This week’s Self-Care Sunday installment focuses on physical wholeness and will help you avoid winter weight gain. How to Avoid Winter Weight Gain I know, talking about winter weight gain on the day after fall is like stores selling Christmas decorations before Halloween. But trust me, planning self-care routines ahead of time pays off big. The older I get, the more difficult it is for me to keep off the extra pounds when I stop my regular routine. What about…
Coming Soon! The Complete Guide to Breaking Vegetarian! Part of self-care involves the way we treat our physical selves—and that means more than just a complete exercise regimen. What we put into our body can help us or hurt us, too. Next month, I’ll have a 31-day series on ‘breaking vegetarian.’ You might think it odd that a life-long vegetarian would have anything to say about giving up meat. But I’ll give you an insider’s look at healthy and healthy…
Do You Ever Feel Like Nothing’s Under Control? Maybe you need to read Jennifer Dukes Lee’s latest book, It’s All Under Control: A Journey of Letting Go, Hanging On, and Finding a Peace You Almost Forgot Was Possible Jennifer is my kind of person—real, witty, friendly, and struggling to get all the things done (in just the right way). And just like me, she struggles with her inner control freak. Unfortunately, she (and everybody else in this world) can’t control…
Today’s Self-Care Sunday guest author knows all about growth mindset. She also knows the pitfalls of constantly taking on new things and soaking in knowledge like a sun-parched Iowa cornfield. Jennifer Dukes Lee shares with us the connection between stilling our minds and surrendering our hearts. How to Find the True Rest that Your Soul Needs I know how this noisy world can get in the way of me hearing God’s still, small voice. So, in the past few…
The Woman and the Crowd The woman slunk through the crowd, knowing full well her uncleanliness made her a pariah. What if a neighbor noticed and raised a ruckus? What if she brushed against someone else, passing her uncleanliness on to unsuspecting spectators in the jostling crowd. Physician after physician had prescribed their questionable remedies. Eat this. Don’t eat that. Purge your heart of unrepented sins and offer sacrifices in the temple. Nothing helped. If only she could quietly reach…
This week’s Self-Care Sunday post has tips that help you improve your photography skills. So pull out your cell phone or your DSLR and get ready to make your day! How Improving Your Photography Can Improve Your Day Ok, I can’t actually promise that when you improve your photography techniques your day will magically improve as well. But I can tell you what works for me. Taking a walk with my camera—whether I lug along my DSLR or tuck my…
I Can’t Control the Rain Each evening I take a walk by the gully, around the back of the school property. Sometimes, lightning flashes on the horizon, and rain clouds threaten. After a hard rain, the mud shrivels as it dries, leaving a curled-edge puzzle scattered across the gully flats. The desert sun beats down and dries the clay-like mud that shatters if you toss or step on it. This year seems different. The monsoons came late and the desert…
This month, the Self-Care Sunday series will focus on Fall. It’s the perfect time of year to prepare yourself mentally for the holidays. Especially if your family gatherings end up stressing you out and building resentment. In order to move towards mental wholeness, we need to learn to handle problems when they arise. Another Holiday Dilemma “What?” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe they invited us for Christmas this year.” Pedro shrugged and replied, “They are family.” “I know.” Just the…
Kids don’t have the monopoly of going back to school this fall. Adults can join in, too! Busy moms and dads will understand the chaos of the first week of school when kids form positive habits that help them settle in to the routines of the new school year. We can take a page out of their notebooks and use the back-to-school excitement to school ourselves. This week for Self-Care Sunday, we’ll look at how to form positive spiritual self-care…
Can Loyalty be a Bad Thing? First, let’s look at the definition of the word loyalty (noun): the quality or state of being loyal. Loyal, the root of loyalty, means the quality of being unswerving in allegiance to a country, person, or cause. On the surface, loyalty looks like a good thing, right? Maybe. I know for a fact that loyalty to my husband caused me to gain 55 pounds and lose my health for three years. When he experienced…
