One Step at a Time

Our family has been facing uncertain times. For months before DH lost his job, we knew it was a possibility. We also knew that he wanted a career change. We had a desire to live closer to his family. We had a desire to live in a larger place that would allow us to grow our family.

All along, our prayer has not changed. We've prayed for wisdom, discernment and God's guidance for our next steps.

That prayer has slowly but surely been answered.

• DH lost his job.
• Unemployment isn't sufficient to cover the mortgage.
• DH hasn't had luck looking in his field, and decided to get his license to sell insurance.
• We listed our place for sale.
• We got an offer and submitted a short sale package to our lender.
• DH's parents lost their renters, opening the way for us to have affordable accommodations (that also happen to be bigger than our current ones AND closer to DH's family).

Now we're waiting for the next answer(s).

• Will DH be able to make a living as an insurance agent? Here, or up north?
• Will the lender accept our short sale, and if so when?
• If we are moving, what's the right timing for that?

Helping Kids Manage Their Impulses

I've really enjoyed and learned a lot from this two-post series by Ash of Simple Gifts where she talks about how she goes about teaching her kiddos to gradually increase their impulse control through games and the activities of daily life.

Part I

Part II

Idolatry

The Holy Spirit has been gently convicting me of a course correction I need to make.

The past few days I have been obsessively researching healthy living, holistic cures, diet plans, recommended supplements, etc. Yesterday I got so overwhelmed by all that I "should" be doing for myself and Pookaloo that I was on the verge of tears.

Then a gentle nudge. I read a message board post from a fellow mama about being healthy consuming her every thought. Some kind women graciously pointed in the direction of these two links:

Can Natural Living Become an Idol?

Health Food Junkie

What timely words for me.

Ever since I started on this journey to try to figure out Pookaloo's eczema, there has been a still small voice of warning that perhaps I could take it or was taking it too far. Upon reflection, I think I'm particularly vulnerable to going too far with this right now because it is one area I feel like I *can* control when so much of our life is truly out of my control at them moment (DH out of work -- only God knows when he will find work, our place up for sale -- only God knows if we will find a buyer and if the bank will accept the short sale, etc.).

So what now?

Balance.

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to be good stewards of our resources. I will not give up on making healthful choices when we can.

At the same time, I will consciously submit this area to God. When I catch myself obsessing or tempted to research one more thing, I will choose to stop and capture those thoughts to Christ. By God's grace I will redirect fretting to worship, and focus on the Creator rather than creation.

God is my Jehovah Jireh (God who provides) and Jehovah Rapha (God who heals). Ultimately it is he who blesses us with health. As it says in Psalm 23, He leads us to good pastures and still waters. I believe that is true spritually, but also physically. He is the giver of all good gifts!

Blessing in Disguise

This is a bit of thinking out loud.



I've been lactose intolerant ever since college when I was on a very strong course of two antibiotics (Biaxin and Ciproflaxin) for more than 3 months for a severe infection.



I lived in denial and suffered with the very unpleasant digestive consequences of eating dairy for far too long. Eventually I wised up a bit and cut back, but still used Lactaid or Dairy Care to help me eat one or two servings of dairy per day.



Pookaloo developed eczema that seemed strongly correlated to dairy consumption. We've been (mostly) off dairy for more than a month now.



I say mostly because there have been some slips due to poor label reading, and today I gave her skim milk as a challenge. (still waiting on results of that)



I've been feeling much better than ever before. Today I was reading about milk and excess mucus production and made a correlation I never had before:



Up until college, I would get bronchitis and/or a sinus infection every year, sometimes more than once. I've had pneumonia 4 times in my life. Since I started taking my lactose intolerance seriously, I've had bronchitis only once, and only had one sinus infection.



I used to pray and pray for God to take my lactose intolerance away so that I would be able to eat all the foods I used to enjoy and not suffer with the digestive symptoms.



He said no, and now I can finally see that it was for my benefit!



Pookaloo's eczema is what it took for me to go that extra step and be completely dairy free.



Now that we're dairy free I still have some unpleasant digestive symptoms, so I think the lactose issues were just covering up some other problems (leaky gut? yeasts and/or parasites? all of the above?). I'm feeling ready to tackle those and confident that I can be disciplined enough to change my diet for the better and fast from those things which are "permissible but not beneficial."