This Month's Reading: Foodist

by Jenni in ,


So, I know I am a bit late to the game in reading Foodist. But, this month has been a bit busy. And is two weeks really soo bad? Anyway, as tardy as I may be, I am still super excited to be reading Darya Pino Rose's first book, Foodist. ​Darya has a Ph.D in neuroscience and uses it to come to some pretty incredible conclusions about food. Darya had plans of going into medical research in hopes of finding cures for neurological diseases. What she found was that food had more effects on health than medicine.

Darya now runs SummerTomato.com along with writing other published works and publicly speaking about food and health. ​This book is something I have been super excited about reading and cannot wait to see what is beyond the cover. Foodist ​focuses on staying healthy and loosing weight without dieting. Let's see what tid-bits of genius we can learn from this one!


Birthday Update

by Jenni in


Well, today I officially turned 26. I have been bouncing around some different thoughts on what to post today... Should it be like every-other day, or should it be birthday related. Birthday won. 

I talked a little bit about some of my birthday plans a few days ago, but wanted to give an update. So far, I have had some checks coming in from family and friends who wanted me to choose which of the three organizations to give to, and some incredible donations of wheelchairs. Right now, we are half way to our wheelchair goal. Four people around the world will have mobility soon because we helped!! ​

Charity: Water is, most likely, where are large portion of the money people have given me in private will be going. Since this is where my biggest goal amount is, I think that makes sense. So far we only have one contribution on Charity: Water, so we will definitely need more to get us to the goal of $500. This $500 will go towards building a $1000 well in an area of the world that does not have clean drinking. Clean water can change everything.

The final organization I chose has not been talked about much on the blog. It is an organization based in Ada, Michigan called Vicky's Pet Connection. Vicky is one of the sweetest, funniest people I have ever met. Talking to her about her mission to help dogs and cats was an inspiration to me last time we visited the rescue.

We know this rescue through family who live up in Michigan, and wanted to tour it over the summer because of some great ways they have incorporated rescuing and adopting animals into people's daily life. While we were there we got to talk with Vicky about why she started a pet rescue and some of her goals for it. We were also able to go to her home and see some of the kittens and special needs adults cats they take care of daily. Their dedication was inspiring and we ended up leaving with our little Chibi and Chuu in tow.

This rescue is an incredible labor of love. It is completely run by volunteers and ​private donors, but they have also teamed up with Bissell. If you are needing a new vacuum and shop at Bissell.com, put in the promo code ADOPT at the checkout and a portion of your purchase will go to Vicky's Pet Connection! Vicky, being the smart lady that she is, has also put together an Amazon wishlist filled with goodies needed to keep those furry buddies happy.

I would love to be able to raise at least $200 for Vicky's Pet Connection along with the $500 for Charity: Water and the $300 for Free Wheelchair Mission. This is quite a hefty goal, but it is possible and so worth it! ​So far, we have about 45% of the total goal accomplished! The donation time will be going until May, but if you are interested in giving, there is no reason to wait until then!

Thank you so much to anyone who has considered, or helped towards these Birthday goals. We are coming together to help others in need, I cannot think of a better way to spend a birthday! 

​Love, Jenni