Monday, February 11, 2013

Starve my Fears---Feed my Faith

Here's just an update on a few things I have been talking about recently regarding natural ways for skin/hair care, recipes, regrowing food, and a few things God showed me this morning.

 It was successful. I officially regrew food from food! I took a head of organic celery and cut it down to the root and stuck it in water for a week. Well now, it's been 2 weeks and it's supposed to be in potting soil, but everytime I am at the store, I forget to look for that.
Here's a pic of the lil guy sprouting....
And here are the green onions. I took organic ones and put them in water also, cut a few half way down, and sure enough they regrew themselves. I am trying something else this week, I cut one down about 1.5 inches from the root to see if it would regrow. Because, when I am not pregnant, the white part is the yummiest part, so I have no need for the green part to regrow... 
The ones that were not cut literally doubled in size! Now these just stay in water near a sunny window and you cut them as you need.

Tonight, I made this delicious homemade chicken pot pie. My Mom gave me the recipe. It was so so yummy!
Below is the recipe:

box of 2 uncooked pie shells, room temp.
1 bag of mixed veggies
1 can of diced potatos
1 can of either chicken gravy OR organic chicken broth
2 cups of cooked/seasoned chicken

In a bowl, mix everything but the pie shells. Add seasoning as you would like. Also, next time I will add spinach.
Put 1 pie shell down in the bottom of pie pan, place the food from the bowl in. Spread the other pie shell over and close the 2 shells together. Bake at '375 for 30-35 minutes. It's a great way to get the vegetables in! AND no yucky preservatives etc.
 Also, this will last us a little while. Hubby had 2 servings tonight, I had 1. There was enough for 3 lunches for him that will cover the rest of the week, PLUS 1 lunch for me. :)


Onto the natural skin/hair products/experiments: I am still having success with the coconut oil+ olive oil+ heat before washing 1-2x a week. I was excited (ish) because I just went 6 days without washing my hair. This is not my goal, but it just happened to work out this week. I normally wash my hair Wed and Sun. Anyway, last week, I washed it Wednesday, straightened it until Saturday. Friday morning, I washed my bangs. Saturday, I curled my hair for my hubby and I's date day. I woke up both Sun and Mon with it still looking great, so I spent 2 minutes brushing it out and 7 minutes re-curling it. (Yep, I timed myself!) Tonight I did the deep conditioning and washed it.

Face: I mixed up a recipe I found on pinterest last week to replace my facewash. It is a half to half recipe of baking soda and honey. I used it in the shower tonight, it DOES NOT remove EYE make-up (duh), but it did decent on my actual face. I came out of the shower and my face was a good shiny. :) I am not sure if there will be a natural/homemade face wash that removes eye make-up (?) so vaseline after the works great. Anyway, I am going to keep testing this out and see how it works, I don't want no break-outs.
I am going to bed tonight with vaseline and coconut oil on my eyelashes to help moisturize and maybe grow. And also coconut oil under my eyes to also keep moisturized and prevent future wrinkles. Also, I have jojoba oil in my hair, just a dime size from the roots down.



 (Thank you for downloading OUT of order) (psh)


Update on Pregnancy: (the good normal parts)
As of today, 4 months along, gained 5 lbs!

Stomach aches: starting to fade away. (Either because it's about that time OR the chlorophyll I am taking OR the organic WHOLE milk I am drinking.)

Nausea: threw up some pistachios today. That was fun.  It has lessened though and I expect a complete turn-around by week 20. Can't wait.

Craving: Fruit. Not much else, it has been pretty tame this time around. Thankful.

It feels like for the past 5 days I have been so hungry all the time and always needing to eat. Which is the exact opposite of how I am. I always get hungry right before we turn off the lights for bed at midnight. And it's the type of hunger you cannot ignore. So, I have to eat. It's weird, because it's not fun to have to eat that much or that late. Oh well.

Exercise: Psh. Not as much as I wished. A 45 min walk here and there as the weather permits. Preparing to begin a leg/arm/booty routine that will hopefully keep me toned throughout this pregnancy and beyond. ALSO, hope to see some 50' days soon and be on 1 hr walks at least 5x/wk.

Guess on Gender: Boy
We have 4 names picked out (2 for lil ladies, 2 for lil men) and I cannot wait to use one of them and save the rest for the rest of the gang!




Had some really good time with the Lord this morning, which was much needed for my heart.
Just wanted to share a few verses I am clinging to/meditating on for the next lil while as I deal with anxiety, panic, fear, dread....

Isaiah 12:2
"See, God has come to save me. I will trust in Him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song, He has given me victory."

Isaiah 26:3
"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You."

Luke 10:41-42
"But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only One thing that is worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."

Love all these great reminders to choose to TRUST and worship and choose just being in His presence OVER stressing and worrying and panicking about things I have no control over. He is my strength and song. :)

One of the greatest gifts I can give to the Lord is be complete control of my mind/thoughts.

....Starve my fears, feed my Faith...

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Fears, Disappointments and Rejoicing

Lately, things have been so crazy in my head.

This business of being pregnant with baby #2 after losing baby #1...is.... really.... hard.

Much harder than I thought it would be.

I pray. Constantly. But I fear. Constantly.    In my dreams. In my wake.  I had no idea it would be like this. I had no idea I wouldn't be able to "control myself" and just "be excited" and just thankful the Lord allowed us to have another sweet baby.

I really feel like I am drowning. I feel like I am allowing my joy to be robbed of me. Only like twice have I had an "Oh man, I am so excited to be Mom to a baby here on earth!" or "Man, in 5 months or less, a lil baby will be in my arms again!" moment. I really am needing more of those. I really am praying for God's Eyes on this one.

Praying to calm down, relax and....
TRUST JESUS

I know I can.

Tomorrow my baby would be 8 months old. For a few days, I actually thought she was turning 9 months old. That makes me mad. Mad, that I can't remember because my head is so full of stupid stuff. Mad because my lil girl isn't here everyday so I can remember how old she'd be. Mad because I feel like I am forgetting.

I can't believe she'd be 8 months old. Crawling, being cute, being here... ugh. It literally rips my heart out to even think about.

*One* thing and one thing only has God given me to rejoice in... is the simple fact that I can have no greater joy than to know my baby is right there with Him. Like John said,
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." (3 John 1:4)

I will never have to worry about the condition of her soul, never have to worry if she is walking with the Lord truly.... because she is already there, with Jesus, experiencing everything she was made for. Waiting for me. That is something to be thankful for.

I am just really disappointed (to say the least) that I haven't had the blessing of being a mom to her for the past 8 months, learning what that means.
 But as I was complaining to God about that, He just gently reminded me that what He has done/is doing/will continue to do in my Soul over the past 8 months (and beyond) as I am learning to grieve and heal, is far beyond measure to simply learning how to be a Mom. He values that, of course. But He had a work to do and is still working. Drawing me closer and closer to Him, continuing to put me in places of utter need for Him. Strengthening my faith. Teaching me through one of his greatest gifts; affliction.

And now we are moving into a different phase of learning and healing.  He is wanting to hold my hand and walk with me through this pregnancy:

...Help me be so ok with whatever and so assured as to what is to come that my heart can settle down and maybe even rejoice.

...So my heart can learn to trust Him with those most precious to me. 

...So my heart can trust Him to keep me from drowning...and keep my eyes off the waves.

I am so thankful to serve and love a God like Him.