Mama’s Home Remedies

Several days ago I discovered “The Power of Slow”, a new blog, created by Christine Louise Hohlbaum, an author, speaker, PR consultant and parenting humorist, known for her Mama’s Musings blog with delightful anecdotes and reviews, and  the book, Diary of a Mother. Christine’s new blog accompanies her forthcoming in the fall 2009 book, The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World.” I am sure, it’ll be an interesting book and I will definitely read it because the concept and power of time  fascinates me. Pericles said once that “Time is the wisest counselor.” Of course, If it is used wisely.

Christine came up with the concept, “Slow down to speed up.” She says, “It’s not as paradoxal as it seems. Slow isn’t opposite of fast.” She’s right. If you try to do things quickly without pre-planning and thinking, you pave a sure way to failure or unessential results. How can you be efficient in your actions, if you are constantly in a hurry? Who can enjoy any activities in a such a hectic life,  if things are pushed to be done fast just to get over and say, “I am done with my obligations!” So, slow down, listen and feel the power of time given to you. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Time is all around us, constantly moving. Don’t rush it. Don’ t try to catch up with it. You can’t own time, but you can use it mindfully. From the moment you started to read my post you are now in the past and the moment of time you will finish to read it, you’ll be in the future.

In her profile, Christine calls herself a recovering speedaholic who recognized the power of slow while one day was eating ice cream with her three-year-old daughter. “Life is in details,” she says. “Don’t let it whiz by.” So, now she’s helping people, herself and her family to understand “What is Slow?”, to slow down and enjoy their lives.

If you you are not rushing, you have time to enjoy a joyful lifestyle with timeless values. You have time to laugh because you are not under pressure to fast-faster-fastest performance. Japanese, for example, believe that “time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.” Hey, it is just a beginning of a promising to be better 2009 Year! Try to live today in the joyous and patient expectation of good, and hope, it will come. Charles F. Kettering said once, “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.”

Christine Hohlbaum was kind enough to mention at http://powerofslow.wordpress.com  my blog, the book and one of my latest posts, “Tips and Recipes for Your Relief Time.” An excerpt:

About a year ago, I was approached by the most interesting person, Svetlana Konnikova, who had written a book, Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Life and the Pleasures of Natural Living. It is based on home-made remedies she had learned from her mother and grandmother while growing up in Russia. Today I found her blog, which talks about relief time, a perfect topic for the Power of Slow.”

Around the holidays we tend to overeat or not eat well. Svetlana offers the most mouth-watering ideas to fill your tummy while you fill your soul. She’s the one who told me about the power of pomegranate juice in the winter time. I’ve been faithfully buying what I call my “wellness drink.” Luckily, my daughter likes it, too!

Relief time means eating mindfully. It is tempting to eat in front of your computer or on the run. Take one day this week to eat a meal in peace, and at pace, with your resting heartbeat!

 Many thanks to Christine, not just for the kind words about MHR and my mouth-watering ideas for your body and soul, but also for creating such a lively and informative blog.

“Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world.”–Plutarch

“Time, time, what is time? The Swiss manufacture it, French hoard it, the Italians want it, the Americans say it is money, and the Hindus say it doesn’t exist.”–Truman Capote

Copyright 2009.

Looking for the last minute New Year’s gifts? It is not too late. Vividly descriptive, helpful and nurturing, this ultimate natural home remedies book will help you change the way you live and think about life’s dilemma–how to improve and maintain your health and happiness for many years to come.

What can be better than giving or getting the gift of love, healing wisdom and knowledge? Reinvent and empower yourself this new year with valuable information presented in the best-selling, all-encompassing guide to wellness, Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living. This book will make an affordable and invaluable gift for you, your entire family or your friends. Available on Amazon, in stores nationwide, and at http://www.aurorapublishers.com with 30% discount.

Packed with 800 remedies and recipes, motivational mottoes, inspirational advice and useful tips, this book is full of ideas how to make your life better and healthier through herbal medicines, food, exercise, smart techniques and must-have natural, green products for your house.

Mother knows best, especially when several mothers, medical professionals get together and share not only their friendship, but their healing success stories, using herbal remedies and love as recipe. Mama’s Home Remedies passes this generous knowledge to you, the reader, in an entertaining way and easy-to-use format with anecdotes, myths, and legends about herbs and its usage.

It also takes you on a fascinating tour into Nature’s green clininc and tells you how to maintain self-care focus on popular herbs for healing and cooking, and multicultural cures that have been used throughout the ages to treat common health problems successfuly. Information is written in an easy-to read and implement style that even beginners can use to treat common illnesses naturally and keep themselves in the best shape. (more…)

By Svetlana Konnikova                                                                           

The holiday season is in full swing. Don’t forget how many appetizers, pieces of stuffed turkey and  pumpkin pie slices you gobbled while celebrating one of the America’s most favorite holidays, Thanksgiving Day. Those who gained some pounds and still feel heavier, don’t hate yourself and don’t feel guilty about it.  Some desperate people irrationaly rushed fasting right after the Thanksgiving Day. What’s the point? Now bigger holidays are approaching. What’s good about putting yourself on severe diet, be hungry and angry, if you should anticipate with pleasure the most beautiful and joyous holidays of the year? And even if this year was not easy for many people and brought lots of disappointments and surprises, it had some good sides, too.

Soon you’ll sit again at the biggest holiday table full with delicious foods and drinks and you’ll celebrate Chanukkah, Christmas, the last days of 2008, New 2009 Year and New Hope.  As ancient people said in Latin, Dum Spiro, Spero! Until I breathe, I hope! Hope for the better and enjoy your holidays, but prepare yourself and your body for this merry, merry time.

Create your Relief Time now. It is not a diet. Diets are for fools who voluntarilly torture themselves by starving their bodies and souls to the point of no return. Relief Time is  a normal, good life time. Only two  weeks remain before Christmas and Chanukkah. Start your rejuvenation now by eating small portions of light and healthy foods 4-5 times a day.  Don’t excuse yourself that you don’t have time. Make it! By eating small portions 4-5 times a day you’ll not feel hungry. On contrary, you’ll feel energetic because slowly, step by step you’ll load your body with healthy, natural stuff and unload it from excess of fatty foods and unhealthy drinks with high percent of sugar you consumed during a last feast and a whole year before.  

Joyous winter holidays are already knocking at your door. Chanukkah songs and Christmas bells sound everywhere.  In spite of gloom and doom financial news, people are preparing for this holiday season, as usual. Big festivities are planned, according to the media news. Very soon you will sit down again at the holiday dinner table and will enjoy last, 2008 feast which comes as the holiday norm rather than the exception. Relax, you deserve it. Celebrate your happy time after a difficult year of hard work, emotional stresses and financial worries! Do you want to to have fun and eat well during  holidays? Start taking good care of your body now.

Tips to Make Relief Time Working for You:

• Start to unload your body from toxins, fatty deposits and bring it to normal.
• Establish your schedule of eating 4-5 times a day.
• Eat green, natural, organic foods  
• ExercIse 15-30-45 minutes a day.
• Move your body and walk every day
• Dance with your loved ones or friends, if you cannot find the stars to dance with.
• Meditate and relax
• Laugh a lot
• Be sincere and tell the truth
• Don’t lend money to friends, if you don’t want to loose them
• Follow up your plans and dreams
• Read interesting books
• Don’t watch news that will “de-relax” you
• Make time for yourself even if you think you don’t have it

Here is a Simple Menu for Your Relief Time:

Early Morning Start Your Day: 

Drink one glass of warm spring water with a piece of lemon and one teaspoon organic honey. Then take a morning walk (15-20-30 minutes).

• Morning Breakfast Time: One Day: Make fresh fruit or vegetable juice. If you don’t make it, eat hot oatmeal, add one banana or blueberries. Don’t add milk, just add hot spring water to it. Second Day: farmer’s cheese mixed with one-two teaspoons raw black currants rubbed with organic honey or organic brown sugar. One cup hot green or Earl Grey tea with jasmine; hibiscus or rose hips

If you read in your childhood Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you remember what was said, “Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish, Game, or any other dish? Who would not give all else for two pennyworth only of beautiful soup?”

In my family we didn’t eat a lot of meat or chicken. We loved to eat green, natural, easy-to-digest soupes or salads. My grandma, our family chef, created hundreds of healthy meals using fruits and vegetables growing in our garden. Our favorite meal for lunch or dinner was a hot, vegetable soup with fresh baked rye bread. Here are some of her recipes that you can make and eat a bowl of hot, delicious soup at lunch or dinner:

• Butternut and Walnuts Soup

Prepare 2 tablespoons cold pressed olive oil, 2 tablespoons Irish or Danish unsalted butter, 1 chopped onion, 1 medium size pelled, seeded and chopped butternut squash, 1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika, 2 cups spring water, 1/2 cup organic whole milk, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon chopped dill, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat the olive oil and melt butter in a large saucepan. Use medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 4-5 minutes or until transparent. Then add the chopped butternut, Hungarian paprika. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in 2 cups spring water and the milk. Stir and bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the walnuts and mix it carefully. Taste and add sea salt and/or black pepper. Your soup is ready to eat. Serves 4.

Be creative. You can also transfer the soup to a food processor or a blender and blend the mixture until thick and smooth. If you prefer to eat this soup hot, reheat it in the same saucepan, add fresh dill and stir. Taste it and add sea salt and black pepper, then serve with organic corn chips, a piece of fresh rye bread or a piece of goat cheese. Don’t add black pepper if you are going to serve the soup to your children.

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Here are two new products that can be added to the List of Seventeen hottest products in 2008 mentioned in my previous post.

For avid readers: Two Amazon.com bestsellers written by Barack Obama: Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise, paperback, 288 pages, Three Rivers Press (September 9, 2008), $11.16 and Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, paperback, 480 pages, Three Rivers Press (August 10, 2004), $8.97

For book collectors: AbeBooks.com, an online marketplace for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books based in Victoria BC Canada, has been selling millions of books for sale from thousands of booksellers around the world since 1996. 2008 became a special year for AbeBooks.com  The company success is revealed in its recent Press Release about how Obama Fans Paying Up to $5,500 For Books Signed by President-Elect.

Demand for a piece of Barack Obama history is generating huge interest in signed copies of his books. Since his triumph at the polls, AbeBooks.com has sold 20 books authographed by the President-elect priced at $500 or higher with one buyer shelling out $5,500 for a signed copy of Dreams From My Father.

Before the election, the most expensive Obama book sold by AbeBooks.com - the world’s largest marketplace for used, rare and out-of-print books - was a signed copy of Dreams From My Father for $1,798. Twelve of the 20 signed copies sold since Obama’s victory have been priced more than $1,000.

The cheapest book signed by the next occupant of the White House currently available at AbeBooks.com is a signed softcover of Change We Can believe In for $975.

The most desirable Obama books are the signed 1005 first editions of Dreams From My Father. Originally published when he was still working as a lawyer and lecturer, the book went out-of-print and had a small print run. Asking prices for these scarce editions stretch well past $10,000.

Even though Obama has yet to move into the White House, prices for his signed books are already comparable to previous presidents. AbeBooks.com has sold a signed copy of Bill Clinton’s My Life for $3,450 and a signed copy of Ronald Reagan’s An American Life for $6,325.

Any questions? Contact Richard Davies, PR manager, AbeBooks.com Ph:250-412-3238 Email:rdavies@abebooks.com

Wow! Was there recession recently declared? Is automobile industry in big trouble? Pardon moi, but so much money to shell out for one book even with a famous signature? Obviously some inquiring minds and book collectors just cannot resist their temptation to own a piece of history even in time of economic weakness. What do you think? Is it wrong or right? I would love to get your opinions. Thanks.

Source: AbeBooks.com Passion for Books. http://www.abebooks.com/books/Company/Information/PressRoom/signed-obama-prices

www.amazon.com

Copyright 2008.

AOL News published a List of 15 Hottest Products in 2008 or Where the Buzz Was this year. From the Acai Berry, a little wonder from Brazil’s tropical rainforests to Twitter which allows users to write and send via SMS or online, short messages to a network of followers. From video cameras that fit in your pocket and  BlackBerry Smart Phones (the Bold and the Storm) with the sexy features of touchscreen technology that the American executives obsessed with and demanded. 

From a new Lancome’s Oscillation and Estee Lauder’s Turbo Lash vibrating mascara to smart, half-size for two funny European cars. From Amazon Kindle, the first electronic reader that gives you an ability to read in any light conditions to Music Video Games that can crank the volume up to 11. From the Wii Fit, a new healthy counterpart of an old Nintendo to Speedo LZR Razor Swimsuit and the world’s most luxurious 3-ply plush toilet paper. 

From iPod Touch, the Apple iPhone to incredible Christian Louboutin’s 5 inch Lola pumps with 5-inch skyscraper heels. From Flip Mino, a smaller than iPhone, 3 oz device that can capture an hour worth of quality video on the 2GB of internal memory to Element and Aloft Hotels where the rooms are like “a loft.”  The new “Go Green,” Bud Light Lime, a citrus-flavored concoction that Budweiser introduced this year is also included in this list of winners.

In summary, this list supposed to show you new ways to work better, look better, eat better, enjoy your leisure time, and much more. I added two other hottest products to the List– Nicorette and Dentyne Ice. These gums became very popular, hot products in 2008 because the most popular man in our country, Barack Obama found them helpful in kicking his smoking habit.

Media’s obamamania  with his smoking led to a series of television interviews and feature articles in the Men’s Health magazine and other publications. All talk is about how he is trying to kick the smoking habit and his confessions that it hasn’t been easy. Most recently he was asked by ABC’s Barbara Walters if he still sneaks a cigarette now and then. He suggested he does, but said he won’t smoke at his new address. She got his promise.

Tom Brokaw on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” mentioned to the President-Elect that he had ducked to answer the same question during his interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters. Brokaw noted that the White House was a no-smoking zone, and  asked Obama, a straightforward question, “Have you stopped smoking?” (FYI: The White House no-smoking rule was imposed by former First Lady Hillary Clinton, now Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State, so she’ll be very understanding, if her boss will not quit).

Back to the NBC’s interview. Obama smiled broadly and replied, ”I have.” Then he added, “What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon.”

Brokaw replied, …”that means you haven’t stopped.”

“Fair enough,” Obama said. “What I would say is that I have done a terrific job under the circumstances of making myself much healthier. You will not see any violations of these rules in the White House.” Tom Brokaw got his promise, too. Who is next to ask?

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Wallet Pop reports today about many favorites of the Future First Family: restaurants and pizzerias they like to dine and have lunch; the cloth they buy, a private school their children attend in Chicago, and Obama’s Favorite Gum.

On NYTimes.com you can find another fact that “Barack is a smoker and to fight the habit he chews a lot of gum. His favorites are Nicorette and Dentyne Ice.”  Hmm…  Nicorette is a medicated gum–a chewing gum acting as a delivery system to introduce medicine substances into the saliva and thus into the bloodstream faster than pills. Some people believe in that. Does really our President-elect trust this product? Can he avoid it and choose a healthy alternative for a sake of “kicking the habit?” What about his famous, “Yes, We Can!?”

It is understandable that cravings for cigarettes are actually your brain craving for nicotine. “That’s the forgotten side of “kicking the habit.” Nicotine addiction drives your smoking habit.”, as explaned at www.nicorette.com.  Unless you can beat your cravings coming from nicotine addiction, you can’t beat the habit, as a matter of fact.

Over 35 million smokers try to quit each year using Nicorette  and other different methods.  Less than 5% reach their one-year anniversary. I spoke with some of them who used to chew Nicorette during one year, but they are still dependent on tobacco.  The facts of nicotine addiction are no mystery today.  Clever Philip Morris guys know it better than anyone else. However, they continue to produce zillions of cigarettes every year. By the way, many of them don’t smoke and never did.  They inderstand negative health consequences and how much time can be lost during smoking breaks.  I doubt that Nicorette gum is a solution to the problem, but to quit smoking is definitely beneficial.

Dentyne Ice made by Cadbury-Schweppes is a sugarless gum available in several flavors–”intense mints,” such as Peppermint, Arctic Chill, Spearmint, Shiver Mint, Vanilla Frost, Wild Winter. Dentyne introduced Dentyne Ice recently and became a favorite mouth-refreshener of our President-elect. I am not sure that this product is so great after I read a long list of its infredients: Sorbitol, Maltitol, Gum Base, Mannitol, Artificial and Natural Flavoring, Acacia less than 2%, Potassium less than 2%, Aspartame less than 2%, BHT less than 2%–to maintain freshness, Candelila Wax less than 2%, Soy Lecithin less than 2%, Sucralose less than 2%; Titanium Dioxide less than 2%–Color

Nutritional Facts briefly: serving size 2 pieces; calories from fat: 5; total carbohydrates: 2g; sugar alcohol: 2g   (more…)

by Svetlana Konnikova

Obama’s Success from a Different Angle

“The Druids, the wise priests of ancient Gaul, Celtic Britain, and Ireland, believed that trees transfer vital energy to us. The degree to which trees give us energy is determined by our birth date. The Druids believed that each of us has our own biological field and that everyone corresponds to a tree that is similar to the chracteristics of his or her own bioenergetics. This particular tree is your friend, talisman, and a guardian of your health.”

Barack Obama must be thankful not only to his lucky stars, but to one very special friend too, when he swept to victory as the nation’s first black president Thuesday night in an electoral college landslide and overcame racial barriers reigning in America for more than 200 years. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, raised in Hawaii and educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by rising in just four years to president-elect. Obama’s trademark, call for change, raised new hopes that his victory would bring in a more inclusive, internationally cooperative U.S. approach across the globe; and a new spirit of patriotism, inspiration, responsibility and better life for the American people.

Obama may not know about his lucky talisman that was one of many factors supporting  his meteoric rise from mere state senator to a U.S. president and America’s first black commander in chief who firmly promised to bring positive changes and create a less confrontational America.

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, during the days of the cypress. Usually the “cypress people” are able to overcome even terrible misfortunes with dignity, calmly and to learn from them. They know how to find the way to freedom from troubles in their motherland and the world. According to the Druids, if you were born during the days of the cypress, between January 25 and February 3, and between July 26 and August 4, you correspond to the cypress tree.

The cypress is Obama’s  specific tree, predestined by Mother Nature to be his lucky talisman, helper and a guardian of his health. Was he attracted to the cypress tree once in his life? Does he know about his talisman, helper and a special, green friend? Had the cypress tree ”called” him to it, at least once?  Obviously, yes. You could see during a presidential election campaign his cool attitude. You could feel his self-confidence and strong spirit to win. When he stood on the podium making a speech about “Changes to come”, he raised great hopes, marked important turning points, and trasferred his positive emotions, beliefs and intense energy to the crowd of voters.

“I’m asking you to believe. Now just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I am asking you to believe in yours, ” Obama said.  And you trusted him with your votes. “I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to–it belongs to you,”  He said on Election Night 2008. Now you have a new hope for your well-being, America’s and the rest of the world.

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Today it is a real dilemma for some people. I am surprised how many parents give over-the counter drugs like Tylenol and other similar cold and flu aids to their children.  In a hope of fast relief Moms and Dads consume themselves and give their children antibiotics or other drugs prescribed by a family physician. They even ask their doctor for these prescriptions in a hope to shorten the lenght of time their child is sick. What a mistake! Even if your doctor is so kind to write a prescription for antibiotics for your child, you’ll waste your money and your child’s health. Remember: Antibiotics don’t affect the flu virus. Bacteria in the body, get accustomed to antibiotics and these drugs will not then be useful in the treatment of more complicated diseases.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued this month a Statement following CHPA’a Announcement on Nonprescription Over-the-Counter Cough and Cold Medicine in Children. CHPA is the Consumer Healthcare Products Association that represents many of the makers of nonprescription over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold medicines in children, recently announced that its members are voluntarily modifying the product labels for consumers of OTC cough and cold medicines to state “do not use” in children under 4 years of age. Additionally, the manufacturers are introducing new child-resistant packaging and new measuring devices for use with the products.

If CPHA members started this action to help prevent and reduce misuse and to better inform consumers about safe and effective use of these products for children, something is wrong there. It tells you again that chemical drugs harm our children and provoke other health complications.

FDA supports CHPA in the voluntary actions “to prevent and reduce misuse” of these drugs and continues to assess the safety and efficacy of these products is revising its OTC monograph where list of approved ingredients and amounts for these medicines is displayed. Although the new labeling doesn’t match the current monograph. At least, FDA will not object the new label stating “do not use in children under 4,” which reflects a more restrictive use of the drugs in children.

Do you think the new label will appear overnight? It is not how bureaucratic institutions work. They have to go through a transition period. Then new instructions for use of some OTC cough and cold medicines in children must be written. Some medicines will have the new recommendations “do not use” for children under 4 years of age, while others will give instructions for children under 2 years old. (more…)