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Showing posts from January, 2014

These Five Habits Have Changed My Life

I've been developing more healthy habits over the last few years and I came up with a list of five that I think have made the most difference in my life. 1. Eat your vegetables- A few years ago, I may have eaten one day's worth of fresh vegetables in one week.  A year ago, I started eating more than a day's worth of vegetables everyday (and I cut out processed foods, refined sugar, etc.).  I lost seventy-one pounds in one year. Now I never get sick or tired.  Vegetables are so important.  2.  Empty your sink- I started doing Fly Lady's daily routine a few years ago and now I empty my sink at least once a day before I go to bed.  Most days, I empty it after every meal.  Emptying the sink leads to sweeping the floor which leads to wiping off the counters which leads to putting things back where they go... My house stays much cleaner and now I never have to stress before company comes.  No seriously.  My house stays clean enough for company most of the time.  It all

Diffuse Valor Essential Oil When You Study

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Diffuse Valor Essential Oil When You Study I've started diffusing Valor essential oil when we are doing our school work.  It makes the kids breathe deeper and relax and concentrate better. It calms me down when working with three kids at once can be stressful. These aromas are enhancing our lives in so many simple ways everyday!  

God's Mirth

I served in my four year old's class at Classical Conversations the other day.  As I was helping the little ones find their seats, stay in their seats, tie their shoes, get their snacks, wash their hands, get back to their seats, stay in their seats, hold their markers, etc., I found myself truly enjoying the little people.  They were beautiful to me and everything they did was charming, if not out right hysterical.  At times, my laughter over their antics was so loud that it made them turn their heads and look at me with confusion, so then I had to try and temper my laughter and just smile and chuckle over them to msyelf. This isn't how I usually feel when I help the four year olds, to be honest. So I knew that the Holy Spirit was filling me. I sensed that God was trying to teach me something significant. So as I was helping the kids, I was also having a conversation with God in my head. "Is this how it felt...? This is how it felt for the creator to be among those He

Dreams and Faith

I had a terrific dream the other night.  I was looking in a mirror at myself while the Spirit of God was prophesying over me, telling me my future. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact words that were said, but I came away from the experience understanding that God was confirming that He was going to help me fulfill a dream I've had since I was a young child. It is exhilarating to have some assurance that it's going to happen!  I woke up from the dream in the middle of the night in an unnaturally deep slumber. I felt drugged almost. I smiled to myself, started praying a prayer of thanks, and fell back to sleep.  When I woke up the next morning, I was still really sleepy, so cozy in my bed, and I had almost forgotten about the dream. However, it occurred to me that I felt intense joy.  Why did I feel so much joy? I thought. Then I remembered the dream and my heart leaped for a moment! But I was still so drowsy and my bed felt so good and the joy felt so good, so I jus

Worship, Like Air

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"It looks like fur! Or feathers! Branches! Or trees!" my kids exclaimed.  It looked like it all, and all at once.  As we watched, the sun kept rising over our house, moving slowly over the surface of the car, melting all the beautiful frost away in just moments. But even the melting was wondrous.  I don't exaggerate when I say it was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen. It was completely natural and oh, so fleeting.  A human could refine his craft for a lifetime then pass all he knows on to his child. Then his child could work for a lifetime and not even come close to the kind of innate, inanimate skill and artistry that formed this masterpiece overnight and then vanished in the briefest moments of light.  Nature is fraught with the glory of its God.  And it hints at something dreadful, that in our whole lifetime, with our eyes wide open, we can only begin to have the briefest conception of how glorious God will be in His heaven. Standi

A Timely Word

I watched two or three pretty raunchy movies this week.  They weren't so raunchy that I had to turn them off, but there were some scenes throughout the movies that definitely made me uncomfortable and I had turn my head until they were over. I know what you're wondering.  What movies?  Right?  Well, I'm not telling you because I don't want you to think that I'm judging you for watching them or condemning you for not having a problem with them like I did. They're pretty popular movies that just about everyone has seen. Anyway, the night after I watched these movies I had a vivid, disgusting, illicit dream that made me so physically sick that I woke myself up dry heaving and praying. And that woke my husband up.   The next day, my husband asked, "Do you think your nightmare was because of the movies?  Do you think you'll be able to watch anymore of them?"  I told him I wasn't sure and I really wasn't sure. But I admitted that I didn'

Egg and Squash Breakfast Scramble

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I adapted this recipe from Ree Drummond's Carb Buster Breakfast .  Basically, I busted her carb buster and made it even more healthy and a just a bit more practical.  Here's what you do. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a skillet on medium/ high heat.  Then chop up half an onion, half a yellow squash, and half a zucchini and add it to the skillet.  (I've also made this with some fresh Brussels sprouts chopped in half in the skillet with the squash and onions, too. Also very good.)  Let it cook for a minute or two, then sprinkle some sea salt and pepper on there. Get a big plate/ platter ready with some fresh greens on the side.  Saute the vegetables and onions for about three more minutes. Chop up half a tomato and then add her to the skillet, too.  Heat up another tablespoon of butter in another, smaller skillet and make yourself an egg over easy. I use a separate skillet for my egg/s because I find that the vegetable skillet is too hot when the veget

Our Christmas Scrapbook

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On the scale from one to crafty, I'm like a three or a four.  So I don't keep very many scrapbooks. Only one, actually, I keep just one scrapbook. And it isn't anything to write Pinterest about. I just print a few of our favorite pictures from every Christmas season and try, emphasis on the word try, and put them together into something cute enough to look at. Sometimes I make the decorations, sometimes I buy them, most of the time let my daughters make them. I just use the most basic, simple decorations because I don't have the patience to fuss over layers and layers of papers and stickers and what-not-all.  It takes every bit of self-control in me to sit and cut and paste and fuss over the arrangement as much as I do each year (five-ten minutes). Then I tuck the scrapbook away with all the Christmas decorations until the next year. And when go to decorate for Christmas the next year, we rediscover the scrapbook and look at it together. For the

Diffuse Frankicense Essential Oil While Doing Yoga

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I diffuse Frankincense Essential Oil while I do yoga. I've been doing the P90X exercise program and one of the DVDs in is a yoga workout.  Yoga takes a lot of focus and deep breathing and I found that diffusing Frankincense helps me breath deeper, concentrate for longer periods, and relax. Also, my Young Living diffuser has a light that causes a warm glow when I turn down the lights in my exercise room.  The water moving around in the machine also makes a nice trickling sound as I do my yoga DVD. 

Use Essential Oil to Sanitize the Air

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I use Purification Essential Oil to clear the air.   Sometimes I will add a few drops of Purification Essential Oil to my diffuser and put it in the same room as my baby's changing table.    Or in the bathroom. Or next to my four year old's bed after she has an accident the night before. It can turn things around in less than five minutes, if you know what I'm saying.  And it isn't like spraying a can chemical air fresher into a stinky room.  That just makes the room smell like poop plus whatever is on the label of the can.  Essential oil actually diffuses the stink bombs.   You'd have no idea that kind of thing even happens in our house now that we're diffusing Essential oils everyday. Breathe as deep as you want. Go ahead. You won't smell a trace of anything unpleasant.  It's glorious!    

Frankincense Essential Oil to Moisturize Your Face and Heal Blemishes

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I have started using Frankincense Essential Oil to moisturize my face. I know two women who have near flawless, glowing skin and both of them have been using essential oils on the their face for years.  That's part of the reason I was so interested in these oils to begin with. I asked one of them how she cares for her skin and she said that she uses Young Living products, washes her face, then puts a dab of moisturizer and two drops of Frankincense (or Myrrh) onto her palm, mixes them up, and then rubs this all over her face and neck. Using Young Living facial products is something I can't afford to do just yet, but I decided to use what I already have and just start adding two drops of Frankincense to my moisturizer.    I've been doing this and my skin shines more without being oily to the touch and any blemishes I have seem to come and go very quickly, healing faster than they used to. Frankincense also smells divine and feels so, so luxurious. 

Purification Essenial Oil to Clean Wounds

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I used some of my Purification Essential Oil to clean a wound.   Disclaimer: I hope this post doesn't make anyone sick to their stomach.  Sorry if it does.  I cut myself on that knife you can see in the background of the picture above. I was loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher, hurrying to get it done, too, standing at just the right (or wrong) angle to where I couldn't see the knife sticking up out of that measuring cup.  When I went to pick up the measuring cup and load it into the dishwasher... Ouch!  I cut into my palm before I even knew it, quite deeply, in fact.  Instead of using hydrogen peroxide, I decided to put a drop of Purification on the wound and let it air dry to see how it would work.  It didn't sting at all. And unless it was my imagination, the wound healed faster than it normally does.  I've cut myself with kitchen knives before, so I expected it take days to heal like before.  But, by evening on the same day it happened, the wound was clo

Everyday Oils - Young Living

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For Christmas, I purchased myself Young Living Essential Oils' Premium Starter Kit.  The kit includes their Everyday Oils collection, a home diffuser, among many other nice extras. For some time leading up to Christmas, I had been reading and talking to friends about ways that I would be able to use the oils, so on Christmas morning, I was able to open my box and hit the ground running, so to speak.  After only a few days of using the oils, I was not really sure how I ever lived without them.  Now I find that I use them constantly.  I thought I would blog about some the ways that I am using these Everday Oils everyday.  This Christmas gift has been a gift, not just to me, but to my whole family. 

Freestyle Barbell Class Choreography

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I spent a few hours today coming up with choreography for my barbell class at work.  I use the same CD and choreography for a month of classes and then I change it again, so I only have to plan like this once a month. I purchase Powerflex CDs made just for this type of workout with separate songs for the warmup, squats, chest, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, lunges, abs, and cool down and with spaces in between the songs so you have time to change your weights.  I keep copies of my old CDs and choreography in a file folder.  Once I plan a half a dozen of these classes, I'll probably rotate through my old music and choreography again. That way, I won't be repeating any music and choreography for at least six months and I'll be able to benefit again from all the work I am putting into planning these classes.  I definitely love my part time job as a group fitness instructor. I really enjoy coming up with my own choreography. Creating workouts and teaching them are gif