Confidence is Cute

They might have so called frizzy hair, but one thing they have is confidence.

Confidence is key to feeling good and looking good. This video looked like a lot of fun and I was glad to see some of my favorite youtube hair bloggers in the video.

Breaking: Courts discreetly confirm MMR vaccine causes autism

Here's an article that I found at naturalnews.com and it's truly a fascinating eye opener.

Breaking: Courts discreetly confirm MMR vaccine causes autism

This case could possibly give many parents a true voice in their child's health care. To many times as parents, we're told that we're being naive about deciding to vaccinate later in a child's life or choosing not to vaccinate at all, and then we're labeled crazy, irresponsible, and a danger to public health. Now, I'm a parent who chose to vaccinate my younger three children when they entered Kindergarten, because our third child did have a reaction(swelling at injection area, rash, high fever and uncontrollable crying)  to the DTP vaccine as a baby, and I was told...it's normal, just give her some Tylenol. To the doctors and nurses it was common, but to me it wasn't  normal, so I decided I'll wait the other vaccinations out until it was time for school or maybe I won't vaccinate at all. Building my children's immune system became more important to me than making sure that they were shot up with a live virus.

How do you feel about vaccines, do you vaccinate or not? If you vaccinate are there any vaccines that you opt out of, for yourself or your children?  I personally don't allow my girls to get the HPV vaccine because it is still very vague. When HPV was recommended for girls only, I said, no to it because boys are carries of HPV too and I felt that they should be vaccinated too, so I opted out. Now, I'm still deciding to opt out because it doesn't protect them from the many other strains of the HPV virus.  Another vaccine I take issue with is the Chicken Pox vaccine, I know children can die from chicken pox, but it isn't an epidemic. You don't have a thousand children dying from chicken pox a day. My personal opinion is, this vaccine was set up to keep schools from having a chicken pox outbreak and keep the school year flowing a lot better.

Well, you know the drill....leave your comment down below and have a wonderful day :)

P.S. Did you know about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program? If not, check it out!


Peace,

Shelly

The Sustainability of Self

*Parental Advisory*
Please take the time to watch this gem of a film, it is really deep and had me thinking about my purpose, my community, family and the future. The film takes us on a journey to Ethiopia and exposes the effect of International Aid, education and community involvement  in the country and then brings us, the viewers back to America to live out what they've learned.

 After you finish watching this film please leave a comment.

Did you learn anything from this film, if so, what?  I did learn something and I'll just say it has something to do with the recently government shutdown this country experienced, but I'll keep it at that for right now.


Shelly :)

Walking with Pictures

This past Friday my computer was running really slow and I couldn't take it any longer, so I decided to handle some business at my kids' high school. In our area, before a child can attend school you must show proof of residence if you're a new student or returning student entering 6th or 9th grade. The Affidavit of Residence usually irks my nerves every year because before this year we had to fill this information out every school year, and I always felt like why should returning students fill this out every single year. Every single year the same thing happens, I return a notarized affidavit with 2 proofs of residence along with the paper, and every year, one of my kids' paperwork gets lost, and the threat of being withdrawn every year. In fact, my oldest son was withdrawn during his 7th grade year after I turned in paperwork 4 times (can you say, letter to Superintendent).

Well, this year it seems like the school district has finally figured out the kinks in their system and have gotten more organized. I purposely waited until my son got a few months into his 9th grade year until I got his affidavit ready. For me, this gave the school the chance to get organized and have a set system in place. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed a little, but I have good faith that our paperwork won't get lost. I know people are probably saying, Why don't you make copies? Well, we've done the copy thing and the school has lost 3 of my copies before. But anyway this post isn't about an Affidavit of Residence....it's about my Friday!

Like I said earlier in the post, I decided to handle some business at the local high school. Handling business right now for my family means getting a ride from family, friends and neighbors if need be, because both of our vehicles aren't running, but I'm very fortunate to live in a community where public transportation is very convenient for me. There are two bus stops within 3 minutes of my home and the rail station is a 25 minute walk at most and sidewalks are pretty prevalent, so this makes walking so much bearable to me. Atlanta is notorious for not being pedestrian  friendly city,but I've also found that many people don't want to walk, they're in hurry up mode for everything. 

Our food has to be fast, our communication to one another is quick and short, many of our lifestyles are overflowing with work, projects, after school activities and cub/girl scout meetings.

I'm not against anything that I listed. I'm okay with social media, tweets/texting, being successful, and children being in organized activities. The point of my whole post was about slowing down and getting out and enjoying your community.  My walk was so peaceful and refreshing, I got to see how beautiful my neighborhood is and how walkable the area really is.  

The photos that you see are just a few shots of my community coming back from my son and daughter's high school. After I left the high school, I walked to our downtown district to turn in some library books, and guess what I find next to the library? This right here..........

Yep, the Fall Festival that was supposedly canceled for the year,will go on, and it looks bigger than previous years.

I know the pictures don't show much, but it's everything to me, because it's home!

Getting out and just walking through the quaint neighborhoods, seeing the young children playing in the park, watching the bike riders whiz by, and experiencing the wonderful fall weather is worth slowing down and getting out of the race, just enjoying your own pace.

How often do you get out and just walk or ride in your neighborhood? Do you make it a family outing or do you go at it alone?

Shelly

15 Beliefs and Habits of Highly Effective and Happy People | One Radio Network

Please take the time to read this article, I wished I would've written this lovely gem! Happy reading and remember to have a wonderful day.


15 Beliefs and Habits of Highly Effective and Happy People | One Radio Network

Seeds Of Death - Full Movie

What did you think of the film? What part(s) of the film interested you the most? The information that really perked my ears was the information about the allergen in Monsanto corn being turned on and the micro RNA's. I'll be doing a little more research into these two topics over the weekend.  Hope you get a chance to do a little research too, on the things that peaked your interest!

Shelly :)

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

The Power Of Gardening

**Parental Discretion Advised**

This TED talk was so inspiring to me, and Mr. Finley is a true role model for his community and for myself. My Knowledge of gardening isn't quite on the same level as Mr. Finley's, but I like to believe that I'm taking small steps to teaching the next generation about gardening,nutrition,cooking,seed saving,composting, hard work,and sharing through my children. All five of my kids have worked in the garden and I must admit my two daughters, Kennedy (17) and Jordan(11) really love it! My son, Myles (9) is kind of on the fence about gardening, sometimes he loves it and other times it doesn't want to be bothered with it,but he really enjoys building and turning the compost pile. The other two children, Rico Jr, (14) and Brooklyn (13) aren't really into planting and getting the beds ready, but they don't mind picking the fruits and veggies, so I guess I have my own assembly line of workers for the garden. 

Having our own garden for six years now has really caught on in the neighborhood. Three years ago my next door neighbor decided to grow some tomatoes in some pots in her backyard, and then the lady two houses down from her decided to start a small garden. The next thing I know, I'm giving my next door neighbor seeds that I'd saved from the previous season and I find myself  immersed in conversations with neighbors and even neighborhood kids who want to plant things.I would tell them what I know and what has worked for me over the years, and I would even recommend some of my favorite gardening books, blogs and podcast to many of my adult neighbors. With the neighborhood children they were always welcomed to come and help sow seeds, help transplant plants into the garden, pull weeds, or any other gardening tasks that needed to get done.

As I watched this TED Talk I felt compelled to run out and start this large community garden because I wanted to make a difference in my community. However, as I write this blog post I realize that I've already made an incredible difference in my community,even if it's just my street.This doesn't mean that I won't try community gardening on a large scale in the future, but right now I'm proud of the contribution that I've made to my community with gardening. Who knew a tiny backyard garden could inspire neighborhood children and adults to start growing their own food?

Now I hope this video and post inspires you to get out into your community and share whatever knowledge it is you have. I hope it infuses the urge to volunteer in your community, albeit,community garden, food bank, scouts or whatever!

If you want to know more about Mr. Finley and what he's doing in South Central go to www.ronfinley.com .

A Film For Friday

Locally Abundant is a film by two Canadian students named Ryan Oickle and Justin Cantafio,who decide to wwoof their way across Canada. You might be wondering what is WWOOFing?  WWOOFing stands for, World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms,and it's an opportunity for an adventurous person to see the world,and learn about sustainable living practices while volunteering on small organic farms.

 This film was actually an expansion of a school project the guys were working on and they decided to capture their journey on camera. If you want to learn more about WWOOFing or sign up to volunteer then go to wwoof.net or wwoofusa.org .

 I really enjoyed seeing the magnificent scenery that Canada has to offer and this amazing journey the filmmakers took!!!




Would you ever WWOOF? Why or Why not?

Peace and Love,

Shelly :)

Fall Gardening

What will you be planting in your garden this fall? Do you usually have a bigger or smaller garden in the fall or do you hang up your gardening gloves and boots for the fall? Personally, I've always loved working in the garden during the spring and harvesting in the summer,but in the past 5 years fall gardening has become a consisted past time of mine. One thing I LOVE about fall gardening (besides being able to work in cooler temps)is being able to grow so many delicious leafy greens like kale, spinach, turnips,mustard greens,and other leafy greens. My second favorite thing to do is planting garlic. I never thought in a million years that I would enjoy planting garlic so much, but it has to be one of the easiest crops to grow(I guess that's why I love it so much),it's an awesome flavorful herb and medicinally a powerhouse. I've always bought garlic,but after growing my own for the last five years, I rarely buy it from the grocery store. It just doesn't have the same flavor to me. Last put not least, I would have to say building my compost pile back up is something that I really enjoy too. Lord knows my pile almost completely disappears over the summer. It's not that I'm not composting, it has more to do with the fall leaves giving the pile a much more bulky look and starting the process over again. What's your favorite things to grow and do in your fall garden? Well, that concludes my little rant about fall gardening. I really didn't know what to post and I just decided to just put something down. I hope you didn't find this post boring,and I hope I planted a little seed in your head,if you're not fall gardening to start one soon. Shelly :)

I REALLY WANT THIS