Just Do It!

Do it.

Deliberate
Obedience
Intentional
Trust

I learned this from Proverbs 31 Ministries blog post somewhere along the way a few years ago.  It has stuck with me ever since.

Read it here and I pray you are blessed!

More later...Love to you!
Kim

Taco Salad!

Tonight was something I make often and it is easy to feed everyone in the family pretty easily.

I ground turkey and then add El Paso taco seasoning. That is the taco meat we use.
I heat up refried beans.
Jar of salsa (Pace)
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Taco sauce
Romaine lettuce
Taco shells or tortilla chips or Fritos

Make your own taco or taco salad. Could also add tomatoes, olives, avocado

Tasty!

Iphone pictures so excuse the quality :)  One day they may look better

Cleaning Schedules & Me!

I love to read and look at cleaning schedules and all kinds of ways to keep the house clean, to organize, to have a schedule of how it all works, etc.  I have a hard time finding just the right schedule that works for me.  I jump around and have not yet found just the right one.


I have been toying with 2 ideas.

1. Once a month cleaning.  
2. Once a week cleaning, or Home Blessing Hour.  

I made my list all out for once a month cleaning.  All areas of each room that needed to be cleaned.  Then I made a simple list of things I would do daily such as laundry, picking up clutter, dishes, cooking, and swish and swipe the bathrooms, which is this:

The point of the Swish & Swipe is:
If you do a quick wipe-over of your bathrooms each day - Your bathrooms will never really get dirty. There will be no build-up, no toilet ring, and no hard water stains. You will have a sparkling clean bathroom every day without everreally cleaning it.


While your in the bathroom:

• Use a little windex and quickly "swipe" the mirror, counter & sink.
• Next, use a toilet brush with a little soap to "swish" the toilet bowl (one suggestion is to keep disinfecting bathroom cleaner in your toilet brush holder or even shampoo or slivers of old soap?!?) (caution ladies - don't mix cleaners)
• Last, use a disinfecting wipe to "swipe" down the lid, seat and bowl rim of the toilet.

That would be what I would do.  I would have say the 1st of the month or 15th or whenever, and dedicate most of that day to a whole house scrub down.  Then daily throughout the rest of the month do the things necessarily daily.  On this site she also mentions once a month decluttering.  This is where she chooses a room a month to work on decluttering.  So I suppose one room per month would get an even deeper clean.  This is 12 rooms in a year.  Deep cleaned and decluttered.  I am really pondering this.

The weekly cleaning I would do probably on Friday's to prepare for the weekend and to be able to enjoy a clean home and relax all weekend.  Then daily have the regular things that need done daily like I said, laundry, picking up clutter or straightening up, dishes, cooking and swish and swipe.  When I do this it seems that the next week things don't look dirty so I don't have motivation to do it.  Maybe this instead of weekly could be done bi-weekly so that the dirt has time to come back at least a little.

In the weekly cleaning you have 1 hour, 6 chores, 10 minutes each chore.  You set a timer for 10 minutes, and GO!  You clean that one area as best as you can and when the timer goes off you are done.

 

I want to share here how and what I do, in a sorts a way of accountability.  I want to track what works and maybe a few before and after pictures if I feel so led.  

So here I am.  I want to clean the house!  It's been spring break and it needs a refresher.  Yes, you would find me on the computer looking at ways to clean and organize intead of actually DOING it! 

So now I get up to "DO" something.  Reminding myself of my word for 2012, LIVE.  I want to live and not just sit and watch or read about things.

So which will it be................what will I experiment with first?  Hmmmm.....

Weekly cleaning.  This week I will do it Monday (and some Sunday to get a head start) and maybe again on Friday since we are getting over spring break and it may need an extra cleaning by the end of the week.  I will choose 6 chores that need to be done and take 10 minutes for each one.  Here they are for Monday's cleaning:

1. Dusting furniture.
2. Bathrooms swish and swipe and tub cleaning (spray with bleach lysol cleaner, set a few minutes and wipe down and rinse)
3. Kids bedroom floors.
4. Vacuum house. (must be done after bedroom floors are done)
5. Entry way clean up inside front door and porch.
6. Overall house pick-up (maybe do this first)

The end.  That is what I will do.  Off I go to live.  I am going to choose bathrooms right now and go from there.  Go LIVE!

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)


p.s. I do have to add one thing.  In order for me to do all of this and actually have it work...I have to put Jesus first.  Two things He is teaching me.  One is Matthew 6:33 that in one version says seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added unto you, but NLT version I read this morning says this:  he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.  (I love this version).  Number two, is Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.  He is teaching me to give Him my burdens each day, each moment and ask Him for His yoke because He says it is easy.  This week when I have done that, amazing, in awe, of the fruits that come from it...there is nowhere else I want to be.  

**Note-Update 3/28/2012-Wednesday---I did the bathrooms Sunday and then Monday got carried away and no cleaning done.  So I will keep it on Friday and continue daily cleaning as needed until then.  I did clean 1 bedroom floor Monday evening so that does count too :) baby steps 

  

Tonight's Dinner~BBQ Ribs!

Sadly forgot to take pictures of my pretty plate before eating, ha!  Sorry.  I will next time, but I still want to share what we had.  Again it was simple, as I am not in the mood for extravagant cooking this week, it's SPRING BREAK!

So I purchased Hormel brand, Lloyd's spare ribs, at Wal-Mart last trip to the store.  This is a new find we only recently found and have had only a few times.  I happened to see them and read the ingredients.  Pretty simple list, and they said "gluten free & soy free!"  So it was a winner.  We like them, they fall off the bone, and a friend has told me about them before and had good things to say.

 

Ribs was our main dish.  Our side dishes were this awesome quinua pasta, veggie curls.  I boiled them with some salt and a drizzle of olive oil until done.  Then melted some butter into them.  Smart Balance Light butter with flax is what we use...it is gluten and dairy free.  Boiled some frozen corn on the cob.  The end.  

Delish meal was served.  It was super filling and satifsying.  Nutritious.  Sorry I didn't take a picture, the plate was so pretty :)

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)

Gluten Free Journey Continues...

I will try now and continue with my story of gluten free that I started here.  All these questions that I was having about what foods are best for my body, I was told by a sweet sweet person, why not try eating how my son eats and take wheat out of my diet?  I thought okay I can do that.  I will try doing that for a month or so and see how it goes.  That was last April or May if I recall correctly.  I tried it for 4 days and things in my body started changing for the better.

I then had lies and questioning start creeping in and I started dabbling and having a little here and a little there.  I wasn't sure I should do it and seemed to think I needed more of a reason to do it before I gave it my all.  I had a friend who at that time was my accountability partner and prayer partner in eating and health, and she mentioned to me that I possibly had a gluten sensitivity and should consider it.  She was going through similar things.  I read about it in different places on the internet, blogs and books.  Over the past 11 months I have heard about gluten free here and there and everywhere it seems.  Crazy!  But hey you know what I am learning, "when God wants to get your attention He will be clear about it and follow you around with confirmations (until you get it)."  He is amazing like that.

In November I had my annual physical and had mentioned to my doctor about gluten and she confirmed that yes, gluten can mess with your body in many ways.  She asked me how I felt eating gluten free and I told her that I did feel better and the symptoms that had changed and she said that I should continue with it.  She also said that it was evident if I felt better I should continue and that a testing wouldn't always be definite.

I then was told by a doctor at the end of 2011 to try gluten free for my son and I said I would try it with him.  We didn't do well with it and didn't try too hard.  Then at our recheck with this doctor she asked if we had tried gluten free, and we said, no....uh not really :(  I was then told again to try it.  She was not giving in and really wanted us to try it.  She explained about children who she saw try this during her schooling and without medical tests, but trying it and seeing changes in symptoms they had, for the better.  So we did.  (*note:  I am only sharing about myself here as it is about "my" heart I talk about on my blog and not my childrens.)  I stuck to it for 3-4 weeks very well.  I felt great results.  I released 12 pounds and lost so many cravings for food.  I was not bloated among other things.

Then, here comes the lies and questioning again.  But you have never been tested and told that you have it.  You have no confirmation for sure saying yes this is the results of your test and now you should eat this way.  I had a God, who may I say I am learning much better now a days, is THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.

God reminded me of this recently, and I can't even tell you how I came to find this scripture, but it came to me!

2 Chronicles 16:12
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease.  Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord's help but turned only to his physician's.

That is in a sense the way I was thinking.  I wanted a doctor and a test to tell me for absolutely positive sure that I had Celiac or that I had gluten intolerance BEFORE I committed to it.  I did not want to just trust what God was already confirming to me.  I had several people ask me lately, weren't my symptoms and the confirmations I kept getting enough to make me stop eating it and just move on and live?  My answer in my heart then was a resounding, no.  I wanted a test, proof.  (isn't that opposite of faith?)

So God allowed me to be tested last week.  I ordered a reputable test online that was a finger prick blood test to test for Celiac.  It was negative.  Now I had been off and on gluten for the past several months, several days to weeks without it and then I would eat it here and there.  So I am unsure if I had enough in my system to cause this test to be positive.

I knew this would happen!  I recognized that as soon as I ordered the test...I had the question, what if it is negative?  I thought well then I would want another test to tell me something.  I need something saying yes I need to eat gluten free.  Without wheat.

So...two nights ago God really spoke to my heart to have faith.  Kim have faith and trust.  I know what is best for your body.  You felt better, released weight and didn't eat as much or want to eat as much when you let it go.  So let it go!  Give it to ME.  I will help you!  So I did.  Two nights ago I let it go.  Starting yesterday I ate gluten free.  I will take it one day at a time, but right now I feel the answer is that I need to have faith in my God, my Great Physician, and believe Him when He makes something so clear to me I cannot miss it.  Gluten is not friendly with my body and I will thrive without it.

I am aiming to eat what is called whole foods.  I do not replace a lot of foods that have gluten with the gluten free version.  I simply want to mostly eliminate it, which in turn eliminates most processed foods.  Eating fruits and veggies, some nuts and seeds, and meats and then rice and potatoes and gluten free grains every once in a while.  

I look forward to sharing more of this journey as I walk it out in FAITH with my God.  I think, well if I listen to Him and obey, what do I have to lose?  But if I did NOT listen to Him, and ate whatever I wanted containing gluten, maybe I would suffer in ways that were not necessary.  I trust Him.  I will trust Him.  I trust You Lord.

Follow me on my journey as I walk it out and share more and more what I learn and what God shows me.

I am working on blogging at my gluten free blog for this area of my life.  Gluten Free Daughter

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)

Lets Be Real, Kim...

I think ok, when I am writing this blog it seems so positive and so all about God.  But lets be real, Kim.  Do you really feel this way and live this way?  I mean, seriously, how can it always be like that.

Well I question that sometimes.  I want to be honest, I do.  But then over and over I continue hearing the words in Scripture that I have read that says what to think about.  Over and over again it turns out that it is Jesus, God, His Holy Spirit, all about Him, that is where I am to park my thoughts...my life, everything I've got in me.  So as much as I want to question and not do that or think I am doing something wrong, I simply am not.  I am training myself to think about God so that He can transform me and my thoughts, renewing my mind to His.

Jesus is my life.  I am learning to flesh this out and not be legalistic, but real, authentic and enjoy this journey as I learn to figure it all out, or maybe not figure out.

Hear this...

More later...Love to You!
Kim :)

Simple Breakfast

So this morning is a simple breakfast. Ore-Ida frozen potatoes are all mostly gluten free except the crispy crowns and maybe a couple others. I first learned this by calling the company. Then reading the labels. The only allergen that they have are soy.

So this morning I popped in some tator tots into the oven and cooked them to golden crispy brown. Served with some ketchup and it's done. Also it is good to find ketchup that is for sure gluten free.  Here I used Hunt's (no high fructose corn syrup) ketchup.  Now this isn't one of those meals that will hold you over very long.

A few things that could be added with it would be say some fruit and cottage cheese. I like pineapple, grapes and strawberries. Also you could make a fruit smoothie with some frozen berries. 1 cup berries, 1 cup milk (I use rice milk), 1 cup ice and a few tablespoons of sugar depending how sweet you want it. You could add a boiled egg or some ham or some type of protein to make it a bit more sustaining.

That was breakfast today! Have a good morning!

Love to you!
Kim :)

Tator Tots!

Plan a Meal

For 7 years I have grown in learning how to incorporate food allergies into our meal plans each day.  This has taken time and testing and I feel like I have just scratched the surface.  There is so much more to learn.  I am a learner so this is okay with me.  I am willing to continue learning more every day.

Plan a gluten free meal?  Plan a meal without the allergens that someone has?  This seems like a daunting task you say!  Well, not for me :)  It would be a passion of mine to help others in this area to learn more and more how to cook for your loved ones and not have any food allergy or sensitivity be an issue.  They don't have to stand out!  

 

So I will share.  I will help as time allows.  I want to share what I have learned and help others.  I also have a vision or a dream that one day I can help people personally develop for their own families meals and ideas to help them specifically.  There is a lot of help out there where you can search and find things that work for you.  But wouldn't it be so nice to have someone help you in this where it is more tailored to foods YOU and your loved ones like.  So I will share away and one day hope to help more and more!

So tonight I made a simple dinner.  No pictures captured tonight.  I made baked pork chops.  Simple I said.  

Good night!  Love to you!

Kim :) 

So Far

I am by God's grace alone eating gluten free for 2 weeks and 1 day now.  I am thankful for that.  I have eaten out a few times, probably 3, and think I ate gluten free, but cannot guarantee.  Today the tostada type things I had at a buffet were corn tortillas with cheese and a bean dip type sauce over top.  The cheese sauce could have had gluten.  I am not sure.  I have not gotten to the point where i am asking restaurants what is gluten free.  I am sort of guessing.  This is probably not the best thing for me to do.

 

I am learning lots of recipes and things that are really pleasing to my body and do not leave me hungering for more food.  I want to share some recipes and foods and things as I learn them.  Some of my favorites this week are:

• Chicken salad (made fresh myself)
• Egg salad (or just boiled eggs plain)
• Chili (from Wendy's) and add a little shredded cheese
• Tostada's-the shell with refried beans, sour cream, cheese, salsa, tomatoes and lettuce
• Several types of chocolate candy bars-rolo's being one of them
• Lays Stax-I like the cheddar flavor
• scrambled eggs with turkey sausage and a drizzle of syrup over it
• Apples dipped in caramel

That is some for now.  There are so many more.  I am so looking forward to seeing my body become healtheir and more energized as I continue eating to nourish my body.

More later!

Kim :)

True Satisfaction

Yesterday I missed my quiet time.  I wanted to squeeze in whatever I could hear from God that day so that I knew He was still with me and guiding me.  And He showed me just what I needed to hear yesterday.  He showed me I could rest.  Stop grabbing for things to try and give ME what I needed.  As I listened to K-Love and driving along Scenic Highway after taking my children to school...the morning show hosts were talking.  Someone called in and was talking about how she was newly married, 18 years old, and was working this new job she just started.  She was working 50 hours a week and was finding it difficult not to become angry that she was working so much and could not spend time with her husband.

Then...

She remembered that she had prayed for a full time job.  Wow.  What she was living was an answered prayer.

Then the host said this.  That goes to show that even when we pray for things and we get them, and we STILL are not satisfied, that we realize where our true satisfaction comes from.  What we were created to be finding our only satisfiaction in.

JESUS.

 

Do you need to hear today that HE is your only satisfaction.  Him alone.  Are you seeking for something to satisfy your deepest longing and just cannot seem to make it happen yourself?  It seems strange to the world to think that.  Heck even I keep asking for things, get them, and then realize its NOT what I really wanted to begin with.  Its all temporary and false.  He is the only real thing.  I need a fresh reminder of this moment by moment.  

Ask Him to satisfy your every longing today, join me in doing that.  How quickly I seem to forget.  

Lord meet us where we are and help us allow You to be our only source of satisfaction and to desire you more each moment.  In Jesus Name, Amen

Listen...

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)

I'm Still Here

Hi! I am still here.  I wanted to check in and say I am still here, but have been doing a lot of prioritizing and reorganizing things in life daily.  I will be back soon to post and share!  Be blessed tonight!

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)

p.s. I am a week off of gluten and am feeling good.  It is a lifestyle right now unless God intervenes and shows otherwise.  I need Him though to do it because without Him and His grace, well I would not be able to, I'm too weak, but He is strong, yay!

My Gluten Free Journey Continues...

I will try now and continue with my story of gluten free that I started here.  All these questions that I was having about what foods are best for my body, I was told by a sweet sweet person, why not try eating how my son eats and take wheat out of my diet?  I thought okay I can do that.  I will try doing that for a month or so and see how it goes.  That was last April or May if I recall correctly.  I tried it for 4 days and things in my body started changing for the better.

I then had lies and questioning start creeping in and I started dabbling and having a little here and a little there.  I wasn't sure I should do it and seemed to think I needed more of a reason to do it before I gave it my all.  I had a friend who at that time was my accountability partner and prayer partner in eating and health, and she mentioned to me that I possibly had a gluten sensitivity and should consider it.  She was going through similar things.  I read about it in different places on the internet, blogs and books.  Over the past 11 months I have heard about gluten free here and there and everywhere it seems.  Crazy!  But hey you know what I am learning, "when God wants to get your attention He will be clear about it and follow you around with confirmations (until you get it)."  He is amazing like that.

In November I had my annual physical and had mentioned to my doctor about gluten and she confirmed that yes, gluten can mess with your body in many ways.  She asked me how I felt eating gluten free and I told her that I did feel better and the symptoms that had changed and she said that I should continue with it.  She also said that it was evident if I felt better I should continue and that a testing wouldn't always be definite.

I then was told by a doctor at the end of 2011 to try gluten free for my son and I said I would try it with him.  We didn't do well with it and didn't try too hard.  Then at our recheck with this doctor she asked if we had tried gluten free, and we said, no....uh not really :(  I was then told again to try it.  She was not giving in and really wanted us to try it.  She explained about children who she saw try this during her schooling and without medical tests, but trying it and seeing changes in symptoms they had, for the better.  So we did.  (*note:  I am only sharing about myself here as it is about "my" heart I talk about on my blog and not my childrens.)  I stuck to it for 3-4 weeks very well.  I felt great results.  I released 12 pounds and lost so many cravings for food.  I was not bloated among other things.

Then, here comes the lies and questioning again.  But you have never been tested and told that you have it.  You have no confirmation for sure saying yes this is the results of your test and now you should eat this way.  I had a God, who may I say I am learning much better now a days, is THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.

God reminded me of this recently, and I can't even tell you how I came to find this scripture, but it came to me!

2 Chronicles 16:12
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease.  Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord's help but turned only to his physician's.

That is in a sense the way I was thinking.  I wanted a doctor and a test to tell me for absolutely positive sure that I had Celiac or that I had gluten intolerance BEFORE I committed to it.  I did not want to just trust what God was already confirming to me.  I had several people ask me lately, weren't my symptoms and the confirmations I kept getting enough to make me stop eating it and just move on and live?  My answer in my heart then was a resounding, no.  I wanted a test, proof.  (isn't that opposite of faith?)

So God allowed me to be tested last week.  I ordered a reputable test online that was a finger prick blood test to test for Celiac.  It was negative.  Now I had been off and on gluten for the past several months, several days to weeks without it and then I would eat it here and there.  So I am unsure if I had enough in my system to cause this test to be positive.

I knew this would happen!  I recognized that as soon as I ordered the test...I had the question, what if it is negative?  I thought well then I would want another test to tell me something.  I need something saying yes I need to eat gluten free.  Without wheat.

So...two nights ago God really spoke to my heart to have faith.  Kim have faith and trust.  I know what is best for your body.  You felt better, released weight and didn't eat as much or want to eat as much when you let it go.  So let it go!  Give it to ME.  I will help you!  So I did.  Two nights ago I let it go.  Starting yesterday I ate gluten free.  I will take it one day at a time, but right now I feel the answer is that I need to have faith in my God, my Great Physician, and believe Him when He makes something so clear to me I cannot miss it.  Gluten is not friendly with my body and I will thrive without it.

I am aiming to eat what is called whole foods.  I do not replace a lot of foods that have gluten with the gluten free version.  I simply want to mostly eliminate it, which in turn eliminates most processed foods.  Eating fruits and veggies, some nuts and seeds, and meats and then rice and potatoes and gluten free grains every once in a while.  

I look forward to sharing more of this journey as I walk it out in FAITH with my God.  I think, well if I listen to Him and obey, what do I have to lose?  But if I did NOT listen to Him, and ate whatever I wanted containing gluten, maybe I would suffer in ways that were not necessary.  I trust Him.  I will trust Him.  I trust You Lord.

Follow me on my journey as I walk it out and share more and more what I learn and what God shows me.

I am working on blogging at my gluten free blog for this area of my life.  Gluten Free Daughter

More later...Love to you!

Kim :)