Practicing...

It had been a while, but the other day I picked up my copy of One Thousand Gifts and had a little trouble with it.

I'm about half way through - after the concept of thankfulness as the pathway to true joy and the quest to live in the fullness of His abundance had been well established. In an entirely uncomfortable moment of honesty, Ann Voskamp details her mental chatter while watching her boys fight over breakfast chores one morning.


I almost didn't want to read this part...I prefer to think of those truth giving authors as saints who have it all figured out. And this struck just a smidge too close to home. I've had those thoughts when my dogs knock into me (and my cup of coffee) as I come into the house with my hands full. Or when that last bag of groceries breaks on the way into the house. Or when someone sits at a green light (Green means go people! Even my three year olds know this!)

But her conclusion for fighting those moments of stress was simple and surprising.

She proposes that thankfulness draws us into the Presence of God by turning our faces towards Him. He's always about us, but we seldom notice. So she thanked God for her sons. For their vivaciousness. For the curls falling into their eyes. And those words brought her into her sanctuary - out of herself - and into the Presence of the God who loves her, has a plan for her, and could soften her heart, and her words, in that moment, because He was right there with her.

Kind of an odd thought, huh? When frustrated, throwing something, rather than thanking Someone, seems the more cathartic choice.

But I'll try anything once.

So tonight, as I finished the last hour at work, warm, tired, and trying to find something to finish out those last 45 minutes with in the too-quiet office, I started thanking. Thankful today, for an air conditioned office. Thankful for a job I like most of the time. Thankful for a cool house to go home to. And the mental conversation kind of took off on its own. It grew out of me, and all of a sudden, I didn't mind being at work so much.

It seems silly, but by acknowledging where my blessings come from, Who they come from, I realligned my life against the horizon of grace. These moments and tasks seem doable in light of eternity, in light of all God has given me, of all He provides me. It's not so much an easy fix to an uncomfortable problem as much as a way of seeing the problem redefined as a gift.

It's gonna take some practice, especially in those mean red moments, to remember to practice thankfulness. But I think I want to try. I think it might make a difference.

Crazy Day Display

My friends over at Crazy Day Gourmet have invited me to have a DaiseyBelle Designs display in their store!

 As of tomorrow afternoon, these, among other lovelies, will be available for sale only at Crazy Day! Of course, I'll still be posting new things online and accepting online orders. But there will also be an assortment of items for sale at Crazy Day. 

(By the way, these ladies have the BEST coffee in the world. It's true. Go buy jewelry and drink coffee.)

Mostly Homemade Mondays

Over here today at Frugal by Choice's Mostly Homemade Mondays link in!

Check out her blog for more mostly homemade items!

Back on the bandwagon

I promised after griping Friday night that I'd crawl back on. And I have. Yesterday was actually a little bit better, which inspired me to get back in the kitchen this morning. And in just under 2 hours, I've prepped some for the week and learned some lessons about whole foods. Shall I share?

Breakfast - fried apples and oatmeal. This is super easy and super yummy. Start coconut oil (remember those digestive benefits?) simmering in skillet. Add a smidge of brown sugar, and stir real fast so it doesn't scorch. Peal and slice an apple, sprinkle with ginger and cinnamon, and leave it. Every few minutes, toss the apples so they cook evenly. If you use an-almost-bad-apple like I did, this takes about 10 minutes. Then add oatmeal (and chia seeds) and fry.

My only complaint here was that I like my oatmeal toasted, as in, almost granola. I probably should have started this in another pan, because by the time I added the oats I was 1) hungry an 2) the skillet was too full to toast properly. 

Dinner - Taste of Home's Coffee Pot Roast. Onions, mushrooms, little salt/pepper/chili powder and a cup and half of coffee. 

Breakfast for this week - whole wheat waffles. That's the last one on top, so it looks smooshed. But they are light and fluffy and tasty. I can take these to work and re-toast them. 

Remember me mentioning the whole wheat cake mixes a couple weeks back? 

 Well, I've found that just adding whole wheat flour to a recipe that calls for white doesn't always work. The cakes were bread-like - good flavor, but stiff. So, genius thought, I started looking for recipes that actually call for whole wheat flour. I've been slowly following 100 Days of Real Food's blog and her recipe index has a ton of whole wheat recipes.

I think baking whole wheat with coconut oil also really helps to soften it up.

Whole Wheat Biscuit Mix - again from 100 Days of Real Food. This is to replace my jiffy mix...and also because we ran out of bakery bread and I'm not going shopping until this coming weekend.

Super easy - just the flour, salt, and baking powder. But now I just have to add milk (almond) and butter (or coconut oil) and we're set!

And lastly - just for fun - and because I had extra coffee left over from the pot roast - coffee ice cubes! On the right, I'm freezing my chocolate mint leaves to add to my iced coffee.

So slowly, but surely, I'll get through meals this week. I wish I had time (and money!) to just stay home and peal veggies, and cook and make bread. I'm learning how to fold all of this into a normal life, and trying hard to not feel guilty for using the easy routes sometimes. (I bought a cake at Marsh last night - I just needed icing.) I figure every real food we eat is a step in the right direction, and quite frankly, our bodies have adapted to eating processed food. So every now and then, I figure it's not gonna kill us. It sure beats stressing over things! 

My digestive soapbox...

*Disclaimer #1: This is a tad clinical. And whiny.
*Disclaimer #2: I work in the medical field. I have learned the hard way that when you don't know what a diagnosis is, you just guess. You do not, I repeat do not, google search it. It's scary. There will be no scary pictures here, I promise.
*Disclaimer #3 - last one - If you have a queasy stomach, this may be a little TMI.

You've been warned.

So I had my gall bladder removed about a year ago. That was supposed to be the end to all stomach pain. And it helped, a lot. But when you haven't eaten well for about 2 years (I'm a slow mover) it takes a while to get everything back to normal.

I've been reading an awesome book that talks about a lot of really severe digestive diseases. When you don't have proper nutrition or are sick constantly, you actually skim layers off of your intestines. These layers are where all the good little bacteriums live that help with digestion. Once they've been evicted, they aren't too keen for the reunion tour just because they've been invited back.

So I've been working really hard at learning to eat again, for oh the last six months. And it was working! Lots of probiotics, to get those bacteria critters back in there, lots of coconut products (which help to restore cell linings), and lots of natural foods.

And then Paul and I both got the flu during the hottest, muggiest week of the year. No one feels good when it's so hot, and having the stomach flu doesn't help! And now, after being repeatedly sick again, I can't seem to bounce back. It's as if all the progress I've made, all the cells I've grown back, have been stripped off.

I haven't eaten a full meal in about three weeks. And when I eat, all my digestive organs hurt. I've been using my heating pad at work to relax those muscles - and it's been 95 degrees outside!

And I'm not sure why I've just spilled all of this to the world, except, I'm really tired of this. I worked so hard...and now I'm back at square one. Except nothing seems to be working!

I don't know if I should find a support group, go back to the doctor, start eating only soup? I'm just tired and confused and hungry.

Tomorrow morning I'll get off my soapbox, back on my band wagon, and start, one slow step at a time, to get back to normal. It's just hard to see progress lost - to not be able to eat, even healthy things, and have to struggle back to the top. Do you know how ingrained food is in our culture?

But share with me - anyone else struggle with stuff like this? What do you do to over come it?

Summer Sale

It's Summer Sale time! It's really the only way to beat the heat. :)

All earrings listed in DaiseyBelle Designs Summer Sale Album are between $5-$6 (which is 2-3 bucks less than normal per pair). All necklaces and the bridal line (available in other albums) are 25% off. 

Dragonflies, 6.00, 1 available

Yellow hoops, 6.00, 1 available

You can check them out here. Or look at the pictures below!

Purple flames, 5.00, 2 available

                                                                     

Weekend weather

Just when you think a day is off to a pretty good start....
...it actually gets started. And it isn't at all like you thought it was going to be.

It's been one of those weeks. I realized today that despite my best attempts, the only room in my house I've managed to keep clean this week is my kitchen. And that's if you discount the lego-style stacked clean dishes that have yet to be put away. Before lunch today, I hadn't had a full meal since....Monday night? I haven't walked either of my dogs, or had a cup of coffee in a least six days. And I'm still wearing a little bit of eye liner from last night that didn't wash off in the shower this morning.

Due to Paul and I being back and forth sick we have a gotten at least a few nights of pretty good sleep. But between being sick and working overtime this week, we haven't had any awake time to spend together. (I have got to figure out how to go on dates in our dreams. If we could do this Inception style, life would be so much more efficient!)

And I don't mean to complain. Really. This is how life happens and some really cool things happened this week. We got to see Peter Pan at the Wagon Wheel. For free. We got to have Father's Day dinner at my family's, and everyone was there.

I've been keeping up with my joy calender , and it's filling up! I know I have things to be thankful for.

But some weeks just leave you feeling like you need a vacation. Just a day or two away, where things are easy. Where there isn't a disconnect between my taste buds and my intestines, and what sounds good, tastes good, and doesn't make me regret my very existence two hours later. Where time planned to spend together, gets to be spent together. No interruptions. Where you can forget about chores and bills and efficiency. Just for a bit.

And so I'm determined to find a few little escapes these next two weeks. A few moments to steal away and unwind. Before my top comes clean off! And I'm hoping to start with food that actually digests the way it should.

What do you do when life gets to be too much?