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52 Project, Week 8: Winter Trees

52 Project, Week 8: Winter Trees

It was snowing heavily as I dropped Mr. Awesome off at school.  Princess and I went to one of our favorite parks and were excited to see thick, fluffy flakes covering everything in sight.  It was the perfect conditions to capture some winter trees.  It was snowing so heavily, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get a clear enough shot of the trees for the project!  Maybe that’s what being a winter tree is all about though.

After playing for a little while and enjoying the wonder that is a thick snowfall, it started to lessen and I got some clearer shots of Princess and the trees.  Thankfully, my little snow princess loves to play outside any time of year so she was still in a great mood so I could get a cute portrait of her.  I’m hoping to get the same spot for spring, summer, and fall.  Maybe I’ll even take a different child for every season.

I love these trees because of the tangle of branches that seem to bend and twist in weird angles as though they are dancing.  In winter, when their leaves are gone and you can see the branches, trees remind me of the human body.  Some trees look like lungs, with the trachea as the trunk and the bronchi and bronchioles as the branches.  Others remind me of neurons.  Nature repeats itself in beautiful and fascinating ways.  We can’t see the artistry that is inside of the human body without special equipment.  It’s far too small for the naked eye.  Seeing it with technology is just as incredible though!  It’s amazing to think of all of these wonders, this art from our great creator, are hiding inside of us.  Looking at the same patterns in trees makes me feel in awe of God and all that he has done for us.

I hope you enjoyed our winter trees!  Do you have a favorite grove of trees?  Share them with us!

 

Cupcake’s 52 Project, Week 8: Winter Trees

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Next Week: 52 Project, Week 9: Ice/Snow/Frost
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52 Project, Week 7: Blankets

52 Project, Week 7: Blankets

I was really looking forward to photographing blankets.  I love blankets.  I have a large variety of colors, textures, and sizes.  I knew exactly which colors I wanted and how I was going to photograph them.  I wanted a simple pile of blankets in one color.

I chose my cream blankets because cream is soothing and comforting.  It reminds me of vanilla, my favorite scent.  Cream goes well with every color.  I love the color combination of cream, brown and a bright color.  In my house, you’ll find many shades of each.

Since it gets pretty cold in our house, we have blankets in almost every room.  They’re great to snuggle under for a little extra warmth.  The kids love to make tents out of them.  I can remember making blanket forts as a child and listening to thunderstorms.  I always felt safe and happy in my little hideaway.

Both Nate and I still have our baby blankets.  They’re very worn.   I have a feeling they’ll be frayed and falling to pieces before long.  Every once and awhile we’ll find one of the children curled up in them.  It makes me happy knowing they’ve served their purpose, and wrapped our children in a bit of our love and our parent’s love.

Do you love blankets?  Share with us your favorite blanket!

52 Project, Week 7: Blankets
52 Project, Week 7: Blankets

52 Project, Week 7: Blankets

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52 Project, Week 6: Hair

52 Project, Week 6: Hair

A woman’s hair is her glory.  Depending on how great, or awful, someone’s hair looks, can determine their self-esteem.  A bad hair day might dampen someone’s spirits and a good hair day can put an extra bounce in their step.  Hair comes in a wide variety of styles, types, colors,.thickness and lengths.  I love how different and beautiful we all are.

I can remember having lighter hair when I was young.  My hair was blonde as a toddler and it started to darken when I was still very young.  One of my early memories is while I was walking with my parents and some friends of theirs.  They commented on how beautiful my hair was and my parents mentioned that it was getting darker.  I can remember feeling astounded.  I had no idea my hair could change color!  Later, while playing in the bathtub, I remember studying how my hair got darker as it got wet.

My mother loved the color of my hair and would often tell me how beautiful it was.  For, me, hair was something I had to brush, but didn’t want to.  My Mother would rip the brush through my hair and I would cry.  As an adult, the tables have turned and I get to be the one making my little girls cry, much to my dismay.  I try to be careful and work through their hair gently, but I do accidentally hit a snarl or two.

I used my Cupcake’s hair for this project.  She has the thickest and longest hair in our family.  It’s beautiful and it reminds me of my best friend, Linda’s hair.  Linda had thick beautiful hair too and she would always brush it before exiting her vehicle.  Unlike Linda’s hair, Cupcake’s hair is a golden blonde, much like mine was as a child.

Do you have a favorite or funny hair story to share with us?  Leave a comment below!

Cat’s 52 Project, Week 6: Hair
Cat’s 52 Project, Week 6: Hair

 

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52 Project, Week 5: Warmth

52 Project, Week 5: Warmth

When I think of warmth, I think of things that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  A nice roaring fire and a toasty oven give off some comfortable warmth that I love to lounge in front of.  My favorite place to stay warm though, is my bed.  I love my bed.  My favorite time of day is bedtime, when I can crawl underneath my comforter and pull one of my favorite throw blankets up around me.

The air is usually cold in our house since we live in a historic, drafty old home in Minnesota.  I’ll often have a few of my little ones crawl in bed with me, should I sneak up for a bit of quiet time during the day.  We might quietly read together, watch the JW app on our Roku, talk about life, write or draw in our journals, or even just take a nap.  I think that if my bed were big enough, all my children would happily sleep with me at night, just like when they were little.

I chose to photograph all of my children’s feet side by side.  I used to kiss their toes as babies and marvel at how small they were.  Now they are growing and so are their feet!  Someday, each of their feet will be just as big as my own.

Do you love to snuggle with your wee ones in your bed?  What do you think of when you hear the word, warmth?

52 Project-Warmth
52 Project-Warmth

 

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52 Project, Week 4: Socks

52 Project, Week 4: Socks

This week was a bit more challenging than my other ones.  Last week, Mr. Awesome had some stomach problems due to allergies.  My poor little buddy was not able to make it to the bathroom fast enough, resulting in a lot of laundry and towels that needed washing.  I picked up some probiotics from our local health food store and he is doing much better, thankfully.

In addition, photographing socks was a lot harder than I thought it would be!  I had a hard time choosing exactly which socks I would wear.  I love socks!  I have so many favorites.  I have them in all sorts of colors and styles.  I ended up trying on 7 different pairs!

My original idea was to photograph my feet on my bed with the TV fireplace screensaver in the background.  Oh, how I wish I had a real fireplace!  This plan did not work as I had hoped.  My feet were too low.  I raised up the end up my bed, and thankfully that worked great!  However, the screen of the TV does not photograph well.

Scrapping that, I decided to shoot from above, but I was not able to look through my viewfinder and I was guessing at where my feet would be.  Princess was jumping around me, gleefully and kept messing up the comforter.  She kept jumping on me for hugs too.  I can’t resist a good cuddle, so it took a bit longer than I had intended.

Thankfully, the sun was shining and our bedroom was full of bright, natural light.  I’m wearing my favorite socks here.  They’re cream with tiny, multi-color specks that remind me of sprinkles.  I’ve got my favorite bedspread and my favorite tea, roasted dandelion root.

I hope that wherever you are, the sun is shining and you have a nice warm pair of socks on your feet if it’s cold out.  Do you have a favorite pair of socks?

52 Project, Week 4: Socks

Cat’s 52 Project, Week 4: Socks

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Next Week:52 Project, Week 5, Warmth
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Join us for the photography challenge! We’d love to see your images!
You can post your image on our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/cisforcomfort/posts/1239856306099593
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So You’re Allergic To Corn

So you’re allergic to corn, now what?  A corn free lifestyle is life altering.  It’s so much more difficult than any of my other allergies because it’s in 99.99% of everything in our modern world.   If you’re anything like me, you might go through several stages of grief.

Stage 1: Innocence
It’s No Big Deal, There Are A Lot of Things To Eat!
Realizing you are allergic to corn.  Meh, corn isn’t so bad.  So I’ll just skip the corn booth at the state fair.

Stage 2: Shock and Denial
Corn is in What?!
This might happen a few days or weeks after when suddenly you realize-corn is in EVERYTHING.  You will be shocked by how corn is in every processed food and even on fruits and vegetables from the grocery store.  It’s in diapers and air fresheners and stuffed animals and clothes and in water and in the air and, and, and…. Your brain will go numb as you realize the possibilities and you might even deny it to yourself for awhile.

Stage 3:Anger
Corn is EVIL
You will get so upset and angry.  Seriously, why is corn in everything. Corn is EVIL.  I hate corn!  It’s in this?!  HOW can it be in this?!

Stage Number 4:Bargaining & Self Pity
Please, I’ve Got to Eat Something!
Why Me?! Maybe if I go corn free for awhile, I’ll grow out of it and I’ll go back to normal.  Maybe if only eat a little bit it won’t hurt me.  Maybe if I eat organic corn I’ll be ok.  Maybe if I eat corn light I’ll be ok.  Nope.

Stage 4:Depression, Reflection & Loneliness
I’m Never Going to Eat Again
You will realize how fully encompassing corn allergies are.  The sheer magnitude of the corn world is overwhelming and you will feel defeated.   You will feel isolated from your friends and family who have no understanding of the depth of corntamination and you might isolate yourself from everyone.  You’ll reflect on your pre corn and post corn life with thoughts of hopelessness.  You’ll hit rock bottom.

Stage 5:The Upward Turn
Ok, I’ve Got to Eat
After hitting your lowest point, you’ll have no choice but to pick yourself back up.  Take a deep breath, friend.

Stage 6:Reconstructing and Working Through
Seriously Though, What Can I Eat
At this point, you’ll probably start researching like crazy.  You’ll join a few corn support groups, you’ll scour the internet looking at different websites, you’ll even be brave and research and try recipes to make from scratch.

Stage 7:Acceptance and Hope
There is Life After Corn, After All
You’ll come to a point where you are not a victim of corn, you are a corn free warrior.  You know that other people can and do live corn free successfully and so can you.  You’ll start gathering safe foods and household supplies and begin to change your entire world for the better.  You’ll learn how to bake and cook like they did way back when.  You might grow a garden and make buddies at the farmer’s market.  You have learned that life without corn isn’t so bad after all.

 

After we first figured out that we had corn allergies, it took awhile for us to not only process, but to figure out what was safe and not safe for us.  We made a lot of mistakes.  We were accidentally corning ourselves with things we had no idea were corny.  It took at least a year to figure out the basics and then another year to adapt and grow.  It’s been almost 4 years and we are still making changes to our allergy lifestyle.

I hope that you don’t feel discouraged if you find out that you or a loved one has corn allergies.  I hope that you find hope, inspiration and comfort here.  Maybe you can learn from our mistakes and adjust a bit faster than we did.

Are you allergic to corn?  Have you gone through the stages of grief?  If you are a pro, how long has it taken you to adjust to a corn free lifestyle?

 

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52 Project, Week 3: Silence

52 Project, Week 3: Silence

When I think of silence, I think of the woods in winter.  The woods are so quiet when it snows.  I learned recently that falling snow actually blocks sound.  The science behind it is kind of cool.

There’s something wonderful about being in the hushed woods while it’s snowing.  It feels like I’m in a glowing snow globe.  The air is crisp, cold and clean.  Every tree is highlighted with white, glittering crystals.  The very ground itself is smooth, sparkling and soft looking as if it’s a blanket I could pick up and wrap myself in.  It feels safe and comforting.

The only sound in the woods is only audible if you listen closely.  If the snow is falling, you can hear it, softer than raindrops, louder than falling feathers.  It’s like music that is so hushed, only the completely still can hear.  Once you move, the low crunch of your footsteps is satisfying and muffled enough that it doesn’t disturb this cherished place.

What comes to mind when you think of silence?  Do you like walking in the woods when it’s snowing?

52 Project, Week 3: Silence

Cat’s 52 Project, Week 3: Silence

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52 Project, Week 2: Cold

Project 52, Week 2, Cold

52 Project, Week 2: Cold

I love winter.  I even love the cold.  I would happily take a cold winter day over a humid hot summer day.  Once it started snowing, I knew I had to run out with my little Princess for this week’s photography project.

Princess is my little shadow.  She loves doing everything with me, sleeping, cuddling, cooking, cleaning, playing.  No matter what it is, she’s content to be right by me.  Honestly, I could say this about any of my kids.  They love to pile around me like little puppies.

I bet you’re wondering WHY I love the cold.  Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in Minnesota my whole life.  I can’t tolerate heat very well.  My ideal, happy temp range is 15 degrees Fahrenheit to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  I can be comfortable in the 70’s, but the 80’s are uncomfortable.  The 90’s are intolerable.  You might find me hiding in my igloo, er, house with the air conditioning on full blast.

Did you know that Minnesota is one of the coldest states in America?  On average, year-round, Alaska beats us for the coldest temperature.  We beat Alaska for the coldest winter season though!  Last week Thrillist put out an article where we won the number one most miserable winter.  Yet, even if it’s -35, kids still go to school and life functions like normal.

For us, if the weather rises above zero, that’s reason enough to take off a layer or two or leave your jacket open.  Once it reaches the 20’s we don’t see the need to wear a warm jacket, a good sweater or a light spring jacket will do.  In the 30’s, you’ll find people walking around in shorts and t-shirts.  I’m not exaggerating.  Although I do make my children bundle up, even though they fight me to strip down like everyone else.  We are polar bears and arctic foxes.  Our blood is thick and the cold is where we feel happiest.

Not everyone feels this way.  You’ll still find a couple of people who would rather be in a warmer state.  For me though, Minnesota is my home and I couldn’t be happier anywhere else.

Project 52, Week 2, Cold

For Cat’s cold challenge, we headed down to the river, looking for inspiration.  We found a beautiful field that looked perfect.  Cat and I had a lot of fun amongst the soft grasses.  I snapped a couple of cute images of her while she was capturing her shots.

How do you feel about the cold?  Are you a fan of snow or do you prefer the heat?

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Whipped Eczema Body Butter

Eczema is the body’s warning bell that something is wrong.  I occasionally have eczema flare-ups.  For me, it means I’ve been exposed to corn, which is something I developed an allergy to about a year ago.  It shows up on my right hand almost immediately following ingestion of something corny.

An immediate flare-up is usually hot and painful.  It can itch terribly, especially as time progresses.  First, I tried coconut oil, my usual dry skin relief.  Unfortunately, it was not enough to soothe my angry skin.  Looking for something more effective but also allergy friendly and non-toxic, I found Dr. Axe’s recipe.

After making a few jars of whipped eczema body butter, I found that the amount of honey the original recipe called for was too sticky.  With this next batch, I’m going to change a few things.  I’m hoping that by using a tsp of honey instead of a tablespoon, it’ll be less sticky and more smooth.

Although the original recipe was sticky, it worked wonderfully.  I’ve found it soothes the itch and lessens the severity of damage.  A little goes a long way.  I keep a jar in the fridge for the fluffy whipped texture.  I also keep a container in my bedroom and a small container in my purse.  At room temperature, the mixture falls flat, but it’s still effective.  It works so well, I share little jars of it with friends.

Whipped Eczema Body Butter

Whipped Eczema Body Butter

1/2 cup raw shea butter ( I use this)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 tsp local honey
30 drops lavender essential oil
8 drops tea tree essential oil
5 drops geranium essential oil
3 drops myrrh essential oil
3 drops frankincense essential oil

Blend with a whisk, on low, until shea butter and coconut oil until well combined.  Add remaining ingredients.  Whisk on medium until fluffy.  Use a spatula to scrape sides of the bowl and mix lightly again.  Divide into containers and refrigerate.

What do you use for eczema?  Have you tried this recipe?  Let us know!

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52 Project, Week 1: Bible

52 Project, Week 1: Bible

When I was younger, I used to choose resolutions for New Years.  My family would stay up till midnight while making homemade pizza and playing games.  We would also come up with a resolution.  Normally I’d forget about my resolution within the first week.  I’ve stopped celebrating New Years and making resolutions.  I don’t feel I need to wait for the new year to start a great new goal.  I can do that any time.  I have, however, come up with a theme word and quote for the year.

This year, Cat helped me come up with our theme word.  Our past words have been pretty simple, haha, literally.  With four children, I found the need to simplify everything.  In 2013, the goal was to simplify our schedule.  After having been on bedrest for half of my pregnancy, I had already somewhat adjusted to doing less.  Learning to minimize our schedule was still a balancing act for a while.  2014, I loved what simplifying our schedule did for our life.  I wanted to continue focusing on that and and also simplify our routines and possessions.  2015 was a continuation of that.  In 2016, I joined a Minimizing group on Facebook and began to make big changes in minimizing our belongings.

2017
Faith

For all the things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4

2016
Minimize

It goes by in the blink of an eye.

2015
Simplify

Ohana means family — no one gets left behind, and no one is ever forgotten.

2014
Simplify

The Love of a Family is Life’s Greatest Blessing

2013
Simplify

The joys of a family of 6.

2012

It’s going to be a good year.

Although I want to continue to minimize our belongings this year, I felt the need for something different.  2017 seems to be a year of big change.  Our local congregation moved and merged with Cottage Grove.  January 1st was our first day at our new Kingdom Hall.  Each of the kids has been adjusting to new schools.  There are changes I want to make.  The children have their own goals and struggles as well.  I keep thinking to myself that I need to take a leap of faith, place my trust in God and everything will be all right.

I asked Cat what the word of the year should be and she said “Faith”.  It’s perfect.  Faith is what we need to get us through hard times.  Faith is what we need every day.  Faith lifts us up.  For us, having the Bible is a great first photography project.   It’s not one of our random words, it’s the perfect symbolism for our first week.

Cat’s 52 Project, Week 1: Bible

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