A Bowl of Cherries

What's your favorite fruit? Peaches, cherries, apples, blueberries? There's nothing quite like a good piece of fruit in season, that's why I was so looking forward to eating the gorgeous cherries I had purchased from Sam's Club. I washed them and proceeded to eat the luscious fruit (with the help of my husband and sister).
A little while later, I was NOT feeling good. My stomach was quite unsettled, and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. I had won the prize for eating the most cherries, and was paying the price, experiencing painful abdominal cramps. We all came to the conclusion that it had to be the cherries that were making me feel so ill, and I proceeded to GOOGLE "cherries". I was surprised and disturbed to find that I was not alone in my "cherry sickness". As a matter of fact, there were others who had eaten cherries and had even ended up in the hospital!

As I was researching, I found that cherries test VERY high in the amount of pesticides & chemicals found on them. Their thin skin allows the harmful substances to sink in and no amount of washing will get rid of them. The chemicals become part of the cherry. After reading this, I have to say that I felt angry. I felt like I had been poisoned, by our food industry! Do they realize how harmful these chemicals are?? Do YOU??

Needless to say, the bowl of beautiful cherries weren't quite what they seemed, hence the moral of this story.

To buy ORGANIC or not to buy, THAT is the question. Page & I both are firm believers in avoiding pesticides & undue chemicals at all costs. However, we do not have a money tree growing in our backyard, so we pick and choose what we buy (though trying to buy as much organic as possible).
We'll be sure to cover more on this topic at a later date, but until then we wanted to give you a helpful lists of fruits/vegetables to buy organic, the "dirty dozen" those that have tested the highest in having harmful chemicals. We are also including a list of the "clean 15" those with the fewest pesticides.

"Dirty Dozen" (best to buy organic)

CHERRIES, Peaches, Nectarines, Apples, Strawberries,Blueberries, Grapes (imported), Celery Bell Peppers, Lettuce/Spinach, Kale, Potatoes

"Clean 15" (fewest pesticide residues)

Onions, Avocado, Sweet corn, Sweet peas, Asparagus, Sweet potatoes, Cabbage, Eggplant Kiwifruit, Pineapple, Mango, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Grapefruit
Honeydew Melon

-Obviously not all varieties of produce are listed above, but a good rule of thumb is that if the fruit/veggie has thin skin, it's going to have higher amounts of pesticides in it.

*ALWAYS wash your produce regardless; we use GSE (grape seed extract) it's safe and very effective.

Next time you're grocery shopping, just remember my little story about the bowl of cherries, and maybe it'll cause you to think twice about the importance of buying organic. What price do you put on your health?

~Lauren & Page

Bad hair day??

I think we've all experienced a "bad hair day" -you know, the day when your hair won't do a thing?!? Yeah....

Well, a friend of mine recommended these Goody spin pins, that help you create that messy bun/chignon look. I love to wear my hair like this, and I just had to try them!
At first glance, these spirals look like they'd do anything BUT hold your hair in place. However, I'm here to recommend these awesome lil' corkscrews to you! :-) You form your hair into a bun and screw in one pin from the bottom, and one from the top, being sure to keep the ends of your hair tucked under. It might take a couple of attempts to get your hair looking just the way you want it. Once secure, your hair will naturally adjust to the pins and take on that tossled, messy bun look. SO cute! They also come in several different colors, to match your hair -which is neat.

** Now, I've heard that they don't work as well for people who have very thin, fine hair. Just an FYI. If you happen to have thick, coarse, curly, textured hair - you will LOVE these!! If you have thick hair that's fine, these could still work for you. Simply allow your hair to become "dirty" and textured, they should work just fine once your hair isn't silky soft.

Try them, and let us know what you think!!

~Lauren

Redeeming the time....

Ephesians 5:16 "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."


Yesterday, our special speaker at church preached on the coming of Christ. He asked us how we fill our time. If we really are anticipating Christ's return, how we spend our time will reflect that. Do we fill our time with the things of this world, or are we spending it wisely in service for our Lord?
The temporal and eternal are both very real, it obviously makes more sense to prepare for eternity instead of the here and now.....so, then why do we often live with only the temporal in mind?

It's SO easy to get caught up with the things of this world -the news, Facebook, sports, the latest styles, gadgets, technology, etc. Entertaining ourselves is quite effortless - we all love a vacation, having fun comes naturally. There is NOTHING wrong with any of those things either, as long as they are in moderation and don't consume our time (which is too often the case).

I was convicted of this, and asked the Lord to help me to live with eternity in mind. If we truly are looking forward to Christ's return, and anticipating it, it will cause us to be busy in telling others about our so great salvation! It will cause us to put aside our petty arguments, opinions, and circumstances -knowing that there is SO much more to life than that! It will cause us to see people differently, seeing them as souls on their way to an eternal destination. It will cause us to get busy in our churches, serving the Lord, knowing that time is short. It will cause us to realize that the days are fleeting, and how we spend our time is of great concern. We must redeem our time, in other words - choose wisely how you spend your time because we really don't have much of it.

James 4:14 says "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."


"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil".....are YOU spending your time wisely?

I hope you'll keep this in mind as you go throughout your week. I know I will!

~Lauren

Our First Crafty Creation! Designer Magnets!

Ever wonder what you can do with left over pieces of scrapbook paper? This is a cute and useful way to make sure your beautiful scraps don't go to waste.

Magnets are so useful to have on your refrigerator. Trash those ugly food delivery magnets and replace them with these cheap and easy to make magnets . Here is what you need :

1.) A bag of clear, flat-bottomed glass pebbles.

You can find these at any craft store. They are usually located in the floral section. They come in a smaller size and a larger size. I opted for the larger size for this project.

2.) A clear / flexible craft glue (silicone based)

3.) Scraps of pretty paper

4.) Scissors

5.) Pen

6.) Strong magnets.

I got a pack of 50 magnets at Hobby Lobby for about $3.50!

Step 1 : Position a pebble over the image you wish to use and trace around it with a pen. Don't worry too much about accuracy at this point because we will trim the excess later. I am using thick scrapbook paper, but if what you are using is thin like comics from the newspaper, you may want to glue it onto another piece of scrap paper to make it thicker so the glue will not soak through and ruin your image. You can repurpose your junk mail for this.

Cut out all of your traced circles.

Step 2 : Use a toothpick to apply a generous amount of glue to the flat side of the pebble.

Step 3 : Adhere the image you cut out to the pebble making sure to press firmly and remove any small air bubbles in the glue.

Wipe away excess glue and trim away any excess paper sticking out from the pebble.

Step 4 : After that glue has dried a bit, apply glue to one side of the magnet and press firmly onto the back of your pebble.

When letting the glue dry, make sure not to place your magnets to close to one another. I made this mistake and my magnets slapped together and made a huge mess! : )

Step 5 : Let your glue dry for a day then beautify your refrigerator with them!

Here are some other neat ideas when making your magnets:

* Use buttons! Layer your buttons by stringing them together first and then glue your magnet.

* Use comics or small scale photos of your friends!

* Make your own alphabet! Print out letters in fun fonts and adhere them to smaller sized pebbles. Great for leaving special messages to your hunny bunny every morning!

This is such a fun and easy craft that really ands some uniqueness to your kitchen.

I bought enough supplies to do about 50 magnets, and the cost was only around $9!!!

Be creative, and let us know what you come up with! We can't wait to see!

*Jes*

Thank God for NEW CARPET!!!

My Thankful Thursday is all about the NEW CARPET that the Lord blessed us with for our bedroom. The Lord was so good to allow us to purchase beautiful $500.00 carpet for only $80.00!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, you heard right - and no, it's not some crazy color. It's a neutral that goes perfectly in our room! And it feels awesome squished between your toes. ;-)
We had searched and searched for the right carpet at the right price and to no avail. Because we waited on Him, he allowed us to find this amazing deal!
Our good friend (and the best carpet installer in the world), came out last weekend to install this luscious carpet for us, and we are enjoying it immensely!! Our old carpet was an ugly blue color that was all kinds of flat, drab, stained, etc. After pulling up the drab blue carpet, it gave way to this dated orange stuff that someone had GLUED to the beautiful hardwood floors. *cry* Why are people so dumb? :-P This is the "before picture" - here you see the old stuff rolled up, and the retro orange carpet underneath. Groovy, huh? I recently redecorated our room. We painted the walls a lovely, sophisticated gray with crisp white trim, bought luxurious new bedding (saved a lot on Ebay), installed a gorgeous new light fixture, hung the perfect curtains, and put the finishing touches on the room with artwork and decor. The LAST step to transforming our bedroom was the carpet......FINALLY our room is complete! Here's the "after picture" (half of the room anyway) and you can see how much of a difference it truly makes!
Thank you Lord for caring about even the little things, like my fabulous new carpet.

~Lauren