Christmas 2009

Nosso natal esse ano foi bem simples, mas bom. Passamos a vespera com nosso amigo Felipeque perdeu o voo para o Mexico e tinha que ficar aqui mais um dia.

Senti muitas saudades de minha familia. Nao foi igual passar sem eles, mas nao vou me queixar. Aqui em casa estamos todos com saude. Obrigada Senhor.

No dia do Natal, fomos na casa da Olga e do Manuel. Sao otimos amigos nossos. Ja passamos o natal com eles ja fazem algums anos. Foi bem divertido. Comemos peru e estava tudo delicioso. Levei de sobremesa o resto das truffas e fiz um mousse de maracuja (tambem tenho um receita RAW de mousse de maracuja, mas nao deu tempo de comprar todos os ingredientes) entao fiz a receita normal mesmo.

Feliz Natal para todos.

Que 2010 seja um ano muito abençoado para todos nos e muito prospero tambem.

Estou agora afirmando para o universo que o Natal de 2010 vamos passar no Brasil junto da familia e o ano novo tb; na praia, vendo os fogos.

beijos

Chocolate-Coconut Truffles

It's been about a year now that I've been really interested in RAW FOOD or LIVE FOOD.

Raw Food is is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Typical foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes. There is no meat, dairy, eggs, sugars or un-natural fats. It's kinda like Vegan Cuisine, but without cooking the food.

Raw Foodist believe that foods cooked above 46 °C (115 °F)  have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthy or even harmful to the body.

Now, I am not about to do a radical lifestyle change here, but this really interests me. Specially because you get to eat really really healthy food.

This past year was very difficult for me and I eat as a result of stress. I am probably 25 kilos above my normal weight!!! That's horrible.

I've done sooo many diets my whole life and even though I am overweight now, I simply refuse to go on another diet. The Raw Food Movement interests me because I don't want to ever say again that I am on a diet. If I have to use the word diet, it has to be like this: " My diet consists of fruit, green, legumes, nuts, etc... .

Maybe I am looking for a lifestyle change.

I've read plenty on the subject and bought two books already.

I know all about eating smaller portions and in moderation, but my hardest problem is with planning my meals. And not eating as a result of stress and anxiety.

I am hoping that in 2010 I will go back to my normal weight by eating healthy foods and feeling good about eating and replenishing my body with good foods.

I will definetely write more posts on this subject.

From the cook book LIVING RAW FOOD, I got the recipe for chocolate-coconut truffles. They are absolutely amazing. And there is no sugar, no milk, no butter.

Here is the recipe:

Makes about 40 truffles

Equipment: High Speed Blender

1/2 cup coconut butter/oil, warmed to soften. ( Found in health food stores)

3/4 cup agave nectar (found in health food stores or the organic section of Loblaws). Agave nectar comes from the Agave plant. It tastes like honey but has an incredible low glicemic index.

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup dried finely shredded coconut

2 1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably raw, sifted

In a high speed blender, blend the warmed coconut oil/butter, agave nectar, vanilla and salt. Add the shredded coconut. 1/2 cup at a time, and blend until smooth.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in 2 cups of the cocoa powder until throughly combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes.

Place the remaining 1/4 cup of cocoa powder onto a small plate. Spoon heaping tablespoons of the chocolate mixture and roll them into balls. Roll these balls in the cocoa powder. (You can also roll them in the shredded coconut, I did it and it was delicious)

Store the finished truffles in the frigde.

Enjoy.

The Nutcracker Ballet

Dia 6 de Dezembro levei meu pai e meu irmao para assistirem ao Ballet de Quebranozes no Living Arts Centre.

Sempre tive vontade de ir ao Ballet e como nao tinha ainda visto esse Ballet, nao quis perder essa opportunidade.

Foi lindo. Chorei.

E maravilhoso como existem meio differentes atraves da arte de expressar sentimentos e emoções.

Em 2010 vou ir ao Ballet mais vezes.

beijos

First Aid Course

St. John Ambulance.

This weekend, I am doing a re-certification course in First Aid and CPR for school.

It is very important to know what to do in case of an emergency.It can save lives. Simple measures could mean the difference between life or death to a loved one or someone you know.

I recommend that everyone take this course at least once. You learn things that you never knew.Even though this is the second time I am taking the course, I've learned some knew things because some of the practices have changed.

The instructor in my course has shared some personal stories about people in her life that were seriously hurt because First Aid was not applied, or was applied incorrectly.

Her aunt suffered from low blood pressure, but the symptons of low blood pressure and high blood pressure can be very similar. A neighbor with good intentions decided to help by giving her aunt her own medication for high blood pressure, because the neighbor thought that her aunt was suffering from high blood pressure. The result: her aunt's blood pressure fell even lower and she became unconscious and had to be hospitalized. She survived.

Her nephew, was two years old, when he swalled some DRANO; the stuff used to unclog faucets. It is a grainy white power that looks like sugar. It is a dry chemical, that gets activated when interacted with water. That chemical had already started to work in his mouth because of the saliva, but his mother, acting on instinct rather than knowledge, decided to give him water to wash it away. He died.

Her grandmother's friends's grandaughther was seven years old and was playing with a balloon. The balloon suddenly exploded and part of the rubber went into her mouth. She suffacated and died.

When something is blocking your air way, and it happens to be plastic or plastic material, an abdominal thrust will NOT help no matter how hard you try, because a person's inside is moist and wet and plastic sticks to it.

There is soooo much more that you can learn. You learn about AED (Artificial External Defribilator) which is used to shock the heart when a person has become unconscious and has stopped breathing. This machine is idiot proof. There is a voice that tells you exactly what to do, so you don't have to feel nervous about using it on someone.

I learned today, for example, that what we see on TV, when the doctors wait for a flat line on the heart monitor to shock the patient, is incorrect. When a person's heart show a flat line you can no longer ressusitate them, and the AED no longer works. It is too late.

Before a person's heart stops beating completely, it "quivers" for a while. It is only at the time that shocking the heart will be effective.

I learned how to immobilize a person's arm and leg when it gets injured or broken.

I learned how to seek help and to remain calm.

I learned about burns, and bleeding wounds, and chocking.

I learned that it is no longer recommended to ask a person with a nose bleed to put their head back. The practice now is to ask the person to put the head down and let the blood drip all out until it stops. The reason being is that if the person tilts their head back and there is lots of blood to come out, they might choke on their own blood, as it deposits in the throat area.

I also shared with the class that I have many times received an email that "teaches" you what to do when you suspect that yourself or someone around you is having a heart attack and there is no help around. The email suggests that you encourage the person to cough really hard.

My instructor said that this is a terrible urban legend and you should NEVER do that. The reason, simply put, is that you cannot "encourage" the heart to start beating again by coughing. That is medically impossible. And if you are having a heart attack and force yourself to cough you could injure yourself even more.

When you are in the middle of an emergency, the last thing you want is to built up on your anxiety and fear because you don't know what to do.

In this case, knowledge is power.

It is one weekend of your life that is very benefial.

Highly recommended. For more information, contact http://www.sja.ca/

Cheerios,

PS: I also learned today that when helping someone that is chocking you no longer say that you applied the Heimlich maneuver, you say that you applied abdominal thursts. That's because Dr. Heimlich wants royalties for people using his name. (LOL)

Halloween is here.....

Hi,

sorry about not posting so frequently now. I have been crazy busy at school. Kindergarten is a looooooooooooooooooooot of work. Who said kindergarten is fun?????

There is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much planning and the work is never done. There is always more work to do!!!

Soon I will have to start writing report cards. I am not looking forward to it.

But I love teaching.

This week my class did a Halloween Art and it was so wonderful.

I loved it.

Lots of teachers make "crafts" in their classroom, but I want to make art with them.

What the difference between a craft and an art project, you ask?

Well, a craft is when the student's work look exactly the same. An art project is when it looks like their own and it is not the same as others.

My halloween art open ended. I gave them a purple piece of paper, a paint brush and put a drop of white paint on their paper. I told them to make it into a ghost, a monster or whatever they wanted. Next I put a drop of orange paint and they created something beautiful again. Then, I gave them accents like googley eyes and witches, and pumpkins and haunted houses.

For the grand finnaly, I found baking soda in the classroom, but I poured it into another container and told them it was "ghost powder". They all believed it.

I put some "ghost powder" in their pictures.

It was an amazing day. I will cherish it forever.

I will post the pictures later.

Cheerios,

Paula

PS: I am sleeping a little bit better, but it could improve still.

Meus 30 anos!

Dia 16 de Outubro fiz 30 anos. Uau!

Quantas coisas ja me aconteceram. Quantas conquistas, quantas vitorias.

Estou muito feliz e declaro abertamente que essa decada sera a melhor decada da minha vida ate agora.

Muita paz para todos e Jesus no coracao sempre.

beijos

Insomnia

Insomnia.



Definition: Insomnia is a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease. By definition, insomnia is "difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both" and it may be due to inadequate quality or quantity of sleep. Insomnia is not defined by a specific number of hours of sleep that one gets, since individuals vary widely in their sleep needs and practices.



For the past month I can't sleep. This is such a horrible feeling. I feel exhausted all day and night and I can't "fall" asleep or maintain sleep.



My doctor gave me prescribed sleeping pills and a while ago I meant to go back to her office and ask her if she gave me placebos, because they weren't working. When I take them, sometimes they help me fall asleep better, but only for 1 hour or 2 hours. Other times, they doesn't work at all.


Right now I feel very miserable. All I want to do is sleep and I can't.


Sleep is very sacred to me now. That's the one thing I want the most.

"No wonder you have insomnia...., lying there awake all night"

So, right now, since I can't fall asleep anyways, I am researching what monster this is.

Here is what I found:

Insomnia is generally classified based on the duration of the problem. Not everyone agrees on one definition, but generally:

symptoms lasting less than one week are classified as transient insomnia,

symptoms between one to three weeks are classified as short-term insomnia, and

those longer than three weeks are classified as chronic insomnia. (Great, this is where I am!)

Statistics on Insomnia

Insomnia affects all age groups. Among adults, insomnia affects women more often than men. (That's just great!)

Stress most commonly triggers short-term or acute insomnia.

Ok, so I now I am stressed and anxious with my new teaching assignment, but this is too much.

Have you ever experienced insomnia? What did you do to cure it?

Please let me know.

thanks