Ten on Tuesday (early)

It certainly has been longer than I would like since I have posted here. There are some great new things in the works regarding Feasting On Joy and I have been occupied in that lately as well as 50 other things. We also are in the thick of finishing up school for the school year as well as co-op so that always comes with a lot of parts and pieces to balance in my life.

I thought I would catch you up on a few fun things happening around here.

1~~ The recent daylight savings time change totally threw me off! It usually doesn't but this year it was an "off" week. It does help that we homeschool and can be flexible and adjust though.  But that was a week that I felt like would never end.  Now I am loving the lighter later evenings and the feeling of Spring in the air.

2~~ Speaking of Spring, normally my counters would be totally covered with seedlings of all sorts that would just be popping out of the soil by now.  This year there are no seedlings adorning my counters. Steve and I have decided to let our soil (and me) rest for a year.  We plan on deeply amending the soil this year and last year started a trash can compost outside too.  It usually took me around 30 hours a week to tend the garden and that is not counting the "putting up" time. I love it but really want to open up time to be able to do a lot more outdoor things this summer here with the boys. We will probably still have a tomato plant or two (instead of 9) and we have our apples and peaches along with the never ending weeding. I will also probably plant some more expensive organic produce like collard greens and chard to save some money. It is weird to look out at our planters and see them quite bare!

3~~ After winter (which I love) it is always nice to see the signs of Spring. I love when the Daffodils start blooming! They are one of my favorite flowers. My Aunt reminded me the other day of a little poem my Grandma used to say whenever she saw a Daffodil. It made me love them even more because I absolutely adore my Grandma. The poem was. "A little cup, a little frill and now you have a daffodil!"  So cute. I love my Grandma and I love Daffodils. 

4~~ We have come to love a certain song in our house! Actually we hear it on Pandora every once in a while and thankfully the lyrics don't really come in that clear because some of them are a little out of our conservative arena for 8 year old and 4 olds. The boys have never seen the video either. However, there is something about the beat to this song that literally makes us want to start dancing around the house and be silly. It has totally helped break up the seriousness in our house. We could be eating dinner or doing chores but the minute we hear this, we convene in the living room and start dancing all around! It is a regular dance party. I love it! So, I bet you are wondering what the song is?  It is "I Like to Move it, Move it." from Madagascar. My boys have never even seen the movie but we love the song! Click here for the song. (Disclaimer, I have never let my boys watch this video and really don't think the video is appropriate so if you have littles around and you are pretty conservative don't watch. For adults it is pretty funny though.)

5~~ Our conversations around the table can get pretty funny especially with an 8 year old and a 4 year old. Lately the topic has come up multiple times of wishing we lived in a Candy land and then a Protein Land. Actually, Cody clarifies each time that we need protein land first! You know protein/fat helps sugars digest more evenly and deters blood sugar spikes! Cracks me up. They go on to describe what will be in each land. Bacon, of course, would be in protein land! Candy land gets more descriptive. Waterfalls of chocolate (organic of course with no GMO's Cody adds) and rivers of honey. We are all craving protein and candy after the conversation which happens multiple times a month at meal times!

6~~ On the topic of Bacon we have been loving a snack called Porkitos lately. Actually this is made from Prosciutto that is baked and it is oh SO good! Michelle of Nom Nom Paleo coined the phrase and created the snack.  I buy Prosciutto at Costco and decided to try Michelle's version of it one day. Now, we like to eat it her way better than not baked.  It is good for putting on top of salads or eggs. Even to jut eat plain is wonderful. Try it! It also has that crunch that sometimes Paleo eaters crave.

(picture from Nom Nom Paleo)

7~~ This month I will be Gluten Free for three years! Wow. I can remember like yesterday how I viewed it as my death sentence in 2011 when I was told I had to eat GF. I have several posts detailing my journey of going Gluten Free if you search Gluten Free Journey in the labels on the side. Funny, I never knew that being Gluten Free was actually not hard at all. Looking back at the way I used to be able to eat was a piece of cake in comparison to the way I eat now. I look back though and realize that even though the things I was eating were Gluten free they were mostly NOT healthy. Just because it is GF doesn't mean it is healthy. I repeat just because it is labeled Gluten Free does not mean it is healthy for you to eat. Gluten Free food items (even prepared at home from scratch) have A LOT of starch and refined sugar in them and can have very little nutritive value. Eating as much refined sugar and starch as I used to contributed to my demise (Intestinal Permeability) in 2013. I am SO thankful for what I have learned since that journey started in March of 2011. I will never go back to eating Gluten Free ONLY. I love eating GMO free, grain free, legume free, refined sugar free, & dairy free (and a lot of other things "free.") It does my body good and has helped my boys with rashes, allergies and more! It has even helped my husband eliminate blood pressure issues, his overall wellness and he is down to the weight he was in high school! He doesn't always eat grain free either. My boys can have dairy though and we buy raw milk for them which they tolerate very well. Anyway, even though GF was simpler in terms of being able to have more convenience foods, I love Paleo because the food is nutrient dense (almond flour and coconut flours verses white rice flours for baking and lots and lots of veggies along with small portions of "clean" lean meats...) and easier to cook. It is just the prep that takes more time. What a journey it has been. I have been Paleo for over a year now and my health (due to autoimmunity) has done a 180 in terms of improvement. I highly recommend a grain free Paleo diet (or even Autoimmune Paleo) for those with autoimmunity. I am thankful for my doctor back in 2011 who was the ONLY doctor out of several who even told me that Gluten could affect those with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. It put me on the path to the realization that food, and everything we put in our mouths and on our skin, affects our health either positively or negatively. All God's Providence. PS: If you want to see what I can eat (which is a ton) check out my Pinterest Board.

8~~ Co-op is coming to and end! We have three more weeks left (after Spring Break). Time flew. It seems like we were just at Christmas break. Corbin has loved taking Chess, Creative Thinking, and Creative Writing with some amazing teachers. Cody has loved taking story hour, PE and Games, Eric Carle, and Christ Centered Character also with some amazing teachers. I absolutely love our co-op and am amazed at the sacrifice our moms make each week to teach our children. It is such a blessing and I have made some sweet friends in the process. God is good!

9~~ Steve and I started using doTERRA Essential oils in December for us individually. We have loved them so much and have seen some wonderful results in us personally as well as in our children from implementing these oils into our lives. I call them my "icing on the cake." We only got minor colds once or twice this year due to our lifestyle overhaul and using doTERRA EO's! Yay! It is so cool to us to be able to use something natural that God gave us (that were even used in Bible times) to help our bodies with their ailments. We have learned so much in the past few months and we are actually teaching classes together now to share our experience with others. We teach and help get our clients on the path to using doTERRA essential oils in their everyday lives. We love that we can literally replace our entire medicine cabinet as well as cleaners with Essential oils! Stay tuned to this blog because eventually I will be posting recipes for cleaners and home remedies. I will also have some giveaways of homemade cleaning solutions using doTERRA EO's. It is going to be fun!

10~~ One of the things that is so much on my mind and I pray about all the time lately is walking in God's will. There are so many things we can do in life. So many directions we can take. So many traps we can fall in. I know my Lord has ultimate discernment and protection over me and has my best interests and that of my family at heart. I trust in His unending sovereignty. He is amazing. I pray for protection from the snares because, as a human, it is so easy to not see one of Satan's traps. One of the best allegories and illustrations of the conniving, sneaky, deceit of the devil is played out in the book Pilgrims Progress. I like the audio version of this for road trips. They even have a kids version that my son has read over and over. It is a captivating story of the main character, Christian, who is on his life journey to heaven's gate while trying to stay on God's path. It was written by John Bunyan who was in prison at the time of the writing! I highly recommend it. 

I pray Proverbs 16:9 in my heart daily. 

Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

If we direct our steps we are really walking on the sinking sand. 

Temporal is the word that comes to mind. If we are in God's will and walking his path we can be safe in his arms and under his protection. That's what I want. With all these new things happening in our lives I do pray that, as I plan my ways (and heed the Lord's instruction and open doors), that God truly does direct us on this journey and that we trust in him for in and for everything.