My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes
Nov 22, 2021
Thanksgiving It's my absolute favorite holiday.
I love that there are no gifts to buy and it's all about cultivating gratitude for family, food, and connection.
I love long loungey mornings, eating a light breakfast, and cooking in the kitchen with music and warm fire on.
My husband took overcooking the turkey, which we smoke in the Traeger and it's been one of the best investments we've made!
I also LOVE turkey leftovers and ALWAYS make turkey bone broth (see below for my recipe) with the turkey bones after the meat has been devoured, or we get sick of it and feed it to our pug.
Okay so, today I want to share some of my favorite healthy Thanksgiving recipes that I've loved for years or are just beginning to play with!!!
First I must begin with my favorite side dish ever, Green Bean Casserole!
It's definitely not as easy to make as the old-fashioned recipes ...
The Empty Boat
Nov 22, 2021
My dear friend, Kristin, shared in a group text a perfect story by Nhat Hanh.
It was so beautiful and reminded me of the infinite power we have within us, well I just had to share!
A monk decides to meditate alone. Away from his monastery, he takes a boat to the middle of the lake, closed his eyes, and begins to meditate.
After a few hours of undisturbed silence, he suddenly feels the blow of another boat hitting his own.
With his eyes still closed, he feels his anger build, and when he opens his eyes he is ready to yell at the boatman who dared to disrupt his meditation.
But when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was an empty boat, not anchored, floating in the middle of the lake...
At that moment, the monk reaches self-realization and understands that anger is within him, it simply needs the hit of an external object to trigger it.
After, that whenever he meets someone who irritates or provokes his...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 8) - Our marriage was suffering
Nov 22, 2021
In the last part of this series, I shared my awakening of vaccines...
Now I will be sharing with you my struggles in my marriage and the huge shift that propelled my family out of the destructive-divorce-is-imminent phase to I think we have a chance phase.
A whole year had gone by after the serendipitous dinner with my dear friend Kellie that led to the creation of the Hippie Moms Community on Facebook.
You can still join in if you aren’t already there!
I finally felt connected to a group of women where I could share my heart and ask for advice when I needed it.
I would post and engage daily.
Eventually, we changed the names to Hippie Moms as we agreed that the “aren’t crazy” was defensive! Haha!
We were going to own being Hippie Moms!
I was going to own this opportunity and somehow create a space where women like me could go and feel like they were not alone.
It became my...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 7) - When the book arrived
Nov 22, 2021
In the last part of my awakening I got to share with you the story about the inception of Hippie Moms!
It was so serendipitous and the timing could not have been more perfect for me on my lonely journey!
I took so much away from that evening and am so grateful that the experience gifted me the community we have today. It's just so beautiful.
I want to share with you the continuation of that story, so here we go...
[Audio Version of this email]
About a week later after our magical dinner, Kellie sent me a book.
It arrived when she said it would.
The book was titled, Make an Informed Vaccine Decision, ironically one of the authors of this book was an expert speaker at this years’ Holistic Mama Summit, Neil Z. Miller.
I opened up the package, read the title and I was skeptical.
I too was indoctrinated into the “vaccines are completely safe and effective” worldview.
It was our...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 6) - I was SO lonely
Nov 22, 2021
Hey! Thanks for continuing on this journey with me!
You see when I started on this journey, I was so lonely.
I was trying SO hard to make all these lifestyle changes and fullfilling all the roles in my life.
As I continued to research and spend countless hours learning how to make my home and life safer for my family, I began to uncover the depths of my own conditioning.
Even though I continued to bear the responsibility of my ignorance, it was hard to hide my anger and frustration.
I just felt duped.
When all I wanted was happy and healthy children and the world I lived in was constantly undermining my efforts to create this.
After the low moment I shared with you last week, I knew things had to shift.
I was not okay.
I couldn’t bear to live like this anymore.
I was afraid that I would hurt one of my kids or even hurt myself.
I was just so tired and I felt alone on this journey.
My husband was...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 5) - My Breaking Point
Nov 22, 2021
Now I share with you the last part of this series, my depth of motherhood.
It was a very shameful and vulnerable moment.
I had my second son, Ryder, in December of 2013.
Of course, it changed the dynamic of our family of 3 and it was a welcome change.
I had made some major shifts in the way we ate and lived and I felt that we were all getting healthier.
My pregnancy was much easier than my first and I was much more confident in early motherhood.
I didn’t frequent the google dark hole as often :)
Being a mom, having a new baby, working, and keeping everyone alive were a lot of stress. I was always overwhelmed.
At this time, I just assumed that this was how motherhood was supposed to be.
I trusted myself and my ability to be a mom and this my friends was a game-changer.
I felt as if I had this mom-thing down and was enjoying being at home with my kids… well at least in the...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 4) - It Was Only a Plastic Teething Ring
Nov 22, 2021
HI again :)
So the reason I am here with your right now, began when my eldest was 6 months old.
It was a beautiful March afternoon in AZ. I opened up all the windows in our home and a cool breeze swept through the house.
I had gotten into more of a rhythm in motherhood.
I was still sleepless and grumpy. Tired and overwhelmed, yet I still managed to find small moments that brought joy.
I loved being a mom and hated it.
I jokingly say often that if people actually talked about how parenthood is, many of us would never procreate.
Motherhood offers us the entire gamut of human emotions, sometimes all in just one minute!
As I shared yesterday, my firstborn, Ryland, had not been an easy baby.
I was full-on attachment parenting (my gut led me there).
I was a human pacifier, a bouncing chair with a boob, and I RARELY had even one moment to myself (I really like my alone time).
Do you?
I sat Ryland down on the...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 3) - You Should Stop Breastfeeding
Nov 22, 2021
Hey there :)
I gave birth to my son in September 2011.
I ended up having a C-section as he was breached and it was a traumatic birthing experience (more on that another time).
He was not a happy baby. He was a miserable baby.
He was constantly crying, gagging, spitting up, and seemed to always be in pain.
It was hell as a brand new mom.
This experience did not mirror the hypothetical early motherhood experience I dreamed up before he was born.
I went to the pediatrician to tell him all about the excruciating pain my son was having.
He examined him and said, “Well I don’t see anything wrong, it could just be acid reflux and I think he could be allergic to something in your milk.”
Then he continued to suggest that I stop breastfeeding and find a formula to try.
He wrote me a prescription for some acid reflux medicine and walked out of the room. That was the last time I ever saw...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 2) - The Glowing Woman
Nov 22, 2021
I shared with you how the moment I walked out of my doctor's office with a pad of prescriptions, was truly the inception of my awakening... I just didn't know it yet.
A few weeks after that experience, I saw in human form what health truly looked like.
During this time I was so confused and concerned about my health.
I was doing all the right things.
Eating what the FDA told me to and exercising strenuously.
I had cut calories and exercised more... but the more I focused on this simple equation, the worse I seemed to be getting.
I always had lower back pain, my nose was always running, my periods were horrible and sporadic and I was constantly suffering from anxiety and bouts of depression.
I saw my future as an older, overweight, and sick woman dependent on pills like ALL the adults in my family and those I was surrounded by at my work.
I just couldn't accept this...
The Story of My Awakening (Part 1) - Pad of Prescriptions
Nov 22, 2021
It tall started 14 years ago.
This was the beginning of my awakening out of the matrix.
I was 28 years old and walked out of my doctor’s office with a pad of prescriptions.
In this particular visit, I had gone in hope of more antibiotics.
I truly believed they cured everything, and had NO idea of the detrimental effects they have on our bodies and gut health.
I had suffered from recurring UTIs, chronic sinus infections, debilitating lower back pain, tons of digestive issues, horrible PMS… and consistent anxiety, and bouts of depression.
This way of life was my normal.
Feeling like crap was normal.
I was 15-20 pounds overweight and hated my body.
I could not lose weight for the life of me.
What was so confusing about my poor health was that I truly thought I lived a healthy lifestyle.
I followed the FDA’s nutritional guidelines, low-fat, moderate protein, a daily...
