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Grateful for the Little Things

Liz James · December 18, 2017 ·

One of my most favorite things about wintertime is grapefruit! I was prepping my breakfast this morning and I felt a surge of gratitude that I could eat something that I loved so much. I know…. it probably sounds weird. But way back when…. about 20 years ago, grapefruit suddenly landed on my ‘no no’ food list. That list became a very significant part of my life for about 12 years.

I think I was 33 when I started having peeing problems (sorry if that’s TMI!… just being real here). I simply felt like I had to pee all. the. time…… but especially at night. There were nights I probably got up 8-9 times to go to the bathroom. Doctors ruled out infection and said I simply had an overactive bladder. How does this even happen? I mean, how does one simply ‘acquire’ an overactive bladder? I wasn’t that old…. and had never had any children (both risk factors). We tried a few medications to limit the frequent trips. Pharmaceutical fail. The side effects of dry eyes, dry mouth, blurred vision, and dizziness and drowsiness were not a good trade off for the minor decrease in the number of trips to the bathroom at night. Just when I was approaching my wit’s end, I went to another doctor who finally gave me a definitive diagnosis: Interstitial Cystitis.

If you’ve never heard of IC, here is a short clip from the TV talk show, Drs as a way of explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mzAQgQaauM

IC is a beast. I was relatively fortunate…. and only had the urge to pee with ungodly frequency. Many other women have IC much worse, and the urge is accompanied by pain. The medications used are modestly effective at best, and have an impressive list of side effects. Daily self catheterization, surgical procedures, and even cystectomy (bladder removal) are also treatment plan options. My doctor was ahead of her time 2 decades ago. She recommended that I start a very restrictive diet as a means of helping control the urge to pee. I literally began the diet with a menu that consisted of 4 foods…… slowly adding one food at a time back into my life. Looking back, I realize that as awful as this diagnosis may sound, it was thru this that I was given the gift of culinary discernment and the ability to read even minute clues within my body based on how my bladder reacted to what I had eaten earlier in the day.

Here’s a sampling of my crazy ‘no no’ list: most citrus (except blood oranges, which are lower in acid and seemed to be okay for me), pineapple fresh or canned (but it’s ok to eat pineapple if I am actually in the country of origin), onions, peanut butter that had hydrogenated oils (natural was ok), food with dyes, fried foods, spicy food, tomatoes (unless they were yellow… also lower in acid), coffee, many over the counter medications…. the list went on….. but the biggie: processed foods. Those were like a lightning bolt to my bladder.

I learned that getting dehydrated definitely made things worse (and so I became a dedicated water drinker…. another blessing in disguise). I also learned that stress made an awful companion to a temperamental bladder, and have learned ways to mitigate stress. It was many years later that I actually learned I had inadvertently joined the ranks of 1 in 5 adults….. I had an autoimmune disorder.

I talk about this from time to time with people. Our bodies are like buckets and toxins drip slowly into that bucket on a daily basis from the moment we wake up til the time our head hits the pillow at night. And then, if you are an air freshener girl or guy (like I was), you’re lucky enough to be adding those toxins to your body even while you sleep. (Throw those plug-ins away and get yourself a diffuser and some toxin free oils… I promise you, your home and office space will smell awesome, AND you’ll be deriving therapeutic benefits instead of being slowly poisoned to death). Once that toxin bucket is filled and begins overflowing, well that’s when the trouble really starts…. and you get diagnosed with something fun like IC, or a host of other autoimmune disorders. Which autoimmune disorder you get usually depends on which part of your body is the weakest. In my case, it was my bladder.

My diagnosis of IC set my future in motion in ways I’m ever grateful for. IC became my dietary enforcer. I mean, who wants to eat something that will make them pee every 30 minutes ad infinitum? I also came to realize that being surrounded by chemicals (even basic skin care products) didn’t help the situation at all, so we began switching to nontoxic alternatives. My toxin bucket was clearly full and overflowing given the evidence my bladder had coughed up. It was a slow process…. this detoxing our lives….. and I’m not going to lie….it’s still an ongoing process. We are picky about where we eat (is the food freshly prepared, and preferably organic?), and we are picky about what we are willing to expose ourselves to. Do I fail? Oh yes. I’m not anywhere near perfect. I still have a hard time resisting Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (the peanut butter in them are of the devil as far as my bladder is concerned). But falling off the wagon will nearly always guarantee me the need to pee often and with urgency…so it’s usually not worth it.

I’m not saying it will work for everyone with an autoimmune disorder, but think about this…… If one in five of us are so sensitive to toxins that our bodies begin revolting in whatever unique manner it chooses to…….. why in the world wouldn’t you want to minimize the exposure to those toxins simply so that your life would be less complicated, less painful, and even less embarrassing? (I’ve had some truly embarrassing moments. Trust me.)

Fast forward to 3 years ago. The cleaner my personal environment got, and the more balanced my body became with essential nutrients, the calmer my bladder became. Just like a pesky sibling, I know exactly how to rile my bladder up and can do it in a New York minute, but why would I? Most of the time, when I do suffer with IC these days, it’s because I did something stupid. I got dehydrated. I got careless with food. I allowed myself to become stressed out.

Today, my bladder is a fairly normal organ. Yes, I still have IC and I probably always will. But I have healed considerably. I still have a ‘no no’ list of foods that will set my bladder off, but take a look at it now: processed foods (anything with a chemical component) and coffee. My bladder….. sensitive little creature that it is, can usually even tell the difference between what is organic and what is not. And really…. you gotta respect that in an organ :).

Grapefruit…. it’s what’s for breakfast! I am grateful indeed.

Hugs and love~ Liz

Joy Comes In The Morning

Liz James · December 3, 2017 ·

One of my passions in life is pursuing all manners of sustainability. I believe that whatever you are passionate about overflows into all areas of your life.

I was sitting in an airport back in June watching people. Summer is a huge family vacation time. Vacation should be synonymous with Happy, right? And yet…. the vast majority did not appear to be all that happy. Granted, flying isn’t necessarily fun anymore, but still… where was the joy in the journey? During the flight, I had a growing conviction that I needed to do more in life to spread Joy and Happiness to others. I started researching and found that I am not alone in this. Did you know that there are actually college classes now on finding happiness? Seriously. Are we that bankrupt on happiness and joy as a country that college classes are needed to find it?

This month, with the help of some friends, we’ve got a Facebook event called Project Joy and Happiness! If you’d like to join us, feel free to do so. Our goal is to spread holiday cheer this December, and hopefully teach others how to spread both where ever they go year round. Let’s make Joy and Happiness contagious emotions! We’ve got science, psychology, posts that bring a smile to your face, and even weekly giveaways.

But wait, aren’t Joy and Happiness the same thing? Uh….no. Happiness is an emotion reserved for moments in time. Joy is the sustainable emotion…. once you choose Joy, it stays with you as long as you continue to choose it. (You’ll learn all about the nuances of Joy vs Happiness in the Facebook event).

Yesterday, I saw the greatest testimony to the difference between Joy and Happiness. It came in the form of a funeral.

You see, a friend within our Young Living family lost their daughter Layla last month to childhood cancer. Her parents, Bryan & Sara, held her celebration of life service yesterday. It was a true celebration, with balloons, snow cones, fun for the kids that attended, bright colors and happy music.

No, this was not a happy event. Happy is not a word that describes a funeral. Ever. And yet….. the service was filled with smiles, laughter, and many many tears. Tears that were joy filled and sadness filled simultaneously. This is the difference between Happiness and Joy. You can’t be happy and sad simultaneously, but you CAN be joyful and sad simultaneously.

Biblically speaking, deep within Psalm 30 you see the words “….Joy comes with the morning”. Joy also comes TO the mourning when a child of God meets Jesus face to face. I believe that celebrating the beautiful life of a beautiful girl who is now sitting on the lap of Jesus is worthy of Joy. Nobody is happy that she is gone, but thousands of her friends are filled with Joy that she is now in the presence of her heavenly Father and is healed.

I can think of no better example of Joy than this.

In all my researching these last 6 months, I found that one of the things that boosts your happy and joy quotient is giving without respect to what you might receive in return. If you’d like to help Stamp Out Childhood Cancer (a 501c3 nonprofit), please consider donating in memory of Layla Stamp (nothing would bring her parents greater Joy than that). Please visit LaylaStrongFoundation.org for more information. I am 100% in favor of practicing what I teach….. so when donating to LaylaStrongFoundation, please reference The Wellness Prepper (in the message section of your paypal donation), and we (Charlie and I) will match donations up to a cumulative amount of $1000.

Find your Joy today my friends, and celebrate! Joy lasts a lifetime. Happiness comes and goes depending on the situation.

Hugs and Love, Liz

Prodigal Squirrel

Liz James · November 28, 2017 ·

was out of town for 5 days last week working to further my education and edging closer to Dolphin MPS certification. It was a whirlwind trip and I got home late in the afternoon on the 21st.

My hubby has been a trooper this last year….. working full time, and managing the farm when I am out of town either educating others or getting educated myself. We are a great team, he and I, and we both see the benefits of what we are working towards.

As I drove up the driveway, I automatically began scanning my the pastures and doing a mental farm-ily checklist. I stopped and checked water troughs. The last one I checked caught me right in the heart. Despite the fact that there was a piece of wood floating in the trough (for little critters who might fall in and need a lifeboat), there were two dead squirrels. Drowned.

Of course, my first thought and breath prayer was that neither body belonged to Henri. It was not in an area that I could imagine she or her babies would be, but still….. it’s also not that far from the house. Charlie went out and disposed of the squirrels and cleaned the trough. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it… simply because I wasn’t sure who exactly had drowned. Let’s face it, squirrels all look pretty much alike. As much close contact as we have with Henri, I still can’t tell her apart from other squirrels except by her personality and approximate size.

We have incredible relationships with all of our animals out here, and although we grieve when one passes away, we are healthy about it. Life goes on, and so must we. What is nearly harder than death is when an animal comes up missing. It’s been a rare occurrence, but it has happened. Then you have a kind of limbo grief it’s hard to let go of… not knowing whether to grieve and move on or keep on hoping. Charlie hadn’t seen Henri the entire time I was gone so she had been missing already for about a week. As the days wore on, I started giving up on hope. I left nuts out and they didn’t get eaten. She really seemed to be gone, so my hope was that she had just gone into the wild and not drowned. That thought was a little sad too… but better than the alternative reason for her absence.

Today was a great day! Henri returned…. acting as tho she had never been missing. She looked thru the window and asked for nuts. Her favorite nuts come from our local pecan orchard, Foster Crossing Pecans.

Thanks(giving)

Liz James · November 16, 2017 ·

My partner in crime, love of my life, bff, and hubby of 25+ years and I love to give. Over the years we’ve found various organizations that have pulled at our hearts. We’ve also been duped on more than one occasion. (It’s amazing how many organizations and individuals are out there who either improperly manage funds and/or who just want your money so they don’t have to work quite so hard.) Sad but true. We have gotten fairly good at vetting what and who we choose to give our money and our time to…. thank goodness! After all, we have extraordinarily busy lives with jobs, a farm, and a passion that combines all of the above. Ain’t got no time for nonsense, right?

This season is generally a time where hearts grow and giving flows, and I thought I’d give a shout out to one of our favorite international organizations, Reach Out Honduras. ROH was/is the vision of dear friends, Alex & Laura Waits. Not everyone listens when God speaks, and even fewer act on what is being spoken to the heart. You see, Alex and Laura lived the typical American dream….. great jobs, comfortable life in the country, a couple of kids and pets. All was well in their world.

And yet….

God asked, and Alex and Laura said yes. You can see the result of their ‘yes’ here.Charlie and I have been closely tied to Reach Out Honduras since day one. You see, Alex and Laura lived in our community and attended our tiny church. We watched their vision grow from a thought to an action and then a movement. We have both been on their Board of Directors (I have since ‘retired’) since day 1. Charlie spends countless hours in the spring each year putting together a benefit golf tournament that raises money to build school buildings. The buildings you see in the video are the result of combined donations of ‘average joe’ people. Ya’ll, this is a grassroots organization with no corporate backing, no one church denomination, no political affiliation. It’s just the result of good people doing good things with the gifts God gave them.

Getting to Puerto Lempira, Honduras is no easy feat. It is in one of the most remote parts of Honduras…. there are no roads to get there, so small plane or small boat is it. Travel generally takes two days to get there.

The airport at Puerto Lempira, Honduras.

Charlie and I went down last summer for a week of work projects, and got to meet the kids and teachers at Reach Out Honduras’s school, Vida Abundante. Ya’ll, this region of Honduras is the poorest of the poor. Going to school beyond 6th grade requires payment to the government with money that most don’t have.

No money = No Education = No chance for betterment = The poverty continues.

The vision that God gave Alex is changing all of that. In less than 10 years, the poverty cycle is beginning to show signs of change. We have kids in college who want to come back to their remote home and make a difference for others. There are income producing jobs at the school for those who had none, and there is a spirit of hope that is literally tangible within the gates of the property.

Vida Abundante has become a place of self pride and hope in a region where there was very little of either.

Imex. One of my favorite students! He is gifted in so many areas. Imex is an orphan and was badly burned as a child.

The School! Vida Abundante means ‘Abundant Life.’ Named after the verse John 10:10 referenced above, these words speak to everything God has waiting for the students of Puerto Lempira. There are ‘thieves’ everywhere, literal and figurative. The thieves of drug addiction, drug trafficking, prostitution, poverty, hunger and more rob these students of the abundant life that God has waiting!

Last weekend ROH had its second fund raising event of the year, the annual banquet. It is humbling to be in a room full of those who are there to give abundantly to a worthy cause expecting nothing in return. Most of the people will never meet the kids they sponsor, and yet they give anyway. They may never step foot in Honduras, and they give anyway. This is love, generosity, and hope’s hands and feet.

While ROH is a Christian based ministry, this organization is supported by all walks of life regardless of politics and religious beliefs, because we all believe in a common thing:

Love

…… and the greatest of these, is Love. (1 Cor 13:13)

If you are looking for an organization to donate to this holiday season, there are over 240 living breathing hope filled individuals who have aspirations in life, and are praying for the opportunity. Please consider showing a little love and making Reach Out Honduras one of your charities of choice!

http://reachouthonduras.org/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReachOutHonduras/

Walking in Faith, Liz

Overstock

Liz James · November 6, 2017 ·

When we began seriously weeding out chemicals from our lives and our farm, one of the largest looming threats was grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are a serious issue for farms and gardens in this part of Texas. They will literally eat you out of house and home some years…..and their abundant presence makes it virtually impossible to grow anything.

We first attempted gardening about 15 years ago…. one of the same years that grasshoppers were exceptionally abundant. The garden failed. More pointedly, it never even got started. The following year, we used a ‘safe’ control ( Nosema locustae ) that supposedly kills grasshoppers in the nymph stage. While there might have been a slight decline in population, it wasn’t enough to make gardening a successful endeavor. An elderly lady who had grown up on a farm suggested guineas to me as a viable solution…. and that first set of guineas started my appreciation of this odd looking poultry species.

Guineas are indigenous to Africa, and they are odd fowl. Most people have never heard of them and they are hard to describe…. they look like a cross between a turkey, a teradactyl, and a football (yes, their body is shaped like one). There are two types of people when it comes to guineas… those that love them and those that don’t.

Let’s just get the dirt out on ’em now:

They can be loud
They can be bullies
They can be roamers
They are stupid as a box of rocks
The adults have a face only a mama could love (but the babies are adorable!)
Sadly, they do not eat squash bugs or cucumber beetles
While they are very good at procreating, they are NOT good at keeping track of their babies after they’ve hatched.

All that to say, I am in the league of lovers when it comes to these birds. In my book, their assets outweigh their issues. Guineas are by far the best pest control for larger farmsteads. Yes, they may roam if they need food (they are great foragers), so they may not be ideal for a 1-2 acre farmstead…. but for larger acreage, they generally don’t travel more than 5 acres or so. Since we’ve had ours, we’ve had nearly zero issues with grasshoppers. We also came to realize that they do a magnificent job of eliminating and controlling ticks, fleas, and snakes. Copperheads, a poisonous snake found in this part of Texas, are especially common here. Since the addition of Guineas to our farm, we have had no issues with snakes (barring the occasional large rat or chicken snake). Ultimately, we estimate that they save us roughly 1200$ per year on pest control, without the use of harmful chemicals…. not to mention preventing the garden vegetation devastation from the hoppers.

Secondly, they are pretty remarkable watch dogs. Although they are a dull bunch of crayons in the knowledge box, I’d have to give them an A+ for being observant. They warn the free roaming chickens when a bird of prey is nearby, and the chatter can get pretty raucous if there is a new person or a new dog on the property. They are blind as bats at night, so most attrition occurs thru night time predation. During they day, they are actually quite good about banding together and making their cumulative appearance look (and sound) large and menacing. I once saw a group of them chase a coyote off with his tail between his legs! I can’t imagine a flock of chickens doing the same thing.

I can’t really say much about the bullying. In my book, they really aren’t much worse than some chickens and roosters are. Our guineas have been raised in the presence of chickens, so there really appears to be a symbiotic relationship between the two species. Last year, I actually had a rooster RAISE a handful of guinea keets (the babies). It was truly remarkable… especially watching how kind he was to them (note in the picture: the teen guinea keet sleeping on his back at night).

Guineas are prolific egg layers. They lay eggs until the nest is overflowing with 40-60 eggs… at which point they commence to sitting on them. Unless they get scared off, a guinea will sit for about 25-28 days on her pile of progeny. She is quite protective unless she fears for her life. Usually, about 30-40 babies hatch, and here is where some of the trouble starts. God clearly knew what he was doing…. giving them that many babies… because it takes that many to get just a handful of survivors. Apparently, guineas cannot count, and for the first few weeks post nesting time….. little feathered popcorn sized keets get left everywhere to die. It’s tragic… especially to my tender heart. So, whenever I find a nest (they are ground nesters, and do a pretty darn good job of camouflaging), I watch it closely and mark the days til the estimated hatching occurs. Once that happens, I herd them all (or catch them up) into a safe pen for a few weeks until they are both big enough and strong enough to survive. Despite my best efforts, only a small percentage ever reach adulthood. The parents are an odd mix of aggressively protective and negligently passive. This year and last year, I think the inbreeding of our guinea clan has actually led to either an increase in IQ or better parenting skills. Regardless, we are heavy in the guinea inventory…… real heavy. In past years, we have averaged 8-14 adult guineas at any one time. Today…. well, I’m just not sure exactly how many we have, but it’s over 30 for sure. Guineas are tree roosters at night, and as winter approaches, so usually do the bobcats and owls. Our livestock guard dogs do an excellent job of keeping ground predators away, but nighttime arboreal predators are a harder thing to manage. I still doubt we will lose that many to natural attrition. Next spring, I feel certain that I’m going to be looking for homes for the new batches of keets that will start hatching in June. As much as I love having them around, too much of a good thing is, well….. too much.