Along with my new healing manuals I am re-doing and recreating for my healing classes, I thought that since most of my students have been distant learning from me though phone or email, I should probably show some visual demonstrations of general healing exercises that can aid in the over all absorption of the Reiki energy for the Master and the student(s).
So here are two demonstration videos of easy exercises and general knowledge of Reiki symbols one could use as a teaching aid or personal practice. Hope this helps! Any questions or suggestions, please leave in the comment section below!
Well after 7 years in paradise, the Universe and it's infinite wisdom decided it's time for my family and I to move on...so Virginia Beach, here we come! But before I go, I wanted to let everyone know what I'm up to on my way out of island living...
OK Hawaii, I am leaving in 7 short weeks. So much to the request of many, I am offering a once in a life time opportunity for a psychic reading (which I DON'T DO, unless on the radio) for $100/for one hour with a Kamaaina and Military discount of 20% off to Hawaii residents and active duty military and dependents ($80) until 31 July 2012. Are you in a fog right now? Feel blocked or stuck? Wondering what your next move should be in a relationship or career? Call me at (401) 835-3755 and spread the word because I will not be doing readings again in my career. This is your opportunity for some guidance and my chance to leave Hawaii with some happy well informed Islanders! :D Lots of Aloha and much Mahalos!
Why is this a big deal? Because it's me completely trusting my own intuition on it's own and coming in to my full potential. I can't wait to see what wonders this will bring, and I will keep you all posted when I'm back in Virginia figuring out the lay of the land there :D
So we have started our plants in egg shells! In the video I posted that we were using our soil compost to grow our seeds but the worm issue (as seen in the video) was a bit too much, so we instead spent about $12 and got some organic potting soil...easy peasy! Enjoy!
For more info on GMO vs Non-GMO go here - In the video I mentioned that once you introduce GMO plants into your plant beds you could consider all your plants GMO, the same goes with your compost. Once you introduce GMO food into your compost and put that in your beds you can consider your beds and all plants in it GMO. If that doesn't bother you, then there's no problem and you will probably save money since GMO seeds and food are much cheaper. However, if you want to keep things as organic as possible, be very careful about what you put in your compost. If it's not labeled Organic or Non-GMO, consider it GMO and trash it. Better safe than sorry.
Wow, what a Mother's Day! So much fun and energy with the family, but this momma is P OO PED today! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ So pardon me if my sentences run on or make no sense at all. That's how it is being a momma of 5, sometimes sleep is only something I get to think about occasionally. Anyways, yesterday my husband and I did a video on how we built our garden beds, but since we are only working with a cell phone as a video camera, the volume level isn't the best so I will try to write down a generalization of what was said.
We built our 5 wooden beds (one big one and four half the size of the big one) on less than $10. We acquired the wood for the beds by asking if the scrap wood pile near the dumpsters at my husband's work (he works on a military base) was free for the taking, it was! So working with what we acquired, we were able to build beds that are about 22 in high and varying widths. Now 22 in high is way more than we need to work with as far as growing, so... we plan on filling the bottom with some rock we have that will help take up volume in the beds as well as help add drainage ability since the beds are sitting on concrete. We also didn't make the beds exactly flush with the ground (there is a little space) so that will aid in drainage as well. We took scrap two by fours and broken up bookshelf we had already and built braces in the middle and connectors for the corners. The braces in the middle are to help aid in the beds not bowing to the weight of the soil pressing against the sides since they are long and high. We will also aid in this by not filling the beds all the way to the top (maybe half way or a little more). Additionally, we plan on adding small drill holes to the side (where the soil will be) to help aid in aeration and drainage. We got our nails from Re-Use Hawaii, they are used but we got a ton for about $6 and they work well enough. (We used both a hand saw we already had and a borrowed circular saw to cut the wood as well and make sure to bend the nails down so they don't stick out after you hammer them in...FYI)
We also made a brick bed on the side of the house under our rain gutters because it's a shady spot and good for leafy veggies that don't like a lot of direct sunlight. We had the bricks already in our yard marking our tiny wrap around tree bed that we just plucked out and stacked. We used plastic folder dividers (stapled together) to protect the house from the wet soil constantly up against it (it would rot otherwise) and are going to make drainage openings in the bricks so there is no standing water.
Aloha Everyone! It's nice to be back after my healing and bonding time with my newest little one, Eve. We are doing well and the whole family is excited to be on a new adventure with organic home victory gardening! It was suggested to my husband and I that we film how we do what we do during this adventure so that others can learn that it is possible and hopefully start one of their own. So off we go....WEEEEEEEE!
Our goal is to make our victory garden in the most sustainable and economic way we can while staying as organic as possible. And we will show you just what we did to do that.
Of course after we filmed this we realized we left some resource info out, so here is a complete list of resources that we have used or have been advised of. Please feel free to include your input and feedback from your experiences in gardening in the comment section below!
Military Folks- We got our wood from a Hickam scrap pile near the Mobile Diving Unit. All we had to do was ask if we could have it and load it up ourselves, FREE.
Freecycle Honolulu We were very blessed to receive organic compost with worms in it for the extra yumminess of our soil. It's also just a great resource in general for just about ANYTHING. We've gotten food, clothes, beds, tvs, baby stuff galore...etc. I am sure you could use this site for your gardening needs, just ask, post a "Wanted" and see what happens. You'd be surprised what you can get on there!
Honolulu Zoo I was told that they do give away free organic compost but I never tried it nor do I have any contact info, so if anyone knows anything more about this, please post it in the comment section below.
Pearl City Home Depot- If you go to the back parking lot of home depot in Pearl City, you will find a garden section near it that gives away free mulch. It's the Oahu Urban Garden Center, ran by the University of Hawaii. If you have more info on this site, let me know in the comment section below.
Re-Use Hawaii Is an AMAZING place! I want to stay there for a whole weekend, like a hotel! Seriously, it is like a Home Depot or Lowes and has just about everything you could possibly need to build or maintain your garden and even things for your home. Cheap, cheap, cheap! We got our nails and hanging fixtures there and will be going back for more wood lattices to help our plants grow upwards.
They also have FREE MUCLCH at their Kapolei site and will grind your wood for free (so I hear). If you can find a cheaper resource with this kind of quality on the Island, let me know in the comment section below!
John from Growing Your Greens.com This guy is our inspiration! Well one of them at least, he has a how-to video on just about everything you can imagine for home planter bed gardens and how to make the most of small spaces. I highly recommend checking him out.
Back to Eden Video- This was our founding inspiration for doing what we are doing. I definitely recommend watching this amazing man and what he has accomplished with his home garden. This is also a helpful video of how to grow your garden on your lawn (grass lawn), for those that aren't doing planter beds. You can find a sample of the video here.
I conceived Eve in the beginning of May in 2011. The beginning of the pregnancy was difficult as I was very sick...very VERY sick. The sickness didn't subside until well into the third trimester which was nothing like my other pregnancies, but this was my first, last, and only girl...so I could deal if I had to.
By about 34 weeks pregnant I started contracting regularly one night and that scared the crap out of hubby and I so we started to pay more attention to what my body was doing. Luckily, it subsided after a few hours and we both were able to breathe a sigh of relief. But we thought that maybe this was a sign from baby that she was planning to come sooner than later and we should probably get the house together since we were planning another homebirth and there was A LOT of cleaning and arranging to do (we were literally cleaning walls and grout with tooth brushes...SERIOUS nesting). Our weekends from then on became devoted to cleaning and setting up for the birth.
By 36 weeks, our midwife did a home visit and noticed I was totally soft, cervix forward and baby engaged. I was effaced too, but only 50% and when she checked me I immediately started to dilate. Hubby, I, and the midwife were sure I was going to have this baby VERY soon. In fact that very night, I contracted for 3 hours and then it stopped but we were set up for the birth by then just in case...tub filled and everything. By 37 weeks pregnant, I had cried labor more times than I could count and baby never did show, but I did dilate to a 2-3 and stayed there.
By 37 weeks and change, I was a good 3cm and my cervix was doing funny things like staying forward for contractions and then after a few hours it would crawl back up and the contractions would get worse but my cervix was literally closing up. The midwife was baffled, so were we. I mean common, what the hell is that? She called it a “dynamic cervix” and I knew this was not going to be a good thing for me, but I wasn't allowing it to register just yet. John and I were up all night with this damn cervix, walking up and down the streets during the full moon with the weirdos out in our neighborhood staring at us like we needed to be fitted for straight jackets. People don’t walk around the neighborhood at 3 am in their pajamas, flip flops and breathing loudly anymore? Needless to say, that 8 hour labor produced nothing more than a sleep deprived daddy, midwife, and doula and a VERY irritated mommy as it was very painful and there is nothing I dislike more than pain with no purpose.
By 38 weeks, John had been stripping my membranes about every other day and I had managed to make it to 5 cm but still 50% effaced and contractions left and right but no baby...this was getting ridiculous! We decided since it was John's birthday, we'd put that baby stuff aside for the day and just have a great day and weekend since we didn't think she was coming for a while. We took the family to the birthing stones on the North Shore of Oahu which is a place we go to a few times during each pregnancy we've had in Hawaii and when the babies are born as kind of a thank you to the land and the goddesses for our very precious gifts. We did John's 2nd degree reiki, seichim, Tera Mai, and R3 initiations there that day and that was EXTREMELY powerful! By the time we were walking out of the sacred grounds area, I was contracting regularly again, but I figured it was from all the energy we had just raised and didn't think anything of it. I went to bed that night mildly complaining of pain but it was nothing I couldn't sleep through so I did.
By 4-5 the next morning (Sunday, January 15th), I woke up thinking I needed to use the bathroom. I was VERY uncomfortable but nothing really out of the norm of what I had already been going through. So I hmmmd and hawwwd about what to do and decided a bath would help me go back to sleep. I got in the hot water and it helped for about 30 minutes and then I noticed the pain came back with more of a rhythm and it was a lot worse than it had been (especially for being in the tub). My son Josh came in and asked what I was doing and I noticed that the sun was beginning to come up outside so I told him to go get daddy.
Daddy came in all bleary eyed and yawning and I thought I should have probably let him sleep longer, but hell...I'm in pain, he can be awake. :D He watched me go through a few contractions and decided to start the birth tub water (for the 4th or 5th time now) and finish cleaning up downstairs (since we swore of cleaning for his birthday the day before). I got out of the tub and went downstairs and ate a small breakfast and the contractions got worse, so John checked me and was having a hard time feeling a cervix, we were both thinking maybe I am REALLY dilated and he just can't tell. So he called the midwife and she heard me moaning through contractions and decided to come over. I am not sure what was going on with the other kids at this point, John was doing a very good job at keeping them busy elsewhere :D.
By the time the midwife got there, I was SURE this HAD to be it as I was moaning loudly in the birth tub. I insisted the midwife check me and she did...damn. No change. In fact the cervix had crawled so far back up into the vagina that she could barely reach it. I was hysterical. This just couldn't be...I was in soooooo much pain and highly irritable. I asked my midwife what could we do as I can't live like this anymore, so she reached in as far as she could and literally pulled my cervix forward and stretched it to a 6 (ouch), I was still 50% effaced, but I would be 50% for the duration of the labor and birth. Oh yes, you heard right.
The doula got there shortly after that and my pain scale had gone up so much by that point I was literally crying through contractions and it was doubly awful as I wasn't even sure if this was going to turn into a baby or not. The midwife couldn't break my water because it was too tight around baby's head and she didn't want to accidentally get her head. So I asked her if we could stop the labor (because I was sure I was going to die) and she said that she could but let's give it an hour and see what happens. She wanted me to walk around...nope, wasn't happening...hurt too bad. So we agreed on sitting backwards on the toilet and letting gravity do it's thing. The midwife, doula and I were all crammed into my very tiny half bath in my kitchen (I'm not sure what John was doing), with both of them rubbing my shoulders and pushing on my lower back during contractions. I am not sure how long we were there but we stayed until I couldn't feel my legs anymore (they had gone numb) then I got up and laid on the couch. That hurt really bad, so we switched to a squat with John sitting on the couch and me leaning against him squatting on the floor. The midwife checked me then and was able to stretch me to a 7 (very bad ouch), still 50% effaced. But my cervix was still trying to head back up north. We moved to me on a birthing ball laying on the doula and the midwife pushing on my back...the contractions picked up so much by this point I was moaning and moving around like a crazy person. The midwife didn't bring up trying to stop the labor anymore but she did mention walking again...if I could have laughed, I would have...but nothing was funny at that time. Needless to say, I just got into the tub and was going to try to relax as much as possible. We were about 5 hours into labor at this point and I wasn't having anything but the hot water.
John sat on the edge of the tub and started to push on my back during contractions and the midwife and the doula went outside to give us some time. This would have been ok but the kids started coming downstairs at this point and John was losing focus on his back pushing because he was trying to wrangle the kids upstairs and keep Jullian from drinking the pool water (honestly the video is hilarious, I had no idea what was going on around me, I just knew John was being half-assed with the back pushing) so I got frustrated and the pain multiplied and I screamed for help from the doula and midwife who came back in and I broke down that I couldn't do it anymore, it was too much, I just couldn't. They assured me I could, and I assured them I wanted to go to the hospital and have a C-section. I don't really remember the rest of the conversation but the midwife checked me again and said that she wasn't going to tell me where I was because it wasn't doing me any good...aka the same. But she did suggest a better position in the tub (hands and knees), I agreed but fired John from back pushing and leaned my head on him instead (I also started to bite him at this point and yes I left marks...poor guy). The midwife from this point on was behind me and literally pulling my cervix open. I started to bear down (very loudly) with contractions. I just gave up on the idea of waiting for my body and decided if I ripped my cervix in half oh well...anything was better than this horrendous pain. I started pushing at only 7cm dilated, 50% effaced and cervix high up. The midwife had to manually dilate me and hold me open so baby could come out. I can't begin to explain how completely awful that was and had I been at a hospital I would have definitely had a c-section.
At some point I put my hand down there and felt what I thought was the head (first time I ever felt that) and that motivated me to push harder. After one really ferocious push, I felt my water bag break and I announced “my water broke!” between screaming. The midwife said the head had about an inch to go so she stopped holding me open and started prepping for baby, telling me the baby “was definitely coming now”. I can remember hubby whispering in my ear “you got this”. The next contraction the head was out, and the one after that...baby. But no one was watching so she was kind of swimming there for a while until the midwife saw baby feet in the water and was shocked (“IT'S A BABY!”) and scooped her up right away. It was only a couple of seconds, but I think the shock of the whole situation was a lot for baby because right after she was born, she wasn't breathing...and she didn't breathe for a whole 5 minutes. Which is an insanely long time waiting for a newborn to breathe. John, I, the midwife, and doula were vigorously trying to get this baby to breathe. After a certain point I was sure this was going to end badly as I heard the midwife say she was calling 911. I started frantically screaming out to all my spirit family begging them to help us (as I knew they were there)...within seconds I was in tremendous pain again and I started to say “I'm in pain, A LOT OF PAIN!”. But everyone was focused on baby and I had the baby and couldn't hold her anymore because of the pain, so I gave her to John and started to moan very loudly. No one could figure out why and let me be because baby wasn't breathing yet. The next thing I hear in my head is “push”, so I did and the placenta came flying out. That's when my baby girl took her first breath. I knew instantly when the placenta came out that she was ok...I just KNEW. She had oxygen on her at this point and John was still holding her in the water next to me. I felt A LOT better and she looked like she did to. Then I got to hold her again without the oxygen and we got to finally bond. I also got to cut her cord (a first for my own kids).
The midwife told us afterward that she tried calling 911 twice and her phone or the connection went funny and kept hanging up on her. I know that was our “helpers” insisting that we didn't need outside help as that would have only separated baby girl and I for who only knows how long while doctors put her in observation in the NICU with formula and no mommy. That was the last thing we needed. And so it was prevented. She is my first exclusively breastfed baby and we are enjoying it immensely. It was so needed after a birth like the one we experienced together. I shutter to think how bad my postpartum could have been had things ended up in a hospital setting. But no postpartum for this mommy, everything has been really great. We are at 13 days since the birth and I am already in my pre-pregnancy clothes, baby girl is a nurse-a-holic, and daddy and brothers are so helpful to me and baby that we have had an easy ride since the birth. Plenty of sleep (for having a newborn in the house), to eat, and to drink, and the house (thanks to hubby) stays in functional cleanliness. I couldn't ask for a better postpartum time!
Eve Aria Smedstad was born at 11:09 am January 15th 2012 (Sunday) after 6 hours of very weird and excruciating labor. She weighed 7 pounds even and was 21 inches long, with a 14 inch head (ouch). With the whole labor and delivery being what it was and how big her head was vs how fast she came out (they called her the “torpedo baby”), I had no tearing or swelling...nothing. Amazing!
Over 2 months ago, I planted organic lettuce, spinach, chives, and cilantro and I did the whole thing organically (which was an expensive challenge). We had quite a fight with powdery mildew to which I learned about Neem Oil, but too late for the spinach, they didn't make it. I also learned about a water milk solution and water baking soda solution, but neither did anything like the Neem Oil. The lettuce was not at the fullest it could be and some was lost to the mildew infestation, but some was saved too (though growth somewhat stunted.) Chives came out ok, but I learned the hard way, not to plant too much in one spot and that did stunt their growth a little...oops. The cilantro however, flourished! So tonight is harvest salad with a little lettuce, chives, and a lot of cilantro. Now I know what to do (and what not to do) for next time! :D
This was a rewarding experiment for my family and I and has really taught us the value we place on food and it's proper handling and care. It is a labor of love indeed, tending and taking care of plants. They need the same things we do in order to survive and thrive. I found myself out there a few times a week just giving them energy (that is what saved some of my lettuce) as well as fussing over every little leaf and pulling out seeds and tree debris from their pots.
I hope I learned enough to go for my second batch of veggies here soon! Time will tell. But in the meantime, there will be amazing raw and healthy salad for this family tonight!
I hope to extend my gardening and planting to full self-sustainability, that is the goal! No more grocery stores, spending outrageous amounts of money on organic food, or the cost of gas to our local organic food store (about an hour away from our house). I am pretty sure I have a ways to go and quite a bit more to learn until that goal is reached, but I am ok with it. Time is time and it's always worth a positive investment in.
I also found a great video of this guy who has been living off of wild food for 12 years and is as healthy as can be! Makes me think of other options beside my own gardening in case I continue to have iffy harvests. Here is the video...
