Finally Gluten Free.

Keep it Simple, Keep it Fresh                             

I'm a self-diagnosed girl with attention deficit disorder.

Seriously.  I can't chew gum and talk on the phone at the same time.

So, I've been a little absent because I took gluten out of my diet 9 days ago, 

and it's been all in the world I could do just to be gluten free.

Deep down, I've known for a couple of years that I needed to take the plunge,

but the thought of doing it seemed so over-whelming.

I love donuts and muffins and cookies and homemade biscuits and pancakes and cupcakes.

{Hi, my name is Tara, and I love all bread and any sweets.}

If it weren't for some nagging hip and back pain, I would've never considered it.

But, I don't take pain medication, so I'm willing to try just about anything else. 

My pain is from a couple of nasty herniated discs in my lower lumbar that are also agitating my left hip.

In my heart and mind, I feel eternally twenty-eight, but my body aches like a ninety two year old.

So far, I can't tell a huge difference in my pain level, but I can tell a difference in other areas.

My thoughts are clearer and I'm not near as bloated. 

{sorry for the mental picture of my boated gut!}

Supposedly, I'll tell a much more significant difference around the six week mark.

So, if any of you are gluten free, your encouragement is welcome!

Thanks to Pinterest, I have a new GLUTEN FREE BOARD, 

and I'm encouraged to know that I can still have cookies and pancakes and cupcakes and even donuts.

Apparently, you can make almost anything gluten free.

{Accept my mama's homemade biscuits...I haven't figured that one out.}

{thankful for}

277. family date night tonight.
278. a good book and book reading weather.
279. gluten free sweets..thank you, Jesus.

His work, not mine.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season.

Every year, I look forward to the giving up of something

in hopes of being better able to reflect on Christ. 

It's a time for me to spend a season more intentionally focusing on what Christ has done for me.

In theory, it's beautiful.

But, I have to tell you, some years, I'm much more focused on what I've given up than I am on Jesus.

Take the year I abandoned sugar for instance... 

I'm sure every single person within a two mile radius was sick to death of me by Easter's arrival.

I was so addicted to sugar, it was nearly impossible for me to think about anyone or anything but sugar.

It's pretty embarrassing to admit, but I had a very had time focusing on anything Jesus had done for me
because I was begging him to help me accomplish what I was trying to do for him.

So, I started wondering about Lent a few weeks ago.

I couldn't, for the life of me, come up with something to surrender.

I was willing to give up anything, but nothing seemed large enough to offer the Lord as a sacrifice.

And then it hit me.

Nothing is large enough.

Why is it that we all struggle to "do" for the Lord.

It has to be that every human heart is drawn to the law because we think if we do the law,
 we'll feel better about us.

We set out in every facet of our lives to DO, DO, DO in order to feel right.

But, the truth is, we were never meant to be able to follow the law perfectly.

It was given to us as a tutor to lead us to Christ. {Galatians 3:24}

It shows us our great need for Him.

Even still.  We all get so easily entangled by the trap of a works faith, the try hard life.

We try hard in our marriages.  We try hard in our parenting.  We try hard in our friendships.  

We try hard at work.  We try hard at church.  We try hard in our communities.  

And, we definitely try hard in our relationship with God. 

It's the age old struggle between doing and being.

No wonder I vow every year to surrender something that I love during Lent.

Deep down, I believe that the going without will draw me closer to him.

The truth is, I couldn't be any closer to him because He holds me in the palm of His hand.

Deep down, I believe that going without will make him love me more.

The truth is, He created me and knows every detail of my being and he loves me without fail.

Deep down, I believe that going without will prove to Him that his death for me was worth it.

The truth is, my salvation comes from Him alone.  It is not from my works.
It is grace that is free.

In that moment when I realized that nothing I could ever sacrifice during Lent would be large enough,

His truth washed over me once again, and I knew that HE WAS ENOUGH.

I want to spend Lent focused on Him.  

His love.  His grace.  His forgiveness.  His righteousness.  His death.  His resurrection.

This is such a part of my story.
...this work hard, try hard, performance crap.
I'm so grateful for Jesus...so grateful for my sanctification journey.
..so thankful He keeps showing me places in my heart where I'm still trying to earn His grace.

My prayer during Lent is that He lavishes us with more and more of His grace.
I pray He overwhelms us with how high and wide and deep and long His love for us truly is.
I pray He reveals to our hearts more and more those parts of us that are still trying to earn His love.
It can show up in the sneakiest of ways, like Lent.

{thankful for}
273. Jesus, who came to set me free.
274. the changes I already feel after going gluten free.
275. our play date with MB and her girls today.
276. a warmed up cup of coffee from this morning.

Imperfections.

It's so easy to visit our favorite bloggers and assume that the pictures we see of their homes clean and beautifully decorated are the realities of their everyday life.
I'm learning more and more to embrace the everyday(ness) of our home.
It's proof that we're actually living here.

I believe there absolutely is an addiction to perfection and control, and I'm willing to admit that
 I'm in recovery.

I remember the days when friends would pop by for a surprise visit, and I'd secretly be
breaking out in hives if I had dishes in the sink or a basket of laundry in my living room.
I would go into "disclaimer mode" and give out a hundred reasons why it wasn't all done.
The ridiculous thing is that no one ever asked me for my excuses.

We try to give our worth to just about anything and everything, don't we?
Like a perfect house or what people think of our homes can truly, deeply satisfy.
Geez, Louise.

Thank GOD for growth.

 I present to you what our house looked like until about thirty minutes ago....

Visit NESTER for more beautiful imperfections!!

Mothering Daughters and a WINNER of the vertical family rules sign!!

After having two boys, I wondered how in the world I'd parent a daughter.

Seriously.

I grew up with boys on both sides of my family, and I was far from a girlie girl.

Wouldn't you imagine that I would have been absolutely spoiled rotten by my aunts and uncles?

Guess again.  

They were all busy raising rough and rowdy boys, and they just threw me right into the mix.

My grandmother often said about me that I was tougher than nails. :)

It made perfect sense to me that God would give me those two boys.

It's what I knew.

Truthfully, I never, not once, felt that I was missing out because I didn't have a daughter.

My husband and I had always wanted to adopt, so when we started the process,

we asked our boys if they wanted a brother or a sister, and they answered without any hesitation, 

"We want a sister!" 

As soon as they gave us their answer, it was as if our hearts had permission to long for a daughter.

From that moment on, we ached for her, and our family didn't feel complete
until the day they placed her in our arms, almost two and half years after we started the journey to her.

She turned five in January, and she continues to invade all of our hearts with JOY.
She's growing up so fast.
This girl can hang with her older brothers like nobody's business.
She builds legos and has nerf gun wars and builds bamboo forts in our back yard.
But, she can also dress up in her plethora of play dresses and have a tea party two times a day.
God is developing some sweet friendships for her here in Georgia.
I'm so grateful for Mabry, Evy and Madeline.
They are all learning how to do friendship together in these young years, and it's beautiful to watch.

My prayer for Lydia is that she would love God and love others.

...that she would walk humbly and give God glory for her gifts and talents.

...that she would love mercy and show compassion to those around her.

...that she would trust God for her friendships and be the kind of friend that she wants in others.

...that she would be slow to anger and quick to forgive.

...that she would accept fully that this world does not revolve around her.

...that she would seek God with her whole heart for always.

...that she would have a heart overflowing with gratitude.

...that she would put all of her expectations and hopes and desires in God alone.  

..and that she would understand that it is only because of the finished work on the Cross that Christ did
 on her behalf that she will be able to accomplish any of these things.

I'd like to think that I have some sort of control over how she is going to turn out, but I don't.

The best that I can offer her is to live my life out before Christ 

and accept the free grace that He offers to me in parenting her and my boys.


I'm reading a book right now called Give Them Grace, and I have to say..
it's the best book I've EVER read on parenting children.
I can't wait to finish it and give you a review on it, but if I were you, I'd order it here now. :)


******************************************************************************
In other news....
the winner of our vertical family rules sign is comment # 97 from Michele Stone!!!!


{thankful for}
269. dinner in the crockpot.
270. sunshine after a rainy week.
271. plans with my parents this weekend.
272. coffee with a friend this week at jittery joes.

Valentines Day and a Give Away for YOU!

We made whoopie pies with sprinkles and a heart garland like the one farmgirl made.

Oh, we also handed out valentines to our friends yesterday.

I seriously thought about making some of the amazing ones I saw over at Pinterest,

but then I remembered that I needed those hours for something else.

So, we picked up a pack of 24 fun-dips from Walmart and decided that was awesome enough.

I surprised the kids with a valentine table cloth, heart-shaped plates and valentines cups this morning.

They also had a 6 pack of their favorite candy bars waiting on them.

Can you imagine their shock when I told them they could eat a candy bar for breakfast?

Apparently, that's all you ever need to do to win "Mother of the Year" at our house.

I've got a treat for one of you, too!
We want to give away one of our vertical family rules signs!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

You won't have to jump through any hoops to enter to win,
but I'd love for you to leave a comment telling me something you love about someone in your life.

I'll use the random generator to pick a winner THIS Friday, the 17th.

Raising Modern Day Knights

My husband recently finished reading How to Raise a Modern Day Knight.

If you're raising boys, he says this is a must read.

So, he's sitting here with me giving me the overview of the book, which is a little bit hilarious.

One thing you have to know about me and Andy....

I am a precise personality....details, details, details.

He is a generalist in his personality...big picture kind of guy.

The best way to describe us...

I'm famous for giving the Oprah version of any story and he's famous for giving the ESPN version.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's his best effort at some details for us. :)

3 basic truths from the book.

  A vision for manhood.

 The dream of what your life should be.

 A code of conduct 

The honor by which you live.

  A transcendent cause.

 The motivation by which you pursue the code of conduct.

4 basic manhood principals for vision.

a man rejects passivity, stepping bravely into each moment.

a man accepts responsibility 

a man leads courageously with truth.

a man expects the greater reward, not doing anything out of selfish ambition.

3 primary responsibilities of a man for the code of conduct.

 a will to obey {God's will}

a work to do, not only in his job, but at home, in his church and in his community.

a woman to love..his wife.

A transcendent cause is the motivation behind everything.

It must be truly heroic, a noble endeavor calling forth bravery and sacrifice.

 It must be timeless, containing significance beyond the moment.

It must be supremely meaningful, pulsating with purpose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm so blessed that Andy is the kind of man that longs to teach our boys how to be men.

After finishing this book, 

he talked to the boys about what he read and they talked about a vision for their manhood.

It took about two seconds for him to decided to make a sign for their room.

He wanted something ever-present and in front of them reminding them of their vision.

The quote on their sign is from Alfred Lord Tennyson, and our boys love it!!

If you'd like one, we're selling them, along with our family rules signs!

You are welcome to use the quote that we used or come up with your own!

Email us at:

andrewshanelowry@gmail.com

Things you learn from a life changing trip and then have to re-learn.

The process of second guessing the American dream started twelve years ago when we visited India.

We came back from that trip and re-evaluated everything.

It was so hard to stand under our hot shower for fifteen minutes, 

when we'd given Jemimah and Kumar their very first warm bath out of that five gallon bucket.

Complaining about sharing a meal at a restaurant seemed ridiculous after we had watched them eat a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, without a single argument,  even though they didn't enjoy it in the least.

The 600 square foot cinder block apartment that we lived in during seminary seemed all the sudden

just fine

after we saw whole families living in cardboard boxes and children living on the streets.

It's amazing how life changing a trip like that can be.

You think you'll never slip back into your old ways of thinking.

But, the truth is, when you immerse yourself back into your culture, it does happen.

You begin to dream big dreams about jobs and retirement and homes and stuff to fill those homes.

Old thought patterns slowly make their way back into your heart and mind.

You may not ever say it out loud, but deep down you feel entitled to whatever your mind can conceive.

It's nearly impossible to live in America and not dream up things to need.

After almost 6 months of renting, and a lot of whining, 

I'm finally grateful that we lost all of our equity when our house in my hometown sold.

Okay.  I'm not grateful for the huge loss, but I am grateful for what it's teaching me.  

We went on a Sunday afternoon drive yesterday 

and realized that the home we thought we wanted two years ago is so very far from what we want now.

We're realizing again that our money and our resources are not our own.

We've never done consumer debt, but we had become too careless in our spending.

{finding things to need}

I have no idea what kind of house we'll end up buying, but our prayer is that God will direct us.

...to the house where He wants to plant us and to the neighbors He wants us to love dearly.

We want our home to be a refuge for all who enter.

We never want to hold it {or the things that fill it} so tightly that we wouldn't share it all with others.

1 Chronicles 29:12,14

Wealth and Honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.

Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what has come from your hand.

{thankful for}

265. breakfast for dinner. french toast rocks.
266. bathed children. clean hair smells delicious.
266. Sunday afternoon drives.
267. life changing trips.
268. trust in God as provider.

Give Away Winner!!

The winner of this fabulous book is::

Mrs. E, commenter # 29.

Congratulations!!

I'll email you for your address, so I can get the book mailed out to you.

Happy Sunday!

A Confident Heart...the review and a give away!

If I'd read this book three months ago, when I was supposed to,
 it wouldn't have meant nearly as much to me as it does right now in this very season I'm in.

Renee Swope is the author of A Confident Heart,
 and she beautifully shares her own struggles with insecurity.

As she very honestly shares her life's story, one thing becomes all the more clear to me.

Our stories are powerful.

It is most often the hardest parts of our stories that God chooses to use to make himself known.
The delimma is that those hard parts of our stories are sometimes held captive by the insecurities
 that they trigger.

Have you ever noticed how insecurity beckons us to constantly consume about ourselves?

Why don't my kids listen and obey like her kids?

Why can't I be as thin as her?

Why can't I be as emotionally strong as her?

Why can't I have a home like hers?

Why can't I speak in front of others like her?

Why can't I be as stylish as her?

Why can't I clean house like her?

Why can't I cook like her?

Why can't I serve like her?

Why can't I lead like her?

Why can't my hair be as long as hers?  as thick as hers? as straight as hers?  as curly as hers?

Why can't I be happily married like her?

Why can't I read as many books as her?

Why can't I have patience like her?

Why can't I enjoy my kids like she enjoys hers?

Why can't I support my husband the way she supports hers?

Why can't I give like she gives?

If we can stay distracted by those nagging thoughts, we won't ever have the courage to share our story.

If we never have the courage to share our story, 

then no one ever gets to see God's grace and love and power at work in our lives.

God created us to have confident hearts but not in anything outside of his love for us.

 Insecurities keep us searching for our significance in everything else but God.

God has to be enough at the end of every insecure thought that grips us.

We've all experienced loss in our lives, and loss of any kind breeds insecurity.

  

Probably, the most helpful thing that Renee suggests in her book
is the importance of making a timeline with written painful memories & emotions.
It's important because it provides a visual example of the places in our lives
 where insecurity most likely crept in and took root in our hearts.

She also reminds us that it's not enough to look at the timeline and see the broken places in ourselves.
We have to replace the lies that insecurity whispers incessantly in our minds
 with the truth of God's word that has the power to transform our hearts.

*********************************************************************************
Renee's publishing company, Revell, is allowing me the opportunity to mail one of you
your own copy of A Confident Heart.


Leave a comment if you'd like a chance to win.
I'll use the random generator to pick a winner of the book on Sunday.