What's My Name? Fire Sauce Giveaway

This pretty lady needs a name! Enter what you want her name to be below and sign up for our newsletter and you could win a bottle of your choice of our MOMMA RIVERS FIRE SAUCE. Follow us on Instagram and FB for extra entries. We have lots of yummy flavors, including Hot Honey!, Danger Will Robinson! (our hottest sauce!), and Chocolate Nirvana that has a smokey, chipotle flavor.

What do YOU think my name should be?

And you can, of course, get your very own bottle of Fire Sauce at one of our events or at the Artisans Hub of Waxhaw.

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The Power of Taking Your Sweet, Sweet Time

This morning I woke up and I could tell it was going to be what I call a “God day” (God, Universe, Presence, All-That-Is…whatever you want to call ‘it’). I have these sometimes and they’re lovely. It means that my focus is very broad and that it feels much better and more in line to go with the flow throughout the day than to Try. To. Do. The things. On my list. I take a look at my list and choose the ones I absolutely positively must get done and throw everything else out the window.

A few weeks ago I was *very very VERY* busy and within all that busyness I lost myself. I was under a deadline and had put some extremely high expectations on myself. After the deadline had passed and the dust settled, I realized that I hadn’t been taking good care of myself. Even more importantly, I’d stopped having fun! I was exhausted and needed a rest.

I tend to like to do things intensively. I love the feeling of really digging into something and going at it for hours and hours. And days and days. But upon reflection of this last experience and others, I can see that after awhile I wasn’t fully present, which means it would have been best to stop for a bit and get back into myself.

When we’re involved in large projects or dealing with stressful situations, it often seems we don’t have the TIME to get back to ourselves. The thing is, we ALWAYS have the time to get back to ourselves. And ultimately, taking that time will save time. And be better for us physically, mentally and emotionally as well! Sure, it’s okay and even fun to burn the midnight oil at times, just always make sure you do have some down time. Take a nap. Take a walk in nature. Listen to some music with your eyes closed. Meditate. Lie in the sun and soak it up like a lizard. Do something to slowwww dowwwn for at least a few minutes when you find yourself in a revved up place.

My honey and I have both been b***s to the wall again and here’s what I’m finding is working like a charm. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Set your phone alarm to go off every two hours (I love the Chimes alarm sound on iPhone…it’s so sweet!). When that alarm goes off, stop whatever it is you’re doing (within reason, of course) and take TWO MINUTES to breathe, set an intention, and let go of everything. After that two minutes, get back to it! ;)

And listen to your Inner Guidance. If you wake up and it feels like a God day, allow yourself to have one. If you work or if you have appointments already booked, that’s okay! You can still have a God day. Allow yourself to be quiet and listen throughout your day. Allow yourself to hand it over. Allow yourself to let go of taking anything too seriously or trying to figure it out. Whenever you mind starts to kick into overdrive, kindly thank it and let it know that you’re choosing not to think too much today.

Allow yourself to see things and experience them from a very broad perspective, as if looking down from atop a high mountain. Reconnect with yourself/the Presence. Ultimately, you’ll be so glad you did. And so will everyone around you. Most of the time you’ll find that more gets accomplished than if you’d been running around doing everything on your list and stressing about it! Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

Big love,

Lorrie

Quick, Easy, HEALTHY Dark Chocolate Recipe

My honey and a friend of his are heading to Harleyfest in Milwaukee today (yes indeed, we like to ride motorcycles!  Well...right now he drives...I ride;).  The drive is 14 hours from here in SC/NC, so I made m'Honey and his friend some meals and snacks to take on their drive up and back.  I always so appreciate having nutritious food on the road instead of eating stuff that makes me feel crappy.  So I go super easy for the meals.  Boiled eggs, crispy bacon, pimento cheese (I'll share this recipe at some point) on coconut flour bread (will also share that recipe) with some romaine lettuce, bagged spinach and pre-cooked snausages (wow, I had to *un* autocorrect that one five times!).  

One of the snacks...I've been promising several of you this specific delicious and nutritious snack recipe for awhile now...I'm sorry it's taken awhile!  

Guess what it is???  

CHOCOLATE!!

Awww, nuts.  You probably already guessed that from the caption.  It's worth it!  As far as sweetener, I leave that up to you.  We all have different tastes.  I like my chocolate super bitter without a whole lot of sweetener, m'Honey likes it with...you guessed it...a l'il bit of Honey;)  Test it out for you.  I've tried using sugar alcohols (xylitol, erythritol, etc), stevia, monk fruit, and my body just doesn't like any of them.  So we stick with very small amounts of natural sweeteners.  You do what works for you!  You can also play around with the coconut oil-to-cacao (or cocoa) ratio to find what works for you.  

Easy Dark Chocolate Recipe

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Organic Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 cup Organic Coconut Oil, melted and cooled slightly
• 1/8 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract (I like more...again...up to you)
• Maple Syrup or Honey or stevia or erythritol or xylitol or whatever...your choice.  And your choice how much.  We use very little.  
• 1 pinch Salt

Process

1. Mix the melted coconut oil into the cocoa powder in a small bowl 1 Tablespoon at a time. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl periodically to make sure it all gets incorporated.
2. Stir in the vanilla, sweetener and salt.
3. The way we like to do it...pour into a reused, cleaned gallon sized ziplock baggie and flatten out.  You can, of course, also get fancy and put the mixture into chocolate forms.  I've tried a many times and I still like the simplicity and aesthetics of the ziplock!
4. Put into the fridge to set completely.  If it's in a baggie, make sure it's on its side so it can flatten out.  Leave in fridge for at least 3 hours.  
5. You can also put in the freezer if it's in the baggie and you're in a hurry;)  In that case, wait for an hour and then either go to step 6 or put it in the fridge.  
6. Take it out, have the visceral satisfaction of breaking it up while it's in the baggie, pour the shards onto a plate...and enjoy!  
7. Store in the fridge.  Coconut oil is super healthy but the melting point is very low, so it will be a runny mess otherwise.  

Notes

I love to add a dash of cayenne pepper and cinnamon.  You can also experiment with lavender, banana, coconut extract, nuts...lots of options!  

How did it go for you?  What are your preferences? Let us know!  

Yummy Love Your Body Meditation

*If you want to get right down to it, scroll to the bottom of the post for the recordings*

So much of our experience here in this realm is related to our BODIES.  At the same time, so many spiritual teachings neglect the body.  Dating to waaaaay back, there are many teachings that the body, the physical, should be ignored or even rejected.  

And I say...*back up!*  Reassess.  Not only are these bodies assets, they are to be enjoyed (more yumminess on that in other posts).  They are to be...well...emBODY-ed.  That means developing a loving, feeling, symbiotic relationship with your body.  And I can tell you from serious experience that until you really accept and get into your body, you're going limit your expansion.  On all levels.  You and your spirit...essence...soul...higher self...source...god..."Big 'S' Self" (a friend of mine and I made that one up and it makes us laugh every time)...whatever you want to call it...are not separate from your body.  Source is flowing through your body at all times.  Your body IS source.  Which is not only a really beautiful thing, but also a really good thing.  Because that means you don't have to remind your heart to beat.  Or remind yourself to inhale and exhale.  You don't have to prod your liver to work.  You don't have to remind your stomach to digest.  

Now...you may have had some...not-so-good-feeling experiences with your body.  Anyone, anyone?  I say this in jest, cuz, well, yeah...we all have!  I'm happy to share my own experience, many of you are familiar with it (you can take a look at it here).  And I find that lots of times when we experience negative feelings we can disassociate from our bodies.  Whether those feelings are physical or emotional...well, we want OUT.  Which is totally understandable!  We just...disconnect.

We set up this experience perfectly before we came here.  We wanted to have bodies.  We wanted to be deeply connected with them.  Because we wanted to have a way to *know* how we feel about things.  We wanted a way to know when we are on track with our truth, with our desires, with our knowing...and when we're off track.  Other reasons too and we'll get into those at another time;)  

When you can FEEL your body...when you can FEEL your feelings in your body...you are so much more able to shift those feelings (physical and emotional) and to let them move through.  In fact, they will move on their own when you allow yourself to be with them!  If you try to ignore them or change them right away, you're doing yourself a disservice.  Because those feelings are there for a reason.  

Before we get down to it, I'll give you some backstory about this particular Living From Inspiration Meditation.  It's a super duper sweet story and one of my favorites, because it involves my gorgeous nieces.  

A few years ago, I was staying with my brother and his family in Albuquerque, NM.  They have this beauuuutiful big house with a casita in the back.  Every morning, I wake up and do my meditation, workout and then go to the main house and have breakfast with the family and always sit next to, you guessed it, my lovely niece, "A".  She's about 3 or 4 at this point (I'm so bad with ages, but I'm pretty sure).  So sweet, so beautiful.  I sit down on a bar stool/breakfast stool and help her up to the bar stool/breakfast stool next to me.  And she puts her sweet hand on my arm and says...

"Auntie Lala...I love your eyes...and I love your face...and I love your arms...and I love your legs...and I love your shoulders...and I love your hair...and I love your shirt...and I love your nose...and I love your fingers.........."

And she keeps going on.  And on.  And on.  For about 3 minutes straight.  Which is a looooong time for a 3-4 year old.  Just loving, loving, loving everything about me.  And oh!  I try to interrupt!  And say "I love your face...and your arms...and your legs..." She will have none of it.  She just keeps going...and going.  My only choice is to sit...and let it all in.  Which I finally do.  

It was so sweet.  So much love.  And I have never forgotten it.  *That* is how we can feel at all times.  Because Source is always flowing all that love to every single part of us.  

This meditation will help you get connected to your body and establish a loving relationship with it.  The first recording goes through instructions.  The second recording is the actual meditation.

In the instructions, you'll learn that as you're going through the meditation, if when you get to a certain body part you notice any pain, tightness, or resistance of any kind, pause the recording and take some time to just BE with the sensation.  Without trying to figure it out, without judging...just be with it.  Embrace it.  And when you're ready, start the recording again and keep going.  

So get comfortable, close your eyes, and melt into this.