I Became An Trim Healthy Mama Affiliate

Last fall, I started doing THM full on. The results were amazing, and I naturally shared about my non scale victories as well as my scale victories. In condensed summary, my body changed a lot from the outside and within. Here are a few victory posts with photos if you wanna have a read :)

Victories 1
Victories 2

I got so excited about Trim Healthy Mama and it's products that I looked into becoming a distributor for the area that I am currently residing in. Unfortunately, someone else beat me to it, so I heard. That's all good, I have peace that everything happens for a reason and that God had other plans for my life at this time. So then, I went ahead and joined the affiliate program! I figured that as long as I am doing the THM plan, blog and instagram about it, someone will see my results and my testimony and use my affiliate link to purchase THM goods. If they do, I'm happy, and if they do not, I will just keep on looking to God for provision like I always have. Win win! He he!

I wanted to take the time to thank you, the handful of you who have supported my family by ordering THM goods through my link! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! It all adds up :)

!!!THANK YOU!!!!

My Affiliate Link

Follow me on Instagram @trimhealthycathy

Motherhood- a kill joy?

The enemy has stolen our joy  in "mothering" and in" motherhood". 🤰🤱 Motherhood goes back to the beginning of the earth and it is a GOOD thing. We have swallowed the lies of a wordly "self-love", 🖤 this kind of self live doesn't last.

Jesus says :  "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends". John 15:13.

This goes against the worldly wisdom and sounds so foolish to those who do not know the Lord. The world says "love yourself, think of your self first, you come first..."... Joy isn't happiness. Happiness is flaky. Joy is solid regardless of your circumstances:
J- 1st (God) Jesus
O- 2nd others
Y- 3rd yourself

We're so short-sighted, and constantly battle with guilt, wants, wants, wants, lethargy, frustration, discontent etc. No wonder mothering and motherhood has such a bad rep.

These days no one speaks positively about motherhood, babies and toddlers. For example on social media,  there are countless forum threads about stay-at-home moms venting and focusing negatively on how hard everything is and how they wished for this season to hurry on and pass by.

We're constantly bombarded by our needs and our wants, by the social media, advertisments, by negative from friends and family.

Children have become a burden. Mothering has become a burden. Since when? It's not a privilege, a Joy or a blessing that it was designed to be. We can take this back you know! God's on our side!

Mothers keep searching for ways and demanding to "self love", so that they can "recuperate", yet we're never satisfies, and our thirst is never quenched.

We don't see and hear the cuteness and the sweetness in the cries of our babies, and we don't tune in to nurture and to soothe.

We hear a needy baby who just won't settle, and we see all the things we would rather want, and do... and experience.

No one is happy. No one has Joy. All of us are robbed. We didn't love on our baby/children purposefully, and we became stagnant. By pouring our love intentionally,  we will be refilled by a Greater Love that never grows weary. For those who like to recycle.

Easter Pasha (S)

Calling all Nordics! THM'fied Pasha is here! Okay, a day late -but it's here! You got like 2 days to make this, devour it and call it Easter. This is the ultimate Easter dessert! Well, at least in Finland. Here we go,

You'll need

• 1.5 sticks of butter
• 2/3C Gentle Sweet
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4C Greek Yoghurt/Qwark
• 3/4C whipping/heavy cream
• 2-4T sultanas/diced apricots (if you don't mind going over to the XO'r, then don't shy away)
• 4T almond slices or slivers
• juice of 1 lemon (I also added a few drops of doTERRA Wild Orange Essential Oil)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1-2t vanilla extract
• fine mesh sieve or bonus points if you have the traditional "pasha mold". (I obviously didn't!)
• muslin/cheese cloth

Instructions

1. Whisk together butter and Gentle Sweet. 
2. Add egg, yoghurt and cream. Whisk for 1 or 2 more minutes. 
   
3. Pour into a pot and turn the stove to medium LOW -do not boil!
4. Heat and keep stirring until the mixture loosens up and begins to steam. Make sure you don't simmer or boil, else it will separate. This process usually takes about 5 minutes. 
   
5. Zest the lemon in and add the vanilla extract. Let the mixture cool an hour or 2.
6. Add the almonds, sultanas and lemon juice. 
   
7. Line the sieve with the cheese cloth/muslin, and pour the mixture in. Cover it gently with the cloth and rest the sieve in a large bowl. Place the bowl into the fridge over night and unravel the next day. 
   
8. Flip onto a serving plate and decorate with fresh berries or more sultanas. I used dried apricots. 
   
   
   
   

So this is my "little bit of Finland" during every Easter. I have let go of many traditions to save my sanity, but this is something I can easily keep and my family doesn't mind at all.

I brought this dish over to our friends today and within minutes this dessert was devoured and the plate licked, if I hadn't interfered. Ha!

Let me know what you think if you do decide to give it a go :) Oh, and some of you might notice the spelling differs from what you're used to or may disagree with the origin of Pasha... who cares! More power to you! It's a yummy dish, am I right or am I right?

Blessings!

Do check out my recipes on HolyTempleUnderRenovation
HERE

If you need to order THM products, use my affiliate link HERE Thank you for supporting my family!

New Videos Up

https://youtu.be/l8GC7fM10ss

Ultra Organized Kitchen Part 1

I wanna share about how I'm being frugal with our grocery bills while, keeping my sanity in the tiny, and dated kitchen that I'm working with LOL

xo

1. Only buy what you truly use. Keep it simple. I know we love to try new recipes that call for random ingredients, but don't! Like Pearl and Serene say, "what's your sweats?!" If you are craving for an exotic dish - eat out. If you make exotic dishes all of the time, well, these are your "mundane and simple" ingredients.

As a mother of a larger crowd, I need to keep things pretty basic. Basic doesn't mean bland. I've gathered our favourite meals and their ingredients and that's that!

2. Lazy Susans! Not only do they prevent you from stacking your cupboards full of random bags and boxes, they help you access the ingredients you have, too! I have one next to my stove for utensils, cooking oil and spices as well.

3. Don't label your products unless you're seriously suffering from dementia. There really is no need to. It's "visual noise", I don't care how pretty it looks like, just don't. 
By keeping your products to a limit, you can tell the difference between the ingredients, trust me. If you still want to, use labels that you can erase like chalk board stickers. I got mine long time ago, before I realized, in my case, it was a waste of time.

4. Keep spices that you use more often, closer. I got my home made seasoning mixes in previous spice tubs I've purchased, and I use them OFTEN. They are so versatile & used in many different types of recipes. I love simplifying spices by mixing them together.

Firstly, if a recipe calls for e.g garlic, onion and salt - what's the danger of adding a little bit of parsley in there too? Hence, the Ranch seasoning mix!

Secondly, do you really want to open 4 to 7 spice tubs, when you can cut the hassle in half or even more? I guess I don't...?? 😒

Thirdly, organize your spices by "themes".

Not only does this save you money!! But it keep your life a bit less chaotic. Especially your kitchen.

Anyone else on instagram sharing their journey???

Home Chapel part 1

Say what??

A HOME CHAPEL?

Yes.

So, this is something that I have wanted to do for a while now. Our downstairs is one of the messiest parts of our home and I hate going down there. Why?

Well, our rec (recreation) room is always chaotic, thanks to the numerous bits of toys and books which we try so hard to keep organized and stored away in our "toy library" (something I have to post about later). From the rec room to the laundry room is a narrow hallway that is so narrow, that even a hair band on the floor is, trip'able on. It also stores our deep freeze, so I have no choice but to brave this area of the house. Ugh!

Our laundry room, which has the best system in the world (also something I will post about on a later date), collects shreds of random paper crafts, among other annoying stick-to-the-sock bits, how on earth... I don't know?? I need to figure something out as soon as possible! Needless to say, the downstairs is a cold, unwelcoming place which I will tackle soon.

I have thought through and tried numerous ways to make the rec room more inviting, practical, spacious, soothing and restful. I have always failed. Whatever we try, fails. It ends up being "trashed" by the kids and we have to face the agonizing task of cleaning it up every Thursday, to welcome our children's piano teacher on the Friday. Gah!

No thanks!

But, ahha! Then it dawned on me, Simon has daily devotions with our children at least once or twice a day! Usually we have morning Bible study around the breakfast table and prayer time in our living room. What if, we had a room purposely designated for something great. I mean REAALLY great? What else could be greater than coming together in worship, learn about and pray to our God?! Jesus in the midst of us!

Could I really contemplate turning our messy TV room into a "chapel" with couches and lounge chairs for future Bible studies (women's breakfast or our church's youth gatherings) , our morning and post dinner devotionals? Would this room hold our precious prayer box and hymn books? Could we Youtube our favourite worship songs with lyrics on the TV and actually have a gathering in the middle of the week? Why, yes we can!

Why was I second guessing myself? What would people think?

Who cares! This will be amazing, I just know it.

So then I asked myself, what does a church outside of church look like? Does it need an altar of some kind, a cross, seating (preferably comfy), access to Bibles and prayer boxes. How, where? We already have our piano and guitars downstairs, so music will be sorted!

Where will I get the cross from?

Obviously I won't be buying it since I've already made a commitment with Simon to be frugal,  and a cross is not in the budget. So.....

You guessed it (or did you??), I made it!

This post is part 1 because I have not transformed the rec room into our "chapel" yet. Keep posted by subscribing and you'll see what the finished product will look like in part 2, -the BIG reveal!

Simon was so kind to cut out the cross for me from a sheet of Styrofoam which we had several pieces left over from my previous craft session (will blog later, too).

I found some gold adhesive to cover the Styrofoam with. Not easy, that's what duct tape is for. In Finnish we call duct-tape "Jesus tape" because it can do miracles. How fitting!

Next, I added burlap to dim down the shining gold. After all, we didn't want it to resemble the "golden calf". Just kidding. The glue gun was my best friend.

Now the fun begins.

Gluing the flowers. This was tricky. I didn't want to cover the cross completely with flowers, but I had so much I wanted to use!

I stuck with white flowers to resemble His righteousness. Purity. Holy. The red resembles the blood he shed for us, giving us new life. 

The gold that shimmers through the burlap, resembles the "golden city" and crown that awaits for us. The burlap resembles the humility and meekness that we need to put on, and let the gold (Jesus' light) shine through. 

Finished product, but not at it's final destination.

Click on the photo to view larger.

In part 2, I will show you the before and after pictures of our renewed and re purposed room.

Stay tuned!!!

Don't forget to visit my YouTube channel to see my vlog on this project (up soon!)

I've Started Vlogging!

And I'm a novice! So please be patient with me,  as I'm navigating through the big world of creative editing!

www.youtube.com/c/HolyTempleUnderRenovation

Do me a huge favour and subscribe!

But before you do, let me know what you would like to see me vlog about?

I couldn't Pump

When I had my first baby, everything related to nursing was like a crash course. Right after the birth of my first born, I was very blessed to have an experienced midwife (back in Finland) to really emphasize the importance of nursing, and how valuable mother's milk is. I took everything she said to heart and delivered "creamy-cream" to my infant. He grew and he grew fast!

My son must've been a few months old when I decided to attend a women's meeting at church, without him. If I would've known then what I know and believe now, I would've taken him with me. However, I was a newbie and most likely pressured by other moms to leave him home and to go enjoy "my own time". All I had to do is pump a little milk into a bottle and my husband would be more than okay to take care of him while I was gone.

Well, things did not go as planned. The electric and manual breast pumps that I purchased for times like these, did not work on me. I sat there for a good hour, maybe in 15 to 30minute sessions, sore-nippled, defeated, feeling guilty and disappointed in my own body for not producing "liquid gold" for my precious baby. After all, all the moms I knew could express a full bottle in no time. I remember one friend donating her breast milk away, because she was literally flowing milk into those manual pumps and could easily fill up a bottle in less than 5 minutes.

Not me. I tried everything! Heat pads, nursing baby while I pumped, looking at my baby intensely with warm mothering nurturing feelings....I squinted and focused my very best but, nada. I may have expressed a drop that dried up before it even hit the bottom of the bottle.

Thankfully not very long after that incident, our child-care clinic nurse told me about these amazing "milk-catchers". They're like little saucers that you place in your bra, and while you're nursing your baby, it catches what you leak from your other nipple. I used to fill these bad boys up! We would collect throughout the day into the fridge and bag up and freeze before we hit the sack. I had a good stash of "liquid gold" tucked in my freezer for the times that I was away.

And guess what happened 11 years later?! Keep reading...

check this one out!

Throughout the 11 years with my other babies, I tried all kinds of breast pumps. I was certain that there was a brand out there that would work for me. I tried every brand I could get my hands on. I'm just thankful that I had been smart about it and borrowed/rented them instead of purchasing them, so I didn't lose too much money! 

After 5 babies, I discovered this silicone breast pump. 

check this one out!

What do you think happened? I gave it a go and it worked! Not only did it catch my leaking milk, but it encouraged it out in streams!? This is huge guys! HUGE! I couldn't believe it, my husband was in shock too! I was like "honey, look!!! Look! I got 30ml, just in a few minutes!" Needless to say, I was super stoked but also, so encouraged and empowered! I have a stash! Hello date-nights!

So what happened next? I stand behind these amazing products that we went ahead and sourced high quality food grade collectors and pumps to sell on Amazon as a home business. You all deserve to give these a try, and I'm pretty sure that these will be a huge blessing to your mothering years of breastfeeding your little miracles.

So, here I am a homeschooling mama of 5 with a "side hussle" that benefits us women. Go check these out, my two new products on Amazon and tell me what's YOUR story?!

Do you struggle with pumping?

Here's my #5 in a "milk coma". Stay little, my precious little man.

Since I'm just getting started with these products, I'm offering active bloggers/vloggers to receive one of, or both of these, for free! Comment below if you're interested! 

Silicone Breast Pump click here

Milk Collectors click here

My Top #10 - oops 11! February 2018

1. Baobab fruit powder. I have yet to get sick this year (Fall 2017- Spring 2018). I don't know whether it is because I have been religiously getting Meyer's Cocktails (IV vitamin therapy), or whether it's because I have been adding Baobab powder to my daily sippers? Or a combination? Whatever the case is, I dare not go a day without 1T of Baobab powder. This my friends, is the REAL deal. 
   
2. True Lime and True Lemon sachets. I love these! water enhancers sweetened with stevia. My favourite sipper is one of these true lemon/lime sachets, 1T Baobab, 1T ACV (apple cider vinegar), and 1/4 gallon of water. Sometimes, I add ground ginger and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
   
3. Grocery shopping over the border. I have been doing this for about 2 years now. Every so often, I will hop over the border (not illegally of course!) to do some grocery shopping. I posted my recent "grocery haul"on YouTube (Click Here!), go check it out! Why do I shop in the US? Well firstly, it takes around 20 to 30minutes to drive to the border, and usually we've been really lucky with the border lines. Secondly, the food I need fits better with our budget and household size (larger quantities). Thirdly, I get stuff I cannot get from Canada (just some stuff are novelties!). And fourthly, it's always fun to do a mini road trip with your "besties" and on top of that, visit our favourite restaurant! 
   
4. Cat Nip -ha ha ha! No, but for real it is ridiculously cute to watch the cats go wild. We got 3 kittens last year. I almost crossed the "crazy cat lady" line.
5. Dark roast decaf. I gave up caffeine a while ago, but not coffee. I love coffee. I love dark roast and Italian. I realized that drinking coffee really affected my night sleep, even if I could fall asleep without any problems. Also, since I'm nursing baby Alistair, he seems to be sleeping a little bit better too.
   
6. Trim Healthy Mama. I'm so back on the THM plan. I have lost around 25lb so far. My post birth weight was around 231 to 233lb, my current weight is 207.2 and my goal weight is around 135 to 150lb. I am aiming to be there sometime in 2019. I cannot believe the "food freedom" THM provides you! It is incredible! If you haven't looked into it yet, I suggest you do! Do not go another day without reading about it and giving it a go! You can follow my journey on Instagram (CLICK HERE!) and see what I eat, how I feel, read about my "non-scale-victories" and more! Check out Trim Healthy Mama by clicking here.
   
7. Created To Be His Help Meet by, Debi Pearl. What can I say about this book? I had several women warn me about this book. Some threw "book reviews" my way, and of course these reviews were advocating for women NOT to read this book. Well, I'm one of those gals that likes to make her "own reviews" and I'm so glad I did. I was so close to putting this book down and continuing on with my life, but there was something that really intrigued me, "why is this book rubbing so many the wrong way?" Geez Louise, mama bear! This is hardcore stuff! Sure, there was stuff that I didn't agree with in particular, but I'm really glad I didn't throw the baby out with the bath water, if you know what I mean! Our marriage has experienced tremendous healing through this book and I am grateful for that! I'm talking about 12 years of a certain thorn in our side, gone! You might not want to pick up this book, but if you decide not to, please don't let it be because of some nasty book review. 
   
8. The Excellent Wife by, Martha Peace. This book is a notch down from Debi Pearls book. Ha!
   
9. Above Rubies. What can I say? I stumbled across this magazine (ministry) almost 12 years ago in Finland. Above Rubies has carried me so far in my motherhood journey than any other mother support group-ladies weekly Bible study- mother or in law support- combined or imagined! The hope and strength that I possess as a mother today, is because of the Above Rubies Ministry. I have gained so much knowledge, so much wisdom, so much hope and encouragement, joy...the list goes on! Above Rubies has pointed me to the Cross, the Truth in regards to what "mothering" is all about. I cannot thank AR enough. Check them out! (Click Here)
   
10. Instagram -is where I've been active recently. More than Facebook. If you want to know what's going on with me on a regular basis, check there first!
    
11. Holy Temple Health products on Amazon Empty Gelatin Capsules, Silicone Breast Pump and Breast Milk Collectors. So this is exciting!!!! We've launched our own business! Who knew we would be selling pregnancy, baby and health related (my personally favourite products ever) goodies on Amazon?! We do not believe in debt so we launched our little business initially with only $500 that hubby got as a bonus last year. Starting out small and Lord willing, this will grow. Keep us in your prayers!

Whats up with you guys? Missed you!