Know Any Literary Animal Lovers?
Hi there PureJeevan readers! We wanted to let you know that Jim's new novel CHROO is available on Amazon. It's a crazy adventure involving a billionaire heiress, her Chihuahua BFF ("Chroo") and a host of human and animal characters. Find out more on Amazon! Here are some links:
Mistakes are bad, right Well, not always. Here's an example of a great one, and it's something that demonstrates a conviction I have about raw foods! You see, in all of this talk of moving to Portland, I made a huge gaffe recently in my thinking about finances.
You see, I was pondering the terms of a home loan one afternoon -- percentage rates, down payments, monthly payments, tax escrows, etc. It was all really dry, boring material. Suddenly, I thought to myself, "Wow, here we are about to buy another house, after owning this one for so many years. In less than 10 years, we would have owned this one outright, but now we'll be starting over again with a 30-year mortgage."
For this week's Makin' It Monday, I'll share a super quick and yummy recipe I created. Since we have all of those delicious oranges, guess what the recipe is going to include? ;-)
ORANGE PUDDING
To help keep all of you inspired, we ve asked some
remarkable individuals to share their raw food stories with you. Enjoy!
You know about raw foods, I know about raw foods, and we both know people who know about raw foods. It seems like more and more people know about this lifestyle than ever before -- and that's absolutely true! But, it's still true that, on the whole, the average person on the street knows almost nothing about it. As such, if you're a raw foodist, you often find yourself in situations in which you're explaining it to people. (Obviously, as raw foods bloggers, we're more than happy to do so, of course!)
Amid all of these explanations to new friends and new readers, it's not too uncommon to hear people scoff at the idea in one way or another. Common objections include things like:
We at Pure Jeevan are making MAJOR life changes!
Did you think our lives solely revolved around raw foods---that once we went raw, there were no more major life changes to be experienced? Well, maybe it's true that our lives do, in a way, revolve around raw foods---they give us the health and vitality necessary for living a truly vibrant life! However, we are each (Jim, KDcat, and Wendi) unique and interested in many different things. Somehow, we pull all of our differences together and stand united as a loving family. It will be together, as a family, that we embark on an amazing MAJOR life change.
A few of you may already know what I'm talking about, but the rest of you are about to find out all about it, too! You may have noticed that we've temporarily discontinued many of our raw food services---for those of you who have written to ask for help, I am still responding to your emails. If I can't help you at this time, I'll do everything I can to assist you in finding the help you need. This was a necessary part of preparing for the change that is about to take place. In addition to cutting back on our services, we may not always be consistent here with our blog postings, and our email responses may not be very timely (as some of you may have already noticed). We will answer your emails, however, so please don't stop sending them to us. Hearing from all of you makes my heart fill with love and happiness!
Today, and every day, I am thankful for lovely Mother Earth. Where would we be without Mother? May we always care for her in a gentle and loving way.
====================
Is low fat more expensive? When I was eating a lot of nuts and seeds, in the back of my mind I kept saying, "Someday you'll eat less of these nuts and seeds, and you'll save a lot of money." I really believed that to be true because organic, raw nuts and seeds are outrageously expensive.
For one hundred days, I'm transitioning to a lower fat raw diet. I'm down to fats only in the evening, and for the next ten days those fats will only come from avocados, young coconuts, and possibly some hemp seeds. If I'm not hungry for the fat, however, I'll go without it. That hasn't been the case yet, though. By dinner time I'm ravenous and wanting to eat heavy, dense foods to calm the hungry beast in my belly. Even though I've been including some fats in the evening, I'm eating significantly less than I normally would if not doing this challenge. So, I've been eating more fruits and vegetables to get the calories I normally received from nuts and seeds.
Here's an update from Wendi. I think this can be considered, with 99% confidence, the big announcement:
Of course, there's that 1% chance that something unexpected will happen. But, Portland feels right. It always has for us; we nearly moved there in the late 1990s. We had books on Portland back then, and I was buying their newspaper each week to hunt for jobs. It just never panned out, though. I suppose we were meant to live in Pittsburgh for a spell. It would be easy for me to list many reasons why Pittsburgh served a purpose for us. But, yeah, I think we're Portlanders at heart. So much about that city resonates with us. It'll be a homecoming, for sure! I want to reiterate a few things that I'd written in comments recently, slightly clarified in places.
Read more: Pure Jeevan Perceives Peace, Purpose, and Prosperity in Populous Portland!
After leaving Salem, Oregon, Wendi and KDcat drove less than an hour to the city of Corvallis where they met up with their hosts the Zander's -- Joni, Steve, Bekka, and Stephanie -- a fellow unschooling family Wendi had come to know in an online forum. It was great to be in their company and we loved them right away,? Wendi wrote. ?Their home is absolutely beautiful on a really cute lot with plenty of plants and trees around ? including the most delightful flowers that smelled divine (I think they were called Daphne).
Corvallis is the city we ve mentioned multiple times -- the city that feels like it s the right fit for us. Well, it lived up to our dreams in just about every way. It s a progressive, hip town with a lot going on. The people are friendly, the weather is beautiful, the land is gorgeous, and there are lots of unschoolers. Access to fresh, ogranic, raw foods doesn't seem to be an issue anywhere in Oregon, according to reports from the road so far. While they've been away, we've talked quite a bit each night about what they're finding -- and fresh organic produce seems pretty much everywhere out west. "The west," wrote Jim Morrison, "is the best." (Surely he was a raw foodie.)
Jon Gold, owner of the Sunny Side Up Cafe (a vegan and vegetarian restaurant there) and an unschool father, put together a little gathering of unschoolers for KDcat and Wendi. They were able to meet some local unschoolers and ask questions. There was also a gathering one day at the cafe where KDcat was able to do some art at a table with some other unschool teens. It's definitely a creative, easy-going town with some fantastic people in it!
Well, Wendi and our daughter, KDcat, are headed out this evening on a train for their cross-country tour. They didn't seem so sad to leave ... maybe it's because of the bounty they're taking with them! Check it out in the banner above as well as the snapshots below! (I've included a list at the end of many of the products.)
Natural Zing has been Pure Jeevan's favorite online source for all of our raw food supplies. They have been very supportive of Pure Jeevan for over a year, and they continue to amaze us with their love and generosity. You'll be hearing more about Natural Zing during the tour, because they're Wendi and KDcat's official snack sponsors for the trip!
Wow, we've been getting a lot of publicity lately.(We'll be writing more about that later.) We're thrilled to be recognized for the work we're doing for the raw food community!
For those newly acquainted with Pure Jeevan, you've already found our blog (this site), and likely our main site. But, we also wanted to highlight another offering we've put a lot of work into -- the All Raw Directory. Here's a screenshot: