Thinking Positive

What things do you tell yourself when you look in the mirror? What about as the day progresses? Are the things you tell yourself helping or hurting you? Are you actually lying to yourself? Most people son't realize the impacts our thoughts have over us. I have been doing this bible study with the ladies prayer group about cleaning out my thought closet and replacing those shady tattered thoughts with positive ones. I always thought I was ok in this department. I am confident, assertive, and overall happy with myself, or so I thought. The study is by Jennifer Rothschild and it is something we can all relate to...Everyone has had a time when they looked in the mirror and thought damn my butt makes these jeans look huge!! And I can't count the times that I have thought to myself " uggghh that was stupid!" "you really screwed that up" "nice going". I am slowly learning to replace those negative things with more positive thoughts. The whole purpose of the study is to train yourself to think of yourself as God thinks of you. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing a blob, it is nice to look in and see the beautiful thing that God made. Don't get me wrong, there are people out there that definitely need to lose weight, but a lot of us are just too hard on ourselves, and it is difficult to see unless you are on the outside looking in. I know as a tudent there were so many tests where when I finished, I would think to myself, "you failed, loser!" many of those tests were returned with an A. Sometimes, I have a hard time thinking positive thoughts about myself and I think we all do. We all have those blah days where it seems we should have just stayed in bed, but what if we had the power to make everyday better, and have a happier outlook on life. Well I am learning that we do have that power! I am starting to see the glass half full instead of half empty and really noticing the many gifts that I have in life. I am truly blessed.

Migraines

I am one of those unfortunate people that have migraines due to food allergies- I started having them in 2nd grade, and it was not determined to be food related until I was a sophomore in high school. Typically, I remain headache free as long as I steer clear of the foods that trigger migraines, but there is somethng going on inside my head lately, and these unwanted visitors are ruining my day. Below is a link to Migraine info A-Z. I have the auras, and my vision is always affected. It usually starts with the aura, then my depth perception goes, and then come the bad migraines. Sometimes I lose vision completely. I also have stroke symptoms sometimes where the entire left side of my body goes numb. These are all fun symptoms when you have 3 kids to take care of. So since I am having all of these without eating any of the food that typically trigger migraines, I have the pleasure of seeing a neurologist and going through an insane amount of testing to figure out what the problem is. I am hoping I just developed another food allergy, gluten and casein seem to make sense- I can live a semi- vegan lifestyle and avoid those items. Anyways hope this article helps some of you if you have a similar problem.

http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/migraine?utm_medium=ask&utm_source=smart&utm_campaign=article&utm_term=Migraine&ask_return=Migraine

Tapping into the Well of Knowledge

So I told you that I am having this yearning to learn how my ancestors did things and survived the challenges of their days. My husband jokes that I would have been a great pioneer wife lol. My friends call me Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart (both names I definitely don't live up to) I make most of our meals from scratch, and am onstantly looking for something new, but without the help of my electric oven and Kitchen-Aid mixer, I would be lost! Learning to can food for storage this summer was really fun. I now have a hefty supply of various jam and jelly flavors (I bought the berries from local farmers and canned them - yummy!) and I also canned items from our small backyard garden (green beans, peppers- banana peppers, pickled peppers,  and italian peppers (i froze all of the bell peppers) and tomatoes- spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, pickled cherry tomatoes, etc) I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. I bought peaches from a local farmer and now I am prepared for whenever my ittle heart desires peach cobbler or pie. Dehydrating meat for jerky was pretty neat. I look forward to using the dehydrator more this year for fruits and vegetables as well. So the story is that I can do a lot with food, and I know that in the event that I ever had to revert back to cooking over a fire or living off of the land my family would be well taken care of. However, I lack other domestic skills that many women have. I don't sew, knit, crochet, crossstitch, or anything of the sort- a lot of these are lost arts that many women can't perform. It just so happens that women in my family are exceptional at these talents- I intend to spend some time with these great women learning the art of domesticity (maybe I can acquire the secrets to perfect pie crust, great bread, biscuits, and gravy (those are the major food items I haven't mastered yet). How cool would it be if I were able to make my kids clothes- Everything I like in the stores is outrageously proced and with twin girls and a son, the clothing bill just keeps growing. I love the Matilda Jane styles, but hate the Matilda Jane prices. They are simple styles that don't look too difficult to make, I bet I could learn to sew and maybe one day you will see Mama Cass designs at your local shopping mall.

older and wiser?

I think all those tidbits the grownups always uttered as I was growing up may finally be sinking in. Is that why they say you get older and wiser? I think I am just getting older! I feel that the knowledge was always there right in that file cabinet I shoved way back in the corner of my brain and chose not to open. By braving the cobwebs to get back to that corner it seems I opened a treasure chest! I have this newfound yearning to explore life and to learn new things. Looking back at the past couple years, I may have begun this quest unknowingly, but now I want to know it all! I have this great desire to learn where I came from and how my ancestors survived through all of those tough times in the past. I have become the conventional woman, cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids- a role I that used to make me shudder whenever I thought about it. Now I have 3 wonderful kids and a great husband, who allows me the priviledge of staying home with the kids and really connecting with life. I am also pursuing a certification in medical transcription (mabe i will hang it on the wall next to the my bachelors and masters degrees that I obviously don't use either). I thought the transcription training would allow me to be home with the kids and contribute to the family income, retirement savings etc, but instead it has become a sorespot in our home. Nonetheless, I am battling through and taking on those crazy accents, foreign doctors and those that seem to talk with their mouths full during these dictations really irk me. There should be a dictation training for the docs that is as thorough as this crash course in med school. I volunteer to teach it! Speak slow, open your mouth and most importantly speak English! Anyways only a few more weeks of the daunting tasks required by the program and I can move on. Hopefully I will also find a job transcribing for a slow speaking easy to understand doc-keep your fingers crossed for me! And in my spare time I will continue my quest to find what is natural and to determine what I will become in life.

27 and aging!

Okay so apparently I am a blog slacker! I started this blog with the intent to really reach out to people and to learn some things myself along the way. Well don't ya know life happened and I didn't even get to do a second post until now, 3 months later. This morning I had a great idea to start a blog project. Tomorrow I will be 27! I am a stay-at-home mom with 3 kids, and I have no idea what I am going to do with my life! As 30 is quickly approaching, not knowing what my future plans are really frightens me, almost as much as my expanding saddlebags! So here is the project- I intend to explore 1 career path every week, log my exercise routine, along with the recipes I will prepare that day. There will also be a mix of fun things I find to do, product reviews, and any other random thoughts I feel inclined to share. I am excited to "find" myself during this adventure. I have so many things I want to accomplish in life, but no real plan. Starting tomorrow, I am on my way to determining what I want to be when I grow up, after all in only 3 years, I will be joining the old lady club! Scary!

Good Morning

Allow me to introduce myself... I'm Cassie, a 26-year-old mother of 3 married to a soldier. In my blog you will find our crazy adventures including recipes ( I make everything from scratch, even pancakes), food storage tips (working on my 1 year food storage supply), money saving tips (links to other blogs for coupon deals and DIY tips), and other random tidbits that I feel inclined to share. Please feel free to leave comments on things you/like or dislike. I hope you have fun following along on our crazy adventures!