12 Simple Ways to Bring Peace into Your Home

She dropped by unannounced.

And I couldn’t help cringing somewhat. Ever-so-slightly mortified.

You see, she was an author, something of a celebrity, and now a personal friend.

So, of course, I was thrilled to see her, but was also deeply concerned about the impression we were making. Suddenly self-conscious of the layer of dust on the piano and the ridiculous pile of dirty socks by the front door.

I faintly whispered to my husband, “Oh, what must she be thinking??”

And his helpful response, “That we live here.” (Thank you, Dear).

But we soon lost ourselves in conversation and enjoyed a lovely time of catching up on each others’ lives. Ignoring the young boys rollerblading through the entryway and the teens crooning love songs while cleaning up the lunch dishes.

Our own happy kind of chaos.

The hour passed quickly and our glamorous friend got up to go. Before leaving, however, she turned to say something. Then stopped. Clearly something was on her mind.

“I don’t know quite how to say this….,” she began.

Oh dear. Here it comes.

“But you know what I’ve noticed whenever I’m in your home?”

The dust? The heap of shoes on the porch? An impressive amount of loud noise? Some of my silent guesses.

“It’s the peace that I find here.”

Hubby gave me a slight nudge.

Well.  What d’ya know.

Where I saw mess and mayhem, she saw joy and contentment.

A peaceful home.

Maybe there’s no easy formula, but here are 12 simple things that can help bring peace into your home:

Perfect Frosted Sugar Cookies

I think it’s safe to say I have a slight sugar cookie obsession. If you’ve been following my blog you’ve likely noticed by now. But really, who doesn’t love frosted sugar cookies? I mean how can you not love them? The only people that don’t are liars, I’m just kidding everyone is entitled to their own personal opinion. But those of you that don’t like them, well lets just say we probably don’t have much in common.

I know I’ve already posted a sugar cookie recipe, well that’s old news. Those are good, but these are better. These are so soft, so fluffy, so tender. Basically they melt in your mouth dreamy.

So, you may be asking, what is that makes these special? To answer that, it’s a combination of things. The texture is amazing thanks to the cake flour and cornstarch. Don’t substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour or your cookie will end up heavy and dense (compared to what you get with the cake flour, besides you’d have to adjust the portions anyway because cake flour is lighter). I know cake flour is more expensive than all-purpose flour but sometimes its worth it, in this case it’s definitely worth it. The combination of butter and vegetable shortening also helps the texture, especially when it’s whipped to fluffy perfection. I got the inspiration to use egg plus egg white along with the almond extract from white cake. This is one cookie that is meant to be a bit cake-y, it gives it that amazing, pillow-y as clouds bite.

If you like the Lofthouse style cookies from the store, trust me you’re going to want to try these. I think these far outdo those. Those almost taste like plastic to me, good texture but weird taste. I even like these more than my old favorite from the local bakery. These are my new favorite! Enjoy and share!

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10 products to help grow your spring garden

It's safe to say that everyone's been looking forward to the sun to come out and flowers to bloom. 'Tis the season to start thinking about your home garden and the beautiful flowers and textures you want to fill it with.

From a perfect pair of gloves to avoid invasive thorns to the must-have hand trowel of the season, these are the 9 products you need to successfully bloom your spring garden!

12 Months Of No Processed Foods – Crock Pot Recipes

 I personally am sick and tired of always eating processed foods, majority coming from fast food restaurants. As a family we decided to eat healthier and in doing so we actually saved a lot of money and feel better than ever.

Eating no processed foods is paramount to living a healthy life. Don’t be alarmed if you see that some of these recipes call for what we call “minimally processed foods”, for example, ketchup, canned vegetables, etc These are minimally processed foods but can also be made from scratch if you like. I buy everything organic and any meats grass fed without hormones.

But thankfully these meals are all wholesome and very easy to make. I love crockpot meals because all you do is chop up and add all the ingredients, turn it to low before you go to work and when you return you have a fully cooked meal that will fill you up and not cause you stress because the cooking is already done! Unless otherwise noted, all recipes are gluten free. Please read all labels carefully each and every time, as manufacturers change ingredients/manufacturing processes quite often. If you aren’t gluten free, just ignore my notes!

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis vs Gluten

Is Giving UP Gluten REALLY Necessary for Hashimoto’s Patients, or Just Fad Hype?

Unless you are newly diagnosed, chances are you have heard a lot about the connection between eating gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, oats) and auto immune diseases like Hashimoto’s.

You also have probably heard from your doctor, online nutritionists, and many mainstream media outlets and late night talk show hosts saying it is a lot of BS, and that you actually NEED gluten to be healthy.

So Who Is Right?

And also, just how strict do I really need to be? Can’t I have a little cheat? What if I don’t have any gut symptoms?

To find out the answer, I searched through research articles on PubMed. I already knew my stance on the issue, but wanted to make sure there was current research that supported it.

The September 2015 edition of the journal Gastroenterology  found high “proportions of patients with NCWS or CD develop autoimmune disorders, are ANA positive, and showed DQ2/DQ8 haplotypes”. (note- NCWS is non-Celiac wheat sensitivity.)

In the March 2015 journal Cerebellum, gluten was further linked to neurological disorders such as gluten ataxia, where there were no gut symptoms whatsoever, and occurred most commonly in patients with Hashimoto’s and other auto immune diseases. Check out this quote from the study:

“As with celiac disease, patients with GA (gluten ataxia) are often found to have an increased prevalence of additional autoimmune diseases the commonest of which include hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes mellitus and pernicious anemia. Gastrointestinal symptoms are seldom prominent and are not a reliable indicator for the presence or absence of enteropathy. In this respect, gluten ataxia resembles dermatitis herpetiformis, an autoimmune dermatopathy triggered by gluten where gastrointestinal symptoms are not prominent even in the presence of an enteropathy.” (parenthesis and bold added by me for emphasis and clarification)

Wow. That is pretty powerful. How many of you with brain symptoms has ever had your doctor consider a possible gluten connection?