A Journey through God's Will Part 1

Where do I start when I start talking about the past 8 months during this what seems like a lifetime of a journey!!??

My mom was healthy and doing her thing until May 24, 2014.  She had been at my cousin's home for two weeks taking care of her after breast cancer surgery. Cancer runs all through my mom's side of our family!  My mom had a terrible sinus upper respiratory infection while she was there, and her doctor would not call her in a prescription being in another town.  She felt awful!  She was tired, stressed and just plain worn out.  Come to find out, my mom had a mini stroke while she was at my cousin's home.  My mom is a nurse, so she called her doctor immediately and got an appt for the next day after returning home.  The doctor confirmed what my mom was thinking and ordered a CT Scan of her brain for that Thursday.  

The Wed. night before her CT Scan is a night I will never forget.  My daughter and I called my mom after church on our way home, and she asked me "are you alone?"  I replied, "no, Claire is with me."  She said in a strange voice I had never heard, "call me when you get home and you are alone."  Of course, my heart starts racing!!  I got home and got all of the kids bathed and tucked in and made the phone call that was so prevalent on my mind.  My mom spoke to me as if were going to be the last time we ever spoke during this conversation.  I cried and prayed with her for God's will, and boy, neither of us knew what was about to strike our family!!

This is my momma, 3 months after being diagnosed with a Grade 4 Gioblastoma on the right side of her brain.  

My mom went to get her CT Scan that Thursday and ended up being halo flighted to the hospital in Memphis, TN to have emergency brain surgery.

But the story does not end there....God is good, and He is faithful!! 

Visit back later this weekend, and I will share more of the hard but joyous story of this great woman...my momma!!

Many Blessings til then,

Recipes that really did not come from a "recipe"

Because my family has so many food allergies, I have to modify so many recipes to feed my family in a healthy way.

Me:  Gluten/Dairy/Soy/Egg

Clayton (my son): Nuts/Tree Nuts/Soy/Corn

It makes for a whole lotta home cookin...and a whole lotta trying to SIMPLIFY MY LIFE!!!

I wanted to have a place where I could share a lot of the foods we have tried, modified, and "tested" for full flavor and healthy clean eating...for the most part!!  It is hard to navigate the food allergies road...I am not gonna try to sugar coat it!!  I have been "allergy-free" now for 4 years and my son for almost 2 years.  It's great how God orchestrated my journey way before He orchestrated my sons...praise God for that daily!! "He will not give us more than we can handle" 

So here are a few "recipes" I have made that turned out to be AMAZING, and we will keep in our rotations :)  I say "recipes" lightly because I do not follow recipes...unless they are from "The Pioneer Woman" because I love her...but even then, I have to modify!!  You will see as you read why I say that word so lightly...lol  I play with flavor combinations and make my own recipes...they 99.9% of the time work out great!!

Last night, I made...

Tortellini Kale Soup

2 cans dark red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of sliced carrots

1 carton of low-sodium organic chicken stock

1 tube of gluten free Italian breakfast sausage

2 huge scoops of Contespasta chicken tortellini (found at HEB Plus) or order online www.contespasta.com

2 huge handfuls of fresh Kale

2 cups of hot water

1 large can of crushed tomatoes w Roasted Garlic

Dried sweet Basil

Sea salt and Pepper to taste

This is how SIMPLE it was!

In one pot, cook the breakfast sausage til done.  Pour in the chicken stock and simmer for 10 mins.  Dump in the rest of the ingredients and cook for 30 mins...DONE!! I told you it was SIMPLE!!

It was sooooo good...we are having leftovers tonight!!  I bet it is even better the 2nd day :)

Another "recipe" I wanted to share because it is so hard to find a good Allergy-free flour that holds up in cookies, muffins, etc. is my 

Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups Namaste Perfect Flour Blend www.namastefoods.com (Sprouts has it too)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 can of organic pumpkin (not pie filling)

Nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves to preference

Mix all these ingredients together and put into greased muffin cups...Bake at 350 degrees til golden brown and toothpick tested clean...DONE and YUMMO!!!!

These are just two of the super simple "recipes" we have tasted and approved of 100%....ENJOY!!

Keep checking back for more yummy recipes and leave a comment if you feel led.

Many blessings,

In order to grow...we MUST remember where God brought us from, and seek where He is leading us to

Titus 3:3 says, "Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient.  We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures.  Our lives were full of evil and envy.  We hated others, and they hated us." (NLT)

I started this blog for many reasons, but the main one that kept coming back to me during my prayer and quiet time with God, was to share my journey to encourage others that may be in the place where I have been or empower someone to seek God's truth for their lives.

Titus 3:3 explains a lot about who I once was not so long ago.  A person filled and fueled with anger and resentment from my childhood and parents.  I lived with so much anger and the questions of "why did I get abused and unloved and forgotten when I was so good?"  It did not matter that I made straight A's, never smoked, didn't do drugs, walked the good girl line....NONE of that mattered.  The the long list of people who hurt me after that....and so on and so on grew and grew.  There are MANY things I have chosen in my life because my heart was filled with evil and not God.  It took me a very long time to learn that I could let all of it go, and surrender it all to God...and how FREEING that would be!  God gives you exactly what you need exactly when you need it!!  My "hurt others before they hurt me" mentality took me all kinds of places in the name of "independence".  It was me against the world.  Now it is, God helping me to serve others and love them even when they don't deserve it.

I spent years looking for love in all the wrong places (yes, that's a sad country song), but I am so glad I do not live in that place anymore.  The issues that Satan would love for us to cling to like distrust, abandonment, etc. can't breathe and hold true with God ruling your life.  Do I still have times, when the comfortable past where I used to hold onto so tightly, come back...oh yes!!...but I am quickly brought back to whom I belong, who created me, who was born for me, and who died and was resurrected for ME!!  And He did that for YOU TOO!!

People cannot give you what God can give you!!  Let me say that again, "People cannot give you what God gives you!"  People will let you down, disappoint you, and cause you grief.  Remembering that God made them and loves them too is very hard for me at times and in certain situations in my life...but it's the key to my happiness.  You cannot find true love, peace, kindness, faithfulness etc. in any human being.  Do we know people with these qualities??? SURE!!  I am not saying people can't be those things at times in your life, but merely that, God is that for you ALL the time....NO MATTER WHAT!!!

Titus 3:4-7 follows with "But"...it is sooooo good when God says it!! "But then our God our Savior showed us his kindness and love.  He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy."  That was perfect to my ears, but it took me a long time to believe that being a "good girl" didn't matter to my Salvation.  The verse keeps going.  "He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.  He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.  He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness.  And now we know that we will inherit eternal life."  Verse 8 says, "These things I have told you are all true.  I want you to insist on them so that everyone who trusts in God will be careful to do good deeds all the time.  These things are good and beneficial to everyone."

How many people are in your life can you count that you KNOW that they are always truthful to you for YOUR benefit???

I want to encourage you to allow God to help you find someone to put into your life that will be what we in our women's Bible Study call "your shoulder shaker".  Someone who will point you back to God's truth when we ourselves cannot see it!!  Seek a Bible Study that will cause you to grow closer to Him, read more of His word and cause you to GROW in your relationship with your EVERYTHING!!

I pray this blog shows you how in love I am with God, and how much I want to share what He has done for me...and can do for you!! Leave me a comment with your email for weekly encouragement from a great listener!!!  You can always "subscribe" and get these posts directly to your email as well.

Many Blessings,

New Year's has it's UPS and DOWNS...

As the New Year's resolutions start piling up, and we start to think about what we want 2015 to look like or feel like...here at our home...we have begun what I am praying will be a lifestyle change!!

So, yes, this has begun today in our home.  To some of us with food allergies who eat clean and healthy 99.5% of the time...it's no big deal.  But the other 1/2 of the house begged to differ!!  

We each embraced this challenge with cleaning out "our shelves" in the pantry.  Here is the tally:

Mine: Zero

Claire: 3

Clayton:1

Tom (the hubby): 30+ items and I am being NICE 

We did not want to trash it if it hadn't been opened so I came up with a solution...hubby, take it to your work's break room!! It will be gone in less than a day, and the break room is very far from his office :) I try to be a thoughtful wife...really!!

Breakfast was eggs, sausage, and honey crisp apples sliced...YUMMO

Lunch was Panko crusted fish sticks and some applesauce

Dinner will be Marinated Lemon Vinaigrette Chicken Breast on top of Spinach Salad...but this challenge is MORE than just a challenge!!  I need those that I love MOST to learn something....as a teacher and life-learner, I cannot help it!

So......I made them a Black Bean Chocolate Cake!!  It has no flour, no sugar, and uses only UNsweetened cocoa for the chocolate flavor...they won't know what hit them!! I know the "rules" say no cake or chocolate, but I am trying to make a point here with healthy cake made with unsweetened cocoa.

The lesson is:

God gave us a body to treat as "his temple".  We are sinners and imperfect, of course, but as we know better, we need to do better.  I want my family who hasn't been on a clean eating food allergy lifestyle change like the other 1/2 of us for years now to learn that healthy = yummy...SIMPLE right!!!???

Here is the link to the recipe...I did NOT make the frosting by the way.  I have always been a cake with no frosting kinda gal anyway...birthday parties were interesting as a kid. "How come your cake has frosting only on half of it?"  Yep, that's me!!

Make this for your family...and hear the "what's" and "wow's" and "mom you're the bestest cooker ever's"  My sweet 13 yr old. boy still says that at almost every meal...and I cherish it!!!

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/haylie-duff/black-bean-chocolate-cake-with-buttercream-frosting.html

Happy New Year ya'll,