GracePoint Community Church - Nutrition Talk Notes

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  I Corinthians 6:20

Eat the foods that God intended for food, in their most natural state.  (Rex Russell MD, What the Bible Has to Say About Healthy Living)

Pace yourself!  Make small choices every day that will add up to healthier living.  Buy one new vegetable (or other healthy item) each time you shop.  Taste a bite of something everyday to acquire a taste for it.

Control toxic thoughts and emotions!  Love this – combines Biblical wisdom and science. Free e-book  called Who Switched Off My Brain

Chicken Broth recipe (I only do the basic carrot, onion/onion skins and celery.  I do my beef broth the same way except I use red wine or red wine/balsamic vinegar and cook for 72 hours)

Books: 

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin

What the Bible Has to Say AboutHealthy Living by Rex Russell MD *This is the most basic book.  If you're already overwhelmed, read this one

Best breakfast:  Sautéed veggies (in coconut oil or butter) with an egg!  Or soup! :) Or sometimes I cook an egg in my soup, stirring only the white, and leaving the yolk untouched. 

Quick and easy sauerkraut and juice:  Core an organic cabbage.  Place in a blender and cover about 3/4 of the way with water.  Add 1 T sea salt.  Blend until cabbage is fine pulp.  This may take pulsing and blending for a couple minutes, depending on your blender strength.  Pour mixture into mason jars with 2 part metal lids.  Seal tightly.  Leave at room temperature for 4 days.  Then refrigerate for at least several weeks (six weeks is ideal) to age – the flavor mellows and the final product will taste much better.  When ready to use, strain sauerkraut pulp to use in soup (add a couple teaspoons to each bowl of soup) and sauerkraut juice (take shots of this as a health tonic! )  In the meantime, buy some raw sauerkraut at a health food store and blend it up so you can hide it in soup!

Amazing blog of my friend Mary  www.gapsblog.com!  She’s way more knowledgeable than I am about nutrition.  Be sure to check this out. 

Documentaries (most available on Netflix, but if you google the name and “free” you can usually find them to stream somewhere for no charge!)

Hungry for Change

Food, Inc.

Forks over Knives

Local Food Sources:

www.azurestandard.com

http://knowthyfood.com

Trader Joes • Did I mention that I shop here?  :)  If they do carry an item, I’ve found they beat anyone’s prices.

New Seasons – take a tour or a nutrition class to get discounts

Whole Foods - shop carefully both here and New Seasons - spendy!  But if you can hit Whole Foods on a Monday pick up a Rotisserie Chicken for $6.99

I’m sure I’ve left something out that I said I would put on here, so please remind me in the comments!

Breakfast Cookies

Just in time for back-to-school, here's a gluten free, high protein breakfast cookie recipe!

 

• 5 cups blanched almond flour (I use Honeyville - which they've had at Costco lately)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 package (2 sticks) of Kerrygold butter, melted
• 1-2 cups rapadura or 1 cup honey
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 cups raisins

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F
2. Combine first four ingredients and rapadura (if using rapadura) in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the wet ingredients, coconut and raisins and mix well (I used my hands at the end to make sure it was well mixed).
4. Shape cookies into 1 1/2" balls, and flatten slightly.  Freeze on cookie sheets for ten minutes.  
5. Bake at 350°F for 15-20 minutes.  If you want them crunchier (these are chewy), turn off the oven and leave a little longer - 5-10 minutes.
6. Cool slightly and remove from cookies sheet to cooling rack.
7. Makes about 36 cookies/3 dozen

Web Resources and Books for Moms (GracePoint Church)

Web resources for Moms:

3 Year Bible Reading Plan Thirty easy verses for small children to memorize How to have a quiet time A love letter from God to you! Don’t Believe the Lies About Yourself (Grace Driscoll) Renewing your mind - Proverbs 31 Ministries The Four Minute Marriage Habit (How to fall in love all over again) 10 Points for Joyful Parenting Flylady –getting a handle on housekeeping The Peaceful Mom (saving money, organization)

Books: The Bible! ( I also love the Glo app for a free downloaded Bible on your iphone) Jesus Storybook Bible 1000 Gifts Don't Make Me Count to Three Sacred Marriage Sacred Influence Discerning the Voice of God Diet and Nutrition: Should I go gluten-free? Nourishing Traditions (book) - my only caution about this book is that calories do matter!  We don't have to labor as hard as people used to... keep that in mind :) Weston Price Website Nom Nom Paleo (great recipes!)

C's Quiet Time and Parenting Tips:

·  Once you get in a routine, she says, it's painful to miss that morning devotional. And not even being tired can keep you from it. Get over the initial hump of establishing a routine. Start with 5 minutes if it’s all you have.

·  Set the coffee maker the night before. Light candles if it’s dark. Have a time of romance with your groom and Savior.

·  She’s found a three-year through the Bible reading plan that is perfect. Try different versions of the bible until you find one that suits you.

·  Keep a prayer journal. Watch how God answers your prayers. Big and small.

·  Be the Master of Joy!!

·  Say "YES" unless you have to say no.

·  Be gracious. Talk about grace. Ask for forgiveness.

·  Be sensitive to how your child is "bent".

·  Use a lot more positive reinforcement than corporal punishment.

·  Connect with each child every day.

·  Play!!! Laugh!!! Play music and dance.

·  Play games. Love them with their love language.

·  PRAY for them!!! Bless them!!! Hold hands with them. Kiss and hug them. Tell them you love them.

Lemon Sponge Cake

We've been doing the GAPS intro diet for just over two weeks, but of course, we've cheated a little... already dipping into a few regular GAPS foods (honey is the cheat on this one).  This is one of our staples.  Don't let the cake name fool you!  It's a healthy treat for your kids.

And so easy!

Cook 3 cups organic baby carrots until soft.  I measured, but baby carrots are kind of bulky and a little odd to measure, so I counted them too... 36 baby carrots.  This can also be made with cooked summer squash or butternut squash instead of carrots, but carrots are easiest and cheapest.  It takes about 45 minutes to get them soft, so do this step ahead, and double it.  You'll want to make it again tomorrow!

Add the cooked carrots to your blender.

Then add:

1 cup of almond flour or meal (almond meal is cheapest at Trader Joes. You can also use ground walnuts.)

10 eggs (preferably from pastured, happy chickens, with golden yolks)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

5 packets True Lemon or Lime (or the zest of a lemon, especially if want to avoid the teeny tiny bit of soy in the True Lemon)

1/2 cup honey

Liquify for about 20 seconds, then pour into a buttered 12 X 8 casserole.  Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes.

Undeserved Lavish Love

The other day I heard about a dad who has never told his children that he loves them.  It broke my heart.

This seems so wrong to me.  I tried to look at it objectively.  I know that not every family is going to be like mine.

I grew up in a family that was generous with verbal praise.  We tell each other we love each other a lot.  A LOT.  Like pretty much every time we see each other or talk on the phone, to this day.  And my husband and I have continued this pattern with each other, and our children.

I know that not every family is cut from the same cloth.  Everyone has their own style.  But I got to thinking, if we are going to pattern our families after anything, it needs to be God's family.

And you know what I find in the Bible?  Lavish love.  Undeserved lavish love.  Told to us in a thousand different ways.  God's love for us, despite our sin, and poured out for us in Jesus.  Which is, of course, the most important part of love.  Let us not love in word or tongue but with actions and in truth.  I John 3:18   So showing love is obviously important.  BUT God sure does a lot of telling about His love as well.  He goes way, way out of His way to tell us how much He loves us.  Just because He loves us.

The main text for our recent women's retreat was Ephesians 3:18-19, where Paul exhorts us to join other Christians in knowing "what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge."

Literally, that we can understand a love that cannot be known.  It's an over-the-top kind of love, that can only be understood by the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

Beth Moore used Psalm 103 to expand on the measurement terms.

How wide is His love?  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

How long is His love?  From everlasting to everlasting.

How high is His love?  As far as the heavens are high above the earth, how great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.

We left the retreat amazed at his lavishness.

I've loved Psalm 40:5.  "And Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order;  If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

His thoughts toward me are too high too count?  That's A LOT of love.

I have games I play with my younger children.  I heard this idea once, and it's a winner.  You tell, for example, your 6-year old son:  "You know, if they took all the six-year-old boys in the whole world, and fit them into a football stadium, and told me I could pick any of them I wanted for my six-year-old boy, I would walk around and meet them all.  There would be boys with black hair and brown hair and red hair and blond hair, tall boys and short boys, silly boys and serious boys, boys who like baseball and boys who like football, but when I met you I would say, 'Here he is!  This is the one I want.  I don't need to look anymore.  I've found him. I want to take this one home!"  They. Love. It.  It might seem a little silly, but trust me on this one.

Until our kids get older, the only way they are going to understand God's magnificent love for them, is through our love.  Parents need to point the way to God for sure, but they are wired to trust us and need our love, and gradually they will, prayerfully, come to a close relationship with God.   But we are their first picture of what love is supposed to be. And they need to know they are loved... not because of their performance, but just because they ARE.

As for the dad who's never said "I love you," to his kids, I don't even know him, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't lavished with love as a kid.  But God is our Father, so let's be like Him.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called the children of God!  For that is what we are!  

I John 3:1 NIV

Hang in there, Mommy!

It’s summertime!  The transition feels different this year.  Going from homeschooling everyone to summer break isn’t such a big deal.  But going from having two kids in school, to having everyone home, is really sweet.

Seven kids, ages four to seventeen, all home, for the most part of our summer days.  And it’s wonderful.  It brings tears to my eyes, thinking about how thankful I am that the atmosphere in our home is what it is.  That my children are who they are, by the grace of God.

I was prompted to write, as I thought about the fact that I am reaping the benefits of much labor, both my own and that of others.  I want to encourage those who are still in the trenches of raising small children to keep up the good work!  It will be worth it.

Let me state the obvious:  We are not a perfect family.  I had a dear friend describe another family to me by saying, “They are like your family.  Everyone thinks they’re perfect.  Until they get to know them.” 

So true.  But imperfect as we are, we do enjoy our kids, and other people seem to like them too.  And while sanctification is an ongoing journey,  “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  (3 John 1:4)

I love where I’m at in this parenting journey.  It’s not as much work now, and there is much enjoyment!  I just want to remind you, yes you, the one with piles of laundry and dishes and diapers, that it’s worth it!

When you are interrupted from making dinner (for the third time), and patiently give kisses and band-aids, you are loving your children and showing them Jesus.

When you have to stop story time with your two-year-old, to lovingly give needed discipline to your four-year-old, you are teaching them to fear the Lord, which will bring them joy all the days of their lives.

When it takes you three times as long to unload the dishwasher because of your “help,” you are paving the way for the day when they can do this chore independently.  You won’t be the only one doing dishes and laundry and cooking forever!

When it seems difficult to get everyone to settle down for devotional in the morning, you are teaching them to persevere and prioritize what is most important in life.

When you hold them to the standards of the Word (Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32) and not the world, their sibling relationships will flourish.

When you say no, even to good things, if life is too busy, they will know how much you value time as a family.

When you share with joy what God has been teaching you, they will see it’s a relationship, not a religion.

When you step away from your computer, and play baseball in the backyard, you are showing them how important they are to you.

When you take them on “special dates,” you are giving them time to ask questions alone, share their hearts, and just feel loved.

When they see you have your quiet time in the morning (or see your open Bible and empty coffee mug on the table) you are modeling dependence on the living God.

Though you might groan inwardly when the early morning quiet is broken, your cheerful “Good Morning,” smile, kiss and hug is teaching them how to greet each day and those around them.

Are you noticing a trend here?  God’s Word is invaluable.

I’m deeply grateful for instruction I have received, starting with having had great parents myself. I’ve also learned so much through parenting classes and sermons, godly women and great books.  But all of these things are based on one book – the Bible – which in and of itself has taught me the most.

Because I have also received some bad parenting advice.  From Christian people and Christian churches and Christian books.  And I wouldn’t have known it was bad advice if I didn’t have God’s Word to compare it to.

So if you are a mommy of young children, I want to encourage you, most of all, to be in the Word!  Get up earlier than your kids if you can.  Or let your kids watch a video.  You only need fifteen minutes.

Just fifteen minutes. 

More is nice.  But don’t beat yourself up if you can’t.  Here’s a great way to get started.

Love those babies.  They grow up so fast.  All the old ladies will tell you that (especially when you’re about to tear your hair out, and it doesn’t seem fast at all).  But I heard a great quote that made sense of it. 

“The years are fast, but the days are slow.”

I know it's not easy.  You have the most important job in the world.  But if you belong to Him, you have the God who created everything available to you 24/7.  That’s not a bad deal.  I hope you will take advantage of it!

Can't Stop Laughing and Other Thankful Thoughts

If anyone is new to this blog, this thankful list begins here, and is a result of reading One Thousand Gifts (A Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are) by Ann Voskamp.  A highly recommended read!

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• Cade’s sweet compassion for his younger brother
• Tender words
• Bode finally realizing that it’s not that bad to wash his hair, and announcing that he’s going to do it every day
• Boys in baseball uniforms
• Kind words from friends
• Learning to crave vegetables
• First really warm days of spring
• Fresh produce on an old-fashioned china platter
• Double peony-tulips
• Silly texts with a girlfriend
• Projects coming together
• Bone-tired accomplishment (yard work!)
• Texting with son out-of-town, who tells me he loves me
• Late afternoon clean-up frenzies for a beautiful, tidy house to start the weekend
• Watermelon slices
• Coffee and Bible and Prayer on a quiet Saturday morning (with my newly put together quiet time basket with containers for prayer, verse and blank note cards to use with my beautiful stickers!)
• Baseball-playing boys knowing exactly where their uniforms are before the game (i.e. not having to run around madly looking for a jersey)
• Laughing so hard with Dan that I cried.  Can’t stop.  Laughing.  Crying.*
• Godly, loving women who want to bless their friend.  Throwing a baby shower with the sweetest of people for a mutual friend, who is so dear and such a wonderful mother... celebrating her fourth baby.
• Roasted beets with goat cheese
• Sun-kissed cheeks
• Popsicles on a sunny afternoon
• Long walks and talks with friends
• Teaching Sunday School.  Such joy in sharing the greatest gift of all.  I love teaching God’s Word.

*I don’t know if this explanation will be funny to any of you, but I’ll tell you why we were laughing.  We have had a LOT of water issues lately.  Hot water issues, water pressure issues, water pump issues, and irrigation issues.  I have had several mornings with no water = backed up dishes and laundry.  We’ve had a new hot water tank and new pressure pump installed.  Then Thursday morning the water pressure completely went out during Courtney’s shower.  Followed by a fountain of water shooting from the ground.  I called Dan on his way to work to tell him, and based on the fact that we’d had pressure issues with the shower, and that I told him I was looking out the bedroom window, he thought I was talking about the overflow valve, which would have to do with the pressure pump that had just been installed on Monday.  But I was looking out the other bedroom window.

So he called the pump and well specialists.  When the guy cam over to fix it, he kept giving me strange looks and told me several times that he doesn’t normally fix this kind of problem, but that he would.  I’m thinking, as I run around crazy with voice teacher here, my dad arriving, and running out the door, “okay, as long as it gets fixed so I can have water again.”  So late that night, all is fixed and Dan and I are getting ready for bed, and he asks me again where the water was shooting out from this morning.  When I tell him, he cracks up.  And we realize we called the pump and well specialists to fix a broken part on our sprinkler system. Which they kindly did.