New Years Resolutions.

I have never been a big one for News Years Resolutions. Partly because I feel like it is a way to procrastinate the things which we know we should do but are to lazy to. That does not mean it is a bad idea. I also feel like breaking a resolution made at New Years has become acceptable almost a joke. I do feel very strongly that goals should be made so this post is full of double standards. I did make 2 resolutions last year that I did not tell anybody about for a long time.
The first one was not to buy any new clothes for me except in dire circumstances. Example my jeans get holes in the thigh and rip apart. Since nobody wants to see my bare thighs I felt that was acceptable. Amazingly I made this goal with 2 exceptions. At the employee Disney store they had Captain EO shirts for $1 and that didn't feel like breaking my rule. The second was a white shirt for the Nebeker Family Pictures. Since white only stays that color the first time I wear it I felt like that was a justifiable one. My jeans even held up. For me I completed a resolution. For the boys I tried not to buy clothes unless absolutely necessary and with the exception of some Christmas gifts and Captain EO shirts we only bought clothes when the boys wore out or outgrew what they had. The older boys only have enough clothes for one week. My youngest has tons of clothes because of hand me downs from friends but only one weeks are in his dresser at a time. The one week rule has helped a lot with laundry and their bedroom floors.
Second Goal: To read Scriptures daily with my children. We start this and then stop over and over again. If we missed a day then I lost my motivation and gave up for a while. What I finally came to realize for us anyway is not to stress over it every single day but to try 3-4 times a week and we have figured out a schedule that works with all the kids schedules. I feel like this is better than nothing.

My main goal for this year comes off of one from the last 4 years that I haven't talked much about but I have found very important. With so much of my life out of my control I have been working very hard not to let things stress me out. So much of my life is contingent on what other people do. Will someone decide to give my husband a job. Will I get the job I applied to. Will my husband have teaching classes this term. The list is long and has been going on for a long time. This year we are in another round of interviewing for my husband. People ask all the time how things are going but we really don't have anything to say until a job offer has been made. Here is the status right now. One on campus interview already took place. 3 interviews will happen this week at MLA. Please pray for him. I am going to try even harder not to let the job market, financial stress get to me.

Goal #2 Finish my detox.
I am 2 days into my 30 day detox which I will post more about when I am done. I only eat sugar the 2 weeks around Christmas and at my sisters weekend. I knew I would need to detox in January and I have many other reasons to complete it which I will save for later.

Happy New Year. May you have the motivation to complete all of your resolutions.

Angry Birds.

One of my goals is to enjoy time with my kids instead of always being bugged with them and frustrated with housework etc. Today on a whim we decided to make Angry Birds from a pattern we saw on Pinterest. Pinterest is amazing by the way and with the exception of making me hungry has given me many ideas and ways to save money. If you need and invite to pinterest let me know. So far today we have made 4 red ones, 6 blue ones, and, 3 yellow ones. They are all sewn but a few need to be stuffed. My back started to hurt and I realized we had been sewing for 6 hours so I decided we needed a break. We came into the living room and went through a box of stuff to figure out what would be best to stuff them with. Low and behold we found green fleece so now we need to make the pigs as well. If I had anything else planned for the next few days it is gone. Oh well. We have  had a blast making them and the beauty of the kids being older is that they actually help not just want to help and it turns out to be more work for you in the long run. Dylan traced and cut out all the fabric for me while I sewed. I can only imagine how long it would take without his help. He even did quite a bit of hand sewing on the beeks and final closing. Here is the final project for the first 4.  These were all made with leftover fabric and felt that I had. I think I might have a hoarding problem. I am sure that my husband and roommate will be happy that I am starting to realize that. That doesn't mean it will change but acceptance is the first step to healing. 

This one is the craziest. Did I mention the eyes are the hardest part.

This one looks like a child of Big Bird and Bert.

Coconut Class

I had the privilege of teaching a coconut class last night for some woman at church. I thought I would share what I taught them. Below is info on Coconut Ice Cream, Coconut milk, Deodorant, Toothpaste, & Lotion. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Concept & Design!

Chandlers Chalk Drawing.

Yesterday Chandler was the featured Artist at the Santa Barbara Charter School Fall Carnival. He created a large Chalk Drawing and was able to sell many pieces of his art. Thanks to all who came out and supported him. 

His art piece he drew was a girl painting her room a rainbow.

Chandlers Art.

This Saturday Chandler my 13 year old son will be the featured artist at the Santa Barbara Charter School Fall Festival. He will be designing a large chalk drawing while there as well as displaying and selling some of his artwork. It is hard for a 13 year old boy to earn money and art is is passion so we will see if he sells anything. If nothing else people will get a chance to see what we usually only see at home. Below will be the art that will be displayed, what size and how much we will be selling it for. Please feel free to order. You do not need to attend the carnival to get such great artwork. I encourage you to attend the carnival for the fun time you will have and to support a great school. Sorry that some of the drawings are sideways.

Cards are $1.50 ea

6x7 Card 

6x7 Card 

6x7 Card

Below are all available in 5x7 $1.50 each  or 8x10 $3.00each. 

12 Steps to Whole Foods!

(For those of you looking for my specific post about the Stake Relief Society table please see the post previous to this one. This one is about one of the books I recommend)

I feel like a post is needed to do this wonderful book justice. This book has helped me in so many ways. When I started my food journey I started with Ultrametabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman. See my previous post
 http://nebeker-jo.blogspot.com/2011/05/thankful-for-ultrametabolism.html
to learn more about that. My life will forever be changed thanks to that book.

After learning what I did I needed to know more. Specifically how to eat with my restrictions. I had started making Green Smoothies already and loved them SOOO Much. About 1 year after my detox with ultrametabolsm it was time to do another detox. I got the book Green Smoothie Diet by Robyn Openshaw Aka Green Smoothie Girl and loved everything she had to say. Most of it directly coincided with Dr. Hymans teachings and I felt like this was the way to go. She talks in her book about the importance of doing a detox or cleanse and recommends doing a 3 day or 30 day green smoothie detox. I jumped all over this because I already loved Green Smoothies. Being the person that I am I decided to go all out and do the 30 day detox. It was truly amazing. My favorite part was every morning I made my smoothies for the whole day and just grabbed them when hungry. It was so nice not to think about what I was going to eat. Keep in mind I was already eating pretty healthy and had a Green Smoothie Almost every day so I had very minimal side effects. Around day 5 I did notice I had to urinate quite frequently, it felt like being pregnant. I realized my kidneys and livers were being cleansed. That lasted for about 3 days and then went back to normal. One of the things a cleanse is suppose to do is clean your colon. Again I thought "oh my colon is probably already pretty clean so I won't notice much". What happened to me was not extreme but there were some distinct differences. If you want more detail I will be happy to share but I don't want to gross people out. Let's just say my colon was getting cleaned. I had tons of energy, felt great, lost weight, my joints didn't hurt. I loved it so much there are many days where I wish I could do it over and over again.  My goal is to do this once a year. Since I have this family to take care of it is hard to prepare meals for a family and not eat them so my husband has to be on board with the idea and was extremely supportive the first time. Anyway because of this book I started reading her website and blog was really excited about what she teaches. Her main goal is 60%-80% raw diet. This is actually really easy to do with the help of her 12 step book. After countless hours online researching, finding recipes etc I attended a class taught by Green Smoothie Girl herself here in Santa Barbara. I was so excited I told everyone she was coming. At her class I purchased the book 12 steps to whole foods https://secure.ultracart.com/catalog/GSG10/10011M.html This book is not cheap but totally worth it. Oh, how I wish I had had this book at the beginning. It would have saved me so much time and I would have been able to introduce my family slowly so that there was not as much resistance. This book has 12 Chapters the goal is to do one Chapter per month and at the end of a year you have transitioned you and your family to a whole foods diet. This is so perfect because you won't get overwhelmed like so many of us do when trying to eat healthy. I often have felt like there is so much how can I possibly remember it all. This book tells you what to do, how to do it, recipes, and recommends other books if you want to learn more. Most of the recipes are Gluten Free or simply changed to be. To give you an example here are the Chapter outlines
Chapter 1. Green Smoothies - I know from personal experience that this one habit a day or 3 times a week or more will greatly change your health, energy, everything. She gives recipes and talks about simple ways to make tasty nutritious smoothies. One quart of Green Smoothie has 12-15 servings of veggies and fruit for an adult. It also cleans out your digestive system so your body works better the rest of the day.
Chapter 2. Making Salad the Star- This chapter talks abut the importance of Salad and how to increase your servings over the month so that the main part of your dinner is salad. The recipes she includes are delicious.
Chapter 3. Dressing Up Your Salads- This entire Chapter is about Salad Dressing. She talks about the importance of making your own dressing and has many recipes. I often make huge batches and store the extra in jars in my freezer so they are there when needed.
Chapter 4. Avoiding Bad Fats, Enjoying Good Fats- This chapter talks about why some oils are bad and which ones are good and why your body needs good fats. This is the chapter the Almond Joy Fudge Recipe comes from.
Chapter 5.- Reaping a Gardener's Rewards- She talks about the importance of having a garden and how to start and recommends books that are great for more info. There is a lot more to this chapter than just gardening so if that is not in your grasp because of your housing situations don't skip this chapter.
Chapter 6- Making Plant-Based Main Dishes - This is when you will start the transitions from animal based main courses to plant based ones. I have been very happy with all but one of the recipes I tried and I suspect the error was on my side. We are going to try that recipe again but have my husband make it this time and I am sure it will come out great.
Chapter 7- Sprouting and Dehydrating-  This always seemed so overwhelming and completely out of my grasp. What I found online just seemed like so much work. She breaks it down and makes it a doable thing for every house and explains why sprouting is so very important to get the live enzymes only sprouts can give us.
Chapter 8- Preserving Raw Foods with Natural Probiotics- I have to admit that this is the chapter I am currently focusing on. I made Coconut Milk yesterday and will be making Coconut yogurt tomorrow. I am learning about this chapter currently
Chapter 9- Replacing White Flour with Whole Grains - She explains about many types of grains, how to use them and maximize the amount of nutrition you can get from them. There are some great recipes using many grains.
Chapter 10- Starting Your Morning off Right- This chapter focuses on other breakfast ideas in addition to Green Smoothies. Some of my favorite recipes from the book are in this chapter. It is a good idea to offer alternative or additions to green smoothies a few times a week to keep kids from getting sick of the smoothies.
Chapter 11- Creating Delicious Whole Food Treats- Shockingly, this is my favorite chapter.  I can make yummy treats that are whole foods and I don't have to feel guilty about them.
Chapter 12 - Achieving an Alkaline Inner Terrain - I have read this chapter and believe that what she says about water is true but in all honesty it is going to be a long time before this is part of my routine. Part of that is we are a low income family and this takes an investment upfront that we cannot do right now. I in no way want you to fee like this is not worth looking into. If I could I would. We do drink the best water we can in our home.


The First Question I get when people find out about how I eat is "how do you get enough protein" To that I will happily answer with read her book. I will actually talk to you about it but It is the question I am getting really tired of.
The Second Question I get is how do your Husband and kids feel about it. Well in truth it is not always easy. As time goes on it is getting easier. We started Friday Free day. On Fridays my husband and kids decide and cook what we have for dinner. I have a smoothie or something else. It really did not take my Husband long before the thought of not having meat at every meal didn't break his heart. He has embraced it and is healthier and feels better than I have ever seen in our almost 15 years of marriage. My youngest son who has been raised the healthiest has the least trouble. When he does complain he is usually copying on  of his big brothers. My 13 year old was pretty pleasant about all of it until the day her turned 13 (give or take a few hours). All of a sudden everything I do is wrong and all the food I cook is gross. All he wants is white bread. I find this terribly funny since never in his life have I bought white bread. I feel like most of his complaints come from being 13. My 11 year old is the hardest to deal with. He however has always been an extremely picky eater. Our Dinner is Salad, Fruits, Veggies and when those are done then the main course. If they don't like it to bad I am sick and tired about fighting over food. I know they are not starving. If they come back later and say they are hungry they can eat veggies or dinner, nothing else. That being said I do try to allow something that makes dinner more palatable. Example with stew or chili we eat corn chips, toast, corn bread, polenta etc. They still have to east some of the dinner before the extras but it helps. I do not do this with every meal and there are many times one of the kids does not eat the main course. They will eat what is served and I am getting more strict about this as time goes on. I know they have had enough nutrition because of the Salad, Veggies, and Fruit that are required before the main course.

This post has become much longer that I anticipated. If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them. I would also love to be your whole foods buddy if you need help starting out.
Would you like to join a healthy eating club, Like a book club for healthy eating? If so let me know I would love to start one. This is a goal of http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/ a blog I love following.

Stake Food Demo Table

Today I was one of many to have a food demo table for the women at church. I  focused on Whole, Raw, Organic foods that taste amazing. I had Granola, Fudge, and Flax Veggie Crackers. I wanted to tell these woman so much and couldn't possibly fit it all into the small amount of time that I had so I thought I would give them a link to my blog and they could read more here. Please see my older post Ultrametabolism. This post talks about the beginning of my food journey.
Books I recommend:
*Ultrametabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman - This book is a great book to start with if you have any health issues that you can't get rid of. This book changed my life!
*The Green Smoothie Diet by Robyn Openshaw- This is an overview of what Robyn Openshaw AKA Green Smoothie Girl teaches and is a quick read with many recipes and ways to naturally improve your nutrition.
*12 Steps to whole foods by Robyn Openshaw - Oh how I wish I had had this book when I started my Food Journey. This would have made my life so much easier. 1 step per month and at the end of a year you will have transitioned you and your family to a whole foods diet with all the recipes and knowledge you need. This book would have saved me so much time researching and learning. It is like scriptures for how to eat and I truly believe her teachings are the way the Word Of Wisdom is intended for us. If you would like to check out these books you may come and look at them anytime but you cannot borrow them because I would not know what to do without them.
There are many great books out there. I recommend these ones because they don't just tell you what to do they tell you how to do it. I also feel they are doable for the average person. I would be happy to talk in more detail about them if you have any questions. Please comment below with any questions or email me at joscrapbookqueen@yahoo.com
For the woman I spoke with about Himalyan Pink Salt to make Sole here is the link
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/robyn-recommendations/salt/

Blogs and Websites
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/ Green Smoothies Girls website
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/blog/ Green Smoothies Girls blog
http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/ this blog is great with a focus on the word of wisdom. He gives one challange per week to live a healthier lifestyle with lots of good info.
http://www.facebook.com/FatFreeVegan I love this blog and the one below for the recipes.
http://littlehouseofveggies.blogspot.com/2010/07/raw-spiced-chocolate-truffles.html
I feel the same about blogs as I do books. There are way to many to name them all but these ones are the ones I go back to almost daily.

Ways to buy food cheaply and in bulk for food storage and still be organic and mostly raw foods!

http://www.azurestandard.com/ Azure Standard has just about anything you need, Fresh, Frozen, canned, You name it, they have it. There are local drop of points in Carpinteria, Goleta, Buelton, they have drop off points all over and if one is not in your area you can become one. Azure Standard is like being able to shop at Whole Foods but much cheaper and have bulk options. The deliveries are made once per month to the drop off point. Each individual order must be $50 and the groups total must be $550 or they will not deliver that month. It only takes a few family and $550 is met easily. I have been very happy with them,

Join a CSA- the one that is delivered to my house Every Wednesday is through
http://www.shepherdfarmscsa.com/  Fresh organic produce once a week. I prefer Shepherd farms because the produce is food I would use any way. Some CSA have things that are foreign to me.  Shepherd farms also included a recipe that uses what they drop off that week and they are always great. Being a member of a CSA is a great way to get your produce, support local farmers, and go Green all at the same time. There is nothing better than the fresh Fruits and Veggies that we get once a week. I get excited every Wednesday morning wondering what will be delivered that day and knowing whatever it is will be fantastic.

Recipes of what I served,
All these recipes came from 12 steps to whole foods by Robyn Openshaw

My latest obsession!

Pineterest may be the best and worst thing to ever enter my life. It is not that I spend hours browsing it, I don't just a few minutes a day. The problem is it has opened up all these new ways for me to make things, be creative etc and keep them organized. I saw a TV center on there made from regular things in the house and painted to match. I thought I could do that if I had the furniture. About 2 weeks later a friend that is moving was getting rid of all the exact items I needed. After 3 weeks of measuring, cutting,sanding, painting, & nailing I am finally done (with this room anyway). I took 3 bookshelves plus the 2 we already had and a computer desk. Sanded them all down. Cut one book shelve up into pieces to give a cubed look to the other two shelves. I did this because all the shelves are the cheep pressed wood and I HATE how they sag in the middle especially with my scrapbooks. This was for sure a learning process and they did not turn out perfect by any means. I am happy with the overall outcome and they will certainly get us through until the magical day when I own all my own power tools and can purchase real wood to build what I want from scratch. Thank you to all the people who loaned me tools to help out. In a separate project based on something else I saw on Pinterest the same friend had some picture frames so I took one and made myself a bow hanger.

Summer 2011 Part 1

We had a fun filled jam packed summer. Vacations, timeshares, beach theme parks, cousins galore. This post is about the Nebeker Family Reunion. All 5 of my husbands siblings and their family's stayed in San Diego for 2 days at Kim & Brian's home. One of the only homes on the planet that could hold a group as large as ours. The oldest nephew will be going on an LDS mission for 2 years so this was the last time we will see him for a long time. The oldest niece is going away to college. We will see her a little more but not much. In the two days we went to the beach, went swimming, tool family pictures, went to the park and swam some more. There were a few dozen stops at McDonald's for soda in those two day.
Enjoy the scrapbook pages I made of the reunion. Yes, I know there are way to many pages since we were only together 2 days but I think I actually did  a good job not going overboard.

I was drinking my green smoothie while we were at McDonalds!