A Food Journey Side Note

I would like to add something to what I previously wrote.  Earlier this year I took a Beth Moore Bible study titled Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit.  She makes a point in the final chapter that Self-control STOPS.  The second point for the lesson reads "From a strictly biblical point of view (as opposed to medical), physical fitness is probably more about FREEDOM than SIZE.  Keep in mind that EXTREME conditions call for FOCUSED measures.  The ultimate goal for most of us, however, is FREEDOM from obsession so that GOD rather than the body can be glorified.  This goal is most often realized through recapturing the lost art of MODERATION; and learning to do what we NEED to do, then GETTING on with living."

This spoke to me because of how often I get caught up in weighing myself and beating myself up about something I ate, all the while subjecting myself to the bondage and frustration this brings.  I began working out (GASP!) and gained 1.5 lbs, and absolute panic set in.  Yeah, yeah, I know, muscle weighs more than fat, but when you spend the good part of a year focused on losing the pounds, gaining does not do my heart good.

At the end of the day, it's about experiencing freedom and finding moderation.  I want to be free from obsession so I can finish this race I'm on with a mind focused on the finish line.  There is a new generation looking to me to pass the baton and I want to point them to the glory of God, not to how good or bad I think I look.  Let's find freedom and moderation, then do what we need to do and get on with living!

Our journey with food

The past year has been quite a food journey for our family. We began with out shopping cart (or "buggy" as I like to call it) filled like many other American families. Snacks with all sorts of favorite children's cartoons gracing the front of the box, Easy-Mac, canned fruits and veggies, frozen meals, and an assortment of meat, cheese, and fresh produce. It got to the point where we were eating a LOT of junk and the kids were snacking instead of eating healthy meals. Slowly and surely we ended up in this place and I saw it as a failure on my part. So, I overhauled our food and eating habits. I stumbled upon a "real food" way of eating and decided this was the best idea for us.
I was inspired by the blog "100daysofrealfood.com" and Michaels Pollan's book In Defense of Food. There are several guidelines for "real food" diets but in very simple terms you eat, well, FOOD. Not "food" containing things you wouldn't normally keep in the pantry, products containing more than 5 ingredients, and things that contain ingredients a child could not pronounce. There is a focus on eating locally grown products and living in Italy, this was easy enough to do. We can walk to a local markets and buy fresh, real food. There were some significant challenges. First of all, Greg needed to be on board. He eats whatever I make, so that part was easy, but it was a food lifestyle change and I needed support. He got on board, I think with the assumption this would only last a few days. :). I had to find snacks my picky 5 year old would eat, and raw carrots weren't going to cut it. All of the store bought snacks- cheese-its, goldfish, fruit snacks, animal crackers- were out. I was left with pretzels and Triscuits. This is where I took a deep breath and found recipes to make graham crackers, cheese crackers, popcorn balls, and anything else I could find that would please the kids and still stay true to what we were doing. It was a challenge to find ingredients for a recipe that were only made if 5 ingredients. Have you seen the ingredient lists on condiments? Have you made sure you could pronounce every ingredient on your canned beans? What about your bread? My time in the grocery store seemed to double, because I was having to read every food label. Finally, I had to cook EVERYTHING. We did give way to this occasionally, as we are living in Italy, the land of delicious food.
I honestly don't remember how long all of this lasted. It seemed like a lifetime, but it was probably only a few months. Eventually a loaf of white bread landed in our bread basket (it was magic, I certainly didn't buy it) followed by a comment something along the lines of... Our kids shouldn't have to eat grilled cheese on that nasty bread.
We slowly began drifting closer to a balanced way of eating. I was still making some snacks, but buying others. I was still reading labels and was at least making informed decisions on what we were eating. Things we were eating before our "real food" way of life now became occasional treats. This was much more realistic for us.
Once we had the balancing act figured out, Greg and I signed up for Weight Watchers. We each had 20 lbs we wanted to lose, and we have had past success with the program. All of this year has been up and downs with weight loss, healthy eating, and not so healthy eating- I don't even want to talk about how many points a Tablespoon of olive oil is. Greg met his goal a several months ago and I still have 2 lbs to lose.
It has been a learning experience for me, and I'm very grateful for it. I want to feed my family in the best way possible, and I feel like I am closer to that than ever before. Even though the "real food" didn't fully stick, I still use many of the guidelines and consider myself an informed shopper. For me, it was a good place to start and I have been able to make adjustments to what works best for our family.

7 year anniversary, Pt. 2

And from this moment on, I want you to know

I'll let nothing come between us
And I will love the ones you love

Now gone are all my question about why
And I've never been so sure of anything in my life

I wonder what God was thinking when He created you

I wonder if He knew everything I would need
Because He made all my dreams come true, when God made you
He must have been thinking about me

He made the sun, He made the moon
To harmonize in perfect tune
One can't move without the other
They just have to be together

And that is why, I know it's true
You're for me and I'm for You
'Cause my world just can't be right
Without you in my life

I wonder what God was thinking when He created you
I wonder if He knew everything I would need
Because He made all my dreams come true,

 when God made you
He must have been thinking about me

He must've heard every prayer I've been praying
Yes, He knew everything I would need
When God made you, yes He did
When dreams come true
When God made you
He must've been thinking about me

*When God Made You

Lyrics written by Eddie Carswell/ Michael O'Brien

7 year anniversary, Pt. 1

To find a love like ours is a blessing.  On June 11, 2005 this song was played as I walked down the aisle.  It was true on our wedding day and 7 years later, with life a world away from where we started, it's still true... 

It's always been a mystery to me
How two hearts can come together

And love can last forever
But now that I have found you, I believe

That a miracle has come
When God sends the perfect One

Now gone are all my questions about why
And I've never been so sure of anything in my life

Oh, I wonder what God was thinking when He created you

I wonder if He, He knew everything I would need
Because He made all my dreams come true, when God made you
He must have been thinking about me

I promise that wherever you may go

Ireland

Japan

Wherever life may lead you

With all my heart I'll be there too

 Switzerland

 Czech Republic

 Pisa, Italy

Turkey

 Romania

 Calabria, Italy

 Sicily, Italy

 Austria

Germany

Waterpark and a Weird Carpet Place

After boring the brains out of our children at Ephesus (it doesn’t matter how many “One day, you will appreciate this” speeches we give, it never works) we ventured to the 2^nd largest waterpark in the world.  Brady was so excited!  We drove along the beach and found glorious views of the coast.  There was a great kid section in the park and Brady, Juliette, along with one other little girl, were the only children playing in the water.  It was perfect!

On our ride back to the hotel, I wanted to stop at a carpet store. I had seen one not consumed with tourists and felt like that was the best place to stop. Greg gave me all his money and waited in the car with the kids. Isn’t he wonderful?! I walk up to find several women sitting at looms tying carpet strands. They were creating beautiful work, but I couldn’t find any kind of store and none of the women spoke English.  I asked in charades if I could take pictures.  Luckily, living in a place where I don't speak the language, I've gotten pretty good at the charades thing!  I decided to high tail it out of there when a man walked out of a door and asked if he could help me. I did my best to avoid eye contact and give as simple answers as I could to his many questions. I felt like I had done something wrong, like it was my fault they had an open gate, with a carpet hanging on a rack to showcase their work, women working to entice customers, and then no way to browse around a store. I told him I had to go because people were waiting on me then he followed me to the car. Luckily, Greg ignored him when he came to his window and we zoomed on down the road. I’m not sure what that was about, but next time, I’ll go where the tourists are!

Visit to Ephesus

After arriving in the parking lot for our visit to Ephesus, a man selling a horse and buggy ride to the top gate of the city joined us at our car.  At the risk of being suckered, we took the bait and loaded up in the buggy. 

                   Juliette's concerned about riding with horses.  She likes animals from a distance, but not up close.

It was a nice ride and we took a detour to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers.  The story goes that Christians were being persecuted and seven young Christian men went into the cave.  Some 200 years later, the men woke up to find significant changes in society, which was surprising to them because they thought they had only slept for the night.  Shortly after waking, the men died and were buried in the cave they had emerged from.

Onward we ride to the ancient city of Ephesus.  What a sight to behold!  Although the streets were crowded with tourists, it was incredible to walk amongst the ruins of – what I didn’t realize- a very modern city in its day.  We hired a tour guide, and bless his heart, he was so patient while we rounded up and entertained the kids.   

Pipes made of terracotta

Sign for medicine



Fountain of Traianus



 The Library of Celsus

Sign for the "Love House."  Our guide said the foot was a sign for the men to follow and one who's foot was smaller than the etching was not allowed inside

It was easy to imagine the everyday life that took place thousands of years ago.  The grooves in the street from chariots carrying important people, the fountains and statues, and even the marketplace where venders came to sell their goods were clearly seen while walking through the city. 

The Turkish Bath

So, I’m in Turkey.  What could be more appropriate than a Turkish bath?  I was actually pretty excited about it!  Greg babysat the kids and I put on my big girl pants and ventured alone to the mixed (meaning men and women in the same room) Turkish bathhouse called a Haram.  For some reason I assumed the people working in the bath and giving the baths would be women.  Yes, I know what happens when you assume, and I walked in to an all-male staffed haram. 

I was handed a towel that fit under my arms and reached about mid- thigh, then was ushered to a changing room.  The room had a curtain that was too small to fit across the door and windows cut out of each side low enough to where I could see the man’s head as he was folding towels outside my room.  Ok, I thought, perhaps he was just a “bodyguard” type and the women were inside doing the washing.  I take a deep breath and walk through the metal doors into a very large hot room.  Along the back wall were some stations with sinks and water, along the side walls were showers, the front wall had two marble tables, and the center was a large circle of marble.  A man stopped me at the door and poured 2 bowls of hot water on my head, then told me to lay down on the center circle.  I slowly scanned the room as I made my way to the circle and found a few men in the shower stalls and 3 men lying on the center circle.  It was at this time I became very aware of my self-conscious self and began praying a woman would show up to perform this bath thing.  It was also at this time, I was very happy I had not gone topless like the pamphlet told me I should and I began seriously second guessing my decision. 

I lay down on the stone and it really felt wonderful.  The room was full of hot steam and the stone was hot as well.  I closed my eyes and focused on how good it felt on my sore back and did a good job of forgetting what was going on around me.  The next thing I know, a hairy man wearing a short towel around his waist told me it was my turn.  He led me to one of the marble tables by the door, took my towel away, and told me to lay down.  I did as I was told and he poured warm water on me and began scrubbing my body with a rough mitt he wore on his hand.  It was uncomfortable.  I mean, the scrubbing felt ok, but I wasn’t really cool with this half naked man doing the scrubbing.  Call me a prune, but that’s just not my thing.

When the scrubbing was complete another man with a towel around his waist led me to the other marble table in the front of the room.  There he covered me with soapy bubbles and proceeded to wash, then a quick massage.  He spoke English and was asking where I was from and what hotel I was staying at.  I was pretty sure that was information he didn’t need to know. I told him I didn’t remember the name of the hotel, and then he asked how many people were staying with me.  Again, none of his business, but I told him my giant mean husband and two kids who like to bite.  Ok, I left off the giant, mean, and biting part, but I should have really told him that.  He told me I was very young, and began trying to figure out my age assuming I got married when I was 15, and since I only had 2 children.  Over and over he repeated, “You are very young.”  Maybe this bath thing wasn’t a bad idea after all! 

After a quick rinse in the shower, I lay back on the hot center stone for a few minutes and then left through the metal doors.  I was asked to sit on a stool and the original man who greeted me at the door wrapped a towel around my shoulders and one on my head.  He told me the price for the bath, but for a little extra I could go upstairs and get a hot oil massage.  I told him I was NOT interested in the massage and he responded with a squeeze to my shoulders and telling me he gave a really good massage.  What in this world had I gotten myself into?!  I couldn’t get out of that place quick enough.  I gave them all the money I had then bolted for the door, and practically ran back to the hotel. 

I’m sure some people would have no problem with the situation, but I will not be a return customer.  The good part was my skin was nice and soft afterwards and in the end; it gave me something to blog about!