation to learn and educate themselves in what interest them. They have fewer distractions, above average test scores, high college acceptance, closer family ties, and they are not socially awkward. These children will excel at the career path that they choose because they have had the educational freedom to develop and become skilled at what interests them.

Read more »

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How to communicate on an organic level with children

Posted on November 13, 2010 by gypsychant
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Creating with children…really any two or more humans creating…is an organic way to open the heart allowing joy to enter.

Draw, sing, dance and tell a story.

It all seems rather simplistic but many have forgotten the ability to create.

Let's dance!

Do you like to draw? Some of you may cringe at the thought while others are at their happiest while moving colors on an object.

Most children nine years old and younger have not reached the intimidation period in their lives. They don’t draw to please others. They can draw simply for happiness.

Their hands move turning a dot into an image. This image can be scary, funny, sad, cute; the list as endless as the imagination.

An adult comes in contact with a child and there may be an awkwardness or even an irritation. Sit with paper and pencil or better yet, add color to the palate; the wall between the two worlds falls down, crumbles into the table that holds your masterpiece, seeps into the earth beneath you both as the energy around you vibrates in togetherness; a shared joy.

Share your thoughts about what each of you drew and then a smile surrounds you both.

Singing takes a little more courage, especially if the adult does not feel they have a harmonious voice. Ask the child to sing a simple song and see what comes out of them, join in the song if you know it and if you don’t then you can delight the child by asking them to teach it to you. The child will drink you in as if they have known you forever. If the child does not know a song, which is probably the child being shy more than not really knowing a song, then find a simple song and ask them to join in. If you find you are still singing alone then switch songs and ask them to tell you which song they think would win a contest, once they rate the song ask them to join you in the song they picked as the best. Let them have some control in the process, making it a safe space for them.

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