Reclaiming Our Health (Becoming a Juice Plus Distributor)

In November, I had the chance of a lifetime and got to hear the amazing Dr. Sears speak in my small town. It was an intimate meeting, with not a huge amount of people there. I felt so incredibly honored to be listening to the Dr. Sears, who in many ways helped shape who I am today as a parent. Many of my decisions on attachment parenting came from reading his books. Hearing him talk did not disappoint and he was incredibly smart and knowledgeable. The entire talk was mainly about living a healthy lifestyle and how to take those steps to do so.

Trying so hard to get a cell phone picture without him seeing! LOL! :)

A healthy lifestyle is one that we are slowly converting to in our family. Not that we ever lived a terribly unhealthy one, but there were still many steps we have taken to change our lifestyle in order to better our health.

We started last year by going gluten free. In all honesty it ended up being a relatively easy switch. We started taking a probiotic daily, or in our case, we started making our own homemade kefir. I started the girls on a cod liver oil supplement, and just recently started myself on a fish oil one (although I'm seriously considering doing this instead). We all take a vitamin D3 to boost our immune system, especially with our winters. A few months ago, we also decided to go mainly dairy free and I am slowly working towards going grain free. The one thing I didn't do for us, was find a vitamin supplement to take. However, our natural doctor we see told us that as long as we were eating enough fruits and veggies, we were ok.

Now we eat a pretty good amount of fruits and veggies and in the summer we are signed up with a local CSA. However, I knew we probably weren't getting enough and it made me think about possibly starting to take Juice Plus, a whole food supplement that I had thought of taking for years. Juice Plus is a simple, inexpensive, and convenient way to add more fruits and veggies to your diet each day. Juice Plus isn't meant to replace the fruits and vegetables you eat, rather it helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat. It's also gluten free (which is a huge plus for our family).

The more I looked into it, the more I liked what I saw. In fact, I liked it so much that I figure, if I'm going to take it, I might as well become a distributor too, as I care about the health of others.

As a parent, the real selling point came to me when I found out that if you have any adult (it can be a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.) taking Juice Plus, you can get Juice Plus for a child, over the age of four, for free. That to me is amazing and because Zoelle has really struggled with her health (more so than the other girls) over the years, we have her under me for free.

One of my biggest concerns was how expensive it would be, but for less than a cup of coffee a day ($1.50) you can get the Orchard Blend and Garden Blend and if you want both of those and the Vineyard Blend, it is $2.50 a day. Super reasonable, and if you have a child who is getting it free under you, it makes it even a better deal. For us, it just came to the point of asking what was worth our health, and Juice Plus certainly is. I mean after all, who doesn't need more fruits and vegetables in their diet?

Oh and if you are wondering, Zoelle loves the gummies and thinks they taste really good (I've tried them before too and I agree).

Are you ready to re-claim your health? If any of you are interested at all in adding more fruits and vegetables to your and/or your child's diet, and if Juice Plus sounds like something you would like, please feel free to check out my website, or email me at vanessajuiceplus@yahoo.com  I would love to help you get on your way to a healthier life. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them as well. Lastly, if you too are looking to make a little money, and are interested in becoming a distributor with Juice Plus, e-mail for more information. I was pleasantly surprised at how financially doable it is to become a distributor and the really cool thing is you get to help people get healthy at the same time.

What better time to change your health and lifestyle then now as part of the new year!?!

Wordless Wednesday: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, we are wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday: Her First Choir Concert

My Mama Heart Cries Out

Too many coffins unbearably small
Voices singing, melodies sweet, now silenced by the grey
Who will lie on the pillow as the tooth fairy waits?
And who will rejoice when the butterflies take flight?

Too many coffins unbearably small
Bright eyes full of future now hidden by the grey
Little shoes, ready to race, have no feet to fill
The dinner table cries aloud for its missing bowl and spoon

Too many coffins unbearably small
Our wombs ache to hide them safely, now torn by the grey
We breathe in the sleepy yawn of molasses cookies
The crook of an empty arm yearns, like a puzzle missing its final piece

Too many blessings to count them all
Voices singing, melodies sweet , now dancing in the light
Running fast, the race with joy, glorious as they go.
Butterflies take flight, and we rejoice, no longer silenced by the grey


Dear girls,

My mind is reeling tonight. It has been for four days. You see four days ago, 20 beautiful children right around your ages were killed. 20 precious little boys and girls who had their whole lives ahead of them, taken away in an instant.

My mama heart cries out for the other mamas whose soulful mourning is heard across the globe. Whose tears rain down soaking everything around them. Whose anger screams out at anyone who will listen.

I feel the pain with them. Although I don't understand it, I feel it to my very bones. After all, I am a mama too. The thought of losing one of you, makes my heart lurch.

I want to scream out to God for those moms. I want to cry out and beg for mercy, for peace, for understanding. All of which I've somehow been quietly doing in order not to alarm the three of you. Zoelle you know though, you always have been able to read me, and you figured it out. I wish I could tell you all it will be ok, that nothing like that will ever happen to you.

But I can't.

All I can tell you, all I can encourage you to know and believe with all your heart is that God cannot be kept out.

No, my sweet little girls, He cannot be kept out. When the world all around you seems dark, evil, and plain old scary. When dad and mom are not here to remind you, please, please remember that there is always a light. Find that light and run toward it and know that God is bigger than the darkness, the evil, and the pain.

These last four days I've looked into your eyes a little bit more, I've snuggled you closer, I've cherished your cute little sayings, I've smothered you in kisses. All the while knowing that each of those 20 mothers wishes for one last kiss, one last snuggle, even one last fight. I'm holding on to you tighter, begging God to not let me forget the anguish of another mama. Because all too soon the world will forget and move on. The next tragedy will come and the focus of the world will turn.

But for me, I'm determined to have it be another wake up call to impart into your lives what I need to now. So each of you would know how much your Heavenly Father loves you, so you feel whole and loved in our home, so you can pass that love onto others. Always love others; no matter what.

So tonight girls, I sit at the piano and quietly sing to you, to God, and to the mamas who are crying out for peace. May these lyrics comfort them like they comfort me, and one day, perhaps comfort you. I love you!

"Breath of heaven, hold me together
 Be forever near me, breath of heaven
Breath of heaven, lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness, for you are holy,
Breath of heaven"

*Poem written by a friend, Jennifer Tostenson, whose heart, like so many others, is breaking for the little ones who were lost.

*Song lyrics are written by Amy Grant

*Picture take by me, and somehow when I look at it I see peace.

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday: Just Keeping It Real

Not so happy photo shoot of the girls before the Christmas program!

Much happier after being a little bit more awake!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Perfection

Xlear Sparx Review

Lately our family is taking some big steps to becoming even more natural and healthy (I hope to blog on that soon). But one of the huge areas of struggle for us is candy. Now, I personally am not a huge candy eater (except when it comes to my tootsie roll addiction that I have curbed), but I do have at least one child with a very sweet tooth. She must get it from her daddy because he is the same exact way.

Thus, when I was offered by Moms Meet to review Xlear Sparx, which is sweetened naturally with xylitol, I thought I may as well try it and offer an honest opinion on it! I will admit, I fully went into trying it thinking it wouldn't really taste like candy.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it does have a candy taste. Now, if you are wanting a sugary, sweet taste, this is not it. However, it is sweet tasting and it does satisfy my craving for a sweet. The real test would be my girls. All three liked both the Citrus and the Fruit flavors (although I would say our whole family preferred the Fruit). I was happy they liked it because they are free of artificial colors and flavors (a huge plus in my book). My husband thinks that it tastes a bit cool and sweet at the same time. I'm trying desperately to come up with a better way to describe that, but the only thing I can say is he says the candy gives off a cool, sweet sensation when you eat it. I personally really liked them, and kind of found them addicting (so I still need to watch what I eat with them even if they are natural).

At $1.49 a tube, I think it is a definite healthy alternative to candy. If you want to learn more about Sparx or other Xlear products, make sure you check out the Xlear Website and Facebook, for all the up to date happenings on the company.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet Program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agreed to use this produce and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.