Although I don’t talk about them much, I have lots of loves outside of food, fitness and holistic health. One mini-obsession I’ve had since school is stationary. I’m always on the lookout for notecards, cute invitations for the boys parties, new business cards, etc.

One of my favorite new sites in Minted. They recently gave me the opportunity to order some products to try. I spent the whole night on their site trying to choose a product and walked away wishing I was getting married all over again.

The invitations and inspirations boards were beautiful and I couldn’t help day dreaming about renewing our vows just to have the chance to order one of these gorgeous invites. Of course, I went practical and ordered something I actually needed – business cards for our wellness studio. My partner and I love them and we’ve had a great response from our clients and local businesses.

I’m headed back to choose invites for little man’s 8th Birthday! How is this kid about to turn 8? Pretty soon I’ll be ordering his graduation announcements!!!

If you love paperie as much as I do, you will want to check to check out Minted.  And while you’re there, check out the wedding inspiration boards or create one of your own to win up to $4000 in Minted prizes. I’m curious, which board inspires you? I honestly don’t know how I would choose a theme if I had to plan my wedding all over again.

Instead of buying something my hubby may or may not like or wear, I’m signing our family up for a 5K event that benefits boys whose fathers are absent in their lives. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and if you have a special dad in your life, it’s a great way to honor him.

The 12th annual 5K for Family & Fatherhood benefits the Family Foundation Fund, a Nashville-based nonprofit. Our family loves to be active and outdoors and the Family Foundation Fund has planned an action packed morning, from free hot air balloon rides to live music. Plus, they’re giving away an iPad and a 42-inch flat screen TV so maybe Heath will go home with a really awesome gift after all.

The 5K kicks off June 15 at 7:30 a.m. on the grounds of the historic Fontanel Mansion. For all you serious runners, this is a challenging chip-timed, USTAF certified course. It’s also a fun, scenic trail for the entire family to walk and jog. That’s what we’ll be doing.

You can learn more about the event and sign up at www.fatherhood5k.org. I hope to see you out there!

If you’re interested in helping spread the word about the 5K, which is an important fundraiser for the foundation’s summer mentoring program for boys, the race website also has a great video that can easily be shared with your social networks.

Since 1993, the Family Foundation Fund, has served the Metro Nashville and Middle Tennessee areas by providing a mentoring program to fatherless and disadvantaged boys, ages 10 and older. For more information, visit the Family Foundation Fund on Facebook and Twitter (@RestoreFather).

This is one of our favorite Spring activities.  We have a small garden in our backyard, but our boys still love making one pot mini gardens. We plant them and give them to friends and neighbors as gifts.  The fun part is deciding what kind of mini garden to build…salsa usually wins around here.  Check out my guest post on Vanderbilt Children’s Wishing Well to learn how to build a one pot garden and get ideas for what to plant.

There’s a lot to “The Monsanto Protection Act”, but even if you don’t feel it’s important enough to dig into and understand in full detail, there is one simple fact that should motivate you to DEMAND CHANGE NOW.

This bill, signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of genetically modified (GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues might arise during further testing.  This is all I need to know to assume the worst.  Yes, I’m assuming.  But when a company pushes for legislation that guarantees their product can’t be taken off the market even it’s found to harm human health I think two things.  1.  They are worried it might be found to be harmful to human health.  2. This seriously brings into question the morals of this company.  They should willingly take harmful products off the market if they have any ethics at all.  I don’t trust a company with zero ethics.

Just in case you’re thinking, well maybe Monsanto had nothing to do with the language in the legislation, I read several articles that noted legislators and Monsanto worked together to craft it.  Monsanto’s influence on legislation and work with legislators is just one example of a scary, slippery slope that threatens our rights and freedoms.  President Lincoln said that “government of the people, by the people, for the people” was the way to ensure the survival of America’s representative democracy. This looks more like government by big corporations for big corporations.

What can we do? We can start by demanding mandatory labeling of GMO foods.  Click here to make your voice heard.

Here are two more links to articles that will help educate you on the issue.

New York Daily News 

International Business News

Is it just me or do you guys still get excited to get mail?  I mean happy mail, like cards and packages, not grown-up mail like bills and health insurance statements.

For the most part, this only happens when I’ve A. Spent too much time on Amazon or B. I’m celebrating a special occasion.  My sweet friend Jill, who I haven’t seen in person for 8 years, still sends cards for our wedding anniversary and every birthday in our house, including our boys, who she has never met in person.  She is a card superstar and my boys know all about her and her family because of her happy mail.

This month, I was inspired by the Hallmark Get Carded Challenge.  They gave me some really cute cards and I accepted the challenge sending 7 cards to 7 friends in 7 days.  I’m usually a social media communicator and I’m definitely not devaluing it’s ability to keep me in touch with my long distance friends, but years of Facebook messages and likes haven’t produced the results of a few handwritten cards.

Thanks to the Get Carded Challenge I was able to reconnect with a high school friend I’ve haven’t talked to in over 3 years via Skype.  She got my card, emailed me and asked to have a Skype conversation.  All of the times I’ve “liked” photos of her kids or commented on how adorable they are (they really are cute kids) didn’t bring about a deeper conversation.  A thoughtful card did.  And it was awesome to see her face and chat “live” with her and her kids.

Not all of the cards resulted in a renewed connection like this one, but they did have an impact.  I got a Facebook message back from one telling me it came at just the right time when she needed to hear from a friend.  One came back to me because I had an old address, but that inspired me to pick up the phone and call.  Another inspired plans for a fall camping trip with a friend we only see once every few years.

I’m planning to stock up Hallmark cards using the discount code BLOG30 to get 30% off.  The boys and I are going to work on sending out cards to our family and friends regularly to let them know we love and miss them.  Most of our family lives out of state and a card is a great way to let them know we love them and we’re thinking of them. And it’s more fun to receive than a text message.

If you’d like to join me in the Get Carded Challenge, visit Hallmark.com and use the coupon code BLOG3o to get 30% off your cards.

I’d love to hear the results of your challenge?  Let us know who you connect with and how they respond by sharing your story in the comments or on Facebook.

I’m finding that a well stocked kitchen is just as important to healthy eating as a well stocked fridge or pantry.  With the right tools, I save time and money cooking at home.  Today, I’m focusing on my dishwasher.  Some might consider it a luxury kitchen appliance and a lot of people, especially those living in apartments, make do without one. After doing just that for nearly two months I realize that this appliance has a significant impact on my motivation to cook.

After a long day, I actually enjoy spending 30 minutes in the kitchen preparing a healthy meal for my family.  My problem is that I hate the clean up.  When I can just load the dishwasher and walk away it’s not so bad.  But when I have to wash every dish, pot, pan, knife and serving spoon by hand that’s another 30 minutes (at least) I spend in the kitchen that I don’t enjoy. During our two months with a non-working dishwasher I found that each week the meals I prepared were a little less interesting, probably a little less healthy and required fewer and fewer pots, pans and dishes to prepare.  Dinner got really boring and the joy of cooking was tarnished by the dread of cleaning up.

Recently, we were blessed to receive a new GE Hybrid Stainless Steel Interior Dishwasher.  Two years of a dishwasher that turned out spotted, food speckled, dishes followed by two months of no dishwasher at all and finally, we have a dishwasher that actually cleans our dishes.  I don’t have to wash every last speck of food off them to get great results.  I scrape, load and run and they come out clean every time.  We’ve been using our new dishwasher for almost 3 weeks now and the joy and variety have come back into cooking.  I no longer dread the clean up.  I’m so grateful to have a dishwasher that does the job it claims to do.

Could I live without a dishwasher, yes, I could.  Do I want to? Definitely not! A dependable, effective dishwasher means less time cleaning and more time relaxing with my family.  Cooking is definitely more fun when you know the clean up is going to be quick and easy.

What are your kitchen must haves?

I originally posted this as an Instagram and got a lot of questions in response.  I thought I’d write a post to hit the highlights on our natural allergy treatment and why we’re loving it.

Here are the basics on how essential oils work work and how we use them to treat our seasonal allergies.

Essential oils are like the immune system of the plant.  The oils are distilled from the stems, leaves, bark, and flowers.  These extracts are 50-70 times more powerful than herbs.  A lot of people might drink nettle tea or peppermint tea to soothe allergy symptoms.  Those are great products, but 1 drop of peppermint essential oil is equal to 28 cups of peppermint tea.  So the potency is significantly higher, which means faster, better results with oils.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time you know I’m extremely picky about what we put in our bodies.  I’ve researched essential oils extensively and chose doTERRA because they are the only company that does CPTG testing with a 3rd party.  There is no industry regulation over essential oils so you might be getting an over the counter bottle that is only 10% lemon oil and the other 90% is just a carrier oil. They can also contain pollutants or other contaminants.  doTERRA’s extensive testing and the fact that they source from the plants native origins makes me feel safe using them on myself and my kids.  It’s why so many of their oils can be used internally when others can only be applied topically.

For allergies:

• 2 drops lemon
• 2 drops lavender
• 2 drops peppermint

These are all natural antihistamines.  I put mine in a veggie capsule and take it with water.  You can also mix the oils in a small shot glass with a little water and drink them or rub them on the bottom of your feet.  Applying them to the feet is a great trick for kids who can’t take pills and think the peppermint is too strong to drink.  When I first started this morning routine, I felt relief from my congestion within in the first hour of taking the pill.  After about a week, I was symptom free.  I’ve been most impressed by their ability to get rid of the itchy eyes because none of the allergy medicines I’ve tried in the past have been able to relieve that symptom.

I live in Nashville and we all have horrible seasonal allergies.  The itchy watery eyes usually start as soon as the first buds form on the trees and scratchy throat and drainage follow.  I used to get sinus infections every year, but with clean eating I was able to minimize that.  Unfortunately, nothing I tried in the past could get rid of the itchy, watery eyes until I started using essential oils.

Other helpful recipes using essential oils:

Fever:

• Dilute 1-2 drops of lavender or peppermint in 2 tablespoons of carrier oil (coconut oil or olive oil), and massage a small amount on the neck, on the feet, behind the ears and on the back.  I also rub it along the hairline on the forehead.

Sore Throat:

• Massage 1 drop of melaleuca and 1 drop of OnGuard mixed with 1 tablespoon of carrier oil onto the throat every hour or as needed.  
• Gargle 1 drop of oregano in a little juice and swallow.  Repeat 3x a day.

Prevention:

• Use OnGuard essential oil blend with Frankincense every day on the bottom of the feet to strengthen the immune system.

Remember, only use essential oils internally if they have “Supplement Facts” on the side of the bottle from doTERRA.  Water drives in oil so if something feels to warm or too cold on your skiing, don’t try to wash it off.  Add a carrier oil like coconut oil or olive oil to help dilute it.

If you want to give the natural allergy remedy a try or have additional questions about essential oils, you can email me at calie (at) broccolicupcake (dot) com.  You can also place an order online.