As far back as I can remember, I've heard Romans 8:28 quoted with cliche-like repetition: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." I'm certain that I memorized it long ago for one Sunday School class assignment or another, but only recently have I come to better understand the full meaning of this Scripture passage.
This new life lesson began last November when the onset of my third documented kidney infection brought with it an intense fatigue that far outlasted the 10-day course of antibiotics. For a while, I simply tried to wait it out, convinced that, soon enough, it would dissipate.
It didn't.
From last December through this past March, I visited several doctors in an attempt to feel better, backing out of other engagements along the way because I was just too wiped to get out of the house. It wasn't terribly fun, but I was grateful that it was only fatigue and nothing worse.
As it turned out, the fatigue was the result of a vitamin D deficiency combined with a strained muscle in my back (probably triggered by the infection). Neither was serious, but the combined symptoms made for a long winter.
At first, I had no idea what I should be learning from this minor trial. Before we'd reached a diagnosis, though, I started reading about a whole-foods lifestyle and began incorporating some of the recommended eating habits in an effort to feel better. Jon graciously went along with my odd and sometimes unpalatable kitchen creations, which says a lot since he's a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy.
The new diet didn't seem to do much for my health, but the surprising result was that Jon felt a lot better. He seemed to have more energy, fewer headaches, and fewer upset stomachs (all things we wrongly assumed were just normal for him). In the end, we concluded that he is either wheat or gluten intolerant (and I don't even know if there's really a difference between the two), and that by eliminating wheat, he feels great.
And suddenly I knew what I needed to learn from my health woes: God certainly does work ALL things together for our good and His glory.
Is intense fatigue fun? No.
Was it easy feeling lousy for four months? Not at all.
Could God turn it into a blessing? Absolutely.
Did He? Yes!
Had I not gotten sick, we'd never have thought to start altering our eating habits. Jon would have continued eating wheat and dealing with the symptoms that he'd had most of his life because we wouldn't have figured out that they were food-related. And especially now that I'm feeling better and having more energy, I can be thankful for the vitamin deficiency and strained muscle. What started out as an annoyingly-frustrating "curse" eventually proved to be a blessing in disguise.
Not all problems will resolve into blessings so easily, nor will we always be able to see the blessing in the curse this side of Heaven. But in situations like mine where we can clearly see the truth in Romans 8:28, we can be grateful that the Lord really is doing what He promises to do, and we can be confident that He's also working in the situations where we cannot see His handiwork as vividly.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Whole Foods - Whole Flops!
For health reasons, I've been trying a new whole foods, low-gluten diet the past several weeks. I've read a lot about substitutions and healthier options, and I've felt inspired to try out some things. Sometimes I have success in my new endeavor, but more often than not, I learn what NOT to do.
My first attempt was rice milk. An inexpensive alternative to paying $3.50 or more for a gallon of cow's milk greatly appealed to my food budget, so I pulled out my little 8-year-old, inexpensive blender and set to work.
You can see in the photo how all the little rice pieces settled to the bottom of the blender, leaving a thin, milky-white watery substance at the top. This stuff tasted even worse than it looks, and not even the sweetest of smoothies could cover up it's obnoxious flavor!
Whole foods: 1. Me: 0.
I came across this recipe for black bean brownies (I skipped the first paragraph of the post and moved right on to the recipe below). I was intrigued, so I cooked up some black beans, tossed them into the blender per the recipe instructions, and went about trying this rather odd recipe. The reviews raved about it, so even though at first I was skeptical, by the time I pulled these from the oven, I had developed high expectations.
My biggest worry was that the consistency would not be right for brownies - I mean, isn't the gooey, almost-cooked-but-not-quite-done goodness the best part of brownies?? When I cut into these and discovered that, amazingly, they seemed to be extremely brownie-like, I was thrilled.
Until I tasted them.
I do admit that I probably used WAY too much spinach (I think I remember accidentally dumping in close to double what the recipe called for), but I don't think even using half the spinach that I did would make up for the bitter, green taste of this...stuff. I don't even know what to call it, since "brownie" doesn't come close to describing the odd flavor.
We tried again, this time using Food Network's black bean brownie recipe. These were much more palatable (though I exchanged the oil for butter - yum!), but even these, without spinach and a very small amount of black beans, didn't cut it for us.
My conclusion? Black beans don't belong in brownies. Eat black bean burritos for dinner and indulge in a regular brownie. If you're concerned about health, eat a smaller portion of chocolately goodness, because a "healthy" brownie leaves a LOT to be desired.
Despite these first two setbacks, we persevered in trying to include more whole foods in our diet. The easiest way we've found to do this is to drink smoothies for breakfast. We found a decent recipe:
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I make my own in the crockpot, which saves a ton of $$)
1/2 cup milk (or to taste - we like a thinner consistency and add a little more)
1 banana
1 cup (give or take) any fruit of your liking (we use frozen strawberries or frozen raspberries)
1 T ground flax
Blend it up, and you're done!
This was working really well for us.
Until the frozen strawberries flying around in the blender cracked the plastic carafe.
And delicious strawberrie smoothie goodness ran down all over the base of the machine and shorted out the motor.
Oops.
We ended up investing in a bare-bones VitaMix blender, and we're very happy with it. So happy, in fact, that I might - just might - be willing to try making rice milk again.
Maybe.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Homemade Deodorant
Commercial-grade deodorant and I don't get along. Even if I didn't have concerns about aluminum and parabens, my skin reacts to most anti-antiperspirants. Over the years, I've tried many variations of deodorants without antiperspirants and come up empty-handed.
Tom's of Main doesn't do much other than add an annoying fruity scent.
Adidas cotton-blend worked fairly well, but they discontinued making it.
Arm and Hammer had a decent deodorant, but stores stopped carrying it.
For a while, I resorted to Arm and Hammer's antiperspirant, since it didn't seem to cause the irritation that other antiperspirants did, but between the fact that it has an even higher concentration of aluminum than other brands and that Jon hates the scent, that's no longer an option, either.
So what to do?
Enter homemade deodorant.
After doing some research online, it appeared to be a fairly simple process, and as an added bonus, it's frugal, too! I grew excited to try it and finally settled on this recipe from Tammy's Recipes. (I used corn starch instead of arrow root powder, partly because I had the corn starch on hand, but mostly because I have no idea what arrow root powder is. I'm assuming I could find some at a health food store, but I'm not even certain about that.)
The results?
So far, so good. Since it's not hot here yet, I can't definitively comment on its effectiveness, but Jon likes the scent, it seems to be okay at wicking moisture, and most importantly, it doesn't irritate my skin (as long as I don't rub it on to heavily, that is). Most importantly, it made a great hands-on experiment for the spark plugs and me to do together!
One thing I did that Tammy didn't find helpful: putting it into an empty deodorant tube. While this is a little messier than commercial deodorant simply because the coconut oil melts a bit from body heat, it's got to be less messy than applying it with fingertips! It works well enough for me, even though it isn't quite as neat as the store-bought stuff.
Since coconut oil liquefies at 76 degrees Fahrenheit, I've been keeping my deodorant in the fridge, which sometimes amounts to my forgetting to apply it. This should be fairly easy to overcome, though, and it's much better to have it there rather than worrying about melted oil oozing throughout my bathroom drawer.
For a good (albeit lengthy) homemade deodorant review, check out Kitchen Stewardship's blog post here. I think she does a good job of answering the many questions that naturally arise with DIY deodorant, such as staining and refrigeration. I think she also suggests the use of essential oils for custom scents, but since I don't own any and I like the mild, tropical coconut oil, I didn't see the need.
At any rate, this is what's working for me, right now, and I love that it's so gentle on the budget despite the fact that coconut oil can be costly (I bought mine from Amazon to keep cost down). Can't beat a cheap and (for me) healthier alternative!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Um, That's Different...
Seeds in my sprouter
For quite some time, I'd wanted to incorporate a healthier diet into my lifestyle, but with the high cost of whole grains and organics, this desire hadn't materialized. Several weeks back, though, a friend introduced me to the concept of sprouting. I hadn't known that it was possible to sprout so many seeds so effortlessly. You don't even need soil! I was hooked and began researching more on sprouting.
Researching sprouting led me to soaking grains, which led me to sourdough starters, which led me to kombucha, and somewhere in between all of those I found recipes for home-made deodorant and brownies made from black beans and spinach.
Are you grossed out yet?
I promise I'm not becoming some rogue health nut, but some of these concepts intrigued me to the point that I tried them. Some, like the sourdough starter and kombucha, I've yet to try, but I do hope to experiment with them in the near future. Stay tuned for those.
All that to say, I didn't plan on 2012 turning into my year for trying new, do-it-yourself (DIY), frugal (and sometimes crazy!) ideas, but I'm having a lot of fun. Some things have proven to be wonderful, while others have done nothing but given me a good laugh. I'm excited, though, at the prospect of inexpensively incorporating healthful living into my current routine. My next several posts will focus on these new endeavors, both the successes and the failures. If you're interested, come learn with me.
No doubt that this will be a fun, odd, and occasionally awkward adventure!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Fixing the Broke
We've all been told, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" but my friend D pointed out in her post here that occasionally things do need to be modified or updated. So it was with my scheduling and couponing systems: what had once worked was no longer effective.
A couple of years ago, I started with a coupon binder that I got with gift cards I'd earned on some money-maker deals. It worked for a little while, but I quickly tired of the time it took to get the coupons in and out of the sheet protectors.
After reading through several coupon-compiling methods in The Money Saving Mom's Budget, I settled on the coupon box. I was eager to put this together, and since we were studying finances and stewardship in school, I had the kids help. Educational fun - what a great combo!
All three spark plugs had a great time helping me sort and prepare the envelopes.
We followed the example pretty closely, not because it's a perfect model, but because it was a place to start. I'm learning that if I wait until I've worked out everything perfectly in my mind, I'll never start anything!
Yep, I made those! It was fun to work with all of those lovely patterns and flowers. I had decided a while ago that if I had a hope of sticking to the envelope system (and honestly, I mostly use these to file receipts), it should be attractive enough to warrant the constant viewing. :)
So far, this method is working well. I find it quick and easy to toss the coupons right into the envelopes instead of letting them stack up, unfiled, on the top of my microwave (I can't believe I'm admitting that I actually do that). Less clutter makes a happier me, so this is a complete win-win situation in my book!
In addition to updating my coupon storage, I was struggling with home organization. I love lists, but making impractically-long "to-dos" on random pieces of paper did nothing but frustrate me and clutter my house further. I have a homemaking binder, but I kept forgetting to reference it. I also tried using digital lists to minimize the scraps of lists that followed in my wake, but I do much better with a physical, tangible list.
I recently found the answer to my need for a sensible, paper list: the Motivated Moms Chore Planner. I'd seen it advertised on Money Saving Mom, but it wasn't until my friend A purchased it and gave it a more in-depth review that I felt confident in spending the money on it (I don't like to spend money on things that I could make on my own, especially when purchasing the item still requires me to print it out and thus increase expenses with more paper and ink).
The result? I LOVE it. It's simple; it's sensible and realistic; and it even reminds me to do things like feed the cat and trim the kids' nails. It was definitely worth the $7. It also suggested something I'd never thought of: cleaning the bathroom over a few days instead of the whole thing in one fell swoop. Since cleaning the bathroom is one of my most hated chores, I tend to put it off. But if I look at it from the standpoint of cleaning the mirrors on Monday and wiping down the sink on Tuesday, somehow that is more manageable for me (and oddly enough, I often get the whole thing cleaned on Monday and free up time later in the week).
Coupon binders and scribbled lists were a great start for me. As my needs have changed, though, it's been nice to find better solutions that fit my current situation. Not every change in life will be as easy as these were, nor will each change transition as smoothly as I hope these will. My hope, however, is that by implementing small bits of positive change, the larger upheavals won't be as earth-shattering as they could have been.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Avocado Attack!
I've tried many frugal adventures in the past few years. While I've never purposely taken showers without hot water, I have glued shoes (it didn't hold), made laundry soap (so much fun!), and sewn fleece jammies (better to leave that to the experts for now). However, pitting and peeling 95 overly-ripe avocados has to rank up there on my "unusual frugal finds" list!
When a limb from Jon's parents' avocado tree came down just before Christmas, it showered down over 300 avocados in the process. A hundred were too bruised to be salvaged; Jon's brother kept a hundred; and we were blessed with the last 95 (yes, I counted them all).
The above photo does not do justice to the situation, since there were only about 45 left in the box by the time I decided to photograph the endeavor. It took hours of sitting on the floor of the kitchen, getting covered in guacamole-esk avocado guts, to get through the pit-and-peel process. Although I was tired and sore after doing it, Jon figured out that since avocados on sale are 2 for $3 and I was pitting them at a rate of one avocado every 2 minutes, I was getting paid a handsome hourly wage!
We all love guacamole around here, but we're not often willing to pay the price for avocados. So, even though it took a little elbow work and a few hours of my time, this was definitely one miserly attempt that went well and produced good results.
I'm currently saving up the money I don't have to spend on avocados to buy a tree next year. :)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Bloom Where You're [Trans]Planted
I love to learn, especially about home organization and money management. If there's a book out there on either subject (or, better yet, one that combines the two), I've probably read it. So, when I was blessed to receive a copy of "The Money Saving Mom's Budget" this past week as a gift from my cousin, I was elated and dove right in, starting with the introduction as I do with all books that I read.
Outlined in the opening pages was a summary of each chapter, and a line from chapter nine's content caught my attention: "bloom where you're planted." This made me smile, because I'm not living where I grew up or even where I thought I would spend my adult years.
When we first moved from my hometown to the fast-paced Silicon Valley, I didn't feel like blooming much. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I wilted for a while! The high cost of living; Jon's night job and schooling; and my injured arm were enough to topple any resolve of flourishing in my new surroundings.
As time went on, though, the Lord slowly removed each of my thorns and produced lovely roses in their stead. Jon graduated and later landed a much steadier job with day-time hours; my arm began to heal; and we're constantly finding new ways of keeping down costs.
In the process of these adjustments, I've become more aware of both my sinfulness and the Lord's graciousness. To have avoided the dead-heading trials of previous years sounds pleasant, but I know that in the long run I am better off for having climbed my Everest. And now that I'm at the top, I'm free to bloom in much more grandeur than I ever could have prior to the pruning!
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