Laughs for Lilly

If you live in the Columbus area, please mark your calendars!!

Life Community Church is holding a family fundraising event on June 5, 2010.



Hours: 10am-7pm

• Lots of SHOPPING!
• Door Prizes!
  
• Face Painting
• Snacks
• Visit from Norwich Township Fire Station
• All Day Scrapbooking Event! (9am-9pm)
  
• Bouncy House
• Visit the Chick-fil-A cow!
• Clippers Mascots!
• Make a get well card for Lilly!

There is something for everyone at this event and it is all to support a good cause! The money raised will go to the Webb family, and they will donate 10% to Kids 'n Kamp. Lilly is doing great, but the family needs help to cover the cost of missing work during her times of treatment. She was diagnosed in March with Leukemia (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) at the young age of four. She goes to our church and I decided I wanted to help and organize a fundraiser for the family.

Kids 'n Kamp supports children with cancer and their families with counseling, family outings and activities, tutoring and more. To visit their website go to: www.KidsnKamp.org.

For updates on Lilly, please visit:
www.CaringBridge.com/visit/lillywebb

For more info on the fundraiser, please email me at: lyndsiobrien@sbcglobal.net

Vegan Challenge

Our family has decided to challenge ourselves this summer, similar to what we did in 2009. Last summer we chose to do a 7-day technology free week. No tv. No cell phones. No internet. I think I like depriving myself of things, it is fun. :)

This summer, we are again canceling our cable indefinitely. I can't do without all technology due to my business, but I want to stay off facebook and not watch tv, etc. There really is no need for these things anyways, and summer is a perfect time to cut back or give it up entirely and spend more time with family!

Our big challenge for the summer is to try to go vegan for 30 days. Now that we feel it has been fairly simple to go vegetarian (giving up all meat), we are going to take that one step further and cut out dairy and eggs too. This might have to be a 90/10 situation where if we are eating something one time and it has one teeny tiny ingredient we are not going to stress about it. But, for the majority of the month we are going to try to avoid all animal products. Plus, to make it even more challenging, we also avoid soy in all products. This is an ingredient I've been staying away from for a while. If you pick up any processed food in your house, it probably contains soy. If it is a conventional product then the soy is most likely genetically modified. Also, soy can mimic estrogen in your body. Did you know that soy formula is banned in some countries? I have read that a baby that drinks soy formula is taking in the equivalent of several birth control pills every day! I do not like to eat things that mess with my hormones, just like I don't put things on my skin that mess with my hormones. A lot of "fake" meat, cheese and milk products contain soy.

I do not want to replace animal products with processed junk food products. The goal is to find healthier options, eat more vegetables, grains and nuts. Whole, raw, organic food is always our goal!

You are probably wondering why. Yes, we all care about animals and that is a great reason! My main reason is to see how we all feel! I have heard that if you go vegan, even for a few weeks you won't want to go back. Maybe we will feel so fabulous getting all that cheese and butter out of our systems that we will want to incorporate more vegan meals into our normal routine. We'll see.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is not working out very well for most people. We are striving to try something different.

It is a challenge.
It is an experiment.

Wish us luck!