Monday, January 16, 2017

Free Coloring Sheet








Hi There,

I decided to take a stroll through my Pintrest boards yesterday.
I found inspiration for this adorable snowman drawing. It makes me think of my parents buried under many blankets of snow in Colorado right now.If you are stuck inside on this winter day, print off this sheet and let your creative side out! 
XOXO, Michelle





Friday, January 13, 2017

Shoot for the Moon.....( I gave up coffee one time)



I shot for 3 months, I made it 12 days.

As I sit here happily drinking my cup of decaf coffee, I'm ok with that.

If you know me, you know that I'm an "all in or all out" kind of girl. I mean, have you seen my hair extremes?



 I often bite off more than I can chew and sustain. I should've tried to cut back to a cup a day with out sugary creamer. But instead I cut all coffee out. ha! Typical of me.

But I choose to look at this as not a failure or one more way I'm a nut case, I see it as growth.

12 days is still longer than I've gone without coffee in my adult life. 😅

I tried a big leap, I didn't quite land where I intended to,

But I leaped ( or is it lept?) in the first place, so there ya go.

At the beginning of 2016 I laughed at the thought of no sugar....and I've come a long way on that front. So who knows what 2017 holds...
For now, I'm going to embrace the coffee and its boost to my mood, energy, and GI tract!

How do I feel about publicly "failing"?
Well, I just figure I can get used to that. If you are authentic in your life, people are going to see your faults.
Yall know mine: I tend to go too big, too fast! 😁
Or as Charlie says to Maverick in Top Gun,
 "At that speed its too fast. Its a little bit too aggressive."



But God's can work with that and its why He gave me all you supportive, gut checking, wise friends. I'm sure there will be a future post on how God is teaching me to slow down...bahhhhhhhahahaha!

Coffee Ban is now OVER.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

I Quit Coffee and What the Hell was I Thinking? (An Update!)



So here is the update for all you guys out there considering quitting coffee...
DON'T.

Day 10 and I'm still waking up angry that I can't have my coffee.

Over the last week we have had some of the coldest weather Houston ever gets, hmmm, what goes nice with gloomy cold weather? oh yeah, COFFEE!!!
Me and Coffee Snuggling on a  cold morning
So they say, detox lasts a few days.
They say day 9 and 10 are the hardest.
And maybe they are but days 6,7,8 weren't all that easy either.


Me with my Tea
If you find yourself committed to a season of no coffee, and are scouring the internet for a timeline of the withdrawal effects here is what I've experienced:
  • SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TIRED!! Like its too much energy to find the remote to change the channel tired.
  • Constipation (ugggggh!)
  • Irritability
  • anxious tight chest

Watch out for your very logical reasoning that will come telling you that this is ridiculous, your body needs caffeine and its silly to not have just one little cup of coffee every morning.

                                                             Because you will be damn convincing!

Still, I'm hanging on by a thread.
Here are some of my strategies:

1. I drink tea .
                I am trying to like it.
       I cannot have my favorite kind, black chai tea at the moment due to my food sensitivities,
      So I am constantly experimenting with making my own herbal teas or trying store bought. So far,  Celestial Seasonings Blueberry and Peppermint are my top favorites.
      I made a really yummy ginger, cinnamon tea the other day, however I cannot duplicate it to save my life...the dangers of creative cooking.

          Many people have suggested Rooiboos tea, but I think it tastes like a swisher sweet cigar! GAG! Anyhoo, adding a lot of almond milk and a dash of  cinnamon, and nutmeg makes my tea a bit more fun.

2. I drink hot bone broth and lemon water.
       For healing your gut and supporting your immune system, these are awesome and soothing.


3. I GO DO SOMETHING!

  • walk with a friend
  • do a chore
  • work on some art
  • do yoga
  • whine on my blog about not drinking coffee...
I hope to report in another week how awesome being off coffee is, until then, here is an 
 excellent quote from my coffee loving Dad on tea..

And I totally agree.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

I Quit Coffee and Other Hilarious Things I never thought I'd Say

Coffee....ahhh, coffee!
And by coffee I mean, delicious flavored coffee with cream.
How I have loved you, let me count the years!

OK, so seriously, I have been drinking coffee since I was a kid.
 Being a Roper = Loving Coffee
I remember sitting around family dinners with the grown ups having decaf coffee and milk when I was 8 years old. But I didn't full out adopt the habit for myself until my college years. As an adult, waking up to a mug or two of coffee , my bible and journal has been a constant daily routine. Sometimes, I gotta be honest,  coffee with God was my only reason for pulling my exhausted body out of bed. You see, when you are surrounded by your darling children all day long, those few moments of centering and quiet with the Lord and a steaming cup of coffee in the morning are priceless.

The soothing delight of a cup of coffee is woven into so many aspects of my life...perhaps its lingering over coffee  with my hubby in our red chairs on a low key Saturday morning.
 Maybe its taking in a gorgeous Colorado sunset with my parents on their deck.
Or grabbing a Starbucks with a friend.
And sometimes it's the little perk of sipping on your coffee during a long drive or meeting.
 Yes, I have a lot of emotion wrapped up in my coffee drinking habit.

So why on earth would I give it up?
This fall I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and celiac.
This gave me a revelation about why my mugs of coffee were key parts of my day, even in summer. Coffee was flat getting my cortisol depleted body through the day! 
However, it was also causing increased stress on my adrenal glands and was part of a cycle where I was hyped up and then crashed. To support my adrenal glands and heal them I needed to cut the caffeine. 

So I switched to decaf! BOOM problem solved! not really...

There were other issues.
 my coffee had been tampered with.
You see, when I was diagnosed with celiac and all my food sensitivities, I found out that milk was a problem for my gut. So out went the half and half (btw I had spent a year weening my taste buds off of processed GMO creamers to half and half).
 Let me tell you, my coffee was not the same with almond milk or coconut milk. 
Yes, I tried bullet proof coffee with coconut oil and ghee in it. Not the same! 
Fall is a horrible time of year to have limitations placed on your coffee...I mean its PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE time!


So fast forward to Thanksgiving, my family was in town. 
My energy was tanked and my mood was bleck...I decided to have a cup of REAL CAFFEINATED COFFEE..and within 5 min I was in a happy mood and my body was ready to roll! 
When you have felt fatigued, depressed, and foggy for months on end, experiencing that high really is delightful! I jumped back into my caffeinated coffee addiction with two feet! And bonus, I found a delightful pure cane sugary vanilla  almond milk creamer to go with it. At times my cup was 1/3 creamer and 2/3rds coffee.... just writing about it makes me giddy with cravings. 

Did I mention I was supposed to be off sugar? yeah...Dr's orders. 

Funny thing about caffeine and sugar...you know they aren't healthy, you know that they are bad for you in the long run, but damn aren't they good when you use them! Don't they just perk you right up and give you the energy to do your day! HELLO ADDICTION!

So I decided I would indulge this unhealthy delightful habit through the holidays, then in January I would cut the chords. 

So, damn, its January. And its day 4 of no coffee.
 I thought I would crave it more. 
I don't really crave it for the taste at the moment, what I crave is the instant energy and brain fog lift. 
I nearly caved this morning when it was 9am and I felt like crawling back into bed. 
But I didn't. 
I drank a protein shake and went walking with a friend. 

I mean if you blab this stuff on a blog, someone will call you out if you are a loser who quits after 4 days, right!?

This is hard stuff...but I know it will help me heal and bring balance to my body.
 I look forward eagerly to the day when I can be one of those chicks that says, " oh I used to drink coffee but I feel so fabulous off of it! " 

Until that day, or at least until my detox days pass, you probably don't want to mess with me! 

Will I bring coffee back at some point in the future? Who knows. Right now, I commit to nothing but  3 months...January, February, March...no coffee...then we will see!! 

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Your Resolution Personality

I thought this book and quiz might be as interesting to you, as it was to me while I consider my goals for this coming year.

 On New Years Eve I attended a webinar by one of my favorite internet personalities, Robin Long of The Balanced Life Sisterhood, on a Resolution make over.

It was uplifting, encouraging and caused me to think about the goals I set from a different angle.

 She sited this book, "Better Than Before" by Gretchin Rubin about changing habits.
 I have not yet read the book but its on my list now!
 In her book, Gretchin sites 4 tendencies people have based on their personality type:

  • obliger
  •  questioner
  • upholder
  • rebel

Here is the link to her quiz you can take to figure out your tendencies.Tendencies Quiz

This was dead on for me. I was recently blogging about my frustration with myself and the loooong process its taken me to choose to change my eating habits.
My quiz results gave me some validation, a little more evidence that we all process and work through life changes in different ways.  I'm excited to read the book and consider how I can use this information further in my personal life as well as in my parenting.
Can you tell from this picture what tendency I have?


Dreaming in 2017




Happy New Year Everybody!

So how is the new year striking you?
 Are you excited about moving forward in some new things this coming year?
Are you  mourning all that was 2016?
As life ebbs and flows, I have noticed, for myself, that different years bring different emotions.

This year...my emotion is EXCITEMENT!
 I am excited about embracing this new year with all the possibilities it contains! Jesus said that He came so we could have life abundant .
 He also said that we are His masterpieces created by Him to do good works that He prepared for us long ago. I love the mental picture that gives me, I picture everyday as a scavenger hunt for the gifts He has prepared and placed throughout the day. (Yes, I am saying the "good work" He made for us to do is a gift!)
Too many days in 2016, I forgot to seek Him and to look at my life with spiritual eyes.
 I'm sure I've walked right by many opportunities to delight in gifts He placed around me.
 This year, I'm hoping to increase my daily awareness of Him and what He has planned for me. I desire to follow Him bravely into new things, and even bring back to the table some long shelved dreams.

For you, my friends, I want to be a cheerleader.
 I want to urge you to look for those good works He has planned for you.
Look for those dreams!
 Pull them off the dusty dark shelf.
Lay them out before the Lord and see if He wants to do something with them!

Finally, I want to encourage you to share them!
Speaking life into each other's dreams is such a wonderful gift from God!

  • Praying WITH each other,
  • brainstorming together,
  • encouraging each other,
  • asking good questions,
  • And praying FOR each other
These are delicious gifts of friendship and intimacy that God has prepared for us this year. And consider, the joy, awe, and wonder we will share at His WORKS in our lives as He does the part that only a Master Artist can do!

I look forward to hearing what you pull down off the shelf this year. 
I look forward to walking together with you and the parties we will have
 as we see the wonders of His faithfulness to us! 

Hugs, 
Happy New Year, 
Michelle