This Month's Reading: Foodist

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!

Surprises and Some Fun

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I am getting super excited about some stuff happening in ​the next few weeks. The blog will be changing some things up a bit, nothing Earth shattering, but we will have some fun themes and surprises in the next few weeks. We will also be having some changes in location and scenery (yay!).

This week the hubs and I have spent some time relaxing (ish) together and getting ready for what summer and the weeks leading up to June will bring. Every June we leave for a few weeks to help out at his parent's summer camp. This is quite a change-up from the Florida routine and weather, and I have been trying to figure out what it means for the blog over the summer. Well, I have come to the conclusion that it means some exciting new articles, locations, and (possibly) a video or two! Stay tuned for some fun stuff in the following weeks and months! ​

Don't let the picture fool you, it will not be France... yet. The hubs and I have been talking a lot about places we would like to travel to and the things we would like to see. France and Japan have always been my top two. One day! What are some of the places you have always dreamed of traveling to? 

Game of Thrones Easter Egg DIY

Oh Goodness, I am getting so excited about Easter. One, because it is Easter. And two, because it is the season 3 premier of ​Game of Thrones! Seriously, I have been counting down to Sunday for three weeks now.

To bring both of the Sunday festivities together, I have decided to stray from the usual health and fitness track and make some DIY Easter Eggs. ​This year, for Easter, we are making dragon eggs! Yep, I am so excited to do this and hand out our cute little baby dragon eggs to all of our GoT fans on Sunday. It will be epic.

Materials

To make your little dragon eggs, all you need is a plastic or hard boiled egg, wire cutters, a hot glue gun, and about 250-300 large silver thumb tacks. If you really want to get crafty, you can also get metal spray paint to paint your eggs the desired color.​

The Dragon Eggs

If you have decided to use real eggs, boil them until the inside is hard. If you are using fake eggs, make sure they are tightly shut. I used plastic so we could keep it around for next Easter.

Heat hot glue gun. While it is heating and your egg is boiling, use your pliers to clip off all the tacks from the pins. You will only be using the pin heads.

Put a dollop of hot glue on the egg top of the egg. Place your first pin at the top of the egg and work your way down in a tiered pattern. Each pin should be covering the one beside it and above it about 1/4 to 1/2. The goal is to have it look like "natural" scales.

Continue this pattern until you get to the bottom of the egg. If you would like you egg to stand up on it's own, leave a dime-sized area pin-free at the bottom of the egg.

Clean off any excess glue and enjoy your new dragon baby!

Idea via ​

Birthday Update

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