Tasting Life Abundant

Thanksgiving Dinner- Turkey, mashed yellow potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon and nutmeg, cauliflower puree, corn, green beans, GF stuffing, and GF biscuits. Every Thanksgiving, we are faced with the decision of where to go to celebrate. We switch back and forth between my side of the family and Brian's, but even then it isn't a straight forward decision, since ALL of our extended family (both of our parents sides) live in the area, and we really actually have about 5 parties we would be welcome to attend. BUT, Brian works every Thanksgiving, so we never get to have to big sit down lunch with everyone, and to be honest, it's kind of lame to show up to a party where everyone else has just stuffed themselves and are usually in the middle of games but the time we can make it. So, this year, we decided we want a nice Thanksgiving meal together as a family, and we will just go to a party after that. So I made our Thanksgiving meal all myself, and I have to say...

Just know this today... Wherever you are, whatever is going on in your life right now, you are exactly where God wants you to be. The circumstances of your life are constantly culminating with you in the center of it all, as God lays out your life, moment by moment. And in those moments, we have a choices to make; who will you serve, and what is your outlook on this?... The thought that The Plan for your life is God's Plan is all at once sobering, uplifting, humbling, wonderful, terrifying, and reassuring. The hard things of life can shake us....we see how small and weak we are, and how much we are NOT in control. We see our sin. We see brokenness. But, we do not need to be afraid. Nothing that happens is an accident... there is a purpose behind it all. Sometimes we need to let ourselves just be in the pain and discomfort...allow ourselves to really feel things. Sometimes, I feel like I need a sign in every room of my house, (probably everywhere, actually), that says, ...

As I make progress on my journey to health and wellness, I sometimes look back over the past few years, and I can see more and more of a contrast between Then and Now. I hope that as you read this blog, you feel encouraged that things can get better for you too, and that God is working through your struggles as well. I hope my healing does not discourage you.... I hope that you feel empowered to make the changes you want or need to make to facilitate healing and well-being in your own life. I hope that you do not look at my life as "perfect", or me as someone who "has it all together", or think, "she can do those things, but I can't...". I feel you. I hear you. I've been there. I know how hard it is to make decisions in the middle of chaos. It feels a lot like looking at a room after my kids have played in it for about 7 minutes and you just look and the mess and think "How am I ever going to get this sorted out and make everything nic...

Tri tip steak, garlicky sautéed mushrooms, broiled fresh green beans with bacon and onion, and instant mashed potatoes with pan sauce from the steak. Delicious, except the green beans didn't go over well with the family...we love canned, fresh are too crunchy I guess. Sophie tried the mushrooms though, and she loved them! She is quite an adventurous eater lately. Fried leftover potatoes with ketchup, fries eggs and Cheerios. And tea, of course. The kids loved this breakfast! Who doesn't love fried potatoes anyway? And yes, I do eat cereal sometimes, and thoroughly enjoy it when I do :) Lovely lemon ginger tea, and a breakfast bowl of scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach, fried minced sweet potato and pancetta, and GF toast with butter. Yum. The pancetta was leftover from making homemade BBQ chicken pizzas... also yum. I just love this soup! This time it had butternut squash, sweet potato, spinach, bacon, pecorino Romano cheese, and breakfast type sausage. I love eating th...

Parties are kinda fun But afterwards I often feel sick Time for tea and soup. That little poem above is how I feel today.... Yesterday was my son Nathaniel's 4th birthday. We celebrated by having my family over for lunch between church services. And then after the evening service, we went to my in-laws house for a visit. Busy day, but everything went smoothly, and it was nice to visit with everyone. But now today, I am done. Already. At 10:30am. Well, I feel "done", but I can't be "done" because: - I'm a Mom - I have a post party mess to clean up - I need to prep everything for my next NAET appt. tomorrow, and - I'm a Mom. Parties are exhausting to me. It's not that I don't enjoy visiting with people sometimes, or that I don't like hosting guests, or even because of the post party mess..... I am just wired in a way that makes so much contact and stimulation exhausting. Classic introvert, right? I read before that for some people,...

Quite awhile ago now, I told my Dr. that I felt like, through my illness and recovery, I was being prepared for something.....but I wasn't sure what. She suggested I make a Vision Board. Basically, the idea is that you put things that interest or speak to you on the board, and once you see them all together you can see how the pieces have a common theme or goal or ideal, etc. Another thought behind it is by putting things you love on it, and especially if you put it where you can see if often, you will bring more of these things into your life, and consequently bring more joy into your life.  Or some people put them together with a goal in mind and the constant reminder keeps them on track towards accomplishing that goal. My Dr. suggested two rules to me: no words and limit the amount of certain things. (For example, if a woman wants a new baby, only put one picture of a baby on there...not 10) Other than that, there are no rules! And some people do use words. I have chosen no...

One morning last week, I couldn't fall back to sleep after. Rian left for work. It was a nice morning, so I decided to wake the kids up early so we could watch the sunrise together. They were very excited! They watched from the window for a little while, while I made some tea. Then we went outside and sat in a blanket and watched the beautiful morning sky. Even though they were bundled up in cozy wool blankets, it was quite chilly and they greatly appreciated the hot tea with milk and sugar. We all just snuggled up really close to keep warm and the cats climbed all over us trying to get snuggles too. We ended up sitting out there almost an hour (sunrises are pretty slow....) But it was fun and the loved it. We even saw two meteorite/comet type things (sorry, not my forte) which Sophie was really excited about. She really wants to see a shooting star, but hasn't been able to spot one yet. It was a good morning.