Wheat Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup rice flour (brown or white)
3/4 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg or equivalent egg-replacer
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats (the “1 minute” variety)
1/4 cup (sweetened) shredded coconut (you don't have to use if you don't want to!)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I get dairy-free)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, spices and sugars.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg/egg-replacer, vegetable oil, water and vanilla extract. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until no streaks of flour(s) remain. Stir in oats, coconut and chocolate chips (can reduce chocolate chips to 1/2 cup if you like your cookies a bit less chocolaty, or simply substitute raisins).
Drop 1-inch balls of dough onto prepared cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.
Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until light gold at the edges.
Cool completely on a wire rack
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Light and Fluffy Gluten Free Biscuits
Light and Fluffy Gluten Free Biscuits-they are yeast-free and sugar free too!
(Yield: 16 large biscuits)
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
2 c. corn starch*
1/2 c. soy flour or sorghum flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 stick of butter* (chilled in the freezer)
1 1/4 c. soy milk*
1 1/4 c. water
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar*
1 egg, beaten (or the equivalent amount of your favorite egg replacement)
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine the flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum.
3. Grate the butter into the flour using the small holed side of a box grater. Mix the butter into the flour so that there are no large balls of grated butter.
4. Add the soy milk, water, vinegar and beaten egg to the flour and stir until the dry and liquid ingredients are combined.
5. Using a large spoon, drop the dough onto a greased pan to make 16 biscuits. Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Another decade on my beautiful life journey
Inspired by my friend Kerry, I am reflecting on the last 10 years of my life 2000-2010!! After looking back, I have realized that I have been on quite the journey of learning who I was meant to be, exploring new paths, trying new things, discovering new things about myself, life, God, relationships, and living in confidence and grace.
2000
Class of 2000! I graduated high school at the ripe age of 17. All I thought I wanted to be was a personal trainer and help people live healthy lives. I started out at Loras College in Dubuque, IA majoring in Exercise Science and ran Cross-Country. After a semester of running being life life and a small college seeming too much like high school, I packed up my bags and moved back home.
2001
Continued a pursuit of school and decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa. I spent a summer at a Bible camp for Inner-city kids outside of Peoria, IL. It was the most rewarding and most challenging summer of my life! I loved working with at-risk youth..who are amazing kids who just need love. That spurred me on to get a degree in Youth and Human Services. Lived in the dorms with my friend Melynda from High School.
2002
Continued at UNI. Spent the summer doing an internship with the Navigators, a Christian college ministry, at Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado as a Day camp counselor. Oh how I loved living in the mountains!! Lived with Kathy, Jenna and Kara in a house right by campus.
2003
Moved into a house off campus with Emily, Emily, and Amy. Had a blast! Spent the year working part-time at SureCare Services as a Care Assistant for the elderly. I loved working with them!
2004
Wow, this was one hard year! Graduated from college with honors, which was awesome! The not so fun part was going through a lot of health issues that year..learned even more about nutrition, antibiotics, and more about what the body needs to thrive! Went through a super hard transition from college (knowing what I was doing) to not knowing what to do next! The world was at my fingertips and I didn't know which way to go. I stayed in Cedar Falls for another few months and then moved home for a few months.
2005
Moved to Des Moines, IA--spent time working at a fitness center and substitute teaching. Then I got a job at Wesley Acres Retirement Community as an Activities Assistant. I learned how to teach fitness classes for seniors. It was so fun! I lived in Waukee with Bethany. I met many amazing people through Immersion at Lutheran Church of Hope. They became my community and best friends.
2006
I moved into my own studio apartment in downtown Des Moines. I became 1/2 time Assistant Activities Coordinator and 1/2 time Wellness Coordinator. I really enjoyed my job working with the residents. It was like having 300 grandparents! My dad became really sick, really quickly, and ended up losing a fight with lung cancer on June 30, 2006. Definitely one of the hardest and most surreal days of my life. By the strength God gave me I was able to speak at his funeral and share the importance of forgiveness. God had done an amazing miracle in our relationship a couple years before he died. Thus began a grieving process. I joined the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership and signed up to co-chair. I wanted to do what I could to help people prevent going through what my dad did. I also signed up for graduate school, an online Health Promotion Management program. I cried a lot that year. I had an amazing support of friends love on me and be there for me.
2007
I moved in with Nicole and Jen into 620 19th St. Des Moines into the best house ever! We had a blast living together! I took a new opportunity with the American Lung Association as a Project Coordinator for the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership. I got to work with some amazing people and be out in the community doing education on tobacco prevention and policy. I grew leaps and bounds. The most ironic thing happened at the end of the year. Most of the ALA employees came down with Histoplasmosis! (Histo-plas-what?!!) That's exactly what I thought to! Basically I was sick with flu like symptoms for like a month--it was pretty much horrible! Not the best way to end a year! I also almost moved to Oregon...almost!
2008
This year was huge and lots of changes, I mean LOTS of changes! I had the amazing opportunity to travel to lots of cool places--Seattle, West Palm Beach, and Phoenix. I worked with an amazing group of women to plan a conference for young adult women, called Bella. The event didn't end up happening, but it would be great to do something like that again. I had thought it was time to settle down in West Des Moines so when Carrie and Perry's townhome came up for sale, I jumped on it! Little did I know that I would live in it less than 6 months! I also had a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend 6 weeks doing a leadership program called Young Leaders at Wilderness North in Northern MN. We learned about lots of different areas of knowledge--history, education, religion, business, etc. We lived in cabins, we worked on work projects, we had class sessions, read books, took trips to Duluth, took a trip to the boundary waters and to the Apostle Islands...it is also where I met Jeremy Erdman my now hubby! It was a time of getting to know each other as friends..but we had a deep soul connection that I still to this day do not understand, nor do I want to. We had a lot in common but yet are SO different. I really wrestled with God on it b/c I knew that Jeremy really liked me but I was so scared of getting hurt and losing my independence as a single gal. But he pretty much won me over and I spent a lot of time listening and really believed it was meant to be. After we left Wilderness North we both pretty much knew that this was the real deal and that we wanted to be together. I went back to Iowa to prepare for moving to MN...quit my job, looked for one's up in the cities, and asked God to provide in miraculous ways--and he did! I got a new job as a Wellness Coordinator, rented my townhome, found a place to live with friends of Jeremy's for free, and things just fell into place. We dated a couple months, were engaged a couple months, and had a on December 13, 2008. It was actually really amazing how everything came together in a short period of time and with the help of my amazing mother and the coordinator in me. A few months later, my best friend Nicole showed me the note that her and Jen had written and put under the sink in our house that said "By February 2009, Kari will be married!"...well, maybe if we really do believe in our hearts desires and wait for the perfect time, they really will happen!
2009
Wow,what a year of continued transition--ups and downs, grieving my old life, embracing my new life, growing, making mistakes, forgiving, loving, being a wife, thinking about who I want to be. The year started out with lots of trip to Iowa to see my Grandma who went to be with the Lord on February 4, 2009. That was really hard as she was really involved in my life, an amazing example, and her and my grandpa had been married for 70 years!
Jeremy and I had an eventful year! Moved into a place in Taylors Falls MN we called "The Loft". I joined the choir and we joined as youth group leaders. I went and visited Nicole out in Utah for a week! I began a new job with the MN Institute of Public Health! We bought our first place! We paid off our consumer debt. We invested in a remodeling job in our new house. We took a scuba diving class. We went to a bed and breakfast. We started working at Makers Healthy Market very part-time. We took a trip out West! I got to travel to Louisville, KY, Anaheim, CA, and Bozeman, MT, places I hadn't been to!
I learned how to knit, make jewelry, and cook and bake. I started selling Entertaining At Home products. I was on a huge learning curve with my job. I cried a lot. I healed a lot. I am learning how to love a man, how to forgive a man, and how to believe in and trust a man..not an easy task, but with God's help and healing touch I am learning.
I don't claim to have it all together. I don't say that I haven't made mistakes. But I do say that I am growing, learning, discovering, healing, becoming more of the woman I really was created to be.
2000
Class of 2000! I graduated high school at the ripe age of 17. All I thought I wanted to be was a personal trainer and help people live healthy lives. I started out at Loras College in Dubuque, IA majoring in Exercise Science and ran Cross-Country. After a semester of running being life life and a small college seeming too much like high school, I packed up my bags and moved back home.
2001
Continued a pursuit of school and decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa. I spent a summer at a Bible camp for Inner-city kids outside of Peoria, IL. It was the most rewarding and most challenging summer of my life! I loved working with at-risk youth..who are amazing kids who just need love. That spurred me on to get a degree in Youth and Human Services. Lived in the dorms with my friend Melynda from High School.
2002
Continued at UNI. Spent the summer doing an internship with the Navigators, a Christian college ministry, at Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado as a Day camp counselor. Oh how I loved living in the mountains!! Lived with Kathy, Jenna and Kara in a house right by campus.
2003
Moved into a house off campus with Emily, Emily, and Amy. Had a blast! Spent the year working part-time at SureCare Services as a Care Assistant for the elderly. I loved working with them!
2004
Wow, this was one hard year! Graduated from college with honors, which was awesome! The not so fun part was going through a lot of health issues that year..learned even more about nutrition, antibiotics, and more about what the body needs to thrive! Went through a super hard transition from college (knowing what I was doing) to not knowing what to do next! The world was at my fingertips and I didn't know which way to go. I stayed in Cedar Falls for another few months and then moved home for a few months.
2005
Moved to Des Moines, IA--spent time working at a fitness center and substitute teaching. Then I got a job at Wesley Acres Retirement Community as an Activities Assistant. I learned how to teach fitness classes for seniors. It was so fun! I lived in Waukee with Bethany. I met many amazing people through Immersion at Lutheran Church of Hope. They became my community and best friends.
2006
I moved into my own studio apartment in downtown Des Moines. I became 1/2 time Assistant Activities Coordinator and 1/2 time Wellness Coordinator. I really enjoyed my job working with the residents. It was like having 300 grandparents! My dad became really sick, really quickly, and ended up losing a fight with lung cancer on June 30, 2006. Definitely one of the hardest and most surreal days of my life. By the strength God gave me I was able to speak at his funeral and share the importance of forgiveness. God had done an amazing miracle in our relationship a couple years before he died. Thus began a grieving process. I joined the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership and signed up to co-chair. I wanted to do what I could to help people prevent going through what my dad did. I also signed up for graduate school, an online Health Promotion Management program. I cried a lot that year. I had an amazing support of friends love on me and be there for me.
2007
I moved in with Nicole and Jen into 620 19th St. Des Moines into the best house ever! We had a blast living together! I took a new opportunity with the American Lung Association as a Project Coordinator for the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership. I got to work with some amazing people and be out in the community doing education on tobacco prevention and policy. I grew leaps and bounds. The most ironic thing happened at the end of the year. Most of the ALA employees came down with Histoplasmosis! (Histo-plas-what?!!) That's exactly what I thought to! Basically I was sick with flu like symptoms for like a month--it was pretty much horrible! Not the best way to end a year! I also almost moved to Oregon...almost!
2008
This year was huge and lots of changes, I mean LOTS of changes! I had the amazing opportunity to travel to lots of cool places--Seattle, West Palm Beach, and Phoenix. I worked with an amazing group of women to plan a conference for young adult women, called Bella. The event didn't end up happening, but it would be great to do something like that again. I had thought it was time to settle down in West Des Moines so when Carrie and Perry's townhome came up for sale, I jumped on it! Little did I know that I would live in it less than 6 months! I also had a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend 6 weeks doing a leadership program called Young Leaders at Wilderness North in Northern MN. We learned about lots of different areas of knowledge--history, education, religion, business, etc. We lived in cabins, we worked on work projects, we had class sessions, read books, took trips to Duluth, took a trip to the boundary waters and to the Apostle Islands...it is also where I met Jeremy Erdman my now hubby! It was a time of getting to know each other as friends..but we had a deep soul connection that I still to this day do not understand, nor do I want to. We had a lot in common but yet are SO different. I really wrestled with God on it b/c I knew that Jeremy really liked me but I was so scared of getting hurt and losing my independence as a single gal. But he pretty much won me over and I spent a lot of time listening and really believed it was meant to be. After we left Wilderness North we both pretty much knew that this was the real deal and that we wanted to be together. I went back to Iowa to prepare for moving to MN...quit my job, looked for one's up in the cities, and asked God to provide in miraculous ways--and he did! I got a new job as a Wellness Coordinator, rented my townhome, found a place to live with friends of Jeremy's for free, and things just fell into place. We dated a couple months, were engaged a couple months, and had a on December 13, 2008. It was actually really amazing how everything came together in a short period of time and with the help of my amazing mother and the coordinator in me. A few months later, my best friend Nicole showed me the note that her and Jen had written and put under the sink in our house that said "By February 2009, Kari will be married!"...well, maybe if we really do believe in our hearts desires and wait for the perfect time, they really will happen!
2009
Wow,what a year of continued transition--ups and downs, grieving my old life, embracing my new life, growing, making mistakes, forgiving, loving, being a wife, thinking about who I want to be. The year started out with lots of trip to Iowa to see my Grandma who went to be with the Lord on February 4, 2009. That was really hard as she was really involved in my life, an amazing example, and her and my grandpa had been married for 70 years!
Jeremy and I had an eventful year! Moved into a place in Taylors Falls MN we called "The Loft". I joined the choir and we joined as youth group leaders. I went and visited Nicole out in Utah for a week! I began a new job with the MN Institute of Public Health! We bought our first place! We paid off our consumer debt. We invested in a remodeling job in our new house. We took a scuba diving class. We went to a bed and breakfast. We started working at Makers Healthy Market very part-time. We took a trip out West! I got to travel to Louisville, KY, Anaheim, CA, and Bozeman, MT, places I hadn't been to!
I learned how to knit, make jewelry, and cook and bake. I started selling Entertaining At Home products. I was on a huge learning curve with my job. I cried a lot. I healed a lot. I am learning how to love a man, how to forgive a man, and how to believe in and trust a man..not an easy task, but with God's help and healing touch I am learning.
I don't claim to have it all together. I don't say that I haven't made mistakes. But I do say that I am growing, learning, discovering, healing, becoming more of the woman I really was created to be.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Barnes and Noble
I just spent over an hour in Barnes and Noble...I absolutely love that store, but it sucks me in and I could seriously spend an entire day or week there and still never see everything..I walk in there and there is just so much that you could read about...everything and anything...people's thoughts on life, how to learn new skills, hobbies, books on animals, cookbooks (TONS!), and the list goes on and on...I think it's one of my favorite places to go because of that reason...you can go in there and really learn about almost anything....I saw a hanging item that said "Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself." A friend of mine gave me a wall hanging with that same quote on it and it's taken me awhile to finally get it or believe it....For some reason I have thought for the longest time that b/c God created me, that means that I just need to "figure out" who He created me to be, which has always caused me to just strive more and try lots of things to "figure it out".....instead of picturing who I desire to be and choosing things based on what will help me to grow into that person or picturing the things that I desire to accomplish or do and making decisions that will help me move toward those...God gave us the amazing power to choose and to be creative and for us to have the ability to picture in our minds and imagine and dream...it's really quite amazing! God could have made us puppets on a string, with no choices and really no real, true relationship b/c we would love Him b/c we had to....I think we strive way too much to try and "figure out God's will" instead of really searching deep down in our hearts and souls (that He created!) to find out what we really desire, get excited about, imagine, envision and walking those out one day at a time, making a moment by moment decision to choose things that are true to who you are and what you find out about yourself....why you think this, why you believe this, why you like this, why you don't like this.
So, walking into Barnes and Noble tonight felt like looking at a blank canvas and there are hundreds of paint colors to choose from to create a beautiful painting....Life is so beautiful...thank you Lord for choices and the ability to make them...thank you too that you have put wisdom and the ability to problem solve in us to make the best choices and the freedom to make not the best choices and the grace to help us move on....I love Barnes and Noble! Go and create you with the abilities and choices our Creator has given you!
So, walking into Barnes and Noble tonight felt like looking at a blank canvas and there are hundreds of paint colors to choose from to create a beautiful painting....Life is so beautiful...thank you Lord for choices and the ability to make them...thank you too that you have put wisdom and the ability to problem solve in us to make the best choices and the freedom to make not the best choices and the grace to help us move on....I love Barnes and Noble! Go and create you with the abilities and choices our Creator has given you!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The journey of self-discovery
I am sitting in a guesthouse at St. John's University in Minnesota reading the book "Conversations with God" and having major epiphanies and realizations about my life.. and looking back at choices I have made and seeing where I am now today from where I have been...I have realized that for most of my life I truly have not loved me and I haven't always stayed true to who I really am at the core...and when I have walked out who I really am and what I really desire and believe, it doesn't always fit into what I think other people perceive as what is best. I also wonder about the decisions I have made in my life and if they were really made out of fear or out of love....I am fearing the outcome of this, so I choose this option...OR I love these things and this opportunity fits with who I am, so therefore I am going to choose it......
I have been reflecting on the last couple years of my life and looking at choices I made and why I made those choices...the choices that I made that I did out of a heart and desire of me walking out what I love and who I am, choices that were not easy but were the most fulfilling at the core, not always most accepted by people in my life who love me. I often found myself questioning what I really believed to be true for me....the reactions of others actually solidified more for me that I was making the best decision for me....though the things that stood in the way of people's acceptance was fear instead of belief that with God all things are possible...
I have realized how much my soul craves believing that God can make a way where there seems to be no way, but how fear keep my actions from following my soul truth...how much I desire to be free from "this is the way it should be done"...this is what your career path should look like...this is the way you are supposed to meet someone, date, and go about marriage...this is how you should approach intimacy and sex...this is the way you should think about life...this is the way you should think about God and how He works...this is the way that you should go about thinking about ANYTHING....if you look back to many of the amazing men and women who created, invented, wrote, sang, developed, and led in this country and in the world, years and centuries ago, they were men and women who were free to think, ask, explore, create, ponder, experience...and therefore, paved the way in their fields and areas of exploration and in this world. I think this is why I desire to live out west and in the mountains and in nature.....the beauty, the majesty, the calmness of the mountains speak to me what I believe is God's highest truth for all of us.....It's like He's saying, "Look at all the beauty and wonder I created just for you..to live, breathe, experience, play, work, love, create, and marvel in..." and you spend all your time worrying, trying to be perfect, act perfect, get it all right, judge yourself, judge others, tell people this is the way it should be, and live in fear...and miss what is all around you all the time..ME!" I am so tired of living this way and want no part of it....my soul has spent so much of my life peeking out once and awhile when I have been doing things that I love and experience great joy in...but so much of it has been stuffed by my own and other's expectations...including the expectations I have felt by the members of church, when the people in it aren't really walking out in love and grace and freedom in their own lives and then impose their judgments and hurts on others.
I have spent the last year of my life really evaluating my beliefs and have felt challenged in the ways of thinking that I was living in that was limiting me and causing fear, a judging attitude towards other, and joylessness...I was hiding behind a wall of beliefs and paradigms that ultimately were there out of trying to protect myself from being hurt and out of fear of doing the wrong thing. I have made a lot of changes in my life in the last year and they have not been easy, but they have been the best thing for me...I have experienced so much healing and self-realization that has led me to be even more of who I desire to be and believe I am meant to be..and believe I already am but aren't living it out on a daily basis. I believe that God desires for each of his creations to be walking out who we already are but don't know it or acknowledge it and let other things get in the way of "being" who we desire to be. Challenges only strengthen it and show us more of who we are.
Last summer at Tentmakers, we each were asked to write out a 7 year letter..picturing what our lives would look like in 2015 and what had happened the previous 7 years... we also did a 2 year letter...both of them were the most the most powerful exercises I have ever done...it gave me the freedom to picture how I desire to see my life happen and to believe that it will. I pictured having my own wellness business, getting married to my best friend, having a family, traveling, moving out west, writing songs, and being apart of a young women's conference/movement (when Bella was still going to happen and still could, though my vision of it has changed). What's awesome is that those things have already been set in motion and God will continually do more than I could even ask for or imagine, which is so amazing...but we need to set it out there in our minds and believe in what we desire...for so long I diminished my desires because I thought they were selfish or wrong to look at what I really want, but I realize that the desires that are there are there for a reason and if they give me an opportunity to experience joy and fulfillment and to be able to help other's experience the same, then those are Godly desires.
I am learning more and more about who I really am and it has been the most freeing experience of my life being on this journey of creating and discovering..my healing journey as a wounded healer...as God continues to use me to help others in their healing processes...one of my greatest purposes. Thank you for the journey Lord and that we are never alone on it....keep showing us all more and more of everything you have given us as gifts.
I have been reflecting on the last couple years of my life and looking at choices I made and why I made those choices...the choices that I made that I did out of a heart and desire of me walking out what I love and who I am, choices that were not easy but were the most fulfilling at the core, not always most accepted by people in my life who love me. I often found myself questioning what I really believed to be true for me....the reactions of others actually solidified more for me that I was making the best decision for me....though the things that stood in the way of people's acceptance was fear instead of belief that with God all things are possible...
I have realized how much my soul craves believing that God can make a way where there seems to be no way, but how fear keep my actions from following my soul truth...how much I desire to be free from "this is the way it should be done"...this is what your career path should look like...this is the way you are supposed to meet someone, date, and go about marriage...this is how you should approach intimacy and sex...this is the way you should think about life...this is the way you should think about God and how He works...this is the way that you should go about thinking about ANYTHING....if you look back to many of the amazing men and women who created, invented, wrote, sang, developed, and led in this country and in the world, years and centuries ago, they were men and women who were free to think, ask, explore, create, ponder, experience...and therefore, paved the way in their fields and areas of exploration and in this world. I think this is why I desire to live out west and in the mountains and in nature.....the beauty, the majesty, the calmness of the mountains speak to me what I believe is God's highest truth for all of us.....It's like He's saying, "Look at all the beauty and wonder I created just for you..to live, breathe, experience, play, work, love, create, and marvel in..." and you spend all your time worrying, trying to be perfect, act perfect, get it all right, judge yourself, judge others, tell people this is the way it should be, and live in fear...and miss what is all around you all the time..ME!" I am so tired of living this way and want no part of it....my soul has spent so much of my life peeking out once and awhile when I have been doing things that I love and experience great joy in...but so much of it has been stuffed by my own and other's expectations...including the expectations I have felt by the members of church, when the people in it aren't really walking out in love and grace and freedom in their own lives and then impose their judgments and hurts on others.
I have spent the last year of my life really evaluating my beliefs and have felt challenged in the ways of thinking that I was living in that was limiting me and causing fear, a judging attitude towards other, and joylessness...I was hiding behind a wall of beliefs and paradigms that ultimately were there out of trying to protect myself from being hurt and out of fear of doing the wrong thing. I have made a lot of changes in my life in the last year and they have not been easy, but they have been the best thing for me...I have experienced so much healing and self-realization that has led me to be even more of who I desire to be and believe I am meant to be..and believe I already am but aren't living it out on a daily basis. I believe that God desires for each of his creations to be walking out who we already are but don't know it or acknowledge it and let other things get in the way of "being" who we desire to be. Challenges only strengthen it and show us more of who we are.
Last summer at Tentmakers, we each were asked to write out a 7 year letter..picturing what our lives would look like in 2015 and what had happened the previous 7 years... we also did a 2 year letter...both of them were the most the most powerful exercises I have ever done...it gave me the freedom to picture how I desire to see my life happen and to believe that it will. I pictured having my own wellness business, getting married to my best friend, having a family, traveling, moving out west, writing songs, and being apart of a young women's conference/movement (when Bella was still going to happen and still could, though my vision of it has changed). What's awesome is that those things have already been set in motion and God will continually do more than I could even ask for or imagine, which is so amazing...but we need to set it out there in our minds and believe in what we desire...for so long I diminished my desires because I thought they were selfish or wrong to look at what I really want, but I realize that the desires that are there are there for a reason and if they give me an opportunity to experience joy and fulfillment and to be able to help other's experience the same, then those are Godly desires.
I am learning more and more about who I really am and it has been the most freeing experience of my life being on this journey of creating and discovering..my healing journey as a wounded healer...as God continues to use me to help others in their healing processes...one of my greatest purposes. Thank you for the journey Lord and that we are never alone on it....keep showing us all more and more of everything you have given us as gifts.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Here's a memory of my grandma....she used to chew wrigley's spearmint or juicy fruit and when she was tired of chewing it but not done with it, she would roll it in a little ball and set it on the counter, like on the ledge of her recipe holder....later she would return to it and chew it again. That always made me laugh!
Today I am working on thank you's from our wedding showers--finally!! It really is quite amazing how giving and generous people are when you are getting married, it really blows me away. I love writing thank you notes b/c you can really thank people and leave comments with people that you don't talk to on a regular basis and everyone loves to get thank you cards.
Does anyone have days where they ask themselves, am I really making a difference in the lives of others? I was having one of those days and then I got an email from a friend in Des Moines who thanked me for ministering to him and teaching him more about God by the way I lived my life...I again am completely humbled and blown away and was really encouraged by that...so my encouragement to everyone today is that even when you don't feel like it, know how it's happening, and don't see it, God is ALWAYS using us in the lives of others...we just have to be available.
Today I am working on thank you's from our wedding showers--finally!! It really is quite amazing how giving and generous people are when you are getting married, it really blows me away. I love writing thank you notes b/c you can really thank people and leave comments with people that you don't talk to on a regular basis and everyone loves to get thank you cards.
Does anyone have days where they ask themselves, am I really making a difference in the lives of others? I was having one of those days and then I got an email from a friend in Des Moines who thanked me for ministering to him and teaching him more about God by the way I lived my life...I again am completely humbled and blown away and was really encouraged by that...so my encouragement to everyone today is that even when you don't feel like it, know how it's happening, and don't see it, God is ALWAYS using us in the lives of others...we just have to be available.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Today was a day of remembering my grandma
Today was my grandma Elsie's memorial service..I had the privilege of sharing with everyone a poem that I wrote about her, based on a letter I wrote her a couple weeks before she died. It was a beautiful service...really strange though to see the urn where her ashes are sitting up there knowing that was my grandma. The urn has butterflies on it which I thought was beautiful and perfect cuz grandma loved butterfliess...funny, b/c I do too. Funerals have really united my small family the last couple years...first with my dad, then my cousin Christopher who was only 6, and now grandma...so good is definitely brought out of them.
Here is the poem that I wrote:
Today is a day of remembering and celebrating my grandma's life.
These are the things I will never forget.
Her laugh
Her smile
and how it could light up a room
Her acts and words of kindness
Her warm and loving countenance
and the prayers she prayed for her family and friends every night.
Her love and support for all we do
The root of her worry for others
was out of a heart that cared so deeply.
The way she took care of others
and welcomed them into her home
always with great food made with love to share
and conversations that would last for hours.
She was a model of a beautiful woman,
who was giving, kind, generous, hardworking, funny, caring and loving.
She was a committed wife
and her and grandpa modeled a marriage rooted in faith, laughter, and love.
We all can learn from her life
the way she gave relentlessly
her thoughtfulness in all she did
her persistent prayers and her faith in God
and the way she loved those around her unconditionally.
Today is a day of remembering and celebrating the life of my grandma.
And though she will be greatly missed,
she has left a legacy of love and memories in our hearts.
Here is the poem that I wrote:
Today is a day of remembering and celebrating my grandma's life.
These are the things I will never forget.
Her laugh
Her smile
and how it could light up a room
Her acts and words of kindness
Her warm and loving countenance
and the prayers she prayed for her family and friends every night.
Her love and support for all we do
The root of her worry for others
was out of a heart that cared so deeply.
The way she took care of others
and welcomed them into her home
always with great food made with love to share
and conversations that would last for hours.
She was a model of a beautiful woman,
who was giving, kind, generous, hardworking, funny, caring and loving.
She was a committed wife
and her and grandpa modeled a marriage rooted in faith, laughter, and love.
We all can learn from her life
the way she gave relentlessly
her thoughtfulness in all she did
her persistent prayers and her faith in God
and the way she loved those around her unconditionally.
Today is a day of remembering and celebrating the life of my grandma.
And though she will be greatly missed,
she has left a legacy of love and memories in our hearts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)