Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A new passion for homemaking

I came across a new website I saw on my friend's facebook page.  The website is called passionatehomemaking.  Lindsay Edmonds is the creator.  Lindsay shares many, many different insights into her journey as a homemaker. I was so excited to find this website because so much of it is my heart's cry as well. I'm pretty sure it came as a result of my heartfelt cries to God for help in this area.  Here's my story:

Over the last two years I have changed the eating habits in our home.  I really felt that God laid it on my heart to take better care of my body.  I read a book called, The Seven Pillars of Health by Dr. Don Colbert.  I really enjoyed the book, although it was a lot of information to swallow.  Dr. Colbert warns in his book not to get overwhelmed and to take things slow.  I should have listened to his advice, but it was a library book so I had to read it quickly.  I even checked it out 2 or 3 times!  At first, I was very excited about my new found knowledge.  I attacked my kitchen and threw out all things high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated, and bleached!!! I was on a roll, but slowly, I became a little confused and overwhelmed.  There's so much to know about living a natural lifestyle. 

One day I was walking down the grocery aisle and I felt like crying as so many different emotions were inside of me.  I wanted so badly to give my family the best care and nutrition possible, but we were limited by finances, resources, and my lack of knowledge.  I felt so helpless.  I couldn't ignore the knowledge I had gained.  Learning all the harmful things that we put in our bodies day to day could never be erased; however, I didn't know what to do with it.  I didn't know what to do when we ate with other people who did not share our new lifestyle.  At first, I thought , well, we won't make it a big deal around other people.  But what if we were eating with other people a couple times a week, then what? It would totally get us off track and it seemed pointless to continue to eat healthy only some of the time.  Also, it was so time consuming! I had to learn to plan ahead, stay on budget, and research ingredients.  I felt stressed out as I was already working 30 hours at another job with almost an hour commute on the way home.  I barely made it home to cook dinner.  Some days I would have to decide whether to clean the house or make a healthy meal.  I found myself frustrated that I ever found out about toxic foods.  I couldn't bare to give my family freezer food or packaged dinners.  I was getting little colds and infections often due to stress.  I thought to myself how stress was just as harmful or maybe even more so than unhealthy foods.  I needed help.

My problem wasn't our finances, it wasn't the knowledge or lack thereof, it wasn't resources.  My problem was trying to do things all on my own. I began to cry out to God, finally (duh).  I really felt that my place was not out in the workforce, but at home taking care of my family and my home. I know this is what God has for me.  Financially it doesn' make sense right now, but I trust God.  I can breathe now and I know the Holy Spirit will help me to be the wife and mother I was created to be.  The Holy Spirit is here on Earth to guide us and comfort us, and I am learning to ask Him everything from what stores to shop at and what products to buy.  I can't find everything out at once, but I can learn a little at a time. There will be compromises here and there-especially while I'm still learning. One day I will be the woman  I was created to be, but it will take a lifetime of figuring it out.

8 comments:

  1. Jerrie, this is awesome! Welcome to the "healthy eaters" club! You're so right; it can be frustrating and time consuming to eat right; but it's so worth it! I give you a standing ovation and a really big hug! Don't give up! I'm behind you 100%!! Go, girl!

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  2. Oh I'm so glad that you love that blog too, I have found so much good information on it. I'm right there with you, slowly trying to change the food that we make and things that we buy, but it's overwhelming! Once we had Kameron though and he was eating, it all of the sudden almost pained me to feed him certain things because I knew they weren't good, but then I wondered why we were eating them! It's been kind of a fun journey for us to change our food consumption though, but sometimes I lay awake at night trying to figure it all out. This whole business of soaking grains and all that has me losing sleep. :)

    It's amazing to me that we have hearts for the same things when we were just kids that met at a campground! :) I love it. I don't know how much time you have for reading, but I have read some AWESOME books lately about homemaking, marriage and parenting if you are ever interested!

    Love the blog!!

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  3. I'll have to find this book for David. He has been considering leaning towards a more vegan lifestyle. I just hope that he won't try to put everything into practice all at once. I'd like to know about the other books you've read lately. I know you told me about one parenting book in particular- I can't remember the guy's name but I think he is affiliated with Bethel.

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  4. I know that we have talked food and life before but it has been too long. We should get together soon and make some freezer meals together and chat of course :)
    I am glad that you found the passionate homemaking blog. I have been reading it for almost as long as I have been bloging and I love it. I will have to give you a few other that are great also.

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  5. Thanks Angie-I'd love to learn more if you have any ideas to help.

    Ambritt-I know-it's so amazing that we've been friends this long. I would love to hear about more books

    Sarah- the book you are thinking of is by Danny Silk-Loving Our Kids on Purpose-definitely the most life-changing book I've ever read (outside of the bible of course)!!!

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  6. Let's do it Karen!!!! Sorry we didn't get to hang out much this summer. I have hope for this fall though!!!

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  7. Now I'll get you started in the right direction for Natural Cleaning. My favorite book is called Green Housekeeping and I love it! It's a woman who uses old-fashioned cleaning methods like our grandmothers did and it's great. I feel so much better now that I've eliminated all those chemicals from my home. I also really like the tips in Health Child, Healthy World. Good luck!

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  8. Very Good Jerrie!!! That's a lot to think about... the tough part for me is that I "can't" cook. Matt does the cooking! Within the last year we have cut out a lot of junk! It's hard, I wish that we could just switch over night but that's not realistic! We didn't get this way over night so change also will take time! Way to go... keep it up!

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