Made to Crave More

There have been some changes that I've been considering making for some time now regarding the way our family consumes food.  Mostly I feel we eat too many calories, from the wrong kind of foods, way too frequently.  My very best friend recently spent 3 weeks at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida learning about the live raw food lifestyle, learning how to prepare raw meals and detoxing her body from chemotherapy treatment.  She had a wonderful time and all the benefits of eating raw Jill was boasting about really got me thinking about the food I prepare and consume.

What really seems natural to me about the process is simply eating whole foods that God created without modifying them and adding our "special" touch to them.  Raw foods are, simply enough, foods that have not been cooked.  They're the fresh fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, and herbs we've all come to know and love in their whole, natural state.

Somewhere after four years of marriage and birthing two children 19 months apart I find myself 85 lbs overweight.  If that number startles you it's okay. It does that and more to me.  It is overwhelming, depressing and frustrating.  It's not the fact that I am a wife or a mother that has made me gain so many pounds.  There are circumstances that can happen when you're married and have kids that if you are not careful to guard yourself against them, can cause a woman to gain weight, that's all I'm saying.

A few months ago I made the decision to do something about the excess weight and eating situation I have gotten myself into and it is working well.  Eating raw is just the next natural step for me.  Over the next 40 days I will be learning all I can about living raw so that as I complete my next phase of Hcg vlcd I can smoothly transition into a raw lifestyle.

So not coincidentally on Saturday while I was at Books-A-Million, while I was looking for a book to educate me about the raw lifestyle I ended up purchasing another book called Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst.  I started the 216 page book that afternoon and finished it a few short hours later.  The subtitle of the book is "Satisfying your deepest desire with God, not food".  As I literally devoured chapter after chapter, tears filled my eyes as Lysa confessed many struggles and thoughts I've had about food, about being overweight, about my disappointment in myself.  

More importantly the book finally gave me the missing piece to my puzzle.  Finding my new "want to".  Let's be really, really honest with each other.  Most of us know the "how to", or have the resources to learn the "how to".  It's the "want to" that makes the difference between paying for a monthly gym membership and actually using it. My new go-to verse for strength has become 1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me" - but not everything is beneficial... I will not be mastered by anything.

What I learned was really how much God's word has to say about food, taking care of yourself, and the bare basics of it all - disciple and self control.  I've had a huge change in my heart about how I think and act around food.  I've come to realize that my over dependence and over indulgence in food has really all along been the sin of gluttony.  Eating in excess is a sin.  "Do not join with those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags (Proverbs 23:20-21).  Lysa explains why we were meant to crave more than food: "If we fail to understand how to fill our souls with spiritual nourishment, we will be triggered to numb our longings with temporary physical pleasures.  When those pleasures are food, the resulting behaviour is what we often hear referred to as emotional eating.  But this issue is bigger than emotions; it's really about spiritual deprivation."

Please take 5 minutes to read Lysa's devotional Call To Action and see if it tugs at your heart strings.  If there are any of you out there who can identify with the cries of my heart and what Lysa has to say I would really, really LOVE to host a home group to study her book Made to Crave.

I want to learn to replace my dependence on food with total dependance on God the Father.  I'm just a girl in love with Jesus, learning to walk with Him to the very best of my ability. Thank you for reading and sharing in my journey! I am excited to continue this new adventure and to walk it out and hopefully help encourage someone else along the way.

Trucks, sprinklers and mud cakes!

Wow! I feel like every blog post I make starts out with an apology for how long I've been away!  I love writing and really, REALLY intend to find more time in my day for it...  I can't even cut out TV shows, since we don't watch TV.  Maybe I just need to fine tune my time management skills a little bit more!

Last Saturday (March 5) Mike drove to DFW and picked up Paula, Josh and Cole from the airport.  It was a last minute decision for them to escape to Abilene and I'm so happy that they did!  The weather here has been co-operating fabulously for the boys to get some much needed fun in the sun.  Our backyard is finally getting some use!

It's been so great catching up with Paula, and to see the boys really getting to know each other.  Harrison and Cole are both 2 (only a couple months apart) and they've been butting heads quite a bit with their 2-year-old personalities.  Fun times!

Our guests are here until Wednesday when I'll drive them back to Dallas so they can visit another friend from Alberta, before flying home.  I'm excited too because I'm going to take the opportunity to stop in at Sam Moon and Sam Mi to browse the hand bags, jewellery, and house wares.  Goody, goody!

Check out the kiddos basking in the sun!

Romance On the Town

Ahhhhhh... last night romance was in the air! Mike and I got all dressed up and headed out for a night, which honestly almost never happens.  Not the night out part, but certainly the all dressed up-night out part.  I found a fabulous dress for $14.99 at ROSS last minute. It wasn't there last time I looked, so they must have just came in. Can you believe that a dress can be $14.99, regular price? I love that store!

The Valentine's banquet was delightful.  It was awesome to see everyone dressed so nicely, and to enjoy a night out together, specifically dedicated to celebrating marriage.  The dinner was delish, although I did not eat most of it.  I "unstuffed" my chicken breast, and that was about all I could have.  It was still divine.  We dined and then danced the night away.  I will say that Mike is pretty much terrified of dancing, so we didn't do much other than a couple slow dances which is just fine by me.  It was so refreshing to spend a night out with dear friends and my love. I can't wait to do it again!

Rod & Beth, friends at our table

Nathan & Jesiree, friends at our table

Mike & I

Thomas & Amity

Amity & I

Michael & Kim, friends from Connect Group

Jesiree & I

new friends, Sarita and Elvis

great friends of our, Charlie & Amy

Mike & I

We even came away with $20 to one of Mike's

favorite restaurants!

Beyond Blessed

How are you? We're doing great, except it's been too cold in Texas for about 2 weeks now!  We are just hanging out at the house, doing the family thing while Mike waits to hear where he'll be off to work next.

So, I have a great God story {a.k.a. testimony}to share with you... We were sitting at home yesterday, hiding from the cold, when I got a phone call from the organizer of our church Valentine's Banquet.  Previously Mike and I had decided not to go for many reasons, but mainly because we are trying to be very strict with our budget.  Add to the list that I am on a VLCD (very low calorie diet) and cannot eat what is being prepared, AND we don't have any formal clothes here. Everything we own is still in storage in Canada. **sigh**  

So the fabulous organizer calls me and says that 2 tickets have been donated, and she really felt like they were for Mike and I... would we consider going?  We talked it over and the clothing issue was really frustrating both of us.  We both know that you don't have to dress formal, but we are the kind of people that if we are given the chance to dress up, we love it!  So we were both pretty excited about the blessings of the tickets but didn't know what we would wear, or who we could find last minute to watch over the kiddos (keeping the budget in mind, of course.)

Well let me tell you what! God provided everything!  We are going to the banquet! We have a free sitter and people have lent us clothing! Crazy!!  So grateful that Mike and I have learned to lay our pride aside and accept help and generosity from people when they offer. It's a wonderful blessing to both us as the receivers, as well as the givers.  Boy are we grateful!

I am so very excited about getting dressed up pretty, going somewhere elegant (Fairway Oaks Country Club), just my love and me.  And I can't wait to gush all about it!!

Smooches,
J

my newest layout, photo compliments of

Jill Calitz

Scrap Addiction

I have probably spent about 4-5 hours today (off and on) downloading, organizing and creating with digital scrapbook stuff!  I really love it but find it very difficult to carve out time to sit down and create a layout per day.  Shoot - even a layout a week, sometimes!  Then there are the super-human, bionic moms out there who have 5 kids, an awesome blog, who post several beautiful layout daily, and they still have time to be a mom, cook delicious meals, have a tidy organized home, etc, etc.  How???

If Mike wasn't home I wouldn't have been able to get this cute layout completed today, but thankfully my honey lets me indulge in my addiction, er, I mean hobbie!

I created this layout today while following a tutorial online, so it's not part of a current album that I'm working on or anything. Just a practice piece.

So? What do you think?  Pretty neat how you can't tell that it's all digital and not made with paper!  I can't wait until the day I actually complete my first album.  Truth be told I am still working on getting an album of Mike and I finished before I even start the kiddos... I am WAY behind but the good news is that I'm slowly getting organized on my new Mac and I'm getting the hang of my new version of Photo Shop Elements.  Fun, fun! Thank for letting me share another one of my passions with you.

God Bless,

J

Snowed In

I would have wrote sooner, but we've been snowed in all week!! In Texas!! This is a crazy experience for me.  Monday afternoon was a beautiful 75 degrees!  On Monday evening it started to rain, then pour. We had a pretty amazing thunder storm for a few hours, then the temperature dropped drastically and it began to snow.  By Tuesday morning we had about 6 inches of snow cover!  Since the temperatures have been so bad (averaging around 18F), the snow has stayed all week.  Schools have been cancelled, many stores closed and not many people were able to go to work.  Our whole city practically shut down! I can't help but giggle a bit because what is so abnormal for Abilene is just another (fairly mild, I may add) day in Alberta.

Mike's sister, Randa, was scheduled to substitute teach this week at a school near us and came to stay so that she wouldn't have to drive as far in the bad weather.  It was a fun week for us because school ended up being cancelled every day, so we hung out with Randa all week! We all had fun playing and spending time with her, especially Harrison and Heidi.

The pipes in our kitchen have been frozen since Tuesday night, probably since they are on an outside wall of the house.  I'm kind of getting the idea of what it was like to "go fetch the water" in the old days.  We've had to get water from the bathroom at the other end of the house for any kitchen related needs.  We lost internet from Tuesday until late Thursday afternoon.  There have also been scheduled or rolling power outages so that the extra power usage wouldn't crash the grid.  Fun times!

No, we did not go out and make snowmen with our kids.  I opened the back patio door and dipped Harrison upside down into the snow and that was enough for him. Besides - who has snow suits in Texas? Ours are still packed away in our storage room in Cochrane, Alberta!

We've watched movies, played with Play-doh, and started re-watching LOST.  You can never go wrong with LOST!  We're all getting cabin fever though and need to get out soon.  Hopefully the forecast stays above freezing for Saturday.  Then all the headache, I mean snow, will melt away.

Here's to sunnier days!! Soon!

HAHA! 

Daddy being silly with Play-doh

Harrison posing! Yes, his hair looks like a mohawk!

huge icicles

frontyard snow

backyard snow with animal tracks leading under the shed... yikes!

more backyard snow

French Fries and Fish Sticks

What were your dreams as a child? I don't necessarily remember all of mine, but some are recorded in a special keepsake book my mom helped me with all throughout grade school.  I'm so glad she did because I wouldn't have remembered all of them! I don't have it with me at the moment, but I do remember looking through it in recent years - reminiscing about former dreams and aspirations.  Each school year there was a spot to record what I wanted to be when I "grew up".  For many years I wrote "teacher", then it changed to "doctor", then to "lawyer"; this was all before 7th grade!

I never did achieve any of those goals.  I did, however, receive a degree in Environmental Science.  Sometimes it saddens me that I can't use my degree in Abilene, as there just isn't industry to support it. Overall I understand that God knows what's best.  Sometimes I miss having a career though.  Putting in effort and receiving a "reward", also known to most people as a pay-check.  I liked annual reviews that allowed me to reflect on my past responsibilities, hearing feedback from my boss, to learn from challenges or mistakes and mostly to get ready to take the next step up the corporate ladder.

None of what I learned directly relates to being a homemaker. Sigh. I know and have known many moms who say "parenting is it's own reward" while smiling all a long, but can I be honest and say sometimes it doesn't feel like it?

In this season of life I am finding my main struggle or challenge is to be present.  To live for and love the season I'm in, without wishing it away for someday in the future.  I look around at friends with older children and see the freedom they have with their time, while most of my days start at 2, 3, or 4 am with my little gentleman poking me in the face saying "it's time to wake up momma."  I still have small children who are very dependent on me and it can be taxing at times.  Another challenge I'm walking through is to search out the rewards. They aren't always obvious, and may not come regularly, but they're there.  Just as I was typing out these thoughts my two-year-old ran up and gave me a squeeze and said "I love you berry so much mom" and took off again.

My tank has been filled up a little more. So I keep pressing forward, trying to remain present, grateful and to keep my eyes open for those little rewards that make it all worth it. You can't trust your feelings, you know, but you can trust the fruit of your labor.  Thanks for hearing me out on the woes of motherhood... it's time to run - again.

French fries, fish sticks, funny faces and funky smells are calling me! Until next time...

J