The Start of My Spokane Vacation

Most people don't think of Spokane, WA as a vacation spot.  But I do.  Well, for the next 2 weeks I do, anyway.  I'm hanging out with my friend, Kaleah, who also eats raw, and we're going to work out the particulars for a raw on-line program we've been toying with.  She's self-employed, so we're gonna have lots of time to play in the kitchen and the garden, in addition to our "work".

My drive over to Spokane was supposed to take about 6 hours.  It took almost 12.  Yikes!

The first part of the trip was great!  It was a slow start, as I had to fill up on gas, get power steering fluid and put it in the car, and stop by my friend, Ellen's, house to pick up some books and a game I loaned her.  But by 11:30 or noon I was fully on the road (although I left home at 10:30).


Something interesting that I noticed was that even though I brought raw crackers, cheese, nori sticks, bananas, avocados, Minneola oranges and fresh-squeezed orange juice (and a full stomach, btw), I was DYING to stop and get something cooked, salty and greeeeeasy!  It was a good reminder that whenever I go and do something that I haven't done since going raw, there are still old programs running.  I haven't eaten fast food in months, and when I really thought about it, I realized that it was just a Pavlovian response, an old habit, and I wasn't even hungry.  But I learned a long time ago to associate a fun time, vacation, road trips and adventure with unhealthy food.  And I didn't even realize that I'd learned that association.  So that was a good thing to realize (and conquer).


When I got to the 405, I decided to take a short side trip to Redmond to visit Raw Vegan Source, an AMAZING little store that has over 600 raw items (and nothin' else)!  What a freakin' treat!  I got 50 raw nori sheets, 2.5 lbs. of coconut flour, 1,000 spirulina tablets, a bag of Gone Nuts with cacao-covered almonds & raisins, and 1 or 2 other things I can't remember now.  Good prices on stuff, I gotta say!  Oh!  I got some He Shou Wu, that's what I got.  So anyhow, my lovely Nuvi got me there and back out onto the freeway, and over Snoqualmie Pass I went.


Or did I?


At the summit, just FEET from exit 47 (very near the summit), we all were stopped because of a blizzard!  I could hardly believe it!!!  In April of all times!  After just having had the warmest January on record for the Pacific Northwest, I was beyond shocked.  We were there for almost an hour and a half, and when the snow finally cleared enough to go again, visibility was still low and we had to go 35-45 mph all the way down the other side.  I went 25 or even 20 in some places.  Lots of frozen and packed snow on the roads, and we were ahead of the snowplows.  I was told that by Cle Elum (clee-EL-um) everything should've been clear, but it didn't stop snowing HARD until Ellensburg.  All tolled, I was driving slowly (and nervously) for almost 4 hours.  Ick!

When I was done getting out of all that snow, my eyes were SO tired, my arms and shoulders were extremely sore (even though I tried repeatedly to relax while driving), I was exhausted, and my nerves were shot.  And I still had over 200 miles to drive.  I called Jason for support and told him all I wanted to do was stop and get fast food for comfort.  But I remembered my health goals and ate some raw nori sticks instead (which were actually more enjoyable).  Again, I was confronted with old patterns and old habits.  It's really amazing how often in my life I've turned to truly unhealthy "food" as a comfort, and all it did was wreak havoc on my body and mind.  I think being really high raw (like 98 or 99%) for 2 weeks prior really helped me keep a clear head and helped me to realize that if I ate that stuff, I'd just be even more sore and tired by the time I got to my destination.


I ended up arriving at Kaleah's house at around 10 p.m. safe & sound.  We stayed up until 1:40 a.m. catching up (we don't see each other much, even though she made the trek across the mountains to help with and attend Tim VanOrden's event last month) and chatting.  The next morning, I was allowed to sleep in until noon or 12:30, and was greeted with a salad, orange juice and walnut ball brunch, which was beyond delightful!  The walnut balls were made of dates, walnuts, lemon juice and cinnamon, and tasted like a Christmas cookie.  AMAZING!  Then Kaleah gave us some chocolate she'd made that she keeps in the freezer.  It had cacao powder, coconut oil, shredded coconut, agave or honey (not sure which) and goji berries in it.  It was snappy like a candy bar and the coconut made it a bit like a crunch bar.  Unbelievably delicous!


Today we're going to set up plant beds with her husband, John, transplant kale babies, get a protective glass barrier made for them to protect them from the cold, and then head into town to get me a new phone (and maybe one of those juicers like Anthony Anderson has).  I'll post more as fun stuff comes up, as I'm sure it will.  :o)

WOW, What an Event!!!

Once in awhile, you hear someone speak who is so motivational, so right on, and so EXACTLY in line with what you're going through & what you need to hear that you feel your life take a dramatic turn for the better, just for having heard them speak. Attending Tim VanOrden's talk on Diet and Peak Performance was just such a time for me. If you weren't in Bellingham on Sunday night for Tim's talk, I can sum it up in 2 words: UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING! AWE-INSPIRING! MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRATIONAL! Ok, that's more than 2 words. But it was SO informative and he blew the lid off what I thought I knew about raw, nutrition, the human body and what to expect when going raw. I REALLY liked Tim's down-to-earth attitude, spontaneity, honesty and forthrightness. He was every bit the amazing speaker, educator and entertainer we've all come to know and love on the Running Raw videos.

We learned about how to take personal responsibility for our lives, our diets and our bodies, what and when to eat to get peak performance in athletics, and how SO many body systems work. And it was explained in such fun, easy-to-understand language that kids as young as 8 were both spellbound and cracking up.

Sponsors gave away 17 prizes from gym memberships to CD's to raw chocolate cakes to far infrared sauna sessions and chiropractic adjustments. Plus everyone enjoyed the raw food I made quite a lot, which is always good. I always love successful catering! We started out by serving everyone a small green smoothie before Tim spoke ~ best to keep people's tummies full so they can pay attention. The smoothie consisted of nectarines, peaches, blueberries, pineapple, kale, water and bananas, and the kids were coming back and asking for 2nds and 3rds. (Some adults were, too.) Then Tim gave his amazing talk, we drew numbers for the prizes, and everyone had appetizers. On the menu was:

• Sun-Dried Tomato Flax Crackers with Sharp Macadamia "Cheese" rosettes on them
• Cacao and Cacao-Orange Truffles
• Sweet & Tangy Broccoli Salad.

Fortunately we had enough food for everyone (I hate to run out), and people signed up to join the new raw support group I'm starting in Bellingham. And afterward, people got a chance to buy Running Raw DVD's and T-shirts from Tim. Also, Kaleah's new CD was available for sale. (She's a raw foodist who sings like an angel.)


Tim stayed late to answer all the questions every single person had, despite the fact that he'd been traveling, going on only a few hours' sleep a night for weeks, AND had just run up the Columbia Tower in Seattle that morning. He placed 4th in that race, by the way, out of over 6,000 people! Not bad for being on tour, under-slept and overworked.

I gotta tell you: when I asked Tim to come to Bellingham last year, I thought it would be a good, educational, fun experience -- which is why I invited him. But I did not expect such a genuine, kind, helpful and humble guy with SO much amazing information. His energy and presentation FAR exceeded my expectations! If you are ever within 500 miles of an event he's speaking at, make the time to go to it.  He is beyond worth it!

I got so involved in the "running the event" end of things, by the way, that I freakin' forgot to take pictures!  How's that for special?  So sorry about that.  BUT ... Tim has already agreed to come back and present in Bellingham again soon (which is good, because people are already asking for him again), and I know it'll be great then too.

And I don't know about you, but I'm inspired. I'm inspired to change my diet, change my life and change the planet!

Tim VanOrden of Running Raw Coming to Bellingham, WA on March 21st!

I am SO proud to have sponsored and organized the coming event in Bellingham, WA:

Diet and Peak Performance with Tim VanOrden
March 21, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Tim VanOrden of The Running Raw Project will give a 90-minute talk on how eating raw food can help any athlete at any level get better results. The talk will be given at Lairmont Manor in Bellingham, WA. Raw refreshments will be served, there will be a drawing for prizes, and there will be a Q and A period afterward. Running Raw DVD's and t-shirts will be available for sale at the event.

TICKETS ARE $15, AVAILABLE AT Go Raw, Not Crazy
Also available at the door
Kids 16 & under get in free!

Tim's Bio:

The world is taking notice of Tim VanOrden, elite athlete and creator of the Running Raw Project. Tim is a raw vegan athlete who has an international reputation for excelling in some of the world's most grueling sports. He's recently been crowned the New England Master's Mountain Running Champion and his recent performances in Stair Climb Racing (US Bank Tower, Sears Tower, Empire State Building), have been featured in GQ Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, VegNews, and the London Guardian. In January of 2009Tim was featured on the Food Network show "My Life in Food".

Over the past 5 years, Tim has transformed himself from a sedentary couch potato, suffering from severe depression, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and asthma into one of the world's fittest men over forty. He did this by adopting a simple raw vegan diet. Tim is opening the eyes of athletes around the world to the possibility that a simple, raw, plant based diet can provide performance and health beyond that which has been previously experienced.

Class Overview:

• The Elements of Peak Performance
• Human Nutritional Needs
• Human Fuel Systems & Strategies

•Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins Explained
• Dietary Misconceptions

• Toxicity in Common Foods
• The Stress, Recovery Equation

Tim will also answer:

How much of a role does diet play in human performance?
How does one navigate the constant barrage of contradictory dietary information?
How does one make better dietary choices?
Can one eat for health, longevity and improved performance at the same time?

The most difficult aspect of choosing any diet is that of convincing yourself that it is indeed the right choice. Change is stress, even when the change is positive. The vast m

ajority of Americans blindly eat the Standard American Diet without ever questioning its role in one's health. Yet obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer are on the rise and considered epidemic. Meanwhile, scientific journals are constantly touting the benefits of whole, raw fruits and vegetables. In this lecture we will lay the groundwork for improved levels of performance and health.

Christmas Bounty! Holy COW!!!

Thank you to all who contributed to the veritable mountain of Christmas Cheer. I haven't had a Christmas this amazing since I got my cello in 2005. So here are the unbelievable gifts that my family and friends got for me for Christmas. I still am in shock!

• an Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator (thanks, Mom & Dad!)
  


• a food slicer (like the deli meat kind, but it's AMAZING for use with veggies when you want to quickly slice something for dehydration, salads, etc.) (Thanks, Dave!)



• a Food Saver vacuum sealer - best on the market, IMHO (Thanks to Dave for this, too! I'll slice, dehydrate and store lots of yummy stuff for you! Hey, you're advancing from just green smoothies and chocolate now. I'll turn you into a raw foodist, yet!) ;o)



• a 25-piece glass bowl set with lids. I can use these for salads, leftovers, food prep, making un-cooking videos for GRNC, etc. SO glad to have moved up from plastic to tempered glass. No more guck in my food because there's no guck to leach from glass like there is with plastic. (Thanks, Jason)



• Ecstatic Beings, by Shazzie and Kate Magic. Probably the best book I've ever read. (Thanks to Jason for this, too!) And thanks to Shazzie and Kate for being such great cake mates that you could write this hilarious, wonderful, fun and profound book!



• Evie's Kitchen, another book by Shazzie about how to raise a kid on raw food. (And thank you yet again, Jason for such generosity and consideration.) Well, it's actually about you going/being raw and detoxed before you even conceive, then goes through breast feeding, then moving a child to solid-but-raw foods. Then it just keeps going, giving all KINDS of amazing tips and info about how to raise a healthy, ecstatic, raw kid, all the way through to adulthood. I don't want to give birth to a child of my own, but it's very helpful info since there's already a child in my life, through Jason. Special thanks to Shazzie for taking the time to write this. All our paths will be exponentially easier for your having written this book. And an EXTRA special thanks to Evie Popple Cake, for being such a brilliant, radiant little Ecstatic Being, and for allowing your Mummy to get all public about you and your eating habits.

Like I said, a veritable mountain of gifts. Thank you so much to all who gave these to me. They will make my raw food consumption, and that of those who live in my home, a whole lot easier, complete, and healthy! :oD

Year In Review, Happy Anniversary, and Engagement

Wow, what a whirlwind of a year it has been. January 1st, 2010 was the 1 year anniversary of my family having a raw household! Now, did we slip up and have a cooked bit of food here and there? Well, all you have to do is look at our clothes, bodies and/or scale to know that the answer to that question is, "yes". Or you could just ask me. I'll tell you the truth. We ate cooked food. But we followed the premise set forth by Go Raw, Not Crazy of doing our best to stay as raw as possible without driving ourselves (or those around us) nuts! And we kept our kitchen raw, eating cooked food only when we were out of the house, with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we were entertaining. We did still serve raw food though, and I was able to be 70% raw on Thanksgiving and about 55% raw on Christmas, so no leucocytosis set in. We're going to a late Christmas party tonight, and with the new year comes new vigor and resolve to stay raw. I'm taking peppermint and lemon raw cacao truffles as the white elephant gift, and as a fabulous potluck dish, too. Hmmmmm ... I'd best get to work, eh?

So let's review the big stuff for the year:

• On January 1st ~ our house went raw, and we resolved to buy and bring home only raw food for home consumption. Raw lunches for the little one continued, as they have since kindergarten.


• January 20 ~ Obama was inaugurated! What a fabulous day! (Too bad the guy's hands seem to be so tied by all the freakin' money in DC! I still believe that he means well and wants to help, but as I age, I find that I believe more and more that the entire system must fail globally in order for real change to occur.) I will always hold out hope that Obama and all of us can enact real change in the world in which we live.


• February ~ Don't remember the date, but I lost my job at Lairmont Manor -- one of the best things that ever happened to me! Really gave me the push that I needed to start Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• February 14th ~ We moved into our first home. It's a starter, for sure, but it will be paid off in only 11 years. Well, in 10, now!


• March ~ Can't think of anything of consequence that happened, except that we were starting to slip into some bad habits of eating too much cooked food and making the excuse that it wasn't being eaten in the house.


• April 16th ~ I decided to try to eat nothing but raw cacao for 30 days after reading all the fabulous pros and hideous cons of the stuff. Wrote a blog about it called 30 Days of Chocolate ~ One Woman’s Experiment With Weight Loss, Raw Food and Happiness. A VERY successful 30 days, although I didn't eat exclusively cacao.


• May ~ Finished my raw cacao/chocolate stint, and moved on to starting a garden.


• June ~ Got the garden installed, the fruit trees happily transplanted, and Red Russian Kale going (3rd time's a charm). Started building Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• July ~ Can't think of anything of note that happened that month, except that I stayed raw for a holiday. Not hard to do in the summer though, when one of the main dishes for the holiday is watermelon. Made a delectable watermelon "cake" for the family that was promptly devoured! Lots of kale to eat and freeze. Set up Twitter and Facebook accounts for Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• August ~ Serious harvesting of kale, tomatoes and cherries.


• September ~ Jahn turned 8 and we threw a raw birthday party for him! Big step for him to ask for a raw party.


• October ~ We had a raw Halloween for Jahn, and he dressed up as Indiana Jones. He even stayed raw when the other kids were mowing through mounds of gunk right in front of him at school. VERY proud of him!


• November ~ I was the lucky winner of the Inspired Raw website redesign contest! Caryn Ginsberg selected Go Raw, Not Crazy for a revamp, and the site has never looked better. This gal knows her stuff! She took my ideas and theme and made them blossom. If you have a raw website and need some direction, this woman can really help you!


• December ~ Got engaged! This, after "coming out" to our respective families about being polyamorous. That was a bit scary, but everyone has been very supportive. Jason and I have always known that we would be life-long anchor mates and have been proposing to each other for about 2 years now in a very informal way ("Ya wanna get married?" "Ok! Sure!") He bought me a beautiful ring that's on its way. Can't wait to see it for real! Should be here in a week or two. We picked it out together. :o)After my birthday, when the whole family was together for a joint birthday party (celebrating my 40th late, and my sister-in-law Jamie's 30th early), Jason gave me a ring with an orange cubic zirconia in it as a "placeholder" until my spessartite one arrives. Put in on my finger in front of the whole family and everything. Don't think there was a dry eye in the house, unless you count the 5- and 8-year old boys who were chasing each other about Grandma and Grandpa's house, oblivious to the goings on. ;o) Too funny! We're shooting for an October wedding, but don't know if that will happen. Depends on that whole money thang. I'll keep you updated. I'm just so glad that I'm with a man who is so full of Love, kindness & generosity, and who is also all for eating raw food! I'm a lucky, lucky girl.
  
  ***Also ordered Markus Rothkranz' new DVD set, Free Food and Medicine. Can't wait for that to arrive either!
  
  ***Got the most amazing gifts for Christmas, when I really didn't expect even one of them. We had such a tight year, what with the economy and all, I didn't see how anyone would be able to get anyone anything. But the Universe provided all kinds of sneaky, fun ways for the people who so generously love me to materialize the most precious things that will help me and my family stay raw. Photos are in my next post.

So that was 2009. What a wild ride! Can't wait to see what 2010 brings my way. Here's hoping that you and yours have the most marvelous, raw, happy, healthy, love-filled, ecstatic year ever!

After-Thanksgiving Post (and Harvest Pictures!)

So how was your Thanksgiving? Did you stay raw? Attempt a certain percentage? I took a raw mincemeat pie, stuffed celery, cranberry/orange relish and olives to my sister's house, and ate about 65% raw. Not too bad, considering I had 2 Thanksgiving functions to attend, and I thought I'd be tempted to eat more cooked things, but they just don't appeal to me the way they used to. We are gearing up for a totally raw Christmas, and I'm about to break out the chocolate molds, the frozen berries, and the cookie cutters! We intend to have all our favorite Christmas treats this year, just raw style.

So onto the Harvest Photos that were promised. First, here are 2 views of my GI-NORMOUS Sungold Cherry Tomato plant. This thing grew to be about 7' x 5'. Yes, I said FEET!

Sungold Tomato plant taking over the flippin' YARD! You literally almost couldn't get to the cukes against the fence! And yes, I wrote that correctly ... PLANT! Singular. Craziness. I've never grown anything before, much less an enormous tomato plant. Beginners luck? I think it's actually the Grow Greens Thalassa Mix that did it.

Notice the yellow bowl sitting in the front of the picture. That's a good sized cereal bowl. The teensy yellow dots all over the plant were new flowers. I probably could've had another 1,000 tomatoes if I'd gotten another 2 months of good heat. But no one can expect that in the Pacific NW. I'm just glad for what we got. :o) Below are about half of the Sungolds I picked. We turned them into a puree in our Vita-Mix, and then dehydrated the puree, then put it back into the Vita-Mix to powder it. This is WONDERFUL in the winter to use with herbs and water to make a delicious tomato soup! Just pop it in the Vita-Mix (yet again), and blend all ingredients on high until warm (about 110 degrees), then pour into a warmed cup and serve. Wonderfully warming on a chilly winter day! And tastes just like a tomato base for any vegetable soup.

Above: Half the Sungold harvest.

Clockwise from top: large heirloom tomatoes, honeydew melons, first pick of the apples, Sungold tomatoes, medium sized tomatoes (something like a roma, but smaller), and hazelnuts in the center. We got all our tomato plants from our friends, Laurie and Ryan this year, with the exception of our Sungold plant, so I don't know what we grew. I just know they were good, and because I had to pick them so green, we had tomatoes for over a month!



This is what I found just before I began to harvest: a Golden Delicious apple hanging about 6" off the ground, half eaten, but still on the tree. Teensie little sharp teeth marks all over it. I've only seen cats near our house, and some of the neighbor's cats live under there, but this could've been a racoon, too (although I've never seen any out this far - they tend to like the woods better than the flat farmland).

This is a peek through the fence looking back into the yard. My little apples just looked so pretty in this shot, I wanted to share it.



Look at THIS red beauty! Don't know the variety, we suspect possibly a Jonathan, but it's a beauty. And they were SO sweet!



A lovely branch hanging over the back of the fence.

More free spirits jumping the fence.

A closer look at some red apples.



One last close-up of the Golden Delicious lovlies.

The branch, just heavy with apples.

Family portrait. ;o)

Kale after a rainstorm in September.




More Red Russian kale.



Lettuce, just before it started to bolt.



Red Rubin basil, after it flowered and went to seed. I've saved tons of seeds for next year and intend to grow a small field of the stuff. It makes a tremendous raw pesto.



The last of the cukes on harvest day. Several were no bigger than gherkins.




A honeydew hiding in the leaves and vines.



Some large, green tomatoes just before harvest.

So I picked everything (except the apples) in about 6 hours, and it was excruciatingly cold. But I'm glad I grew the stuff, I'm glad I've still got dandelions and clover growing wild, I've got more kale than I know what to do with, we eat kale chips all the time and stay in our greens between that and green smoothies, and the apples are almost gone, now. We got more Golden Delicious from a lady down the street who had a bumper crop this year. Not kidding when I say it looked like there were several thousand on the tree! Lucky us. We got so lucky with "free" food this year. Hopefully next year, in addition to all that I've listed here for this year, we'll get more pears and plums from neighbors, and maybe our frost peach, honeycrisp apple trees, sweet and pie cherry trees, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants will do as well as the Sungolds did this year.

So I'm starting to feel like Crazy Aunt Lori who went to Florida and is now making you sit too long watching the slides of my vacation. So I will wish you a good night, and get my tookus to bed. Tomorrow I put the finishing touches on my upcoming e-book, The Great Raw Cacao Debate, scheduled for release on December 11th. To get it for free, just sign up for it on any page of my website. Thanks for reading, and we'll see each other in the blog ethers soon.

Harvest, H1N1, Birthday Party, 2012 ... Oh the Fun!

Well, well, well! It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? 2 1/2 months of nothin' but FUN, and that's why I've been away. Ok, I'm being sarcastic. While there have certainly been some very fun moments, life has been interesting, to say the least.

Our wee one was sick on & off for 2 months, beginning the 2nd week of school, and that was on high raw! We think he just had a big detox, plus a child who sits next to him at school had the swine flu. We don't know if Jahn got the specific H1N1 virus, but he usually is sick for 24 hours (if he even gets sick) and 72 hours if he's REALLY sick. At one point, 2 in 3 kids at his school were out, and there wasn't a dry nose at the bus stop. Eek! But alas, everyone seems to either be on the mend or mended. No deaths. Whew!!! I've never seen so many sick kids as this school year, and so early too.

Another thing that kept me busy was the end-of-summer harvest. It jumped me rather suddenly, as we had an early and unexpected freeze. Good thing I listened to the weather forecast. I spent a day in September harvesting cherry tomatoes in 37 degree weather. Yes, I said 37 in September. It was absolutely crazy! Then that night it got down to 32 degrees. This, after having nearly 100 degree heat just a month prior. Bizarre. I also harvested what turned out to be honeydew melons (the blossoms looked just like cukes, so we were surprised to find melons growing happily in our Pacific Northwest garden box), as well as my red basil, large heirloom tomatoes, and the last gallon of wild blackberries. A month later, we got pears and hazelnuts from the neighbors, and now we're full into apple season. The little beauties we grew (well, that nature gave us and we tended) made me so proud I actually cried on harvest day in October. I'll be posting pics of everything I harvested, complete with captions, later this week so stay tuned.

Jahn turned 8 in September, too, and we had a little party for him with a few friends and family members. Transformers was the theme, and I made him a Raw-lmond Joy raw candy-cake, raw snickerdoodles and raw lemon cookies for his party. We also served fresh-squeezed apple/pear juice. I thought it was cool that he requested an all-raw party. We almost made kale chips, but decided against them at the last minute. A fun time was had by all, and he made a little kitchen out of the Legos he got. Put all of us (plus David Wolfe) into it, and had us making stuff in the Vita Mix. And all out of Legos. Too funny.

And speaking of kale (or not), to look at my little patch o' greenery, you'd never know it was November. It's just thrivin' away out there in the sub-freezing, wet, windy conditions. Tim Van Orden was right ... "This stuff is TOUGH!" It really is a great green to grow because it is so frickin' hardy. Also, we're finding that we like dandelion and clover greens in our green smoothies these days. I thought the winter dandelion leaves would be too bitter, but they are quite nice, blending especially well with the fresh apple juice. I've been adding 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice for the liquid in our green smoothies, and it's REALLY tasty! We're so lucky to have a local company, Bellwood Acres, who uses UV "pasteurization" practices, which actually means the juice is not heated. It's just exposed to UV light to kill e-coli, etc. So that means we get raw apple cider that we don't have to juice, and it is out of this world!

To wrap up, last night we went to see 2012. Again, I say eek! Really makes you prioritize when you see something like that. Makes you wonder, too. Are all these cultures and predictions right? Seeing it last night made me think, and I've come up with the idea of having a Question of the Week ... something that will make this blog more interactive for you. I'll also be posting it on my twitter and facebook pages. So here's this week's question:

What do you make a priority in your life? (And what do you wish you made more of a priority? How can you bump it up?) My answers: Kissing and listening to my Love. And more of a priority? Family time. To bump it up, I play games like Boggle with them and/or have a family meal together at the table that we all help prepare (instead of watching TV or playing on the computer). Share what you've been making your priority and what you want to bump up. I'd love to hear.

Until later this week ...