Changes Are Coming

Since I started this blog, my focus has been diverted many times, and my vision has enlarged. My family and I have gone through so many things that brought many changes. Honestly, I haven't written in so long because I just didn't know what I wanted to do with this project that I started so long ago. I have so much more I want to share and write about besides recipes and gluten free living. I know I alluded to that perhaps once or twice when writing quite awhile ago, but I struggled to figure out just what that would look like and how to work that out in a practical way.

Over the years, our whole family has encountered many challenges. We experienced health issues, relationship issues, financial issues, several moves, caring for grandparents, several deaths, etc. We have also had mountaintop experiences. My husband graduated from Davis College with two bachelors degrees, one in Pastoral Theology and one in Counseling. He has been working as an Associate Pastor at Abide in the Vine Fellowship in Owego, NY. We also had a new birth! Our youngest child will turn two years old on Sunday.

Currently our two oldest children are attending Davis College and are involved in ministry at a local Assemblies of God church. We are still homeschooling our two middle children, and I am running a local food co-op as well as ministering at Abide in the Vine alongside my husband. Life is good...and very busy!

Somewhere along the way, our children have grown up, and in the process many of them have decided not to follow the healthy diets they thrived on for several years since I started this blog. I suppose that comes with the territory of having to find their own way in the world and navigating through the difficulties of hanging out with their high school and college friends and eating with them. There is also the sense of wanting to fit in as well as wanting to eat what they want to eat, even at the expense of not feeling as well as they could.

That leaves me with questions about what to do with this blog. Do I just scrap it altogether, or do I just revamp it? I like to write, but I tend to be the type of person that when I don't have definite direction I let things sit until I have confirmation that I am supposed to do something. At last I feel that I am beginning to see what I might do.

I am planning to completely change how I was doing this blog. I have no intention of trying to keep up with all the great bloggers who take awesome pictures of their delectable dishes and awesome recipes. Rather, I am going to consider this “Gluten Free Cafe” more than just a place to find recipes, though there will be some. I have to admit that while I am an artistic person, photography is not one of my talents, so when I share recipes I will probably not have awesome pictures to accompany them. I realize the pictures are a major enticement for people when choosing what recipes they want to try. Until I have an alternative, this is the way it will have to be.

That being said, I will also be sharing words of encouragement, musings, teachings, as well as just personal life experiences we are going through. I just want to write and see where God takes things. I love to research, study, and write. I love to share the things I am learning about, whether they be natural remedies, recipes, or more about God's character and our relationship with Him.

There will be some days when I will probably write more than one article and many days when I will be too busy to write anything at all. Sometimes I might simply share some interesting articles I came across on other sites. Other times I might write a review of some kitchen appliance, restaurant, or food I have tried. I have come to a place in my life where I have become OK with that. I am not going to put myself in a box of having to write something every single day. I'm just going to “go with the flow” of what I feel I am to do, and that will be fine. I have learned to be a lot more flexible over the years, and I hope that will make writing this blog easier for me. 

God has been speaking to me about talents and gifts lately, and I am starting to realize that being interested in a lot of different things and perhaps having some "ADHD" type qualities in how I think might not be all bad. I am learning to embrace who I was created to be and know that God has a purpose for my life. I don't have to fit some mold. There is a place in the Kingdom of God for my talents and interests to shine and be used. If I don't do what I feel to do or say what I believe I should say, if I don't fill the spot that I was created to fill, God will raise someone else up to do that. I don't want that. I want to fill the shoes I was created to fill. I pray that God grows me up into maturity to be the woman that He created me to be.

     Esther 4:14--"For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for 
     the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether
     you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

I want to be like Esther who had the courage to take her place and do what she was called to do. What about you? Do you realize that God made you special just the way you are? Are you ready to embrace the unique calling on your life? What are your strengths and talents?

Easy Gluten Free Lunches and Portion Control

I have recently come across the idea of bento boxes in my wanderings through Pinterest and various blogs. Being artistic, loving food, needing to lose weight, and having food allergies/intolerances in our family all just seems to mesh so well with the concept of cramming food into little boxes in a creative, visually stimulating way!  I have been reading The Just Bento Cookbook for more ideas, and the author brought out some good points about weight loss and using bento boxes for portion control.  Over the last several years, a lot of the fun and enjoyment of eating good food has waned since it seems that so much is off limits for us now.  The bento box is bringing back some of the fun, and there is a sense of excitement over the meal to come when my kids take a lunch with them to work or college now.  It doesn't feel so bad at meal time, when they are seeing their friends' lunches and then looking at their own.  In fact, Cassie has had coworkers asking her about her awesome lunches and how can they do bento boxes too--that's just with the food being put in the cute boxes.  I haven't even started doing cute things with the food, yet, though I have been looking at some of the cute cutters and tools they have on Amazon as well as on All Thing For Sale.  For now, I have just been trying to arrange the food in a visually pleasing way, incorporating brightly colored fruits and vegetables, perhaps with a square of dark chocolate hidden among the fruit slices. I did manage to find one small cookie cutter of a butterfly in my baking supplies that was small enough to use for kiwi slices.  My girls did  love that!

Cassie and Moriah are especially loving their lunches.  Moriah loves sculpting and being crafty, so she is wanting to make her own bento boxes, even when we are just eating lunch at home.  Cassie is creative as well, but she is loving that I am putting so much effort into her lunches, seeing it as a sign of love.  She is also telling me that using it as portion control is really working.  Because her lunch looks so nice, she is eating slower and getting full faster.  She lost 2 pounds in less than a week!

Along the same idea, there are these easy lunch boxes that can be used in similar ways as the traditional Japanese bento boxes.  I have found that my guys prefer their lunches made in containers like these rather than the more creative, artsy looking boxes.  I still can make their actual food look pleasing to the eye if I am in the creative mood, but with their line of thinking, why bother?  lol.  As one son so aptly put it, "Why go through all the trouble to make some cool-looking food sculpture or picture if I'm just gonna eat it?"  When I explained it would be me making it for him, not him making it for himself, suddenly he got the idea it was his mom putting extra effort in making him a lunch, and then his sentiment changed to, "Well if you're gonna do it, then please do.  I just wouldn't do it myself!"  I think he got the picture that it would be his mom sending him a little extra message of love through the effort of preparing him a special lunch.

If you also are intrigued by the idea of playing with food or using bento boxes to try losing weight, you can go here and find out how to win your own set of easy lunch boxes to start with!  I know my daughters have been loving the bento boxes I've been making them, and my husband and sons just seem to be happy that I am giving them food other than a typical sandwich for their lunches/meals away from home!

Spiritual Food--Colossians 1:9-14

The last couple of weeks, I have been facing some unexpected health challenges.  I have been researching like crazy, learning all I can about nutrition and what I can do naturally to try to correct any imbalances I may have.  However, I also realize there are definitely some spiritual elements to deal with as well.  Stress plays a big part in my physical well being (not just proper nutrition).  I have been dealing with so many things over the last several years.  I know I have been carrying some emotional stress as a result of not always fully putting my faith in God.  I sometimes feel helpless as I try to figure out how to get out of the situations I am in, or I worry about the future outcomes.

There are so many scriptures that pop into my head.  One passage I feel like sharing right now because it continues to come to mind.  Colossians 1:9-14--"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins."

This was a prayer that Paul and Timothy prayed for the faithful believers in Colosse.  I find that I keep praying this not only for myself but for a lot of people coming to my attention lately.  It seems to me to be a perfect prayer, one that we can all learn from and implement in our lives.  Instead of asking God for things, for good health, for bills paid, etc., isn't it better to ask him to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding? I know that I am worthy because God has declared me so and loves me, His daughter.  However, I do want to walk out that knowledge in my life.  I don't think it's enough to have a mental knowledge that He has made me worthy.  I want to demonstrate with my life that I am His child, that I am worthy.  I want to show forth good fruit and really know Him, and then He will give me the strength, patience, endurance, and joy that defies our natural understanding and logic, to get through whatever trials He has decided we should walk through for whatever His reasons are.  No matter what is along this path He is walking with me, I want to demonstrate joy and thankfulness.  He has delivered me from the power of darkness, and I live in the kingdom of Christ.  I am saved.  I am forgiven.  Thank you Jesus!  Thank you that I am no longer under the control and power of darkness.  Thank you that I am, right now, living in Your kingdom in the spiritual realm.

No matter what I face in the natural, I know that I am a child of God.  He has given me every blessing and the power I need today to face the trials I must go through.  He will give me wisdom and understanding as I need it.  If I continue to ask for His guidance, I need to stop second guessing decisions that I make based on what I perceive to be His guidance and just leave my family and myself in His hands, even if the outcomes seem to be different than I expected.  In the midst of it all, as I demonstrate joy, patience, and endurance, I want the world around me to see and know that God gives his children peace in the storm, that we can get through anything without falling apart, and if a person accepts God's invitation and decides to walk in the knowledge that he or she is God's beloved and worthy child, he or she can also experience His peace and joy in life.

Where Have I Been?

Ok.  So it has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything.  In fact, I rarely even looked at my blog in the last two years (Has it really been that long?), except to find recipes that I recorded here and misplaced the hard copies to.  I was incredibly busy and had to prioritize things in my life.  So, blogging was set on the back burner for a time.

There has been so many trials and changes in our lives that I don't have time to explain it all now.  I can, however, give you a list of some of the things we have dealt with.  I went back to school, and then our oldest daughter, Cassie, became very ill.  We spent many months taking care of her and going to various hospitals and doctors.  We found out my grandparents both had Alzheimers.  I quit school to care for them.  My grandfather passed away in June 2012.  We started remodeling our house.  Cassie went to college locally.  We found out we were expecting a new baby, who arrived in March.  Chuck graduated in May 2013, with 2 bachelors' degrees, and he immediately got hired as an associate pastor at our church.  Our youngest daughter got very sick last summer, which did something to her immune system. She has been sick a lot over the past year and has been experiencing a lot of allergic reactions to things, especially to wheat and dairy.  She now has to carry an Epipen and an inhaler as well as take other allergy medicine regularly.  We continue to be involved with our entertainment business, though we haven't been actively promoting it.  Our kids are all very involved in extra-curricular activities as well.  We are constantly driving someone somewhere.

I want to say that I will be posting things on a regular basis again, but I can't make that promise.  However, I will try to post more often.  I have some things I have been working on that I would like to share.  I may, though, be posting some things that are not related to food since my life consists of a lot more than cooking right now!  :-)  Be prepared to see some changes in my blog over the coming months!