Tasting Life Abundant

#thestruggleisreal is a pretty popular hashtag. Mostly it seems to be used for silly,maybe slightly frustrating situations, or just as a joke. But for those who are struggling, truly struggling, it is anything but a joke. "The Struggle" is not something to be taken lightly. Now, I do have a sense of humor, so before any gets upset with me, I do get it. Sometimes its funny to make fun of yourself and your ridiculous "problems". But what if you have a real problem? What if everyday is a battle of survival? Whether it's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or all of the above, all of us are fighting battles, often secretly, and sometimes things get scary. I attended a class once on dealing with emotions, and someone said that while we often feel alone, the truth is that everyone is either coming to a crisis, going through a crisis, or coming out of a crisis. That was a powerful image for me....really changes how you see others and yourself. Personally, I...

I need to commit to a week of clean eating, and I'm needing some accountability...so I will post all the food I eat this week Monday through Saturday on here. I usually am not a fan of accountability groups and the like, since my perfectionistic tendencies can leave me with some major guilt if I do anything less than "perfect", but I think I've made progress in that area and also I've been having a hard time commiting to Paleo/clean eating, even though I can feel it's what my body wants. So, starting with breakfast this morning, here it goes: (I'm just going to post all the food pics in here, updating this post daily) Monday dinner- the pizza crust and the tortilla chips were not Paleo...am I sorry? No. Our family loves to go have a picnic by the ocean, and the traditional food I make is homemade GF pizza. So I indulged and enjoyed the pizza with my family, because sometimes healthy eating is about enjoying your food and also I want to be ...

I made grilled cheese and tuna sandwiches for lunch today. Sophie and Nathaniel were talking​ about how many pieces we were each going to get, since I had cut the sandwiches in half. This led to a discussion about fractions and then Sophie figured out 3x4=12 and 4x5=20 in her head! I am always amazed at how much she knows...she is so smart. I was working in her school book yesterday with her, and it's a Kindergarten book so it's not super challenging work for the most part, but I was surprised that she can read all the directions herself! She definitely got my photographic memory; she seems to need to sound out a word only once before she can just sight read it forever after. I'm so grateful and so blessed....she has made homeschooling fairly easy on me so far. And Nathaniel surprises me as well with how much he knows and how carefully he writes. I was feeling overwhelmed a few days ago about their schooling and what curriculum to use or send them somewhere....but it's ...

Happy Mother's Day to me! This mini GF cheesecake was one of the lovely gifts given to me by Brian, Sophie and Nathaniel. Fred Meyer carries them in their bakery case, in case you need to know. :) I topped it with some of my sister-in-law's tangy lemon curd. Taco Breakfast Scramble: eggs, taco meat, spinach, and Kerrygold cheese, topped with salsa. And a mug of Chamomile tea. I've been craving protein lately so I've been eating a lot of eggs, and this is a nice way to mix it up a little. Huge taco salad and a slice (or two) of GF pizza. I normally save the pizza for Brian and the kids as a convenient meal for the times I'm out and Brian has to feed them. But the kids weren't feeling well, so they weren't hungry, so I enjoyed a treat. I like the GF pizza from Costco, and I like to kick it up a notch by sprinkling it with Trader Joe's garlic salt and some dried oregano. We went to my parent's house to celebrate Mother's Day, and I was fe...

I'm really feeling an urge to write right now, but I'm not exactly sure what about.... This blog has been a form of self therapy for me, so I think the slight decline in posts (or less frequent posts) could be a good sign...maybe there's a little less emotional/physical turmoil going on inside me, and therefore not as much to write out. The last few weeks have been so busy and high stress. Sickness, vacation, things breaking... I felt like I was stay on top of it for awhile but then I hit a tipping point and started reacting physically to the stress. I woke up with a tight neck a few days before our vacation and it took two days and two chiropractor appointments and a lot of icing and massaging to loosen it up. I have noticed that I do not react physically to stress the way that I used to. I can tolerate it a lot longer and don't hold as much inside as I did before. "Before" I guess meaning before NAET/NET treatments. I have learned to have a different pers...