I actually got my refund from DHL!  Yippy-kai-ay!

Their customer service person never did contact me, except to respond to my email by saying that they would be in touch within 24 hours.  That was a week and a half ago.  Big black X for DHL.  I will never use their services again.

There’s lots of fun going around the blogosphere this week. Bloggy Giveaways is hosting a giveaway carnival! Right here at Supermom’s Health and Wellness I will be giving away my ebooks,

Supermom’s Simple Guide to Healthier Eating for Beginners and Beyond,

and Supermom’s Simple Guide to Super Salads to one lucky winner. All you have to do to enter the contest is to leave a comment here to let me know you want to be in the drawing. Also–in your comment, tell me what your biggest challenge in eating healthier is. Make sure that you enter your email address when you comment, or I’ll have no way to get in touch with you if you’re the winner.

I also want to tell you that EVERY ONE of my visitors here can get a FREE ebook, The No-Cry Parenting Guide by parenting expert Elizabeth Pantley. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter by going here. Also, you’ll get a $5 gift certificate as well!

I am hosting other Bloggy Giveaways this week at my baby boutique blog, and at my Supermom’s No-Lice Advice site. Lots of good opportunities!

After you sign up for all of my giveaways, head over to Bloggy Giveaways so that you can cruise around and sign up for some other fun contests as well! There will be hundreds of new blogs to check out and prizes to be won. Woo hoo, fun!

This article comes from Sheila Ray of Bizzy Lizzy Bakery.  Sheila’s business offers some great products for those of you that are looking for yummy goodies that also fit your health goals.  Follow the link at the bottom of the article to visit her site and look around.  :)  Yum! 

~Erica 

There are articles, news reports and comedians that put there “two cents” in on what should be this years New Year’s Resolution.  So I decided to join them and suggest to the world to eliminate white flour.  There are many supporting facts on why we should do this but we are a Wonder Bread Society and habits are hard to break. 

White flour came onto the scene around the time of the Industrial Revolution.  We started milling wheat and removing the beneficial germ to increase the bread self life.  Naturalist would say that they removed the life of the grain which is what makes it so beneficial to the body.  I think this is a valid point but the thing that scares me the most is the use of chemicals in the process.  The most common used in the production of white flour is called alloxan.  This chemical is used to make white flour look so beautifully clean and this same chemical has the power to destroy the beta cells of the pancreas.  What does that mean to our bodies in the long term, the risk of diabetes?  Scientists have known the risk for years and even use it to induce diabetes in lab animals by injecting alloxan directly into the animals.  How does alloxan cause diabetes?  The alloxan makes beta cells fail to operate normally and they eventually do not produce insulin which causes one variety of adult-onset type 2 diabetes.  The white flour industry argues if alloxan was the primary cause of diabetes more Americans would be diabetic.  Even though that is a valid point we also know that not just one thing usually causes a single health issue.

If you are diabetic or have a family history of diabetics one of the first steps in prevention is the elimination of white flour. 

The baker’s at Bizzy Lizzy Bakery have come up with a wonderful solution.  They have created a  breakfast “Hearty” cookie that is packed with fiber and protein.  These soft and delicious cookies have 4 grams of fiber and NO FLOUR.  Most high fiber products have wheat flours, which many are trying to avoid. 

Sheila Rae

http://www.bizzylizzybakery.com

For awhile now I’ve considered starting a regular Supermom podcast/radio show.  I wonder how many of you would be interested in this.  What topics would you want to hear about?  How long of a show would you have time to listen to?  Any ideas or feedback you have–I’d love to know what you think of this idea.

You can go listen to my most recent interview on Natural Moms Talk Radio here.

A friend passed this along to me and I thought it was worth sharing.

1.Take a 10-30 minute “thank you” walk every day. While you walk practice gratitude. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2.Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes a day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. Buy TIVO(or other recorder) to tape your late night shows to view at a better time so you get more sleep-it’s the ultimate energizer.

4.When you wake in the morning, complete this sentence: My purpose is to__________today.

5. Live with the 3 E’s: Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6.Read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation: whether just in thought with favorite music, relaxation & stretch class, tai chi, or  other forms of exercise. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8.Do the “one thing” you have always wanted to do.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow from trees and plants and eat less foods that are manufactured in plants.

11.Mentor someone and be mentored by someone.

12. Engage in daily random acts of kindness.

13. Clear clutter from your life: from your house, car, desk, and let new and positive energy into your life.

14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.

18. Each night before you go to bed, complete the following statements:
I am thankful for ____________________.
Today I accomplished _______________.

19. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

20. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

I found this interesting article today and wanted to pass it along to you gals. If you are looking for an alternative to coffee, why not check out Teeccino Herbal Coffee? It comes in many different flavors, including Vanilla Nut, Almond Amaretto, Hazelnut, Java, and even an organic version. It brews in your coffee pot and smells heavenly. Zero caffeine! You can check it out here.

 This article is from Sheila Ray of Bizzy Lizzy Bakery.  I thought it was worth passing along to you.  She has a really neat business, so you should go check it out!

~Erica 

I have several friends that have severe food allergies and they feel like burden to their friends.  If they are invited to a party they are often limited to what they can eat and they fear they may end up with something that may cause them problems.  The host or hostess on the other hand are afraid that them may make them sick.

 First of all mark all foods that contain peanuts, shell fish and flour.  These are the most common food allergies in the U.S.

Secondly do not panic if you have friends that have these allergies.  It is an easy fix.  For the gluten just make a replacement.  There is a flour product in stores that have a wonderful mix of flours including rice, garbanzo bean, tapioca and more that can replace flour in any recipe.  It works in quick breads, cakes, pies and cookies.

Shell-fish is a easy fix because you can replace it with other fish products or another meat in most cases.  I recommended doing a test run.

Peanut Butter is another easy fix because those who have allergies to peanuts generally do not have allergies to almonds.  Buy almond butter and replace it. 

I have friends overall the time with food allergies and I make a huge effort to make things they can eat and the rest of the guests are non the wiser.  The food tastes great and the fellowships and stories of the evening make the party a huge success.

I write a lot about food allergies and health issues.  I am a Home Economist, teacher and mom and I am very concerned about the health of our children and families. 

Sheila Rae

http://www.bizzylizzybakery.com

I guess I should have asked you all to pray for me months ago when I started this whole thing with DHL…because a few minutes ago I received a phone call from the same woman I spoke with yesterday, and she told me that I will be getting the refund!!!

I asked her some about what happened and found out that she did not speak to my driver, but did speak to the manager of the DHL station in this area. Apparently there were even more messed up things about the shipment than I was even aware of. I’ll spare you all the boring details. But, the point is that they were able to determine that both my driver AND the station personnel messed up. So, they agreed that I did not get the service I was wanting, and approved the refund. Supposedly (pardon me for being skeptical!) I will have a check by the end of next week.

Sadly and interestingly, the refund isn’t coming because of anything I said..it’s only because of other things that I couldn’t have even known about. I’m glad it worked out, but sorry to learn that DHL has so little regard for the word of their customers.

I did email the president of DHL this morning, and rec’d an email this afternoon saying that they would contact me within 24 hours. Although my own case is resolved, I do hope that I get to talk with someone so that I can let them know how many steps along the way were messed up. I am actually thinking of making a list, because it’s mighty spectacular! There is seriously not ONE person that I have dealt with during this process that has not messed up in some way. I cannot imagine how a business gets to be as big and well-known as DHL when they are so disorganized and don’t believe in real customer service. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I ever treated a customer so poorly.

You can be sure that I will never use DHL for any shipping in the future, and will go out of my way to try to avoid receiving anything from them as well. They have lost my trust and have showed me far too many holes in their system that cause me to have absolutely zero confidence that my account information or packages will be safe with them.

So, THANK YOU for praying and for caring! I was able to have a pretty good day without too much stress, and now I will just be praying for the refund to come without any problems.

This is kind of off topic, but I could really use some prayer support.  Back in October I sent a large shipment of my product to a vendor in Texas, using DHL.  They completely messed up my order by not giving me the proper paperwork for the shipping I wanted (slow, ground, cheap), and instead I ended up accidentally getting overnight air delivery (fast, air, over $69 per box!).  I was charged over $400 more than I was planning on.  Needless to say, this has been annoying.

Since that time I have been going through the channels to try to get this fixed with DHL, and I have asked for a refund for the overage I was charged.  I have had one problem after another with them messing things up, and I have been working my way up their chain of command. Yesterday I had a particularly upsetting phone call with a person in middle management. She basically told me that I was stupid to have trusted them with my credit card information (I had no choice), that I should have known all the ins and outs of their paperwork myself so that I could have prevented this myself, and that she thought I was lying.  It was very frustrating.  As we left it, she said she was going to try to talk to the driver who picked up these packages to see what his side of the story was.

I would like prayer that this man, if she gets to talk to him, will remember what happened and be honest about that with her.  I am not sure if he would be in danger of losing his job or some other penalty if he admits that he did not handle my order properly, but I would also like protection for this guy.  I’m sure he needs his job just like everybody else needs theirs.

Also, I need prayer that DHL would give me some good customer service and give me the partial refund I am asking for.  Thankfully, because I run my businesses debt-free, this hasn’t been the huge blow that it could have been,  However, it is very discouraging to have an extra $400 taken from me and kept away from me for months.

Last, I could just use some prayer that my spirit could be peaceful while I wait and walk through this.  I have not been so upset about this situation until yesterday, because the person was so rude to me.  I do not do well with things like that, and tend to have stuff roll around in my stomach and head, stressing me out.  My family and I had a fun stress-buster evening last night, watching our new Tim Hawkins DVD.  He is the comedian in the video clips a few posts down.  It felt good to laugh.  But, this morning I’m up early and am already feel that stress creeping up on me…