Peachin' Around

Before I begin I must express once again, that this AINT for everybody! Yes I said AINT (in my southern proper voice)! Society has made us believe that Western medicine is the only way to heal and everything else is a hoax or witchcraft. Well, my friend, the curious never concludes!

History has shown us that the body is perfectly capable of healing itself as long as the proper environment internally and externally is there. I have strengthened my children’s immune system with holistic recipes and have done quite a bit of research on Western medicine to make this choice of living a holistic lifestyle. I am not a doctor or any kind of medical advisor. What I am discussing today is based on my own experiences and lifestyle. I encourage everyone to do their own research.

Now, this journey of traveling and being holistic has made me realize the importance of having a strong immune system.  Which meant I had to get organized and make sure that I bulked up on all immunity builders. Just to name a few, Spirulina, Chlorella, Irish Sea Moss, Ginger, and cod liver oil. All of these are the small steps that I take to help build my kids’ immune system. None of them taste appetizing at all so there are tricks to this for your kids!

Spirulina

This blue-green algae immune booster has a fishy smell and taste so bad I had to get creative and so far my kid’s favorite is Spirulina and Pineapple juice! It’s Full of protein as well. They love it and drink all of it!

Recipe:

• 1Tsp of Spirulina
• 8 oz of Pineapple juice
• 4 oz of water

Stir all together and you have this beautiful green juice packed with nutrients!

Chlorella

This is one of my favorites! My kids enjoy this most. Full of many benefits and boosting your immune system it also helps to cleanse the blood of impurities.  The boys love making and drinking this, we call it Blue Milk.

Recipe:

• 32oz Almond milk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
• 1 Tsp Chlorella powder
• 2 Tbs of Agave or any natural sweetener
• 1Tsp of vanilla extract
• Mix together and you have this beautiful blue colored milk!

Irish Sea Moss

This decades-old remedy is full of nutrients. Studies have shown that it has 92 of the 102 minerals that we need. I made capsules for myself but I had to make an apple sauce for my kids to take it because they’ve never taken pills before so they don’t know how to swallow capsules.

Recipe:

• 2 Tbs Sea moss powder
• 5 Granny Smith apples
• 1 Lime juice
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 Tbs of Agave or sweetener of choice

Boil your apples with or without skin in water. Allow cooling then add other ingredients in a blender and blend until desired texture. I usually store in little jars or I use my Infantino pouch maker and let them enjoy in pouches.

Cod Liver Oil

This is a common immunity booster that many of our grandparents gave to their children every day and I must say it works. Especially when the boys are around a lot of kids that are sick. Cod liver oil is good for brain growth, eye development, and bone structure development. It’s full of vitamins A and vitamin D. This simple spoonful a day or a week is all you need. We have the lemon-flavored cod liver oil but Whole Foods sells different flavors just for kids.

*Simply give 1 Tsp of Cod liver oil daily or weekly, ironically, this is something my boys look forward to doing.

Ginger

The benefits of ginger are endless. Not only does it aid in building the immune system it is good for the digestive system and a good source of energy as well. Not super tasty for the little ones but I have made this juice that my boys enjoy.

• 5 apples
• 1 Whole Pineapple
• 1-2 inches of raw ginger

Simply cut apples, peel the ginger then juice all ingredients with your juicer. Best served chilled.

Leafy Greens

I can’t stress this enough! Leafy green vegetables are the number one key to building a healthy immune system. Now…if your kids are picky like my kids and don’t like eating all of their veggies I make all kinds of smoothies with leafy greens and give them all kinds of titles. I get super animated when I give it to them. Sometimes my middle son doesn’t go for any of that so I have to give it to him in a cup with a top and straw that doesn’t let him see whats inside. He drinks it with no problem. Hey, whatever works for you! Their favorite smoothie is full of strawberries. Some will argue that it’s not good to mix fruit and veggies and that’s ok. Another green alternative are green superfood powders that you can add to almond milk with cinnamon and honey or make green veggie fritters as well. Below is a smoothie that we enjoy in our home quite often.

Recipe:

• 2 handfuls of frozen or fresh or fresh strawberries
• 2 Large handfuls of Spinach (or any leafy green)
• 1 Cup of squeezed orange juice
• 1Tbs of Agave (optional)
• 3 Burro Bananas or a small banana

Last but, certainly not least, let your kids explore dirt and germs on the playground. If we keep them fully sheltered away from germs we could eventually do more harm then good. What are some of your immune-boosting hacks for kids?

This post is for all of the beautiful mothers out there that have children. I Love my children dearly! They are my world! However, every now and then mommy wants to sleep in a bed alone and not have to worry about anybody sneaking in the bed at night and not have to wake up to make sure nobody fell out of their bed or, is close to falling out of their bed. Not only that, my loving husband! Well I won’t touch that. I’m just letting yall know how good it is to get a full night of sleep every now and then and not have to worry about taking care of anybody and just sleep the night away. Yes, I said yall and not you all! I know how to speak proper English but this needed to be said in my peach voice.
This is why a mom-cation had to be done! I needed to get away and regroup, enjoy myself by myself. If you want to judge me, judge ya mama! Kidding, not kidding….Moms it’s ok to take time for yourself! We do a lot! Not only do we take care of our families but we are entrepreneurs and career women that work hard to put food on the tables! LISTEN LINDA! I can’t stress enough how very important it is for us to take care of ourselves to take care of everybody else! Clear your mind, eat that donut, and jump in the pool! Whatever floats your boat. Just do it! We find ways to organize everything for everybody else but when it comes to organizing things for “me time” we make it a big deal and feel bad about doing it. Again, LISTEN LINDA! Take a week, weekend, day however long you need for yourself every now and then. It’s ok! I promise you that dad or auntie or Grandma and the kids will be just fine! Yes, they may eat pizza every night and won’t get that green smoothie you fix for them on most days to build their immune system but don’t aren’t those green smoothies for the moments when you aren’t there?

Now…let me tell you about my mom-cation… I wanted to go to this African country, we’ll call it the secret destination, for a real off the grid experience so I did. I had to fly to Istanbul to go to Paris and get a visa then leave Paris and stop in Istanbul again to go to my secret destination. Yes, I know it sounds like a lot but it was perfect! Turkish Airlines was amazing I must add. I have been on a few other airlines (which will remain nameless) that I dread to go to Paris On. All 9 of those flights I had the row to myself because people weren’t traveling as much due to the, at the time, very low Coronavirus scares. I took my mask, hand sanitizer, and wipes and got my little hiney on that plane and enjoyed every bit of it! Especially when you’re used to lugging your kids and all of their things. I had a backpack and a lunch box with my OWN snacks. Yes, snacks that I didn’t have to share while I watched all the grown-up movies I could watch. I even had a chance to read a book an get some work done. That was just on the plane!
In Paris, I did a little shopping, of course. After 4 flights I got to the secret destination, I came to Tata (aka Auntie), a beautiful woman that blessed me with so much love and made sure I was pampered and cleansed fully! Every morning I woke up to a plate of whatever I asked for that night and cleansed in a homemade sauna where I meditated and relaxed for an hour every day. It wasn’t easy but it had to be done! The rest of the day I did absolutely nothing! Yep! I did my jump rope workout every day and did a little exploring in the village I visited. I didn’t explore too much but I’m ok with that because I focused on myself. Now I am ready to conquer the world. I talked with her and gained so much wisdom about this thing called life.
Now, I know you all were looking for a tour of this new country but this wasn’t that trip but trust– I will be going back! Oh, and how befitting was it that the 8th of March was “International Women’s day”, so we celebrated all the women in the world that day. I learned so many things from the women that were around helping me stay focused on my meditation. They even taught me how to cook and mix herbs and spices. It was simply beautiful!

This blog post is not your typical travel blog post but I needed to do this for all of the moms all over the world that work hard for their families. Take some time for yourself, it’s ok to do that and all is well!

So it’s 2020 and December of 2019 was so much fun in Ghana. Most of you came to commemorate the “Year of Return,” marking the 400 years since the transatlantic slave trade began on the ports of Ghana taking our ancestors to be slaves all over the world. Yall! Beyonce and Jay-Z were here! This was huge for Africans and the Diaspora. If you missed out on it there is still time! The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo has made an official welcome for all of the African Diaspora to come back home. Lets not forget how crazy it is in the US right now with COVID-19. But I’m not here to talk about that today. I just wanted to let you all know that there have been so many of the African Diaspora come to Ghana to get an understanding and learn what happened to our ancestors and the journey they were forced to take. As for me, and my family (except for my husband), our first time on the continent was the first day of us living in Ghana from Paris in June 2019. The ultimate goal was to live in Africa at some point. Literally, out of nowhere the opportunity came and was perfect just for us. We are truly blessed! I have been here almost a year now and I can honestly say Ghana owes me nothing. I am thoroughly enjoying myself, and feeling like I am where I belong. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t an easy adjustment but, I have learned after moving to two totally different countries in one year adjusting is not what I am doing anymore I am simply living in the present. Things need adjusting when it’s not right or doesn’t fit.

Before I get all mushy on you guys let me share some key things with you about how to move, not just to Ghana but, to another country with ease. Our plan was a great plan and we are so thankful for those small yet impactful steps we took to move from Atlanta, Georgia.

#1 Change your mind!

I know this sounds easier said than done but changing your mindset to me means trying to enjoy the present. Don’t think like most people and create this unnecessary fear about moving or traveling the world! Try not to have a fear of the unknown future. Sure you can still plan for your future but when life happens, your future destiny may be different and much better than what you had planned. I had planned to climb the corporate ladder when I graduated from college and that’s really all I planned. I knew I loved to travel but didn’t see that as much in my climbing of the corporate ladder. Whereas, now I am my own boss and I get to enjoy traveling and sharing this journey with so many wonderful people. I meet lovely people everywhere I go and I love it! I just want to encourage you, yes you! If you see yourself living in another country, DO IT!! Don’t think too hard just do it! And another thing…Everybody will always have their opinion on what they think you should and should not do but at the end of the day choose to do what you want to do!

#2 Make big chops

Aside from me chopping all of my hair off again before coming to Ghana. I’m here to tell you it can seem difficult moving a family to another country and saving is not as easy either. In order to save money we began cutting things off that we could really do without. Things like our cable bill, gym memberships, channel subscriptions and apple music. These are small but mighty changes that we made to purchase our flights. For example, our cable bill was $120 monthly x 12months= $1,440. When we cut out a lot of things we didn’t need we ended up saving a lot of money at the end of the year before we moved. Chopping these small things helped us to save our tax refund as well. Then BOOM! We got our tickets! We would usually put our refund towards those small annoying bills or purchase some new gadget and clothes that we didn’t need. This year we did something meaningful and it felt amazing!

#3 Get your papers

Getting papers was easier then we expected as well. The key to getting your papers together is getting organized. We organized a notebook for our family and it made getting all of our visas and passports less stressful, especially at the airports. Purchase a notebook and binder slip covers to put all of your papers individually in order. Also, manage your time wisely when ordering visas and passports. We made sure we had all of the documents we needed for the passports and visas before we booked our flight so that we would just take them to the office the same day. Rushing passports is an option although, it costs a little more, it comes within a week or 2. Oh wait! Don’t forget to update your drivers license and get an international drivers license. Thank me later!

#4 Health Matters

The last thing you want to do is to go to the doctor in another country with a doctor you never met because you didn’t catch something you could have taken care of before you left. Start scheduling doctor appointments and getting physicals and medical history so that you have it to travel with. This helps a lot if you need vaccinations. I personally am not a fan of vaccinations so I made sure I focused on building our immune systems everyday. No worries I am curating a podcast telling you all you need.

#5 Purge

Not only do you have to start cutting expenses but, start getting rid of clothes you don’t need. Because we were moving to Ghana we started giving away our winter clothes. Yes we could have sold them but giving to someone in need and our family members felt much better. It was also a way to get to say goodbye to some of our friends that came to our house to shop. Taking a lot of old clothes was also pointless to me because I was planning to lose weight and buy new clothes and fully embrace the unique Ghanaian fashion culture, which is very beautiful by the way. Fashion week Ghana was mind-blowing!

#6 Packing

So…now that you have purged, you need to start packing. I know… when you move you want to take everything with you. However, this can be very expensive when shipping across the country, especially with boxes. When you have a family of 3 kids and toys and books that they just can’t live without what will you do? BUY SUITCASES!! We moved everything we needed in suitcases. Books, blenders, toys, electronics, you name it we brought it all in suitcases. Pay attention now yall! You know those back to college sales that they have at Target and Walmart where there are luggage sets super cheap? Yep, that’s what we did! We looked online for the best back to school luggage prices and racked up! We only had to buy maybe 4 new suitcases to add to what we already had. We bubble-wrapped glasses we cherished and other things that were breakable and they survived our move to Paris and to Ghana. I heard that when you ship your things with a carrier, not only are their shipping expenses but, in many countries the taxes and fees they add once its there is just as much as the shipping price. We didn’t want to chance it with the customs here. Most people that move end up leaving their things at the ports because the price to get them out of customs was ridiculous. All of our things were nice and safe on our plane with us and we only ended up paying about $150 for extra luggage. One of the advantages of having 3 kids with a 2 luggage a piece allowance.

Fun Fact: if you check your luggage in the night before your flight they increase the weight limit absolutely free. For Air France and Brussels Airlines as well.

#7 Stock up

If you live a frugal, eco-friendly, holistic lifestyle like me, then you want to have a separate suitcase just for things that you use to make, such as household cleaners, toothpaste, etc. Things that are easy to find in the states may not be as accessible in Ghana. Yep, it’s a cold game! But I am doing just fine! You will either find the alternative or create it yourself!

#8 Do your Research

I can’t stress this enough! Before moving to Ghana I did not do enough research on the laws and legal practices here. I’m not one to get into politics but I want to make sure that you are aware of the laws and make sure that you govern yourselves accordingly. When traveling anywhere you just have to be careful and pay attention.

#9 Bring your own Entertainment

Boy am I thankful that we brought all of our fire sticks, tablets, and whatnot. We almost sold it and now I am extra thankful we didn’t. We were thinking they wouldn’t work here but they do! Winning! Yes my Vitamix is still working but we had to get the right voltage converter. Keep the sticker on your appliances that tell you the voltage so that you know what kind of converter to get before coming. Ghana uses the same electrical system as the UK so we had to have converters and adapters for our US gadgets and our French gadgets we collected and brought with us.

#10 JUST DO IT ALREADY!

If we focus on so many small technical things and listened to everybody’s biased opinion about moving out of the country then we probably would have never moved. At the end of the day it will never be the “right” time to do anything and you can never be fully prepared for anything. That’s life! We made this move because this is what we wanted to do for our family. Like I told yall before, this holistic living, traveling lifestyle we live, aint for everybody. I respect that. I am simply here to tell you to do what you want to do! If this is what you want to do then do it! I encourage living life to its fullest. We moved to Ghana to learn and grow. So far I have been given so many answers I have always asked myself just by being here and exposing myself and our children to the many good things Ghana and this great Continent has to offer.

Are there any of the African diaspora planning to move to the continent?