Hello, friends!
As we enter February, the commitment to finding and creating joy in our lives seems ever so necessary. Though we may be subdued by the cold, saddened by various trials and tragedies in our personal and global lives, or just hitting the February slump in the school year, we are still a people of hope and gratitude.
Finding joy need not be complicated; in fact, it works best if we keep it simple! In the next few weeks of reflections, I’ll offer a few simple things that I hope will bring joy to your heart and home, as they have to mine.
Christ’s Joy,
Caitlan
To Snack On
Snacks—the first thing to go in our home! It helps tremendously when I have some healthy, homemade snacks already on hand for our full weeks and my always ravenous children.
A friend recently recommended these banana peanut butter oat bars from Dishing Out Health. Because I don’t know how to follow a recipe, I used chocolate collagen powder instead of plain and added in a few shakes of hemp hearts and chia seeds. We kept these in the fridge and they proved to be an easy and delicious snack, ready for the taking when hunger struck.
If you enjoy snacking on nuts, these sweet and spicy maple rosemary cashews are on another level. I used coconut sugar instead of the brown sugar.
To Sip & Drizzle
When I was neck deep in research over the summer (2024) after my mom’s lung cancer diagnosis in May, extra virgin olive oil keep popping up. Containing at least 25 polyphenols (plant compounds that do amazing things for our bodies like decrease inflammation, neutralize free radicals, and even kill cancer stem cells), olive oil is truly a medicinal food. It makes absolute sense that the Mediterranean diet produces such resistance to disease!
I started sipping extra virgin olive oils by the spoonful, looking for that spicy sensation at the back of the throat. This peppery taste and feeling is an indicator that oleocanthal (a polyphenol that can kill cancer stem cells) is present.
During my mom’s active disease fighting phase, we started ordering organic extra virgin olive oil from a company called, Masseria Estates. They source their olives from a single origin in Sicily, cold press the olives, and then package the oil in a timely manner to preserve health benefits.
Looking for other options as our budget needed a little shifting, I spied a good looking extra virgin olive oil at Aldi. The label names where and when the olives were harvested, and it has a D.O.P. seal of certification from Italy. When I got home, I whipped out a spoon, took a sip, and lo and behold a lovely peppery sensation. I’d call that a win.
To Listen
Finally, sometimes a song is all that’s needed to stir some joy in the soul. Here are a few of our current favorites.
Counting My Blessings by Seph Schlueter and Matt Maher—on my husband’s playlist
Aurora by Michele McLaughlin—on my son’s playlist, because it sounds like it could be in a movie for one of his favorite books
All of My Days by Ellie Holcomb—on my playlist, because God has made this real the last year of my life
