Whole Healing Challenge

I haven't been keeping up with this on the blog.  Oops.  I also haven't been doing these challenges as well as I could.  A little preoccupied, I suppose.  Anyway, here are the latest 4 weeks.

Week 10 - Forgiveness:  Repent
I started this one rather late as I didn't see it until the end of the week, so I did it in conjunction with the next week.  Anyway, this week I was to spend time in prayer, asking what I needed to repent of.  And I found a few things that needed adjusting in my heart.  I won't get into them here, but mainly I wanted to be more loving of those I didn't understand, specifically those who hate me just because I believe differently.  This has been tested a lot the last few weeks with some of the stuff that has come up in our area recently.  It has not been an easy journey, as I need to continue to focus on God's love, not my own.

Week 11- Give up Control
This was a big one!  I've always been a control freak... although having kids has shown me that I cannot control everything, nor do I even want to.  I mean, having to control things really is a lot of work, stress, and not much fun either.  We were asked on face book to write these things down ... "I surrender _____" and then shred the paper.  I didn't do that (not sure why, would have been a good exercise).  Instead I wrote about them in my diary.  I wanted to do one per day, but only did 4.  The farm, my children, our future, and my eczema (well, more specifics to each as well, but this is sufficient for the blog, ha ha).  It is not easy some days... I think I have actually taken some of these things back, and I need to surrender them on a daily basis.

Week 12 - Rest
Oi.  This was talking about removing chaos, saying no to too many extras, making time for rest/sleep, and letting go of things that don't serve me or my family.  For me, the most difficult thing was sleep... going to bed earlier and trying to nap.  I have already been saying no to a lot (because I CANNOT physically do these extras).  I also need to prune my to-do list.  This is something I did, and am attempting to do more and more.  Getting to bed earlier is still a difficult thing however, and I'm not really sure I did as well on this as I could have.

Week 13 - Eat more Green Foods
The challenge was to eat one green salad per day.  I actually did great on this one!  The hardest thing was to make sure that I had greens in the house.  I only didn't have salad on Sunday.  Otherwise I had at least one per day... 4 days I had 2 salads (and a green smoothie on one day as well).  I wish I would have had more greens today, but we did have vegetables either way,  so I'm glad about that.  Now to continue this.

Week 14 will start this week.  I look forward to it.

As for other 'healing' things I have been attempting -

Oil Swishing - been doing this for 2 weeks now, and I'm not sure it's been doing anything, in all honesty.  To do so, you take about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (other oils work too, apparently) and swish it around in your mouth from 15-20 minutes, first thing in the morning before you drink or eat anything.  Then you brush your teeth and scrape your tongue, and floss.  Then you continue on with your day.  It's not a fun thing, but it isn't difficult either, and I generally do it while feeding our daughter, changing her diaper, and doing devotions.

No Shampoo - Actually, also no conditioner or soap.  Sounds odd, I know.  I've been using baking soda mixed with water as my 'shampoo' and apple cider vinegar as 'conditioner'.  I also used baking soda as a 'soap' of sorts (it's a deodorizer).  I have been doing this 2 weeks as well, and my skin is softer.  My hair feels so much nicer now that I'm over that initial 'greasy' feeling that comes with no longer having your hair stripped of its natural oils by the shampoo.  I actually have some volume to my hair!  It is great!  And yes, it is clean, too!  As for lotion... haven't been using any for a long time now since it all affects me negatively.  However, my eczema has now been showing up in a few other places.  I'm not sure why... since I've been reducing my toxins going on my body!  Only thing I can think of is that maybe my body is sort of detoxing and removing toxins through the skin is causing more of a breakout.  We'll see.  I've been trying to eat coconut oil on crackers or toast or something as it is supposed to help eczema when consumed as well.  I also use it as moisturizer.

Water - I need to drink more... yup... but I've been having 6 cups a day at least, plus one cup of chamomile tea.  It also helps the baby to sleep at night.

Sugar - epic fail.  I've still just been eating about everything in sight.  I can't help it, I feel half starved all the time.  I am trying to pick healthier items, but lately it has been difficult.  I made some cookies with no sugar (date paste, great stuff), but they did have chocolate chips.  I made some white cookies for Easter and have eaten some.  OK, a lot.   And other desserts on Sundays especially... major fail.  But our meals are still healthy and less processed.  I think this will be something we continue.  OK, I really want to continue (there will be the odd day where we won't do as well).  The sugar thing is over now, but I only really made it 55 days.  Sigh.  The last 35 was off and on.

Sleep - Fail again.  I'm still up and it's 11pm.  Time to try to go to bed.  But first, gotta try to get A to sleep.  She does well at night once we get her to fall asleep.  Right now we generally get 6-7 hours between feedings during the night!  It's nice.  Really nice!  My husband doesn't even wake up at all during the night when I do have to, because she doesn't wake crying... I wake up to her sucking her fist half asleep, and then I feed her anyway. 

Bedtime for me!  Hope you all have a great week (and I'm looking forward to finding out what this week's challenge will be).