Anorexia & How It Rules my Life, Part 2

This is Part 2 in a series that I’ve decided to publish about my struggles with Anorexia and how it affects me every single day.  You can find Part 1 HERE

8 1/2 years ago I moved back to my hometown.  I was newly single, had no friends around me, no job, and really wasn’t sure where my life was going.  I felt it all starting again and yet the “sick” part of me didn’t care. I was very depressed and just wanted to feel better.  I wanted to feel wanted again (by someone else).  The last several months of my relationship hadn’t been happy (even though they should have been since I was planning my wedding) and I had a lot of recovering to do not only from ending my relationship, but also the psychological damages that had been done the 6 months prior to that.  My way of dealing with it was to walk and eventually start running and not eating.  I was going to show the instaquote-08-02-2015-11-17-13world that I was ok by having an amazing body!  (Or at least that is the lie I was telling myself, which in fact I know now was giving the opposite message!)  Over the next year or two I dropped a lot of weight and got down to my smallest size ever (in my adult life).  I felt great on the outside, but not on the inside.

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Are You Doing Love? Thoughts on Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching tomorrow! Are you ready? Are you doing anything special? Regardless of how we feel about the holiday we can’t help but think about our loved ones.

Now, I’m the first person to say that we shouldn’t need a holiday to show our loved ones how we feel about them and while I agree, I also can’t help but feel the tug to be traditional and want a romantic evening and weekend with my hubby.  But, isn’t it what we do and how we act with and toward our loved ones throughout the year that really shows how much we love them?

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Share Your World 2015, Week 6

I’m amazed at how Cee from Cee’s Photorgraphy continually comes up with such thoughful questions!  But, she does!  Here are this weeks awesome questions!

What was the last time you went to a new place?  A new restaurant?  A new hotel?   A  new destination?  Well, I’ve been to several new schools this year for football & basketball games.  I’m unsure of the last time I went to a new restuarant or hotel…hopefully some new experiences (other than games) will be coming my direction soon!

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Anorexia and How it Rules My Life, Part 1

I am taking a deep breath! I’ve shared my story about anorexia with vague details with people in my life, but never in detail and never described how it rules my life, even today.  I’m going to warn you that these will be a couple of deeper posts and will take me several to get my story out because it’s not something that can be contained into a brief concise post!  I’m not sharing my story to get sympathy or anything like that.  I’m sharing it because it is truly part of who I am and what has made me who I am.  I also think that anorexia is a topic that is shunned talking about, people tell anorexic’s it’s all in our head, which in fact it is an illness and one that you aren’t cured from..you just learn how to cope!  

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Mind Over Matter & Faith in Yourself!

This morning I was running and for once, I felt stronger than normal. I felt empowered and I felt healthy. You see, I’ve been running for almost 9 years now. After awhile, you get into a routine and running is something you do because not only do you feel better if you do it, but also because it’s routine. Running is such a part of me now that I don’t know how I would cope if I couldn’t do it.

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Share Your World 2015, Week 5

Another week of great questions from Cee at Cee’s Photography and I am committed to NOT posting them on the last day of the week or the first day of the following week!  So, here I go!  WOOHOO!

Do you prefer shopping or going to a park? Honestly, it depends.  I love shopping with my mom and best friend because it gives us time to talk, be silly and creative.  I also love shopping with T because we seem to view the world differently than most people around us and our humor is so alike that we end up spending most of the time laughing!  Now, that being said, I also love to go to parks, especially if it’s camping with my three guys.  It’s so relaxing and invigorating that you can’t help but love the time you spend there!  I wrote a short blog one time about our love for camping together, you can find it HERE!

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#TastyTuesday – Brown Sugar Oatmeal Coffee Cake

Recently on a Sunday I got up and wanted something warm and sweet. It was too late to get cinnamon rolls going, so I decided to throw together a coffee cake. I started by making a base and added a brown sugar oatmeal topping! It turned out great and even T told my mom with a tone of suprise “It was actually good” as though I feed him bad food on a regular basis! Gee thanks dear! (He later clarified that he was suprised because he never though to use oatmeal in a coffee cake).

oatmeal coffee cake

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Comments for A Cause: Sheffield Public Library

I heard from Beth Ann of It’s Just Life who heard from Val of Corn, Beans, Pigs, & Kids  (all part of our amazing #NorthIowaBloggers group) that it’s Library Lovers Month! How cool is that? So, after taking January off of Comments for a Cause, I’m back this month!

I’ve always loved libraries and reading!  Growing up in Hampton, I’ve always known how awesome our library and librarians are!  When I was a kid I went to the library on a regular basis to check out books as well as participate in special activities like plays, holiday events, & I volunteered as an elementary aged kid helping put away books, cleaning, and other jobs.

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Share Your World 2015: Week 4

Well, it’s Sunday which is technically the first day of the week, but always feels like the last day of the week and another crazy week at that! So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore that I seem to get these out really late in the week, but I still love doing them, so…here is my part of Cee’s Photography Share Your World campaign!

1.  Where did you live at age five?  Is it the same place or town you live now?  I lived on a farm in rural North Iowa, near the town of Hampton.  Now, I live in Hampton.  The farm still stands, but is unoccupied and falling into disarray.  We lived there because my dad worked for the farmer who owned the land and the acerage.  We lived in several houses after that before I was on my own.  

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