October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month! 

I know most of you know that.  Pink ribbons are everywhere.  I love the awareness part, but not so much the pink ribbon.  Here is more information why.

Because the statistics say 1 out of 8 women reading this blog will have breast cancer in their lifetime, I feel called to share the things I have learned along the way. 85% of the women diagnosed have no family history of it. Having been a miracle two times now, I'd like to offer some ideas to reduce the risks to our bodies.

Are you at risk?

Are your hormones high?   Have your hormones checked next time you are getting blood work.  I never knew to do this and my hormones were 5 times the acceptable range when I had cancer.

Are you overweight?  I was. Ask yourself if you are more than 60 pounds over the weight you were at 18 years old.  Fatty tissue makes estrogen, so this will put you over your body’s desired amount for estrogen. Maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly minimize your risks. 

Do you have dense breast tissue? A routine mammogram will discover what kind of breast tissue you have.  I recommend thermography instead, but either way, discuss your breast tissue with your doctor. 

Do you watch your environment and lifestyle?  How we eat, what we put on our bodies and how we live does largely affect our risk of breast cancer.   These are the biggest areas we can change. Exposure to solvents, plasticizers and other industrial chemicals in the products we use can increase our vulnerability.  Pesticide residue on the foods we eat is included in this.   

So avoid . . .

• cigarette smoke (even smelling it)
• processed foods (everything on the inside aisles of the grocery store)
• hormone replacement therapy (that includes the pill)
• more than one alcoholic beverage or cup of coffee a day (not my coffee!!!)
• non-organic produce (eat mostly fruits and veggies!)
• chemicals like parabens or BPA that mimic estrogen in products (check your shampoo, make-ups, lotions, etc)
• stress in your life (learn to make margin)

I know it’s a long list, but if only someone had told me! 

God has a plan in all things and I believe, for me, it is my job to help inform you all!  God has given us many resources in this world to combat the evil of breast cancer.  Yes, I think it is evil and reminds me a lot of sin.  He has given us wonderful food to eat – his food that comes from trees and vines.  Not plastic man made food in colorful boxes.  He has given us iodine to rub on our thyroid or iodine pills to help regulate our estrogen.  He has made curcumin, grape seed extract and pomegranate supplements that help to reduce our risks.

I pray you will make the changes you need to so you will not be one of the eight. I believe God has given us everything we need to live this life.  I just wish I had known and changed sooner.  Praying for health for each of you reading this!

2 Peter 1:3 Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

 ~Jeanna Young

When Jeanna is not writing, speaking, event planning, or homeschooling, she can be found scrapbooking her life,  redecorating her home, loving on her husband,  planning fun events for her kids or eating healthy to stay cancer-free!

5 Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Anything!

God made such wonderful food for us to eat!  I found having children they tend to lean toward the processed, colorful and sugary foods not found on trees or in creation. No matter what we eat at home. 

“How do you get all your kids to eat their veggies?” a new mom asked me recently.  I thought about it for a moment and I realized all four of my kids eat whatever is served at the dinner table.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” Gen 1:29

As a cancer survivor (twice now!), I cook pretty healthy.  Sure, my kids still love all the plastic, colorful foods created by man, but I want them to eat what is beneficial for their bodies and love it.  We will always have choices when we leave our home.  My kids go to birthday parties and enjoy the cake and candy, just like yours.  But when we are home, I am in charge of what they eat.  I do the grocery shopping and most of the cooking.

Reflecting over the last fourteen years, here are a couple of things we have done.

1. Be the best example to your kids.  My kids see me eating lots and lots of veggies.  In fact, if I eat anything that is different from my normal fare, the kids notice and say I am cheating!  By doing this, my kids have oftentimes asked to try my food and experimented with something, just because I am eating it.  Don’t be the mom telling her kids to eat healthy while she stands there with a Frappuccino and a scone in her hand (I used to be this mom!).
2. Be stealth with your ingredients.  I am stunned what my kids will eat if they don’t know what it is or if it is covered up somehow.  Zucchini with cheese, smoothies with kale, and cheeseburger soup loaded with veggies.  I always look for recipes with veggies in them. Even traditional classic dishes have alternative choices now on the internet.  I have also switched my kids to “look alike” snack items with much better ingredient list.  They have no idea because it tastes good.
3. Get your kids involved in cooking.  Some day your little princesses and knights will be old enough to help in the kitchen.  When they are, you will be amazed at what they will eat, if they have a hand in making it.  Even my 14 year-old son prefers to take a salad to school instead of a sandwich.  If he makes it, he is more apt to eat it.  Sometimes it is “kids’ day” and they are in charge of cooking dinner.  I am amazed at how similar they will cook dinner to how I would.  Something is rubbing off!
4. Tell them they have to try everything.  They say it takes 10 to 15 tries before a child will eat – and like – a different food.  Wow! That is a lot of stress to get them to eat one thing, let alone a whole bunch of new foods!  Yes, it is.  Parenting is not for the faint of heart.  As parents it is our job to train them up in many areas.  I believe teaching them how to eat healthy and with good portion control is our job.  So what if they won’t eat it? (see below under ‘drastic measures’)
5. Watch documentaries and internet videos about healthy food choices.  Nothing has a more radical effect on my kids than videos about good food or bad food choices.  Movies like Food Inc, Super Size Me, Forks over Knives, etc. will impact their food choices – and yours.  Last night my husband had the kids watch a YouTube video about “leaky gut” that promoted probiotics.  All my kids got up this morning and took all their vitamins and probiotics without me having to ask.

Our Drastic Measure

When our kids were little (under 4 years old), they all had a day where they refused to eat their food.  Every one of them. Luckily, I had a wiser older woman in my life who suggested we adopt an old principle dealing with food.  We decided to do what folks in the “old days” used to do and I am so glad we did.  Back to the days of no-nonsense parenting, I guess.

So when our little kids put up a fuss about their dinner, we asked them to eat it.  To at least take a bite.  And if they didn’t, then we would let them know they wouldn’t get any other food until they ate their whole dinner.  I realized very quickly this was a power struggle.  It really had more to do with them wanting the power than something different to eat.  So I served the same plate of food for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner.  They were allowed to have water, but no other food. Not one snack.  There was so much whining, so much crying and so much demanding, I wanted to give up.  Obviously, this was a day I had to cancel everything and stay home with them.

Eventually, every single one of them got really hungry and ended up eating the entire dinner – even ice cold.  One of them went hungry for 36 hours!  Only one of them did it two times.  But I can tell you this: after this moment, they all ate their dinner or at least tried it and there was no argument (or power struggle) over “a bite” to try it.

It may sound drastic, but it worked for us and all four of our kids!  I also know it has worked for other friends, too.  Was it painful?  Yes!  Was it an inconvenience?  Yes!  But all my kids are great eaters now.  I just asked them all if they remember those days and we all got a good laugh about it!

What are ways that you have gotten your kids to eat healthy food?

Jackie's Journey: Final Farewell??

Kim, my companion, in those last days!

“On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.  Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

Psalm 63: 6,7,8. 

The Darien is an earthy, steamy environment of thick rainforest.  The humidity was thick enough to slice and the heat was barely bearable.  With our return to Pucuro after my surgery came the responsibilities that we had left three months prior.  Our partners, Jay and Sue Gunsteens and their family, had gone on furlough and returned to the States. My strength had not returned and I tired very easily.  I started resting in the afternoon and within a few months I was having difficulty getting up. 

Ralph had fastened a battery tape recorder to the wall above the bed so I could listen to the Book of Psalms.  They brought me great comfort as I listened to David in his distress and God’s continual deliverance.  God became my refuge and consolation in ways I had never experienced before.  The isolation from civilization, the absence of medical convenience and the sense I was dying was exchanged for finding Him more than enough to meet all my apprehension.

How does God meet you in a tight spot?

 The daily opening of the clinic, delivering of babies in the night, homeschooling Christina, the care of Kimberly, the linguistic work and the daily opportunity to share Christ… all brought profound joy.  In spite of my physical state, my circumstances brought life-lessons I would never have recognized, experienced or understood apart from this plan God had for me.

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?  If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

Jeremiah 12: 5; Proverbs 24:10

We kept thinking if we could just persevere a few more months we would see our Kuna family in a spiritual place where we were comfortable leaving for an extended furlough and seek medical help.  We did not want both missionary families among our tribe to be on furlough at the same time.

The people would come and sit with me as I lay in bed.  Nangel, the village midwife, grandma, and precious new Christian, came daily and I looked forward to her visit.  One day she kept saying to the other women in our bedroom, “Purkwis tani!”.  Usually, that phrase is reserved for those who are dying.  It is translated, “Death comes!”  I remember thinking…it had been over a year since the surgery and I must look bad!  As a young mother, death seemed illusive, an impossibility…until my health failed and God began to speak to me gently, resolutely and unmistakably through His Word…

Did Nangel see something I couldn’t? 

A few weeks later a couple on the field committee, Don and Pat Barger, came in by plane for a day visit. The look on their faces when they entered our home told me that what Nangel had said might be true!  They immediately encouraged us to leave the village with them and to take an early furlough and get medical help in the States.  I had one small round mirror interior, and I had watched my face become thin and gaunt over the months, but I did not realize how tiny I was all over!

Waiting in Panama City for our flight to the States

I will forever be grateful for their divine intervention in our lives that day.  After a few days and friendly persuasion, we packed a few things, said our good-byes and headed to Scripps Diagnostic Hospital in the States.

As the plane lifted into the sky, I caught a glimpse of the entire village waving to us in what could have been our final farewell. 

Do you hear His voice daily speaking to you through Scripture?

Gently?  Resolutely?  Unmistakably? 

Are you listening?

Are You a Fun Mom?

I think I used to be fun a very long time ago, maybe before I was a mom. One of the reasons my husband married me in the first place was because he says I am fun (that was his #1 reason).  But as the years progressed and we had more kids, I changed.  My hormones were up and down. I slept less and took on more stress. I don't think I am fun anymore. 

With the kids, I often feel like the referee, the teacher, the cook, the maid, and the taxi.  Somehow it drains all the FUN out of me!

But I want to be a fun mom!  I always have wanted that . . .

After cancer, my attitude has been transformed.  I take each day that God has given me. I don't wait for the “next time” or when things might be “perfect”.  I just dive in because today might be my last.  Today might be your last. 

You just never know God's plans for you.  I think it is sad that it took cancer to get me back to being a more in-the-moment kind of mom.  One thing, I am no longer a bystander.  I now do so many more things than I used to, instead of just sitting around and watching others do them.

For instance, our Bible Study group, Elements, heads down to the beach each Tuesday with all our kids.  Each week I coax the ladies I am with into the ocean with me for a half hour.  One of them has not been in the ocean for 15 years!  We take in the waves, talk and shiver in the chilly Pacific waters.  I feel rejuvenated and refreshed. Today I asked the girls how old they felt jumping over the waves.  "12", one of them said.  Ah, we are living life! 

Now there are a bunch of health benefits to going in the ocean every week, which I just have to mention here.

First, the minerals in the sea air decrease stress and increase a sense of well-being.  Salt in water preserves the melatonin, tryptamine and serotonin levels in your brain.  This helps with fighting off depression or improving your sense of well-being. Going in the ocean water with your back to the breaking waves is like a reset of your emotional state.

Second, studies indicate that the minerals contained in the ocean’s water help with arthritis, psoriasis and even depression.  Other skin diseases, such as rosacea, eczema and rashes from plant allergies or heat are positively affected by the ocean water.  We decided today that we felt our skin was softer from our once-a-week plunges.

Third, ocean water contains iodine, which boosts thyroid function and improves the immune system.  When you are in seawater, the amount of oxygen carried throughout your bloodstream is improved and more nutrients are carried through your bloodstream to fight off free radicals. Ocean water also improves circulation of blood to organs.

Next, the swells and currents in the water act as a lymphatic massage to your whole body.  Being in the ocean water for a half hour is just like paying $80 for an expensive spa lymph massage.  Only God could know what our bodies need and provide a free alternative for our health.

Lastly, air particles break apart releasing ions into the atmosphere when the waves break.  Some scientists claim that sea air contains an abundance of negatively charged ions. These Ions are so good for us! In today’s society, we have too many positive ions in our lives.  You may know positive ions by another name – free radicals.  Because electricity, computers, TV and electronics are all sources of positive ions, it is easy to see why we have a shortage of negative ions.  Increasing our exposure to negative ions has many health benefits including enhancing the immune system, increasing alertness and improving concentration.  The negative ions from the ocean also help to reset your immune system and give you energy.

The biggest benefit is that my kids come and hang out with me in the water.  At least my girls do. So I am writing this for all the moms out there who want to stay in your beach chair this summer (like I have done so many years in a row!).  I had many excuses - I didn't want to get wet, it was too cold, I didn't want to have anyone see my overweight body, I didn't want to have to shower . . .  and so on.  JUST DO IT!  Whatever it is, experience God's creation with your kids!  Get in the ocean, the river, the lake - take that hike, jump in the pool with your kids . . . experience life!  This one life God has given you!  You never know when it will change - your kids will grow, your health may deteriorate - do it now before it's too late! 

The fun mommy in all of us is just waiting to come out. You never know – you might get healthier while you're at it!  Come join me this summer  . . . your kids, and probably your husband, will love it! Just picture our God in heaven smiling down watching you enjoy the things He made for you!  What could be better?

You shall go out in JOY and be led forth in PEACE"  Is 55:12