Preparing for the worst

Some of you guys remember my posts about being snowed in with a sick little one and not being prepared :)

Well that won't happen again. Today my husband and I are preparing for what is suppose to be the most snow our state has seen in a long time. It's suppose to start snowing tomorrow and we right now they are expecting us to get 6-8 inches. I know that those of you who are from the north are giggling like crazy at me right now, but for us that's a lot.

We heat with electric so right now if the power goes out we're stuck without heat. Thank goodness we have some great friends who let my husband help with chopping up a tree that fell in their yard. As my husband left with some wood our friends were in the process of taking wood by the trucks to local shut ins in the community. - Good people these friends of ours.

Heat: Check

This morning we stocked up on some food we could eat in case we loose power and don't need to be opening the frig. You know... crackers, peanutbutter, applesause hotdogs. That's right. If all else fails we will open the fridge and roast hotdogs over the fire.

Food: Check

We also picked up two different types of fever reducer incase my little one starts a fever. I would hate to be without it if we needed it.

Medicine: Check

Yep, it looks like we have it all covered!

Taking time for me

I love teaching! Working with middle schoolers is one of those jobs you either love or you hate: and I love it :)

I also love though, the break that is coming up. This has been an extremely stressful year for me, both personally and professionally. That is why the upcoming break is all the more important to me.

With all that I have going through lately I have taken no time to take care of myself like I should. I am relying all the more on candy bars and soft drinks to get me through the day instead of sleep and nutritious meals.

This summer I am sending my little girl to the sitters two days a week. I stressed over this decision for a long time. Does it make me a horrible mom to send my daughter to a sitter's when I don't really need to?

That's when I realized I DO need to. I am a better mom when I am not stressed. I'm planning on cleaning my house top to bottom those two days a week (those of your who know me know this is a big deal). I'm also planning on reorganizing my house as well as getting some much needed rest. :)

I'll be a much better mom to my little girl when I feel rested and stress free!

Meat

I've been doing lots of research lately about the various things that are found in our food. Just a word of advice... don't do this research unless your really ready for it. It's kinda scary. Everywhere you look you'll find various things that are put into our food to preserve, to flavor, to color etc... The more research I do, the more I am trying to find a way to feed my family wholesome nutritious meal that aren't loaded with lots of chemicals that shouldn't been eaten.

If you do research on where your meat comes from it's frightening. My family is a big beef eater. There's nothing better than a grilled out hamburger with baked beans :) In my mind I had an idea of cattle being raised on a farm grazing grass until time for butchering, which I imagined was as humane as possible.

Apparently though most beef we eat comes from a farm where cows are fed a diet of corn. Now, keep in mind cows are made to eat grass, not corn! When animals are forced to eat things that are not part of their natural diet imagine all that does to one's system.

(Side note....I didn't plan for this to become a post on the problem of where our food comes from so I'll stop now)

A few weeks ago I discovered a wonderful meat market located in near my house in Georgia.

This meat market only carries grass raised beef with no artificial anything added, and boy does it taste wonderful. I bought some ground beef a few weeks back so I could make hamburgers. As I left the store the checkout lady said she would see me back in a few weeks. She was right. I went back today to take advantage of one of their family packs where you can buy meat in bulk at a cheaper per pound price.

I am so glad that I found a way to provide meat for my family that isn't loaded full of artificial ingredients!

A day of rest

At a church my husband and I have been attending recently, the preacher was speaking about how he and his wife had really struggled with making Sunday a day of rest. Since then this has been something that I have been giving a lot of thought to.

I am a teacher and am typically at school around 45 hours a week along with all the work that I bring home to work on after my daughter has gone to bed. I am typically tired ALL of the time. Between work, being a mom and wife, and trying to be the homemaker I am called to be, I am exhausted.

When the weekend rolls around if Saturday is not jammed packed with activities I am cleaning house, grocery shopping, and catching up on my sleep. By the time Sunday comes I spend it trying to get ready for the upcoming week. This means lesson plans, menus and cooking for the week, and washing clothes and getting my daughter ready for daycare.

As I have been reading through the Bible (even though I am a few days behind the other ladies) this has really stuck out in my reading. Over and over God says that people need a day of rest. God recognizes that we need this time. Why do we put so much into our lives that we take away this day of rest that we given to us?

I have spent a lot of time in thought and prayer lately and have realized that if I spend Sunday as a day of worship and rest, the rest of the week will be much more productive. My Sundays should be spent worshipping not completing lesson plans. I should be taking a nap, not doing laundry.

So right now I am giving myself permission to take a nap tomorrow (even though I took a small one this evening). Tomorrow there will be no dish washing for me. There will be no laundry tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes what it was intended for: Worship and Rest :)

Ever wonder what's in your stuff?

I have mentioned before that after I had my daughter I became much more aware of the things (chemicals) that I brought into my house. Many people think that I am crazy buying all natural and organic things, but I believe that it is super important to be aware of the things that you are being exposed to, especially on a regular basis.

A great resource to help with this is a website that I came across: Skin Deep. This website takes all soaps, makeup, lotions etc... and looks at each ingredient. It will then tell you the effects (affects?) that the various ingredients have been known to have.

Let's take a look at our soap. When you look at the website each product receives a number grade with the better more natural things having lower numbers. The soap that I use (used) had a grade of 5! The company found ingredients in the soap that have been linked to cancer and lots of other things. YIKES!!! As much as I love my soap I don't love it enough to risk hurting my family.

I encourage you to take a look at the website to look how what you are using stacks up with other things. Again, you may think I'm crazy, but at least I'm a little healthier than I use to be :)