Our Children Always Need Us

I remember when I became a parent.  I had a colicky baby and no time for myself.  I looked forward to when my child didn’t need me as much.  The toddler stage showed me how much she was learning. One of the struggles was learning to deal with emotions.  Along came another baby and now I had two children that needed me more then I needed time to myself.  I eventually got time to myself, but each stage I could see how my children needed me.  When they were 14 and 12, I got a full time job to help support our family financial.  On my days off, I took advantage the best my exhausted body could and spent as much time as I could to be their mother..  It was not enough to keep them from sliding backwards.  They made poor decisions. Not only did my children suffer by working outside of the home, but my relationship with my husband suffered.   I quit my job to put my family first.  I was amazed how quickly my marriage repaired itself.  My children were happy to have me back, but undoing bad habits took some time. 

While I was working, my youngest went through a horrible bought of depression that lead to a spiritual warfare.  We prayed for her and God did some amazing things, but she battled daily with her mind and thoughts.  Eventually her battles weren’t daily and became weekly.  Over time they became more infrequent.  She soon learned how to recognize those thoughts that would lead her down to destruction and how to turn them to better thoughts. For some reason, girls who were once Christians that got messed up in evil believes seemed to be attracted to my daughter.  She had a good heart to want to help them, but she soon learned that they dragged her down with them instead of her being able to pull them up.  One girl was cleaver and played on my daughters insecurities to try to steer her away from her Christian moral believes.  But God was not going to let my daughter go.  He placed me in the right place at the right time to overhear what this girl was telling my girls.  It was enough for me to realize that this is the last time this destructive girl will have access to my girls.  With wide eyes open, I could see how she was working on other insecure girls too.  Unfortunately, there was damage done to my daughter.  My little talks weren’t working and again, the only thing I could do was pray as I watched her struggle with her insecurities and social awkwardness.  Finally, after 9 months, she got sick of feeling the pain of her insecurities and decided to first pull herself away from Facebook and then later do a 40 days fast from friends.  She read her Bible everyday and spiritually she grew.  She called it 40 days in the Wilderness as she read Matthew, Mark and started Luke. 

A few days after my daughter returned to youth group, the past came back and bit my daughter in the behind.  God revealed that my daughter  had tried to reach out and communicate to this damaging girl months after we removed her from her life.  Yesterday this damaging girl responds to my daughter’s message from months earlier.  I am thankful that it was revealed to us and we could stop it.  But I am also torn because I can assume the reasons why she did.  I want to give her the grace, but I also don’t want this damaging girl to win a piece of my daughter’s morals.  I don’t want her lesson about sneaking behind the parent’s backs and getting away with it, to be a lesson learned.  Our daughter definitely lost our trust!  I now have to keep watch on accounts and where she goes and who she is talking to.  

After we removed this damaging girl from our families’ lives, we continued to pray for her.  We understood that we were not the family that could help her, but that under the right circumstances God could place the right person in her life to help her without them becoming a victim.

 

Again, I am left with the thoughts that my children still need me.  I am still teaching them morals.  I am still there to listen and advise.  I am still praying.  I am still watching.  My children are still my main mission. 

Pea Salad Recipe

PEA SALAD RECIPE

This is a old one, but recently has been rediscovered in our family.  My husband use to think that it was a chick dish, but now says he likes this recipe better.  I can’t remember the old recipe I used, but this is the one I use now.  

Ingredients:

2 to 4 cups of frozen green peas  (I use whatever is left over in the bag from another meal)

½ cup chopped onion

5 pieces of bacon (I use turkey bacon)

2 to 4 Tblsp of Ranch dressing – to taste

½ cup of cheddar cheese, cubed or shredded - Optional

Directions:

Thaw green peas in a bowl.  

Cut bacon strips into slivers and cook them in a skillet or microwave until crispy.  Allow bacon to cool.  

Chop onions.  Add onions, cheese, and cool bacon to green peas.  

Add in the amount of Ranch to your liking.  Stir until coated. 

Diet Review For Trim Healthy Mama

In September, my daughter and I merged from Somersizing into Trim Healthy Mama.  We stuck with it until Thanksgiving.  We were not strong enough for the holiday temptations and traditional foods.  We are back on it again, but have managed to merry Somersizing and Trim Healthy Mama with our diet.

Trim Healthy Mama is a diet that is similar to Susanne Somers Somersizing Diet, but with more freedom.  Your carb meals are still separated from your protein/fat meals.  You should eat every 3 to 4 hours.  You can switch from a carb meal to a protein/fat meal or visa versa after 2 ½ hours.  Carbs are an E meal for Energizing and Protein/fat meal is called an S meal for Satisfying.

Pros - They say there are no rules, but as any diet there really is.  If you cheat on a meal, you get right back on it for the next meal.  I love that part, because there is no need to feel like you are failing the diet.  The diet is great for breaking the sugar addiction.  The carb meals allow a little protein and so it is easier to find something to eat while out.  Nuts are allowed and that opens the door to being able to use other low carb desserts and even some Paleo.  The diet is more like a new way of living, as long as you eat meals from both categories.  I love their cookbook.

Cons – In the beginning, it is hard to understand the diet.  This is a diet that you need to read the book to understand it.  I am still not sure about certain things, but I am still able to eat the way I do understand it and I follow the recipes in both the first book and the cookbook. It is very easy for mistakes to become everyday habits. I forget to eat on a schedule and end up munching when I am not suppose to.  It is now a bad habit.  My husband still wants to cheat as much as possible.  I think it is the thrill of cheating that he likes. LOL

Results – My daughter and I have not lost any weight, but feel better.  We have noticed that we don’t do well with certain carbs.  We have lots of room for improvement on this diet and so we are encouraged to keep going.  My husband has not lost any weight either, but most likely it is because of his cheating. I am sure he cheats more when he is not around us.  We should also be drinking more water and exercising. 

Diet Review for Somersizing

Last summer my daughter and I started the diet that Susanne Somers created, called Somersizing.  It has been around for a long time.  I remember Susanne Somers promoting it in the 90’s when I was young and thin.  It is an easy diet to understand.  The rules are simple and easy to remember.  You can have carbs, but you can’t have them with protein or fat.  Eat your meals and snacks 3 hours apart.  She also has a list of funky foods to avoid.  

 

Pros - Suzanne Somers is a wonderful cook.  Our family loves her recipes.  I would buy the books for the recipes alone.  We haven’t made anything that we didn’t like.  They are full of flavor.  The diet is easy to understand and easy to follow once you learn the rules.  We never got hungry, because we didn’t have enough to eat.  We could eat as much as we wanted.  It also helped get rid of the sugar addiction that I had. 

Cons - We ended up cheating.  I would get false hunger pains 20 minutes after I finished eating a large meal.  I knew it wasn’t real.  Later on I realized that adding fiber like flax seed or chia seeds would have solved the problem.  It was hard to follow when I was running around town.  There are options for eating out, but temptation of watching someone eat fries would drive me crazy and so I would cave.  Another thing – I am close to menopause and without the soy, my hormones were out of wack.  I had hot flashes day and night and insomnia.  I talked to the doctor and she recommended putting soy back into my diet to see if that works.  It did. (So I get to wait on the natural estrogen and progesterone supplements for a few more years.)

Results – The first time we both lost about 15 lbs each in about a month and then we stalled for another month.  We started back up again in January, but didn’t lose anything.  I blame my husband for derailing us with too many cheat days.  I had a harder time stabilizing my sugar addiction, because of the over indulgent of sugar during the holidays.  I also remembered why we didn’t stick to Somersizing.  My daughter likes this diet better and so we follow with the rules modified, by adding in some of Trim Healthy Mama additions. 

Our modifications - We limit the funky foods as much as possible.  Some of the funky foods we avoid all together.  We allow nut flour in moderation and a small amount of nuts or almonds as a snack. We allow beets in moderation, because of it’s ability to cleans the liver. We limit carrots, because I thought they are more beneficial.  We limit banana’s to ½ a banana up to 2 times a week, because of the potasium. We allow the whole milk to be used when a large amount of cream is called for in a recipe, because it was too expensive to use cream.  Sorry, no one better take away my chocolate and so we enjoy cocoa to make sugar free chocolate, heavenly treats or desserts.  And we just can’t give up coffee.  We allow fiber and allow it with the carbs or protein/fat. Hello bread in a mug.  Another thing, I drink ½ cup of soy milk per day to level out my hormones.  I use stevia for the sweetener. I guess you can say, it is no longer Somersizing. 

With any diet, you have to make it work for you.  Read the books, research why so you have a clear understanding.  Adapt it if needed.  Look to see if there is support groups on Facebook, Pinterest, and any other social network. 

About Why We Eat The Way We Do

Our family likes food - a little too much!  We are on a diet.  We bounce between Susan Somers Somersizing and Trim Healthy Mama.  We also look at recipes for Paleo and Low Carb.  The priority is, it has to be Gluten Free.  My children and I were diagnosed with Celiac in 2006.  All the extra starch in the gluten free flour blend can add up.  I am getting good at tweaking recipes so that they are gluten free. My oldest daughter likes to bake and cook in the kitchen.  That is a real blessing.  She is very talented and experiments just as much as I do.  Well, maybe more than I do.  

We are use to putting a spin on things to make them low carb or gluten free.  We get stuck on things like noodles, rice and especially bread.  My youngest daughter loves sandwiches.  Candy and chocolate won’t tempt her, but bread will.  When a famous sub sandwich shop had commercials about “Sandwich Artists!” that is what she wanted to be when she grew up.  She was only 6 or 7 years old. lol Thankfully she has higher hopes then minimum wage.  She still creates some wonderful sandwich combinations.  

My dad is diabetic and diagnosed with an incurable cancer called Multiple Myeloma.  We are all learning how to live with this cancer.  He isn’t as strong as he use to be, but as long as he takes care of himself, he lives a meaningful life.  Especially after watching his cancer numbers go up and down and then up and down again, I truly believe WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!  He loves to eat out, but he sells himself short when he does.  Our bodies are worth more than French fries, hamburgers, pizza or fried chicken.  They deserve meals prepared at home with lots of love, veggies and proteins.  I do believe that we do better without processed foods, but it is a step better than eating out all the time.  

My husband loves starch!  He is my downfall with my diet.  He needs to diet more than the rest of us.  He also likes to eat out, but not as much as my dad.  He is the only gluten glutton that uses our kitchen, so we have strict rules for him to minimize the likely hood that we get contaminated.  When we wanted gluten, he would look for reasons to eat out.  Now that we are on this diet, he looks for reasons to go out to have pizza or potatoes.  

My husband did not want to go on a diet, until I said that we can have “cheat day!”  Then he was on board.  He gets so excited about cheat day, that he stretches it out over the weekend and calls it cheat day.  He even likes to add a cheat day in the middle of the week.  My daughter and I hate that, but at least we are learning ways to work around that.  Most of the time, we aren’t prepared.  Our goal is to get prepared eventually.  

We hope you find the recipes we share something that you will enjoy as much as we do. 

How This Blog Came About

Three weeks ago my daughter gave me a challenge… To go off of Facebook for 1 month!  In December she decided to challenge herself to not go on Facebook for 1 month.  She surprised herself and loved it. She now only visits her account once a week.

I have gone over 3 weeks without going on Facebook and only have 5 more days left to live without Facebook.  I didn’t think I was on very much.  Maybe I was or maybe my mood was affected and slowed down my motivation.  I now have more creativity. I have accomplished more than I usually do.  I have discovered how I can enjoy and use Pinterest.  I even opened a Tumblr account.  I even backed up my computer and organized files.  Then I discovered posts that I was working on for another blog that I created.  It has been three years since I was in it and now I can’t remember how to open it. 

I noticed that I feel lonely on Facebook.  I have a lot of friends, but life is busy and society has become less social in person.  People get together just to be on their phones next to each other.  I have a friend who lives a mile away and I haven’t seen her in years, except on Facebook.  I had a friend from out of state who was visiting her mother for a month who lives a quarter of a mile away, but ignored my invitation to get together.  These individuals were people who I considered close friends in my past. What happened to people talking on the phone?

On the other hand, I have two friends who live 2 and 3 hours away from me who feel the same way about their friends on Facebook. One friend lives 2 hours away and I have seen her 6 to 8 times in the last 2 years. 

This blog is for whatever I feel like talking about. I have the freedom to share anything from gardening, parenting, crafts, cooking or even my faith.  Good-bye writer's block!