I don’t promise to always post something encouraging on Mondays, but this being Thanksgiving week, how could I not?

There is a lot going on in our world that I am personally not very thankful for. There is a lot that is scary and sad and really makes us wonder what in the world is going on. But, if you take a moment to step back and really ponder, you’ll see that there is a lot that is not scary, not sad, and reassures us that what is going on is completely in the hands of a loving, caring God.

What seems out of control to us is completely in control to God. He is not surprised by the terror attacks in Paris or in Mali. He is not surprised by our reactions to these events. That doesn’t mean that He is pleased with these events, that He condones them. He’s sad, just as we are sad. He doesn’t desire for these things to happen.

I recently read an article that presented an extremely cynical view of Thanksgiving family time. So maybe your gathering doesn’t look like a Normal Rockwell painting. Does that mean we should just gloss over this holiday enjoying nothing but the pie? Grumbling our way through whatever family encounters come our way? No matter your circumstances this particular year, surely there are things to be thankful for.

Here are a few on my list:

• As I give my kitchen cabinets their annual cleaning, I will be thankful that they are filled with enough dishes to prepare and serve a meal to a large crowd.
• As I wrangle my kids into some serious de-cluttering in anticipation of little guests visiting, I’ll be thankful that our family is growing and that they’re close by.
• As I stand on my sore feet for way too many hours cooking up the Thanksgiving feast, I’ll be thankful for my husband who will rub those sore feet at the end of the day. (yes you will, honey)
• As much as I love homeschooling, I’m very thankful for a week off from teaching. And I think my two students are thankful for a break from their teacher! Just more time with mom this week.

Insert tip–> When we have lots of cleaning to do, I break out what I call “fun cleaning.” It’s all in the marketing, right? I turn on our favorite playlist and we clean like crazy for two or three songs. Then we plop down on the sofa and read a couple pages of whatever book we’re reading at the time. Cue the music and cleaning again, then more reading. And on and on we go until all the chores are done. Music is such a great motivator. We get a lot done, we get snuggle time, and we have fun. Win! Win! Win!

As I think about the countless people who have so much less of all the things we enjoy: safe shelter, clothes, food, even (crazy) family, I will be thankful that each and every person on this planet has access to the power of heaven.

It might be harder for some of us than others, but we can all find things to be thankful for.

I wish you a happy, fun, and filling Thanksgiving. Eat lots of pie! It’s really ok.

I think Mondays tend to get a bad rap. People dread Mondays because they mean back to school, back to work, back to setting alarms. Monday isn’t my favorite day, but I don’t really dread it either. We need to give Monday a break. Let’s see it as a fresh start, a chance to have a relaxing, yet productive week. A week where we don’t yell at our kids or our husbands – and a week where they don’t deserve it! A week where our house stays tidy (I’m serious) and we cook nutritious meals at home most of the time. I’m not suggesting we set up unrealistic goals for ourselves, just that we aim high. There’s no reason to go in with a sense of failure and dread, let’s go into the week with a sense of optimism, purpose and love.

Every other Monday night I meet with a group of women for Bible study, prayer and fellowship time. This semester we’ve been reading and discussing Emily Freeman’s new book Simply Tuesday. If you want or need some reassurance that it’s ok to sit down, to slow down, to take time to develop relationships rather than produce! produce! produce! this is a good read for you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it, but just this week I came upon this:

“I sense Christ asking me to embrace the days of small beginnings even when they might lead only to small endings. Because the mustard seed tells us the ending belongs to God and it is kingdom-sized.”

What I have going on here with this blog is definitely a small beginning. I am excited when I look at my stats and see that I got 11 hits in one day! I’m not sure exactly why the Lord planted the mustard seed of an idea for a blog in my mind. If you had asked me three months ago if I had considered starting a blog, I would have said, “Bwahaha!” And then one day there it was.

Is there something stirring in you? A small beginning just waiting to get out? It can be incredibly hard to step over the threshold and embrace something new, but if we remember that the ending is in God’s hands as well the beginning, and that the ending is kingdom-sized, bigger than we can even fathom, that’s the motivation you need. Right? It’s what I need.

I can do the work, create the recipes, write the words, but ultimately, whether anyone reads this or is helped or changed by the work of my hands lies completely in God’s loving hands. Knowing this takes some of the pressure off.

So here’s to your small beginning! Whatever it is: life as a new parent, a new diet, a new job, or simply a new week. I pray your small beginning grows to whatever God would have it to be and that you would be satisfied with the process, even if it feels painfully slow at times.

Happy Monday, all!

There’s an ingredient I cook with a lot – you may have noticed – coconut aminos. Think of this as a substitute for soy sauce, same sort of flavor profile without the off-limits soy. We go through a lot of coconut aminos in my house. One bottle costs about $7 at Whole Foods so I had to be kind of stingy with this ingredient – until I learned about Thrive Market. Have you heard of this company yet? It’s like Costco meets Whole Foods meets Amazon. You order your favorite healthy foods and beauty care products online at 25-50% off retail and they come right to your door.

Depending on how much you are buying these healthier ingredients, the savings can be huge. I’m doing a lot of cooking these days – and even more now that I’m recipe testing for all of you. Just an example: that $7 bottle of coconut aminos costs just $4.45 from Thrive. If your order is $49 or more, shipping is free. The catch is that there is a membership fee of $59.95/year. That comes to just a tad under $5 per month.

I was teetering on the edge of whether or not this would be a good deal for my family – until I read that for each membership purchased, Thrive gives a membership to a low-income American family who could not otherwise afford it. In case you haven’t seen a news report in about 15 years, there is a tremendous health crisis in our country. Young and old alike are being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes at an alarming rate. We know that diet effects heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the big three killers. If I can do something to help make a healthy lifestyle easier for a family that could not otherwise afford it, then sign me up!

Thrive offers thousands of products for your home, body and kitchen. If you want vegan, you can search for that. If you want non-GMO, you can search for that. Maybe you’re concerned about your beauty products being tested on animals. You can select items that fit that bill. Bottom line, Thrive Market makes it easy to shop by dietary preference and shop your conscience.

I wouldn’t endorse the company if I were not honestly a big fan. If you think Thrive Market might be a good fit for your family, sign up for a month long free trial here. Sign up is quick and easy. In no time you’ll be on your way to changing the way you shop for healthy products!

Hi, I’m Elizabeth. I’m glad you’ve found my site! Whether you’re a friend from down the road or someone on the other side of the globe, I’m glad you’re here. What I hope you will find is some encouragement and inspiration for your day and hopefully some recipes you and your family will love.

You can find all the nitty gritties of my life on the about me page and all the details on my health struggles here. Just so you’ll know what to expect from me, I’d like to give you a few details: I’m a 40-something homeschooling mom who loves to cook (and eat) and also happens to have an autoimmune disease. My husband also has autoimmunity so we’re dealing with two kids who are genetically predisposed to autoimmune disease as well. In this super busy, fast food world, we are doing our best to keep all of us sane and healthy.

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease six years ago. For the first four years living with that diagnosis, I took the drugs and had the tests and generally drank the water of our standard medical system. Then two years ago, I had a wake up call. A friend’s daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and they were NOT willing to go the mainstream path recommended by their doctors. I didn’t even know that was a choice! You mean, you don’t have to do what the doctors tell you?!? I felt like a whole new world had just opened up before me.

Long story short (again, if you want the long story, it’s here), I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the paleo diet and then the autoimmune paleo diet. There are a lot of really smart people out there who have been researching these topics and writing about them for years and I have learned so, so much from them. I’ve been researching these topics for just shy of two years and all with the goal of finding a way out from under the depressing and sometimes scary options presented by my doctors. I don’t have all the scientific answers for you.

I’m here to share my experiences, my struggles, my ah-ha moments and hope that at least some of it strikes a chord with you and brings some hope and encouragement.

And oh yeah, I have a husband and two kids who were not super excited that I took away all their gluten and yummy treats. I have always been a cook and prepared most all of our meals at home, but we had no food restrictions. We cooked and baked with wild abandon. After Thanksgiving, we would sit down as a family and everyone would choose two or three types of Christmas cookies we just HAD to have that season. We baked all of them. The kids and I in our aprons at the island baking up a holiday storm – lovely picture, isn’t it? It was lovely and great fun and super yummy. It was beautiful together time, memory-making time. What is going to happen to our cookies with this new way of eating? What’s going to come of our baking time together?

It’s tough. I’m not going to lie. I’m a people pleaser at heart. I want to see my kids’ faces light up when they walk in to find a plate of cookies on the counter or sit down to a delicious dinner. There aren’t a lot of baked goods around here anymore and none of them are like the old favorites. And some of our dinner experiments have been total flops. My kids hate spaghetti squash. You can do so many wonderful things with that amazing vegetable, but I get the groan and sad face every time it’s on the menu. One of my missions in life is to come up with a recipe involving spaghetti squash that they love. I will shout it from the rooftops when I do. (that means I will post it on the blog)

One more thing I feel like I have to tell you just so you know what you’re getting into if you become a regular visitor here, which I hope you will. A lot of the super brilliant folks who write about and espouse the wonders of paleo, like to talk about how we have evolved to eat this way over millions of years. I am not here to tell you those people are wrong, but that’s just not what I believe. As a Christian, I believe that God created the earth and He created me in His image. I did not evolve from some other creature. I am fearfully and wonderfully made and a loving God did that. He created me with this disease and all my other limitations and He helps me navigate this life with this body. I know that some day I will be in heaven where I won’t have Crohn’s disease or arthritis and I can run again. I love my family and I love this life here on earth, but I do look forward to the days in eternity with my God and without pain. So I’m not going to preach to you, but I am coming at everything from this perspective. I know it’s not for everyone and that’s ok.

My goal is to post for you twice a week. People have always asked for my recipes and I love to share them. It’s become clear to me through the years that there aren’t a lot of old school cooks out there anymore. We have a lot of convenience foods available to us and people use them. If you are going to come out of autoimmune disease using food rather than drugs, the convenience foods are out and real, home-cooking is in. I want to help you learn how to do that. Cooking isn’t scary and it doesn’t have to be hard. You might need to learn some new tricks, but you can do it and if I can be even a small part of helping you get there, I’ll be so glad!

So I hope you’ll check back in soon. I have so much I want to share with you. And no, all my posts won’t be this long. 🙂

Elizabeth