Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Category: Ramblings

HealthRamblings

Why no meals should be skipped on this journey!

By Audrea2 Comments

A few days into this newest journey towards treating my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and gaining health through a healthier relationship with food and getting more exercise, I had a meeting. That meant I just had time to eat a few pieces of celery and some cottage cheese right before I headed out the door. Not the most filling lunch I’d had so far on this journey, but it’d be okay I told myself. After all it would mean fewer calories that day and that would help with the lower weight part of the journey!

Of course I was wrong!! When I got home about 4 hours later, I was super hungry and ended up snacking and tasting as I made dinner. My snacks and tastes more than equalled a meal and I still had a full dinner. My calories may have still been okay. I’m not sure because I didn’t enter my food that day. However, the most important problem with the lack of lunch was that I could tell I wasn’t controlling my snacks and tastes, my hunger and sense of deprivation was.

So, I may NOT skip meals. If something beyond my control happens and I have to go for awhile without eating, I have to plan my next meal accordingly and eat according to the plan. This is not so much in order to control my calories, but to control my control. Anytime I am not in control of my eating, I am out of balance! So, staying well nourished is key on this journey!

FaithHealthRamblings

Should this Journey be Indulgent or Not!?!

By Audrea2 Comments

So in exploring this journey as a healthy walk towards Jesus through the life He’s meant for me to live, I am taking a more laid back and baby steps forward approach. Therefore, NOTHING is off limits. That fact goes back and forth from being freeing to paralyzing to derailing! Today I am discussing the idea of whether or not a journey to having a body that is disciplined and trained to be a temple for the Holy Spirit should include indulgences or not. Now, I am not talking about having some fruit for dessert! I mean true indulgence of ice cream or chocolate or cake or something arguably not even a little bit good for you like Dr. Pepper!!

I think that in view of our ability to enjoy food and gain more from it than nutrients that it is OKAY to have some indulgences. There is a key though that I think can make a difference between indulgences that glorify God and indulgences that derail both our goals and even our relationships with Him. I am not at all saying that our relationships with Him would be permanently derailed, but that the wrong kind or time of indulgence takes it from enjoying a creation of God to elevating food to an idol.

Yesterday was kind of a rough day after my less than successful weigh in on Wednesday. So, I think that it was a dangerous time to indulge! Because I was rather down it made it very easy to allow food to be a comfort and then that comfort could take the place of God where He should be in His role to complete me and order and direct my steps!

So, when you are in a good frame of mind and you have been working hard and following the set of guidelines that you and God have set up for your good health and wellbeing, INDULGE! Do it gently, slowly and focused so that you can enjoy the pleasure God has sent you through your indulgence.

HOWEVER, if you are down, sad, frustrated, defeated or struggling in any other way. It may be wisest to skip the indulgence. Turn to God with any and all of your feelings and emotions! After all, He is the only one who can heal and help!!

I think I could have indulged well yesterday evening given a better frame of mind. As it was, I know that I indulged beyond what my body needed or what was best for my goals. I knew that my body needed a chocolate chip banana muffin as an indulgence instead of ice cream to “keep things going”. So, I made that healthier choice for the added fiber and whole foods. That was good! But, I also had a bite or two or three of ice cream as I made my daughters’ bowls and a spoonful of peanut butter to go with it. So, in reality, I should have had one of those indulgences, not both and neither in addition to the two tablespoons of chocolate chips I had earlier in the evening. Since, I was still disappointed from my weigh in, I had received stressful information from work and I am struggling with how to best support my husband through some stressful situations he is dealing with himself, indulgence in a quick sand! So, in light of all of these stressors, prayer would have been my best and healthiest indulgence! There was nothing wrong with the foods I ate, the problem comes when I’m eating them to feel better!

FaithRamblings

My “Bumpy” Journey to the Temple

By AudreaLeave a comment

Today is that writing that I figured would come, but I thought would come further down the line after more successes had piled up to make the landing more cushioned and easier to take. Yesterday was my weekly (keep me accountable) weigh in and I had GAINED .4 pounds! Yes, that is only .4 pounds, but that is NOT what I expected or wanted after the “successful” week that I had had adding work outs, following the “food rules” that made sense to me and my endeavors to treasure the gift of food and my body at the same time. I mean, I’d been doing everything way more “right” than I did the week before and instead of losing even more weight than I did then, (like I truly expected to) I gained weight! HUGE LET DOWN and definite possible de-railer!

However, I still got up this morning and did both of my work outs anyway. I still made and ate a healthy plant focused breakfast and lunch and only ate until I was satisfied. Lunch was particularly yummy with a bed of romaine lettuce and spinach covered in heated up left over spaghetti sauce with ground beef and mushrooms from dinner last night. That was topped with an Italian blend of shredded cheese and a small side of cottage cheese. All served on a child sized plate to further help with portion control. I have also already drank 80 ounces of water today. It was SUPER hard to get up and keep moving forward after such disappointing results. But, I know that honoring God by treating my body as a temple has VERY LITTLE to do with the number on the scale and VERY MUCH to do with healthy eating, healthy exercise, discipline and obedience.

So, I am currently pressing on. I am relieved that I have still lost 1 pound since I started my weigh ins. And, I am hopeful that the changes I am making and CONTINUING will result in a more favorable weigh in next week. If not ,then I know that I have more adjustments to make and I will look in to that and those then!

FaithHealthRamblings

My Journey to the Temple; Small Victories Pave the Way to Success!!

By Audrea2 Comments

So far on this current journey toward the temple I have experienced several small victories. I am thankful and blessed by each one. I am attempting to relish them so that I can remain thankful and forward focused when I experience small or even large set backs.

The first set of victories may not at first even appear victorious. The first was asking a friend of mine to walk this journey with me with weekly visits and weigh ins. She has lost over 100 pounds through eating well and exercising!! She is currently working on maintenance, embracing the fact that this is a life long journey and taking a break from her scale because their relationship wasn’t healthy anymore! She agreed to meet with me! That knowledge alone helped me lose 1.6 pounds during the last week of school amidst baccalaureate, graduation, graduation parties, end of the year responsibilities and end of the year teacher gift preparation for the girls’ teachers! That was ahuge victory to me and I am SO grateful to her and God for helping me accomplish that loss during a time when fitting in exercise was not an option!!

Since we’ve been done with school, I’ve exercised every day (except Sunday). My plan was to take the weekends off, but I had time and motivation to get a workout in on Saturday and I did. Another small victory that felt HUGE!

We were all done with school on Thursday, May 23rd. The girls had been asking to go to the local library ever since the school libraries stopped loaning books in order to get ready for their annual inventories. So Friday, I took the girls to the library for them and I to get some books. One of the books I checked out was Michael Pollan’s, Food Rules. In it he talks about the “rules” which he says are more like guidelines of eating. One of them is the idea of eating to satisfaction rather than fullness and that has been working well for me the last couple of days! Another victory for this girl who hates feeling deprived or hungry!

So, with each small victory I gain a little more confidence that MAYBE I am truly on a life-long, forward-moving journey and road to the temple within my body and outside in heaven, my ultimate destination. Perhaps even my eating and weight and body composition can be sanctified!! After all, ANYTHING is possible with MY GOD!

FaithHealthParentingRamblings

My Journey to the Temple

By Audrea1 Comment

I am currently focusing again on health, well being and of course weight. However, in light of wanting a “forever fix” and having two adorable young ladies watching me, whose body image I want to cultivate instead of warp, I am trying to take a different approach than I ever have.

So, since one of the biggest motivations behind continuing to try to navigate this road and balance of life, motherhood, work, busyness, tiredness, weight and exercise is to truly treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, hence this title. I don’t want to just look a certain way or weigh a certain amount for myself. And it can NOT be in order to achieve some one else’s standard, because then, I will never succeed. I am on this journey wholeheartedly again, because I am not okay with where I currently am. However, I could convince myself that where I am is not that bad and that it is just the unavoidable consequence of birthing babies, getting older and having no time to myself! Yet, God has given me a higher calling than that that says just okay isn’t good enough. That calling is in the form of the command to treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19-20). It also comes in the form of being the momma of two little girls. It is the second form of this calling that compels me to find a different way than cutting out food groups or counting every calorie. My girls will watch everything I do and learn things, whether I am trying to teach them lessons or not. And following a specific, limiting diet and losing and gaining the same 20 pounds endlessly are not the lessons I want them to learn.

So, I start/continue this journey, trying to stay heavenly minded and find a healthy, long-lasting relationship with this fuel, gift, pleasure and temptation that we call food.

One of the things I am striving for is balance. I need balance in the ability to exercise around caring for the girls. I need balance in being able to eat all things. I need balance in this peculiar idea shared in Michael Pollan’s book, Food Rules, of “all things in moderation, even moderation”.

So far in this newly started summer break things are going well. I’ve been able to work out every day except Sunday which is what I wanted to accomplish. I’ve been able to embrace the idea of being done eating when I’m satisfied versus full (again from Pollan’s book). And I am even enjoying the accountability that I have set up with a friend who has successfully navigated a HUGE journey to the Temple herself.

It has been VERY tempting NOT to share anything about this journey publicly! I mean, based on past experience, I’m going to fail. BUT, accountability is supposed to help and sometimes just knowing we’re not alone helps us move forward. So, I’ll share and hopefully propel myself forward and maybe help someone who reads this and maybe hear from you when you read it and that WILL help me!

ParentingRamblings

Just a Day

By Audrea1 Comment

So often I think that I cannot write unless I have some big epiphany or a new recipe or something specific to share. Instead this time, I am just sharing where I am. We have FINALLY started summer break from school!! This school year truly felt like a school year that would not end for SO MANY reasons.

Our summer has no major plans this year. Since we are just starting out in our new house (we moved in in November for those who haven’t read about that part of this journey), and we still need to finish our detached garage, fencing and build a barn. All of this on top of trying to financially recover from closing costs and whatnot from finishing the house. We did get the slab poured and finished for our garage and we are currently working on getting bids for drying it in. My husband is more than capable of framing it himself. However, God has continued to call him to coach football for the 7th grade, junior high and senior high football teams at our local school and that means practice all summer. He is also the one responsible for our fencing. Due to the lack of time all of that creates for him, we will be looking for someone else to do it for us!

Therefore, our summer break has started soft and slow the last 4 days after the whirlwind of end of year activities. The girls and I have been to the local library and all four of us have been to the park. We joined the girls and the rest of my family for Sunday dinner yesterday, after they spent the afternoon with Grammie, Papi and their visiting Great Grandpa and Adam and I spent the afternoon setting posts for the rest of our fencing. Then all four of us set the last 6 posts this morning before again joining my family at my mom and dad’s house to celebrate Memorial Day, complete with the annual trip that my mom makes to the local cemetery with the grandchildren. So it has been a wonderful time during this long weekend (Adam’s practices don’t start until tomorrow) just enjoying time off and together!

FaithFarmingRamblings

Fencing Freedom!!

By Audrea1 Comment

I was struck with a thought about our freedom in God while my husband was working to finish the fence for our back pasture. We recently built a house on 15.8 acres of land. This has been a long time dream for my husband and something I treasured for his sake. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of having land set off from town, a place to just “be” and a kitchen designed to host and serve! We had various ups and downs through the process of buying the land and definitely through building the house!!

Before we bought this property, we signed on another property that would have needed more work to accomplish our goals, but seemed to be in a better and ideal spot! After we signed, the seller backed out and we were told that he could even though the contracts had been signed by both parties. It was a pretty big blow to us as we wondered if it meant we should stop looking for land, stay where we were, or just buy a house that was already built. We continued to pray and seek God’s plan as we wondered. He brought us to the land we have now. Land that needed no clearing, the other land was almost entirely wooded and we want pasture, and was less per acre and bigger. It also happens to sit right between very good friends of ours who also happen to be our plumbers and a wonderful lady (who actually sold the land to us) who is turning out to be another Grammie for the girls! We are EXTREMELY blessed!

Like always, building took longer than expected, but we moved in over Thanksgiving break. Both my husband and I teach and he coaches football and track. So, between school and sports he has been VERY limited in time to devote to the fencing we need to add to the property. Spring Break was the first time he was able to get time to devote to it. So he spent almost all of Spring Break (Thank you Jesus for the beautiful weather!!) fencing off the back pasture.

One of the days he was out there working, I stopped to take some pictures and it struck me that although it looked like he was making our land smaller by adding a barrier, that very barrier would free us to fulfill more of our dreams. And that struck me as just like following God. To an outsider, it looks like all God does is set up road blocks and boundaries that keep us from being free to do whatever we want. Things like: Go to Church on Sundays, Only Marry a Believer, Abstinence Until Marriage, Be Holy as I am Holy, Don’t Be a Stumbling Block, all scream Boundary Line, Restriction, Rules, and Limits! BUT, EVERY single one of those things bring us to true freedom, realization of ACTUAL goals and dreams, AND protection from SO MUCH pain! That fence that Adam built did make our yard smaller, but it also opened up the possibility to run cows when we’re ready and to bless our neighbor by running his cows on it until we do. These rules from God may limit us from something that seems good right now, but they free us from guilt, shame, fear and give us the freedom and strength to gain SO MUCH more and SO MUCH better! Just like our children actually feel safer and freer when we give them boundaries, because it lets them know we are there and they are safe, we should revel in God’s boundaries. They do not limit us! They simply reassure us that we are loved, He is there and we are safe! Then, that reassurance allows us to GO and DO ALL things through Christ who strengthens us!

ParentingRamblings

Magical Unicorn Tea to the Rescue!

By Audrea1 Comment

Every Spring Break my sisters and I try to go out together for the weekend, day or evening. We do this in an effort to maintain, build or even rebuild our friendship with each other as we advance through life and varying responsibilities. This year was harder than others to schedule a time to get together. So, we only managed to set aside a time to go out to dinner together.

After dinner, we stopped by one of our favorite “for fun” stops, Savoy Tea. They always have some different flavors of tea out for sampling. This time one of those flavors was Magical Unicorn Tea! Now, if any of you are Momma’s to little girls you probably know how exciting I knew this would be for my ladies! My girls have been privileged to grow up, like I did, having tea parties with their grandmas and nanas. I don’t like coffee, so there is always tea at our house and my girls often have tea with me. We even have our own “tea parties” at breakfast time on the weekends, replete with a tiny tea pot and tiny tea cups filled with real tea. So, the combination of unicorns and tea is perfect for an “I was thinking about you while I was gone!” treat for my daughters. However, I had to ask the fatal question, “Is there artificial coloring in this?” I had to ask this question because this wonderful find was a brilliant purple hue. I was overjoyed to find that my favorite tea company had come through yet again, when the salesman replied that the color was all natural from the flowers in the tea. He then showed us the magic of the tea by adding a bit of lemon juice and changing the brilliant purple hue to a wonderful deep rosy color!

Needless to say, I bought my girls a tin and took home to them some magical tea and the free unicorn stuffy that came with it! However, the magic of the tea was only just beginning. As I tried, once again, to focus on maintaining and reaching an ideal weight, I found myself craving something sweet. However, I was out of calories and carbs for the day. I remembered the girls’ tea. I tried a cup and found my own magic in that wonderful purple brew! Slightly sweet, warm and comforting, it calmed and fulfilled my craving! It also gave me a caffeine free option for a second cup of warm wonderfulness in the morning after my typical Benner English Breakfast Tea that I buy from Aldi.

So, Savoy Tea Company and a little Unicorn Magic have brought my daughters and I continued warmth, joy and magical moments. In fact, I just finished a cup and my oldest is getting ready to start hers as we read a book together! Magical blissfulness at its best!!

HealthParentingRamblings

Respiratory Relief

By Audrea1 Comment

My youngest daughter has struggled with congestion and snot, literally from the day she was born. When she was tiny, I often wondered if it was because we had her at home and maybe the midwives were not as thorough, as the hospital had been with our first daughter, at sucking out all the gunk from joining our world. I then wondered if it had to do with the rate in which my milk would come down while she nursed. It was so much faster and so much more than I had had with my oldest that maybe that was causing the problem. I mean it certainly caused more spitting up than I had had with my other daughter. Then I thought of dairy and so cut all dairy out of my diet and that seemed to help her some.

Even so, she had ear infections, runny noses and then croupy coughs for almost all of her infancy. I knew they weren’t nearly as chronic as a lot of other kids, but it was so much more than I was used to. My oldest has had one ear infection and that was just this year at 6 years old. Once my youngest could blow her own nose it helped A LOT. The snot didn’t get the chance to sit and grow infected. However, she continued and continues to struggle with allergies. She’s taken prescription Zyrtec, we’ve used Vick’s vapor rub, she’s taken Benadryl for days on end. Then the last time she had a lot of drainage even those medications didn’t seem to help dry it up.

So, I tried essential oils. Many they would help her be able to breathe better and be able to sleep without constant coughing. But, still nothing dried up her drainage. She has outgrown much of her sensitivity to dairy, but continues to be prone to seasonal allergies and irritants like pets and smoke (cigarette and even wood). After reading on their website and finding a large variety of their oils at our local drugstore, Teasley Drug, I tried some of Northridge Oak Oils Respiratory Blend. It not only helps her breathe more easily, but I truly believe it dries up her drainage. I am SO thankful to have something to help her that doesn’t make her sleepy or hyper or have any other unwanted side effects!!

FaithRamblings

Mary or Martha

By Audrea3 Comments

Today is a struggle between who I want to be, who I choose to be, and who I feel I can’t help being!

I want to sit like Mary at Jesus’ feet. I want to sit in blissful peace learning from Him and trusting Him to perfectly orchestrate and work out everything around me. I know He is in control! I know he loves my daughters and husband more deeply and more perfectly than I do! I even know that if anything difficult, bad or untoward comes into their paths that He’ll use it for good! However, I feel like Martha!

I worry and pray for resolutions that seem impossible! I struggle to lay every concern and worry at His feet and walk peacefully away. I endeavor to serve with joy and rejoice in a calling that chafes with every step and thought. I seek blissful, faithfull peace and I can’t find it. My reality chafes against my wishes and hopes. My responsibility chafes against my preferences and dreams! I confess and ask and seek His face, presence and strength!

And you know what, it finally comes! Not when I asked for it, not quickly or all at once. But, as I put one foot in front of the other, I find solid ground. As I pray and confess, again and again, I find constant strength. As I focus on Him, I walk right past difficulties. And then, there I am, at the end of an impossible day with a little more faith and a little more peace and a LOT more rejoicing. He IS and ALWAYS will be faithful! It’s not always blissful, but being faithful leads to being faithfull, and being Faith Full leads to strength and peace. Then, strength and peace just might if I let them, lead me to bliss!