It's Your Life Natural Living Magazine

Late last night my awesome dream life coach and creative designer Krista Nelson from Just Get it Done Now made this happen. Running a magazine is no easy task even before this issue was published I have articles coming in for August/September issue. At the same time I would not want to do anything else. I love all of our contributors who share the same passion that I do, to help others live happy, healthy, natural lives.

I want to thank all those who read, subscribed, and shared our first issue. We had over 15,000 views and it is still climbing, thank you for your support. I also want to say that we have decided to keep this as a free magazine. However, you can subscribe to be notified when a new issue is released. If you want to know when the next issue is released receive a free monthly unique article on natural living go to the Updates page on our web site.We have also set up a Blog Talk Radio account and once that gets going you will be updated along with receiving when new shows are recorded, guests, and the topic they will be discussing.

So, what can you expect to see in this issue? We have alot, but our focus is on dairy month.

Awesome Photography Spread

Once again Krista Nelson my dream life coach and creative designer for the magazine is a woman of many talents take a look at her spread on the inside cover and first page.

Organic Cooking with a Teen

Alexia a 15 year old homeschooler share her joy for cooking organic meals page 9

Dairy Alternatives & Recipes

Dr Jennifer Weinberg MD, MPH, MBE is a lifestyle, wellness, and environmental health consultant and certified health coach article on page 12.

The Three P's of Successful Homeschooling 

Lynda Ackert founder of Christian Homeschool Hub a place to meet other homeschoolers her article is on page 15

What it Means to be Organic: USDA Organic Standards Explained

This article is a reprint from the Botanie/Soap blog for organic soap making supplies or personal label which can be found on page 19

Blacksmith Class for High School Homeschoolers

Joyce Wheeler from It's Your Life blog and publisher of It's Your Life Magazine page 20

DIY Ginger Tincture

Mary Smith from Mary's Heirloom Seeds GMO free seeds article on page 23 

Cooking With Carob

Diane Hurst from the Gentle Shepherd  homeschool curriculum site & more article is on page 25

6 Ways to Make Fitness a Family Affair 

Aimee Shilling from the blog Forty by Forty Fitness is a marathon who shared this article on page 28

Developing Language Skills in Children Naturally

Katie Glennon from Katie's Homeschool Cottage Charlotte Mason & unit studies article on page 30

Benefits of Raw Milk

Marla Gates from Organic 4 Greenlivings is a natural living blog find her article on page 33.

Purification  

Gonzalez blogs at Rehab to Riches is a homeschool mom and Living Young distributor see her article on page 35

How to get your Kids to Eat Veggies without Losing your Cool (or your mind) 

Lindajean Luca CNHP helps others live natural lives through the use of foods and His--n-Herbs supplements her article is on page 38



Be sure to visit the It's Your Life web site where you can submit a question for Mary about gardening or Dr Weinberg about natural health. Select questions will appear in the magazine and web site. If you are interested in being a contributor visit the Contributor's Guidelines page.

Busy Days

I have been busy these days with the magazine, creating a  web site for it, and attending events and farmer's markets to promote it. We have some exciting new columns coming up in the magazine. The first is a column called "Ask the Doctor" and "Ask the Gardner." If you would like to know more about these two columns and how to submit a question follow the links.

We spoke and had a promo table at the New Orleans Veggie Fest. This vegan event takes place once a year for two days, Saturday and Sunday. It is a project of the Louisiana Humane Society. I met alot of awesome people and was right across from Eden foods. The history of this company is amazing and I am hoping to have the founder Michael Potter on the magazine's Blog Talk Radio. Yes, this is something else we are doing. We will talk with the contributors of the magazine to get to know them on a more personal level and I am scouting out others whose knowledge of natural living will benefit the readers. Enough about what we are doing let's check out some of the food vendors at the fest.

3 Potato 4 organic/vegan

I took some pictures at Veggie Fest with my phone, but don't know how to get them on my computer, so I am using the vendors photos. New Orleans is a very colorful town with purple doors and bright green steps. Of course they offer alot of great food like rosemary red skinned potatoes with chipotle sauce from 3 Potato 4 in New Orleans, so good. This is actually owned by one of my Facebook friends and they will be moving to the French Market. All their food is organic and vegan offering three types of potatoes and a nice selection of sauces.

Breads on Oak

Breads on Oak also located in New Orleans is a full fledged bakery offering homemade breads and sweets. All their goodies are made fresh daily and they use only organic ingredients. Their vegan brownies are to die for. If you are every in New Orleans stop in they also have soup and sandwiches with both vegan and non-vegan options.

The fest was held at the Healing Center which is home to the New Orleans Food Co-op. They had samples of Tasty cookies and some organic vegan cheese which was excellent. The co-op is set up as a store and you can become a member to receive discounts. I'm glad they were in there as we did not bring drinks. It was nice to know we could go in there and not have to read labels.

Good Karma Prasad Cage

Southern man bought a plate full of vegan yummies from the Good Karma Cafe. The broccoli fritters served with a zesty tomato sauce was my favorite. Although they also made a cucumber salad with some other goodies that was divine and refreshing. Looking at their menu I want to say it was the live avocado delight which includes avocado, tomato, cucumber, sprouts, and it tasted like it was mixed in with Veganaise. They serve breakfast and lunch Monday - Saturday and everything is organic and vegan, no animal products here folks.

While we walked away with 33 emails geared towards the magazine I am thrilled to know we have so many restaurants to chose from whenever we visit New Orleans.

Southern man and I just purchased smart phones because with three businesses we felt we needed them. Now however, I have a phone that is smarter than I am.We have our first retailer carrying our healing salve another one who is willing to sell it and plan on taking some road trips to promote the magazine and healing salve. It is an exciting time here and I am blessed to have southern man for a husband, he supports everything I do. Not only that, but he has business sense and is a financial guru.

Was World Peace Day now it's Peace Fest

Next month we are going to be promoting the magazine at the Peace Fest in Baton Rouge. I am excited by this event because while it has the name peace in it, it is a natural living festival. After that who knows, does your home town have a fest geared towards natural living? If so I would like to know about it, it could even be a vegan fest like the Veggie Fest is.

The last bit of information I want to share with you is about my daughter. When we are together we become very creative, but on her own she is also creative. This morning I found a link to a video she made that she sent me on Facebook. It is a DIY where she shows you how to up scale Gloosybox Boxes. For those who may not know Glossybox is a business you subscribe to and you receive a box of goodies once a month. From what my daughter has told me the box is full of a variety of beauty products.

Eating Organic While on Vacation

It is about that time again when families will be heading to a favorite destination or exploring a new one. One of our biggest struggles while traveling is where to find healthy (organic) food. Our last trip was easy because we went back to West Tennessee to visit family. Because we know people there who eat organic it was a no brainier to contact them for finding organic food. But what about when you are traveling to a new place where you have no brain to pick?

Springs of Life

My solution for this is easy. I want all the bloggers who eat organic to let me know what state and town you are in and where you go for organic food. This could be a small health food store, farmer's market, or a chain such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. The image to the right is where I had lunch yesterday. It is a cafe attached to a health store. If you do not know about this place you would never find it. It is tucked away off the highway in Covington Louisiana and we are so glad they are here.It is places like this that I am really seeking to promote.  Promote small business owners is our families motto.

I am going to use these to compile an article for the June/July issue. Everyone who participates will have the option of having their picture and blog link in the magazine. Of course there are a few rules, ahhhhhh, sorry guys it's a natural living magazine and I want to keep it clean. That means if your blog is not geared towards natural living, sorry, your blog link will not be allowed. I will personally check every blog to be sure it complies with natural living. Confused about what natural living is, here's a check list.

Natural Living Topics

• Organic Food
• Homesteading 
• Organic Gardening
• Fitness
• Homeschooling
• Healing Naturally with Herbs or Essential Oils
• Living off the Grid
• Hunting/Fishing

I believe you get the idea and those who live the lifestyle know what it means. If there are any recipes on your blog they can show only non-organic ingredients within the image. For instance a brownie recipe can not have any images of Hersey's Cocoa Powder. Yes, seasonings are included, no images of McCormick. If you are not sure of the content here please comment below or email me.

Those who wish to contribute please comment and send me an email at yourlifemag.yahoo.com. In the subject line please put Vacation Destination. Include the name of the establishment, address, phone number, along with the web site and image if available. If you submit a farmers market please include the days and hours of operation. Images should be sent as an attachment. Also include your name, blog link, and an image of yourself if you want that included.

Southern man and I believe their is strength in numbers. There are a lot of great blogs out there on natural living along with healthy (organic) places to get eat. Let's stand together and help others live a happy, healthy, natural lifestyle by sharing our knowledge.
 

Living a Happy, Healthy, Natural Life

Photo credit

I am both proud and excited to announce that the "It's Your Life" magazine has launched the first issue today. I want to thank all the contributors many of you might know some of them like Mary from "Mary's Heirloom Seeds," or Marla from "Organic 4 GreenLivings."

My life coach and Creative Director Krista Nelson has been awesome through the whole process. Truth be told if she was not my life coach this magazine would not exist. She worked with me in order to help me find out what I really wanted to do with my life, thanks Krista. Krista was also on the team for the 30 day challenge we did back in November 2014. If you are looking for a life coach for whatever reason Krista is it. You can visit her at her web site "Just Get it Done Now."

This magazine is geared toward natural living and the first issue contains some great articles. Our feature article is an interview with a mom who healed her son naturally of autism. Her goal was just to get him to a point where he could have a fuller life, well now he does. You will also find a spring gardening article with a bonus, an article on tomatoes with a great salsa recipe, detoxing the colon, toxins in everyday products we use and their effects, stir fry recipe, homeschooling preschool, and homeschool science naturally with links to notebooking pages.

All the links in the magazine are live allowing you to click on it as you are interested in it, how cool is that?


All of the contributors wrote articles in exchange for free advertising. If you are interested in being a contributor in the June/July issue email me at itsyourlifemag@yahoo.com. You can also email me with a topic you would love to see or if you have a natural living experience you would like to share.

New Online Magazine Opportunities

I'm both honored and excited to announce the upcoming launch of the magazine named after this blog. There was a struggle with the name of the magazine, but it was determined that "It's Your Life" fits with the natural living theme of the magazine.

With a desire to educate others in how to live a happy, healthy, natural life the name of the blog seemed to fit. After all it is your life and you have choices to make in regards to how you live it. Do you want to continue living sick and tired or are you sick and tired of it? Now this magazine gives no guarantees, but instead seeks to open minds to the various health and mental problems many suffer. What most do not know is how complex our bodies and minds truly are and what it can take to make or keep them healthy.

Through my journey to a happy, healthy, natural lifestyle I have learned alot and continue to learn. Sharing the experiences I have had personally and the inspiration of others who have also overcome physical and mental health problems without drugs is what this magazine brings to its readers. Striving for a unique magazine that has never been done before we have come up with some great ways to help our readers lead a happy, healthy, natural lifestyle.

What You Will Find in Our Magazine

• Unique articles geared towards natural healing of various health and mental problems 
• Articles geared towards physical fitness its importance and the many benefits it brings
• Self sufficiency on various levels rather you just want to grow your own food or strive to be totally off the grid
• How to avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and improve your health along with unique recipes
• Superfoods are important for our bodies as they bring various vitamins and minerals other foods do not. 
• Herbs for health, healing, and growing
• Detoxing and avoiding heavy metals and other toxins
• World news that makes a difference to our health
• The mind is a terrible thing to waste yet so many of us do find out how powerful your mind is and how it can bring you peace, happiness, and financial freedom
• You will be introduced to coaches who can make a difference in various aspects of you life.
• Homeschooling is an important part of the natural living lifestyle as our children were given to us to raise and bring up. Each issue will include a topic with links for study, knowledge, and fun.
• All advertisements will be geared towards natural living if it be those who create, provide, or can bring to us something that effects our life in a positive manner.

 

This magazine incorporates all these topics into one magazine by writers who are either living what they write about or have a strong passion for the mentioned topics. 

Call To Action

• We are seeking more bloggers passionate about these topics to write for us in exchange for advertisement with a live link and bio.
• If you have a product you would like to advertise geared towards natural living we will do it in exchange for a link to the online magazine on your site, will include a live  link time span to be determined.
• FREE issue for those who will put up a link to the magazine in their sidebar for that issue
• If you have a topic you would like to see written about that no one else has addressed email me @ edjumpoff@yahoo.com.

These terms are for a limited time only to be determined.

The deadline for the first magazine is Monday March 16, 2015 contact Joyce Wheeler editor, writer, publisher, and co-designer for more information @ edjumpoff@yahoo.com.

April is Autism Awareness Month if you or someone you know has dealt with this health problem naturally we want to hear from you. We are seeking an article on a family who done this and know that they are out there. So, many families deal with autism and they need to know that if caught early enough it can be eliminated.