good mood food

I am tired a lot of the time. And since that's a terrible feeling, I started trying to find a remedy. I went to bed earlier, tried to get a shower in before the kids got up, added some new vitamins to the mix and even started drinking a cup of coffee every so often.

Then Rory, for reasons of his own, began to cut out as much sugar and carbs from his diet as he could. I didn't jump on his train and it was during those two weeks of his eating spinach salads and meat that I was so, so aware of how I medicate my exhaustion with sugar-starchy snacks. Like a bowl of cereal. Or a granola bar. Or a handful of chocolate chips. Or club crackers. And they're great in the moment, but leave me worse off than when I started.

So it dawned on me that I could do something about these sugar crashes, with hopes that it would help my energy too. I started trying to eat only energy-giving food. I read an awesome hippie-dippy article about how we should envision our bodies as fires. You would never feed a fire kindling (sugar and carbs) and expect it to last all day long. But throw a big log on that fire (protein, fiber) and that fire will stay a blazing a long, long time.

So now my question before I eat is: will this meal or snack give me long lasting energy?

It's a great question to ask and has helped dramatically improve my diet, my attitude (most days!) and my energy.

I was greatly inspired by Elise Blaha's post on what she ate with gestational diabetes. She had to test her blood sugar four times a day, and as Elise always seems to do, she made this annoyance seem like a great awesome opportunity to see what foods were best for her body. I read this post and thought it would be interesting to poke my finger and learn this too. Then I decided I didn't need to poke my finger. I could just monitor my own energy.

In her post she writes about the grain-free granola above. She wrote highly of it and so I gave it a try. And man it is so good. Rory likes it, my mom likes it, Ivar likes it and I love it. And it sort of bums me out that Ivar likes it because that kid is bottomless and eats a lot. But I'll get over it.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the link to this granola recipe. It's my new breakfast of choice and it's easy and so good, packed with protein and starts me out on the right foot. Elise recommends cutting the coconut oil down to just 1/3 cup and I agree. Also, I don't have a food processor or vitamix...I just buy the already chopped nuts in the baking aisle and crush the almonds up with a rolling pin like the olden days. And it works just fine. I keep the granola in the fridge to keep the oil solidified and eat it with milk in the mornings. Enjoy!

jealousy: a big, fat waste of life

A few weeks back I read Kelly Rae's blog who had just returned from an art retreat in Bali. Her pictures were magical, her stories were amazing and she gushed about how her awesome husband had insisted that she go, telling her that he would watch their two-year-old son for the nine days she was gone.

You can imagine my thoughts...why doesn't Rory insist that I go to Bali for nine days? Actually, why doesn't he insist that I go anywhere? Come to think of it, why the heck am I always stuck in this house with these two kids all the time?!!

This week it was a dear friend who took a much deserved eight day cruise with her husband. They left their little boy with grandparents and spent time holding hands, swimming with sea turtles and hiking around ancient Mayan ruins in Belize. I looked longingly at the pictures and wondered why we don't have an eight day cruise to Belize on the calendar.

It's so terrible isn't it? It's such a waste of emotion and energy. Before reading these posts I hadn't the slightest desire to go on a cruise or to Indonesia for crying out loud.

But jealousy snuck in. And it sucks. It's so destructive to a happy life.

The irony (and irony seems like too small of a word here, because it's more than ironic. it's rather tragic) is that I, too, am posting pictures and writing stories. And almost weekly I am told, "you are living our dream. we want to do what you're doing so badly."

One friend even told me that it's hard to see our pictures because she gets a little jealous.

Well crud.

When people tell this to my face I am quick to tell a bit of the behind the scenes, the stories that never get told or posted. How most of the time it is just Rory out in the garden and I'm watching from the little windows. How he wishes I could be more of a partner out in that garden, but how my part of the partnership has to be more related to the kids and the house and the meals.

Sometimes my part of the partnership makes me a little crazy. Obviously I adore my kids. I love our home and I feel so grateful for the little life we are beginning on this sweet little hobby farm. But show me a picture of Bali and Belize and I go a little bonkers.

So I've been thinking about this lately. All of this social media stuff is still so spanking new, and we have no idea how it affects us. Except that I think we actually do. The pro side says that sometimes it can inspire us to be more creative with our days. My favorite blogs actually do that. But then there are other times when that jealousy monster creeps into my heart and this farm and farmhouse and simple life I am leading looks like the enemy. And that's ludicrous.

Does anyone else do this to themselves? How do you deal with these feelings of jealousy?

Because when I look at my own life, the one God has put in front of me, I have nothing to be jealous of and everything for which to be grateful.

That same Kelly Rae who went to Bali, posted today that she is moving into a new art studio with friends. She had moved into a studio a year ago by herself but it was lonely. She wrote that she was able to make the move after such a short amount of time in her last space, "because I believe nothing is permanent and we can create what we most need."

Those words shook me out of it a bit and in the end I'm neither going to Bali or Belize. But I did call and get a babysitter for the next three Thursday nights so I can go to the movies with my husband. And that feels like a great step in the right direction.

Take that jealousy, you joy sucking loser.

our first strawberry

So far our little strawberry patch has gone unnoticed by the bunnies, bugs and birds in our area. But there is one pest who is hard to keep away. He joyfully picks the green and white strawberries and proudly tells us about what he has found and what is now cupped in his hand: a strawbally!

It made us wonder if we would ever get to eat a red strawberry. They hardly stand a chance. 

But after lots of coaching and talks of patience and waiting, we finally got to eat our first red strawberry. And we made a big deal of it. 

We split the strawberry four ways. Ivar took the first bite, then Mama, Dado and finally baby Elsie sucked on it for a long time. Then Ivar finished it off. (that makes it sound like it was a big berry. It wasn't.)

But it was one very celebrated strawberry. 

And now, I'd love to invite you to come on over to The Soul Sisterhood where I have my second post on Living your Life as a Great Story. We're not quite writing in our journals yet, so today I am simply introducing everyone to one of my very favorite life stories, my friend Banana Man.  

some sunshine for another gloomy day

The peaches at Cub Foods right now are so good that you probably want to stop whatever you are doing and go and buy eleven of them.

I bought three last night and ate two dripping over the kitchen sink. Rory ate the other and now we are heading back to get more. They're that good.

a card from my aunt annie

My mom brought over my baby book this week and this card from my Aunt Annie was in there. It reads:

Dear Becca,
It was fun to see you and the rest of your family at the Birthday Party. You looked so nice (and much older) in your new hair cut and stone washed jeans. It's fun watching you grow up.

I also noticed another way you are growing. When you were playing with Libby and Mikey you were very kind and caring. You thought about how they might be feeling and tried to make them feel included. At the same time you were gentle and patient- you let them get to know you slowly. The way you acted showed you are growing up on the inside- you are letting your little gospel light shine. I could see you love Jesus. Seeing this made me happy. You are a very special loving girl Becca.

You are lucky to have Annika as a big sister role model. I've seen these same qualities in her as she's growing up. 

Growing up on the inside and loving Jesus more and more is the most important thing. I'm so glad you are growing on the inside. 

I love you Becca
Aunt Annie

***

I don't know what year it was when she sent this...the stone washed jeans make me think early 90's probably. But when I read it this week I was so grateful to have had her point this out so clearly for me. And I needed the reminder and the words of affirmation this week as much as the day I was wearing those stone washed jeans.

So here's an idea for this first weekend of summer. Lots of kids just wrapped up the school year. How about we write some Aunt Annie letters, pointing out how we see the little gospel light shining in their young lives. They may need to hear those words right now. Or maybe they'll need to hear those words again when they're 32.