Lately

We had family in town a few weeks ago and got to enjoy a day at the Texas State Fair together. It was so lovely!

Big Tex! You always have to see Big Tex when you're at the Texas State Fair. You can also see our trips to the Texas State Fair in 2011 and 2013. 

Dad and I giving our legs a rest. 

We watched a really cute wild west dog/animal show. They had a bird show here for years and it retired last year - this was still entertaining! 

I couldn't resist getting Ranger a treat at the fair:)

He loved his peanut butter heart. 

I made minty triple chocolate cupcakes for a work fundraiser too - so tasty! I used the triple chocolate cupcake recipe and added peppermint essential oil to the cupcake and buttercream frosting. 

Our team is so talented at making cupcakes - it wasn't until I came to this team that I even learned howl to make them, and how to make my own buttercream from scratch. I got caramel apple, pumpkin pie, s'mores, sea salt caramel, red velvet, Elvis (banana, peanut bitter & bacon), pumpkin with cream cheese frosting, raspberry & german chocolate. I couldn't eat these (since I don't eat gluten & dairy), but don't they look great?! 

I recreated a meal I loved from my weekend at the Flourish Retreat too. I could eat all of the meals that weekend and it expanded my meal ideas for delicious gluten and dairy free meals. This one is like a Mexican salad. Flavored ground beef, refried beans (I made them myself- yay!!), Mexican rice (made that myself too - I was so proud of this meal), salsa & I added corn we had in our produce batch that week. There is a lot of protein and it's so tasty. 

Sweet potato fries (olive oil, salt, garlic powder & rosemary). We had sweet potatoes in our last co-op farm batch, so I knew I wanted to try these fries. They were delicious! 

I tried making zucchini chips also. 

#fail 

The non-burned ones still had good flavor, but I maybe got 3 "chips" out of the deal, the rest were burned or just cooked (not crispy) zucchini with flavor. 

We've been enjoying beautiful weather lately and some gorgeous skies. I hope you have a great weekend wherever you are! 

Today's Pinspiration:

(Pinterest Source)

Quick Iowa Visit & Natural Healing

If you keep up with me on Instagram (or the side bar of the blog), you know I'm still here! Just busy. Isn't this photo peaceful? I put it as my new background on my computer I like it so much. I snapped it out the window on our drive through Kansas last week. 

We took off at the end of last week to Iowa City to see my Aunt Melissa. She had been at the hospital for a few weeks and had more and more complications come up. We wanted to be there after a tough week with a not so great outlook. It was so good to be with family again, get hugs, pray together, and reassure each other. Praise the Lord, I get to share Aunt Melissa is home now! She'll continue going to the hospital in DSM for Chemo, but after a few weeks in the hospital, is finally home. 

 These were the beautiful springy flowers in Aunt Melissa's room. Aren't they so pretty? I love this arrangement. 

Hi, Kansas!

A sweet co-worker gave me this book after we talked about trying more natural alternatives to treat fibromyalgia. As I shared in my last post, I'm seeking other methods of healing other than prescriptions (I've tried so many that fail to help). This book is insightful! This author I believe has many other books with the same theme of natural healing. 

I've met with the naturopath twice now and continue to learn more of her ideas to help me get better, and hopefully get off my prescriptions at some point. We set a few goals we're working toward and I'm hopeful to get there. 

Naturopath notes:

She did research on the prescriptions & supplements I currently take and gave me recommendations. I'll try some new supplements she thinks can help.

She was surprised after seeing all of the prescriptions I take that I still have chronic pain and chronic headaches. 

The muscle relaxer I take each night she said is typically used for a few weeks (probably after an accident or injury)- I've been taking it for 20 months. There's no doubt that I'm dealing with side effects from some of my meds that aren't making things easier. That's one of my goals though - I really want to live life without all of these prescriptions that I'm not sure even help at all anymore. 

Here are other things I noted:

• Drink lemon in water every day (helps detoxify) - 1 full glass in the morning before eating/drinking anything else.
• Drink 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar mixed with some before meals (helps detoxify & prep organs for digesting)
• Less microwaving, less frozen meals
• More protein! I did a 5-day diet diary, noting everything I ate, drank, how I slept, how my symptoms were throughout the day. She highlighted on my log the foods I was going to as a pick-me-up and believes my blood sugar gets low, so I reach for my snacks which don't help. Adding more protein is making a difference on my energy and feeling full already. I ate healthy snacks throughout the day (grapes, banana, granola bar), but they didn't have protein, so would leave my energy tank empty. Adding hummus and peanut butter so far (peanut butter & banana for a morning snack - sliced peppers/celery & hummus in the afternoon) have already made a noticeable difference on my brain fog too. 
• Be aware of foods impacts on my good sugar - my diet was spiking and dropping my blood sugar all day which didn't help any of my symptoms. She gave me a list of high glycemic fruits & veggies to limit. Check out symptoms of hypoglycemia/low blood sugar - I have had so many of them for so long! It'd be great if this can really help me. 
• Look into my adrenal glands and see if I have adrenal fatigue going on (I take a saliva test this weekend to be shipped off to the lab to see what they find). Stress levels are hard on so many of our adrenal glands, I keep hearing about adrenal fatigue. 
• Antibiotic & hormone free meat 
• Do 5 minutes of yoga 2x per day
• Practice deep breathing 2x per day 
• Add more protein to my smoothies - I already had peanut butter, but I've added a small handful of walnuts now too. They blend easily in my Ninja with my almond milk, cinnamon, fruits & veggies. It really does help me last longer and keep my brain sharper all morning. 

There's much more, but that's a good update for now! I thought I was eating well, but I understand different perspectives now that can hopefully help my body process better. 

This was my first bottle of Kombucha a few weeks ago- I have a few other flavors in the fridge to try. What do you think about it? I've heard of the great benefits and figure it's worth a try!

My boys on our afternoon of running errands a few weeks ago. Ranger is just shy of 8 months old - isn't that wild?! Wasn't it just a few months ago we met this puppy? 

Ranger and I after work yesterday. He's SO excited when we get home from work, though he looks not-so-happy in this photo - ha! I love how the color on our walls look in this photo too! 

I baked these beauties last night - minty triple chocolate cupcakes! Dairy and gluten free of course - use the triple chocolate cupcake recipe and I added peppermint instead of vanilla and added it in the frosting too. I love minty chocolate! 

Ranger LOVES playing lately. We tend to have fun with it too:) 

I hope your weekend is filled with sunshine - one way or another! 

Today's Pinspiration:

Pinterest Source

Capturing December Photo-A-Day Challenge; Days 1-15

Early in December, I came across this list of photos to take each day in December. I really liked the idea and wanted to partake via Instagram. I'll split it into two posts since there will be lots of photos. I'll add in other photos as well of our early December activities.

12/3 (the day I started the challenge) Red:

My comfy bed deserved to be recognized, especially with our electric blanket to keep us warm in these cold Minnesota winters.

12/4: Joyous:

The nativity scene Nick collected growing up.

12/5: Today's Temperature: 

This wasn't all that bad for early December! 

12/6: Shopping

I didn't shop that day (it was a Thursday anyway), but can show you my elf station. I did a lot of card making this Christmas to give away sets of cute blank cards:) 

12/7 Bright:

Our fresh snow sure brightened things up.

 12/8: Ornament(s)

12/9: Something You're Reading

I wish I could say I'm reading a great book, but most of my reading these days are blogs I follow. This one is Kelly's Korner, one of my favorite daily reads.

12/10: Wrapping Paper

 12/11: Green

The first year of our stockings - I love them! I got them last year on an after Christmas clearance at Pier 1 and got them for a great price.

12/12: A Beautiful Sight

Our nativity scenes and the glow of our Christmas tree.

12/13: Family

An old family classic:)

12/14: Christmas Tree

12/15: Favorite Holiday Song:

I didn't have anything to take a photo of, so used this one, but I truly enjoy all Christmas songs. I really like "Baby it's cold outside (love it in Elf:))", I've always loved "Christmas Canon" aka Canon in D by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and songs celebrating Jesus. Christmas songs just melt my heart. 

We also had a huge winter storm early December that dumped about 12 inches of snow:

It snowed ALL day Sunday and made for a messy commute for the next few days. 

We enjoyed Christmas with Nick's extended family in Northeast Iowa as well:

Santa made his annual appearance 

 We all enjoyed admiring my SIL's baby bump:)

Family photo with Grandma Lucy 

Typically this may be a husband and wife shot (which we got some of those too), but I really just wanted to show Amber's bump :) and the proud uncle. We can't wait to meet this little guy!!

I whipped up a batch of peppermint mini cupcakes to take to family Christmas as well. I used this recipe I made before and added peppermint instead of vanilla and swapped the butter to dairy free butter and used gluten free flour so I could enjoy them too. I received many compliments on these! 

In appreciation of the tree that brought many warm and fuzzies this Christmas season:

  

Part Two of Capturing December and the rest of our Christmas' coming up next. 

Today's New Year Pinspiration (and Happy Birthday to my mom, a New Year's baby!). This Pinspiration something I strive for:

(source)