I will do anything for you

Yesterday I was challenged by Focus on the Family's Love Letter competition. Here is my entry about my awesome husband.

“I will do anything for you!” It sounds so romantic in the movies, like a white knight riding across the sands to rescue his damsel in distress. Although the realities of this phrase in the trenches of everyday marriage are far less glamorous, it is no less noble.

You show me what this means when you smile and kiss me good morning even though my hair lost the battle with my pillow, when you quietly eat the latest food experiment despite your screaming gag reflex, and when you work the weekend for a grower to give me flowers for my garden. You show our family what this means when you load trucks at 3 AM to ensure a safe delivery of our baby, when you go to work early so you can be with us on a field trip, and when you scrub burned gunk off the frying pan so the babies can have their mommy at night. You do what it takes to live out this phrase when you sit in traffic to pay off our mortgage, when you air the insulation out in the garage to protect my health, when you bite your tongue even when you are right, and when you silently do the stubbed-toe dance down the hallway as you slip out before dawn to be in shape for me now and we can be healthy together the rest of our life.

This daily damsel in distress never imagined the chivalry you’d show me when I took you as my prince on the day of our wedding. With the bravery you have shown in this earthly battle, you leave me dreaming of the noble and loving king you will be as we live out our days, together.

Diamonds on the trees

When they are visiting the southern states, many people ask my parents why someone would want to live in Minnesota. My answer would be, "Because there are diamonds on the trees!"

I have lived in Minnesota all my life and have always loved the way trees, bushes, and hills sparkle after a light snow. But this morning as I was walking across the snow under a three-quarter moon, I saw diamonds in the trees! After the sun came up, the whole world shone, the evergreens were frosty white, and the maples sparkled with diamonds!

ABC's and sample day

Peterman’s ABCs of Healthy Eating

A++ fresh juice and green smoothies

All fresh fruits and vegetables

(Awesome for our cells)

Barely cooked fruits and vegetables

Raw nuts, seeds, sprouted grains

(Bodies like)

Cooked healthy foods

(Kind of good)

Don’t want to cut out because of habit, taste buds, and social reasons

Fail the body

A Sample Day

Juice or green smoothies & supplements

Eggs, nuts, or whole grain breakfast

Fruit Snack

Live veggies

Whole grain lunch (nut butter sandwiches, oatmeal, biscuits, nut cookies…)

Fruit snack

Fresh salad (incredible variety with greens, toppings, and dressings; may also be any cookbook recipe)

Cooked dish (pizza, tacos, Sloppy Joes, chicken, lasagna, soup, chili, recipes from cookbooks, prepared with good healthy ingredients)

Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Rest, Bible

"Most Unique" Chili

Chillin’ Chili

Awarded “Most Unique” at the 2010 Village Church Chili Cook-off

Chop 1/2 head of small cabbage

Blend 1 bunch celery

1 avocado

1 zucchini

1/2 lemon juiced

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup cabbage water

Chop carrot tops, carrot noodles, sun-dried tomatoes

Mix all together and garnish with red, green, and orange

“Which diet book should I read?”

The best book on nutrition is the Bible. God is also the best counselor for our health because he made our bodies and knows how they work. Even if you don’t believe this, science backs up the principles God laid out in the Bible.

Rule number one and two are found in Matthew 22. “Love God and love others.” You may ask what that has to do with our bodies, but our emotional state has everything to do with our bodies. And when all else fails (our bodies die,) we will be with God forever (with a new body) in heaven if we believe Jesus died for our sins, things we do wrong.

After God created people and food, he said, “It is very good.” Genesis 1:29 says He gave us all plants to eat. After the fall (people became sinful,) food and bodies were no longer perfect. Then He gave rules in Leviticus 11 as to which animals are clean to eat. It basically includes animals that eat plants.

I can’t tell you how many times in the last two years God has directed me to the next book, practitioner, or food He knew I should experience. Psalm 16:7 says, “I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.” He has been the coordinator of my health and healing.

If you’d like to know what He has taught me about health and especially nutrition, please ask since He taught it to me so I could help others. If you want to know God, seek him because He wants to show you his love.

God wrote this prayer and I pray it for you. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (3 John 1:2 )

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

Genesis 1:31a God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

Leviticus 11: 46 " 'These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves in the water and every creature that moves about on the ground. You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.' "

Proverbs 15:17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.

30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.

Psalm 16:7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

My 35th Birthday--Once in a Blue Moon

I love my birthday! Today is my 35th birthday, a once in a blue moon special day. :)

Once in a Blue Moon is a phrase that means the second full moon in a single month, or as the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. Though the expression "once in a blue moon" is used to describe extremely rare events, blue moons aren't all that unusual, occurring every 21/2 years or so. But a New Year's Eve blue moon is somewhat more remarkable -- we haven't had one since 1990. Blue moons of this sort aren't actually blue in color, though certain natural occurrences, like volcanic eruptions or wildfires, can cause the moon to appear blue, red or orange.Fortunately for New Year's Eve revelers, full moons are also known for stirring up emotions and sparking wild revelry.

My birthdays always make me sparkle. I love the excitement of doing all of my favorite things and saying and doing things I would only do once a year. But on this 35th birthday, I want to mentally capture all the blessings I have in the middle of this season of my life. We ate herb chicken, Swiss chard salad, and blueberry ice cream. I wore pink with Kiera, made avocado pudding and pie with Jayden, danced with Liam, rearranged my bedroom with my mom, sled under the blue moon with Jayden and my dad, and smiled with my husband.

My grandparents will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary this year. I am filled with optimism tonight that being half of that number is going to be a good thing. 35 may be the year of beginning the next era of my life. I now begin 35 being a mom without babies. I have had babies for nine years.

I am also looking forward to the launching of this website and other endeavors. If you are reading this out of curiosity, welcome. If you need help, I pray you find it here. Actually you will only find it in Jesus Christ. But I would be honored if I could help you find physical wellness here on earth or the hope, peace, and joy in knowing God now and forever with Him!

I love my birthday...and I look forward to being in heaven with Jesus, because as I can see, it will be one big birthday party!!! :) God bless you!

Thanks to my mother-in-law and pasta salad

People often ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables. My old answer: bribery and trickery. I'm still working on a better answer, but here is a glimpse of the a side dish we had at grandma's tonight.

With a carrot peeler, I shaved a long carrot (after washing it with hydrogen peroxide/water and scrubbing it.) I enjoyed some of those "noodles" while cutting the rest into small pieces(a chopper works here too.) Then I mixed them into the pasta salad before serving it to the kids. At lunch yesterday I chopped fresh spinach and added it to the lasagna before serving it.

Note that I added these fresh veggies after the rest of the dish was cooked so that they retained all the enzymes, vitamins, and fiber fresh vegetables are great for.