After losing my husband to cancer, I began a journey towards wellness. As a single Mom, it became very important to me to stay well for my kids, and I wanted to do everything I could to help my family thrive.
For years, I thought being healthy was eating well and exercising. And while that’s a big piece of it, I didn’t realize that there were hidden chemicals in products I used every day that burdened our bodies and made health and healing difficult. I had no idea the damage that can be done to our wellbeing from everyday cleaners, makeup and even our hand soap. What I thought was freshening the air and cleaning my house was being absorbed into our bodies through our skin and lungs and causing interruptions to hormones and other important bodily functions.
Have you ever thought about what’s really in the products you use every day? I certainly hadn't. From the lotion you put on your skin to the candles you burn in your home, many common items contain toxins that can harm your health. Understanding what toxins are and how to avoid them can make a huge difference in your well-being.
Read more...Meal planning made such a difference in our finances when I was a single mom, and continues to as a family of four adults. It has eliminated much of the overwhelm that can come with needing to feed everyone, and we eat much healthier when there is a plan.
Here are some resources that I have found tremendously helpful in my meal planning journey.
DANIELLE WALKER COOKBOOKS - I love her cookbooks. All of her recipes that I have tried are delicious and healthy. She is a paleo cook, so each recipe is free of gluten, grains, dairy, legumes, and processed sugar (she uses maple syrup, coconut sugar and honey on occasion). I have never been disappointed in any of the recipes I have tried. I have 4 of her cookbooks, and I have linked my favorite one above. She is so gifted at creating delicious meals, and I know you’re going to love them!
These NOTEBOOKS are my go-to for my meal planning and grocery list. I am still old-school and prefer handwriting my lists. My grocery list goes on one page, and the meal plan is the following page, so I can keep it all together.
Small habits have made a big difference in my life. Choosing to set small, measurable goals instead of big, lofty ones have helped me be more successful in bringing order and simplicity to my life. As a widow with young kids, this also helped keep me from feeling overwhelmed as I tried to navigate being a single Mom. I couldn’t even fathom trying to accomplish a big change, but little tweaks and creating systems around what I was already doing was sustainable and saved my sanity.
I didn’t start all of these small habits at once. They came about over many years as a need arose, a stress point became frustrating, or as I saw something I wanted to change or add into my routine. I didn’t realize how life-changing these small habits would be and how they would free up so much time and mental clutter.
Read more...In v. 3 Paul points out “we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Giving thanks is a foundational discipline in the believer’s life, and I had forgotten that. I had stopped giving thanks. I wasn’t choosing gratitude for what I had, instead I was in despair because I was focused on what I had lost, how hard things were, and all the difficulties I was experiencing.
That didn’t mean that my grief would suddenly disappear because I started being thankful. Gratitude and grief can exist together - God’s grace can handle both at the same time.
In v. 5 is where the word hope shows up, and the first glimmer of healing began.
As believers, we are thankful because of the hope we have in Christ. When we lose hope we become depressed and anxious, which is exactly what happened to me. But we have a secure hope in something that we can depend on, which is the hope of Heaven.
He went on to talk about Rom. 5:3-5 - where it say: “...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Read more...Through all of this, I continued to read my Bible, pray, and I was asking the Lord to deliver me from this intense grief and exhaustion, but it felt like God was so distant. I didn’t know how to close the gap.
I am not very good at opening up and sharing the deep struggles I am going through, especially with my family, but I was so desperate for help that I called my Dad a couple days after my dream. I told him about my dream and explained everything that had been going on and sobbed on the phone. It was like a dam that broke, as it all rushed out.
Dad, in his wisdom said that this was a heart issue, that I needed to give up my control over to God. I remember agreeing with everything he said, but I told him I didn’t know how to do that. He knew how much I had been struggling, even though I hadn’t shared a lot, and he and Mom invited the kids and I to come down and stay for a month or two, so I could get some rest and help.
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