February, 2015 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for February, 2015

Water – Water – Everywhere!

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

property-youFrom a New Orleans group of folks comes the following advice:

– (we haven’t tested it, only pass it along for your use and feedback.  As you can tell, folks added what they knew as this email on water went from person to person, hope you will do the same.  We could exhaust human knowledge on water as a health promoter if we all joined our knowledge together in one place.  All kinds of knowledge – passed down through the family; picked up someplace traveling; gems to be collected and kept before our supply of water becomes too polluted to be of any help to continue life; old wives tales, etc.  Not facts from encyclopedia’s, but knowledge from the storehouse you have picked up from living – your experience.)

“Drinking Water

I suppose if we all drank the suggested amount of water a day, we’d be okay. I need to do better. Starbucks doesn’t count.

How many folks do you know who say they don’t want to drink anything before going to bed because they’ll have to get up during the night!!
Heart Attack and Water – I never knew all of this ! Interesting…….

Something else I didn’t know … I asked my Doctor why do people need to urinate so much at night time. Answer from my Cardiac Doctor –
Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. This then ties in with the last statement!
I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me.

Correct time to drink water… Very Important. >From A Cardiac Specialist!

Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body: 2 glasses of water after waking up – helps activate internal organs

images

1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal – helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath – helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed – avoids stroke or heart attack

I can also add to this… My Physician told me that water at bed time will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.

A Cardiologist has stated that if each person after receiving this e-mail, sends it to 10 people, probably one life could be saved!

I have already shared this information. What about you?

Do forward this message. It may save lives!

“Life is a one time gift”

Enjoy life NOW,  it has an expiration date!”

From Bettina Network, inc. we will add – organic lemons squeezed into your water does wonderful things as do limes.  We tried to drink the limes straight, but needed water to get the juice down.  We looked 10 years younger after a few days of mainstreaming this Vitamin C.

“Overindulge in sugar?  Drink lots of water to dilute the affect.”

=============================

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Your Bettina Kale Chips Recipe

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

Hi folks,

I have been trying your recipe along with the recipe of others for Kale Chips.

That is a hard thing to do – although it sounds as though it should be easy.  To get the seasoning right is the key.

I suggest some changes to your original recipe which is in your Bettina Network Blog.  The changes or cautionary suggestions I would have follows:

1) To use the right amount of organic cold processed Olive Oil is key.  It is also one of the hardest things to do.  Use too little Olive Oil and your kale chips burn.  Use too much and they are greasy, negating why you make these kale chips in the first place.  You can’t really tell the chips have burnt because they come out very dark looking really burnt when they are not.  You can only tell when you pick one up and taste it and then you realize that strange taste is burnt kale chips.

I would suggest using only enough Olive Oil to barely coat the raw kale.  That is the hardest part of this endeavor.   I think how much to use only comes with trial and error, but if you are aware of the problem you will take more precautions in how much or how little Olive Oil you use.

2)  The seasonings are really a matter of taste.  I first tried your kale chips recipe at the xxxxxxxxxxxx house, but WOW!  I don’t have that strong a tongue – my throat rebelled as well.  It was hot and then some.  Those who like really hot food – and I don’t mean heat from the stove hot food – will love your recipe.  I had to eliminate the chipotle powder that I saw them putting on those kale chips.  A huge tablespoonful was used.  I used just a teaspoon because I love the taste of chipotle peppers, but I can’t tolerate much heat in my food.

I would also suggest when one makes kale chips you look at the spices you really like.  At first I tried the old faithfuls thyme, oregano, lots of turmeric.  I have now changed to using those I really like and not try to copy anyone else’s use of spices.  I love Old Bay Seasoning so I use it on my kale chips.  I have eliminated turmeric because I think it doesn’t give much taste and one must use it – in things like grits – after the boiling point has been reached.  I don’t think it gives much nutritional value when I put on turmeric at the beginning of the process and it heats up with the kale as they cook in the oven.

I really like your tekka seasoning.  I use it on popcorn because of your recipe in this blog for your Bettina popcorn.  So I tried it on kale chips.  Don’t know what nutritional value it has, but I like what it added to the chips.

Everytime I’ve made the kale chips, I have used different seasonings.  After a while I expect I will find something I really think is exceptional and use that always.  Too bad that is what the human condition reduces us to, but we all like to find a road that we can always travel – brag about its smoothness and how quickly it gets us to our destination – and through constant use gradually turn it into a gutter that becomes difficult to walk in, a muddy mess when it rains and heaven knows what when it snows – still seeing that road as smooth and easily travelled.  But hey, who am I to complain if I can finally find an exceptional kale chips seasoning combination.

Keep those recipes coming.  I would not have tried kale chips, but for your recipe.  Those things cost about $6 for a small, overly processed bag, which does not have a memorable taste.  I am trying to keep an organic, non-processed food diet, but sometimes what is offered on the other side dissolves my resolve.  We look to you for encouragement to stay with organic, well thought through food that is good for our health.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Bettina Network Hedge Schools***

Thursday, February 19th, 2015
Thirst for learning is unquenchable

The thirst for knowledge is unquenchable!

What are Bettina Network Hedge Schools?  How do they work?

A Bettina Home is a part of the Bettina Network Educational Institute.  We take homes into Bettina Network, inc. because they have something to contribute to our learning; they are full of many amenities not found elsewhere; the knowledge they contribute is sometimes in the mainstream, but most often personal history and experience you can’t find or learn from the history books.  As a Bettina Home they are also Bettina Network Hedge Schools.

A Bettina Home/Bettina Network Hedge School, is a place where you can stay while visiting a particular city, country, village either on other business or vacation or a historical review of the area and you want to add to the experience of the trip; or you can travel to a Bettina Network Hedge School just for the experience, knowledge and wisdom it adds to your life.

The family in residence offers their life-experience, a workshop, knowledge of art, architecture, prayer, spirituality, health, cooking, or whatever is their specialty.  In Bettina Homes/Bettina Network Hedge Schools, those specialties change as the family lives and grows and experiences life from different perspectives.

Bettina Network Hedge Schools are patterned after the historical “Hedge Schools” of Ireland, which were one of the things Mary Daly was interested in establishing.  With everything else she did for the betterment of women, men and children, she did not get around to establishing her closely held love for the idea of Hedge Schools.  To Mary it was a way to teach feminism without the interference and regulation of current educational institutions.  They are the same for Bettina Network, inc. although we are not limiting the Bettina Network Hedge Schools to feminism.  We include all the world’s knowledge, experience, religions,  spirituality.

While we have chosen the idea of Irelands’ Hedge Schools for Bettina Homes, many countries around the globe have had and still have versions of the historical Hedge Schools – most particularly where women are not allowed a formal education, or to be educated at all in anything, except maybe a few home crafts, which they learn by doing.

What were Hedge Schools?  They were clandestine schools.  Places Catholics in Ireland went to learn what was illegal for them to learn under the then existing Penal Laws. These laws forbade the teaching of Catholic catechism as well as all education for Catholics.  They were held in inaccessible caves, tiny huts, behind hedges, in groves of trees, or wherever time, space and a bit of knowledge could be passed on.

In the Hedge Schools in Ireland, all those many years ago, the schoolmaster went from house to house to teach and impart knowledge to as many as possible.  They were constantly being hunted down for what they were doing and had to be hidden by the local populace.  Almost like the Underground Railroad, some houses, which protected the teachers in these schools, had walled off places in the home where they could hide when those searching them out showed up.

In Bettina Homes/Bettina Network Hedge Schools the students travel from house to house, instead of the “Hedge School Masters*” traveling.  Although we have a few ‘have knowledge will travel’  Hedge School Masters*” who travel from house to house to hold workshops and lead other learnings at Bettina Network Hedge Schools, we are looking for more.  Not all Bettina Network Hedge Schools have traveling ‘Masters*’.  Most are places which welcome those thirsting for knowledge and wisdom and the “Hedge School Master*” lives in and owns the house.

We are looking for knowledge that is not readily accessible. Or that has become skewered by vested interests.  It is also a place to learn  a story from those who actually lived the times – which may be different from accepted history.

The Hedge Schools of old taught Latin and Greek, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, spelling, writing, arts, crafts, etc.  And the teaching was done by the poorest and most ragged people who had no homes and who taught under shelter of the hedges.  In todays world we would look down on such people and consider them lazy, shiftless, ignorant because we don’t look beyond the outer trappings.  These “Hedge School Masters*” of old haggled for purchases in Greek, or discussed theories in Latin, and were generally very highly educated both in the traditional knowledge of the world and the wisdom which comes from having lived such harsh lives. They were known as “hedge school masters*”.  We are known as “Bettina Network Hedge Schools” and some of our “Hedge School Masters*” may look a bit like the hedge school masters of old.

We don’t give degrees or other accolades to show one’s achievement in particular areas.  We do spread knowledge and share experiences with those who serendipitously stay in a Bettina Home.

What are the other parts of this company?  The Bettina Network’s Blog shares information and knowledge culled from the talk around the breakfast table in Bettina Homes.  Bettina’s Menu of Events spreads information about events which we consider ‘in the Bettina Lifestyle’. The Bettina Home/Bettina Network Hedge Schools share and spread knowledge, experience and wisdom to as many people as we can reach. The Bettina Network Foundation, inc. works to eliminate homelessness.

We are connecting a community of people.  We are sharing what we have and weaving a net so we have some protection from falling through into the morass of homelessness, of ignorance, of isolation.  The Bettina Network Hedge Schools  provide ways for you to travel and learn as you travel.  We provide not just a room for the night; or a meal for a part of the day; but permanent places to pass on to others some of the history now being dropped and/or changed as well as some of the learning being skewered and mis-told by those marketing for money.  We also pass on the arts and crafts of the world with workshops on creativity, cooking, sewing and how to live authentic lives. – being able to ignore those outer trappings we seem to see first and sometimes only.

There is nothing wrong with money – let me quickly add – just something wrong in the way we are moving to intensify its home with just a few and to make it scarce among the many.

The Bettina Hedge Schools are just another way the Bettina Network, inc. is coming together to help others in their quest to bring all of our money, the way we spend it and our talents together to benefit each other without having to stop to spend enormous amounts of time and resources unsuccessfully trying to cure problems we created in the first place, by the way we have lived on this planet.

*Since today we recognize the title of “Hedge School Master” as sexist – we are changing that title to “Hedge School Facilitator”.

Want to join us?  Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools?  Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

*Copyright applied for

*Trademark applied for

*Patent applied for

Thanks for the Health Information!

Tuesday, February 17th, 2015

Hi folks,

Let me give back by summarizing for you what I took away from my stay at one of your homes, which changed my health dramatically.

I arrived feeling awful.  Pain all over and exhausted.  I had been traveling for a couple weeks and wasn’t feeling too great before I set out so you can imagine how I felt when I arrived.

I was greeted with a cup of ginger root tea.  It was the beginning of my turn around.  I now make ginger root tea once a week and it lasts about a week because I am the only one drinking it. No one else is allowed unless they undertake to make a huge pot and that isn’t going to happen.

I ate as though food was going out of style at the house where I stayed.  I fully expected to have gained several pounds on returning home, but not only had I lost weight, but – and this isn’t always discussed – my bowel movements had quadrupled.  At my age that is a concern because somehow, I thought you just had smaller bowel movements as time wore-on.  I think that is the real reason for my recovery.

The food was all organic – which was fantastic.  My food was normally all processed before I discovered your network.  If I ate anything healthy, it was purely accidental.   I didn’t realize until then that my food. during processing,  had all the taste taken out as the companies strove for long shelf life and what was added to the food to make it palatable was salt and sugar.  No more of that in my body.

I have several rituals that I now have added to my lifestyle.  The last thing I do at night is have goats milk yogurt with a bit of organic maple syrup over the top. No sugar or other stuff in the yogurt – only what I add myself.

First thing in the morning I have a cup of warm water with lemon juice squeezed into the cup – the juice of one organic lemon.

Later in the day I try to snack on apples/oranges/bananas.  That keeps the sugar demons away – and, of course, my organic ginger root tea keeps me going throughout the day.

In the afternoon, about 4pm I have three limes (organic) squeezed into a cup and I drink that straight without the addition of water or anything else. I know you  folks talk about the woman from India whose nutritionist suggested she have four limes per day about 4pm, but I can be cheap and somehow I can’t bring myself to use four limes a day.  It took a few days before I got good at drinking that lime juice without major contortions of the face, but today it actually is something I look forward to – the pickup in energy for me is phenomenal.

By the time I left your house to go home I was feeling no pain.  It was all gone and I had enough energy throughout the week to get my work done – and I had an extremely difficult schedule, trying to get things done without having to extend my stay – cost was a consideration.

Hope that helps someone else reading your blog.  I wouldn’t have believed the change in my energy level or all the other things that happened to me and as I continue to feel better, I continue on this regimen.

Needless to say, those who tried to take me to dinner loved your regimen because it meant I ate almost nothing in the restaurants and their bill was miniscule.  I tried to be social, but my stomach just flipped and wouldn’t stand for the intrusion of the wrong food. I think I am going to become a very popular person to take out to dinner.

Keep those discussions going during breakfast – make them about health so we can get more of what other people are doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  I am now a Bettina health fanatic.  In a few weeks I will calm down and just be like everyone else, but in the meantime I am acting like the newly converted with my fanaticism.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

A Bettina Network Foundation Day on the Town

Monday, February 9th, 2015

February 7, 2015 – Quincy, MA.

We had a great Saturday.

Those who volunteered to help us move the furnishings from an apartment in Quincy, MA., to give to others who could use the items, gathered together for a bit of food, conversation, getting to know each other, learning what the day would be like, and prayer.

The morning started with breakfast made by the Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett so we were off to a good start.

Before going out the door on our way, we joined hands in a circle of prayer and it set the tone for the rest of our time together.

The volunteers were eight Seminarians from Harvard Divinity School – gathered together by Jonathan Bett Fields, also an HDS Seminarian.  Next time we will include a photographer – the possibilities for great pictures to share with you were endless.

Cheryl Nicholas, who was the inspiration behind all of this, brought the UHaul truck and oversaw the move to get everything into the UHaul so her job of off-loading the items as she went about delivering the furnishings would be easier.  Cheryl didn’t get away without an injury, but we put a bit of medicine on her cut to stop the bleeding and she and the rest of us continued.  Next time, we will bring a first aid kit, we did need one.  A few cuts and bruises, but no one noticed, everyone just kept moving to get the job done.

Ramesh Iyer, who made the donation to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. was a joy.  His ‘gentle reminders’ will become a part of Bettina lore and will be stored in the Bettina archives.  We picked up his spirit and instead of calling or emailing to say what needs to be done – NOW, we have established the practice of sending ‘gentle reminders’.

Kaitlyn Justus was a wonder.  Everytime we looked around she was out the door with yet another piece of furniture or a very large box.

Farris Blount worked with Cheryl outside making sure the items were in the UHaul properly.

Chavis T. Jones became a whirlwind of activity when he saw a watch in a box that might be added to his collection, under the right circumstances

Ryan Cogswell felt good about the “manual labor” he was doing.  He must have been totally exhausted at the end of the day.

Everyone pitched in to move the first pieces out the door, which were unbelievably heavy, bulky, hard to move and maneuver and turned out to be a godsend to those who received them – beautiful leather couches, in like-new condition.  One piece, that took everybody together to move, was a pull-out bed whose mattress was still wrapped in the plastic in which it was delivered when first purchased.  We took turns deciding how to get the pieces out the door – it was finally all these ideas together that succeeded.

We learned many lessons on Saturday.  Mostly, we learned how beautiful is the human spirit when we are all engaged in God’s work.

Marceline Donaldson made lunch which ended this part of our day together.

We were a very diverse group.  God for each one of us would be described in different terms, but bottom line what prevailed was that which is within us, that makes us know we are all one and responsible for one another – no matter our different physical appearances or religions or other seeming differences, or how we describe the God we worship.

May it ever be so in all that we do.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

 

Bettina’s Educational Institute

Sunday, February 8th, 2015

‘Pass It On!’

What is? A way to pass on to others what you have learned in this life and to receive from others their legacy.

Pass on your life lessons, serendipitously!

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.


Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!

Bettina’s Lifestyle Community

Making a difference in this very difficult and changeable world.

Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!