Images in mind

A line from my 5 year olds prayer this evening....

"God bless the people in Haiti.  God bless Turkey and Chile."

...had us all cracking up at bedtime with images of
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But really God could you please bless those still struggling in

Turkey and Chile and everywhere covering this earth of your creation.  Thank you, Amen.

Prayer List

Here are just a few precious people who need our prayers.

Little Anna Grace

Heather (Her brain surgury is tomorrow Feb 1st. Prayers for her husband and daughter too.)

Kelli

Colleen

The Wilson Family (little Josiah has been in heaven for a week now.)

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:14-16 NIV)

God Bless!

Last Night during bedtime prayers the normal list of characters came up.

God bless Daddy on his way home, God Bless Auntie Melissa and Uncle Mike, God bless Gabi and Mommy and me, God bless Sophie in Ethiopia, God Bless Gus, Addison, and Jake, God bless Zach and Starlie and aunt manda and uncle Jimi. God bless grandma and granny and grampy and grandma and grampa...

Depending on how much time we've got and when I say AMEN their are others besides maybe great grandma and some other aunts and uncles or friends. This night he continues, god bless Ben and Jake and Zach and Luke and all of their whole family (neighbors who moved a way last December), God bless Boondocks, and the water park, God bless, my bed and my baby lion and all of the people I know and all of the people on the whole world. Amen!

and I just wanted to remember it!

All is going well here, just feeling busy!

Please pray for this family. They are going through a heart wrenching tragedy.

Tonights Table Prayer

"God, nank you for Mommy and Daddy and baby sister and me. And nank you for my plate and nank you for something and something and you and you and me. And nank you for Jesus. Amen"

Perserverance

This yeast cleanse diet has been putting us all to the test and for some reason I haven't prayed much about it until this morning when I stumbled upon this verse:

"Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face always." 1 Chronicles 16:11 (emphasis mine)

It seems so obvious now to seek the Lords strength as David did and not try to do this all on my own.

Amazingly, last night at dinner we all happily ate plain sweet potatoes and realized just how sweet they actually are on their own. (Previously we'd been adding cinnamon - no sugar or sweeteners, just cinnamon for flavor.) I never thought I'd see the day when my husband said, "You know, I'm not even craving ice cream tonight!"

Granted, we are taking one day at a time but I'm very happy that we've decided to do this - I'm sure we are losing weight as well, an added bonus! We don't own a scale - I don't really feel they tell anything. Personally, I've always weighed more than it looks like I do, probably dense bones run in our family and heavy muscle mass. My son weighs more than some other kids his size too. Even still just weighing less to me isn't an indicator of the "in shape" factor so I find having a scale around annoying! Now that I've gone way out on a tangent here...

I do have to say shame, shame, shame on you food industry. I've been reading and researching and I don't like what I'm learning. Processed food items have sugar and other sweeteners hidden in them - almost all of them. Today, I wanted to save a little time by purchasing store bought chicken broth instead of making my own. Only one brand did I find (even the natural/organic ones) without sugar or cane juice or some sweetener. The food industry is smart, very smart, and all about their bottom line. They know if there is sugar or sweeteners in food we will eat more of it - and that means more $$$ for them and more pounds, weight and health issues for us. I've seen this first hand in my family, we are all getting full faster and staying full longer eating more whole, less processed foods.

The food industry isn't going to change on their own, it's going to have to be us that does the changing. The average American eats (I've found conflicting numbers here) from 20 - 40 teaspoons of sugar a day. (Even if it's just 20 that's 300 empty calories a day). To give you an idea how fast it adds up, a 12 ounce soda contains about 10 teaspoons, a 2 ounce package of candy contains about 11 teaspoons of sugar and frosted flakes cereal provides more than 4 teaspoons of sugar. By the way none of these number include the sugars naturally occurring in milk or fruits.

We've started using stevia which is an extraordinarily sweet herb -- 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. It has a slight licorice-like flavor that is only evident in bland recipes and we are getting used to it's sweet flavor. It is almost calorie-free, does not cause tooth decay and is a ZERO on the glycemic index so it does not trigger a rise in blood sugar. You won't get a sudden burst of energy followed by fatigue and a need for another "fix." Most importantly, it does not feed yeast or other microorganisms, and it increases energy and aids digestion by stimulating the pancreas.

The yeast connectionis a good place to start if you are wanting of more info. this link explains a simple saliva test that you can do at home. If this is more information than you ever wanted to know about sugar or Candida (yeast) please just ignore!!!!

Sending prayers to all my family and friends in Southern California. I've heard that much of San Diego County has been evacuated or is on alert. My hubby and I lived in San Diego for 6 years and the last large fires there came within a mile of our home so we can relate. But these fires are exponentially worse and we pray for those families who have lost their homes and hope they can find comfort and pray that God will keep the firefighters and residents safe in his hands.

We have plans to spend the Thanksgiving holiday next month with my Aunt and Uncle and other relatives who live in San Diego - you are all in our thoughts and prayers!

UPDATED:While we're on the prayer subject, please pray for my blogging buddy Lisa, she just had her baby girl! There are some complications so keep her in your prayers too!

Beating a dead horse?

Yeah, I've been on an environmental kick lately - as well as learning to be more frugal with our money.

I know that Eco bags are all the rage lately and rightfully so, they are wonderful. I have had a couple that have lasted years and years sitting in the closet since my son was born. I recently got them out and dusted them off ;) while trying to justify spending the money right now for a few more.

Things are tight and I just couldn't do it BUT last week when I did my shopping I saw that my local Fred Meyer had these Earthwise Reusable Bags for $0.99 each. I could justify that...and bought a few. Just thought I'd let you know that while I still like the large mesh style of the Eco bags they are sort of pricey, so if you are on a budget the earthwise bags are also an option.

I was shocked when I read on one of the links on their site that...

The U.S. uses 100 billion plastic bags annually, consuming about 12 million barrels of oil. As less than 1% of plastic bags are ever recycled, using a sturdy reusable bag will eliminate hundreds to thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime. That spells huge savings to your state, city or town. Take California for example: it costs taxpayers $20.5 million to collect and landfill plastic bag waste each year. And that's not counting external costs, such as pollution, risk and threat to marine life, etc.

***Also, keeping up with Heather's recovery and the scripture that her hubby shared really spoke to me today. Checking my bloglines it was a nice reminder to say another prayer for her when almost every blog I read had something posted - praying now for her strong recovery....

Prayers and other bloggy stuf

Heather's surgery is tomorrow (Thursday) it overwhelms me to imagine what her and her family are going through. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

The gals at 5 minutes for Mom are having yet another contest. (They are totally the best!) This one is for a Mei Tai baby carrier from All Natural Mommies. They are having many other give aways from now until Mother's Day and you don't even have to be a blogger to sign up to win! (If your not a blogger and you don't want the Mei Tai you could still sign up to win it and give it to someone who's having a baby say mid-August - hint hint!!!)

Steph from Adventures in Babywearing is also having a contest. She's also got fun prizes going on and all you've got to do is post your pic without make up. Since I hardly wear make up I'm just re posting this picture - cropped!

Heather and her family are heavy on my heart.

Spreading the love

BooMama is hosting a day today for Heather. Remember to go spread some love around over there today. Especially to pray for Heather and her family.

Peaceful?

Thank you all for your potty training encouragement. Chocolate chips seem to have made me happier and clumsier (more on that later) but with everything else going on in the world it sure is giving me perspective. I am surely blessed! And my prayers go out to those affected by the horrifying events in Virginia.

Need a good laugh...

You know when you are helping your son put on his little tool belt but you don't pay attention to the precise distance between you and the island? Well, be careful or you just might blindly crack your head on the granite counter top giving yourself a golf ball sized lump just above your hairline. Yup I sure did, and I cried (LOL - but it really hurt) and my son grabbed around my neck and said "I've got you Mommy!" Which made me laugh!

Even still today was a wonderfully peaceful day around here until I read about what was going on outside of our little world. Crazy. I wish that people would grasp on to God instead of grasping a gun and taking others out of this world. It's just unthinkable.

Remember to pray for Kelli and Heather. These women are an inspiration to me and I love how the blogging community comes together to pray for one another!!!!