I'm hungry for something...

The Power of Influence...

2011-09-16T14:31:00.000-05:00

I was reading through portions of the books of Galatians and Acts in my bible this morning. A section in Acts talked about Paul and Barnabas preaching to the Jews and Gentiles about Christ. It's no secret that Paul and Barnabas were often targets of violence and persecution because of their outspoken beliefs. Yet that abuse never stopped them from continuing on and faithfully teaching and preaching. After speaking to a large group, Paul and Barnabas' words were spreading like wildfire. Some Jews, of course, did not like this and began to plot against them. While reading, I was pointed through my study to a verse to think more intently upon and study the context around it. Here's where it get's interesting to me...

"But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region." -Acts 13:50

Who did the Jews motivate first to act against Paul and Barnabas? Women. And not just any women. They were "God-fearing women of high standing...", women of influence. Interesting. I then read this statement in my study book...

For reasons we may never know, God entrusted womankind a most wonderful and terrible gift; the power of influence.

I've never thought about my influence being a gift from God. In fact, if I really meditate on that, I would say that in thinking about influence, I would relate to it in a negative way - the terrible gift. I think of people, including myself, to often use their influence to be manipulative or for personal gain. It's not really a fair thought and I am somewhat embarresed and disappointed with myself that I immediately went that direction in my head with it. But what if I used my gift of influence for positive and unselfish gain? What would that look like? My thoughts immediately went to my children and husband, and then ventured outward to the rest of my family, friends, and those I don't even know. Suddenly I feel a weight on my shoulders that I am not doing what I could to influence others in a positive way.

What does the gift of influence look like in my home? At a family gathering? Out shopping at the grocery store? At church? Wow. God is pressing upon my heart to really think about this and take action. At best, my influence should teach, encourage, nurture, love, and allow others to grow. This is powerful and I am equipped and capable of doing all those things. What a wonderful and unexpected gift.

Farm Meals...

2011-09-01T17:43:00.027-05:00

As we wrap up week twelve of our CSA season I thought I should do another update as to how we have been using up our produce from the farm. We have received some amazing boxes the past three weeks and some amazing meals have resulted! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have found our farmers. I love them!! Here's a look at what we have received...


Week 10 - Cilantro, Collard Greens Cucumbers, Garlic, Green Bell Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Purple Carrots, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Red Onions, Tomatillos, Yellow Watermelon

Week 11 - Broccoli, Cucumbers, Curly Parsley, Edamame, Garlic, Green Zucchini, Mini Watermelon, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Patty Pan Squash, Rainbow Chard, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Sweet Red Peppers, Yellow & Red Onions

Week 12 - Cucumber, Dragon Tongue Beans, Edamame, Garlic, Green Kale, Green Savoy Cabbage, Mixed Bag o’ Tomatoes, Purple, Rosemary, Sungold Tomatoes, Sweet Corn, Sweet White Onions, Yukon Gold Potatoes

The colors are amazing aren't they!! Every week I get so excited because there is something new to discover. And every week, there is something that also arrives that just plain overwhelms us...we've had many phases of this feeling this season. First it was cabbage, then it was cucumbers, now...the tomatoes...SO. MANY. TOMATOES!! But that's been OK, it has really challenged me to get thinking and not waste anything! And I am proud to say that we have not thrown anything away! Here's what we've done with the tomatoes so far...

Tomato and fresh Mozzarella Salad topped w/ fresh basil and drizzled with Sunflower Vinaigrette

This simple tomato salad was awesome with grilled organic grass fed beef burgers...so light and flavorful. We also put tomato slices on the burgers themselves! This only used up 2 tomatoes, though. I needed to find something that would use up a lot more in one recipe. So we moved on to salsa! I've never made homemade salsa before but my mom has and shared it with us. I can remember how fresh it tasted and wanted to try recreating it myself. I used a recipe from my favorite cookbook Simply in Season as a guide and here is what we came up with!

Colorful, isn't it? I used an entire pint of sun gold tomatoes and three others from our bag 'o tomatoes that we received. We also used cilantro, red onion, banana peppers, and green peppers...all from the farm! This salsa was amazing...even the kids loved it!!

My husband fell in love with the flavors as well and devoured the entire batch (about 4 cups!) in only a few days. So we will be making more of this again this week with our fresh box of produce.

I used the extra basil and parsley we received to make basil pesto. I used some on a tomato mozzarella panini sandwich that I made for lunch one day and saved the rest in the freezer for a pasta dish later in the fall.

We had friends over for dinner last week and I put together these amazing veggie plates...using up the purple beans, more sun gold tomatoes, cucumbers and purple carrots. I love the colors...very fall looking...

Inspired by a friend, I made a veggie stir fry one night and served it over organic jasmine rice. I used up the broccoli, sweet onion, purple carrots, green cabbage, sweet corn, and edamame in this dish...

Using up the kale, we had sausage with sauteed kale served with potato cheddar pierogi's...this is a dish my mom made for us all the time as kids...minus the kale...it's a quick easy meal...and much more flavorful with my personal touch of added dark leafy greens!

I spoiled myself one morning after the kids went to school and made myself a rainbow chard quiche with sweet onion and garlic for breakfast...oh the goodness...and I served it to myself on our china just for fun...I'm worth it!

We don't always make meals with our farm box food...the past couple weeks we've gotten creative with some of it and tried making a few drinks. A simple one I love is water infused with cucumber...

We couldn't eat our yellow watermelon fast enough so we blended this into a lemon watermelon smoothie! We mixed 4 cups of chopped watermelon, 1 pint of good lemon sorbet, about 16 ice cubes, and a splash of water to get it all moving in the blender...this was a heavenly summer treat we sereved to the kids one warm evening we had a cookout!

Clearly we have been incredibly blessed with amazing healthy food to create amazing healthy meals and treats! We are so thankful for our farmers and their hard work...we only wish we lived closer to them so we could thank them in person, help work on the farm, or bring them some of our creations to try for themselves!

I would love to hear what everyone else is preparing with their summer produce! What's been your favorite meal or treat you have made?

Summer of Service...Simple Acts of Kindness

2011-08-22T12:21:00.001-05:00

When teaching my children this summer about honoring God and serving others in need, I also wanted them to know that serving doesn't always have to be for a social cause or big organization. I want to train them to look for needs right under their noses. To be aware of those close to us and to actively seek out opportunities every day to love and serve others and be a reflection of Christ. One way I try to do this myself is to also look for those who do not have a relationship with God and try and find ways that I can show them His love without pushing my idea of faith on them with words. The greatest way to teach someone about God and His love is through our actions and how we live out His truth, and I really want my children to learn this.

Our last few projects have not been large enough to write an entire story about them. And I like that. I like that looking back, I can create one larger story about several small ones. I kind of feel like that is part of the point of this summer serving project as well...to teach the kids that serving doesn't always end in a production, a reward, or a story about how great they did. Some of the greatest acts of service often go unnoticed. We can never know how any one action we choose to make will impact another person. I hope that I have begun to teach my children this concept.

Our neighbors went out of town for a few days. She asked the kids to gather her mail and newspapers each day they were gone and she would pay them. All the kids took turns checking the mail, picking up the papers, and keeping an eye on their house while they were gone. They all did it as an act of kindness and did not accept any payment for their effort. This was an important job, in my perspective, and an important lesson for the kids. I never want my children to expect anything in return for helping a neighbor with anything. We also talked about how we should always let our neighbors know before there is a need that we are available to them. We accomplish this by interacting with them, developing a relationship, and communicate with actions, behavior, and words that we can be trusted. Developing relationships and investing in others is an act of service in and of itself.

I caught wind at a party that one of my husband's employees was going to be having a root canal. Not a huge deal. Except when you put together the facts that he and his wife have 3 very young children and his appointment was scheduled for early afternoon, you can figure that this young mother will have her hands very full caring for a husband just home from the dentist and trying to get dinner on the table for her little ones. That time of day is a challenge for any family with young kids, and take away the help of the other parent and it can be stressful! We have been there many times! So the kids and I spent the day of his appointment chopping vegetables, baking bread, and preparing a comforting, wholesome, and easy to serve meal for his family and delivered it right at dinner time for them to enjoy. This was a lesson in learning to listen to the people you are talking with and identifying needs they may not even be thinking of at the time. I also showed them how to think about those they would be feeding and what their taste preferences might be. We made them vegetable soup, chicken pot pie, zucchini bread and a salad with homemade salad dressing. Lots of young kids can be picky eaters and not like blended flavors, so to be safe, and to ensure that everyone would be happy and their mom would not have to still create a separate meal, we came up with a "kids meal" for the little ones. I asked our kids what they thought we should do and we came up with the "deconstructed chicken pot pie" for the toddlers...Emma was the creative one who came up with using saltine crackers to represent the pie crust!

We were so busy working on the preparation that I forgot to take pictures of the kids in action helping prepare the meal. Here's a picture of the end result, though, before we took it over to them to eat, with everything labeled with what it was and how to heat it up...

My husband stopped home between meetings and took the girls with him to deliver the meal. They visited for a few minutes and the girls played with the kids after showing them what they made for them...

We received a very kind thank you note from the family a short time later which was nice for the kids to see, and it reinforced to them that small steps and efforts can reap huge rewards for someone else. That made them feel good about how hard and long we worked on this meal.

As for other small service projects, the kids have done a lot individually as the summer progressed. Cameron spent an entire day at school helping teachers prepare for the beginning of the school year. He pulled out and prepared laptops for the classrooms and helped teachers get their technology needs up and running and in order. We had close family friends move to the area recently and we have put a lot of focus on them as a family helping them get settled and oriented. My husband has spent a lot of time helping them get their housing situated, coaching them through moving logistics, and giving up his time to listen and help his friend through some of the more stressful times of coordinating the move. We have invited the kids swimming with us, given up one of our cars for a day when theirs wouldn't start so they could get their errands finished, and will be having them over for dinner and s'mores around the campfire tonight. We are so happy to have them here and want them to know they are loved, welcomed, and cared for during this stressful and chaotic time!! We know all to well how hard it is to move to a new city and not know anything and have very little help. We hope this helps them transition a little bit easier!

I could go on with a few more things but it feels like gloating and that defeats the purpose of serving for me. If I could choose one thing I want the kids to take away from this summer, it's to serve silently, with a willing and kind heart, and a with smile. I think I have accomplished that for the most part. I know there will be times when I call them to act and they will grumble...but I think we have learned enough that it will only take a gentle reminder for them to remember how much our serving is welcomed and loved by our Lord...which is why we do it...to bless others and shine His love on the world while we are here.

Summer ends for us here in two days as school begins on Wednesday. We beat our goal of serving at least once a week. There were several weeks where we served many times in large and small ways. It was refreshing to put others first. To plan around projects instead of trying to fit things in and plan around our schedule. The kids had great experiences in everything they did and there is a unanamous excitement for one particular project which we will do over again many times as a family...including again in a couple weeks...the Kids Against Hunger pack-a-thon . We also talked about doing things again next summer, like the Special Olympics, and how we can get more friends and families involved with us. Now that school is starting I don't want to forget this focus. We will continue to serve as often as we can and whenever we see a need and can take action. I am excited to see my children put this into practice throughout the year and see how much they notice on their own and decide to do something about it, no matter how big or small.

"Remember that you are not called to be well-served, but to serve Him well."

Farm Meals...

2011-08-15T15:11:00.002-05:00

We've flown through week eight and nine of our CSA season. Our house has been filled with guests, which has given me plenty of opportunities to show off our farm box produce in the meals that I have made for them. Here's a peak at what we received in our boxes...


Week 8 - Corn, sweet onion, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, garlic, banana peppers, cucumbers, thyme, broccoli, nappa cabbage, sungold tomatoes, eggplant, and kale.

Week 9 - sungold tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, patty pan squash, zucchini, yellow squash, green pepper, beets, eggplant, heirloom tomato, garlic, cucumbers, carrots, sweet onion, and sage

One of the things I was looking forward to making was zucchini bread. I was hoping for a big huge pile of them as was character of our farm boxes back in MI this time of the season. But when we only received one more in last week's box, I was bummed. I had enough zucchini to make one loaf but I wanted to make two. So I got creative and made one of the loaves with one zucchini and the one lonely patty pan squash we received. It turned out fantastic and the kids gobbled it up...we gave the first loaf to a family we were making dinner for. Here's a picture of the loaf made with zucchini and patty pan squash...we ate it with strawberries and a dollop of homemade almond whipped cream...

The abundance of cabbage and cucumbers has been awesome! My kids love cucumbers so we mostly just sliced them up to eat as snacks with the carrots, peppers, and cauliflower we also received. But, I also made a wonderful cucumber salad w/ fresh dill to eat for lunch one day...it reminded me of a salad my mother used to make when I was younger...

Cucumber Salad

I was struggling with the amount of cabbage we've been getting. I wanted to make a coleslaw with some but my husband has a negative attitude towards coleslaw based on childhood experiences of it always being loaded with mayonnaise, which he hates. With that in mind, I tried a Carrot and Cabbage Slaw recipe I found online that had a dressing made out of white wine vinegar to pair with pulled pork sandwiches. I served it up and put some on my sandwich, and he followed suit. Turns out he LOVED it and used the leftovers in a sandwich wrap with the leftover pork the next day! Hooray for adding new veggies into his diet!

Cabbage and Carrot Slaw

In keeping with my motto of "cook once, eat twice," the pulled pork sandwiches were made from a leftover pork tenderloin we grilled a couple nights before. In the preparation, I used the banana peppers, scallions, garlic, and cilantro from the farm to flavor the pork while simmering. I then made a homemade BBQ sauce, pulled the pork and continued simmering for a little while longer in the BBQ sauce...they were so good!

I also made a Chinese Nappa Cabbage Salad with peanuts, chow mien noodles, and black sesame seeds topped with a homemade vinaigrette dressing. This was a great summer salad too that lasted us a couple days because the cabbage was so huge!

Chinese Nappa Cabbage Salad

I also made a huge pot of Autumn Vegetable Soup...my favorite soup recipe ever from my favorite cookbook Simply in Season! It was made almost exclusively from ingredients from our farm box...we used the corn, cabbage, kale, green pepper, onion, tomatoes, garlic and parsley. This is a great recipe for using up those veggies!!

Autumn Vegetable Soup

Another staple meal I ususally make when visitors are in the house is my "famous" burritos. It's a great dish that serves a lot of people and I have never had anyone who has not liked them! This time I was able to use the rest of the banana peppers from the farm in this recipe. I chopped them up small, sauteed them, and then added to the meat and bean mixture and also simmered them into the tomato sauce that I pour over the top before adding cheese and baking. We topped them with the shredded lettuce and the rest of the sungold tomatoes from the farm, which were a perfect sweet compliment to the light spice of the peppers throughout!

Burrito prep - sungold tomatoes and banana peppers from the farm, plus lettuce

Burrito Dinner w/ Spanish rice

After all the meals I was able to use cabbage in, I now only have two small heads left which will likely go in another batch of Autumn Vegetable Soup soon to freeze for later in the fall. The last of the visitors are gone for the summer and school starts next week. I am looking forward to getting into an even healthier meal and eating routine, minus the sweets, and including things like purple carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers in the kids school lunches. What a great example they can be to their friends eating fresh veggies from the farm instead of chips, crackers, or empty calorie foods.

Thanks for all the great feedback, emails, and comments. As always, if there is a recipe I didn't include that you would like to try, just let me know! I would be more than happy to share it.

Summer of Sevice - 363 days...

2011-08-10T07:14:00.001-05:00

As summer rolls on we continue to learn and grow from serving the Lord and those around us. In keeping with our previous theme of helping to fight hunger, we chose a project that would directly affect our own community. While researching ideas for our Summer of Service, I stumbled upon an organization called 363 Days.

Each year, various organizations put together programs for Thanksgiving and Christmas to help feed, clothe and take care of those less fortunate. There is a remarkable amount of time, energy and money that goes into these programs. An honest question, pondered by those who participate is, "What happens the other 363 days of the year?" 363 Days was established with the other days in mind. Their starting goal was to help feed 150 homeless people in Minneapolis as many times a year as possible, with the ultimate goal of doing it every day of the year. Today, they are feeding about 2,000 people per day!

Volunteering for this organization is pretty simple, and perfect for children. All you need is a commitment to purchase the supplies and find the time and place to make sandwiches...as many as you want to assemble. I loved the idea of being able to do something so easy that could impact someone we might just see regularly near our home in the city. The whole family was once again able to serve in some capacity for this project...and we even timed this one around a visit we would be having with my 4 yr old niece so we (especially the kids) could begin teaching and sharing with someone else the value of serving others.

We as a family had committed to supply 300 sandwiches to this organization. I wanted a challenging number so it wasn't so short the kids didn't have time to process what they were doing. Since my husband would be working the next day, he and I went shopping for the supplies (so he could participate in some capacity). We bought 15 loaves of bread, 4 big packages of cheese, 12 packages of turkey slices and 2 boxes of ziploc baggies. In the morning, I moved all the chairs away from the dining room table and set the kids up in an assembly line. I let them come up with their own rhythm of working together and just helped ease some of the hiccups along the way.

As you can see, they managed just fine!

The three younger kids mostly assembled the sandwiches and the older two mostly packed them up and prepared them for delivery.

The kids also had fun trying to keep their little cousin on task. They learned quickly that she needed to rotate her job often to stay interested, but she did a great job!! We think her favorite thing to do was to line the sandwiches up in rows and count them!

Once every sandwich was sealed, packed and stacked we bagged them up and took a ride to a delivery location, which for us happened to be a small business that put a chest freezer in their office to store the sandwiches that come in.

363 Days then sends a truck around once a week to all the drop off locations throughout the city to pick up sandwich donations and stores them in their main freezer, which has the capacity to hold 50,000 sandwiches on any given day until they are ready to be taken out into the community to feed those in need.

It took us a little over an hour to make 312 sandwiches!! That's 312 times someone will get a light meal because of our family. A sandwich doesn't seem like much to most of us but I know many people are incredibly grateful to receive one if they are hungry and have trouble affording a meal. Not only does the sandwich nourish their body, but I'd also like to believe that some of those people are touched by more than just getting food...maybe they learn about the love of God through others? Or they receive a boost of self esteem and worth if they notice people take the time to make sure they are fed? That's my hope. It's pretty incredible the impact you can make in such a short amount of time...

A Day In The Life Of A Happy Husband...

2011-08-08T09:39:00.034-05:00

Last week seemed to be a tough one for my husband. He came home flippy, stressed, and on some days, down right grumpy. He was busy during the days and staying up late at night. When he finally did go to sleep, he was restless, tossing, and turning. By the time Friday evening rolled around I had a problem on my hands...an overtired, impatient, antsy, overloaded...well, you get the picture...

All week long I was noticing the build up. I was wishing there was something I could do to help him out and lighten his load. He works so hard for our family. He's incredibly ambitious, creative, and selfless. He takes time out of his day to help his new employees move into their new homes or to talk a friend through a life transition. He'll coach up-and-coming professionals who look to him for advice, and even makes time for me...filling in the gaps by running and errand, or doing a kid pick-up to lighten the load of my day and responsibilities of running our home, despite his already full schedule.

There are things I can do to ease his day, like making sure he always has clean, pressed clothes in the morning, a comforting, healthy meal on the table when he arrives in the evening, and managing our home flawlessly (that's the goal at least!) so he doesn't have to worry about anything extra while at work during the day, and most importantly, greet him at the door with a smile on my face. Friday was a different story, though. None of those things seemed to be helping him, and I knew he needed a time-out away from work, away from the kids, and away from home to reset and recharge his batteries. I enlisted (aka "bribed") the help of our oldest daughter for babysitting the younger ones, and before we went to bed, planned a "day date" beginning first thing in the morning.

I was determined for this to be a great day for him. He needed it! Upon waking, I spiffed myself up...I needed to look my best for him and he needed something sweet to look at...so no jeans or the typical "Saturday uniform." Nope, it was a "nice summer dress, combed hair, and make-up" kind of day. While the kids woke up one by one and settled in with pancakes (and doughnuts for a treat...again, bribery!) we sat out in our screened porch in the warm breeze for a chat. I let him run the conversation, for once, to let him unload a bit, and once everyone was awake, we took off for our own breakfast. Here's where we ate...


Longfellow Grill

The Longfellow Grill is a small restaurant we discovered last fall right along the Mississippi River near the kids' school. David loves eating outside when he can so we chose a table out on their patio in the shade. It was a beautiful morning, with plenty of sunshine and a warm summer breeze, and the area was active with bikers and walkers so the people watching was great! He was content and began to relax...we were off to a good start.

After breakfast we drove across the river to St. Paul and through some of the neighborhoods to kill some time. Then we toured the Town and Country Club, an urban golf and country club, as we are looking to find a place for David to be able to entertain and socialize with colleagues and clients and us to have a place to "play" as a family without the crowds and hassles of some of the big city amenities we currently use...like our gym, pool, and places to eat. These can be "problematic"or "a hike" to get to occasionally, depending on time of day, traffic, or other things going on in the city. This club is also right across the river from the kids' school so it could work nicely for me as a "landing pad" after school with any combination of kids while the other ones are at activities in the same general area, avoiding driving back and forth across town! Needless to say, it was gorgeous. And the golf course was amazing. And David LOVES to golf. I would love for him to have a place to go to unwind whenever he wanted to, to play golf, socialize with other professionals, and/or relax! Here are some of the sights we took in while there...

I mean seriously...what guy wouldn't want to spend time in that scenery? Or this...later in the fall...

Or this pool, to play in with his kids, never having to worry about whether there will be a chair available to sit in the sun or dry off after a swim...

The tour was great. David was in his element and loved talking to the golf pro and the clubhouse manager about all sorts of things. It definitely beat out some of the other clubs we had viewed and I think he left feeling happy and content about creating a new community for himself and our family there...it definitely gave him something fun and different to think about!

Back home we went for lunch. I made one of his favorites, Pulled Pork Sandwiches with a homemade BBQ sauce and Cabbage and Carrot slaw, which he raved about...yes!

After lunch, he was a new man. He played catch outside with one of the boy's while I watered the flowers. We took a short walk around the neighborhood, he sat with his feet up and watched golf...and the biggest accomplishment I noticed...??? He never once took out his phone to check his email, respond to emails or texts, or get himself sucked into work by even looking at it...huge positive!

After dinner was the best part of the day (for me). We went here...

Again, what guy doesn't love hanging out in the Apple store? We looked at computers, phones, iPads, iPods...played with them all...talked about upgrading stuff we've had for awhile, etc...and the best part? I finally decided to get my new computer. Which made him smile, because it made me smile, and he got to help me get it all set up before we went to bed.

Days like this are so important. Everyone should take the time to step away from daily routines and stressors to recharge and relax, to not think about work, and think about caring for and nourishing themselves. I love my husband A TON. I am so happy that we were able to have this time together, even if it did mean bribing the kids, setting aside typical Saturday chores, and pushing off running errands for another day. We don't get to do things like this very often and it was a blessing. I feel like I got my husband back...the happy, witty, easy going, generous and fun loving man that he is. I need to remember to plan these kind of days with him more often...days about HIM...with, or sometimes without, me...so he never gets overloaded and stressed like that again. It's important to not only have balance in our lives as wives, but to help our husbands create balance in their lives as well.

Farm Meals...

2011-08-05T14:30:00.130-05:00

I have really been enjoying our CSA this summer. The variety has been amazing and the flavor of the organic produce we are getting is unbelievable!! The color is amazing and each week we are introduced to something new grown this season on our farm. It's been several weeks since I have shown pictures of our weekly bounty so to catch you up, here are some snapshots of what we have been receiving.

Week 4 - Broccoli, green beans, purple cabbage, snow peas, cauliflower, yellow squash, celery, red leaf lettuce, fennel, red and white scallions, green garlic, dinosaur kale, and mint.

Week 5 - red leaf lettuce, salad greens, broccoli, snow peas, green beans, carrots, golden beets, yellow squash, zucchini, garlic, scallions, cauliflower, parsley, and basil.

Week 6 - corn, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, broccoli, sweet onion, garlic, carrots, yellow squash, cucumber, salad greens, zucchini, parsley, and cilantro.

Week 7 - green beans, carrots, broccoli, nappa cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, banana peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet onion, corn, golden tomatoes, and thyme.

I have been able to make some fabulous meals out of this produce! For the most part, I have been able to come up with uses for everything...except the cabbage...I'm having a hard time keeping up with the cabbage!!

Here's some of the many dishes we have been eating. Some are basic meals we all make from time to time but are kicked up a notch by adding fresh herbs, like Naan Pizza and Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs, where I used the basil in the sauce and as a fresh topping! I love basil. It is by far my favorite herb.

I also made Lemon Chicken Pasta and tossed in 1/2 cup of chopped flat leaf parsley. This was a perfect summer recipe. It's a very light, refreshing, and flavorful dish for a warm night that can be served hot, at room temperature, or cold the next day for lunch. For our dinner, we ate it at room temperature.

I also made a basic meatloaf for dinner one night a couple weeks ago when it wasn't too terribly hot out. This is one of the few meals I make, surprisingly (since it's such an "old school" dish), that the entire family will eat and lick their plates clean. This time, though, I used A TON of fresh herbs...basically, everything that was left in the fridge...parsley, basil, rosemary, and thyme...all from the farm (except the thyme). It was by far the best meatloaf I have ever made...and everyone else agreed. My oldest daughter kept trying to figure out what was different!

This isn't the most attractive picture of a meatloaf since it isn't cooked...I forgot to take a picture after it was plated...but you can really see the fresh herbs throughout. I served this with purple potatoes and broccoli (also from the farm!)...

Once we got digging into the greens and veggies things really started to get interesting! One of our favorite "farm meals" yet this summer has been Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps w/ Peanut Sauce and Curried Cauliflower and Snow Peas served over warm basmati rice. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This was such a flavorful dish!! And there were enough components to it that the kids could customize their lettuce wraps to their liking! In this one meal I used our red leaf lettuce, cauliflower, snow peas, cilantro, garlic, and scallions...and it was so filling...and healthy!

I'm also a huge advocate for cooking once and having enough to change up and use for future meals. Not only does this save time for future meal preps, it creates creativity when cooking. I don't always have an idea of what I'll do with extra food, but if I don't want it to go to waste...then I need to come up with something! Last week I made a HUGE salad out of our remaining spinach, kohlrabi, and purple cabbage. A couple of nights later, when we still had half a bowl of salad left, I sauteed the whole thing in a little olive oil, added some apples, maple syrup, and a touch of apple cider vinegar and served it as a side with grilled pork tenderloin. We also used corn and salad greens from the farm for this meal as well!

I still have pork tenderloin and sauteed cabbage leftover, so to give it a third life I am going to make pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce and top them with the remaining purple cabbage slaw tomorrow. That will be a perfect Saturday lunch for my hubby!

And last but not least, I made a beautiful pasta salad the other day to put a dent into some of the single veggies that have come in over the past couple weeks. In this salad is zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, golden tomatoes, broccoli, yellow peppers, and fresh mozzarella. I tossed it w/ a Sunflower Salad Vinaigrette using the sunflower oil produced by our farm as well. This has been an awesome lunch filler and light late night snack.

So as you can see, it seems like A TON of produce. But it doesn't take much to create a delicious meal using fresh foods or even transform recipes that our mothers and grandmothers have passed down to us that they used to make! If any of these meals look good to you, or you would like to try one of the recipes I used, send me an email or leave a comment and I will email it to you right away. And I would love to be inspired by you and what you've been cooking up in your kitchen this summer. The best way to be successful in nourishing our families with whole foods is to share our success and encourage one another!

Intentional Living...

2011-08-03T15:48:00.003-05:00

One of the challenges I give myself spiritually, and as a wife and mother, is to choose the way I live my life as intentionally as I can. It's easy to go through your days like a robot. Or to follow the ways of the world and immerse yourself into what culture, community, or media dictates as "normal" or "ok." I like to be different. Go against the grain. Challenge myself to be better. To have a reason for everything I do and to be sure that my reasons are in line with what my beliefs are. I don't often give myself a head check to see how I'm doing with my intentions, though.

I'm a perfectionist. I hate that about myself. I crave order, demand it, actually. And it can be crippling sometimes. I haven't figured out why I am like this or why it's so hard for me to compromise. I have some ideas, but I won't get into that. That could be a whole other conversation. But the craving, and exhausting clamor, for perfect, order, glitch free, or whatever it is I'm trying to accomplish is getting in the way of me following through on my intentions.

When I decide to tackle an area of my life, whether it's exercise, healthy eating and cooking, home care, spirituality, serving my spouse or children, cleaning, jumping back into my career, whatever...I do it with amazing force and power. I knock it out of the park...for a little while...until I, predictably, get burned out and somewhat frustrated that everything else in that list has been completely ignored and left behind. And I end up with an amazing amount of catching up to do in those other areas in my life that I am responsible for. And even though I am doing beyond great in one category of life, I end up feeling a little bit like a failure because everything else was left in the dust. It's a ridiculous cycle I go through over and over that needs to be balanced. Please tell me that I am not the only person who does this?!!

Yesterday, my husband called me on his way home from work after getting a text from one of our kids asking him to pick something up on his way because we couldn't figure out what to make. The afternoon had gotten away from me and nothing was prepared. He started the conversation by saying, "So I guess this isn't one of those days where I come home to an awesome dinner waiting for me on the table?" Although it was totally lighthearted with no negative intentions, the guilt that welled up inside of me was pretty intense. He was totally right, although he didn't know it. That act of service...having an amazing home cooked meal on the table when he gets home...is one of my intentions. It may sound old fashioned, but the results that come from it relationally within our family, and our marriage, are very sweet. That statement from my husband let me know that action on that intention is important to him as well, for whatever reason it is for him. Being an attentive wife and mother is so important. I know this. It's one of my most important jobs that God has bestowed upon me. Getting caught up in other things, our unusual and unpredictable summer schedule, trying to find some semblance of a routine, and spending too much time thinking about how I can be a better person, and planning my perfection, has caused a lacking in my attentiveness.

Today I am thankful for my husband and his witty remark about a lack of dinner on the table last night. It unintentionally reopened my eyes to that list of intentions that I have and desire so greatly to balance throughout my life so I can be a blessing to those around me, and, be a reflection of God to others who watch me. Thanks for the "head check" my love, you make me a better person!

Summer of Service - Kids Against Hunger

2011-08-02T13:15:00.007-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I have updated on our summer of service but the lack of writing does not reflect a lack of service! We are an incredibly blessed family. We have everything we need and then some. We never lack food on our table, and always have the ability to eat fresh, local, organic, in season, and variety at every meal. We all take this for granted and we need to refocus ourselves back to the world around us and remember that not everybody has this. It's easy to forget about others who may be suffering when you never seem to.

Consider this…

One billion people around the world live in chronic poverty and hunger.
40,000 children die each day from starvation and illnesses related to malnutrition.
One-half of all deaths of children under age five are associated with hunger.
And yet, the world produces enough food to feed every man, woman and child a healthy diet every day.

So with these facts in mind, we have been busy helping fight hunger near us and far away.

Our church sponsors an awesome program called Kids Against Hunger that was founded right here in the Twin Cities area. The mission of Kids Against Hunger, a humanitarian food-aid organization, is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed starving children throughout the world. The organization’s approach to achieving its goal - the eradication of world hunger - includes the packaging of a highly nutritious, vitamin-fortified soy-rice casserole by volunteers at numerous locations within the USA and Canada, and the distribution of those meals to starving children and their families in over 60 countries through partnerships with humanitarian organizations worldwide. That's where we came in...we participated in a food "pack-a-thon" hosted by our church.

During our packing session we packaged Kids Against Hunger’s specially formulated rice-soy casserole into serving size portions to send to schools in Haiti. The story behind why our church helps these schools was just heartbreaking. Can you imagine having to choose to give your child up just so they can survive? Neither can I. There are so many families in Haiti that are so poor they cannot adequately feed their children. When the children are old enough to attend school many parents are faced with a very difficult choice. Send them to school to learn for their future, but likely end up malnourished or starved, or sell them off as slaves so they can work for food and adequate shelter and survive. The meals we packed allow these children to be fed while they are at school...and the parents no longer have to choose to give them up for their survival. Sometimes it is their only meal for the day, but it is enough to sustain them.

I particularly liked this day because the pack-a-thon was on a Saturday afternoon and we were able to serve together as an entire family. My husband is a busy guy. It's hard to nail him down sometimes, so he doesn't always get to serve with us because of his schedule! But he was a trooper for sure on this particular day as his flight home, after being gone for 7 days, literally landed 25 minutes before we started packing food! It was fun to walk into church and see him waiting for us with a big smile on his face, see the kids jump all over him, and then hop right in to something meaningful together as a family. Loved it!

The kids thought this was a great activity. The organizers did a great job making it a fun, casual environment. They played music for the volunteers and intermittently educated us with facts about hunger and the children in Haiti that we were packing for. This was also another great teamwork activity where everyone had to work together in a certain way to be efficient, fast, but also careful!

We talked a lot about the food we were packaging while we were working. Of course being the label reader I am, and teaching the kids to do the same, we were all reading the nutrition labels of the food package. For the most part we were OK with what we were packing, although, we might have been known to add an extra large scoop of the dehydrated veggies as well...see my partners in crime below...who me??!

We also talked a lot about how blessed we are to be able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables all day long and how that would be hard to only have grains and dehydrated foods as our only meal. Although, Sarah thought the grains we were packing still smelled good and continued to sniff everything all afternoon.

Having such a large family, we took over an entire packing station as well, which allowed everyone to rotate jobs which helped keep them from getting bored but also learn the entire process of food packaging as well.

There were about 60 volunteers there packing together, including us. Together we were able to scoop, sort, seal, box, and prepare for shipment just over 20,000 meals in 2 hrs!!

The kids had so much fun on this service day. It was a great project to teach them that not every type of service has to be hard, challenging, or physically difficult. Yes, we were all exhausted, had sticky hands, food dust in our eyes and tired feet, but seeing the pictures of the children we were helping and participating in the process of making such a huge difference with just the sacrifice of two hours time was pretty impactful on all of them. They all wanted the event to last longer. We decided as a family we could do a repeat of this one on a regular basis as our church schedules this event about every 4 weeks!

Farm Meals...

2011-06-27T13:50:00.000-05:00

As I promised, I am sharing some of the meals I will be making this week from our box of fresh produce from our CSA farm Driftless Organics. Last night was a winner for the meal and for maximizing what's in the fridge! There were only a few ingredients in the entire dinner that were not a part of our CSA box. I used the salad greens, broccoli, 3 weeks worth of radishes, red leaf lettuce, and strawberries. That's five different vegetables and greens in just one meal!! Plus I added some organic yellow onion so we ate 6 different varieties. Awesome!

For me, one of the hardest veggies to use in cooking from our box is radishes, and we get a lot of them! Usually, a new bunch for several weeks in a row. They have a wonderful color and crunch to them, but often come with a serious spicy kick that can linger for quite awhile in your mouth, especially organic ones, because organic anything always has loads more flavor than conventional varieties. I do not know very many people that love mad amounts of radish in anything. My kids won't eat them raw, the flavor is a little too much for their tender tongues. So I decided to try something new and slice them up and saute them with caramelized onions...which everyone in this house will eat if I do them "just right."

I love the beautiful color in radishes...the deep pinks are so stunning and vibrant! This radish preparation was a huge success! All I did was slice the onions and radishes thinly and sauteed them in 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs butter (from grass fed cows), until caramelized. My sweet husband grilled a beautiful barbecued pork tenderloin to pair with this. However, the barbecue sauce he chose was super spicy so I improvised quickly and we turned this into a lettuce wrap meal, using the red leaf lettuce to cool down our mouths as we ate the pork! Here it is...


Pork tenderloin lettuce wraps w/ caramelized onion and radish, steamed broccoli, and salad greens.

To round off this beautiful summer supper and to welcome both my husband and oldest daughter home from their 7 day absence I also made a gorgeous strawberry pie as a special treat using the strawberries from our farm box. I am trying very hard to eliminate all packaged, pre-made foods from our diet and attempted a made-from-scratch pie crust instead of a store bought one. The kitchen was too warm yesterday so it ended up being a flop but I had an extra one in the fridge waiting to be used up. I will definitely try this again, though. The pie recipe I used is a new one for me that does not use any Jello or boxed gelatin, which contain food dyes and extra sugar, as the pie base. This recipe, from my favorite cookbook, Simply in Season, uses fresh strawberries mashed and cooked with sugar and cornstarch, which is used as the base thickener. I LOVED it! So much more flavorful and sweet...and healthier!

And of course, what is a homemade pie without homemade whipped cream flavored with a touch of vanilla??

So there you have it! This is by far one of my favorite meals we have had in awhile. It was so fresh, filling and healthy! And it made my husband smile and sigh with contentment, which melts my heart!

Strawberry Pie
From Simply in Season Cookbook

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Blend in a saucepan

1 cup strawberries, mashed
1/2 orange juice or water
Add and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

2 tablespoons lemon juice
Stir in and cool.

4-6 cups of whole strawberries (I halved some the of giant ones)
9 inch baked pastry shell, graham cracker crust, or shortbread tart crust
When cooked fruit is cool, gently fold in additional strawberries and pour into crust. Chill for 3 hours.

Summer of Service - Special Olympics...

2011-06-25T12:37:00.008-05:00

Last night the four younger kids and I went to the campus of the University of Minnesota to volunteer at the Special Olympics - Minnesota Summer Games. I chose this activity for us for a very specific reason. We have a few families in our life that have children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and I have noticed when our kids are exposed to these children, and also out in public, there is apprehension to get close and engage. This is especially the case with our two youngest. I get that. Different is hard...and sometimes scary. And even though I did have plenty of exposure with this growing up I learned to not stare or ask questions about other people's challenges and just turn and look away if I was bothered or unsure. I want to be very intentional with my children when teaching them to accept all walks of life and want them to learn that God creates each one of us in our own perfect way and that even though it might be hard or scary sometimes, we need to accept, love and support everyone.

My goal for this service project was to make it fun and show our children that these kids and adults are just like us in many respects. They like to have fun and have feelings too. They can play, sing, dance, run, compete in sports, cry, laugh...just like us. They just sometimes look, sound, and act it out differently...and sometimes not so differently!

Our job at this event was super simple. Show up, have fun, and be a cheerleader. We were there to support the athletes and make them feel strong, special, and equally as exciting as any other athlete out there. It was the perfect job for the kids because it allowed them to sit and "stare" at these kids from afar and observe and absorb the differences without being offensive or rude. It allowed us time to talk as a family about why it might be hard to be accepting of someone who is different, what about it makes us uncomfortable or afraid, and what we could try to do to get over that and honor God and His design for these individuals. The questions and comments that the kids came up with while we were doing this were so intuitive and innocent. I loved it. I could tell they were really thinking and processing a lot. They were also rewarded with many waves and huge smiles from the competing kids as they heard and saw them cheering them on. It was so precious.

I think the kids gained a lot from this evening. Some of them still had a hard time getting close but I know it will take practice, time, and continued support from us as parents to keep them involved in the process. They all enjoyed the atmosphere, being rewarded with smiles and waves of appreciation from the athletes, and to me, the conversations were priceless. I showed the kids my pictures this morning and they were excited to see themselves in action. I think Cameron summed it up quite nicely for all of us...

"I guess, in reality, there really isn't a whole lot of difference."

Special Olympic Athlete...

My athlete...

Clearly, there is not.

“Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

-Romans 15:7

Bounty...

2011-06-24T13:02:00.001-05:00

I've written before about how much I L.O.V.E my farm share. Two winters ago, my husband and I made the investment and bought a share at a local organic farm in Michigan. From June until October we'd get a share of the crop each week. It was fantastic! So when we moved to Minneapolis last summer I knew I wanted to find a CSA here to continue getting those fresh greens and veggies each week of the growing season. Since we moved late in the season last year we missed the sign ups and we had to use the farmers markets and grocery stores for our greens and produce. But my eyes were peeled each week looking for hints of where to find a good CSA. I looked on the Local Harvest website and was totally overwhelmed by the number of choices. And I couldn't seem to find any that were all organic...my number one requirement. I was feeling bummed that I couldn't find what I wanted until one day while wasting time on twitter I saw a tweet saying their CSA still had openings for this season with a link to their website. I looked it up...it was an organic farm in nearby Wisconsin...they drop off in the Twin Cities...you can register online...I'M IN!!! Signed up and paid on the spot!

Last night I picked up our week three box. I am in love with the variety we have been getting since week one! It's been the perfect balance and amount of greens and veggies for our family and I find myself craving more and more as the weeks go on. Here's a peek at what we have gotten so far this season...

Week One - asparagus, parsnips, pea shoots, Tsoi Sim greens, radishes, thyme, spinach, green garlic, collard greens, salad greens, potatoes, and a bottle of our farm's organic sunflower oil (I purchased this as an extra)

Week Two - pea vine, red potatoes, green garlic, garlic chives, salad greens, spinach, radishes, red butter lettuce, and broccoli

Week Three - baby turnips, french breakfast radishes, garlic scapes, kholrabi, Italian parsley, napa cabbage, rainbow chard, red butterhead lettuce, red leaf lettuce, scallions, a basil plant, and STRAWBERRIES!!

So what does one do with all this produce? You are not alone if you come home from the store or the farmers market with beautiful produce and then let it go bad in the refrigerator because you just aren't quite sure what to do with it! I used to do that all the time but am pretty darn good about using up what I have now from practicing and planning ahead. A lot of you have asked how I manage to do it so this week I will share with you all the creations I come up with and show you how to make the most out of all those vegetables...and hopefully inspire you to try some new ones! With a little bit of forethought and planning, you can have fabulous fresh meals all week long that are delicious as well as nutritious! It will be a fun week sharing with you how I feed my family each day!

And here's a look at a couple of the things we have been making from our farm produce in the last couple weeks...

Farm Breakfast - egg white omlet w/ green garlic topped with pea vine

Spiced Apple and Parsnip Muffins

The Spiced Apple and Parsnip Muffins were SO good! They did not last very long at all in our house and are a definite addition to the recipe rotation! They are great for breakfast or an afternoon snack. Click on the link if you would like the recipe!

Summer of Service - School Edition Part 2

2011-06-23T12:51:00.004-05:00

We wrapped up our first week of summer serving at the kids' school again in one of the middle school teacher's classrooms. The younger kids were a little tuckered out from our last project of moving books just two days earlier so I left this project up to the three older kids. It was mellow, low key, simple, short, and sweet. Just the balance they needed to keep them interested in continuing on with serving for the rest of the summer.

Cameron's French/English teacher asked for help in her classroom organizing, filing, sorting, and searching for lost books and re-shelving those. This was a welcome and restful change from their previous day of service at school.

After reading their journals Cameron and Emma both had a good time just hanging out and helping. Nothing profound came to mind for them this day. I haven't gotten Annie to write for me yet, and I was a little worried about how she would do since she was our least happy on the book day and not exactly thrilled that I had pegged her to do another day of book work. I was relieved to hear her say when she got into the car that she really enjoyed that day A LOT better than the previous one and that she was really glad she went. She also enjoyed getting to know one of Cameron's teachers and told me a few stories about the conversations they had and how nice she was.

This report got my mind going a bit more. I wasn't thinking about the benefits of them interacting with adults more one-on-one. And getting to know a teacher one-on-one like that would probably open their eyes to the fact that yes, teachers are nice, yes, they are normal people, and yes, they have a lot to offer if you allow yourself to get to know them better. Bonus! This sparks my curiosity even more for the rest of the summer to see what more we can learn from others and how we can open up our world to them.

Summer of Service - The School Edition: Part One...

2011-06-22T16:11:00.003-05:00

When planning our "Summer of Service" I knew I wanted to find projects that stretched our children emotionally but also some opportunities that taught them to give back to those who serve them directly on a regular basis. So naturally, when thinking about this and where we should start our summer, school came to mind. I chose school to be our first location to work together as a family for a few reasons. One, it's familiar to the kids and a great place to get their feet wet while working for others they know, so they could start out serving comfortably. Two, what kid doesn't love going back to school when summer is out and help their teachers...can you say "run in the halls?" And three, this school went above and beyond to accommodate and accept ALL of our children and our family when we were moving here last summer, has been incredibly flexible with us and our needs, and has continued all year long making sure everyone was adjusting and doing well. It's an amazing community. And even though it's a big sacrifice to have them attend here, it is worth it! I cannot even imagine how much more difficult our transition would have been when we moved if we had not found this community to support us.

So with that I sent an email to our principal telling him of my plan and asking if there was anything we could do to give back to the school as the year was closing out. He was kind enough to send the email out to all the staff and we were presented with two separate needs. We took on both and split our time over two separate days last week. After we were done with the first day, I took the kids to Target and let them pick out a new journal. I want them to reflect on each project we do this summer and write about what they learn, what was hard or fun for them, and how they might be able to do something differently next time. It was fun and eye-opening to read their responses to day one...which ended up being a lot more challenging and time consuming than we had anticipated, which was perfect!!

We were asked by one of the curriculum directors to help move old textbooks out from a storage room on the second floor of the school and over to the ice arena where they would be sorted through and given away to the community. We had one mobile cart to use so we knew it was going to take several trips. Sounded easy enough! The first challenge was that the kids were so excited I had to stop them immediately to reorganize the effort. I showed them how to stack the boxes and books properly on the cart so as to maximize each trip back and forth and avoid any catastrophic book spills on the way out of the building.

The second challenge was teamwork. They had to figure out how to work together smoothly, and help each other out, without arguing.

The next challenge was sharing! Everyone wanted to push the cart from one building to the next and we needed to come up with a plan so everyone could participate in that.

As we finished emptying out the storage room the rest of the building caught wind that we were there moving boxes and books and suddenly we were being summoned to multiple classrooms to pick up stacks and stacks of old books the teachers had yet to move out of their rooms. Using our motto "serve with a smile" the kids took a deep breath and continued on working for two more hours as teachers kept adding their rooms to our list.

After a total of three hours of stacking, lugging, pushing, and pulling these kids managed to move over 1000 books from one building to another. Can you see that tired haze in their eyes?

When looking through their journals it was cute to read what they wrote. Here are a few of my favorite comments...

"I had a lot of fun but it took a lot of hard work and three hours of our day. Wow-Wee!" -Sarah age 8

"I don't know why, but looking back on it, the exhaustion felt awesome..." -Cameron, age 13

"Let me tell you, it was tiring and painful. But then we went home and had some delicious chocolate cake!" -Lewis, age 9

"...it was a lot of fun and a lot of HARD work. I think that it made mom a little stressed because the kids weren't doing it how mom wanted to do it, but it was all good in the end." -Emma, age 11

And there's my lesson...to lighten up and let them go with it. There's incredible opportunity for them to grow and mature during these times of serving God and others and I need to remember not to stifle that with my own thoughts and ideas. They are perfectly capable of analyzing the problem, coming up with an idea, and executing it together to get the job done. This simple afternoon of helping out has taught us all a little something about ourselves. I am thankful that I was able to glean from it as well. It was a good day.

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms"

-1 Peter 4:10

A Happy Anniversary...

2011-06-21T13:47:00.001-05:00

I was just thinking about my life a second ago, and I realized we've hit an anniversary. One year ago, we packed up our family and moved to a new state for a new job opportunity for my husband. When we left, we kept telling our apprehensive children "It's going to be a great adventure!" I think I was trying to convince myself of the same thing. The whole move was pretty sudden and I really didn't have much time to think about it until we had already arrived!

I've grown and learned a ton this year. And even though I was afraid to leave everything familiar behind and start all over again, I realize now, it was THE. BEST. DECISION. I have ever made. The transformations that have happened in this family are overwhelming, profound, and far beyond any expectations I ever had for us.

One of the biggest changes is within the relationships of our immediate family. When you only have each other to rely on, you learn quickly how to do just that. Our five children are much more close and attached to each other now than they ever have been. They are much more sensitive to each others needs and much more aware and feel empty when someone is away...even for an afternoon.

Our marriage has grown and matured even more than the children. With the new job came a whole new set of circumstances. My husband is busier and gone a lot more as he starts up a new company here. He comes home tired, excited, frustrated, starving, and any other feeling you might be able to come up with. Suddenly, I was thrust into a whole new batch of roles that somehow I had overlooked previously. And without the camaraderie of familiar coworkers and employees, I became a new sounding board for him, which I LOVE. Just listening to him talk about his day, how he handles situations and watching him grow professionally with lightning speed has ignited a whole new spark in me for him. I never realized just how wise my husband is. He's brilliant, seriously. He has amazing perspective and incredible creativity. He thinks so out of the box, it sounds crazy, but somehow, it's exactly the thought that was needed to propel him and his company forward. And since I have been given a greater view into the window of his work world, it has caused me to listen more deeply and intently to his perspective and out of the box ideas for us here at home. Yielding to him and his decisions more and more has netted a wonderful sense of calm in me. Let's face it, if you know me at all, you know I'm a control freak...so this has been a huge gift to me!

Allowing my husband to lead us into a new world was really difficult but has been so incredibly rewarding. So much has been gained emotionally, professionally, spiritually, relationally, even physically! I'm braver, more respectful, a better mother, a better wife, our family is healthier, more active, and we're much more in love with God and with each other. What more can you ask for?

It was hard to leave the one city I have basically lived in my entire life (with the exception of a few random detours), and to leave our family and the ones we depended on (a little too much maybe?) to keep our household running. It was hard to leave our friends behind. And our church. But we have found all of that here, plus so much more. So thank you, my love, for encouraging us to grow at lightening speed as well. I am so honored and blessed to be married to you! I am really looking forward to what this next year brings for you, and the rest of us!!

Checking out the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden one year ago...

Summer of Service...

2011-06-14T16:35:00.008-05:00

After I put the kids to bed on the last day of school, I got to thinking about what was ahead. And I realized...nothing. No camps scheduled, no family trips 'til the end of July, and then add to that a husband who has a very loaded travel schedule for most of the summer...hmmmm. With a completely empty summer upon us I began sifting through all those camp booklets, started researching 3 day getaways, and wondered if it was too late to sign up for art classes. But then I remembered as I was glancing over the cost of these adventures, that I don't schedule these things for a reason...for five children...it's EXPENSIVE!

Feeling defeated and beginning to panic over the thought of being their sole entertainment for the next 9 weeks I began to brainstorm. What are some things I have been wanting to do with them that we don't have time for during the school year? What do I want my kids to learn this summer? Should we just go lazy and spend it by the pool relaxing? No, they should stay focused and learn something. What if we had a theme? What if we took road trips throughout the state seeing in real life some things they had learned about in school this year...study some history...or sit on the banks of the Mississippi River and search for birds and owls? Oh my God, what am I going to do with them ALL. SUMMER. LONG?? Wait......GOD?

And with that thought, the "Summer of Sevice" idea was born. I decided that we will do at least one service project/volunteer opportunity every week for the duration of the summer to help them get into the habit of serving God by serving others. I am really looking forward to getting the kids out of their comfort zones a bit and spending this time with them! We have so much to learn from others and we have never done anything like this before as a family so intentionally. We regularly jump into many projects through church and school, and have supported friends and families with their ideas as well. But actually searching something out is somewhat new. And with the kids all finally old enough to handle just about anything in some capacity or another our opportunities will be plenty!

Our Summer of Service unofficially began last week. Our oldest daughter started us out with a service project of her own. For her last week of school she served with a few other classmates at the downtown Minneapolis YWCA in the childcare center, helping out with the daily activities with the Kindergarten class.

She had a great attitude and was excited from the get go to participate. One of her biggest challenges throughout the week was handling multiple children at once trying to snag her attention in it's entirety. Practicing patience was something she needed to learn instantaneously. You can't just lash out in frustration with a strange child like you can in the comfort and safety of your own home with your siblings where there is unconditional love!

She enjoyed her experience so much that she emailed the center back and asked if she could continue to serve throughout the summer and was very disappointed when they responded that their volunteer schedule was full and she would have to wait again until next year. Such a bummer!! A week later she is still talking about the children she worked with and how much she misses them!

I'm very proud of my daughter for her enthusiasm and maturity during this week. Every evening when she came home we talked about her problem solving strategies and how she handled different situations throughout the day. She also kept a journal, which was a requirement for her class, documenting her experience. It was a great start to her summer and a great start for the family to hear about her experiences so we can also glean from them! I am looking forward to getting the rest of the kids involved in serving this summer and seeing how we all work together, mature, grow, and become more aware of the world outside of our own. It's going to be a very good thing! And, guess what?? Serving God and others can be FREE!!

Vitamin L...

2011-02-05T11:42:00.021-06:00

Today is my birthday and I turned 36 years old. Every morning when I wake up, I grab my phone and begin my routine of "waking up." I check the weather, look at my to-do list, play a few turns on Words w/ Friends, and scroll through email. What do these two things have to do with each other? This morning I found an email from my husband with a subject line stating "36 Reasons I Love You - Happy Birthday" and that followed by me starting my day with a smile.

The month of February is known by many as the "month of love." Love is a key nutrient that we all need in our lives. Valentine's Day should not be the only day we choose to express this most wonderful feeling. We need to give and receive love every day. It is vital to our survival and health. And those of us who have gone through training in the holistic health and nutrition world were taught all about this and like to call this "Vitamin L" (the L stands for LOVE).

Getting a daily dose of Vitamin L is essential to living happier, healthier lives. Vitamin L comes in many forms and isn’t just about romantic love between two people. It can be love for ourselves, or a particular practice of self-care. Vitamin L can come in the shape of our partners, our pets, our kids or parents. Love is food for the soul and heart; it nourishes body, mind, and spirit for optimal well being.

Well, this morning I was on the receiving end of Vitamin L with this email. My husband's list made me smile and it was awesome to see what things about me he values. The greatest part about it for me was he thought through my day and knew that this would be the first thing I see in the morning when I woke up. It made me feel good, noticed, thought about, and cared for, and it encouraged me to keep on doing some of the things I do, even when I don't think they matter. So what were those 36 things he loves about me? Yes, I will share...34 of them. Because the other two are for my eyes only :)

He's a great guy and I love him so much!! So how do you get (or give) your daily dose of Vitamin L?

Adapted from this IIN Blog Post

Simple Living...

2010-04-01T16:24:00.002-05:00

I've had a strong desire to move my family into a life of simpler living. We have been blessed beyond what is needed. We relish in it, appreciate it, and are grateful for the luxuries we are able to have. But with those blessings have come some challenges. One of those challenges is practicing contentment.

I've learned that it doesn't matter how much money there is in the bank, or how many toys kids have, what kind of vacation is taken, how many pairs of shoes there are in the closet, or how big (or small) your house is. If the means is there (and even if it isn't) it never seems to be enough. We live in a world where more is always better. It's the whole concept fast food chains use to lure in customers...the "Super-Size Me" effect. We have learned, though, that a super sized meal is poison for our bodies. And as I think about that, I realize, too much of anything could be poison. Poison to our emotions, our contentment, our spirituality, our happiness.

Easter is a holiday we celebrate in my family, and for us, it has a spiritual component that represents Resurrection and new life. When discussing with our children how we plan to celebrate this year, or lack there of, we received some push back. Our plan was very simple. We would decorate the traditional Easter eggs, share a special meal and attend church on Saturday evening. The kids would still get their Easter baskets Sunday morning, before my husband and I leave to go out of town for a week. Sounds perfect right? A time for family, fun, and reflection. No new outfits…we have plenty in our closets that will work just fine. No dual, or even triple celebrations at multiple locations, with multiple Easter baskets full of candy we don’t need and trinkets that ultimately end up in the trash…it’s a waste of money and only contributes to the commercialism of our culture.

Every holiday, birthday, or special occasion we seem to have the same battle. I try to enforce my convictions, and another outside force wins. Whether it’s what someone else’s family does, culture and it’s idea of celebrating it’s own meaning of the holiday, another holiday party we’ve been asked to attend, commercials, whatever…this idea of more, more, more is very powerful. I give in too easily. And now, with somewhat hurt feelings that my simple holiday celebration isn’t enough, I’ve decided enough is enough. If I want the cycle of overindulging, over celebrating, and growth of discontent to end…I need to start now.

It’s refreshing, actually. The simplicity. It’s less expensive, less stressful, less time consuming, and much more calm. The meaning of family and faith shine through. That’s what's important. I want to teach my children these principles now. So when they are adults they have a foundation to fight against the norm. And as parents, they pass this idea on to my grandchildren.

I’m beginning to get pretty excited to move again. It’s another opportunity to really evaluate what we have, what we need, and what we can live without. House hunting has taken on a fresh perspective. I’ve lived in homes large and tiny. I have a pretty good idea of what we can get by with to be comfortable and what is really just too much.

I am so appreciative of the opportunity to start fresh again…to make things right. Everything will be new. Everything. I can’t wait to jump in with both feet and renew our family with the concept of living more simply. And the opportunity is coming at the perfect time. Spring is a time for renewal. Practicing contentment is easy when the world around us is beginning again too, offering us the simple pleasures of warm wind blowing our hair back, the sun shining on our faces, the sweet smell of flowers and grass, birds chirping and beautiful sunsets. I’m ready for it.

Breakfast Blight...

2010-03-29T16:14:00.008-05:00

Since when do I eat brownies and drink coke for breakfast??

This is what I asked myself this morning when I sat down at my desk two-fisted with both of these items. What in the world?? How did these things even get into my pantry?

Warning! Warning! Warning! The alarm has sounded. My life has become grossly out of balance! The sign? Coke and brownies. I haven't had either of these items for well over a year, maybe even two!! And today, they were both in my hands...for my breakfast. Hmmm...

In contemplating this catastrophe, I did a mental rewind of the last six weeks of my existence. It has been busy, stressful, and chaotic for sure. There has been a new job offer, which led to a scurrying of new ideas, a lot of traveling, and the prospect of many things to come...a fresh start, so to speak. A new home (yes again!), a new city, a new state, new friends, new church, new schools, new clients, new grocery stores, new EVERYTHING!

With this new adventure on the horizon, there has also been some tragedy mixed in to work through, with the death of my husband's friend. Then there was new life, with the birth of a new baby for one of my best friends. And intermingled with that we are dealing with some hiccups trying to secure our future...the new beginning which will begin just 10 weeks from now!!

Wow. That is a lot to absorb. I am overwhelmed. Nervous. Excited. Afraid. And extremely grateful for the new opportunity. It's funny the way life works sometimes. Just when you think you've settled into a nice groove, it topples over and you need to reset. Frustrating? Yes! Overwhelming? Yes! Too much to handle? Apparently, maybe a little for me. But it's nothing that can't be fixed.

Coke and brownies. My warning sign. Time to reset myself. Time for more self care, quiet time to reflect and process, for exercise that has been neglected in all the travel, time to slow down, regroup, and make sense of all that is happening. This is serious, because I don't even like coke or brownies :) But I can do it.

Step one? Throw out the coke and brownies.

A Healthy Perspective...My Story

2010-03-07T05:00:00.000-06:00

I wasn't always a "health nut"...nor did I ever aspire to be one. All I knew was there were many areas of my life that were not where I wanted them to be and I was constantly searching for a magic solution to bring them all into one happy place. I was feeling depressed, overwhelmed, and out of sorts. My emotions were struggling, my health was struggling, my marriage and relationships were struggling, everything was in an upheaval. I was experiencing complete discontent, and nothing was "right".

When I finally tired of blaming everyone and everything for my problems, I began working on improving my health, where as a result, my eating habits changed, and I began to feel balance come into place in all areas of my life. Could this really be? Is my food affecting everything? Yes! It was. I slowly began to see the bigger picture that was surrounding my life. I was eating junk. And as a result, my life was full of junk...artificial relationships, less than stellar parenting, lazy attitude, lack of sweetness in my marriage, feeling dry and empty...it was an overall full-out funk. I discovered though, that the reason this was, is because I was feeding my self all the wrong things. I was using food to remedy every feeling I had! When ever I was upset and needed comfort, I made a heavy, satiating meal. Whenever I felt lonely or sad, or unloved or neglected, the sweet tooth kicked in. Stressed and burned out? Yep, you guessed it...crunchy, salty anything! I was noticing a pattern, and it was intriguing me!

Once I learned food wasn't the way to handle emotions, I knew I needed to reevaluate everything and figure out what was missing in my life. Was it friendship, love, creativity, security? All of these actually. While I was feeding my body food and food products, I wasn't feeding me. All the areas of my life that make me who I am. And all that neglect began to manifest it's way through my food.

Once I figured out how to handle me and maintain balance with my eating and in my life as a wife, mother, business owner, friend, sister, daughter, etc...I realized and knew there were others out there that struggle just like I had (and sometimes still do)! I began to desire to help these people find what they were looking for in life, while improving their health and overall wellness at the same time. With a little prodding from a friend, and full support from my husband, I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to became a Holistic Health Counselor.

In my counseling practice, I now work with my clients in all the same areas I did to improve and balance myself, my health, my emotions, and my life. We talk about good nutrition practices, as well as all the other areas of our lives that need to be fed as well...relationships, physical health, spirituality, careers and roles, and proper self care. In addition to my health counseling certification, I have a BFA in Interior Design. I understand that the environments we work, live, sleep, and play in bear a crucial role in our health and happiness. This makes my counseling practice unique and different than any other because I use this knowledge to take my clients' health journey one step further. Together, we can transform any environment they spend time in into a place that nurtures them, feeds them, and supports them positively as they make new health and lifestyle changes.

I feel blessed to have gone through that "funk" and the struggles that I did. It led me to the most incredible and amazing journey ever towards health and wellness. I love sharing and helping others discover what they are missing in their lives. I learn so much from every client which only challenges and improves me more. Each one is such a treasured gift!

In your journey towards health and balance, do not be afraid to look to others for help or answers. Support is crucial whether in the form of a community or just one individual. Take time to care for yourself and be a part of a movement to help change your family, friends, loved ones, and even the world, by sharing what you have learned and discovered about yourself!

Luanne Gerrity, HHC
www.imhungryforsomething.com

A Healthy Perspective...

2010-02-26T04:17:00.002-06:00

Just Drink The Water...

2010-01-21T07:24:00.008-06:00

We all know that water is good for us, but often the reasons are a little fuzzy. And even if we know why we should drink water, it's not a habit that many people form. But there are some very powerful reasons to drink lots of water every day, and forming the habit isn't hard, with a little focus.

The thing about it is, we don't often focus on this habit. We end up drinking coffee, and lots of soda, and alcohol, not to mention fruit juices and teas and milk and a bunch of other possibilities. Or just as often, we don't drink enough fluids, and we become dehydrated -- and that isn't good for our health.

I've made drinking water a daily habit. Although, I will admit that a couple of years ago I was more likely to drink anything but water. Now I don't drink anything but water, except for maybe an occasional cup of juice. I love it.

Here are 8 powerful reasons to drink water (with tips on how to form the water habit afterwards):

Weight loss. Water is one of the best tools for weight loss, first of all because it often replaces high-calorie drinks like soda and juice and alcohol with a drink that doesn't have any calories. But it's also a great appetite suppressant, and often when we think we're hungry, we're actually just thirsty. Water has no fat, no calories, no carbs, no sugar. Drink plenty to help your weight-loss regimen.
Headache cure. Another symptom of dehydration is headaches. In fact, often when we have headaches it's simply a matter of not drinking enough water. There are lots of other causes of headaches of course, but dehydration is a common one.
Healthy skin. Drinking water can clear up your skin and people often report a healthy glow after drinking water. It won't happen overnight, of course, but just a week of drinking a healthy amount of water can have good effects on your skin.
Digestive problems. Our digestive systems need a good amount of water to digest food properly. Often water can help cure stomach acid problems, and water along with fiber can cure constipation (often a result of dehydration).
Cleansing. Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body. This can also help prevent the onset of colds, and other illnesses.
Cancer risk. Related to the digestive system item above, drinking a healthy amount of water has also been found to reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45%. Drinking lots of water can also reduce the risk of bladder cancer by 50% and potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Better exercise. Being dehydrated can severely hamper your athletic activities, slowing you down and making it harder to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so be sure to hydrate before, during and after exercise.
Clarity of mind. Water can reduce stress within your body (after it has cleansed out all the toxins) and provides for better thinking, clarity, and mental concentration. Who doesn't want to be smarter?

How to form the water habit…

So you're convinced that water is healthier, but you'd like to know more about how to make drinking water a daily habit.

Here are some tips that have helped me:

How much water? This is a debatable question. What's clear is that the old recommendation of "eight 8-ounce glasses a day" isn't right, for several reasons: that amount includes all dietary water intake, including food and non-water beverages; it also ignores a person's body weight, which is an important factor in figuring the amount; it also varies if you are sick or exercise. It's also not good to just drink when you're thirsty -- you're already dehydrated by then. Best is to form a routine: drink a glass when you wake up, a glass with each meal, a glass in between meals, and be sure to drink before, during and after exercise. Try to generally keep yourself from getting thirsty. A good guideline…drink ½ your body weight in oz. each day.

Carry a refillable water bottle with you at ALL times. A lot of people find it useful to get a big BPA free plastic or stainless steel drinking bottle, fill it with water, and carry it around with them all day. I like to keep a glass of water at my desk, and I drink from it all day long. When it's empty, I fill it up again, and keep drinking. I also put a glass of water on my nightstand so I can drink a glass f water before I even get out of bed in the morning.

Set a reminder. Set your watch to beep at the top of each hour, or set a periodic computer reminder, so that you don't forget to drink water.

Substitute water. If you would normally get a soda, coffee, or an alcoholic beverage, get a glass of water instead. Try sparkling water instead of alcohol at social functions with a slice of lime or lemon to add flavor color to your glass.

Filter. Instead of spending a fortune on bottled water, invest in a filter for your home faucet. It'll make tap water taste like bottled, at a fraction of the price.

Exercise. Exercising can help make you want to drink water more. It's not necessary or ideal to drink sports drinks like Gatorade when you exercise, they are often loaded with sugar and artificial ingredients. Just drink water. If you're going to exercise, be sure to drink water a couple hours ahead of time, so that it will get through your system in time, and again, drink during and after exercise as well. Another tip…on days that you exercise vigorously, add an additional 32 oz of water to your goal of “½ your body weight in oz.” water intake.

Track it. It often helps, when forming a new habit, to keep track of it -- it increases awareness and helps you ensure that you're staying on track. Keep a little log (it can be done on an index card or a notebook), which can be as simple as a tick mark for each glass of water you drink. If you track your food intake as well, track your water intake right along with it.

Now, I know a lot of you are thinking...

What about flavored water? Water with lemon? Bottled fruit water? Vitamin water? Powder packets to add to my water?? Most of these are loaded with sugar, artificial, and manufactured ingredients...none of which you want to be putting into your body.

Seriously, just drink the WATER. Plain and simple. You'll be glad you did.

Adapted from an article by Leo Babauta at Dumb Little Man

The Power of Acceptance...

2010-01-06T07:00:00.002-06:00

So after about 6-weeks off because of family issues and scheduling conflicts in my life, I was gearing up to get back into the gym with my trainer this morning (which was rescheduled from Monday because of a nasty head cold). However, due to yet, another set of circumstances, I was not able to go. Sometimes it feels like I can never win. Some things are going great in life. My health counseling practice is sprinting forward with great success, my marriage is fabulous, the Christmas chaos has disappeared...but it seems that when it comes to desires I have that are close to my heart, the goals I have for ME...they too often get de-railed, side-tracked, or stopped in their tracks. This often leaves me feeling like the world is scheming and working against me!

These feelings remind me of a post I wrote back in September about dealing with disappointment. When sitting down to write about something else this morning, I decided it might be good to re-post that one instead. Sometimes it's good to remember that life will always have bumps, challenges, and road blocks. The important thing is that we continue to move forward and work at accomplishing goals...even if at a slower pace than we want. The key is to accept your circumstances as they are, stay positive, and keep moving forward when you can.

Continue reading my previous post on acceptance below...

ACCEPTANCE...

I've recently begun working out with my trainer again. It has been a many, many months since exercise has been a regular part of my life. Today was one of those days where it seemed like I just couldn't catch my breath and get into my groove, which initially was a little frustrating because I felt like what I was doing was not really a knock out, drag down workout...which is one of the things I really appreciate about this guy, he doesn't train like that...at least not so far! But as I was leaving, he mentioned I could try and get some more cardio in on the elliptical or I could accept where I am physically right now and call it a day...which I did.

As I was leaving I was thinking about that statement, "accept where you are..." and how important it is for us to do that...to accept who we are, and where we are, NOW. When you decide to accept yourself the way you are, you allow yourself the freedom to change. When you criticize, talk negatively, or fight with yourself, you remain stuck and prevent change from happening.

I once read in an article that acceptance means honoring and loving yourself just the way you are. Maybe you feel confused and think that accepting yourself means you don’t want to change. You may think, “I don’t want to accept myself – that‘s why I want to lose this weight (or whatever it is you want to change)!” But it’s just the opposite. Making peace with where you are is the launching pad that gets you to where you want to go.

Whatever you focus your attention on grows. So when you talk negatively to or about yourself, your negativity grows. This results in self-punishing behaviors and you stay stuck. But when your attention is on where you want to go, and you accept yourself the way you are, your behaviors lovingly reflect the new life you’re creating and you move forward.

You know you want to make changes in your life. Great! Make peace with where you are and you will reach your goal more quickly. Where you are today is totally irrelevant. Your current situation carries no power over you unless you offer it negative attention. Accept where you are and remain focused on where you’re headed. You then become free to change, and change will happen.

This isn't an easy task. I know this from experience! It is hard to be positive when you aren't satisfied with yourself or your surroundings. But one thing I have learned is that when you do make a shift in attitude and focus, and are accepting of the situation at hand, suddenly the pressure is off and the success comes naturally...as if to just fall into place. Today I accepted that I couldn't do all that I wanted to. But I know that that's OK because I am still just fine right where I am, and if I continue to work, I will gain the strength and endurance I need to complete that work out next time. And the positive thing is...at least I went to work out, right??

Get Slow...

2010-01-04T11:54:00.005-06:00

To continue on this theme of slowing ourselves down and allowing time for rest, here is a list of ideas on how to do just that. Is there anything in this list you could do today?

Leave your watch on the bedside table.

Check email only twice a day.

Take the scenic route.

Light candles before you start to cook dinner.

Make up rituals.

Say a silent word of thanks and make eye contact with everyone at the table before you start eating.

Let the phone ring several times before answering.

Make a handmade present for a friend.

Set aside one night a week all for yourself.

Spend as much time outdoors in natural settings as you possibly can.

Pay attention to cycles of the moon and the shifting seasons.

Sit for a moment with your eyes closed when you start your computer.

Take a few moments before you climb out of bed in the morning to remember your dreams and think about what you want from the day.

Factor in an additional 25% every time you estimate how long something will take.

Always jump at the chance to play with a child.

Never pack your schedule so that there’s no room for a short walk.

Take a left where you generally take a right.

What do you do to slow down your body and allow it time to take in all that you seeing, experiencing, and feeling? How do you incorporate rest into your day?

Adapted from an article by Marco Visscher and Jay Walljasper. Ode Magazine, Issue #15. www.odemagazine.com

Slowing Down...

2010-01-02T10:53:00.005-06:00

This morning I woke up with a head cold. My nose was runny but at the same time congested. My head felt like a balloon was blown up inside and every time I moved I felt like I was in an action movie but in slow motion mode...you know what I mean? I was "swooshing."

The last 4 weeks of life have been hectic. Two of my ballerina daughters danced in a professional production of The Nutcracker, there have been school Christmas programs, endless family gatherings, we have had extended family in town now for close to two weeks, I have been very busy within my career world, and within our household, we have lost a family member. My 19 year old niece, who was living with us, has moved out, and we are all missing her and adjusting to her absence. Thankfully, I have been healthy all along to deal with all the chaos and changes going on in my world.

So when I woke up this morning not feeling well with only two days left of the "holiday break" and wanting to get reorganized for the week ahead, needless to say I was irritated. I have been craving routine for awhile, and today was my day to get it together so the transition come Monday would be smooth. I had a to-do list a mile long, and nothing has been checked off of that list. And to top it all off, my husband is moping around the house, in his "holiday crash" as well, complaining of cabin fever, and I suspect he is as burnt out and craving routine as much as me.

I have been contemplating my afternoon and how to attempt it while sitting here going through my Kleenex box like it's going out of style, and realized something. This head cold, as annoying as it is, is a good thing. It is telling me to SLOW down...so I don't crash and burn come Monday. Our bodies are amazing things, you know! They know just what they are doing. I'm taking this head cold as a sign that the chaos is detoxifying itself through it, to get me READY for Monday and the eminent routine of back to school and work. It's telling me to rest!

So rest it is for the remainder of the day. This evening we are going out to dinner with my husband's parents and siblings. It's the last official family gathering of the Christmas Season. I know if I bust my hump getting things done this afternoon, I will not want to go, and instead curl up in my pj's and go to bed early. That would disappoint my husband, and I love that guy way too much to do that.

So the plan for the rest of the afternoon is to SLOW DOWN, allow my body to REST, and readjust the "to-do" list to accomplish over a span of the next few days, while my head cold heals, to get to all those projects and clean-ups done that I wanted to do today. I'm OK with this. Resting feels good. And besides, I would be really ticked off if I was down all of next week because I didn't take the time NOW when my body was tapping me on the shoulder letting me know it has had enough.

What is your body telling you lately? Are you listening? Take the time to find out and give it what it needs!

Party Going Strategies for the Holidays

2009-12-15T08:33:00.006-06:00

The holiday season is in FULL swing! As I'm sure you are experiencing, it can be packed with family events and parties with friends and co-workers. This can be a time where we let all our efforts fly out the window and lose control of our focus on healthy eating and good self care. There are many strategies to get you through this time unscathed and your intentions in-tact! Here is a "top-five" list to stick under your belt and pull out when your defenses are low and you need encouragement and support...

Avoid sugary drinks, including alcoholic beverages. These drinks add up to extra calories and added sugar. Opt for water instead, or sparkling water to make it feel more fancy. Also, when you drink alcohol, you are likely to eat more.
Don't stand by the food! If you are at a party that has a buffet, find a place to plant yourself that is far away from the food table to prevent mindless grazing.
Practice mindful eating. Get a plate, even if it is a party with just appetizers, try what you want and leave it at that. Having food on a plate will help you to see what you are eating and how much.
Be careful of the "party mindset." Sometimes it's nice to be able to have a treat now and then - to allow yourself the extra dessert or drink because it is a special occasion. However, if you have several holiday parties during the season (or the week!), then it is no longer a "special occasion" - it becomes a way of life and a way of eating. Keep in mind how many "treats" you are giving yourself in one week, or holiday season, especially if you are attending several parties.
If you are bringing food, bring something healthy!! That way you know there will be at least one thing there that you can feel good about eating.

If you keep these tips in mind and add a few of your own that have worked in the past, this holiday season can end without excess pounds gained, feelings of guilt, and the need to go through a sugar detox when January 1st arrives! Plan ahead, be thoughtful, and treasure the people you are with!

Slowing Down and Time For Me...

2009-12-08T07:46:00.003-06:00

Back in September I wrote about how my absence from this blog is pretty reflective of my absence from all things I love lately! This is still the case! I have been very busy and I am ready to slow down, rest, relax, and dig back in as my family settles into winter. Time to refocus, restructure, and renew!

I have fallen tremendously behind in the world of all things health, balance, and wellness. But I am missing it terribly and putting it back into the forefront of my days. My three week lecture series on staying healthy, balanced, and stress-free during the holiday season at the end of October was a success. I had A LOT of fun presenting this and learned that it is definitely something I want to do more of! I am getting organized to take on more clients after the new year, looking for a new office space, and will be launching a new website hopefully soon.

I seriously enjoyed the many weeks of our farm share vegetables and am very sad that it is over. I loved receiving fresh, organic produce right out of the ground week to week. The only problem is that I loved it so much we have nothing frozen for the winter because we ate it all, and now, I am seriously craving all that goodness!! I do have an abundance of blueberries stored for the winter, so we will be enjoying lots of blueberry baked goods this winter...mmm...

As I think about how I want to go about refocusing my time back on the things I love, I quickly become overwhelmed by the process of getting "caught" up. When this happens to me, I tend to freeze up and do nothing because I don't know where to start. It's all important to me and I have a hard time prioritizing!

This month, I have eliminated a few things from my schedule that weigh me down emotionally, organizationally, and sometimes physically. While I didn't feel a rush of relief, I do feel some closure, which has helped. We are settling nicely into our new home and little by little the boxes are getting emptied and organized. I did not renew the lease on my office space downtown, even though I don't have a new one to move into yet, and I finally got everything moved out and back here with me at home. I am no longer toggling between home and downtown which is a time saver. My focus has shifted to putting family first right now, which feels right, but I also have put myself into that category. I have been more insistent on time for myself. And even though my family may not like it at the time, it does help me be a better mom and wife in the long run.

I have found that when I eliminate things that hold me back, weigh me down, or drain my time and energy everything else opens up because it has space to breathe! Just by eliminating a few things from my life, even if something is only for a day, I feel a new sense of focus, balance and clarity and can move forward with other more important projects and responsibilities, including rest.

As Christmas quickly approaches and the New Year right around the corner, I am thinking very hard about what I want to accomplish in the next year. I am setting goals and making a plan so that falling far behind does not happen again and feeling organized and accomplished is a daily reward. I have accepted where I am for now and continue each day to catch up little by little, knowing that every little effort makes a dent and I AM moving forward, even if at a snail's pace for now in this time of rest.

Thanksgiving Menu

2009-11-24T15:04:00.002-06:00

This Thanksgiving I have many things to be thankful for. I have a healthy family, an amazing husband and marriage, plenty of supportive friends and family members, and a wonderful new home in which to share my blessings with others with plenty of room to spare! I have been gifted an amazing life.

This year I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for about 20 people. As I journey through this world of healthy living and eating and learn why we should not be eating the mass productions of non-nutrient rich packaged foods on the market today, or consuming the average 4500 calorie meal with 229 g of fat, I feel a heavy responsibility to feed my family and guests a new kind of Thanksgiving meal. One that is health conscious, nutritious, low in calories, but also delicious and satisfying.

I will admit, I have a tough crowd to please this year! Not all of them are concerned about saving calories and eating healthy on Thanksgiving Day! So with this in mind, I believe I have come up with a fabulous Thanksgiving menu that will please everyone!

Appetizer
blue cheese spread on toasted baguette topped with pear

Main
Turkey w/apple cider gravy
mashed potatoes
apple and onion stuffin' muffins
swiss chard gratin
sweet potato balls rolled in toasted pecans
fresh cranberry molds

Dessert
mini cranberry-apple pot pie
pumpkin pie

Beverage
ice water
sparkling apple cider punch
hot apple cider

I am excited to prepare this meal and eat it too! I look forward to hearing the results from family and reporting them back to you on how a healthy Thanksgiving meal that is about 700 calories compares the the traditional meal of 4500 calories! Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!

Acceptance...

2009-10-12T13:21:00.003-05:00

I've recently begun working out with my trainer again. It's been many, many, many months (maybe even close to a year) since exercise has been a regular part of my life. Today was one of those days where it seemed like I just couldn't catch my breath, which initially was a little frustrating because I felt like what I was doing was not really a knock out, drag down workout...which is one of the things I really appreciate about this guy, he doesn't train like that...at least not so far! But as I was leaving, he mentioned I could try and get some more cardio in on the elliptical or I could accept where I am physically right now and call it a day...which I did.

As I was leaving I was thinking about that statement, "accept where you are..." and how important it is for us to do that...to accept who we are, and where we are, NOW. When you decide to accept yourself the way you are, you allow yourself the freedom to change. When you criticize, talk negatively, or fight with yourself, you remain stuck and prevent change from happening.

I once read in an article that acceptance means honoring and loving yourself just the way you are. Maybe you feel confused and think that accepting yourself means you don’t want to change. You may think, “I don’t want to accept myself – that‘s why I want to lose this weight (or whatever it is you want to change)!” But it’s just the opposite. Making peace with where you are is the launching pad that gets you to where you want to go.

Whatever you focus your attention on grows. So when you talk negatively to or about yourself, your negativity grows. This results in self-punishing behaviors and you stay stuck. But when your attention is on where you want to go, and you accept yourself the way you are, your behaviors lovingly reflect the new life you’re creating and you move forward.

You know you want to make changes in your life. Great! Make peace with where you are and you will reach your goal more quickly. Where you are today is totally irrelevant. Your current situation carries no power over you unless you offer it negative attention. Accept where you are and remain focused on where you’re headed. You then become free to change, and change will happen.

This isn't an easy task. I know this from experience! It is hard to be positive when you aren't satisfied with yourself or your surroundings. But one thing I have learned is that when you do make a shift in attitude and focus, and are accepting of the situation at hand, suddenly the pressure is off and the success comes naturally...as if to just fall into place. Today I accepted that I couldn't do all that I wanted to. But I know that that's ok because I am still just fine right where I am, and if I continue to work, I will gain the strength and endurance I need to complete that work out next time. And the positive thing is...at least I went to work out, right??

2009-09-29T08:04:00.005-05:00

Fall has arrived here in Michigan! For the past two days it has been rainy, windy, and cold! I was scrambling this morning to find pants, sweatshirts, and yes...coats!...for my children as they were preparing for their day at school. All this scrambling and listening to complaints about how cold everyone was got me thinking about other things that need to happen as the seasons change.

Have you ever noticed that you crave salads in the summer but never seem to want to touch them in the winter? As soon as cool weather arrives, are you suddenly reaching for hot teas and preparing soups and warm, heavy casseroles? I do! Yesterday, I ate soup twice! Just as the seasons change, and we adjust our wardrobes from flip flops to closed toe shoes, tank tops to fleece jackets, and shorts to long pants, we also need to adjust what we feed our bodies!

Eating seasonally can be a very rewarding and economical choice. As the temperature outside changes, our bodies begin to prepare for winter as well. We need to maintain body temperature, feel grounded and warm inside. This can be accomplished simply by choosing the right foods! A salad full of cool, crisp salad green and raw vegetables is the perfect remedy to cool an overheated body in the summer. However, if you eat that in the winter on a regular basis, you will likely find yourself feeling cold all the time! A soup full of root vegetables that grow grounded in the earth, mixed with a warm comforting broth or a warm whole grain pasta dish with sauteed autumn vegetables would be a much better choice to help you maintain a feeling of warmth during these cold months of winter.

On the economical side, eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, and local, is much less expensive and practical than purchasing food items that grow in warm climates and ship halfway across the world ($$$$$) for us to indulge in during a time our body may not want, need or crave them. If nature intended us to eat mangos in Michigan in December, it would provide us with a mango tree that could sustain a harsh winter and still bear fruit! Sure eating some fruits, berries and out of season, warm weather vegetables is OK on occasion. Feeding our bodies food that can create warmth, energy, and a feeling of stability and groundedness is a much better choice physically, emotionally and financially for those of us who have to contend with months and months of cold weather!!

So give eating seasonally a try! Instead of eating a bowl of refined grain cereal with cold milk tomorrow, try having a bowl of warm, grounding, energy sustaining whole grain steel cut oats mixed with protein power packed walnuts, drizzled with a little agave nectar to start your day off warm and keep your mind and energy going strong throughout the day!

Dealing With Disappointment...

2009-09-22T15:12:00.002-05:00

One of the reasons I became interested in health and wellness was because of my constant search for balance in my life and a way to successfully shed unwanted excess body weight. I was emotionally dependant on food for fulfillment and my body was showing the signs. Food was a very powerful tool for me. It filled me with sweetness, provided warmth and comfort, and powered me through hard, tiring, or trying times.

I have searched out the knowledge of others to help me figure out how to break free from my dependency on this powerful (and delicious) drug and begin to nourish my body with real nutrition (whole foods and love) and balance out my emotions in a much more healthy way. I have learned a great deal in the process and am confident that I have all the knowledge I need to be successful. I love the information so much, I can't get enough, and that is why I am embarking on the journey of creating a career out of helping others find wholeness and balance in their bodies as well as the environments should support them and their efforts.

This is great, right!? I should have so much success to report!! Well, I'm disappointed to share, it's not! The success I was craving, and the pounds I was hoping would just melt right off, are still sitting exactly where they were when I started this journey...which was quite awhile ago.

So why no success? I'm not sure. But it's disappointing to say the least! There have been road blocks...lack of motivation, stress, injuries, moves, sickness, etc...for sure. In contemplating the reasons why I am "stuck" where I am, and evaluating all my actions, I realized I was/am still using food to get me through the ups and downs of my day! These days it's more about getting through stress and the busyness of life, than it is about dealing with extreme emotions, although that arises on occasion. However, the fact that I can recognize that is progress to report! Being able to evaluate and identify your weakness' is a huge first step in achieving a healthier and balanced life. Until you are able to do that, you will likely continue NOT to see success. Knowing our weakness' allows us to plan better, learn how to cope better, and sets us up for success, not failure.

So I have learned something and I am applying what I have learned. Now the next step is to take action and put it all together! Instead of dealing with this disappointment of un-shed pounds by eating yet more comforting foods, I am going to continue to plug along and plan better, eat better, and avoid all the triggers that throw me off better. It may be hard at times, and I will fail at times, but the more we practice, the better we will get, and the healthier we will begin to look, feel and be!

Clearing the Clutter...In Life...

2009-09-18T08:16:00.002-05:00

My absence from this blog is pretty reflective of my absence from all things I love lately! I have been very busy and I am ready to slow down, relax, and dig back in as my family settles into the fall routine and the cool weather rolls in. Time to refocus, restructure, and renew!

I have fallen tremendously behind in the world of all things health, balance, and wellness. But I am missing it terribly and putting it back into the forefront of my days. I am prepping to do a three week lecture series on staying healthy, balanced, and stress-free during the holiday season with my friend at our church at the end of October. I am really looking forward to presenting this! I am getting organized and seeing clients, looking for a new office space, and will be launching a new website soon. Things are getting very exciting!

I have been enjoying the final weeks of our farm share vegetables and am very sad that it will be ending soon. I have loved receiving fresh, organic produce right out of the ground week to week. The only problem is that I loved it so much we have nothing frozen for the winter because we ate it all!! I do have an abundance of blueberries stored for the winter so we will be enjoying lots of blueberry baked goods this winter...mmm...

As I think about how I want to go about refocusing my time back on the things I love, I quickly become overwhelmed by the process of getting "caught" up. When this happens to me, I tend to freeze up and do nothing because I don't know where to start. It's all important to me and I have a hard time prioritizing!

This morning, I eliminated one thing (ok...skipped it for today only) from my schedule that has the potential to weigh me down for the rest of the day physically. As soon as I did that, I felt like the whole day was wide open and felt a rush of relief. Yesterday, I officially announced I would not be renewing my lease on my office space downtown, even though I don't have a new one to move into yet. That was also a huge relief!! Just knowing the decision has been made means I can confidently move forward without second guessing if I should. Today, I am also canceling a gym membership that I have had for 7 years. I am comfortable there and like the atmosphere but have found that since moving to our new house, going there is a chore and takes up too much time because of its location. I will be working with my trainer again soon and will also be joining my husband at his gym right here downtown...where I live (hmmm...imagine that...adding convenience!).

I have found that when I eliminate things that hold me back, weigh me down, or drain my time and energy everything else opens up because it has space to breathe! Just by eliminating these few things from my life, even if something is only for a day, I have a new sense of focus, balance and clarity to move forward with other more important projects and responsibilities.

Is there something weighing you down? Is there a project you can delegate to someone else? Eliminate one thing from your schedule or life today and see what opportunities open up to you!!

It's Not About Me...Or Is It?

2009-08-31T10:43:00.004-05:00

As I sit here reflecting on the past two weeks of my life, I feel jumbled and out of sorts. I crave quiet and order and routine and discipline. Today is the last day of summer and I can hardly wait until Tuesday morning when all of my children are in school for an entire day.

This summer has a been a weird one for my family. We moved into a new house and have been adjusting to our new surroundings. We traveled more than I can ever remember traveling in one summer. My oldest daughter spent 5 straight weeks away from home AND got her level one drivers license (a permit to drive with parents). And most recently, my eighteen year old niece has decided to leave home in Colorado and has asked to move in with us! It's been busy, for sure.

As our niece settles in, and I reflect on all the above events, I realize that for some period of time now, I have been completely neglecting to care for myself in the midst of all this chaos. I have allowed stress to take over, worry to keep me awake, clutter to creep into my environments, and have settled on less than desirable meals to "nourish" my body. Over the past couple of days I have found myself experiencing extreme emotions at random times through out my day...tears while washing dishes, anger while cleaning up messes, discontent while taking a walk with my husband, and stress and worry while attempting to fall asleep at night.

The adventures we have had this summer and adding a new member to our family has been absolutely delightful but also overwhelming and incredibly time consuming. My routine and responsibilities have come to a screeching halt. And now I know I am paying the price for allowing this to happen. I have noticed the crankiness begin to creep in. I have heard myself sighing more and more throughout my day. And a feeling of overwhelming discontent with my days has taken over the feeling of happiness at accomplishing the many tasks I might have had on my "To Do" list.

I realize now that in my attempt to live a life centered around the thought of "it's not all about me" I have lost touch with who I am. In my attempts to serve my children, husband, distant family members, and welcome my niece into our family, I have stopped remembering to care for myself and my needs as well. Not only is this not good for me it is also not good for everyone who has to live with me.

I will tell my clients "If you don't care for yourself and your body first, you will be no good to others." And once again, I find this true in my own life. Even though I am spending my entire days serving and loving others, the quality of that servanthood is quickly waning as I continue to neglect myself and my needs in the midst of it. Self care is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves...and we need to remember to give to ourselves as well as others.

If you think taking time out of your day to get a workout in at a gym that offers child care sounds frivolous, think again. If you think spending $3.00 (or even $20) on a body care product that you love is selfish, think again. How about taking a long hot shower...a waste of water? What if you told your children they needed to entertain themselves for 30 minutes while you quietly read a book? How about taking the time to cook an extra meal (or a larger one that would yield leftovers!) in the evening to take to work the next day for a healthy home cooked lunch instead of eating out at a restaurant or driving through a fast food establishment? Not worth the time or the effort? YES it is! We are worth spending time and resources on ourselves!

If you are finding yourself overwhelmed with stress, life, or lack of time sit quietly for ten minutes and write down a few things you could do to care for yourself during this time. Not only will it nourish your emotions, your soul and your body, it will also allow you to recharge so that you can be even more aware and effective in whatever you throw yourself into...your job, parenting, serving others, creating art, or just being you!

Today my niece went to her first day of college. Tomorrow my children all go to their first day of school. While the house won't be quiet for the whole day, it will be for a few hours in the morning. During that time, I plan to set all responsibilities and work aside, sit with a cup of tea in my favorite room in the house, where the sun shines in bright and warm, and quietly reflect, recharge, and renew my thoughts for my near future. I know this down time will nourish me greatly and I am very much looking forward to it. I also plan to eat lunch and spend the afternoon with my very best friend who I have not seen since the beginning of summer. To be able to share, unload, and ask what is new and good with her will be fabulous! Tomorrow will be a wonderful day all about me, it will fuel me for Wednesday and the rest of my week where I have a very busy schedule and need to be focused and have energy.

How about you? Are you caring for and loving yourself in times of stress or craziness? If you don't give yourself the attention you need, even if things aren't stressful or busy, you will become unbalanced and lack in all other areas of your life. Do something today to show yourself you are worth it and it can be "all about you" sometimes!

Farm Meals...Day Three

2009-08-14T16:04:00.009-05:00

There was a specific smell coming out of my refrigerator this morning that was making everyone in the house cringe. I soon realized it was the broccoli we had gotten from our farm share a few days ago. When ever I have broccoli, I always wait to use it and always end up with a smelly fridge. Mental note...use your broccoli the day you bring it into the house!!

The broccoli was still good...it just wanted to remind me it was still uneaten in there! So for lunch I made this...

Broccoli Gratin with brown rice and spelt breadcrumbs

One of the best things I do and highly recommend is prepping everything you need for your meal before you start to cook it. It may take a few minutes longer, but man does it make a difference! Having all your ingredients ready before you start cooking can save you from burning it, messing up, and lots of stress as you try to manage it all at once. And if it looks organized and pretty, it will be more fun to cook!

See??

As you can see, there are a ton of veggies in this dish. I used eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, red pepper and spinach. And you can mix and match! Just because you don't have an ingredient called for in a recipe doesn't mean you can't make it at the last minute! Just find something else to substitute it with. Use the recipe as a guide. You don't always have to have it all perfect and followed to a tee. So here's the finished product...

Grilled vegetables with cheese tortellini...

This recipe is fabulous for summer! If you have a lot of veggies to use up this is a sure winner! Click the link above, make it, and tell me what you think!

Farm Share Meals...Day One and Two...

2009-08-13T18:19:00.013-05:00

We have had some pretty amazing meals the last 24 hours using some of the greens and vegetables from our farm share! I am always amazed at the taste difference between organics and conventionally grown foods. I can't even describe how different they are. Switching our food to all organic has been an awesome experience. The burst of flavor and texture you receive in your mouth is definitely worth any extra expense (not to mention the fact that you are eating chemical and hormone free foods). So what did we eat??

This was dinner last night...

Sauteed kale and yellow squash tossed with soba noodles and marinara sauce, topped with grated parmesan cheese...

And lunch today...

Toasted tomato sandwiches on sprouted grain bread with salad greens topped with yellow squash...

And for dinner today...

Open-faced burger topped with raw sharp cheddar cheese and sprouts with green pepper and carrot "fries"...

We are seriously enjoying this farm food. The fresh and light fare has been perfect for our warm summer days. The more I have produce in the house, the better I get at using it up. I am finding that the more I eat, the more I want, and the more creative I get at making our meals!! It's been a learning experience for sure, but with a little practice I have been creating exciting new meals each week!

And here's a little eye candy for you to drool over until my next meal post highlighting vegetables...this was an experiment last night I tried from a raw food recipe book I recently purchased on one of our vacations this summer.

Key Lime Bars..."ice cream" made from raw cashews, juice from limes, and agave nectar. Of course it was topped with homemade raw cacao syrup (amazing!). Not exactly anything from the farm share, but I thought I would share anyways!

Bounty...

2009-08-12T12:46:00.009-05:00

I've written before about how much I L.O.V.E my farm share. Last winter, my husband and I made the investment and bought a share at a local organic farm. From June until October we get a share of the crop each week. It's been fantastic! Just look at the beauty we received yesterday at our pick up...

There are a ton of greens in here....kale, salad greens, swiss chard, spinach, and basil! We also received eggplant, tomatoes, scallions, patty pan squash, zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, hot peppers, orange and white carrots, purple cabbage, pickling cucumbers, broccoli, and green pepper.

So what does one do with all this produce? You are not alone if you come home from the store or the farmers market with produce and then let it go bad in the refrigerator because you just aren't quite sure what to do! This week I will share with you all the creations I come up with and show you how to make the most out of all those vegetables! With a little bit of planning, you can have fabulous meals all week long that are delicious as well as nutritious! I will be posting often so be sure to check back often! It will be a fun week sharing with you how I feed my family each day!

And here's a peek from dinner last night...

African Pineapple Peanut Stew (using the swiss chard) served over brown rice

Click on the link above for the recipe. I added lean ground turkey for added protein. Try it! It may not look all that appealing, but it's fantastic, and filling!

A Nurturing Environment...

2009-08-09T20:40:00.008-05:00

When working towards living a healthier life, one key component to success is surrounding yourself in an environment that nurtures and feeds your lifestyle. If you are aiming to eliminate processed, artificial junk from your body, it's a good idea to begin to do that in your surroundings as well! What this does is reinforce what's happening on the inside of your body on the outside in your physical space.

When you begin to eat whole foods, greens, grains, fruits and vegetables your body begins to transform as these foods give you life! They begin the process of detoxifying your body and eliminating the clutter of toxins stored in your cells, tissue, and yes, even your fat stores! As this happens, you begin to feel lighter, clear minded, and energized.

Just as our bodies can be overloaded with junk, so can the environments we live, sleep, work and play in. As your energy begins to pick up, use it to detoxify these environments that have become stale and lifeless. If they remain in this state, you will have a harder time healing and moving forward. Here are a few simple steps to begin the process...

Pick an environment to tackle. Anything can be an environment...your home, kitchen, bedroom, basement, junk drawer, i-pod, car, garage, desk, closet, even your email inbox! Pick one area that really irks you the most and begin there. If it causes you stress, it's time to detoxify it! After you have chosen the lucky area, pick a time frame of two hours and write the time and day you will begin the project in your calendar. If it is scheduled, it will be more likely to get done!

Now it's time to detoxify your environment!

Gather three boxes and label them "keep, trash, and give away."
Declutter! Begin to go through the items in the environment and sort them into their appropriate labeled box. Hint: If you have not touched the item in the last year, toss, recycle, or give away!
Sort! Once you are done putting things into their appropriate box, it's time to sort the "keep" box again. Go through it one more time to make sure you need the items you have put in there. If not, put them in their appropriate box.
Plan! Once everything is sorted, evaluate the empty space and the items in the keep box to see what needs to be better organized. You can find many cool storage cubbies, bins, and organizers at many big box stores. One of my favs is The Container Store.
Reorganize! Now that you have plan in place and your storage accessories purchased, put the keep items back into their area. Step back and admire your hard work!

If you have a space that does not feel good to you, but is organized and clutter free, step back and take a good look at the space. What is it that makes you feel negatively about it? Is it too dark and dreary? Is it too small? Is it uncomfortable? Is the color not one you are attracted to? It's easy to transform a room without spending a ton of money. Try rearranging your furniture to allow more energy to flow through the room. Brighten a space by repainting in a cool, light color. Dark colors can sometimes make a room feel much smaller than it is...especially a room with out a lot of natural light!

Do what you can to bring new life to the space you spend a lot of time in or one that causes much stress! By doing this, you will be allowing your body to feel at home on it's outside as well as on the inside as it is adjusting to it's new life of nutrients and balance. Just as our bodies crave this on the inside, our senses crave it on the outside! An environment that feels good will support you, give you stregth, and reinforce the idea that you are opening yourself up to healing, detoxifying and nurturing your body.

The Pressure To Be...

2009-08-07T08:50:00.002-05:00

Growing up, I was bombarded with many messages about what it meant to be healthy and beautiful. I remember very clearly in high school always comparing myself to other girls checking to see if I was looking the way I "should." Images of anorexic models and over make-upped girls in magazines and on TV flooded my eyes everywhere I turned. This is what I thought was normal and something to achieve. What I wasn't noticing at the time, was the damage this was doing to my emotions, self-esteem, and self-worth. As an adult, those media images persist and are added to with comments, gossip about others and their looks, and criticisms from adults in my life that are focused on this "normal."

Have you ever felt like you couldn't do something because you didn't feel like you were skinny, good-looking, funny, strong, or smart enough? Why do we fall into this thinking and allow fear to keep us from having fun or making changes? Unfortunately, we rarely have an abundance of positive thoughts in our head. Most of us have a tendency to focus on things in our life that are not working.

What we see as "normal" in society today, isn't normal. To be a healthy and happy person, you have to act like one. We live in a culture today where it is "normal" to be angry, depressed, negative and selfish. That is not normal, nor is it healthy. Unfortunately, in order to be healthy, you have to step out of the box and be different. It's time to create a "new" normal!

Now this shouldn't sound scary to you. If you feel like you don't fit in to the crowd right now, then you already feel different, right? Then why not still be different but feel good, proud of yourself, happy, and healthy instead? It's up to us to change what normal has become and unlock the knowledge we all have inside of us that we were born with to care for our bodies and be healthy!

Now I know this sounds easier said than done. It's hard to compete with our culture and the constant barrage of the media. I feel it too. And many times I have failed at what I truly want for myself and fall into the trap of what others tell me I should be eating, wearing, look like, or how much weight to lose. The best way I have found to battle this is to practice thinking positively...about everything...my weight as it is, my life, my job, my house, my relationships...everything! If something isn't going right in my life I ask myself a few questions to turn the negative thoughts into positive ones. What can I learn from this and change? What can I offer others in terms of support because I have gone through this? Start to pay attention to where your mind goes all the time. How much of your attention is on what is not going well in your life? How much attention is on what is going well?

I have a couple ways I battle the pressures of society today and keep myself positive and away from self-loathing and discontent. One, is to keep a journal. Each morning, I write my feelings and intuitions I am having upon waking. Then I write three things I am grateful for. In the evening before I go to sleep, I reopen the journal and review my morning writings. Most of the time, because I started my day on a positive note, I have more things to write that I am grateful for. If I have had a difficult day, I write about what learned and how I can grow from the experience. Then I close with gratitude for my day, what I appreciated about myself or the work I did, and a loving thought. It helps to start and end your day on a positive note! Another strategy I use is to ask people what is new and good with them. This immediately squelches any opportunity for them to begin a conversation on a negative note! I let them brag for a bit and then I talk about what is good with me.

You can incorporate positive thinking into your life in many different ways. Begin to consciously put your mind on positive thoughts or write everything you are grateful for into a journal. Practice different ways to incorporate positive thinking in your life and see what works for you. You will see changes in how you feel about yourself very quickly. The pressure to be something you are not will go away because you are focusing on what is already good about yourself. When your focus is there, it is easier to evaluate what needs change and to work harder and achieve it. Notice how you create your own reality. When you practice positive thinking, your world begins to look brighter!

Did You Eat Enough Today?

2009-08-04T16:10:00.004-05:00

The consequences of not eating enough can be detrimental to anyone trying to improve their health. Many of us think that if we skip a meal or cut way back on calories, we will succeed at losing weight and gaining health. This is not true.

It's not a myth when they say the most important meal of your day should be breakfast. This is where you get the most "bang for your buck". Eating a healthy and substantial breakfast will help you jump start your metabolism for the day. You will actually burn more calories than if you had not eaten breakfast to "save" calories. It also helps prevent binging later in the day when you become ravaging because your body has had no fuel to function on. So skipping it is not a good idea!

Actually, skipping any meal is not a good idea. Our body needs consistent nutrition to work properly and support our bodily functions throughout the day. If you skip meals you can cause everything to go out of whack. One nasty side affect is that your body may begin to think it is starving and immediately take any of the calories that you do consume and turn them into fat stores to live off in the future. When trying to lose weight and gain health, that is exactly what you don't want!!

Today I had an off eating day. My day in general was just plain off. For some reason, insomnia cursed me last night and I did not get enough sleep (Was it from stress, too much sugar, watching TV before going to bed, lack of self care?). Because of the lack of sleep I ended up sleeping in and then eating breakfast at 11am. I then immersed myself into work related tasks and "forgot" to eat for the remainder of the afternoon. Since breakfast was only a bowl of cereal, man, did I pay for that decision! Come 5pm, I was so ravaging with hunger, I felt dizzy, cranky, impatient and ready to eat and entire chocolate cake! Thankfully, I did not resort to that. Since I was waiting for hubby to come home and grill some chicken breasts, I started out with a huge dark leafy green salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing drizzled on top. It took the edge off and I am looking forward to that dinner which is currently cooking on the grill, which I now will likely not binge on since I filled up with greens first!

This was a good reminder for me that it benefits me to have a plan, stick to a routine, and care enough for my body so that such extreme imbalances do not occur. Planning and prevention are the best ways to assure that your goal of eating healthy and maybe losing weight are achieved!

Setting and Reaching Goals...

2009-08-03T16:49:00.011-05:00

We all set out to accomplish goals. But we don't always achieve them. Why is that? I have often wondered why it is that when I set a goal for myself, I sometimes waver away from achieving that goal. It's not that I've decided not to do it, because 99.9% of the time, I often still want to achieve what I had set out to do.

What are some strategies for setting and achieving goals? First, let's define what a goal is. A goal is a "want". Goals and dreams are often confused. The difference between a goal and a dream is the goal is more specific. However, you can use your dreams when setting your goals. Look back at your dreams and start a specific list of what you want from that dream. Be very clear about what you want and mean when you express it. Remember, goals are things you want. They are never things you don't want. Here's an example...

Right: I want to stay at my current weight. Wrong: I don't want to gain weight.

Right: I want to remain out of debt. Wrong: I don't want to use credit cards.

Can you see the difference? When setting goals it is a good idea to write that goal down on a piece of paper. Studies have shown that when a goal is written, you are 75% more likely to achieve it. This is because you have already invested time by writing it down. Also, be specific when writing down your goals. If you want to lose weight, don't just say "I want to lose weight". Here's another example...

Wrong: I want to lose weight. Right: I want to lose 15 pounds.

Now remember, specifics are important! When setting a goal, use a time frame to achieve that goal by, and write that down as well! Example...

Right: I want to lose 15 pounds in the next 8 weeks. Wrong: I want to lose 15 pounds soon.

After you have a specific goal in mind, put together a specific plan of action for reaching that goal. For instance, how will you go about losing 15 pounds? Will you exercise every day? For how long? What type of exercise? Where will you exercise? At what time? Do you get the idea of why it is so important to be specific? If you leave out the details you set yourself up to fail because you lose sight of what needs to be done!

Are you getting the hang of this yet? Setting goals is a good way to get what you want. When you follow those simple steps, achieving your goal will be much easier. However, I know firsthand that it can still be hard to achieve goals, even when you are specific. At that point, I need some inspiration and motivation. What motivates you? For me, when I see someone who has achieved what I want, that is inspiring. I want to find out how they did it! Surround yourself with the support of people who have done what you want and ask them how they did it. Ask them to support you in your efforts to reach your goal, as well. When you hit a bump in the road, don't give up! Ask for advice on how they may have handled that same bump.

Goals are a wonderful thing to have to motivate us and keep us moving in the direction we want to be going. I have found that the more simple and specific they are, the more successful I am at achieving them. But also in addition to the specifics, I arm myself with support, whether it is someone who wants the same goal, has reached that goal, or can assist me in the process. Support is key! Take a good look at the goals you are setting aside and not working towards. Look for something that inspires you and re-ignites the desire to achieve them. Then sit down and re-write the goal with the specifics of what you want and how you will go about getting it. Success will occur if a good plan is in place! Now go get to work!

Farm Share...

2009-07-30T09:30:00.004-05:00

This summer was the first summer that my husband and I invested in a farm share at a local organic farm. Each week, starting in June we have been blessed over and over again with a bounty of fresh greens, vegetables and some fruits.

I think this has been one of the best, if not the best, investments we have ever made. We had no idea what it would be like or what we would get. Having all this fresh produce in our refrigerator week after week has really kicked up our vegetable and greens intake. My kids are also joining in! Last night, my 15 year old daughter ate sauteed kale with chicken sausage...and asked if she could have the rest! Seconds...for kale? That was the most awesome feeling ever for me with regards to what I am feeding my family. Even the little kids are getting into it. My youngest loves to pick which bunch of greens we will take home each week at pickup and the boys (the worst veggie eaters ever!) are even trying things. I have found that once everyone gets involved in the process they suddenly have a vested interest and will at least try everything on their plate. I am looking forward to taking a field trip out to the farm soon to help with weeding and to hand pick some of the veggies out there.

Fresh, just out of the ground, organic, local produce is something I have been missing out on all my life! I can't emphasize enough how much this is changing our family and our eating habits. And the taste? Amazing! Everything grown conventionally that is sold in the grocery store, it all tastes like plastic to me...yes, there is a difference!! Do a taste test sometime with an organic vs. non organic fruit or vegetable or green. They are light-years apart in taste...I kid you not!!

Sunday Night Snack...

2009-07-26T21:55:00.003-05:00

Sunday night snack. Sounds like a good idea, huh? I came up with this at the beginning of summer to try and help me control my out of control ice cream binging. It was an attempt to control how often I could eat it throughout the week. Now, I assume you figured out by using the word "attempt", the idea wasn't very successful. Nope. I still eat ice cream WAY too much, and not only on Sunday.

However, upon thinking about the Sunday night snack routine, I realized there is something else to it. My husband and I have a quirky connection around eating snack food together late at night. There is just something about that snack time that has become sacred to us and our routine. Unfortunately, it isn't the healthiest way for us to connect with each other. What's a wife (who's trying to lose weight and get healthier) to do?? Especially when the bad stuff tastes so darn good?

Well, the first thing not to do is cancel Sunday night snack! If I try to eliminate that from our marital routine, bad things will happen. I will probably feel deprived (and binge) and I will eliminate an activity my husband and I have found enjoyable together.

Healthy relationships are key components to our health. When you are on good terms in your relationships, food will begin to move aside and become secondary in it's importance. So how do I handle this when food is part of the relational connection? Well, a few simple changes to the snacking routine will help it become even more healthy without removing the enjoyment or the connection it creates!!

Change what you eat! Instead of indulging in a piece of cheesecake or potato chips and dip that can reach up to 1000 calories per serving, make a healthier version of the dessert, like raw cacao chocolates, a bowl of fruit, or ice cream made from coconut milk instead of cow's milk.
Eat earlier! Eating late at night is taxing on the digestive system and process. When you go to sleep your body slows down to rest as well, and if your stomach is full of snacks, it will sit in your stomach undigested for hours, and begin to ferment...gross! Eat your snack no later than 2 hours before bedtime, and preferably no later than 3 hours before your rest your head on your pillow.
Change the snack! Another alternative is to actually change the snack altogether and do an activity instead (I know, much harder, I have yet to accomplish this one...baby steps, right?) If you have the willpower, and you can pass on the snack, and take a walk instead, DO IT! Even if you do this once a month, and see how it goes for three months. Then maybe shift to every other week. This is a pattern change that is leading to excellent moderation!
Drink a full glass of water before the snack! If you fill your stomach with water before you dig into the treat, you will eat less, it's that simple!

Snacking doesn't have to be "sinful". We can snack smartly and responsibly. And usually, when other areas of our lives are aligned and nourished, like our relationships, snacking will take the backseat in our routines. And if you decide to snack in moderation, enjoy it! Feeling guilt slows digestion and causes emotional stress. When emotional stress is present our food can take as much as 3 times as long to digest...that's worse than sitting undigested in our bellies over night!

Now, it's Sunday night, and my hubby and I are going to share some time and a snack together! Here's to snacking responsibly!

Changes To Come...

2009-07-26T18:53:00.003-05:00

I haven't spent a whole lot of time in here the past few weeks. We have been traveling A LOT! We have been to Denver, Chicago 6 times in 5 weeks, as well as Minnesota for a few days. We are also contemplating a couple more trips before school starts...but I am feeling burned out and ready to land for awhile...but the mountains in Colorado are calling me back...we'll see.

This blog is going to see some changes soon. Things are good and moving forward in life. I want this to follow suit. It's time to say goodbye to old feelings and emotional distress and take on a new attitude and start a new story. I am hungry for a new beginning, new life, new topics, and sharing of new challenges.

What are you hungry for? Let me know, and I will post all about it!

I hope you will still tag along. Change will be good...

Date Night...

2009-07-16T13:29:00.003-05:00

Lately, I've been feeling like my husband and I have spent very little time together. I would even go as far to say that we could qualify as roommates instead of an intimate, connected husband and wife.

Now the truth is, we have been spending time together...in the same room, on the same vacations, same car rides, same bed...BUT, we aren't doing that great at connecting with each other and talking to each other. It seems as though we have continued to do a good job at making time for us to be together for the purpose of re-connecting, but we aren't doing a very good job at the follow through of that intention once we are alone.

Yesterday, in the middle of one his many meetings he had, my hubby sent me a text asking if he could get a babysitter to take his wife out on a date tomorrow night (now tonight!). I responded back with "That would be fabulous!"

He sent me another text earlier today on his way into another meeting (if you ask me what he does for a living, I'll say "go to meetings...about something...all day, every day...with an occasional racquetball and golf game in there") letting me know he has a sitter for 6:30pm and wondered where I wanted to go for dinner. While sitting here thinking about what I was going to eat tonight at my favorite restaurant, I realized I needed to change my focus. I need to reset my brain and get into "dating" mode. My husband heard my complaints about how I was feeling, listened, and took action to help make it better! I just now see this! An amazing man, he is :)

So instead of focusing on what I am going to indulge in for dinner tonight at my favorite local restaurant, I am going to focus on him. I love this man SO much. And we have been through A LOT together. Sometimes, I complain about the fact that we "never" talk anymore, he "always" watches TV in the other room, falls asleep too fast, whatever. But I realize that this is a relationship. You can't have a relationship with 1 person. It doesn't work.

So today it's my turn to focus on HIM instead of expecting him to focus on ME. I am already thinking of all kinds of things I want to ask him about, share with him, and hear what he has to say to me. It feels amazing to have a clear focus in my head about my intention for our evening together tonight. I already feel better and more connected and excited to put him in the spotlight for once! He does so much, works so hard, and supports just about everything I stick my nose into. It's my turn to return the favor and love on him, support, affirm, and be excited for him and all the good things he has going on too...like the fact that he got to play golf this morning for work and it is gorgeous out today!!

Happy date night to me! What should I wear? How should I do my hair? Shower? Bodywash? Make up? Yes! He is totally worth it!

Sugar Monster...

2009-07-14T21:40:00.002-05:00

Have you ever had a monster take over your body? I currently have one living inside of me and it is very much addicted to sweet, cold treats...like ice cream. Now, this monster is very persistent. It will not move out and on to someone else, no matter what I do!

This unbeatable craving for ice cream is really starting to stump me. I have done all the right things, like eating more sweet vegetables, fruits, and smoothies. And of course the analyzing and deconstructing of this said craving and to no avail can come up with any reason as to why it is there.

Is it because it is summer and it is warm, and my body is craving something cool? Is there something in my life that needs to be addressed and I am soothing it with creamy, cool, satiating dairy? What is going on in my relationships to cause me to turn to something sweet...I can't think of anything!!

The only time this happens is in the summer. Every summer it is the same thing. All I want is ice cream. So do I give in and indulge? Or do I continue to fight and ultimately fail? I vote indulge, guilt free, knowing it is a phase. My only fear is that my body will not cooperate and allow it to be free calories!!

A Happy Anniversary...

2009-07-13T13:27:00.002-05:00

Twelve years ago, on July 12, 1997, my husband and I were married. Last night before going to sleep, I read out loud to him a letter I had written just a few days ago. In this letter, I shared the timeline of our relationship and what he had done for me at each stage. Over the course of our marriage, we have had many hard struggles and even a separation. And in that letter, I thanked him for all of the hurt and hard times. Yes, I thanked him.

You see, if we don't experience hard times, God can't help us grow and learn. Everything in our lives happens for a reason. God's plan for us was to discover the real reason for our partnership...for His perfect plan. My marriage has taught me to love, to listen, and to be careful about what I say. It has taught me patience, hard work, endurance, and faith. It has taught me contentment (although, I'm still working on this!), compassion, and better ways to communicate my feelings.

My marriage changes me year to year. And all the changes are good, even amongst a wildfire of bad. I love my husband in a way that I can not describe. It is so much I can't even formulate the words into a description. He is the most amazing man there is. And he chose me. How blessed am I to be with him? Hugely blessed...

I love God's plan for us. I would never change a single thing that has happened to us, good or bad. I will endure all the hard times and tears over and over again, just so I can experience the feelings I have for my husband in a deeper, more intimate, and even more amazing way. If you let God speak to you and teach you, you will be forever changed...we are proof.

Happy Anniversary my love, I am looking forward to seeing where the next twelve years takes us, God willing, and all of the blessings He has in store for our future! You are my rock, my comfort, my strength, and my forever love.

Medical School

2009-06-10T10:58:00.004-05:00

Dear Family and Friends and Bloggy Friends,

I have some exciting news to share with all of you. My career is taking a bit of a twist and turn at the moment. I have enrolled myself in Medical School!! OK, not really medical school, but it may as well be. I am currently enrolled in the largest nutrition school in the world, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, located in New York City, where I will be trained to be a certified holistic health counselor and become a member and affiliate of the AADP (American Association of Drugless Practitioners).

IIN is a unique school and program as it does not teach just one dietary theory. It teaches over 100 different theories with the purpose of letting Americans know that there is no one way of eating that fits everyone. The whole program is based on bio-individuality - we are all unique persons and made differently. It also teaches the concept of primary foods, the bridge between nutrition and personal growth and development, which are not foods we eat, but foods that nurture who we are and balance us as a person in our career, spirituality, relationships and physical selves. The mission of IIN is to play a crucial role in improving health and happiness of Americans, and through that process, create a ripple effect that transforms the world! Sound interesting?? It is! And I am so excited and honored to now be a part of this movement :)

This is quite a change from interior design, I know! However, my goal and intention is to incorporate this with my current design business to help as many people as I can. As a health counselor I will also be incorporating my design background into my practice. Our environments play as big of a role in our health as does the nutrition. The condition of where we eat, sleep, work, play, etc. needs to be calm, clean, peaceful and nurturing. Our environments need to feed and nurture us, just like food. What will make my practice unique is that I can utilize the knowledge I have from my education and experience in working in design to take the healing process of my clients one step further in their lives by helping them "heal" their environments as well as their bodies! My interior design business, Pineapple House Design, will remain in tact as well, and I will continue with those projects as they come and my time allows.

This is going to be an amazing year of my life! It is going to be busy, time consuming and hectic at times. There will be many events and get togethers, emails and phone calls, and blog posts I may miss. But please bear with me and send your encouragement and support. Pray with me and for me that I can be one of the greatest health counselors out there, helping individuals, communities, and even corporations transform their lives (And maybe yours?) as well. When this year is over, my life and the lives of my family will be forever changed by what I will be learning. Keep an eye on me...you will see an amazing transformation happen!!

Thank you for sharing in this adventure with me with your support, prayer, encouragement, and love. I look forward to sharing with each and every one of you how the process is going and what I am learning!

Please get back in touch with me and let me know what is new and good in your life, as well!!

Food Affects Mood...

2009-06-03T20:14:00.005-05:00

For the past week or so, I have finally been cooking my own meals instead of eating out (we have been moving). I have noticed my moods have been stable during this time as well. Yesterday we brought Krispy Kreme donuts into the house as a treat for the kids...yea...for "the kids." Anyways, today I ate leftover donuts for a snack and then proceeded through my afternoon without anymore nourishment. I left the house to do some work this evening at my office without eating dinner. And then when I was waiting to pick up one of the kids from an activity I had 20 minutes to spare and drove through McDonald's because I was starving! Now I am grumpy...just plain grumpy. And I know why.

When you eat healthy foods, you feel good. When you eat unhealthy food, you don't feel good. It's as simple as that.

Full Circle

2009-03-03T09:15:00.003-06:00

One week ago, at this exact time, I was watching my mother in the hospital having a heart attack and being wheeled away to surgery. I remember stroking her forehead and holding her hand as they pulled her through the surgery doors. I didn't say anything to her. I just smiled at her and she just looked at me and nodded her head.

That morning is still a blur. I remember thinking I should go to the gym and get in a workout, I had nothing else going on. I remember going upstairs to change my clothes to go. And then when I looked at my bed, I decided to snuggle in and do my bible study instead. The phone rang a few times and I checked the caller ID and ignored all the calls. The fourth time the phone rang I was getting annoyed because it was getting hard to stay focused. I saw it was my mom, hesitated, put the phone down, and then picked it back up and answered...the only call I took that morning.

Hearing her whimper on the other end as she explained she didn't feel well and needed help got me out of bed faster than anything in recent history. I was out the door before we even hung up. When I got to her house she was waiting for me in the chair closest to the door. I remember looking at her face and being struck by the color. It looked grey. And now when I think back, maybe it was more blue...or a combination of both? She immediately started panicking and crying and said the Dr.'s office told her to go right to the hospital. So we did. It never even crossed my mind that maybe I should call an ambulance instead...not until I was half way there. I had no idea what was happening...maybe a heart attack...maybe not. I tried to keep her calm and just listened to her talk and absorbed every piece of information she gave me so I knew what to tell them in case she passed out or something.

Seven minutes later I told her to stay put as I ran into the emergency room and made someone come out and get her with a wheel chair. The last thing I wanted was for her to walk into the ER herself and be sent through triage instead of getting immediate attention. Turns out that was a good thing. They immediately took her back, hooked her up to the monitors, and it was chaos from there. I was watching their eyes and how they all looked at each other silently. I knew that wasn't good. And I watched them scurry all around her, it seemed like everyone working in the ER that day immediately became involved. Nurses were crashing into each other, Dr's were asking her all the same questions over and over, until finally, one of them said "It's not good news...you are having a little bit of a heart attack..." Turns out, it wasn't that little. Her coronary artery was 100% blocked. They almost had to shock her heart during surgery and she almost died. She's incredibly lucky to be alive...they stopped it in it's tracks.

Only 2 hours after my mother called me, she was out of surgery. She was awake and saying she felt great. Her face was flushed and pink...the best it has looked in years. It was like nothing ever happened. My dad was cracking jokes with the nurses as I was just trying to absorb what had just happened. It was all very surreal.

It never even dawned on me that I would have so much responsibility plopped in my lap that morning. My entire life came to a screeching halt. It wasn't an option to leave her alone, even for a second. I didn't even want to go to the bathroom. I told my husband that I was staying with her...someone needs to be there. And that was that, he was on his own. I knew he could handle it though, he's amazing. I knew my dad would get too antsy and have a hard time. It would be better for him to be able to come and go as he needed. So I stayed with her and took care of her.

It didn't really hit me how weird it was until I started feeding her bites of jello later that evening. She couldn't bend her arms because of the IV's. And I thought to myself...it all comes full circle...life. And then there were simple things like helping her go the bathroom, helping her sit up, bathing her and washing her hair so she would look good for her visitors! I never thought about what that would be like. She tested my patience...but I never lost it, thankfully. It's a hard line to walk on. She's my mother. And despite any falling outs or arguments we have had, I still needed to respect her. But at the same time, I was responsible for her and her care, like she was a child. It was hard to process.

Only 52 hours after she arrived, we were able to go home. I loaded her up into my dad's car and walked away shaking my head, still trying to get a grasp of what happened. Everything happened SO fast. The heart attack, the surgery, and the recovery. It was hard to let go of the "control" and turn her over to my dad. But I knew they needed to figure it all out together and I had my own family I needed to get back home to.

My mom is doing great. She's been home for 5 days. She has driven herself to the bank already and to the doctor's office for follow up appointments. It's strange to think of how close she was to death only one week ago. My hope for her is that she realizes the magnitude of what happened. When she was in the hospital, all she was focused on was getting out, not getting better. Now I want her to get better. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. Her recovery has been "easy" so far. I want her to slow down and take life in...because she almost missed it.

If you ask her, I'm not sure she would think of these recent events as a blessing...maybe she would...I don't know. But I do. For years I have been struggling to connect with her. Those 52 hours in the hospital allowed me to do that. She had no choice but to listen to me and allow me to be involved in her life. And whether she likes it or not, I am going to stay involved. I am going to ask questions and show care and concern. I know that will be hard for her, because she likes to be private and independent. But God opened this door for me and I am walking in and taking full advantage of the opportunity. I am thankful that she is still here and to have a second chance to be more involved...and I will pray that she is too, and that she will recognize that God had his hand in all of this and will continue to in the future. It's weird how God works sometimes. But it is amazing when He does, and I actually recognize it.

Do I need this?

2008-09-22T10:20:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, my good friend Hip Mom wrote an article about the progression of modern conveniences in women's lives. I thought this was a really good thought provoker and decided to answer her question to her readers right here so as to challenge others with it as well. Here it is...

Is there a modern convenience you can’t live without?

Hmm, well let's see...
When I think about this question and go down the list of things I have and love, I do find myself saying that I could live with out the item if I had to. There are not many things I feel like I need to have. However...

I really can't imagine my life without a washer and dryer. Seriously! How in the world would I ever get ANY laundry done? It would go from once every couple weeks (he he), to once every couple months...yep, definitely "need" that! My family gets annoyed with me enough as it is with the laundry issue.

TV? I prefer to have it off at all times. I love silence. So I know I don't need that.

Vacuum? That would just stink to not have that...I would want one of those, because I am not sure how I would get all the little bits of junk out of my carpet...although I suppose I could just get rid of the carpet and sweep instead!

Car? That is a tricky one. I think I couldn't live without it but I suppose if I didn't have one that could also result in less running around and better planning ahead. Plus, it would facilitate more exercising!

Electricity? I think this is one thing I would not want to lose. Because if I did (and have), I would not be able to do laundry or vacuum. But really, if it were a life or death situation...I can do without. But definitely wouldn't want to!

Hip Mom mentioned she kept wanting to put the bible on her list of things she couldn't live without but decided that because it wasn't a modern convenience it didn't count. I thought about that and decided it did count. There was a time in this world when the bible was still being written. The people of this time could only learn of God's greatness by word of mouth. It was a confusing time for many as they figured all of this out, to put it simply. So the fact that at one point in time the bible did not exist, there were many who were at more of a disadvantage than we are today. We can use it and scour it and follow what it has to teach to us. It is the rule book for life. You can find an answer to ANY question in there! It is indispensable. That being said, I certainly, absolutely, CAN NOT live without my bible. No exceptions!

And besides, if I lost everything in my list above and still had my bible...my life would still be as rich as it is today. Probably even more so if all I had left to do was read it!

How about you? What's on your list?

What did you say??

2008-09-14T21:51:00.007-05:00

Have you ever fallen into the bad habit of putting yourself down?? I have. I do it all the time. I have incredibly high expectations of myself. I tend to set unrealistic goals of all sizes because I feel like there is no reason why I can't reach them. And then when I don't, I begin to sing a song that sounds a little like this...

sigh....I am such a loser!
I can't get anything done...
Why am I so incapable of accomplishing anything??
ugghhh...I'm such a failure...
My five year old could've gotten this done better than I did (in fact I paid her a dollar to do it!!)
I hate how this outfit looks on me.
This paint job stinks.
I can never cut the grass in lines as straight as I want them (I know...obsessive compulsive...)

OK, you get the picture. The problem I am realizing in this self discovery journey I have been on lately is this... Whenever I talk to myself it is usually negative in some shape or form. Why do I do that? It doesn't help the situation. It makes me feel worse sometimes. It makes me feel defeated as well. I have discovered that I do this so often and I think I do it and not even realize I am sometimes. This is SO bad!!

One thing we need to realize in our lives is that we were fearlessly and wonderfully made. Every single part of us is incredibly loved by our creator God. Shouldn't that be enough to make us love ourselves? To know that God accepts us any way we are, all the time? That He is there to provide us the encouragement we need when we are struggling and feeling worthless? If I were worthless, I wouldn't be here! There is a plan for me! There is a plan for everyone! It is our job to try to uncover that plan and live our lives accordingly.

"OK, but what if I don't believe in God", you say?? Here is what I am learning and a different way to think about it...

What you think, affects how you act.

Think about that for a minute...what you think, affects how you act. I thought about that for a long time today and discovered that for me, that is so true! Maybe one of the reasons I feel stuck sometimes is because I am telling myself I can't do it and won't move forward. I realized as well, that I am hungry for love. My love...towards me. I don't love myself the way I should. I want to be better about that. I am going to flip the tape over, and make a new version of the song that I sing in my head...

You are beautiful!
You are so smart and clever!
Way to go...you worked so hard!
My hair looks great like this!
I am a good mother!
I am an amazing wife!
I have so much to share with and teach others!
I have great design ideas!
I am perfect the way I am!
I really am funny and interesting!

Just writing that list put a feeling of warmth inside of me because I know I am all of those things. It's when I tell myself I'm not, that my world begins to crumble around me and I feel defeated. Hopefully now, I can hear and sing that new song in my head ALL the time.

What negative mental tapes are spinning around in your head??

Try taping over them.

Long Term Planning

2008-07-29T20:00:00.000-05:00

As the new school year approaches and summer begins to wind down, I am finding my schedule filling up fast with odds and ends like well-child check ups, haircuts, remodeling projects, orthodontist appts., tree removal and yard clean-up, and the final family get together's. I have been bummed all summer, so far, that I have not been able to nail down a routine. There has been so much going on that has "kept" me from doing anything on a regular basis. As a result, I am feeling a sense of defeat when it comes to acheiving some of my personal goals. So much so, it has made me angry enough to do something about it!

Last night, I sat down at 11:30pm and planned out the menu for the rest of the week and made a grocery list. Today I went to the grocery store (without kids...hooray!!) and purchased everything I needed to execute on that meal plan. Tonight for dinner I made Super Stuffed Tortillas (recipe below). When planning this meal last night, it didn't particuarly sound like it would knock my socks off. But, I had all the veggies it called for begging to be used up in my fridge, so I put it on the menu. It was SO good! Who would've thought!?! While preparing it I was reminded of how much I love to cook. And while eating it, I was reminded of how satisfying eating healthy really can be. I am feeling incredibly full and content right now....with no desire for that regular ice cream sundae I have gotten into the habit of eating this summer a few times a week....gasp!

It amazes me how following through on something as simple as feeding myself a nourishing meal can actually motivate me to do something else that has a positive benefit somewhere else in my life. My next project that I have decided to tackle this evening is to put together an exercise schedule for the rest of the summer. That way, I will have no more excuses that I ran out of time or that my day was "just too busy". And on the flip side...if it's scheduled on paper...then I can't put anything else in it's place! I am actually looking forward to this project. I think at the same time I will plan a few work days in there to prep for going back full force in the fall. Now if only I can figure out a way to stay on top of laundry...it is just SO boring...and there is always SO much!

Try the recipe below, it really was very good. Stay tuned to see how my long term scheduling works out!

Super Stuffed Tortillas

1-2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 large onion
1 green pepper
Saute garlic in 2 teaspoons oil for 1 minute. Add onion and pepper and saute until crisp-tender.

2 cups corn
1 small-medium zucchini (sliced)
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
Add and continue to saute until all vegetables are tender but not browned.

2 cups cooked black beans (I used canned)
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
6 tablespoons salsa
Add and cook until there is no excess moisture. Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, green onions or chives, and fresh cilantro to taste.

corn or flour tortillas
cheddar cheese, feta, or queso blanco (shredded or crumbled)
Preheat a frypan with a bit of oil and place a tortilla in pan. Add cheese in center of tortilla and add 1/4 - 1/2 cup vegetable filling. When the tortilla is crispy, remove, and fold in half. Or place a second tortilla on top, flip, and fry crisp.

Enjoy!!