A God who heals

So, last night right before bed by LOWER back started hurting me.

I used to have upper back pain from time to time from the accident but nothing really major over the past few years.  Of course, I have the occasional back pain from time to time from sleeping wrong or carry something the wrong way or whatever.  I didn't think much of it and when to bed.

In the middle of the night the back pain WOKE ME UP. I couldn't get comfortable.  THEN a migraine started to set in.  Gosh, its been years since I've had a migraine.

I couldn't see straight.
I felt nauseas from the headache
and my back still hurt!!

I took some aspirin and laid in bed thinking "I've got to call the pastor in the morning because there is no way I'm going to make it to church" (it was my week on the assimilation team).... and finally fell asleep.

I woke up feeling better. the headache was gone and just the slightest lingering of the back pain. The car ride conversation between Lance and me was all about what could have caused all of that pain that night.

We were baffled.

The sermon was great, as usual, and even though it was slightly off topic from what the pastor was speaking about I got this incredible urge to ask God to give me an opportunity to pray for someone this week.

One frustrating thing about being home all day everyday is that I don't get a lot of opportunities to pray for people. I began to think, ya know, I probably get more opportunities than I think and I should ask God to reveal to me one person this week that I could pray for.

I felt good about my prayer to God and after the message was over and  they started worship, I had to run to the bathroom quickly.

On the WAY to the bathroom, one of the pastors stopped me and said "Merrie, Would you mind praying for a couple of people when you get back." He had known that in the previous services the lead pastor was going to ask for anyone who needed healing prayer to come up front.

I still hadn't made the connection from my prayer during service and Pastor Fred's request. I ran to the bathroom, returned and Fred lead me up front to some women who needed prayer.

The first women I prayed for, I asked "How can I pray for you?"

Her response: "I have terrible back pain in my lower back". I put my hand on her back and prayed for her. She said I put my hand right in the same exact spot that the pain had started.... how did I know??

The second women I prayed for, I asked "How can I pray for you?"

Her response: "I have terrible back pain in my lower back".

The third women I prayed for, I asked "How can I pray for you?"

Her response: "Please pray that God will heal my migraines."

I had taken a class on Healing and prayer at this church over a year ago and during that class I was told that God sometimes puts pain on your body when he is going to heal someone else of that same pain.

This was something that I have never ever experienced before.

I may never see these three women again. I may never know if God actually healed them or not. But, one thing that I know FOR SURE is that God wanted me to pray for them.  I feel so honored that God was willing to use me in that way and I can't wait to see what other ways he is going to be moving in my life in the future.

Praise Him!!

Toy Story on Ice...

Giggles at intermission...what a fun show!

Waiting for Disney on ice to start!!!!! So exciting!

RECIPE

Oh boy... I just found this AMAZING cheese cracker recipe.  Its soooooo yummy and soooo easy!

I might  be making these every day!!! (if you want them crispy like an actually cracker then cook them longer than the recommended 14 min)

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/03/23/recipe-easy-cheesy-crackers/

By the way, for all of you coffee drinkers out there. Check out these homemade flavored creamers. I can't wait to give some of these a try:

http://deliciouslyorganic.net/homemade-coffee-creamer/print/

Well we were a bit impulsive this weekend.

It all started on Friday when lance needed a new ignition coil for his car. His car is awesome and comfortable but it is so expensive to fix.

After lots of discussion we decided to put the car on craigslist on Saturday morning just to see if we could even sell it.

Four hours later it was sold and gone.

What did we do. What any logical family would do in this situation.... we bought a motorcycle!

Ok maybe most people wouldn't buy a motorcycle but Lance had been eyeing this particular bike for a while and soooo we decided to get it.

It was a good deal and we will probably sell the bike for a car after the summer or maybe not...who knows....we aren't too worried about it. Either way we are having fun with the motorcycle this summer. :-)

This morning Javan excitedly announced

"Mom my tooth is a little wiggly"

I didn't believe him at first. But SURE ENOUGH one of his front teeth is loose!!

I keep clinging to the idea that he is still my baby.... I know....denial...its ok.

Today was a great day... well, with this week... everyday has been awesome. The weather has been beautiful which just makes everybody here happy happy.

Spring break!! Lance has no school work this week and Javan has the neighbor kids around to play.

Every day this week we have gone on bike rides.  Its been fun going around our little neighborhood but lately we have had fun biking through the hills by the apartments nearby.

There is a open field with several steep hills and a big tree that javan wanted to climb.  He said to me
"Mom, I'm going over to climb that tree."
me: "OK"
Javan "but last time I hurt my ankle trying to climb it" (grabbing his elbow)
me: "that's your elbow"
Javan: "Oh, well, i hurt my ankle"
Me: "do you know where your ankle is?"
Javan: "no" and starts to walk away.

I was laughing to myself about it, Lance was zooming up and down the hills so he didn't hear the conversation. Then, Javan stops, turns around and says... I mean I hurt my HAND. waving his hand up in the air.

What a silly kid.

We met a new friend today. His name is Jay. He is 5 years old and is in Kindergarten. He goes to a different school then Javan will but lives in one of the houses in our neighborhood.  The dad stays home with the kids so it sounds like Jay will be around a lot. I'm so glad Javan will have a little neighborhood playmate :-)

Ignorance is bliss

Most people these days know to watch for High fructose corn syrup and Partially Hydrogenated oils (TransFat) when making purchase.

I try my best to avoid these things in my grocery items and lately I have been using sugar substitutes. (which I just recently found a great list of sugar substitutes and am excited to give them a try - here's that list:
 http://www.organicspark.com/portfolio/technique-how-i-replace-white-sugar/

But, with all of my cooking from scratch... you'd think I'd be free from it.

Oh how much easier life was when I didn't have this knowledge.

So, this may be common sense to most but... i just found out that TRANS FAT (AKA Partially Hydrogenated oils) is...

drum roll please....

Shortening (AKA Crisco) and Margarine

What?!?!!?!?  Seriously, this was devastating for me.  All of those times I made some pie crust or tortilla shells from scratch thinking that I was doing everybody a favor...

This is an interesting article about Transfats from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/trans-fat/CL00032

And there you have it.. i have officially poisoned you with my knowledge. Now you will (hopefully) cringe when you pull out your Big ol tub o Crisco when making a pie crust. (or toss the Crisco altogether).

Never fear. Apparently Lard is a better substitute, especially if you can get the organic version or Butter, of course.

It is beginning to feel more and more like spring every day. OOH i'm so thankful.

Today we decided to ride our bikes (and Javan took his scooter) to the park.
It was a fun ride :-)

There was a cute little playground at this particular park. A slide, some swings, ya know, the basic mini playground necessities.

But, Javan had no interest in those things. What HE wanted to do was play down by the little (almost dried up) creek that ran along the park.

AND... of course.. throwing big, muddy rocks into the water.  cuz, that's just what you do when your a boy!

I made the most delicious scones yesterday. Oh, yum. heaven in my mouth. I got the recipe from this blog if you want to try them:
http://www.abusynest.com/2010/07/blueberry-flax-scones.html

And I plan on making the Nutella cookies as soon as I restock on Nutella. A jar of Nutella doesn't last long in this house.

I'm loving that the majority of the things we eat at home are made from scratch here, I'm so glad that we are cutting out processed foods as much as possible. But, i have been really curious about the whole "sugar" aspect of it. I'm not really so educated on the process of sugar and where it comes from and when I tried googling the topic I couldn't really find any substantial info on it. So, i just let it go. We eat pretty healthy so I'm not gonna worry too much about it.

I saw on facebook yesterday a blog called http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

Basically, this family is pledging to completely remove all processed and refined foods for 100 days. And their site is very enlightening. We have already basically cut out all processed foods since I make mostly everything from scratch but one way that I hadn't made the switch was with SUGAR. I didn't realize that natural pure cane sugar is refined just like our white flour is and is HORRIBLE for our bodies.

So.. for our family... bye bye sugar...

Say HELLO to honey, natural maple syrup, and agave nectar.

What I am understanding is that you can pretty much substitute sugar with any of the above in most recipe's.

If only you were there to see Lance's face when I told him I'm cutting out sugar from our diet. HAHA!!!

A cruel cruel trick indeed... **moihaha** (evil laugh)

Of course, this is just talking about the sugar we use in my cooking. I'm not going to be a nut about it when we are out or worry too much about it in the few things we do buy pre-packaged.

Next on the list... we eat cereal for breakfast every day.  Did you ever read the ingredients list on the back of the box??? YIKES!

I've ignored this fact for a very long time...

OH BUT... cereal is so CHEAP and tasty and easy.. i think it will be a loooong time before I actually completely REMOVE that box of deliciousness from our diets but... that's next on my list to work on...

to be continued....

My birthday is around the corner and we decided to celebrate "Merrie-style" that is.. I chose my gift (a month early) and purchased it.

Talk about making it easy for Lance !

So... what did I buy? A trip to BRANSON. Woot woot!

Ok, its not Vegas.. but we are really excited. We got tickets to the Sight and Sound theater there to see "Noah". I've heard a lot about these shows and am super excited to see it.

The best part is we purchased a "top secret deal" at Travelocity for our hotel room and got our room for less than $40.. taxes included!!  Can't beat that!!!!!

Boys will be boys. This was Javan's idea...

Javan's been begging to roast marshmallows and since we don't really have a good place to build a campfire we decided we's just make one inside!!
Mmmmm smores!! We didn't have any bars of chocolate so we used chocolate syrup. I have to say they were PRETTY DELICIOUS.
Now that our tummies are full of marshmallowey chocolatey yummyness, we are off to do some bike riding. Loving this almost springlike weather. (Its in the 40's but SUNNY!!!!)

Merrie

I took the plunge

I've been casually talking about dying my hair dark brown for awhile now. I've never been a brunette before...I kinda like it.

I like to dye my hair because of the pesky grey hairs that keep creeping in. I never really thought about how harmful hair dye can be...I mean, you wash it all out, right???

Well not all of it. Leaving it sit on your scalp for 40 min gives your body plenty of time to soak in all of those harmful chemicals. So much so that the chemicals can be detected in a urine sample! Yikes!

What's that have to do with becoming a brunette? Well, there are 100% herbal dyes like Henna and some others that are actually GOOD for your hair..the catch...you can't lighten them (think bleach) ..only darken.

So there you go. Brunette it is...at least for now.

Little buddies :-)