a Piece of Advice (BEDIM: Day 8)

Today is Day Eight of the Blog Every Day in May. The prompt? "A piece of advice"

My advice? Pick your battles, and lighten up. Life is full of potential stressors, challenges, grumpy people, flat tires, rainy days. Relationships - marriage, parenting, family, coworkers, neighbors - have their speed bumps, and any time two or more imperfect people are involved, life can get messy.

My advice is keep the end in mind, and allow that ultimate vision to guide your responses and decisions. We have too much to do in life to pick up every issue bothers us, and if we do try to deal with every single issue we are going to be absolutely exhausted. We must pick our battles.
A great tip I was taught is to run every issue we have through the filter of "will this matter in five years?" Sometimes to help you pick your battles, you need to ask, "will this even matter in five days, or even five minutes?"
Asking this will help you conserve energy for what you NEED to do to achieve your ultimate vision for your life, no distractions.

Also, lighten up! Smile, laugh, keep a healthy perspective. Celebrate your blessings and victories. Watch and listen to comedians that give life by making you laugh. Just be light of heart, it is good for you. Life is too short to have attitude, stay upset, or worry. Hang around positive people who help you stay light.

I could write so very much more. But I will leave with these pieces of advice.
Now, what is your piece of advice?

Things I'm Most Afraid Of (BEDIM: Day 7)

This post is a couple days late, and I was going to just let it go. But I changed my mind.

The prompt for Day 7 is "the thing(s) you are most afraid of."

Let me start by reminding you, I so am not perfect and I so don't have it all together. But after thinking about this prompt for the week, I realized that in my last fifteen or twenty years of life, I have had to face just about everything I was afraid of. And more recently  I have learned how to capture a fear trying to root in my life, and throw it away. (Thank you Jesus, PK, and Joyce Meyer!  ;))

• Spiders. I defeated that when I had to deal with a giant tropical spider that came home in our grocery store bananas. Boom!
• Death. Face critical health situations enough and you'll make peace with this eventual fate too. Just not happening yet, not even close!!
• People not liking me. Yeah, life is too short to let people and their toxic vibes bother ya. Hurting people hurt people, and 99.9% of the time people have issues with themselves, not you.

So those were my big fears, and I know they resonate with most of you out there. We are all just human  :)

Now, I do have something I would identify as the thing that tries to overwhelm me. And that is because it is overwhelming.

I am overwhelmed by the idea of FOREVER. Of eternity. Of no more sense of time. Of going on and on, and on and on.......................

Wow, when that bugger creeps in, does it overwhelm my mind and make me get lost in my head.

I believe in Heaven and I know that I know I will be spending forever with my Creator when my time in this life is done. I believe what the Bible says about Heaven- that it is a beautiful, perfect place God created with His people in mind. That it will be a place of JOY. Peace. Love. Worship. Freedom and fun! Reunions. Relationships. Life ABUNDANT, with no tears, sickness, or pain.
And I let those truths flood in at those times when my mind goes down that imploding path of too-big-way-too-big-to-comprehend thoughts (which God never asked me to think in the first place!).

As my best friend aka Hubs encouraged me a few years ago, "we are all going to live forever, no matter how you look at it. We get to decide where we spend that forever."
And that helps me. Because I think if there is a true fear I have hidden in this thing, it would be the fear of spending an unending eternity alone.

How I am grateful that the greatest truth about my forever is that I will never be alone. Heaven is the place we get to be in God's presence forever. Never ever alone!


I hope this encouraged someone out there. Perhaps my most revealing blog post ever. So if you have anything to say, let it be kind.  :)

Jumping Off the Wagon

You guys, I've jumped off the wagon for a few days. No, not by eating gluten, dairy, or even soy or eggs - I can't ever eat those things. Still no garlic or citrus or pineapple - that would not be good. Nothing I know will outright cause allergic reactions. I went to the store and bought a basket full of treats and snacks, and some of them are very definitely NOT Paleo. I needed some help getting me through this hungry/exhausted/frustrated/completely baffled week. Here's what I got:

Yes there are some grains in there (rice). And some outright un-Paleo, unhealthy, completely junk-filled Swedish fish. But the rest is not half bad right?  :)

See? I'm not perfect in any respect, and eating Paleo full time while trying to take care of your family and home, breastfeeding a nine-month-old, dealing with chronic illness daily "stuff," and freakish allergic reactions - well it just doesn't always work out.

Do you know how hard it is to find grain-free snacks that do not contain garlic? I would be all over some beef jerky, but it's got garlic. I ran into garlic or the vague "spices" term listed on so many ingredient labels. What is the deal with that?

Somehow, I got "glutened" or ingested some other allergen the other day. I am still completely baffled as to what it was. I know something happened because I had the worst reaction I've ever had - brain fog, complete and total exhaustion physically, emotional ups and downs, itchy, sinus stuffiness, joint pains, headache... Oh was it HORRIBLE! Hubs and I have been calling and looking up the manufacturer information for the foods we ate and still haven't come across a clue. (By the way, Kraft customer service is VERY nice! We called them about some uncured Oscar Mayer bacon -nope, it wasn't that-, and Hubs was on the phone for fifteen minutes including speaking with an executive! Go Kraft, you really are trying hard to be accommodating and sensitive to those with food restrictions!)

But it's been a tough couple of days. Whatever this was it threw my guts into a flare up and I have felt more than ever before that I am not absorbing anything from what I've been eating. Just getting up and walking across our tiny house feels like dragging a cart full of boulders behind me. I don't know how much it affects my energy level when in a flare like that, but I am still breastfeeding as well and I was dreading feeding Victory each time, because of how exhausted I felt. And that's not something I want to be feeling!

So.

I jumped off the wagon. I bought some food I can grab right out of the cupboard. And a few treats to boot. And I'm only sharing this so you see that I too, am human. I am learning that, particularly with Autoimmune disease and following the Paleo AIP, it doesn't matter as much that you're eating "perfectly," as much as it matters that you are dealing with stress and not putting unhealthy pressure on yourself. So this is my little vacation off the perfect Paleo highway, and I'll enjoy it, and get back to grain-free, crap-sugar-free soon.
I'm okay with that :)

Do you ever take a break from something in your life? "Jump off a wagon" that you intentionally were on to pursue health?
Sometimes it's more important to give ourselves grace and a little break, as long as we're still keeping health in mind. Pursuing health, especially when you have autoimmune disease, is a life-long journey, full of ups and downs and adjustments. What is important is to keep moving forward and brush off the guilt and tough moments.

Auto Immune Disease Sundae Infographic

I ran across this infographic at Sarah Wilson's blog today. Thought I'd share it, because it's humorous and true at the same time, and all of us AI-er's (great people with auto-immune disease) can use a giggle most every day :)

Intentional Christmas

Last night Hubs and I were talking, and one of us said, "You know what the hardest part of being an adult is? It's the fact that birthdays, holidays, and most of all CHRISTMAS are truly what you make of them." We both agreed that being a married adult can be sobering when you realize that you are responsible for creating the culture you want to have for celebrating holidays and other special events. You have to make things special and memorable. You're in charge of memories that go beyond the sparkle, glitter and lights. It can be a lot of pressure if you let it get to you. But thankfully, this year we have been liberated by realizing that we have done too much in the past, too much to make other people happy and not enough to make ourselves happy and able to enjoy and celebrate Christmas in a way that brings us meaning.

So this year, we are starting a new tradition. We are doing what we'd like to do to celebrate the holy-day of Christmas. I am so excited to be spending this evening with our dear friends and church family, first at a candlelight service and then at an annual party that we are attending for the first time. Can I just say - It's amazing what you'll find time for when you schedule it like a priority - rather than trying to prioritize a too-full schedule. (OK that wasn't a riddle, but it kind of wrote out like one... ha!)

I am thankful for the freedom and light heart I feel today. I am not out running around last minute for gifts; I am not sitting here stressing about tomorrow's crazy schedule driving from city to city; I am not worried about making all variety of dishes to bring to each gathering. I am relaxed. I'm spending some time in the kitchen making Christmas Chex Mix for neighbors, and hoping to bake some gluten-free, dairy-free Russian Tea Cookies this afternoon. (Russian Tea Cookies are one of my favorite Christmas cookies of all time, and I haven't had them in years - I'm hoping they turn out with alternative ingredients!)


Can I encourage you, my friends? Be of good cheer this Christmas weekend. Keep the main thing the main thing. Remember the reason for the season. In Luke 10, Martha has invited Jesus into her home and has created a busy whirlwind of chores and tasks for herself, while her sister Mary has stayed in the living room with Jesus to sit at his feet and soak up his wisdom and love - the Word says she was hanging on every word he said. In response to her sister's actions, sadly, Martha chooses to whine to Jesus: "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me?"
Listen to Jesus' response to Martha. Take it to heart and let it guide you toward peace and the right priority today and tomorrow:

"Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it - it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

So my friends, don't get caught up in last minute errands, to-do lists, and people-pleasing this weekend. Put Jesus first, and the rest will be taken care of or fade away as you realize its unimportance in the big picture.

Merry Christmas!