Improve your Digestion Tonic made with Whey

Cabbage is an amazing food. I plan to feature different foods on this blog periodically, and begin with the mighty Cabbage.

Cabbage is an unusually rich source of vital nutrients, particularly vitamin C and carotenoids. Vitamin C is required by the body for the integrity of blood vessels, connective tissue, bones and every essential biochemical activity including the immune system function.

Cabbage juice is highly valued as a folk remedy. Its healing powers may be related to its high sulphur and chlorine content, which in combination is said to exert a powerful cleansing action upon the mucous membranes of the intestinal tract. Cabbage juice has been used in the treatment of arthritis, gastrointestinal ulceration, skin disorders and obesity. "Cabbage water for the complexion" is a truism among the Irish.

Even better than plain cabbage juice is the juice of fermented cabbage, with its content of lactic acid and enzymes. German folk wisdom values both cabbage juice and cucumber pickle juice for digestive disorders, infectious illnesses and many other complaints.

- Nourishing Traditions Cookbook, by Sally Fallon , p. 614.

Cabbage Juice Tonic
makes 2 quarts

1/4 organic green cabbage
1 T sea salt
1/4 Cup whey
filtered water

This should be taken in small amounts throughout the day to improve intestinal flora.

Shred the cabbage finely with a stainless steel knife and pound briefly with a meat hammer or a wooden pounder. Place in a 2-quart jug with salt, whey, and enough water to fill the container. Cover tightly and leave at room temp for 2 days before transferring to refrigerator.

Add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper to 4 ounces cabbage juice tonic for a gargle and sore throat remedy.

These crazy new things really do help! Rolaids, Tums, cough meds, etc. are toxic for your liver, don't truly get you better, and make it easier for the problem to surface again. Cabbage juice actually has healing properties!

Try using God's ingredients and be amazed!

What do do with the Whey leftover after making your own cheese!

Whey is amazing. It has a lot of minerals (especially coming from raw milk). One Tablespoon of whey in a little water will help digestion. It is a remedy that will keep your muscles young. It will keep your joints movable and ligaments elastic. With stomach ailments, take 1 T whey three times daily to feed the stomach glands and help them to work well again.

- From Hanna Kroeger Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen

Using Cheese Whey as a beverage in human nutrition, especially for therapeutic purposes, can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, in 460 B.C., prescribed whey for an assortment of human ailments. In the Middle Ages, whey was recommended by many doctors for varied diseases; and by the mid 19th century, whey cures reached a high point with the establishment of over 400 whey houses in Western Europe. As late as the 1040's, in spas in Central Europe, dyspepsia, uremia, arthritis, gout, liver diseases, anemia and even tuberculosis were treated with the ingestion of up to 1500 grams of whey per day.

- V.H. Holsinger Whey Beverages: A Review

Whey Drink Recipe

1/2 C whey
1/2 C filtered water
juice of 1 lemon

Mix all ingredients and drink together.

Coming in 2 days: a special tonic recipe using whey for arthritis, gastrointestinal ulceration, skin disorders, and obesity. High in Vitamin C and carotenoids too.

Make your own Ricotta or cream cheese

The more I keep learning to do as the years go by, the less dependence we have on stores. I just love this! In fact, I haven't been to a grocery store as of this post, for over 10 days. That's impressive when I used to some times end up at the local grocer 3 times in a day!

I am getting better at planning out a month's meals at a time, which definitely helps this. But, perishables like milk, eggs, cheese, and produce all require 2 trips per week to keep stocked up on these things.

The last of the garden's fresh produce that kept us completely stocked sits in the fridge. From now on, if it's garden fresh, it's going to have to be things I put up for the winter by canning or freezing. As well, there will be more trips to the grocery store.

With our little farm around the corner where we get our raw goat milk, the need to go to the store for milk is now gone (and invariably "milk runs" to a store result in at least $40 of other items). And now, we don't need cheese!!

Making things from scratch is not just a fun hobby, in these times, it's becoming an economic necessity. Canning and freezing foods is not just a fun past time, like it was for me 10 years ago, it's truly now a budget saving reality. As well, when you know the source of your food it

• reduces the amount of gas/petroleum needed to get that food item to your plate (the typical food item traveled 1500 miles to get to each of our dinner tables!)
• reduces or eliminates the toxic residues/pesticides/herbicides that are in the food
• eliminates the preservatives (carcinogenic)
• Increases the flavor (is a garden tomato truly the same thing as those pale mealy "tomato" like balls they sell at the store? )

So, go grab a gallon of raw milk, if you can, and in less then 15 minutes, you will have soft, spreadable, delicious ricotta/cream cheese. If not raw, try regular whole milk. (Check out the whole truth about the benefits of raw milk and the health dangers of pasteurizing and homogenizing your milk here: http://rawmilkcontroversy.weebly.com/ )

Goat Milk is much easier to tolerate. The sprouts and I are "lactose intelorant" but seem to tolerate goat milk. It's actually got a pH that's basic not acidic and it's protein molecule size to calcium molecule size is such that it's easier to digest and easier to assimilate calcium from. The goat milk we get is from a variety of goat called Holstein. Like Cow's milk, it's sweet and creamy. Some Goat milk (store bought), is definitely less tasty to me.

Whole Goat Milk (or Cow's Milk) ricotta or Cream cheese

Makes about 2 pounds of cheese per gallon of milk

1 gallon whole milk
1/4 Cup vinegar (I use Organic Braggs apple cider vinegar)
3 T melted butter
1/2 t baking soda

Warm the gallon of whole goat's milk to 206 F. (I do this on a double boiler to avoid burning the milk). It doesn't ever get to 206 before it boils over the pot. When it's bubbling up and attempting to boil over, I consider it ready to acidify.

Take it off the burner and immediately pour in the vinegar. The milk will rapidly coagulate. It's so cool! The Whey (yellow liquid) quickly separates from the curds (your cheese!).

Draining:

Drain the crud into a cheesecloth-lined colander. (Again, I don't have cheesecloth. I just line a colander with a kitchen towel and it drains the whey into the pot below and leaves the yummy cheese in the towel).

Place the curds in a bowl. Mix 3 T melted butter and 1/2 t baking soda into the curd. Mix thoroughly. I add about 1/4 to 1/2 t of salt.

This cheese is excellent in cooked foods.

How I stocked up for winter

Lately I have felt a bit like a squirrel gathering up what feels like a mountain of food for the winter. But at the end of the day, stocking up like this saves money, allows us to eat healthier conveniently, and keeps us organic for cheap.

- we have piles of red tomatoes from our summer garden in the garage, on the counters, boiling on the stove to be turned into pasta and pizza sauce to be canned

- I have washed and chopped about 100 pounds of organic pears, peaches and nectarines. Some are in the freezer ready to provide the fresh taste of a yummy soft fruit, mid-winter (for a fraction of the cost).

-I have a couple of 20 pound boxes of organic fuji apples waiting to be turned into applesauce, dehydrated for apple chips, or just eaten!

- our dehydrator is constantly whirring with herbs from the garden, pears, peaches, nectarines, fruit leathers, and tomatoes slowly dehydrating for easy winter storage

- 25 pound bags of organic brown rice and rolled oats are quietly waiting in 5 gallon buckets in the garage (http://www.azurestandard.com/)

- basil, turned into pesto, is conveniently frozen in quart size Ziplock bags and stacked neatly like books on a bookshelf in the freezer

-our 1/4 of an organic, free-range, grain fed cow should be ready any day to provide the bulk of our meat for the winter

-10 pounds each of organic lentils, green peas, white navy beans adorn the pantry along with 25 pounds of organic pinto beans (we love our refried beans!) await future winter stews

-5 pounds each of organic quinoa, bulger wheat, barley, long grain brown rice, and millet as well as 25 pounds of rice pasta sit next to the beans waiting to be matched up with their bean partner for a complete protein meal

- all winter I will still be able to get our raw goat milk to make our ricotta cheese and for drinking (I will post my recipe for making your own cheese in a future post coming soon!) as well as free range chicken eggs from a local farm

-5 pounds of sunflower seeds and 5 pounds of wheat germ

- I plan to start up my sprouting rotation for fresh and organic, enzyme rich green sprouts for the winter (I have broccoli seed, alfalfa seed, mung bean, chia seed, flax, and lentils stocked up to sprout).

Storing up saves money and allows us to remain organic. I didn't spend $2.99/pound on organic peaches and nectarines but stocked up when I could get them for $15 per 20 pound box. We grew about 150 pounds of tomatoes to stock the pantry with organic pasta and pizza sauces, stewed tomatoes, and ketchup. Basil is bursting with life from the sun of August in late summer, so we harvested it all up and turned it into pesto for future dinners.

You get the idea. Eating organic is not an option for us. It turned my husband's inherited disease of psoriasis from debilitating to non existent as eating organic has cleaned up his liver and allowed his body to take care of the psoriasis. It turned around the virus I caught that debilitated me for 2 years (Epstein Barr which can lead into Chronic Fatigue syndrom or mono). It has allowed us to rarely catch a cold - our systems our clean and getting cleaner as I learn more and do more - and able to combat the virus and bacteria mayhem outside our doors.

Eating whole foods that are organic are one of the key ways we have gone from sick and tired to vibrant and healthy. We now play outside instead of wait for our names to be called for our next doctor visit.

Killing the guilt monster when it comes to food

Is guilt an emotion from God? Did He ever say, "Thou shalt have guilt?"

NO!!

If you eat a donut for breakfast - enjoy it!! Don't attach guilt to your food. It's all fun and good, in moderation. What I have learned to do as I slowly got rid of more and more foods I could eat is to find joy in what I did get to eat. In otherwords, learn to just love that juicy red strawberry and to enjoy it as much as you used to enjoy your candy bars, chips, or icecream.

It might seem impossible now, but you can practice through discipline, what your brain is thinking when you offer it food.

My whole family gets more excited over a fresh fruit smoothie then some kiddos get over brownies. It's revered as the ultimate treat. So what if mama throws in some greens...the bananas, honey, peaches, strawberries, and berries make it so good, we'll beg for seconds!!

Make it a goal today to start identifying what emotions you have attached to foods and don't get hard on yourself about it, just start working, one day at a time, at retraining your mind. When you eat foods that would trigger guilt, tell yourself to just enjoy it. Without the guilt attached to the icecream, the temptation to overindulge will dwindle and a normal size portion will satsify.

I refuse to put yucky guilt=-laden rules on how I eat. There is inherent joy in eating well because you feel so good. That in turn makes it easier to say no to foods that might irritate your system. It's not out of guilt, it's out of knowledge and truth that we make our choices.

Blessings!

Balance

We follow these eating guidelines most of the time, and because of that, I really can happily allow my sprouts a treat at grandma's house once in awhile. Balance for me is about enjoying eating and not making decisions that constantly feel oppressive. My sprouts do want more sugar than we give them - but no matter how much junk we feed kids, they'd want more. I don't feel badly teaching them as we go through life about moderation, and that usually a bannana is the appropriate fix to their hunger pangs and not a chocolate power bar.

I do not want food to control me. I don't want to sit around thinking about food. I want to think on other things. Eating right, frees me to do just that. I want to be living my life to the fullest with energy to love those around me and serve.

Future posts in the fall will examine the truths about the following foods on the body: wheat, sugar, hydrogenated oils, and others. I will also explore exercise and healthy life style choices.

We need to make the switch from living to eat to eating to LIVE and live vibrantly, one juicy, organic apple at a time! :)

Now I am off, to backpack with my family. Princess sprout was doing 5 mile days last summer as a 4 year old so this year, we are eagerly anticipating some great trips. The truth is, God speaks to me even more when I am sauntering up a trail vs pounding the pavement!

What we Eat

What we eat:
1. Whole foods. I shop the permimeter of the grocery store– ONLY. I am seldom in the aisles. I don’t even know what to do with the array of cans, bags, boxes, and packages that line these shelves. I park at the end of the store that has the produce and spend 80% of my budget in this section. We eat tons of fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds. We eat food that looks exactly as it was created to look by the Creator.

My son asked me if I could please pack something in his lunch that came in a crinkly package like all the other kiddos had…it is true, his lunches had no colorful wrappers with superheros flying around on it to attract kids to eat it – it simply has containers full of real food. Cukes sliced up, carrots, apples, strawberries, a boiled egg, homemade hummus, rice crackers, raw almonds.

2. Organic meat. Meat that is not raised ethically, free-range, and drug and hormone free is actually toxic for you. Meat that is raised correctly is actually healthy for you. Literally, there are chemical changes in the meat that are carcinogenic in grain fed meat. It’s worth it! And it tastes so much better. We get a ¼ to ½ of a cow each year and eat from the freezer. And it supports local farmers when we do this. I meat the farmers, get to know them, and personally hand them money for our year supply of meat. I love it.

3. Beans and grains – lentils, split peas, white cannelini beans, pintos, black beans, garbanzos, mung beans, and a few others coupled with brown rice, quinoa, millet, bulgar, or basmati rice make for yummy, complete protein meals

4. Raw honey – our sweetener of choice. Full of live enzymes, bee pollen, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties it’s actually our health tonic. Anytime we get a tickle in the throat, I squeeze fresh lemon, add a bit of hot water, and put a few spoonfuls of raw honey in the mix for a yummy and easy way to stop any viral activity in it’s tracks. (pasteurized honey acts just like refined sugar in the system)

5.Tons of salads. Lunch and Dinner begin with a large raw salad. I make many raw salad dressings to top these off nutritionally. Store bought dressings usually are laden with horrible ingredients – some of the worst food on the market.

What not to eat

Basic of nutrition
I have a degree in Exercise and Sports Science and a master’s degree in health and yet none of what I learned regarding nutrition would I ever want to teach anyone. The food pyramid is ridiculous – probably funded by the markets promoted by it.

SH turned his health problems with psoriasis around by focusing on every single bite that went in his mouth. God has given this earth a bounty of nutrients in the vast food supply on this planet. Our princess sprout suffered with ear infections. Our Wildman Prince Charming Sprout suffered with acid reflux. I suffered with Epstein Barr, fibromyalgea, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, headaches, migraines, trembles, sleep disruption and more…all of this for all of us was reversed by diet (and a few supplements). The brownies at the potluck are simply not worth the misery that repeated “oh just this once” moments creates.

Some might get irritated by our strict adherance to our rules, but I just don’t even blink twice anymore because what we do works. We don’t deal with flus that go ravaging through our home keeping us out of commission for a month as we all fight it…we hardly ever get colds…we feel really great, most of the time, so I have never looked back.

I want to share it with whoever reads it hoping that some will be inspired to make changes that could change their lives.

What we don’t eat
1. SUGAR. Period. It’s never in our house. Sugar is viewed by your liver as pure poison. It’s been out of our home since Jan. 2005. There is nothing in it that we need and it needs to be processed and gotten rid of, causing the body to divert energy like fighting viruses to getting rid of this invader. Studies have shown that 150 mg of sugar reduce the immune system by half for 5 hours!!! It’s not that a “cold is going around” – instead it’s that your body was not strong enough at the moment it came in contact with your body to defend itself. You are constantly surrounded by strep, staph, viruses, and other pathogens and most of the time your body can defend itself, but when weakened by stress, lack of sleep, or diet it opens the window to infection. Without sugar, SH has had 2 years in his classroom without catching a single cold. And it contributed to the disappearance of his body wide psoriasis. If your body is battling inflammatory diseases like Epstein Barr, Fibromyalgea, arthritis, auto-immune diseases like lupus, cancer then your body needs all the resources it can get to successfully fight these diseases. If you are constantly depleted, how can you overcome a long-term virus like Epstein Barr (aka. Chronic fatigue syndrom)?

2. No wheat. Now this one is hard to be 100% on, although I would like to be. It bogs the digestive system down. It creates a sticky type mucous in the skin tissues that cause psoriasis outbreaks. It contributes to excess mucous – ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis, long-lasting colds. It can cause symptoms that range from fibromyalgea to just a feeling of being in the fog. I feel awesome when wheat is out of my diet completely. I think I even have noticed less grumpiness in the Sprouts. I’d attribute this to more stable sugar levels in their systems as wheat products cfause a surge in blood sugar and then a quick drop.

3. No dairy. I simply am sensitive to it and it single-handedly was the nauto-imminumber one factor in causing my son’s acid reflux/stomach aches and my daughter’s ear infections. If you don’t see any problems with it then it might be OK for you. We try to use raw milk if we do get it. I will someday blog about that. Basically, homogenized and pasteuroized milk is dead and is contributing to many diseases. The benefits of milk are stripped by these processes.

4. no processed foods. We cook from scratch, making food in bulk for future convenience.

5. No hydrogenated oils at all. No corn syrup. No nitrites/nitrates (found in lunch meats, hot dogs, and other processed meats).

Back to the pamphlet

All the commercial breaks from my book have left many wondering when I’d get back to the meat of this blog!
July 25 - what we do not eat
August 1 - what we do eat
August 7 - balance with all of this (it's all OK, in moderation!)
July 20 - Aug 24: We'll be out hitting the trail, backpacking, canoeing, camping, and all other non-electronics related activities we can do. Blog break! The postings are scheduled, but I am not actually in front of a computer.

Truth is, we all want it: energy, vibrancy, H-E-A-L-T-H. Some think losing weight is their goal when the truth is, that is so limited. The focus needs to be on what is going into the body – is it whole food? So many “diet” foods are still laden with hydrogenated oils (that in themselves make it more difficult to lose weight), sugar, chemicals, and chemical sweeteners like Aspartame.

The first step is realizing that what the scale says cannot determine your sense of value. So many women determine their day by the number that appears in the morning on that scale. Being able to realize that we are all in process and that accomplishing a certain number is not going to make one like themselves more begins when one looks in the mirror and says honestly, “God made me, beautifully and perfectly and that means even now, when I don’t think I look good I know this and I accept me.” Otherwise, when the weight comes off and we still wonder why we are struggling with self-acceptance we become baffled. It’s because we have not worked through the deeper issues.

Just like the Christian Faith, we are always in process. We never arrive. We often say, “when I do this or accomplish that or get rid of that bad habit or lose this much weight…then I will be content with who I am” but when we get to that plateau, we realize the mountain keeps going up, there’s still growth to happen. The trick lies in between the sense of contentment and the desire to keep learning, keep growing, keep striving.

Don't be hard on yourself. Keep at it, have fun, and stay on that horse even if you fall off some days.

Chapter 2 - SH down for the count

I'd like this blog to inspire anyone who reads it to realize the power of lifestyle changes to improve your health, your mood, your mind, and even your Spirit! It's just the stuff I've seen in action, and it started with SH. Each weekend I will try to post another "chapter" of my pamphlet and during the week, there will be a smattering of things from recipes to family moments.

Since Jan 2005, all 4 of us in our little sprouting family have suffered from different ailments. All common ailments, really, but unacceptable when you know what good health feels like. I spent my 20s never hardly even getting a cold, never having to stop plans due to being under the weather, just getting to seize each day to its fullest. This began to end around Jan 2005 when the started after StudHusband did not treat a strep throat infection.

Actually, it started before that. Years of wrong eating and other toxic practices kept building up until the final straw in Nov, 2004 began to add the final effects. There's only so much the liver can handle before it is filled and can't do it's job too well. In Nov, SH decided my $500/month expenditure on food was obviously too much and that he would masterfully show me how to spend quite a bit less. For 2 months in a row, he performed his magical shopping prowess and spent about half of what I had been spending. He stuffed our fridge and freezer full of whatever he found in Canned Food Outlet - suddenly my freezer contained corn dogs, my cabinets were stocked with Top Ramen and Mac 'n Cheese. The fruit bowl was brimming with 2 apples and a banana and the veggie draw in the fridge contained a cucumber.

Welcome to the SAD diet. The Standard American Diet. It's cheap, in the short run. The combination of chemically laden food, high sugar, low vegtables, and the Holiday Season onslaught of sugar meant that his body was finally done. It could no longer handle another thing. So the first sign of it's inability to fight back was his contraction of strep. Strep is around us all the time, and it's certainly around SH all the time - he's a TEACHER!! But this year, his body gave in. He didn't deal with the strep throat and then his body erupted in a full body rash that we thought was scarlet Fever. It actually was a full body explosion of psoriasis. I am talking every inch of his body itched and burned in an inflamed rash like explosion.

He went from StudHusband to non-functioning husband. Doctors said what they always say, "here's some drugs, but be warned, you will never get rid of this. This is the new you". They had him on a slippery drug path of needing stronger and stronger drugs to try to help him cope. Eventually, he'd be needing a weekly visit to the dermatologist for light therapy. Then he would need drugs so strong that he'd need monthly liver biopsies. So, therapy would clearly shorten his life, even though psoriasis itself wouldn't. Now we were spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on prescription strength creams and doctor visits per month.

He did use some low level steroid creams in the beginning just to survive until his internal cleanup could take effect. This became our focus. He discovered Dr. Pagano's work. A chiropracter on the east coast who has devoted his practice to tough psoriasis/excema cases. With few exceptions, what he teaches works, but it's not easy.

His book in detail describes the importance of cleaning up the internal systems of the body, and of course, despite what the doctors said that food doesn't matter, food is the key. In Jan the rash first showed up, by June we were in Cape Cod and StudHusband was returned to his rightful throne of studness - no signs of psoriasis, the disease that dermatologists assured him was incurable and not related to what he was eating. The skin is one of the body's many mechanisms for ridding the body of toxins. Those that suffer with psoriasis or excema simply have a body that is stressed and using the skin as a way to get what it can out of the body. It's the red flag that something is wrong. Many of us don't have this little warning system. My body never seems to use my skin as a signal to me - it suffers in total silence. Really StudHusband
is blessed to have this little red flag system - any time he starts to get a little toxic, his body will develop a little spot now of psoriasis. He just gets a little stricter on what he's eating and it disappears quickly.

Tune in later this week for details of what we did. Beneficial for so many problems that we all face, not just skin issues...including reducing the number of pesky colds you might suffer from.

Since StudHusband did the internal cleansing that year, he has had maybe 1 tiny little cold. The years of bronchitis (12 years straight of bronchitis every year) are gone and his system is strong enough now to keep him going hard all year, despite going to work in a giant germ cesspool. We do spend $800 to $1200 on food but hardly ever see a doctor. The net result is more money than we have had in years as we don't have the huge medical drain on our budget any longer.

Rich cheddar sauce - Raw and yummy

If you actually read that last ridiculously too long post, I wish I could give you a blog award. The point of the article was simply that God's sunshine is good for us. Studies are coming out linking lack of Vitamin D (the vitamin produced in your body when in the sun) to all kinds of diseases, including cancer. Yet we slather up with chemically infused sunscreens that put cancer causing toxins into our body (all things on the skin enter the body) stopping the rays that help create the vitamin D but doing little to stop the rays that are linked with cancer. The key - don't get burned, but enjoy your sun!!

Overview on the importance of sun exposure to reduce your risks of cancer:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/03/31/cancer-sunlight.aspx

Why you should trash your sunscreen: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/05/26/summer-sun.aspx


In light of a super long post last time, we'll keep this one short and sweet. Today is a raw recipe that again, utilizes stuff of the earth, not processed food that your body doesn't know what to do with. Eating "Raw" just means you eat food that's just that - raw. So, the only kinds of foods that I am willing to eat this way are fruit, veggies, nuts, and seeds. There are some that eat their meat and dairy raw too. I'd drink raw dairy if I could get my hands on it, but that's for another day. Here's a blog that has lots of info about raw living. http://www.welikeitraw.com/

Raw is great for those of us who avoid dairy as there are lots of mock dairy recipes that allow me to eat cheddar cheese, cheesecakes, chocolate mousse, and fudge and it's totally based on fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds!!

These foods contain such a rich blend of nutrients that they have the power to heal you. So eat your yummy cheese dip, all along keeping your eyes and heart focused on the Healer, the Great Physician, the brilliant mastermind behind the creation of all these incredible foods!

Here's the great Cheese dip Recipe. Much better then chemically induced onion dip made from a prepackaged powdered dip mix.

1 large red bell pepper
1/4 C water
3/4 to 1 C raw cashews (or sunflower seeds or almonds)
1 T Raw Tahini (sesame seeds ground up 'till they turn into a Peanut butter type consistency)
3 T Nutritional Yeast *Brewer's yeast (Optional)
1 1/2 t seasalt
2 t onion powder
1 clove garlic
2 T lemon juice

Blend it all up until creamy. Add water if it is too thick.

Dip crackers and veggies and enjoy! Can also be a spread on a sandwich. or use with raw pasta (made out of any squash, like zucchini - really yummy!)

Clara Bar Mock Recipe

Part 2 of Chapter 1 is coming soon!! This book I am writing will have many recipes as well interspersed throughout it. So anytime you check in to visit, you could get more chattering or you might just get a great recipe for living!

Clara Bars - awesome power bars for keeping you active!!

¾ c soft or soaked dates
¼ c sunflower seeds
1 c walnuts
1 c almonds
1/3 c coconut flakes
¼ c flax seeds, ground
¼ apple cored and chopped
2-3 T cacao powder
¼ c blue agave
¼ c honey (I omit this – too sweet for me)
½ tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp sea salt
Place nuts and seeds in food processor and pulse chop until everything is well ground, but with chunks remaining.
Add all other ingredients and blend until well combined. Shape into “bars” and place on Teflex sheets and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 8-10 hours. (Or do it in your oven at the lowest temp you can do it at.)

Chapter 1: Where is God when it hurts?

I believe there is much confusion in the Christian circles over what to do with these pesky negative emotions that are as much a part of our being as the positive emotions. Is it OK to have honest moments where we don't feel peace, joy, or happy feelings? Is it OK to be angry, frustrated, hurt, deeply sad, or confused? Or should we always proclaim "JOY in the midst of trials"??

I am stepping out here, but if you stick with me I hope I can show you a path of freedom in this area. A friend of mine shared of a past pastor's wife that ended up institutionalized for enduring years of very difficult trials, all along saying the right things that "God is on Control" and she was at peace while on the inside, suffering in silence.

Let's take a brief pause here to look at David's life. He was devasted as his father-figure Saul pursued him to kill him. He had lost almost every single relationship that mattered to him and was fleeing for his life. We catch up with him in Psalm 142 and Psalm 77 as he hides in a cave and here is what he is crying out:

"I cry out to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my
complaint before him, before him I tell my trouble....Look to my right and see -
no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge, no one cares for my life....Listen
to my cry for I am in desperate need....Will the Lord reject forever? Will he
never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has God
forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?"

Raw honesty. Even a little complaining in there. Major questioning for sure. He poured it out. And he does it many times over throughout the book of Psalms. The first step towards peace, joy, and hope begins with honest out cries to God. Get it out!! Get a journal and write honest cries to God. This is not about complaining to your friends, it's about crying out to God.

I did this when the sad reality that feeling horrible, almost every day, was not going to go away any time soon. When my husband was diagnosed with a disease that was debilitating and never going to go away, I cried out. When I suffered for almost 2 years with constant fevers, headaches, diabetes, fibromyalgea, trembling, exhaustion, anxiety, I cried out. When my son was diagnosed with Acid Reflux at 3, I cried out. When my daughter, had ear infection after ear infection, I cried out. It is very difficult to lead our busy lives, raise children, work, and serve while trapped in a body that hurts, is tired, and is sick.

Stopping there leaves you bitter.

Where bitter melts away, and hope begins to take root is when we look up. Broken, even lifeless, David always wrote, "I don't feel your peace or joy yet but 'in the morning I lay my request before you and wait in EXPECTATION!" (Psalm 5:3). "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning"(psalm 30:5). After questioning if God had all but forgotten him, he writes, "Then I thought...I will remember the deeds of the Lord...your miracles. I will meditate on all your works...Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?" (Psalm 77)

I like this David guy. He thinks out loud like I do which allows the rest of us the benefit of seeing his thought processes throughout the peaks and valleys of his life.

So he poured out then he waited. And while he waited he Praised God with this basic truth in mind at all times: God is Good, all the time. This is where faith is defined: faith in who He is, even when we can't feel it yet. It's in this process that we are refined closer into His image, and that Peace, Joy, and maybe even a little understanding takes root in our hearts.

A mere 3 Psalms after crying out in the caves in Psalm 142, from Psalm 145 to the end of the book, David is singing, dancing, and loudly proclaiming, "Praise the Lord, Oh my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life...The Lord sets prisoners free...Great is our Lord and mighty in power, his understanidng has no limit...His greatness no one can fathom..."

David knew who His God was and knew that truths about God's character were consistent. He knew that one day he would be able to honestly say that God had faithfully filled him with a peace that knows no bounds, and a joy that knows no end. He praised God for who He was and lived, in the valley, in the cave, in despair, with HOPE and hope, fueled by the Uncreated One, has the power to get all of us through anything; not bitter, but better.

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." 1 Peter 5:10

If you are new to these ideas, here is a prayer that could guide you through your valleys, adapted from Psalm 103 and written by Late Tuesday. http://www.latetuesday.com/

My heart is empty it is broken. My mind is restless, it is torn. And all the
thoughts inside of me run rampant. And the doubts are all the words I can
afford. Amidst the caverns of my intellect, I am screaming for reprieve. For the
rebellion that keeps me from surrender, from a future that You hold, I can't
believe...Amidst the pain of my diseases, will I believe that you are Good? And
to those who have known such oppression, is Your Love enough to melt away my
fear?

Oh soul, oh my Soul! Praise the Lord, Oh my soul. Oh heart that is within me,
Praise!! Praise the power of His Name. Praise the Lord, oh my Soul. Oh heart
that is within me, Praise!! Praise His wisdom and His grace. When I know nothing
more, tell my soul to praise the Lord.

They cried out first and then they ordered their souls to Praise the Lord!!

Preface to the Pamphlet: The Uncreated One

The Mission of the YMCA:
To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

A healthy Spirit, Mind, and Body: this was what I sold, in a sense, as the Membership & Marketing Director of a larger YMCA. Fresh out of college with 2 degrees - one in Marketing and one in Exercise and Sports Science - I landed myself quite an amazing job in upper management of a 2000 plus member Y. It was strange to suddenly be in charge of an entire department, all the staff, and hundreds of volunteers plus over half of their operating budget.

But I could get behind what they were selling - and in the 2 years I was there doubled membership and revenue. I bounced around in perfect health back then, athletic and strong, so sure I could sell memberships. But it could never be my ministry until I went through the dark valleys that come when our own health and those we love begins to suffer.

My Pamphlet explores the fullness of what God wants for us in Spirit, Mind, and Body health. Truly, we are not able to be whole unless we seek a balance in all 3 of these areas. I didn't say seek perfection in all these areas as many of us deal with health issues that can only be managed, and not cured, which requires a little more emphasis on the other 2, but balance can be had.

I know people with horrible diseases that still shine for Jesus and beam with enthusiasm. They have figured out a balance.

I want this for God's people! Tired and sick soldiers have less energy to accomplish His Kingdom work than vibrant soldiers. The difference between the two might simply be the person who has truly let this truth settle deep within their soul: the truth that He is the only Uncreated One. He set all of what we know into motion and if we can let Him be strong when we are weak, claiming the Power of The Creator of this universe over our Spirit, Mind, and Bodies we will find ourselves walking in that place of Hope that only comes from the one and only, The Uncreated One.

My Book

Every summer, as teachers, we get the joy of packing up our trailer and driving off into our summer sunrise for 5 to 8 weeks to return home to zucchini that are longer than PCWS, basil bushes, and 500 pounds of tomatoes. Amidst one of our many excursions during the summer of 2007, we found ourselves at Trillium Lake, near Mt. Hood, Oregon. It's a Gorgeous lake that sits under the watchful gaze of the gentle giant. To my delight, I discovered a trail that circumvented this lake. A 2-mile thrill of a trail over bridges, through prairies, through marshlands, and all the while in view of this snow-capped wonder.

It was on this trail, feeling as high as a kite, that I began to run. I ran hard and fast and lapped the lake 3 times in record time. What was fueling my run was the exciting thoughts that began to take shape in my mind. An entire book was piecing together, thought by thought, chapter by chapter concluding nicely as I finished my last lap.

Sometimes I get brief little tidbits of revelations on runs but on this particular day, an entire book was handed to me. I came home (to our trailer :) ) and told the family I was to be considered out of commission for I was writing my book. I began to write the outline, dividing it into the neat chapters that I had already determined. There were many places I wrote something like, "needs research" or "look into this a little more"...anyway, after 3 hard hours of writing it all down I couldn't wait to share with SH. He would, of course, be blown away by my enlightened ideas, take me in his arms and tell me how rich we would be once it became a best-seller and I was touring the nation doing book signings.

I hastily tucked PS and PCWS into bed as I had a profound discussion to behold with SH. We sat down on the couch and I excitedly began. Not long into this process did I defeatedly look up to SH and declare how unprofound it actually sounded. I wasn't actually saying much of anything once I released these ideas into the spoken word. It was so shocking, as in the world of my own mind, during that adrenalized run around Trillium Lake, I had thought I hit a jackpot in the world of profoundness!!

By the time I was done, I concluded that maybe I had enough profound thoughts to write a pamphlet. So that's what I plan to do for the next few months. Post by post, I will share with you my Trillium Lake Pamphlet.