Since starting on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), I have not been taking any supplements, vitamins, or medicines.  Most everything has a starch of some sort.  In my efforts to “fanatically adhere” to the diet, I don’t even take anything for pain like Advil or aspirin; therefore, I did not spend any of my precious time trying to find legal supplements.

On April 1st, 2011, my family and I began our journey on SCD.  Some members of my family have seen remarkable results.  My husband lost 32 pounds.  My daughter lost 34 pounds and has grown an incredible 4 inches.  What is so incredible is that a year before the diet, she did not grow at all, not even a 1/4 of an inch!  Isaac and Andrew have also grown 2 inches each.

Jake and I have not seen remarkable results.  He has grown, but not a surprising amount.  I cannot lose a pound no matter how hard I try.  At the same time, Jake and I do not have a big problem with wheat, gluten, and milk like the others.  I guess that is why we see any real exterior results.

Well, I am totally excited because I just returned from a check-up with my doctor.  I am so proud to announce that my adrenal and thyroid glands are working well.  I have absolutely no yeast problem in my gut.  My body requires no additional vitamins or minerals, including EFAs.  All of my levels are great!  The doctor did not recommend any supplements or medicine whatsoever.

Sometimes when you are on a diet, your body suffers from the lack of something.  Some diets are not healthy to be on period.  However, I am now convinced that eating on the SCD protocol is absolutely healthy even for people like me who do not suffer from intestinal issues.  It does not take a genius to know that a lifestyle free from processed foods, starches, and sugar is a healthy one.  I just did not realize the impact the diet was having on my body.

If for some reason you have been looking into the SCD protocol and just aren’t sure if it is for your family, write me.  I will try to answer all of your questions.  It is not easy to follow, but it plays an important role in making your family healthy.

Most women know about breast cancer and perform self-exams and/or see a doctor annually for a check-up.  However according to an article in Mountain Medicine, heart disease kills more women each year than breast cancer.  In fact, women 65 years and older die more from heart disease than all cancers combined.  For my age group, which is 25-44 years, heart disease is third in the leading causes of death for women.  Needless to say, heart disease is serious.

For years I have heard on the news that females experience different symptoms than males.  Men usually experience chest pain, pain in upper body like the arms or neck,  shortness of breath, a racing heart, intense anxiety, and/or cold sweats.  We have all seen in a movie a man clutch his chest and fall to the ground in a dramatic showing; however, rarely is the real-life scenario played out like this, especially for women.

Leading up to the actual heart attack, women often experience fatigue, indigestion, and anxiety.  Even during the actual heart attack, women rarely even have chest pain.  Instead these are the top heart attack symptoms for a women:

Shortness of Breath
Weakness
Unusual Fatigue
Cold Sweats, and
Dizziness.

I struggle with knowing when to seek medical attention even for accidents.  When does a cut really require stitches, for example?  So I understand the confusion of when to call 9-1-1.  Learn these symptoms and immediately seek medical attention if you experience most of them.  Your life is counting on it.  There is a good reason that we have the saying  “as serious as a heart attack.”

As we continued to open presents, we realized that all of the toys were intended to be played with outdoors.  And here on Christmas Day, it was rainy and cold, not exactly weather conducive to play.  Since both boys had a bad case of pinkeye and were battling a snotty nose, I was reluctant to allow them to play outside.  Before I could decide what to do, my husband suggested that they ride their bikes in the house.

We have an open layout of our living area.  I guess you would call it a great room.  Traffic moves easily from the kitchen to living room to dining room.  I just did not foresee an actual road, but the boys saw it immediately.  Andrew, who was just learning to pedal and steer, rode very cautiously and slowly around the circular “road.”  Isaac, on the other hand, was skillfully navigating the course even “off-roading” around our dining table.  Isaac was leaving behind him a trail of black smudges on my tile floor as he literally fish-tailed on the turns.

They say that once you learn how to ride a bike that you never forget.  I still remember teaching Clayton, Kyla, and Jake how to ride without training wheels.  Some kids catch on almost immediately.  Some need much more practice and encouragement.  I was planning on teaching the younger two boys also when they showed interest in learning.

To my surprise, Isaac came running into the kitchen.  “Mom, come outside.  I’ve got something to show you.”

The training wheels were laying on the driveway.  Kyla was holding the back of the bicycle seat.  She ran a few steps and let go.  Isaac rode down the driveway and back without falling.  He even applied the brakes correctly.  I was impressed.  I was impressed that he was such a natural at riding a bike.  But I was mainly impressed with the way that Kyla took it upon herself to teach her brother.

I stood on the driveway watching as she encouraged him with sweet words.  I witnessed her patient instruction to teach him to start a ride without help.  I watched as his smile beamed up to her face with silent expressions of love and gratitude.  What an absolute joy to behold!

Isaac did not learn to ride a bike without training wheels on Christmas Day, but I still consider it one of my best Christmas gifts.  Children are a blessing from God.  When you get to witness their love and grace to one another, it is a blessing to the power of x.  What x equals is up to you, but it is exceedingly abundant.  I hope that each of you gets to experience this and that you will treasure it like Mary, who “treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

By now you are frustrated with your family.  They don’t seem to notice the flaws all over the house that jump out at you.  Why?  Because you have put on your “guest eyes” and look critically at your home.  You are astonished by the layer of dust on your ceiling fan blades and dust bunnies under the china hutch.  You wonder how they moved in without you noticing until now.

Everyone knows that you are frustrated.  They can tell by the way you bark orders and the shortness of your responses to their questions.  You begin wondering, “What was I thinking when I volunteered to host this event?” and “Next year I am not doing this.  Someone else can.”

Does this sound familiar to you?  Are you wondering how I know what you are like?  Or does this sound like your wife?  I am guilty of all the above behavior.  It is something I keep trying to change about myself.

I was greatly encouraged by something Michelle Duggar wrote in her book, A Love that Multiplies.  She has a sign at her front door that states, “My house was clean last week.  Sorry you missed it.”  She tells friends, “If you’re coming to see us, come anytime.  If you came to see the house, please give us a two weeks’ notice.”  The latter statement immediately affected me.  I have since taken it and slightly modified it to sound more like me.  Repeating the saying helps me relax.  My guests are coming to visit us, not our house.  It is a simple, but profound thought.

Todd Wilson, of Family Man Ministries, wrote in Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe, “…I like it when people drop in on short notice.  It gives my wife less time to treat the rest of us like dirt.”  His purpose for writing this particular book was to not make moms, including his wife, feel bad, guilty, or call us out.  He is trying to encourage us that the reason we get like that is because we believe everyone else’s home is cleaner than ours.

Whether or not it is a lie, the important thing is to set your priorities right.  A clean house has its place.  It is not healthy to live in filth and squalor.  For most of us, this isn’t the issue.  Instead, our homes look like people live there.  We have books out and toys.  We wear clothes and therefore have to do laundry.  We sleep in beds and don’t always make them.  We might have mail cluttering our counter or dishes in the sink.  Our homes do not look like they came straight out of a magazine.

One of the nicest things an older couple said to me when they dropped by unannounced is, “Your house looks like such a fun place to be.”  At the time, I had to step over two Tonka trucks and a rip stick to greet them in my yard, which was littered with bikes and balls.  I thought to myself, “Wow, what a cool thing to say!”

Your relationship with your husband and the relationships with each of your children is so much more important than an extremely clean house.  Don’t provoke them to anger by placing your aspiration for a picture-perfect home over your loving care for them.

Words can hurt, tones of voice can repel, and bad attitudes are contagious.  “Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred (Proverbs 15:17).  Another Proverb comes to mind, “Better to live on the corner of a roof than in a house shared with a nagging wife (Proverbs 25:24).

God knows how we can get as we aspire to impress others with our cleanliness that he shared the Mary and Martha story with us in Luke chapter 10.  I don’t know about you, but at time I can completely relate to Martha’s frustration and stress.  But we learn from Jesus himself that Mary had chosen what was better.  She had her priorities correctly set.

It is the week before Christmas.  If you are not reflecting on the most wonderful gift of all, Jesus, then you are missing the point.  If you are alienating your immediate family, then you need to stop and ask their forgiveness.  Re-evaluate your priorities.  Enjoy your family.  Make good memories.  Make your house a home, not a sterile environment in an attempt to be perfect.  Don’t have a Christmas Cleaning Crisis.  It is not worth it.

One of the easiest things to do as a mom is to not include your children in your daily work.  It takes much less time to do the chores alone.  There is less hassle.  You don’t have to explain anything.  You don’t have to practice patience while your child is slowly and ineptly wiping down a counter or sweeping the floor.  Things get done better and are done well when we do them ourselves.  Right?

Yes.  It is true.  I can prepare dinner, do the dishes, wipe down the counter tops, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor in a fraction of the time it takes for me to do it with Isaac and Andrew, who are 4 and 3 respectively.  When Isaac dusts, he is so diligent that it takes him forever.  What price do I pay if I do the work myself and tell him to go watch television or go play?  I submit to you that I pay a huge price.

I am cheating myself out of spending time with my children.  I am cheating myself out of teaching my children skills that they will need in life.  I am cheating myself out of raising hard-working, diligent kids.  I am cheating them out of experiencing the joy of a job well done.

There are days when I feel like I live in the kitchen.  I cook breakfast, put away the food, unload the dishes, load the dirty dishes, and hand wash a pan.  By the time I finish, it is almost time to begin lunch.  There are days when I wonder why my family insists on eating three meals a day and how dare they ask for a snack!

I like being efficient in the kitchen.  I know where things are.  I know how to use my kitchen appliances.  As a result, I can throw a meal together pretty quickly.  But, there are days when I have to remind myself to slow down and make room at the counter or sink for my children.

My oldest son, Clayton, is 15.  He loves to fry eggs and he is really good at it.  Clayton also enjoys making stir-fry.  He can grill and pretty much follow any recipe with successful results.  When he was 12, I was helping my husband, Lane, construct one of his projects.  We were all hungry and I could not stop what I was doing at the time to prepare something for dinner.  I told Clayton to make meatballs.  He knew what to do because I had spent so much time when he was younger allowing him to help me in the kitchen.

My daughter, Kyla, is 12.  She is a master baker.  If we need baked goods, she is my go-to-gal.  Kyla can grill outside, too, even though that is traditionally male territory.  She can cook anything as long as she has a recipe.  There have been many nights when I have depended on her to get dinner started.

Jake is 10.  He is the most adventurous of my children in the kitchen.  He likes to smell spices and come up with different seasoning combinations, which I usually allow.  Until recently, he cooked completely supervised.

On my husband’s birthday last week, Lane and I were coming home from a dentist appointment.  We had to eat an early dinner to make it to church that evening.  So, I called my daughter and asked her to make tea, steam carrots, make a salad, and make ranch dressing.  I asked Jake to season the pork chops and grill them.  I cannot explain how wonderful that dinner was.  To know that your children are capable in the kitchen is great.  To know that they can prepare healthy and delicious meals on their own is awesome.  To know that all those years of cooking with your children pays off is incredible.

As an even bigger surprise, Jake woke up early the next morning.  He made coffee and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  What a wonderful way to start your day!  It made me feel very blessed, honored, and special.  From his smile, I think he greatly enjoyed it, too.

Having your children work alongside of you is worth the loss of time and efficiency.  Encourage their help as they learn skills that will one day prove helpful.  Believe me when I say that it is much nicer to live in a household where five of the seven people (Isaac and Andrew are in training) are capable in the kitchen and elsewhere in the house than a house where one does everything.

If you don’t know where to start, begin in the kitchen.  Make one of your child’s favorite dishes with his/her help.  Know that it will take longer and be a more messy venture, but remind yourself to see the big picture.  See the long-term investment you are making in your child.

My mom and I.

Mother
by George Cooper

Hundreds of stars in the deep blue sky,
Hundreds of shells on the shore together,
Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
Hundreds of birds in the sunny weather.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.

Mothers play an important role in their children’s lives.  They not only give them life, but nourish their children as they grow and mature into adulthood.  Mothers of adult children can give wise advice and be a great, loyal friend.  Eventually they become grandmothers, who anxiously wait to baby-sit your children.  A mother’s role in life changes as she grows older.

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, ”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (3:1).  Regardless of what season your mother is in, whether she has a brand-new infant or is a great-grandmother, the United States sets this Sunday to celebrate mothers.  

If you are trying to figure out what to do for your mom, I wrote an article, “Mother’s Day Ideas.”  In it, I ask some basic questions to get your creative juices flowing.  Check it out if you are suffering from a lack of ideas. 

For some people, Mother’s Day is a difficult day as they reflect and remember the deceased.  I think that is why I chose to use the above poem.  We all have one mother and when she is gone, we only have memories.  I will be remembering my grandmother on Sunday as well as my mother-in-law, my step-mother and of course my own mom.  This might look like a long list, but there is only one of each of them, which makes them special.  I also have a different kind of  relationship with each of these ladies.  

I hope that you take the time to make your mother feel special and appreciated.  I know that mothers often perform thankless jobs, but Sunday remember to not take them for granted.  For all the mothers who read this, know that I wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day.