Standard Process Cleanse and Life Update

Jesse and I started the Standard Process Cleanse. We decided to do it because a lot of people from my home church have done it and really liked it, and I was having some pain in my stomach that none of the doctors I went to could figure out. So... we decided, no more testing for the weird stomach pain (it had been a lot better anyways, although not completely gone) and maybe we would try out this cleanse. It is supposed to clean out the toxins in your body and help your digestive organs work the way they are supposed to work. The doctor who I ordered it through also explained to me that it is eating foods to help nourish our bodies the way that God intended our bodies to be nourished, which is pretty neat. There are other benefits to doing something like this, such as sleeping better.



We went to Central Market in Lancaster to buy some veggies.



The cleanse looks something like this: you order the supplements from a medical professional (and they are pricey) and then you start the cleanse. It is a 21 day cleanse and for the first 11 days you can only eat vegetables, fruits, and 1/2 cup of brown rice or lentils. Then after the 11 days you can add chicken and fish. You are supposed to eat twice as many veggies as fruits, and half of those veggies should be raw. Included in the supplements are protein powder and whole food powder. These powders go in smoothies, you can have 2-3 smoothies a day. When I first heard that you could have smoothies I thought, "no problem, I LOVE smoothies" here's the issue... those powders, they take some getting used to. The first smoothie I had a hard time getting down because of the taste. Now we are on day 15 and I hardly taste the powder.

What has this been like for me?

1.  SO hard! For one thing, our eating schedule is weird right now. After the first day of this, I felt like we wouldn't be able to have people over for 21 days because I wouldn't be able to make a meal for everyone. I would think, about taking someone out to dinner and then remember that it would be torture for us to sit there! I never realized how much of our lives revolve around food. Even just personally, I had gotten into this bad habit of seeing coffee as "me time" and then food in general became "me time" and what a bad thing to associate as "me time". There are so many other things I should be doing with that time, that can still be "me time". Mentally, this has been very challenging.

2.  Food cravings. I have dreams about food now... and not even food that I normally would want! Right now, I just want a cup of coffee and a cookie. The first couple days, all I wanted was something warm and substantial. You aren't necessarily hungry, the supplements and powders fill you up and with the foods you can eat you don't go hungry, you just want the things you can't have. I have struggled with this aspect more than Jesse. He talks about how we should keep eating like this after the cleanse and internally I am screaming "NO! I just want a hot dog at a baseball game, I want a biscotti with my coffee! I want eggs and cheese and breads!" We will try to eat healthier though, and eat those good things in limited quantities.

3. The bathroom. One of us is almost always having to go to the bathroom. The supplements are supposed to keep you moving, and they certainly do keep you moving to the bathroom. You are also supposed to drink half your body weight in water oz...so if you weigh 140 drink 70oz.

4. Headaches. The first 2 days I had an awful headache, and now I only get one once in awhile, but I think that is part of detoxing. I've heard them called "Toxic Headaches"

5. Boredom. I am running out of ideas for how to make our food interesting or different from the day before. Thankfully there are some recipes in the book you get. I have also discoved that some normal recipes you can just omit the things you can have, like in some soups or salad dressings.

6. Sweet potatos. They have been like a life line to me. Sweet potatoes are my snack, it feels like I am eating something I shouldn't when I eat a sweet potato. They are just so tasty and warm you right up.

7. Weight loss. Jesse and I have both lost at least 6 pounds last time we checked. I think I lost 3 before the first week was over. My pants don't fit quite right anymore. I am a little worried the dress I bought for my brother's wedding will fall right off me! This is really weird for me since my weight really doesn't fluctuate much.

In case you are wondering, we are now on Day 15. The end is in sight! Jesse has been feeling great, he keeps saying, "I just feel really great" I have been feeling more alert, which is nice. Stomach pains? I haven't had them in a while... hopefully this has flushed it right out of my system!



Some beautiful poenies we bought while we were at market.



I know I am TERRIBLE at blogging consistently, I miss it, we are just living crazy busy lives so it is challenging to be consistent. I apologize to anyone who is offended at my sporadic blogging. Since I haven't blogged in forever, I'll fill you in on where are lives are at right now.

Our Life, the summary:
Well, we are working at Christ's Home for Children as relief houseparents. Typically, we will go in to work Monday 8am and leave Thursday 2pm, while we are there we sleep there too. We have our own room and bathroom. Our house has the capacity to have 8 children, but at the moment we have 5. While we are there we are the adults for those children, we make sure that they get their homework done, showers, meals, bed, etc. Anything you would do for your own kids, we do for these kids while we are there. The children that are in our home are foster children, so they were typically taken out of their home for a reason.  Our house is supposed to have ages 4-15, but right now we have a 10 month old, 2 year old, 7 yr old, 9 yrd old and 13 yr old. This is one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I just explained to one of my cousins, my job is playing mommy and at the same time crisis intervention. You never know how a kid is going to act out because of what they have seen or what has been done to them. I have found myself getting more anxious (my theory is that the anxiety is where the stomach pain came from) If I hear a noise in the night that I don't recognize I am out of bed and walking to each bedroom to make sure the kids are all in bed and not doing something bad. Jesse and I both feel like we have grown from this experience though, and it is awesome being able to see each other so much! We aren't sure how long we will be there though. It is a challenging job, and we feel that our hearts looking in other directions for jobs. I would like to do something in counseling,  but no doors have opened in that direction, and I am thankful for the oppotunities I have at Christ's Home. We know that God opened doors for us to be at Christ's Home, we just... are keeping our eyes open for more doors. Sometimes we feel like Jonah's "I know you called me to Ninevah, but Lord, isn't there somewhere else?" I think added to that, it is very challenging living out of two homes. We feel like we are living out of a duffle bag. Each time we get to the house the first night it feels like we have to get used to that bed again. It is hard coming home to spider webs and bugs that decided our apartment would be a good home while we were gone. But the schedule definitely has its perks. We have long stretches off where we can travel a little without taking any time off. So, that is our life right now. This last shift we were on, we had to take the 2 yr old to the doctor because his eyelashes got stuck under his eyelid and was irritating his eye. The doctor said he had never seen anything like it. The poor kid has such beautiful long eyelashes! Who knew long eyelashes could be such a problem?

Horror of horrors...

I have a little phobia... of moths. When a bunch of little tiny moths invaded my apartment, I was not the happiest, but they are moths, whats the worst that could happen? My first clue that these were not the run of the mill moths was when they were not flocking to lights like normal moths. That's weird. Puzzling. Something is wrong. So, eventually, I thought they will just go away, they are little moths, easily ignored. Well. They kept to themselves and made babies. Lots of little white worms crawling on the ceilings. Now I am worried. Grossed out, I feel sick to my stomach. I research these little worms and moths. Come to find out, they are meal moths. Which means, they feed on dry goods. Now, fact number 2 about me- I love to bake. So now, I have these frightful moths eating my hobby. I hate these buggers. They are eating my flour, marshmallows, white baking chocolate, etc. They have wrecked my pantry. This is a nightmare. Thankfully Jesse rescued me when he saw how distraught I was. I think I would have lost my stomach otherwise.

our little foodie hobby...

Jesse and I have developed a hobby, how fun is that? To be perfectly honest, I think that this little hobby hasn't just developed for me, I have loved making food for a long time, and everything that goes with it!

Recently, we have made a few things that I LOVE and wanted to share.

1. Affogato-

            This is some scoops of ice cream - supposed to be gelato, but any kind will do ( I recommend chocolate or vanilla). Scoop that ice cream into a bowl, and pour a shot or two of hot hot espresso over it. (Strong coffee works too!) Amazing... if you love coffee and sweets, this is for you.  (PS- not my picture)

2. Lemon Poppyseed Cake with Blueberry Compote
           This dessert TASTES like summer. Its amazing. If it is a really hot day, this is the perfect dessert. Make a lemon poppyseed cake... I imagine any lemon poppyseed muffin recipe would do, I can post the one I used sometime if you want. I made it in a 8 inch cake round. When done, pop it out of the pan and put it on something. I put mine on a cake stand with powered sugar on top of it. Then you make the blueberry compote... name is a bit misleading, it involves other fruit as well. The compote is half a cup of sugar, two teaspoons lemon juice and... I think half a cup of water. Boil that little combination and then, when all of the sugar is disolved, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Add 2 1/2 cups blueberries, 1 cup quartered strawberries, 2 large nectarines cut into slivers. Stir it all up, put in a bowl and chill it. Serve cake in slices with 1/4 cup of the compote. Tasty tasty tasty.

That's all for now, I just love those so much I had to share them!

News...

So, you may or may not know that Jesse and I have a new job. We are now working as Relief Teaching Parents for Christ's Home for Children. This means, that Monday morning through Wednesday evening, we are parenting 7 children. These children are placed at Christ's Home for many different reasons, its like foster care. Because of the way that Christ's Home is set up (houses that house children, with 2 couples working at each house) we are able to house sibling groups who might be too large to be placed in foster care, and would otherwise need to be split up.

As you might imagine, this is a HUGE adjustment for us. We are so thankful that the other couple we work with ar really great. They have been so encouraging to us as we learn the ropes, and they really challenge us to grow in our walk with God. We would really appreciate your prayers, for us, the couple we work with, and all of the kids that we are interacting with. So, this is the news, we are working a crazy job, which we are continually realizing how much we need to rely on God.

Oh, we also now have internet, so hopefully I will get better at posting more often!

Our Neighbors... the Amish

You may or may not know this about where we live, but we are surrounded by Amish. Our neighbors are Amish, the people across the street are Amish, and the people around the corner where I buy our milk are Amish. There is an Amish schoolhouse within view of our bedroom and kitchen windows, and everyday around 2 or 3 many Amish children with their lunch boxes traipse through our yard on their way home from school. Occasionally they climb a tree in our front lawn. Now, you might also know, that I did not grow up surrounded by Amish, unlike my husband, whose grandfather WAS Amish. So, Amish ways and customs are new to me. I love being surrounded by the Amish. They make me feel thankful for everything that I have, and they make me desire to live a more simple life. Their presence helps me to wonder at the smaller things in life, the things I usually take for granted.

Well, as I am getting more used to living in close proximity with these people, who make me feel like I have stepped back into time, I observe some of their ways, and I am constantly learning about them. Let me just say, I am intensely curious about these private people. Well, increasingly since the harvest is in, I keep observing large (and I mean LARGE) groups of Amish gathered together at one farm or another. When I was on my way to the grocery store the other day, I almost stopped along side of the road, I was so amazed at how many Amish people were gathered. What amazed me more, was that I thought I saw some young Amish FLIRTING! I asked my mother-in-law about it, and she asked me if it was a Tuesday or a Thursday, and I told her it was a Tuesday. I learned, that the Amish have their weddings after the harvest on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In fact, yesterday, there was an Amish wedding across the road, which would account for why no one was home yesterday for me to buy milk from.

Amish weddings are a new topic for me. I never really wondered about them, but now, as a newlywed myself, I am facinated by them. So, I looked up some facts about them.

1. Amish weddings typically take place after harvest, when they have more free time. (The men aren't in the fields every day anymore)

2. A wedding typically takes place on Tuesday or Thursday.

3. A couple won't announce their engagement until a few weeks before their wedding. The courtship is pretty secretive.

4.  The bride does not typically wear a white dress, but it is an occasion for a new dress, and their attendants dress in the same color.

5. The men in the wedding wear shirts of the same color. Servers for the wedding wear colors the bride picks out for them.

6. The wedding meal typically has to serve 200-600 people, so the women of the community all gather the day before to prepare. (and I thought my wedding was big!)

7. Apparently celery is a big deal. It is one of the main foods of the wedding meal (the stuff the fowl with celery, creamed celery, and its used as appetizers) The Amish community can sometimes guess there is a wedding if the family is planting a lot of celery.

8. There is a morning church service, followed by the ceremony. After which is the feasting.

9. There is a tradition called "going to the table", which is overseen by two appointed married couples. All of the unmarried females between 16 and thirty are invited to go upstairs and sit in some of the bedrooms, while the men are all outside in the barns. The married couple has to convince the men to go upstairs and invite one of the girls to "go to the table". They are allowed to hold hands as they come down the stairs and sit at a long table.

10. The couple normally spends the night at the Bride's parents home in order to help clean up. Many couples will stay with one of their parents until they have a place to move into.

11. Sometimes the bride will match unmarried men and women to sit together for the evening meal. (Sounds like a fun job!)

Well, these are all the traditions and pictures that I have gathered from the internet. I will ask Jesse's family if they know of anymore, and to make sure these ones are accurate!

On the hunt

One of the big things in our life right now, is my hunt for a job. It has been... frustrating... discouraging. I am really thankful for how Jesse has challenged me to trust God's will, and also how he has challenged me to continue looking. In some ways, I was ready to give up after the first interview.

I have my Master's degree in Counseling. I would like to get a job in my field, but that doesn't seem to be the way things are working out. I think I have realized though, what I really want in a job, I really want to work a job that I believe in. I am afraid that I will get a job that I feel like I go to just to put hours in, I am afraid of feeling meaningless.

So what are the factors in getting a job:
- money (lets face it, the most basic reason that people get jobs, a need for money)
- something to do, get out of the house
- skill (does the job utilize your skills, do you have the skills required for the job)
- enjoyment (how many people say that they would like to find a job they enjoy? although, it seems like many end up not enjoying that enjoyable job)
- meaning (like I mentioned, you want to feel like your effort is worth something, meaning depends on the individual, what do they value)
- effort (how much is this job going to drain you)
- environment (are you going to feel comfortable with the environment, get along well with your co-workers, do you get breaks, etc)

These factors I believe also factor into the employers choice of employee:
- money (will they be satisfied with how much it pays?)
-skill (do they have the skill set needed to do the job well? will they excel in this job?)
-enjoyment (will they enjoy their job? or will they constantly be on the look out for greener grass?)
- meaning (will they believe in what the company is doing enough to continue at the company, and to go further in the company? Will they care about the best interest of the company?)
- effort (will they put in the amount of effort needed? or will the company have to put more effort into them to get the work done? will they meet the company half way?)
- environment (will they work well with the employees already in place? will it be a good work environment for them? if they work best with others, will they be around others? if they work best alone, is it a solo job?)

These are my thoughts today, from my experiences.

Pumpkin this, pumpkin that...

In the spirit of fall... I made 5 loaves of pumpkin bread, and then last night, me and Jesse decided to have waffles for dinner... and of course we ate the waffles in our pjs while watching Jeopardy and an episode of Pushing Daisies. Do you want to know what kind of waffles we had? We had PUMPKIN waffles! With apple cider syrup. I am writing to tell you, it was pretty much amazing. In fact, we plan to make them again on Saturday, that is how in love we are with these waffles!

Would you like the recipe?
I found it on allrecipes.com, but I will repeat it here for you, with some of the changes that we made.

Pumpkin Waffles:
1 cup pumpkin puree
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup butter
(mix the above together)

In a separate bowl, mix:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar

Mix the wet mixture and dry mix together. Use your preheated waffle iron, and put the batter in the waffle iron... etc. Yummy! (Just so you know, the pumpkin taste is very subtle)

Apple Cider Syrup:
1 cup apple cider
1/2 tbsp orange juice or 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
t tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter

Mix the cider, orange or lemon juice, sigar, cornstarch, and cinnamon together in a small sauce pan. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it starts to boil. Boil until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from heat, and stir in the butter until melted. serve warm.