Weekend Links 3/29/13

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend. For those of you off work today, enjoy it, and do take some time to reflect on the meaning behind this Good Friday and coming Easter Sunday.

Here's a few reads & recipes for your weekend. . .

Life
Will You Make Room For One More? - (in)courage
When Everyone Seems To Have It All Together- Inspired To Action (Great post. Lots of inspiring comments too!)
That Time There Was Inappropriate Content At My Kids Party & What I Did About It - Inspired To Action

Eating Disorder and/or Self Esteem
The Problem With "Almost Anorexia" - ED Bites
More studies in flexibility - Eating Disorders Blog, Johanna Marie McShane, PHD
I Feel Fat. . . How to Feel Better in Your Body - Eating Disorders Blog, Greta Gleissner

Recipes
20 minute Skillet Spinach Tortellini - Butter, with a side of Bread
Pretzel Chicken Tenders w/ Honey Mustard Sauce - The Salty Kitchen
Buckeye Brownie Cookies - Cookies & Cups

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(in)RL 2013. . . have you joined a meet up?

Back in January I blogged about the (in)RL 2013 opportunity, its mission, its purpose and its amazing ability to touch the lives of women around the world.

Have you stopped by the (in)courage website to check it out?

I know what you're thinking.. .

You are a little too introverted for this type of thing.

You are not about to go to some random strangers house, by yourself, and when everyone else there probably has a buddy.

You have too much to do.

You'd have to hire a babysitter.

But ladies. . . let me encourage you. You are not the only one showing up without a buddy. The laundry and mountain of a to do list can wait. A morning of fellowship with adult woman, discussing adult topics, might just be worth the babysitters fee.

So before you delete this post and decide "Nah, that's not my thing," will you just take a few seconds and give it some thought? And maybe even pray about it? And if you then are feeling led to step out of your box, would you check out all the meet ups in your area and then maybe, just maybe, join?

"FOR WHERE TWO OR THREE GATHER IN MY NAME, THERE I AM WITH THEM."
Matthew 18:20

My friend, Jenna, and I will be there. You don't have to join our group. That would be awesome of course, but we just want you to sign up, regardless.

Because it's going to be pretty epic...

A room full of women.

An overflowing pot of coffee.

A little inspiration from some of your favorite (in)courage bloggers.

A morning sans kiddos.

Here's the trailer. One more time.

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Want to join the community?

Acting your way into feeling

Last week I flipped the page of my Dayspring (in)courage Daybrightener and read the following. . .

This was a huge realization in my ED recovery process. HUGE.

I had to act my way into feeling, rather than waiting for the feeling to show up first. 

Let me put it plain and clear. . .

If you are in the midst of an eating disorder, and are just waiting on those warm and fuzzy feelings to come before you take that first or next step into recovery, let me assure you, they won't. 

Because our feelings trick and manipulate us. Big time. Over and over and over again. Thank you, Satan.

You will never feel like gaining those first few pounds.

You will never wake up one day and just feel like putting away the measuring cups.

You will never be standing in front of the dairy section and joyfully choose the 2% milk, over the skim.

You will never feel excited about boxing up your size 00 jeans and dropping them off at Goodwill.

You will never feel giddy about ordering that burger and fries.

If you buy into the lie that one day you'll wake up and say "I'm so happy that today is the day I am going to enjoy eating a DQ Blizzard," you will never, ever again, enjoy a DQ Blizzard. You must decide to take the first bite, and then another bite, and then another bite, and then eventually, you will come to enjoy it. 

But not at first.

It takes time.

It is a process.

So don't expect to feel good after the first bite of that blizzard. Because you won't. You will feel like you want to scream and cry and wallow in feelings of overwhelming guilt. But stick with it. Because eventually your feelings will change. Eventually you will get there. And eventually. . . you will be the one suggesting that a double fudge cookie dough blizzard is necessary on a lazy Saturday afternoon, just because.

And eventually. . .

You will love every. single. bite.

Weekend Links 3/22/13

So. . . I got that hole in my eye repaired on Wednesday. Definitely an interesting experience, and I'll be ok if I never have a laser beam shot in my eye ever again. He zapped my eye 96x, which was really special. Afterwards it was hard to keep my eye open and it was oozing goop (you're welcome for that mental picture) and also stinging for quite a while. But the good news is no eye patch was necessary and my vision was completely back to normal by Thursday morning! So yay for that. And yay that I no longer have a random hole in my eye. The only picture I have for you. . .

And a few pics of Clara just because. . .

And a few weekend links. . . not broken into category because I'm being lazy, and I'm fairly certain you can figure it out.

Selective Eating - Kartini Clinic
Defining Recovery: Life After an eating disorder - ED Bites
What I want you to know: Adopting a teenager from foster care - Rage Against The Minivan
I want to see the person, not the box - (in)courage
Dear God, Where Are You? - Lysa TerKeurst ("Sometimes God’s power is shown as much in preventing things as it is in making them happen. We may never know why. But we can always know and trust the Who." Love that.)
Dark Chocolate Cashew Larabars - Brown Eyed Baker
Simple French Bread Pizzas - Eat, Live, Run
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos - Six Sisters' Stuff 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Life With An Eating Disorder. . . series in the works

I am working on a series of posts centered around the topic "Life With An Eating Disorder." I have a few ideas in mind, and I have recruited a few guest bloggers to contribute to this series as well. I am looking for a few more guest posts, so if you are interested in writing up a little something (you don't have to have you own blog to participate!) please leave a comment (or send me an email) with your interest and we can talk specifics. I would even love to hear from those of you who have not personally dealt with an eating disorder, but have lived it through a family member or close friend. Of course, if you are interested, but not comfortable sharing your name and personal info, we can change it up for the sake of your privacy & confidentiality. I am hoping to share this series of posts in April. Thanks!

Our week. . . and I have a hole in my eye

I took a little blogging break this week. We've had a lot going on lately!

Brandon was out of town for work this week, which means three days of solo parenting (MAJOR KUDOS to all single parents. I don't know how you do it day in and day out.). Clara and I have been having fun, but are thankful Brandon is back home! Probably taking Clara back to the Dr. today for what seems like another ear infection. Fourth ear infection in five months. . . is that excessive? No big deal? Going to ask.

My older sis, bro in law, and niece and nephews are here for Spring Break so we've been busy having lots of family and cousin time. We spent all day Wednesday at the Houston livestock show and rodeo. Clara did great and even took an hour nap in the stroller. She was especially fascinated by all the sights and sounds. . .

Until we decided to sit and watch my 5 year old nephew, Aiden, participate in the mutton bustin'. Bad decision. Clara FLIPPED out. Never seen the girl so hysterical.. shrieking, crying, and HUGE crocodile tears. FLIPPED OUT. I navigated the crowd to get her out of there, and it took her forever to calm down. Poor kid. Before each kid had their turn riding, the crowd would yell and bang their boots on the bleachers as hard & loud as possible. She was so scared. Sigh. Live and learn. 10 month old Clara & mutton bustin' = no go. The good news is Aiden got 2nd place!! He rode that sheep like a pro!

What else? Oh. . . I was supposed to have laser eye surgery this week but it got postponed for a few weeks. Why? Oh I just have a HOLE IN THE RETINA of my right eye. Seriously? I don't lie about these things. I saw a retina specialist Monday (was refereed to specialist from my regular eye Dr.) and he confirmed the hole is there and that some fluid is building up underneath, and thus my choices are

1-don't do anything and hope the hole doesn't cause my retina to detach or

2-have the hole repaired by laser surgery which means no vision out of my right eye for approximately three days and then sporting around an eye patch.

Guess I'll play it safe and go with the eye patch option. Awesome.

Here's a pic of what it looks like, although this is not my eye :)

The dark circle towards the middle/left would be the hole

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I thought I was going to either puke or pass out when the specialist was poking my eye with some metal probe thing (he was searching for the hole). My eye was numbed prior, thank goodness, but the pressure from the probe plus the blaring lights (my eyes were also dilated) was just enough to make me a little extremly woozy.

On that note, have a great weekend! Our plans include celebrating my dad's birthday tonight, relaxing, attending a baby shower on Saturday, relaxing, church and small group on Sunday, and more relaxing. Can't wait!

Weekend Links 3/8/13

It's Friday, which means it's therapy day around here. By far one of my favorite days of the week. It is so fun watching my girl's world open up, milestone by tiny milestone. Love.

And just incase you have some time for a little extra R&R this weekend. . .

Life
Give A Penny, Take a Penny - Enjoying The Small Things
God Doesn't Play Whack-a-Mole With Our Dreams - Inspired To Action
Giving The Gift of Presence - (in)courage

Eating Disorder and/or Self Esteem
Understanding the quest for the "perfect body": Links between perfectionism, body dissatisfaction and ED's - ED Bites (From the article . . . "The researchers found that the higher your level of perfectionism, the higher the discrepancy between your current body shape and your ideal body shape. As well, higher perfectionism was also independently associated with wanting a thinner body, regardless of your current body weight.") So interesting!)
Perfect Eaters, Perfect People - Not! - We Are The Real Deal
Low-Fat Love 101: Raising Preteen Girls - We Are The Real Deal   

Food and/or Recipes
Chicken Florentine Pasta - The Pioneer Woman
Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Sandwiches - Six Sisters Stuff
Our Perfect Veggie Burger - Oh She Glows
Greek Chickpea Pasta Salad - Eat, Live, Run
Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes - Love & Flour
Sweet and salty brownies - Cookies & Cups
Butterfinger Monster Cookies - Pinch of Yum

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Clara 10 months

Here's our girl at 10 months old!

March 2, 2013

Loves:
Playing with her piano (by far her fav toy right now)
Playing in her pinto beans & macaroni noodles (therapy exercise) although we have to watch her now that she's putting everything in her mouth!
Playing in the bathtub
Playing in front of a mirror

Does not love:
Sun in her eyes
Any form of vitamin/medicine
When we try to get boogers out of her nose
Balancing on the yoga ball (therapy exercise)
When we try to manipulate her hands/arms to practice certain things (therapy exercise)

Eating:
Takes 4 bottles a day with a breakfast (rice cereal w/ a fruit), lunch (veg and a fruit if she will take both) and dinner (veg and a fruit or rice cereal mixed with whatever we have on hand).

Sleeping:
AWESOME! She's become a little more predictable in her patterns since 8 and 9 months. While some nights are thrown off by sickness or teething, as expected, most nights she sleeps 7:30 or 8pm - 7-7:30am. AMAZING! On occasion she will wake up to eat, but I'd say this happens maybe 2-3 nights out of the week, and she goes back down easily. Hallelujah. She takes two naps a day that typically fall around 10 or 10:30am and again about 2:30 or 3pm. We don't let her nap much past 5pm, to make sure she will keep an early bedtime.

Schedule at 10 months:
Most days look a little something like this, give or take 30 minutes on either end. . .
7:30am wake
8am Bottle
9am Breakfast
10 or 10:30 Nap
12:00 Bottle
1pm Lunch
2:30 or 3pm - Nap
4pm Bottle
6pm Dinner
7:30 Bottle/Bed

Development:
She has mastered the paci and can successfully take it out and put it in no problem!!
Reaching up a lot more
Pushing up on arms a lot more
Putting everything in her mouth (except any form of puff, cheerio, or food!)
Will get into the crawling position (OT suspects she might crawl before 1yr)
The transition from tummy/back to sitting is becoming much more seamless
Mimics us here and there (usually will only preform for Brandon)
Making a few more sounds, more frequently
Another top tooth cut the gums (total of 4 now = 2 on top, 2 on bottom)

A few other things:
Size 2 diapers
Size 2 overnights
12 month clothes (some 9 month depending on brand)
Size 1 shoe
Weaned off reflux meds, so hoping we are done for good
Sneezes ALL the time (has since the newborn days, prob safe to say she's going to have allergies)

Adventures:

Sporting her first pig tails :)

Meeting a few of the Duck Dynasty crew!!!!!

Getting to play in the big kid therapy room last Friday

Playing with her cousin, Sophie (& Josiah, not pictured), while their baby brother, Eli was being born!

So that's where we are at 10 months. Can't believe it's time to start planning her one year birthday!