Food and Resolutions

I have stopped and started this post a couple of times now.  First it was going to be just a Happy New Year post.  Then it was going to be a post reflecting on the passage of time.  But what I REALLY want to talk about is food.  

And a little about Resolutions. 

I usually don't make "New Year's Resolutions". I figure if I can't make a change in June I'm not going to make it in January either.  I'm either committed to making a change or I am not.  I either have a compelling reason to make a change or I do not.  Just knowing that making the change (whatever it might be) is or would be good for me doesn't convince me to follow through with it.  I have to have decided deep down in my mind and will that it needs to be made.

I think I'm there.

I have a lot of things not functioning properly in my body and for the first time I'm going to get really specific right here in writing.  

#1 - I have recently come to understand that the chronic condition I have struggled with since I was 8 years old is an auto-immune disease.  That is psoriasis.  NO ONE, EVER, suggested that diet could help. NO.ONE. In my recent reading I have learned that people with auto-immune conditions should avoid nuts, nightshades, eggs and dairy.

 

Huh. 

Have I ever mentioned my favorite sandwich is fresh tomato and cheese slathered with mayonnaise?

#2 - and on that note...about a year ago I learned that I have non-celiac gluten intolerance. 

Yeah.

Scratch the favorite sandwich off the list.

#3 - Since last December, when I had surgery on my nose, I have been struggling mightily with fatigue issues.  It was finally determined that due to the anesthesia and subsequent use of pain killers that my adrenal function was...well...not functioning. In other words I simply do not produce an adequate amount of cortisol to function optimally.

#4 - I also, while technically in the "normal" range on lab tests, have a low functioning thyroid.

Yeah...that will make you tired too...and fat.

#5 - and let's just top it all off with a little IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). 

I take vitamin B supplements, probiotics, natural thyroid medication, vitamin D, 5-HTP, Milk Thistle,  iron and Beta-Carotene.  I've known for awhile that what I really need to address is my diet.  And so I have been reading and implementing little changes here and there.  

I've read about the GAPS diet.  

Very briefly it is very restrictive but has been shown to be a way of healing the gut.

I'm just not mentally ready to go there...or I'm not quite desperate enough yet.  Though I probably should be.

I've done the "Candida Diet" in the past.  Because that is something I struggle with too. 

I just bought The 21 Day Sugar Detox book and recipe book.  

This is definitely a direction I want to head but I'm not ready yet. 

So.

So what is it I am going to do? 

Yep that's the question I have been asking myself.  

Because I'm not the only one in the family that needs to address gut and dietary issues.

Well, at this point, a Paleo path looks do-able.  I can eliminate most of the foods I need to and still eat tasty, healthy food in satisfying quantities. And I can prepare food the rest of my family will enjoy.

Because if there is one thing I have learned in the past it is that cooking two separate ways for every meal is daunting and discouraging.

And then there is coffee. 

I love the comfort of it in the morning.  I love sharing it with a friend or loved one.  

I love to think of it as my treat and the end of a big grocery shopping trip.

But.

But I also like to load it with creamy sweetness.

So it ends up being two drugs rolled into one....sugar and caffeine.

Two drugs I need to get out of my life.

So pray for me if you think of it.  This is a struggle that I am going to be working on this year to not be struggling with.  

My "resolution" is to get healthy this year.

Snow

This is what we really need around here. 

Snow.

Since we have been home from Afric@ we have had one day of precipitation. 

Rain, that is.

And according to friends that was all the rain that has rained since the end of October.

It's getting a little dry.

So.....

We are praying for rain and snow. 

I really wouldn't mind a little snow for the kids to play in.

  And we would all like to do some snowshoeing this year.

So let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Walking Faithfully - The Whiner Edition

So here is how it has been going for me. I have a cold, a UTI and Aunt Flo came to visit (and if you don't know who Aunt Flo is you are either not a woman or you are too young to be reading this).

Yeah, it's been great.

For most of the week I've felt like I've been hit by a Mac truck and left for dead. Daughter has been wanting to decorate the house for Christmas and little by little we've been getting it done. Poor thing, she's so excited and her Mama has been so wiped out.

I actually feel better today. The cold symptoms are subsiding. All I'm left with now is an over abundance of mucus...and I'm running out of tissues....both in the box and on the roll.

I started on some antibiotics for the UTI yesterday. They also gave me a medicine to relieve the symptoms...that was a welcome relief! I've drunk enough cranberry juice this week to support Ocean Spray for the rest of the year. Not to mention water...oy!

And Aunt Flo, she packed up her bags and more or less left yesterday. That was the biggest relief of all.

So....just to let you know, I did find some cool stuff under the stairs at my parents house. I'll get some pictures taken this weekend and post them on Monday. I'm sure I'll be feeling better by then! I hope!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your Christmas season. I'm done whining now.

Excuse Me While I Collect My Thoughts

I'm coming, I'm coming....oh just let me get my thoughts together...excuse me...oh I dropped a page....heh, heh...

Just Writing To Say Hello!!!

Hello Everyone!

I'm hailing to you from somewhere in the lower 48 but for security reasons I can't tell you where! ;)
Specifically we are at my parents where my husband is at this very moment enjoying Monday Night Football in 52" HDTV.

Yeah...he's a happy man.

I can't quite get my thoughts together enough to really write something pithy right now, but maybe that will happen later on this week...maybe...

Right now my parents under stairway closet is calling my name, because somewhere in there are numerous vintage sewing patterns and crochet magazines. I hate to think of them as "vintage" because that would make me somewhat "vintage" as I remember when they were all new. Of course I was only a kid when they were new...still....

Anyway, as you can tell, I can't quite finish a thought and I think I better go answer the siren's call. Hope you are all having a great week!

P.S. I'll try to post some pictures of what I find this week...if not this week then next week when I get home to my own computer!

It's Not A Lot, But It's My Life

There are so many inspirational blogs out there. Just look at my blog-list and you will see some of the blogs that inspire me. They are blogs about home keeping, child-rearing and walking with the Lord. I love them all. They all are encouraging to me. Sometimes they are sad, sometimes funny and sometimes just, you know, everyday. I love that too. Because sometimes there is really nothing all that exciting to share about life.

You get up, get dressed, take care of what ever your day holds, and go to bed. That may be an over simplification, but you know what I mean.

And I love reading about it. Because there is joy to be found in the everyday things of life. Because that is mostly what life is made of. The everyday.

I mean, let's face it. Cleaning out a chicken coop isn't exactly earth shattering. Stinky maybe, but not earth shattering. Yet that was a part of my otherwise completely ordinary day yesterday. And I loved it.

In it's own way it was fun. Not the kind of fun I imagined when I was sixteen and seventeen years old, but fun in finding out our chickens were stealth. Fun in figuring out how to thwart their egg-hiding efforts. Fun watching them get excited about the new layer of straw we put down in their coop.

Taking joy in the everyday things of life can be hard sometimes, especially if you find yourself yearning for something more seemingly vibrant and exciting. But I have found that when I stopped looking over the fence at my neighbors lawn, or life, or whatever, I am much more content with my own life. Comparing my life to someone elses gets me no-where but depressed.

Jesus had an answer for this sort of thing. This comparing we do. In John 21:21 Peter asks Jesus about the future of John's (the disciple whom Jesus loved) life. Jesus says to Peter in verse 22, "...what is that to you? You follow Me." I just need to do what God has put before me. I don't need to be worrying about or comparing myself to anyone else.

And therein lies the secret to contentment and, dare I say, happiness.

So to quote a famous ant, "It's our lot in life...it's not a lot, but it's our life!"

I Wasn't Kidding!

She looks innocent enough doesn't she? A sweet faced lab with a penchant for cat food and chicken feed, tomatoes and pears. I wasn't joking when I told you she emptied the contents of her stomach on my carpet last night. She really did. And it was all chicken feed that she had snuck into the chicken yard and eaten right out the chicken's feeder while we were at Son's pizza party for his soccer team. When we arrived home from the party and went to lock up the chickens it was already dark (we still haven't gotten used to the time change yet). We hadn't locked up the chickens before we left and I was a little alarmed when we approached their pen and the gate was ajar. I stopped Daughter from going in and went in ahead of her, worried I might find a dead chicken. Thankfully all five biddies were safely snuggled up on their perch in the hen house. Apparently, they themselves are not what my dear sweet puppy were after....no....just their feed.

The problem is, she is one of these dogs with a sensitive stomach. We found this out last Christmas after an episode of throwing up and diarrhea. She's only aloud 3 cups of her own lamb and rice food a day. Apparently she doesn't feel that that's enough.

Little thief.

Anyway, my carpet is mostly recovered. I need to go over the spots one more time and I think that will do it. We are now carefully locking the chicken gate with an extra carabeaner so hopefully there will be no more episodes like last night.

The weather here has done a rather abrupt change...my kids seem surprised by it, but after living where we do for 17 years now I've learned to expect the unexpected. Last week we had a few afternoons in the upper 70's and lower 80's. Today....it is snowing!

Daughter, who earlier was complaining because it was cloudy and gloomy, is now thrilled with the weather and doesn't want the snow to stop. And I must admit that it's a wonder how the same grey skies that gave us rain early this morning suddenly didn't seem so gloomy when the rain turned to snow.

There is a certain odd beauty in snow on a still somewhat leafy tree. And it has made things in the house seem a lot more cozy.

...and in other news...

It's 11:50pm where I live.

Obama has been elected President of the United States.

I just finished spot cleaning my carpet because my dog ralphed chicken feed on it.

I'm not feeling so well myself.

But I will respect my leaders even if I don't agree with them on most everything.