I am a stay at home wife to a wonderful, hard working Husband, and mommy to a 5 year son who is the light of our lives. I have enjoyed cooking as long as I can remember and made some pretty interesting dishes as a Child from what my Mother tells me. But cooking and entertaining has always been a passion of mine. In the past 9 years my life has had some major changes. Including job changes, birth of a child, and moves,  we are currently living in our 5th house in that time period, and which each change my cooking has also changed.

While My Husband and I were dating I was sick, very sick. After many many doctors and tests, after fearing much worse I was diagnosed with Lupus.I remember sitting in the doctors office on February 16, 2003, and they told me I was not going to die, I did not have this nasty cancer that they feared but that it was Lupus, like it was yesterday. As soon as those words were spoken, my now husband told the doctor, “I guess this means she will marry me now”,  Shortly there after we were married and  I stayed very busy with teaching full time, doing part time Children’s ministry at our church, going to grad school, and helping my husband at the farm at night. This was NOT a good combination for my body, so many medications and supplements were added to my daily routine just so I could function from day to day. Then the time came where we wanted to start a family, or hoped to, with the lupus we did not know if we would be able to have children of our own. So I STOPPED ALL those pills, cold turkey, all 28 of them, yes at 26 years old I was taking 26 pills a day. And I have not looked back once.

I found that my body responded to the food I put in my body MORE than all those pills. So slowly we moved from a normal American diet of fast food, and boxed pre made meals to more whole foods, that are not processed or very menially.We also are enjoying the whole food based nutrition that we get from Juice Plus +.  We do as much organic as we can afford and try to feed our bodies well. We know this will improve our lives and lengthen them as well. Yes we still enjoy “treats” and “junk” from time to time but a little goes a long way. I am SO happy we have made this change in our household. Yes it is tough at times, it does take more time, and planning but it is SO WORTH IT.  So 6 years later I am still pill free and feel so much better for it. Yes I stay at home now and have a much slower pace life and I am so grateful for that and that is a great blessing to me.

My son has had “food” issues from day one. From issues with dairy, to gluten, additives, and food dyes. So our journey has continued to change even more. I research and read  a LOT to try to find ways to better preserve these bodies that God has given us. I know everyone does not feel the same as I do, and that is fine. We all have to do what works for us, and that looks different for each person, and each family.