Day 230: Finding PURE Joy

I hope everyone has enjoyed the summer, for us ... this is back to school week so life will surely be returning back to normal. 

It has been about a month now and I have to update you on Lindsey's health at this point.  She is still in the thick of the storm of dealing with her Lupus outbreak and bless her heart, she is amazingly strong.  Still not able to go back to work, she is weak, tired and handling complications like an angel.  Every text, every call, every email every time I see her she sounds as if God has given her the ability to tackle this with strength and courage like I could ever only dream of.  After each and every encounter, I would find myself look around my house at my frustrations that were getting me down whether it be my messy house, the undone laundry, the fighting siblings - and it reminded me that it's all in how we handle things.  God never gives us more than we can't handle.  Thank you for your prayers.

Now, back to the green talk ...

Here is my question that I have been pondering this week as I enter back into my routine in less than 12 hours.  Pressure and joy.  Do you feel pressure when it comes to eating? Do you find joy in eating? 

I heard a quote the other day:

~ Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale. ~

As I was making my green smoothie (yes, I am making a batch of smoothies tonight so they are ready and waiting for me in the morning ... no excuses!) and I was thinking about the joy in foods and wondering if the amount of pressure to eat green and healthy is overtaking my joy?
 

A friend told me over the weekend that she felt too much pressure trying to eat raw/green and it became unpleasureable.  We put so much pressure on ourselves (or maybe I just do) - to be the perfect wife, the perfect mother, to fit into the perfect jeans, ... but I know through my relationship with God that we are far from perfect (except for those great new jeans sometimes that are very close to perfection!) but that doesn't mean we don't strive to try for perfection.  We are human.  

However, it did make me realize that I need to recapture the joy that comes from eating and I do know that eating green and healthy does result in happiness.  Mentally, physically and emotionally.  Now it's the pressure.  The pressure to eat green and healthy sometimes outweighs the reason for joy behind it.  I think I just confused my myself.

Tomorrow, it's back to basics to enjoy the YUMMY green goodness that I am now excited for!  I hope you find joy and pleasure out of what you put in your mouth and it makes you feel GOOD!  

HAPPY GREEN!!!

Day 203: A call out for prayer ...

I know that I have been missing for a while ... summer is getting the best of me along with a spilled sippy cup on my computer that no longer exists. But this post deserved borrowing my husbands computer to not quite discuss greens but to ask for your prayers.

You have all heard me talk and write about Lindsey who suffers from Lupus and who was the reason behind all of this ... she needs us and needs our prayers. After a wonderful trip with her husband to celebrate their anniversary (on her pretty pic below!) she is now in the hospital with an unusually strong flare of her lupus condition. Remember, I am in no way a doctor (even though I think I am after many seasons of Greys Anatomy) and cannot tell you exactly the reasons behind all of this but know she is not doing well. The doctors think traveling, stress and the sun could all be factors knowing she is on a healthy eating path but the body is a strange phenomenon that nobody can be exact how and why this is all happening.

Please pray for her, keep her in your good thoughts, enjoy a green smoothie in her honor, make a good choice in your food selection knowing how quickly our bodies can fail us, anything ... but please lift her up! You all have been such an encouragement to me and I know it will pass along in great lengths to her!

I promise to keep you posted and to get a new computer soon to be back with many green stories!

In the meantime, stay green and enjoy the summer...!!

HAPPY GREEN!!!