Paleo Caesar Dressing

Over the years and as we explored better nutritional health, the one thing we have all struggled with is a Caesar salad dressing that we all like. I’ve tried countless so-called Organic and natural dressings, I’ve made many of my own and still none appealed to my children, until now. We eat a salad with every dinner meal that we have at home, which is almost always, and since December, have had a Caesar salad, no croutons, about 4 times a week. What follows is the dressing that I make that appeals to all of us. I make it in the bowl before tearing the lettuce atop it and toss it with bacon bits just before it goes to the table. It’s so simple.

1 tsp. of Organic Dijon Mustard

1tsp. of Organic Worcestershire Sauce

½ Lemon squeezed

2 pinches of Himalayan Sea Salt or anchovies if you prefer

2 heaping tbsp. of Organic or homemade mayonnaise (Many Paleos use an

avocado mayo. I’ve been using a 5 ingredient 3^rd party organic one.)

1 farm fresh free-range egg yolk (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, pressed (use as much as you desire)

Voila! And Enjoy…

~ Ellyn

I think that his eyes were blue...

Many years ago and while working with children, I was required to have a complete RCMP security clearance. Knowing that I have a spotlessly clean record and with my two children in tow, I headed to the local detachment to have this done. When the receptionist inquired, quite loudly, if I had been known by any other name, I froze. My two little kidlets were standing beside me and so I paused and looked her in the eyes with my very wide eyes and nodded. She was immediately compassionate and pushed a blank piece of paper and pen towards me and I wrote, I was married before but I haven’t told my little kids yet. She just pointed to the paper and told me to write it down. I was grateful for her kind-hearted way with me, and when the kids went to bed that night, Brent and I decided that it was time to tell them. 

No big deal. 

The funny thing about kids is, some things are a big deal. They wanted details. The funny thing about me was, I couldn’t remember much. 

Among other details, I actually had to calculate how long Ted and I had been together, and I still cannot remember the date of when I was married.

I was in University when I fell in love with Ted and I know that I still love him today. He was fun and brilliant and I loved his family. We were only supposed to be together for the time that we were together. The timing of our individual lives just didn’t work. I used to say that I was devastated when he left me, but in actuality no one is really devastated, and I was just deeply saddened.

I learned so much about life, relationships, and myself while Ted and I were together, but more importantly, I learned more about these things when we separated. I’m grateful for the time that I had with him and that he let me go so that I could live this life to the fullest of my being.

Thank you Ted, wherever you are…

~ Ellyn

Social Media Acceptance...

There must be as many reasons to use Social Media as there are people using Social Media and just because I use it for sharing information, collaborating and connecting with like beings, doesn’t mean that my way is right. 

It merely just is. 

When I first joined Facebook and Twitter, I lurked and knew that I was learning from that lurking. It didn’t take me very long to see that information, love, laughter, peace and harmony could come through these places as well as through the course of blogging, Google+, Pinterest etc. If I don’t like what a contact posts, I don’t have to follow or read them. It’s my choice but not my place to judge how they use it. So pin, converse and blog on, post what you will with whatever intent you have for posting and I’ll see you in the web… or not.

~ Ellyn

On Health...

Healing is a matter of time, but it is 

sometimes also a matter of opportunity. 

~ Hippocrates

I learned to meditate when I was 18 years old and it saved my soul during my University years. For some reason I fell out of the practise during my 30’s but as my life unravelled in my early forties, I once again began to meditate. At age 51, I meditate at least four times a day and it has become such a natural way for me to live. Some of the meditations I do are simple and brief like the one I do in the shower every morning, while others are guided and specific. I meditate before I make an important decision and I meditate after I exercise, during my cool down. 

The month of January is always a time for me to reflect on my present health and set goals for the new year. Besides becoming Paleo creatures a few months ago and pulling out our juicer from storage, this year the big change I made surrounded meditation. After my daily run and strength training, I have been engaged in a specific health meditation with Marianne Williamson from her Meditations for a Miraculous Life. Her voice is soothing and comforting and I never tire of hearing her speak. I love this particular meditation and have noticed my body loves it too.

And so… as I offer out my thanks for the miracle of my body and send prayerful light to different areas of it, I too know that I am “literally boosting my immune system.”

I have had wonderfully rich discussions with many about the power of meditation and invite you to share your thoughts and/or practises with me here.

~ Ellyn

A Finalé of Sorts...

Today my teens start a new semester. They’ve had a week and a few days off of school as they prepared for and wrote final exams and now they have a new slate of classes to look forward to. For Max, it is his final semester in high school. He’s one of those kids that loves school and until he was in grade nine, arrived home and when posed with my question, “How was school?” answered, “It was great!” This made my life with him so easy. He is an optimist and sees the good in each endeavour. When he was in grade nine, it stopped and I thought that it was just his age and that I had lost that enthusiastic little fella. Then in grade ten, it started again and has continued with only one day in grade twelve that I can recall, when he wasn’t thrilled about something in his school day.

Max was the kind of child who always cherished and made the most of his free time. We have 4-5 tree houses in the yard, a zipline, paintball course, basketball court and our trampoline doesn’t owe us a dime. He had to be coaxed in for dinner, from the snow hills at night even in -30 degree weather and he created and created and created… But he also did any job I asked him to do, diligently and readily without complaint, completed any schoolwork that was brought home without being asked and when he went to bed at night, slept soundly until morning. He learned early to take charge of his own life and I have just been here on the sidelines guiding and marvelling.

I’m not saying that Max hasn’t had his challenges, but he has been a bit of a dream child and as he enters the final semester of his high school career, I am feeling bittersweet emotions. I know that there are kidlets along side of him with struggles that I wish they didn’t have to face at this age, or any age for that matter, and I would love to tell them to remember recess and snack time, story time and helping a friend button his coat, and how simple these things are at asking us to just be. Inspired by Stuart McLean’s School Pledge, I hope that during these last few months of Max’s elementary and high school life, he and his classmates will make time to laugh, really laugh, and to play with a joyful and kind heart because HOW they play is how they will live their life, and I want Max and all children “to follow the path of peace and understanding and live softly on this good earth”.

~ Ellyn

Funny Signs Sunday

Prayer...

Numbers are constant, until they are not. Our inability to influence outcome is the great equalizer. Computers generate random numbers in an attempt to glean meaning out of probability and list numerical sequences lacking any pattern, but during a cataclysmic global event, tsunami, earthquake, the attacks of 9/11, these random numbers suddenly stop being random. As our collective consciousness synchronizes, so do the numbers. Science can’t explain the phenomenon but religion does. It’s called prayer. A collective request sent up in unison, a shared hope. Numbers are constant until they are not.

~ Jake Bohm

I am a wordy not a numbers person, but with respect to numbers, I am awed by their orderly harmony and wonder about the so-called randomness to which some numbers noticeably, reoccur in my life, 4, 7, 13, 108…

Prayer, meditation, appeals, requests, desires, hopes, wishes. Call it what you will, but before my feet touch the floor in the morning, I step into that place, grateful that I am awake to a new day. When my children and Brent drive out of the yard each morning, to school and work, I ask that they be surrounded in love and protection, that they are assisted in making decisions for their highest and greatest good and that everyone with whom they meet be blessed. When I hear news of a local individual that has a challenge before them or a group of people on the other side of the world, struggling for peace or in need of food I know that I am part of a powerful collective with a shared desire. Throughout and at the end of the day, I offer out my thanks because I choose faith, over fear, which doesn’t mean that fear doesn’t show itself, but it is subsided through prayer. 

During cataclysmic global events our collective consciousness synchronizes so do the numeric sequences created by random number generators. Science can’t explain the phenomenon but religion does. It’s called prayer. A collective request sent up in unison, a shared hope, fear relieved, a life spared. Numbers are constant until they are not. In times of tragedy, times of collective joy, in these brief moments it is only the shared emotional experience that makes the world seem less random. Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe it’s an answer to our prayers.

~ Ellyn

Michael Angelo