I posted this today on my Out of the Valley Ministries blog:

I truly believe that some things in our lives are for seasons, whether they are for friendships, difficult times, good times, careers, and even ministry.  That said, I wanted to share with you all that I believe God is leading me away from this season of ministry in life - that of active PPD ministry.

This has not been an easy decision and has been, in fact, one that I have wrestled with for quite a few months now.  But after prayer, consideration, discussion with church staff and trusted mentors, I believe it is time.  I do not know what His plans are at this point, but I know that this door is closing and I eagerly look forward to the next, whatever that may be.

Just in the past months I have witnessed God raise up several women in Christian PPD advocacy to minister to hurting moms from a Christian perspective through blogs, discussions, books, etc.  It is SO encouraging to me!  God is amazing in how He works and heals.   For myself, I have learned so much, been so blessed, and ultimately the healing that comes from ministering to others is beyond words.

I encourage all of  you to continue on and forward, living out 2 Corinthians 1:3-7:

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

The website will remain as is and maintained for now, as a static resource of sorts.  All blog posts will remain up, but I will no longer be posting any new blog posts unless they are from guest writers, and I will most likely put those as articles on the main site as well, anyhow.   You are welcome to contact me via email with any questions or heart concerns, I am still available in that way!

Off to cry some more tears…love you all!

God bless,

Tara

God's PPD Ministry

• We’re taking the kids to see their first “fireworks show” tonight - I can’t wait!  I hope they don’t get too cranky on us.
• I bought a pink folding chair for tonight.  We already had a blue one and I wanted to guarantee that Chris didn’t use my chair.
• Tonight is the kids’ last swimming lessons.  Other than S scaring me to death with her “disappearing under water” act, I think they’ve done great.
• I feel a gray hair growing in already.
• It’s still really, really hot in this state.  Heat index over 100 again today.
• I’m so glad I’m going to Heaven.
• Do you ever think about the expression or phrase “hotter than hell”?  Kind of makes me laugh.  Hell is going to be a pretty miserable place and nothing on earth could possibly be hotter or more miserable.
• But I suppose if someone wants to think so to make a point, sure…
• It has taken me two days to write this list.  It’s been a busy week!
• So last night, we did try to go see fireworks but a storm rolled in…so disappointed but what do you do?
• We might be heading to the beach today.  Along with a million other people.  I expect crowdedness.
• And heat.
• It’s going to feel like its hotter than …  oh, yea, a frying pan?
• Ha, I crack myself up!

Uncategorized

I wanted to share some more of my favorite points and quotes from Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love.  I have been so challenged by this book .  Yesterday I started listening to some of his sermons via iTunes (video podcasts -all free) and wowzers!  I am further challenged and convicted and more in love with Jesus than I ever was before.  He has a way of teaching God’s word that makes it so clear and alive, highlighting points I had never thought about before.  He is a very passionate teacher.

Some of my favorite quotes from the preface and chapter one:

• We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God.  You’ve probably heard the expression “I believe in God, just not organized religion.”  I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.  The expression would change to “I can’t deny what the church does, but I don’t believe in their God.”  At least then they’d address their rejection of God rather than use the church as a scapegoat.
• Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves.  His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can’t contain Him.  Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?
• He does not have to know us so well, but He chooses to.
• Don’t we live instead as though God is created for us, to do our bidding, to bless us, and to take care of our loved ones?…He has more of a right to ask us why so many people are starving…we are in no place to demand that He give an account to us…Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?
• God never excuses sin.  And He is always consistent with that ethic.  Whenever we start to question whether God really hates sin, we have only to think of the cross, where His Son was tortured, mocked, and beaten because of sin.  Our sin.  No question about it:  God hates and must punhish sin.  And He is totally just and fair in doing so.

God Stuff

I know this is longer than my usual post, but bear with me… Â

My how our lives have changed in a year!  It has been a very gradual change and definitely an adventure, but our lives are all the better for it!

I’m going to use this post to back up and explain more fully how we have gotten from point a to point b.

In this post I explained how I was changing my cooking and diet to benefit my migraine habit.   To sum up just in case you do not want to go back and read (and I don’t blame you, time is precious!), a year ago next week (July 2, yes I remember the day) I had my last visit to the emergency room in a neighboring city for a horrid migraine.  I was chaperoning teens, not in my own car, but thankfully a college-age student was with my group and he was able to drive them the remaining two hours home while I finished my trip in an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Embarrassing.

I had gotten to the point after that trip where I was terrified to even leave the house for too long of a distance, especially without my various migraine and pain meds.  I was a walking pharmacy.   I was having 3-4 debilitating headaches a week.  Functioning?  No, not really.  I decided I had hit rock bottom with my headaches.

I found a book that was highly recommended (Dr. David Buccholz’s Heal Your Headache) and put its 3 steps into practice - wow, the difference was amazing.  What I discovered was that MSG-laden foods, in addition to tomatoes and lemons (I’d known those were triggers for years), were migraine triggers for me.  Once I started cutting those MSG-rich foods out of my diet, my migraines decreased significantly.

If MSG was making my head feel this bad, I wonder what other additives and preservatives were doing to me?

Why not try it out?  We had nothing to lose.  I was already learning how to cook from scratch to reduce MSG, so cooking completely from scratch and with only fresh ingredients was really not a far cry from where I was.  This decision happened in September or October of last year.  Chris and I stumbled upon a documentary called A Beautiful Truth on our Netflix and watched it.  I had decided to watch it because they would be talking about MSG and its horrible effects on the body, but we learned so much more.

The entire premise of this film is centered around the life and work of Dr. Gersen, who apparently discovered the cure to various illnesses, even some cancers, through simply changing your diet.  It was actually the various parts of the film that were fascinating to us - further information about MSG and aspertame, genetically-modified organisms (GMO’s), and dental amalgams that contain mercury and how all of those are toxic to the body.

I had already discovered that simply eliminating my MSG-consumption had reduced my migraines significantly.  More than significantly.  So we took the extra step to move to organic foods.   We really had nothing to lose and health to gain, right?

Another discovery happened.  (I have mentioned this previously, but I’ll say it again.)  Where I thought I had developed an allergy to the few fruits I liked, I discovered through my lack of self-control that I had no allergic reaction to the equivalent organicially-grown fruit.   This was definitely intrigueing.  I can’t tell you how nice it is to eat an apple and not having my throat, ears, and mouth itch like crazy.

By the fall of last year and getting into winter, I had not only eliminated any and all convienence foods from my pantry and refrigerator, but had started buying only organic foods.  If there was any doubt as to what was on a label, I did not buy it.  If our bodies were not meant to consume it, then I did not want to buy it for my family.

What Chris and I realized over time was that we had been feeling better than we had felt in a long time.  To eat fast food or order pizza delivery sends our stomachs into tailspins.   It just feels good knowing you are eating healthy and feeding your family healthy foods as well.

This spring we discovered something else: the illnesses in our family have been nearly non-existent.  It has been quite a few months since we have had a cold.  Sure, we may feel like one is coming on, but by the following day we feel back to normal.  Is this because having eliminated various chemicals and poisons from our bodies, we are better able to fight off everyday viruses?  Food for thought…  (I had to say it…puns are great.)

Now, let me clarify that we are not the food police.  We are passionate about how we eat simply because we feel so much better for it, and I do get excited about it, but its not for everybody as much as I wish it were.   We are also not going to be the food police when we are out and about.  We still eat out.  We still grab Chick-fil-A when time or energy is just too limited.  When dining with friends, we do not turn our noses up at non-organic foods.   I have no desire to make anyone feel guilty or to project us as superior.  (You have my permission to remind me if I come across that way.)  Even Chris doesn’t entirely follow it - he still has to have his Dr. Pepper.  (The large amount of high fructose corn syrup in it makes me shudder.)

I wanted to be able to share more and more about how we cook and eat and why we do the what we do as I continually learn how to cook - taking you on this journey with me, if you want to go.  It’s not cheap, and therein lies the challenge on how to do this on a budget. I found a huge amount of resources and ideas on how others do this.

There is a cookbook I recently purchased called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  I was reading another blog and this book was mentioned - the ideas seemed interesting.  I read through it and the wealth of information in it is astounding.  It seems to be more book than cookbook, but thats ok.  Admittedly, I probably cannot follow every dot and tittle in the book, but the general ideas are really neat.  There is even an impressive amount of blogs out there whose writers are devoted to following the NT guidelines and giving recipes and other information on living a simpler, more organic lifestyle.  Who knew?!

This post is long enough…but I wanted to give a little background before diving into a whole new series of posts about what I am cooking and why I am cooking and shopping the way that I am.   I felt like I should give you a background on the whys and hows and how it has improved our lives thus far.

A year ago this week, I was eating a totally different diet - reliant upon convenience foods in a big way.  A year later - nary a convenient food in sight, more veggies, more fruits, baking bread and feeling tons better for it. Amazing.   I am no longer on pain meds, migraine meds, and am weaning off of my final maintainence migraine medicine (sllllloooowwwww process).    All glory to God for His wisdom and guidance in helping to improve my health, and ultimately my family’s health.

More to come!

Posting this as part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday’s!  Head on over to see other great posts and blogs about this topic!

Gone Cookin'

• My first attempt at making yogurt didn’t go so well, but I think I know what I did so I will try again.
• After I buy a new container of plain yogurt at Whole Foods today.
• G’s swim lessons are going SO well - instructor said he’s already completed everything he needs to for the level he is currently at, so he will work on reinforcing everything and removing the last swim “bubble” he has.
• It has been SO hot here lately.  99 degree days even.
• I’m scared to look at our electric bill.
• Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law for racing and completeing their first sprint triathalon!  Kara even placed third in her division!  Way to go, Kara!
• I think Kara even beat my brother’s time by eight minutes.
• Hehehehe.
• I made Stuffed Peppers for Father’s Day for Chris.  How come I never made those before?  They were so much easier than I thought they would be and quite yummy, too!
• I can’t wait for the weather to cool off a bit - the kids and I are getting tired of being cooped up inside all day long.  The sunshine through the windows is nice, but we can’t go outside to enjoy it!
• Speaking of sunshine, I think ice cream is calling my name.  And the kids’ names.
• What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Vanilla all the way baby, for me.

Going Nowhere