2014: The Johnson's Year in Pictures

Today was such a beautiful day! It's almost October, which signals the beginning of my absolute FAVORITE time of year: Fall!!!  I love, love, love this time of year. From crisp days, to cider mills, to a glorious array of colors on the trees, there is so much to love about it here in Michigan.  In fact, my favorite time of the whole year is October through December.  I do wish it was a little cooler outside (I know, I'm probably in the minority with this one), but oh well :) It'll get that way soon.  I got up this morning, got myself and my daughter ready, grabbed a free coffee at McDonalds and headed to our church here in mid-Michigan. My husband, who's one of the pastors, already had taken our son to church with him, to give me a break.  Sometimes it's hard having to get everybody ready and yourself and make it to church (or anywhere for that matter) on time. I still managed to be late, Ha! No excuses ;)  Anyway, I'm writing today because I wanted to give a shout out to my very best friend Elise for taking some majorly amazing pictures of my family this year. She is so gifted in so many things, and photography is just another thing she has added to her repertoire. These pictures can give people so many ideas, like photo ideas, haircut and styling ideas, family picture outfit coordinating, fashion ideas, mixing patterns and so much more. So I decided to add some of my favorites from the photo sessions this year. I hope you enjoy them!

God Bless you :)

Love, Kristin 

The first set of pics are from our 10 year wedding anniversary photo shoot. She wanted to capture some really cool moments and I think she did beautifully :)

These pics are from our family picture photo session as well as some 2 year pics of our daughter 

And...then how it really was almost the entire time, ha!

Then there was the 4 generation photo session for my mom's 50th birthday that included my beautiful grandma, my beautiful momma, me and my beautiful daughter Lilly:

So there ya have it folks! Some of my favorite pictures from this year's photo sessions by none other than Elise Vargas Photography! She is a gem for sure!

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing (and what it means to be balanced)

My goal with this blog is to have you join me as I learn how to live a balanced life, especially when it comes to eating habits. I don't think you should be one extreme or another when it comes to eating (unless you have to be) nor do I want to be one extreme or another. Who can relate to that?! I don't want to give you the impression that I eat perfect all the time. While I do eat well most of the time,  I still splurge, and I think we should all do that once in awhile. But we live in a world that is severely out of balance when it comes to taking care of ourselves. I've learned a lot in my journey to good health about myself, about eating healthy and about my faith for sure.  I've also learned to really like new things and my palate has tremendously expanded.

Being in balance doesn't mean what you think. It's not 50/50. You don't eat crappy 50 percent of the time and healthy 50 percent of the time. In my opinion (which is imperfect, but refined), proper balance in eating is 80/20. Our flesh or "humanness" wants the 80 percent to be the splurge and the 20 percent to be healthy, but if you want to maintain a good weight and a healthy body, you need to eat healthy 80 percent of the time and 20 percent leaves room for the treats.  What that means is different for everyone, but I suspect most of you are smarter than you think, and you can figure it out for yourselves :) The only thing in life that I think you should be one extreme or the other is in your relationship with Jesus.  Either you're all in with God or you're not. You can't be "balanced" or in the middle with that doing 50/50 or 80/20; you have to be 100 percent with Him.  

I know I'm a stay at home mom and my time at home leaves a little more flexibility for me in the kitchen, but the recipes I share with you aren't complicated and if you have the ingredients on hand, won't take a long time either.  Because if it did take a long time and was super complicated, I WOULDN'T DO IT!  Yikes! Who has time for that anyway? 

In between doing mommy things such as the recent cleaning of poop off the walls (courtesy of my 2 year old), giving my children once a week baths (because I forget how long it's been since the last one), folding clothes, maintaining a budget, keeping a house functionally clean, making sure groceries are purchased, dating my husband and much more, I don't have time to hand-make everything all the time, but I do try to use real food in a lot of my cooking.  Also, much of the cooking I do at home is gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free.

I am by no means an expert on nutrition, but I have some tidbits of wisdom and some yummy recipes that I can share with you. 

God bless!

Love, Kristin 

Today's recipe is my NEW FAVE salad dressing. I'm so glad I found it! Not only is it super easy and nutritious, but it's super yummy too. You know it's good when your toddler licks the spoon. And even though it's free of dairy, it's just as creamy as a dairy based salad dressing. It also gives you a delicious, necessary and healthy dose of good fats. You will NOT be disappointed AND with the ingredients on hand, it only takes minutes to make. No excuses! ;) 

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing

from Redbook Magazine

1 Large ripe avocado

2 green onions (white and light green parts only)

1 large garlic clove

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice from 1/2 lemon (or 1/3 cup lemon juice

Salt to taste

Pinch of Cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and process until smooth. 

The consistency of this dressing is so smooth and creamy that not only is it good for salad, but I reckon you could also spread it on a sandwich like mayonnaise. In fact you could use this dressing in place of mayo in most recipes that would call for that. I eat a lot of eggs, but this would be a great egg-free alternative to mayo for those of you that don't.

And now, what you've all been waiting for...the pictures:

Peace and Thank You.

For the past several weeks my pastor has been doing an amazing series on peace.  I feel like in the past year, during my healing journey (which also includes my emotions), I've really struggled in this area, so it was right on time for me. Peace isn't based on what's going on around you. The biggest most important thing I've learned about peace, is that true, lasting peace isn't based on outward circumstances at all!  Real peace, the kind that comes from Jesus, is the kind that stays settled in your heart even when things around you feel so unsettled and discombobulated. 

"As followers of Christ, peace is our inheritance. If you're not a follower of Christ, you GET to live in worry"(K. Berry).  The cure for anxiety, worry and fear doesn't come from taking medication, having positive thoughts or going to therapy.  They might alleviate the symptoms, but it won't pull out the root of the problem.  The only cure that lasts forever is putting your trust in Jesus and casting your cares and concerns onto Him. In fact, we're instructed to do that in 1 Peter 5:7: "God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to Him."  You can certainly try it your own way, and maybe it will subside for a bit. But you'll quickly realize that it comes back with a vengeance, sorta like a boomerang.   When you put your trust in Jesus, the Prince of Peace, you'll find that "peace isn't the absence of challenges; it means that trouble can be all around you, but it won't get inside of you"(K. Berry).  When you allow Jesus to take up the space in your heart that normally would occupy fear and worry, then naturally there's no room for those things anymore.   Let's take a look at the story in Mark 4:35-39, where Jesus was actually sleeping on a boat in the middle of an intense storm.  In fact, the crew had to wake him up to do something about it.  Now, that's my kind of peace!!!  You'll notice if you read the end of verse 39, after Jesus tells the storm to be still, that it goes on to say: "and there was a great calm."  When Jesus is involved, you can expect a great calming of your fears and worries. 

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Philippians 4:6-7, where it tells us to: "not worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He's done. If you do this, you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." My pastor put it this way to sum up this verse: "Don't worry, instead pray. Tell God, thank Him; Then Peace."  Wow! That's it? That's it. And it really works. There was a time in my past, when I was going through a very anxious season. I found this verse, wrote it on a notecard, memorized it and said it aloud whenever anxiety tried to creep up (like it's little creeper self). And you know what? The anxiety melted away.  But remember not to get lazy about peace. Don't think for one second that anxiety, fear and worry won't try to revisit it's old stomping grounds. Peace is a daily walk.  But it's so worth the journey (like beyond worth it). :)

I encourage you to put your trust in the only one who can calm your storm. He will not only calm the storm within you, but "the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." (Zephaniah 3:17)  Let's get to the point where we look into the face of a storm, of whatever sort that is, and say: 

"Wow, that's impressive. But my God, the actual Prince of Peace, is way bigger than that. Booyah!"

Peace. Quite Literally.

Love,

Kristin

*(If you're interested in the full series on peace entitled "Peace Be With You" go here.)

         

My healthy recipe for the day:  

If you have a juicer, USE IT! I've had one for about 10 years and am just now falling in love with it's magical, miraculous juicing pOwAh!

I juiced:

3 Romaine leaves (healthy skin; chlorophyll)

2 Celery Stalks  (very hydrating, incredibly alkalizing)

1/4 of an English Cucumber (anti-inflammatory, alkalizing)

3 Strawberries (boosts your brain)

1 organic apple (heart health and liver cleansing)

Juice & pour over ice. Super yummy!

A Healing Journey

For the past 11 months I've been on a healing journey, physically and emotionally. I'm in the process of being healed in the areas of my gut, thyroid, hormones, pain in my neck & shoulders and food sensitivities. My emotions are also being healed from things that happened in my past.  I believe God has led me to do this using a combination of faith (asking, believing in faith for and expecting through the promises in the Bible), Godly, Spiritual guidance (Holy Spirit led) and nutrition (healthy eating, proper supplementation, etc). I'm trying different things to see what works best (Ecclesiastes 11:6 NLT). God is so good! I'm so glad that He made me aware of these things now rather than later. So I can enjoy the rest of my relevant life healthy and whole.  You see, He cares about the whole person, mind, body and spirit.  It's been interesting, to say the least, and quite difficult. Fighting your flesh is never easy and I've learned that food has a voice and change can be painful. But I know, through it all, it will be worth it.  It's funny, I've always wanted to eat healthier and take better care of my body, but I never had the motivation to do so until I was essentially forced to do it, by some test results at the doctor. I don't know if I would have made any changes otherwise, but I know when someone makes you do something your flesh doesn't want you to do, the toddler inside of you (that you didn't realize was in there) comes out in various ways.  A temper tantrum here, a cry-fest there.  As my pastor has said in the past, "you find out who you are when you're shaken."  Boy, was I shaken! And I had a choice that I could stay the same, which I thought was most comfortable, or I could change for the better.  I've learned through this that healing can happen in layers, which can be frustrating, living in a world of instant gratification. But however the healing happens, I need to trust God that He will see to it that my healing is completed, because He is my healer. He didn't cause these things to happen, but He will use the situation for my good and for the good of those around me. I want this blog to not just be about a specific situation, however, like so many of them out there are, but to just show you what a simply relevant and healthy, balanced life looks like. You go through hills and valleys, but we're never alone if we put our faith in the One who created us. He knows us inside and out. Often you'll probably see me post a new recipe I've tried or maybe just a thought I've had for the day, but whatever it is, I hope you'll join me on this journey. I feel so proud of myself when I find a healthy recipe that looks delicious, then try it and find that eating healthy is so GOOD.  I believe in enjoying splurges now and then (1 Timothy 6:17 AMP); it's not wrong to eat pizza, cake and cookies.  But healthy eating on a regular, daily basis changes everything you ever thought about the food you put into your mouth.  I hope this also encourages you that you have a purpose, and that your life is RELEVANT! Find your identity in Jesus, and He will show you exactly what that looks like :) You may even discover things about yourself you didn't know existed. 

Today I want to share with you a recipe that I put together using recipes from other people.  I made homemade sloppy-joes using real food. It was super simple! Especially if you make things ahead of time. Now don't get the wrong idea. I don't always make gourmet meals every night. Who has time for that??!! Especially with little ones in the house. But it's not that difficult to put together healthy dinners, if you have things made already. With this recipe I used:

1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey or chicken)
1/2 can tomato sauce (with no nasty ingredients or added sugar)
1/2 cup homemade BBQ sauce 
(http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2011/01/apple-butter-barbecue-sauce/)
Garlic powder to taste 
Sea salt to taste
Fresh chopped or dried parsley

Brown and drain the ground beef.  Add the remaining ingredients, cover and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Voila!

I also made gluten/dairy and yeast free hamburger buns using this recipe here.
*I made a couple of modifications. I used my favorite gluten free flour blend by Namaste that you can purchase at your local health food store (gluten free flour). Instead of sugar I used stevia powder, but you could use raw honey or maple syrup. I also added equal parts baking soda and lemon juice to achieve a similar rise in the dough as yeast would create. For example, I did 1/2 Tbsp. Lemon juice to 1/2 Tbsp. Baking soda, mixed in a cup and then added to the wet ingredients. Turned out amazing!

I hope you all have a great day :)

(From the summer of 2011): One of things I have dreamt of for awhile is to write music. Recently I was asked to be a part of a song writing team at my church.  It's such a great honor.  Through all my human-ness (is that even a word?), God still allowed me to be one of the song writers for the upcoming childrens' worship album.  I'm so excited to be surrounded by such a great group of people!  It's really a dream come true.  Being asked to do such an amazing thing reminds me that our Father knows our heart's desires.  He put them there.  I have to remember to stay humble and be mindful of what this is truly all about: bringing glory to God.  But I can totally have a lot of fun in the process, using the gifts and talents that He has given me for such a task.  You should enjoy what God has called you to do in this life! Yay for God's amazing plans!  Dream big my friends, dream big :o)

Psalm 20:4
"May He grant your heart's desires and make all your plans succeed."