Tasting Life Abundant

One of the hardest things about being on a special diet is that I love cooking and baking and enjoying meals with my family and friends; not being able to fully include myself in meals and enjoy desserts with everyone is really a downer. I have gotten used to it as much as anyone can, and I don't want a pity party, but I am sure grateful for the times I get to eat what everyone else is eating. These paleo chocolate chip cookies were made for company and I had a little nibble of one, but I wasn't to the point of being comfortable eating a whole one. Thankfully now, as my diet becomes more varied and less strict, I am able to have a treat with my family again- something I will never take for granted again. My SIBO bread was a lifesaver! It made me feel like I was able to eat kind of normal food. Even though this bread is very low carb and not really like normal bread, it has a good taste and texture and holds up without being toasted even. Being able to have sandwiches at ...

I haven't posted my meals for awhile, so here is the last of my SIBO diet and when I started adding more foods back in again.     Frittata and a paleo coconut cinnamon muffin with butter. That yolk though😍 Leftover steamed mixed veggies, with avocado mayo and salmon, sprinkled with black sesame seeds for nutrition and texture. With a side of my SIBO-safe bread spread with ghee. Salmon, gently simmered in butter, seasoned with chives and parsley, and a side of broccoli cooked in the same pan. Crispy fried eggs, avocado, and a spoonful of almond butter. Fried eggs, sauteed kale, my bread with ghee, sliced turkey with avo. mayo and brown mustard.  My bread, with butter, Manuka honey, cinnamon and hemp hearts. Soup: ground turkey, kale, broth, herbs and spices, especially turmeric. Bread with ghee. Kombucha. First sandwich in months! My bread, avo. mayo, sliced turkey, butter lettuce and radicchio. Bowl of soup.  ...

Life has been so busy lately in our house. I kept meaning to sit down and write a little update, but with vacations, and a kitchen makeover, and beginning a new school year, I just haven't had time. Today is the first day that Sophie and Nathaniel have school campus classes AND I have no urgent errands or appointments, so here I am!  A little overview of the past couple months: -Brian and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary in July. I am so grateful that we are closer and happier together than ever. God has been so good to us. I don't know what I would do without my caring, thoughtful, patient husband. He is my biggest earthly blessing, and I just love him.👫 -We went on a family camping trip at Cape Lookout State Park in Oregon, end of July/start of August. 🏕We could hear the ocean's roar as we lay in our tent at night, and it was such a beautiful location. I love the ocean. We also got to take the kids to several museums, a salt harvesting company, and...

Coconut yogurt, Root Beer kombucha, Beet kvass, Coconut Lime Mojito water kefir, and Gingerade kombucha. Since treating my gut for SIBO (a.k.a. small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) for about five months this year, I have been slowly adding foods back in to my diet.  Thankfully, the treatment protocol my Naturopathic doctor recommended seems to have done the job; the herbal antimicrobials and biofilm disrupter supplements combined with a special Low FODMAP& SCD diet killed off or starved the bad and/or misplaced "tummy bugs", as they're known in our house, and I have been quite successful with the food reintroductions for the most part.  One of the most important foods to add back into your diet after doing some major gut microbiome altering treatment is probiotic foods. What you actually want is for your gut flora to as diverse as possible. The more the merrier! The idea is that having a broad spectrum of those little tummy bugs helps keep everyone in check,...

Nathaniel is almost always the first one to come downstairs in the mornings. He usually comes into our bedroom while I'm doing devotions and wants to talk and snuggle. One morning recently, he brought down one of his Lego creations and was showing me and telling me about it. Then he asked if I wanted to see him build it and immediately started taking it apart.... Now, when I'm in the middle of my devotions, my quiet time to start the day, I don't really want to sit and watch Nathaniel rebuild a Lego robot arm... But I'm trying to be patient so I say "Sure". As I'm watching him put each piece carefully and thoughtfully back into place and listening to him explain why he chose each piece, and seeing his little hands (which aren't that little anymore, really) skillfully rebuilding this well designed, mechanical arm, I am suddenly struck with this realization: This little boy can't sit still in church or at the dinner table, but he can sit buildin...

"...Faith looks back upon the past, for her battles have strengthened her, and her victories have given her courage. She remembers that God has never failed her, that He never once failed any of His children. She recalls times of great peril when deliverance came, hours of awful need when as her day her strength was found and she cries,'No I never will be led to think that He can change and leave His servant now. Thus far the Lord has helped me, and He will help me still.' Thus faith views each promise in its connection with the promise giver and, because she does so, can with assurance say, 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!'" [Spurgeon&Beggs Morning and Evening Devotional] "Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, Who keeps our soul among the living and does not allow our feet to be moved. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You broug...

Today I turn 32. For the record, I do not feel 32...I'm not really sure what I age I feel. I think that once your brain fully matures when you turn 25 or so, you just kind of feel like that's reality, and you don't really mentally feel older. Or that's kind of how it feels to me anyway. I do feel more mature and more self confident, and I would not choose to actually be 25 again. (And never a teenager!) I like where I'm at. I would even say that the 30's are better than the 20's. Alot of things have sort of settled and you feel a little more like maybe you can do this "adult life thing" after all. So look forward to your 30's if you're not there yet! The best is yet to come.😊 I am so thankful for the amazing life God has given me; salvation in Jesus, godly parents, all my siblings, an amazingly loving and supportive husband, two beautiful children, a comfortable home, and so very much more. I am tasting life abundant, and I am humbled...