Tasting Life Abundant

"He has made everything beautiful in its time..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Things have felt somewhere between crazy and disaster for most of the last month around here... Three of us here had whooping cough and we were quarantined for an entire month, and the kids are still in the coughing recovery phase. Our dishwasher broke. The van windshield got a huge crack right in front of the driver's view. Daily life (and long nights with sick kids) is exhausting all by itself a lot of the time. Parenting is hard. I know we aren't alone in this; a lot of other people deal with sickness and parenting struggles and long nights and broken stuff. In fact, everyone deals with most of the stuff I mentioned at some point in their life. So really, all this "crazy stuff" should just be normal life to us, right? But for some reason, we have this idea in our heads of how we think, and even expect, things should go. We create this ideal image in our mind and on our calendars and...

Set my dessert down to put a kid back to bed...came back and noticed I had put it down right next to this cookbook 😆 #itsaboutbalanceright #choices #dowhatmakesyouhappy I turn 30 in a couple weeks, and I've decided that everything I eat for a whole year will be my new "whole 30 diet". Get it? Whole 30? 😂 Sorry...been hanging with my kids too long... Side note- Sophie is one if those people who thinks they have to explain every joke to you, even if you're already laughing.😆 Seriously though, about the cookbook; I am not on the Whole30 diet, but I have found that grabbing all kinds of healthy diet cookbooks from the library gives me a wide range of ideas and information to shape my own personal "ideal" diet. I read cookbooks like novels...always have. Never got into the romance novels, but give me a cookbook and I will read recipes that I never intend to make for hours. Lol #introverthobbies Sometimes you just need inspiration, not strict rules....

Moments like this one make my heart happy. Sure it was hard having two babies in two years, and some days they drive each other (and me) crazy, but they really are best friends, and I'm so grateful.

Do you ever hear a word and just feel drawn to it? I do. I like to just focus on a word sometimes...just really turn it over in my mind and feel it out. Some words bring out emotions, some words paint pictures, some inspire. These are some words that resonate with me 💚 What are your words? Optimal Wellness Empowered Whole Beginning Open Free Saved Experience Nourish Embrace Vibrant Truth Cathartic Soul Feel Tears Accept Grateful Heartache Joy Faith Emotion Wise Breathe Abundant Intuition Mercy Saviour Plan Grace Kindness Mindfulness Broken Prayer Peace Energy Expression Perception Strive Ocean Pure Everlasting Calm Storm Nature Path Grounded Clever Adventure Splendid Waves Seek Inspire Contemplate Introspective Natural Formed Presence Honest Lovely Dissipate Knowledge Relationship Situation Wait God

 Whew. It's been a long 3+ weeks of quarantine. We had pertussis (whooping cough) go through our house, and we are finally coming to the end of it. Or at least the end of the contagious phase.  I appear to be the only one who escaped the cough. Brian has it but not as bad as the kids did/do. But even for Sophie and Nathaniel there has been no whooping, vomiting, for which I am extremely grateful. I know pertussis can be very serious, which is why Brian and I have stayed home as much as possible and kept the kids home completely as soon as we became aware that that's what their cough might actually be. It took 11 days to get their test results back which, ah!, was so frustrating, but I'm glad that we got a confirmation on it eventually.  So far, the worst part has been at night; why do colds always have to be worse at night?! Brings me back to the newborn phase, especially with Nathaniel, as he has always had a harder time getting over respirator...

Mashed sweet potatoes with bacon and Costco beef hot dogs and sauerkraut; my version of a traditional Dutch casserole called Zuurkool.  We've been really upping our intake of probiotic foods here to boost immune systems and counteract the damage of the antibiotics Brian and I are taking for pertussis, and this is my favorite way to eat sauerkraut. Boiled eggs, GF toast, leftover roasted potatoes, and a glass of kombucha (probiotics!) and lemon water. I wish I had all this ready to eat right now...sounds so good. Roasted baby potatoes, broccoli, green beans, and mini meatloaf. I used a pound each of our homegrown grass fed beef, ground turkey, and ground pork for the meatloaf. I love how pork gives a lot of flavor and keeps things moist, since beef and turkey can be too dry by themselves. Meatballs made from the same meat mixture as the meatloaf, green beans, sweet potato/carrot puree with sauerkraut and bacon. Oh man, bacon on sweet potatoes....that's the kind of fla...

 Hello world. This is my blog. In case you're new here, I just wanted to say a few thing...  My name is Kayla and apparently I am a writer... I write because I enjoy it; I find it liberating and helpful and what I call "a form of self therapy" for me.  I truly hope that you can be encouraged here, but also know that I do write first for myself; this is an outlet, a sorting place and a documentary of my journey.  As I have grown through my personal trials, I have had a growing desire to help and inspire others, so that definitely is part of the goal of this blog. I have experienced many times the feeling of being misunderstood or felt completely alone or crazy, and I want anyone who reads this to know that if you are experiencing those things, you are definitely not alone.  This is a place where I share my faith, my fears, my food, my family life, and my feelings.  I would prefer that you read this blog in it's entirity, starting from the first post and...

Some favorite verses. Sometimes I can hardly believe how clearly God speaks to us in His Word. How much He must want us to know that He cares; that He listens and that He wants us to find Him. Our LORD Jesus calls us brother and sister and invites us into fellowship with Him. Our Creator wants us to know that He did not just create us, but that He desires to have a relationship with us. Truly amazing.