Musings on life, parenting, Jesus, and more...

I love my life. I love my kids. I love my career, and my clients, and the friendships both old and new that have developed over the years. And looking back in my life, at least the last 15-20 years, I’ve always felt blessed and fortunate. Sure there have been ups and downs along the way, but when I take a step back and look at my life as a whole, I feel satisfied and happy. I wish I could say the same about the world around me, but honestly when I take a step back and look at our world, our planet, our government, our food supply, it makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. I know it’s important to stay up to date on the status of things, in order to be a good citizen in a democracy, but for the most part I prefer to focus on my family, and doing my best to raise kind humans that can tackle this crazy world we live in with love, kindness, confidence, and creative solutions for the problems we are facing.  I’ve been divorced for a little over 5 years now. That was the hardest thin...

Usually defined as pain lasting longer than 3 months, I unfortunately know from experience how debilitating and downright depressing chronic pain can be. Over the last decade, I’ve made many changes in my lifestyle, my healthcare routines, and my diet to try to eliminate as much pain and inflammation from my body as possible. But I still get flare ups.  Most recently, I’ve seemed to have developed a pinched nerve in my neck. My neck and back have been a source of discomfort for as long as I can remember. I took a big fall off the top of a large slide when I was 2 years old and started getting chiropractic care for headaches in elementary school. For the last 5 years, I have been getting chiropractic care every 2-3 weeks, and for the last few years I’ve also been trying to do masssge/cupping once a month. I take curcumin, a turmeric derivative that is supposed to be good for reducing inflammation. I try to go for a walk and do some kind of yoga or stretching on most days.  Whil...

Have you heard the term yet? Glimmers. I’ve seen it a couple of times now. It’s like, the opposite of a trigger.  A trigger, sometimes referred to as a stressor, is  an action or situation that can lead to an adverse emotional reaction.  A glimmer, on the other hand, is something that leads to a positive emotional response. Instead of anxiety, or anger, or fear, positive feelings of peace, well-being and satisfaction kind of overtake you and it just feels good! I don’t know about you, but I could use more everyday life moments like that. Taking time to stop and notice these moments has been so life enhancing for me. I feel like I’ve been focusing on my problems for years; working towards healing past hurt and trauma, which, don’t get me wrong, has been amazing and it had to happen for me to really live a healthy, fulfilling life.  I’ve learned how to manage my triggers, how to reprogram my brain to think differently and therefore respond differently in stressful situ...

I love the beautiful fall colors! I love the changing seasons. I love how beautiful the Pacific Northwest is and I know that is greatly due to all the rain we get.  But this time of year is hard for me.  The cold temperatures cause my body to be in a lot more physical pain than I am during warmer months (or in warmer climates.) Because of this, I stay inside and bundled up more often, and really miss having time outside. I also miss the light, not just the sunshine, although that is huge too, but the lack of daylight this time of year also weighs on my emotions. It’s like, despite my efforts, I’m teetering back on the brinks of depression this time of year and I don’t like it. But at least I have enough awareness and life experience to know that these feelings are temporary.  I can’t believe it’s been 7 years since we downsized, packed up our necessities, and ventured south to Mazatlan, Mexico for the winter. I’m so incredibly thankful that my family was able to have that...

I have had the urge to make my chili recipe for about a week now and today I finally just decided that work can wait, I could use a little mental break anyway. With the October 15 deadline rapidly approaching, work has been a little stressful.  I spent a little extra time at the gym, then came home to do some cooking. As the meat was browning and I was chopping the green peppers and onions, I was thinking about how much we have lost the “process” of things in our culture. Everything is “processed” for us. Our clothing, furniture, homes, much of our food supply is made for us. The processes that use to take place in everyday life have been replaced with machines to do it for us. I remember when we first moved down to Mexico, and we had a house without a dishwasher, or maybe it had one, but it didn’t work very good, I don’t remember exactly, I just know that I washed dishes by hand for about six months, and I actually really enjoyed it. And I just had that similar feeling as I was ch...