Insert foot in mouth

I will admit that one of my biggest struggles is controlling my mouth. I can think of all kinds of lovely things to say when I am mad, hurt, or just down right pissed off. A lot of the time I will say what I am feeling with absolutely no filter. Over the years I have become aware of this and tried to tame the beast, but once in a while it rears its ugly head. Today was one of those days.

I got news from my friend earlier today telling me that one of her friends she has had since 3rd grade passed away from cancer. She left behind a husband and baby who is not even one years old. This broke my heart. I had been highly aggravated from some of the days events, but this just stopped me in my tracks. All the anger and frustration from these little, ridiculous issues calmed down and I realized how dumb it all really is in the long run. How selfish am I? I should be thanking God for this very day and appreciating the fact that my almost one year old isn't going to lose her mommy to such an awful disease, and instead little nonsense stuff is burdening my thoughts.

This information sobered my mind and I realized that I don't need to defend myself or my family to anyone. All the judgements that people put on me are just going to fall at their feet. I am not going to throw my pearls before swine. No more. I am not going to open my big fat mouth even when I have something that I think is REALLY good. I know that I have placed my life, health and family in God's hands and at the end of the day he will fight for me, and do a much better job.

Beautiful you.

Women these days have such distorted physical images. Many people blame it on Hollywood, or the media, and this is all legitimate, but I think the real problem lies within ourselves. We are constantly comparing ourselves to someone else. We can never be content with who we are because there is always someone better.

Today I was in the grocery store and this lady says to me, "Wow, you are gorgeous." I was caught off guard  at first and said thank you, but it was a genuine compliment and made me feel really good. Now, if I had the same comment from a man I would have probably said thanks and quickly moved the other direction. I realized that the best kind of compliment is one that comes from a woman. Why? She will not gain anything from it. She is confident enough in herself and has enough to share.

What if we as women all decided to start loving ourselves, and seeing beyond our insecurities? What if we could see someone beautiful and instead of being envious, appreciate their beauty and be comfortable enough to tell them? I bet women as a whole would be a lot more secure if they heard a genuine compliment once in a while. Don't get me wrong, it is always great to hear my husband tell me I am beautiful, but there is something special about hearing it from a total stranger.

Ladies, I challenge you!! Next time you see a pretty girl, tell her in your own way. It will take you out of your comfort zone, but I guarantee it will empower her and make her day! Confidence is contagious, pass it on!

Is God REALLY in control?

No, he is not. He has not put himself in a position of control in our lives, if so we would be robots. We decide whether or not we want him there. We can give him the control, the decision is ours completely. People tend to blame God when things don't go their way, even though they have never wanted anything to do with him. It is like having a party and setting up a beautiful spread of food with gorgeous china covering the whole table. All the sudden you walk in the room and the whole table is destroyed. You blame it on one of your guests. The problem is that that guest isn't at your party, they weren't even invited. You can't blame someone who is not there.... The only way that God will come into your life is if he is invited, otherwise you are on your own. If things aren't going your way maybe you should stop blaming him and start asking for his help, just sayin'.

To V or not to V: Are We Playing God?

As mothers and fathers one of the most amazing times is watching our babies naturally grow into their own little people. Without doing anything extraordinary these babies grow from a tiny grain of sand to a perfect bundle in nine short months. All the systems are formed in the womb unassisted and perfectly orchestrated, but then they are born.... All of the sudden we think that God needs our help and  we start injecting their bodies with harmful toxins so that they stay "healthy."

The hepatitis B vaccine is given to babies as early as the first day of birth. Did you know that hepatitis B is either sexually transmitted or contracted through sharing needles? Last time I checked babies aren't having sex or shooting anything up. Did you know that 14 of the childhood vaccines contain tissues from aborted human babies? Did you know that mercury is the second most toxic element on the planet? Mercury is still in vaccines and is listed as an ingredient on the CDC's website, regardless of what drug manufactures might say. Did you know autism and mercury poisoning have the same symptoms?

I am a mom, I am not a doctor. I do not have a medical degree, but I can read. People need to know that they have a choice, and you are still able to decide what you put in your child's body. Educate before you vaccinate, do your research, talk to someone whose child has vaccine damage, and follow your heart. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate, that is the question!

The F word

Yup, forgiveness. It is by far way worse than the other F word. Everyone wants to be forgiven, but when it comes our turn to do the forgiving, it gets a little uncomfortable. We want debtors to forgive our debts, our significant other to forgive us for that mean thing we said, and our kids to forgive us for for losing our temper. Then all of the sudden, WHAM! Somebody hits you where it hurts. Whether someone attacks your family, your character, or even your marriage the hatred starts to brew inside you. Who do they think they are? How dare they. They hit you where it really hurts and get you at your weakest point. Immediately there is an anger stirring inside of you and your head starts to spin. You think of all the things you wish you could say, maybe you even say them.

Now what? The hardest thing to do is to forgive someone who has hurt you or your family. Forgiving someone is an action. You have to forgive actively. Does this mean that you have to become your offenders best friend? Not necessarily, but you will know that you have truly forgiven them if you are at peace. If you still have anger or bitter thoughts toward the person then the chances are you haven't forgiven them. Is your mind free? Don't give the person the satisfaction of disturbing your life. Give it to God, even if you have to do it several times a day. The end result will be a happier, blessed life. So next times someone does something against you, F them!  :)

Stay at home mom?

I am so blessed. Over the past year, thanks to my amazing husband, I have been able to stay at home and be a wife, a part time mom to one little girl, and a full time mom to another little girl. Growing up I always knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom and teach my children the values and morals that were important to me, not relying on someone else to teach my children. When I first quit my job last April it was such a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, I felt so free. I was able to spend my pregnancy preparing for my new baby and spending some quality time with my family and friends. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your children grow into their own little personalities and being there for every moment of their lives.I enjoy cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, doing laudry, couponing, giving baths, and all that housewife stuff, but I know that I was not put on this earth to do just that. Do you ever feel like you want to be identified as more than a mom and wife?

In the last year I have had the opportunity to explore my passions and in doing that I have learned so much about myself. What do you love to do? Do you even know? How do you want people to remember you? Do you want to have a good life, or a great life? These are questions that I ask myself all of the time. My family will always be the most important job that I have, but I know that I am capable of contributing more of myself to this world to make a difference. I want to use the gifts and talents God has given me to help other people better their own lives. I want it all. My journey begins, and I am excited to see where it takes me. Just because we are "stay at home moms" doesn't mean that is all we have to be.

Much love to all the hard working mama's, we have a big job.

Flatten The Fear

The most perfect picture of faith and trust can be found in the face of my beautiful baby girl. She does not worry that I will drop her or leave her in the restaurant in her carseat. She doesn't lose sleep because she is stressed that she might not be taken care of when she wakes up. She is perfectly at peace. Sometimes I jostle her around too much trying to get her in the car or in the stroller, but she isn't worried about it. She knows that I am not going to let anything happen to her. I envy this trust and carefree spirit. If only I could be more like my 5 month old daughter...

These days there are so many things to be afraid of. The economy is bad, gas prices are high, money is tight, families are falling apart, people are getting killed, hurt and abused. When you turn on the TV you are bombarded by fear. How can anyone even leave the house in safety? How can my family possibly make it through this hard time? How are we going to pay the mortgage? These questions constantly come into our minds. The only way to conquer this fear is to rise above it and trust our Creator. We don't have the answers to these questions, and to worry about them isn't going to change the outcome. We have to have faith instead of fear. Making the decision to exchange your fear for faith will change your life. Every time fear starts to creep up in my life I flatten it and say, "I have no control over this situation, and I am not going to change it by worrying, God please deal with this and do your will." By doing this I become more like my baby girl. I am trusting God to take this situation and deal with it while I sleep peacefully and know that I am going to be ok. No matter what. Good bye fear, hello freedom.

Beauty--- Blessing or curse? Your choice.

As a new mom it is so hard to turn on the TV and see beautiful, skinny, and perfect women everywhere. It actually makes me want to throw something at the screen and then cry. We see the Victoria's Secret commercials and the reality TV stars and automatically begin to compare ourselves. Or maybe we don't even compare because we know that we are nowhere near looking like that....

Take yourself back to a moment in which you felt your most beautiful. Think. I know you have at least one moment where you were proud to be in your own skin. For me it was my wedding day.. I had spent countless hours preparing my dress, nails, hair, makeup, tanning, exercising....blah blah blah. Considering all the work it took I better feel fricking fabulous! I knew that I was the most beautiful on that day, it didn't matter what everyone else looked like because that was MY day. It has now been a short year and a half since then and a lot has happened to me. My body has sustained a gorgeous baby girl since the time she was conceived a year ago. What could possibly be more beautiful than that? She has survived solely off of my body. After being pregnant for 9 months and gaining weight, swelling up, stretching out and feeling gross, the last thing that I felt was beautiful. I would sit on the couch and look at pictures from my "skinny days" and wish I could look like that again. The problem is that when I did look like that I still wasn't happy. My beauty was a curse. I had to look like that VS model or I wasn't beautiful. I could never be content because no matter how much I tried there was always somebody prettier. Curse. Comparing your beauty to someone else's is a CURSE. Finally I have come to the point that I will not curse the beauty that I felt on my wedding day by comparing it to someone else. Do you find yourself comparing? To compare is to curse. Instead of cursing yourself, start considering your beauty a blessing. What do you like about yourself? Your eyes, smile, hair? Focus on the things about yourself that make you feel beautiful. Nobody can compare to you. Take the things that make you feel best about yourself and do them more often. Even if it is as simple as taking a shower and putting a little makeup on. Use the unique and special beauty God gave you as a blessing, something special that only you have. I don't care how good those models look they can't take away your special piece of beauty. Cherish it and appreciate it, don't curse it. Beauty is a choice because we all have felt it. Is yours a blessing or a curse?

Are you sick of it?

As a new mom, it can be exhausting to constantly hear everyone and their opinions on how you should raise your child. Everyone says "trust your instinct" but there are so many messages coming at us that there is no way to know what your "instinct" is anymore. We live in a very "sick" society and unless someone is in good health and doesn't take prescription meds or have multiple surgeries under their belt, I personally don't even want to hear their opinion. We are bombarded with commercials from pharmaceutical companies telling us how to "fix" our problems and then our doctors confirm that presciption medication is indeed the answer to our problems. What do you think?

Our bodies are natural. They were not made to be pumped with chemicals and drugs. Sickness is all around us and if our bodies don't have what they need to combat illness then we are going to fall into the trap. If we want to get healthy and stay that way, the first thing you need to do is provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function. For now, forget the things that you need to avoid in order to stay healthy, that is a different topic altogether. Lets just talk about a couple things that you can eat or ADD to your diet in order to improve your overall health. I don't know about you, but I get sick of hearing about all the things you can't have, with no ideas of things you should have. Start with avocados. The best thing that you can eat is probably an avocado. It is loaded with antioxidant properties and over fourteen minerals. They are 80% fat, but it is all good fat that your body needs in order to function. They have anti-aging properties, protect against cancer and eye diseases and are high in fiber. They have compounds that lower cholesterol and help prevent heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. All of these results from one little avocado!!! Imagine how much healthier you would be if you just commited to putting an avocado into your family's salad every night, or making guacamole!

Second thing I have personally felt change my body are Chia seeds. Yes, like the pet. Just two tablespoons of chia per day gives you 4160 mg of omega-3 and over 8g of fiber. They promote a healthy heart, good muscular health, healthy skin and hair, stonger immune system, weight loss, joint function and mobility, and they are loaded with antioxidants. You can buy chia seeds online or in health food stores. They have no flavor and can be added to food or taken alone.

I challenge you to add these two things into your diet and start to give your body what it needs to stay healthy and strong. We live in a toxic society. Most of our food is toxic (unless you buy organic) and we are pumped with toxic chemicals through vaccines, and prescription medications. Take charge of your health and start adding disease and toxin fighting foods into your diet and I guarantee you will save on your health care costs! As a mom, I am tortured by the thought of little babies being loaded with toxin after toxin with no way of escape from their bodies. They become prisoners to their own bodies and only you as their parent can help clean them out and give them what they need to fight off all the bad! Do it!