I used to be a health nut, or as I like to say, health nazi. For those of you who use to watch Seinfeld and remember the soup nazi you'll understand what I mean. I was SO strict about our food and its preparation; I felt it was my fault if anyone happened to get sick. It was some major bondage honestly.
So, when I had my 4th daughter, I was literally forced to let go of that, because it was too much stress and I didn't have the time. So I gradually began letting things go to the point that while we ate was at the normal supermarket, I still cooked from scratch, so it wasn't full of junk. The point is I had to let it go because it was becoming UNhealthy for me. The past few days I've been sensing a leading to start reclaiming some of those food practices back into our lives. So I've been doing lots of online reading, researching, thinking and praying. I trust in the Lord for our health, but at the same time we have personal preferences and knowledge about what is good and what isn't. Certainly if all we had to choose from was fast food, then we'd do the best we could and trust in the Lord to sanctify it. But, we are blessed to have a variety of things to choose from.
Another obstacle was cost-quality food costs. So I have to decide what is the most important. Since I have all girls, I feel the most important is food that lacks added hormones, whether it's organic or not. Organic is low on the list of priorities, although I'll buy it if we can. So I am working toward making some diet changes.
Since my daughter and I have just completed a round of antibiotics, we are focusing on eating probiotics. I am not a fan of supplements for probiotics, simply because they are too powerful for me. I do the best eating them in food form, such as kefir, yogurt and fermented foods like sauerkraut. I did buy the girls a chewable probiotic that they've been on before and they like it.
So, some changes I am making:
1. Start making kefir again, gotta buy some grains and I plan to try using them in coconut milk for something different
2. Make fermented veggies, hence the excitement about starting a greenhouse
3. Buy local raw cow's milk- there is one dairy here that does this for $6 per gallon, and I plan to buy 4 gallons (2 to the fridge, 2 in the freezer) every two weeks. It's a bit of a trip, but I think we can handle it.
4. Substitute whole grain products slowly. Yes we are more accustomed to white flour pasta, white rice...but, we'll learn to go back to better choices. Meanwhile I won't make a big deal out of it, just gradually change. I don't like whole wheat pasta, but I do like brown rice and quinoa pasta though it isn't cheap.
5. Do my best finding good meat, but I won't stress over it
6. Go back to making homemade bread. We've always eaten whole wheat bread, but I am way out of the habit of making it myself. I would also like to try some sourdough starter again.
7. Make kombucha- got a scoby growing right now from some storebought kombucha- I keep forgetting to make it!
8. Increase the amounts of fresh produce in our daily diet- serving more fruit at breakfast and lunch and eat least one salad a day
9. Make it a habit to bake some healthy snacks and treats each week- way out of the habit of this!
10. Start taking cod liver oil again, ack!!
To be honest, I just got burned out I think. I don't like my kitchen a whole lot because of how dark it gets, but we are making plans to do some home improvements very soon and the kitchen is one of the top priorities. Lots of painting and applying of wainscoting in the future :)
Also, being sick and unable to do anything and then being able to go on a long girl trip without having to do housework, really really helped me. It really recharged me and inspired me to get organized and be a better housekeeper and cook. Amazing how buying a few new kitchen gadgets(garlic press, cute little colander and a new coffee mug), and awesome new pot(walmart is getting rid of Paula Deen stuff, got a huge red stockpot for$25), a dish drainer and some of my favorite cleaning products (Ms. Meyers) change my outlook!
I am currently trying out a cool new recipe and will report back on the outcome soon.
July 31, 2013
July 29, 2013
Healed
Glory Hallelujah, Jesus set me free!!
Finally, finally, finally, my hands don't hurt. That was one of the weirdest illnesses I've ever had, and I believe it was a full on attack of the devil. My family was in hand to hand combat with the kingdom of darkness. But, we stayed with it, we continued in the Word, in prayer, in worship even when things didn't get better, and stepped out in faith, and we got the victory!
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;..." 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:12-13
I was still feeling pain Friday, which was the day I had a overnight shopping trip planned with my mom and sister. It had been two years since we did anything, and I was NOT going to stay home. I was armed with plenty of painkillers and on I went. I felt good and the pain in my hands got less and less. We had a great time and by the time I got home Saturday night, I had almost no pain.
I can actually do some work this week. Today I will be catching up all the laundry, thoroughly clean the bedrooms and bathrooms and floors and do some organizing, and sometime this week I'm gonna hit my closet. Ouch :) And, now I can start my beachbody Chalean Extreme workouts!!! I even bought myself some very nice underarmor workout clothes and those bright colored Nike shoes. I'm set! Gonna burn some fat! I'll look like a different person soon!
My husband and I are also making plans to build a small greenhouse. See, we have very sandy soil, and a certain pest called grasshoppers has overridden us. They have eaten my beautiful plants, herbs, all the cabbages, green beans and squash. With that and the fact that this is Texas and the heat is unbearable to work in, we're going to have a fall garden ENCLOSED in a green house.
Grasshoppers don't like tomatoes and mint, so those survived, and I took my basil plants away from them, so we've had that too. The corn is still doing well, so there will be some corn soon! I need to take pictures. We also have a nice new crop of chickens. Well, what I mean is the chicks are almost grown and hopefully will start producing eggs. We were getting 6 eggs a day before some random dogs killed our best layers!!!
I'm still not done with homeschool plans, but I am getting really excited. After buying all the cute school clothes and shoes and seeing all the supplies at walmart, I feel ready to get into school mode again.
Maybe I'll get some pictures of all this stuff to make the post more interesting, we'll see. For now I have to get moving.
Finally, finally, finally, my hands don't hurt. That was one of the weirdest illnesses I've ever had, and I believe it was a full on attack of the devil. My family was in hand to hand combat with the kingdom of darkness. But, we stayed with it, we continued in the Word, in prayer, in worship even when things didn't get better, and stepped out in faith, and we got the victory!
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;..." 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Ephesians 6:12-13
I was still feeling pain Friday, which was the day I had a overnight shopping trip planned with my mom and sister. It had been two years since we did anything, and I was NOT going to stay home. I was armed with plenty of painkillers and on I went. I felt good and the pain in my hands got less and less. We had a great time and by the time I got home Saturday night, I had almost no pain.
I can actually do some work this week. Today I will be catching up all the laundry, thoroughly clean the bedrooms and bathrooms and floors and do some organizing, and sometime this week I'm gonna hit my closet. Ouch :) And, now I can start my beachbody Chalean Extreme workouts!!! I even bought myself some very nice underarmor workout clothes and those bright colored Nike shoes. I'm set! Gonna burn some fat! I'll look like a different person soon!
My husband and I are also making plans to build a small greenhouse. See, we have very sandy soil, and a certain pest called grasshoppers has overridden us. They have eaten my beautiful plants, herbs, all the cabbages, green beans and squash. With that and the fact that this is Texas and the heat is unbearable to work in, we're going to have a fall garden ENCLOSED in a green house.
Grasshoppers don't like tomatoes and mint, so those survived, and I took my basil plants away from them, so we've had that too. The corn is still doing well, so there will be some corn soon! I need to take pictures. We also have a nice new crop of chickens. Well, what I mean is the chicks are almost grown and hopefully will start producing eggs. We were getting 6 eggs a day before some random dogs killed our best layers!!!
I'm still not done with homeschool plans, but I am getting really excited. After buying all the cute school clothes and shoes and seeing all the supplies at walmart, I feel ready to get into school mode again.
Maybe I'll get some pictures of all this stuff to make the post more interesting, we'll see. For now I have to get moving.
July 25, 2013
Updates
Alright yall, I apologize for the random ads at the top of the screen. Some kind of malware is on the computer and I haven't had time to figure out how to get rid of it.
To answer a question, yes I do bake cakes for others and our family. It's been a year since I made a cake, but last week with my husband's help we made a great Little Mermaid one. You can see it here
As far as getting started, I don't know of a kit that contains all you need. You can go to the Wilton website and look there, but I usually just bought what I needed for each cake. It was more expensive in the beginning, buying pans and icing tips etc. But now that I've built up a collection it doesn't cost a lot to make a cake. The last cake required 3-4 cake mixes, 5 bags of powdered sugar, a container of shortening, a box of butter, new bottles of vanilla and almond extract, and a bag of premade gum paste. I had just bought a bunch of stuff for some cookies I did the week before, so I had most everything on hand. I will be making two more family cakes soon and I'll definitely need some toothpicks!
In other news I've been terribly sick. I started, a week ago, having fever and chills and painful achy bones and joints all over. After a couple of days it got better, so I thought it was a random virus. I spent the week making cake, staying up late (going back and forth to inlaws to visit family everyday), eating lots of interesting food (all meals at their house) and going going going! So, I started feeling really tired Monday, and by Tuesday was all out sick again. Except the pain was in my joints and terrible! I went to the doctor yesterday and guess what?!! It is a UTI! A urinary tract infection that presented flu symptoms and nothing else. WEIRD!! So, because I have a MUCH anticipated girl overnight shopping trip tomorrow, I am on high powered antibiotics and rest. It probably sounds dumb, but spending a week in your pjs only reading and watching your kids' tv shows and napping really isn't fun when you feel bad.
So, I am still working on homeschool plans. I am so glad for a slow week, although I would like to have been more productive :) So, I'm finalizing it and will order our stuff soon!
To answer a question, yes I do bake cakes for others and our family. It's been a year since I made a cake, but last week with my husband's help we made a great Little Mermaid one. You can see it here
As far as getting started, I don't know of a kit that contains all you need. You can go to the Wilton website and look there, but I usually just bought what I needed for each cake. It was more expensive in the beginning, buying pans and icing tips etc. But now that I've built up a collection it doesn't cost a lot to make a cake. The last cake required 3-4 cake mixes, 5 bags of powdered sugar, a container of shortening, a box of butter, new bottles of vanilla and almond extract, and a bag of premade gum paste. I had just bought a bunch of stuff for some cookies I did the week before, so I had most everything on hand. I will be making two more family cakes soon and I'll definitely need some toothpicks!
In other news I've been terribly sick. I started, a week ago, having fever and chills and painful achy bones and joints all over. After a couple of days it got better, so I thought it was a random virus. I spent the week making cake, staying up late (going back and forth to inlaws to visit family everyday), eating lots of interesting food (all meals at their house) and going going going! So, I started feeling really tired Monday, and by Tuesday was all out sick again. Except the pain was in my joints and terrible! I went to the doctor yesterday and guess what?!! It is a UTI! A urinary tract infection that presented flu symptoms and nothing else. WEIRD!! So, because I have a MUCH anticipated girl overnight shopping trip tomorrow, I am on high powered antibiotics and rest. It probably sounds dumb, but spending a week in your pjs only reading and watching your kids' tv shows and napping really isn't fun when you feel bad.
So, I am still working on homeschool plans. I am so glad for a slow week, although I would like to have been more productive :) So, I'm finalizing it and will order our stuff soon!
July 15, 2013
Summer busies
I can't hardly believe how busy I have been this summer! I was so looking forward to a whole lot of nothing- no demands on my time, just a long boring summer waiting to be filled with whatever we wanted to do. That did not happen.
At the moment I realize it's about the middle of July, and I still haven't had the yard sale I planned over a month ago. I may as well wait now because it's so HOT! I've been busy making cookie and cake orders, altering clothes for people, helping people move, hosting a bbq, having sleepovers, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, sort of doing laundry, going on outings, rearranging bedrooms, digging the garden up, saving plants, killing bugs....MUCH to do.
In the midst of that we did finally make it to the library last week and it was like water to the thirsty for the girls, ha,ha. I am planning our homeschool curriculum right now, and am about decided on it, but not for sure yet. We are going to do school in the kitchen/living area this year in order to free up a bedroom. I enjoyed having a school room, but my girls need some space. I will write about that when I get decided.
So, the other things I've been thinking about are sweaters to knit! Now is the time to start if we want to get to use them this fall and winter. I didn't knit anything for myself last year, and my husband has never gotten anything besides a hat that was too small, so I plan to make some things for us, but I also feel like I need to clothe the children too. It's hard to limit myself! Some ideas....
Matt
Me
Girls
Lots of choices...hard to decide!
Also this week I will be getting some dvds in the mail from Beachbody.com- woo hoo fixing to completely reshape my body!!! So excited. I am still losing with Advocare, but it does energize me and I need to workout to expend it!!!
This coming week we have family from out of town, lots of activities, and I have a Little Mermaid cake to make-ahhhh! Tomorrow is going to be a slow resting day though, possibly floating in the pool is in order. God is so good-He literally brought to my door a brand new swing set for free, and a nice trampoline for free; two things I was sort of thinking about getting (one at a time of course) for Samantha's birthday in August, and we got both! The favor of the Lord! I am bragging on God, because I didn't do anything.
***Started this post last night, just now finishing it
Right now it is cool and raining. We have had an interesting July so far, and summer. It has been hot yes, but we have had weeks of really nice mild weather too. This is the first time in a long while that I've enjoyed summer and not wanted it to just pass and get over with. Awesome!
At the moment I realize it's about the middle of July, and I still haven't had the yard sale I planned over a month ago. I may as well wait now because it's so HOT! I've been busy making cookie and cake orders, altering clothes for people, helping people move, hosting a bbq, having sleepovers, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, sort of doing laundry, going on outings, rearranging bedrooms, digging the garden up, saving plants, killing bugs....MUCH to do.
In the midst of that we did finally make it to the library last week and it was like water to the thirsty for the girls, ha,ha. I am planning our homeschool curriculum right now, and am about decided on it, but not for sure yet. We are going to do school in the kitchen/living area this year in order to free up a bedroom. I enjoyed having a school room, but my girls need some space. I will write about that when I get decided.
So, the other things I've been thinking about are sweaters to knit! Now is the time to start if we want to get to use them this fall and winter. I didn't knit anything for myself last year, and my husband has never gotten anything besides a hat that was too small, so I plan to make some things for us, but I also feel like I need to clothe the children too. It's hard to limit myself! Some ideas....
Matt
Me
Girls
Also this week I will be getting some dvds in the mail from Beachbody.com- woo hoo fixing to completely reshape my body!!! So excited. I am still losing with Advocare, but it does energize me and I need to workout to expend it!!!
This coming week we have family from out of town, lots of activities, and I have a Little Mermaid cake to make-ahhhh! Tomorrow is going to be a slow resting day though, possibly floating in the pool is in order. God is so good-He literally brought to my door a brand new swing set for free, and a nice trampoline for free; two things I was sort of thinking about getting (one at a time of course) for Samantha's birthday in August, and we got both! The favor of the Lord! I am bragging on God, because I didn't do anything.
***Started this post last night, just now finishing it
Right now it is cool and raining. We have had an interesting July so far, and summer. It has been hot yes, but we have had weeks of really nice mild weather too. This is the first time in a long while that I've enjoyed summer and not wanted it to just pass and get over with. Awesome!
July 3, 2013
Today
So I briefly mentioned Advocare.
Advocare is a Christian company that makes and sells high quality nutrition, but also provides a way to make income. Towards the end of May, my sister got involved and handed out some samples. I tried a drink called Spark!- which is an energy drink, but it's basically a shot of B vitamins and a little caffeine. Wow- that stuff is awesome. No crash feelings, no jitters or raciness like I've gotten before from coffee or other energy drinks. (I may have tried an energy drink like one time) Just even sustained energy and focus. In fact, it is used to help people with ADD to help them focus.
Then, she started something called the 24 Day Challenge. The first 10 days are a cleansing phase, and the second part is a metabolic boosting and revving up phase. I totally did not want to do this, but after one week she had lost almost 7 inches and 7lbs and I could see that her clothes were looser. My parents jumped on it, which was amazing to me, because they don't usually do that.
So, I decided to do it. In 6 days I lost 5lbs and over 16 inches! I'm on my third week and have lost over 6 more inches, probably more but I haven't checked. So I've gone down a size in clothes.It was the easiest cleanse I've ever done, and I've done a few. Now, as far as eating and exercise, I haven't done 'formal' exercising. I have been living though- taking care of children, cleaning, swimming in the pool, running errands, we did a huge major kids event in church where I was pretty much on my feet for 10hrs in the hot sun...and eating, well that's the great part. By taking all the supplements, my cravings have been eliminated and it makes it much easier for me to choose healthy food. So, I am eating healthier and smaller portions, yet I know I can have a treat if I want.
All in all, it has been so easy compared to so many other things I've done, and I've actually seen results. Over a decade of no results!! I did everything!!!! The next product I want to try is called Catalyst and it's nicknamed "lipo in a bottle", so I'm REAL interested in that, as well as some sport performance products that help recovery after hard exercise and endurance. The NFL is a big user of these products, as well as singers such as Michael W. Smith and Kutless.
The truth is the products do cost, but I would compare it to Dr. Schulze's products in cost and strength, plus if you become a distributor you get 20% off your orders and you are not required at all to sell the products.
Here's a link for anyone interested.
Advocare
I am honestly not plugging this, just explaining what I meant in one of my earlier posts. I am truly a believer in this company and their products. They are all natural and I've had nothing but good results. Yea!!!
Advocare is a Christian company that makes and sells high quality nutrition, but also provides a way to make income. Towards the end of May, my sister got involved and handed out some samples. I tried a drink called Spark!- which is an energy drink, but it's basically a shot of B vitamins and a little caffeine. Wow- that stuff is awesome. No crash feelings, no jitters or raciness like I've gotten before from coffee or other energy drinks. (I may have tried an energy drink like one time) Just even sustained energy and focus. In fact, it is used to help people with ADD to help them focus.
Then, she started something called the 24 Day Challenge. The first 10 days are a cleansing phase, and the second part is a metabolic boosting and revving up phase. I totally did not want to do this, but after one week she had lost almost 7 inches and 7lbs and I could see that her clothes were looser. My parents jumped on it, which was amazing to me, because they don't usually do that.
So, I decided to do it. In 6 days I lost 5lbs and over 16 inches! I'm on my third week and have lost over 6 more inches, probably more but I haven't checked. So I've gone down a size in clothes.It was the easiest cleanse I've ever done, and I've done a few. Now, as far as eating and exercise, I haven't done 'formal' exercising. I have been living though- taking care of children, cleaning, swimming in the pool, running errands, we did a huge major kids event in church where I was pretty much on my feet for 10hrs in the hot sun...and eating, well that's the great part. By taking all the supplements, my cravings have been eliminated and it makes it much easier for me to choose healthy food. So, I am eating healthier and smaller portions, yet I know I can have a treat if I want.
All in all, it has been so easy compared to so many other things I've done, and I've actually seen results. Over a decade of no results!! I did everything!!!! The next product I want to try is called Catalyst and it's nicknamed "lipo in a bottle", so I'm REAL interested in that, as well as some sport performance products that help recovery after hard exercise and endurance. The NFL is a big user of these products, as well as singers such as Michael W. Smith and Kutless.
The truth is the products do cost, but I would compare it to Dr. Schulze's products in cost and strength, plus if you become a distributor you get 20% off your orders and you are not required at all to sell the products.
Here's a link for anyone interested.
Advocare
I am honestly not plugging this, just explaining what I meant in one of my earlier posts. I am truly a believer in this company and their products. They are all natural and I've had nothing but good results. Yea!!!
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