confessions

What Inspires Us & Why It Matters, Part 1

August 13, 2015 by Edie Wadsworth 23 Comments

Apparently, I have a lot to say on this subject, so I’m breaking into parts as we explore what inspires us and why we should pay attention. Today, I give you taste.

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I went for a run this morning which always turns out to be the exact time of day that inspiration hits. Because why would my brain want to cooperate with me when I’m ACTUALLY sitting down to write. It never does. But when I’m sweaty and running without pen or paper in sight? ALL THE GOOD IDEAS fall from heaven like manna.

But I guess when you think about what inspiration actually means, it makes sense.

Inspiration means to breathe in. (I love Jeff Goins post on this topic!)

Which means that inspiration is not a matter of whether you are breathing in but WHAT you are breathing in. And if you’re like me, much of your daily life is so crowded with to-do lists that it can be hard to breathe in anything but stress and hurry and social media blurbs. When I quiet all that or when I’m running so I’m that I’m focused on actually breathing, my mind is in receptive mode and I can’t even contain all the creative energy that comes bubbling to the surface.

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This summer has been so good for me in that way. I’ve been taking in way more than I’ve been producing, traveling a lot and learning a lot, meeting new people and soaking in long days with my own. We all need seasons like that. It makes me ready for a season of nesting and creating, a season where I want to be aware of all the tangible ways I’m being inspired and share the overflow with whoever is near.

Since this week alone, I’ve orange beets, cucumbers, South Carolina peaches, eggplant, arugula, blueberries, zucchini, corn, and Grainger County tomatoes, just to name a few, I thought we’d start with being inspired by taste.

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Inspired by Taste

First things first…..

I’m a foodie.

No, my name is not Izzy and no, I’ve have not always been a foodie. I grew up on Cocoa Puffs and Poptarts and hotdogs from Smoky Mountain Market, if you really want to know the truth. But over the years, I have become absolutely enamored with what it means to feed ourselves and to feed others well. The colors and textures and flavors of actual real food that God created for us are amazing.

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It has transformed how I look at making dinner because I realize that when the colors and flavors of what I’m making inspire me, I actually look forward to doing it and it doesn’t feel like (as much of) a chore. Also? I’m completely powerless when it comes to fresh eggs from a farm. As in, I am rendered nearly speechless and want to cook ALL THE QUICHES. Or at least a double batch of my favorite one.

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I know we all do it from time to time but it’s not very inspiring to order out from Sonic. But. When I’m in the middle of making a dinner using fresh, colorful ingredients with lots of herbs and spices, drinking my wine or kumbucha, with my favorite apron on and my favorite music playing, with my tea towel hanging over my should ready to wipe up the messes, there is NOTHING at all in this world like it.

Not to mention how much better it is for my actually body. I’ve said before, you don’t need to change the world, just make dinner. And I can’t tell you how much benefit I’ve seen for myself and my family just by committing to getting better at dinner.

If you’re not very experienced in the kitchen, try my shrimp boil or this summer vegetable soup to get you started. (We’ve been using Blue Apron and it has SO gotten me out of my rut!) Or try my advice on 5 Ways to Bring the Magic Back to Your Kitchen.

Also? Monster cookies inspire me SO VERY MUCH. Amen.

However you do it, make some food that inspires you and that feeds your people. (I have some tricks for getting dinner on the table, which you might find useful!)

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Everything in this world is a glimpse into the next and God doesn’t sell us short when it comes to taste. He’s the one who actually made us with a physical body that needs physical nourishment. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us that when He wants to strengthen our faith and give us life and forgiveness, He feeds us. The God of the universe feeds us by choosing simple means like bread and wine to do it. He welcomes us to His table and we eat. We actually taste and see that the Lord is good.

This sacred food comes to us from outside ourselves and very literally inspires us with the living, breathing Word and body of God, without whom there is no life. Maybe food is simply the metaphor for which He is the ultimate reality. Our tasting has led us to Him, the giver of all good things, the Bread that endures forever.

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Up next: Inspired by Hearing

And tell me all about your tasty inspirations!

Life is Weird & Also Wonderful

July 14, 2015 by Edie Wadsworth 32 Comments

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It’s been the weirdest stretch of months in my whole entire life, unless you count the year or so I spent going to the Armory with Brother Todd getting autographs of all my favorite pro wrestlers. I’m not sure if mama made him take me or if I just begged enough to appeal to his softer side. I could feel the electricity before we ever entered the building, almost like we were part of the crowd where Rocky Balboa would take on Mr. T, the aisles barely passable for all the riffraff donning their favorite wrestling t-shirts with their cut off (likely acid washed?) blue jeans.

The crowds and the sticky gym floor was no deterrent for my eye of the tiger determination at getting what I had come for and nothing warmed my 10 year old heart more than taking my red autograph book right up to the likes of Crusher Blackwell, Andre the Giant, and Ric Flair. (If you love me at ALL you will open a new browser and google the previous 3 wrestlers and pause for a moment of silence and imagine my ten year old self studying those autographs with all the passion a ten year old could muster. God Bless pro wrestling. And God Bless America.)

It’s a crying shame that by the time Hulk Hogan took on the Iron Sheik, I had moved on to bigger and better things, like watching George Strait take the Southern world by storm on CMTV. Nobody has time for wrestling when there are country music videos streaming 24/7 that must be memorized and reenacted. Using a brandy sniffer for a microphone. Because obviously.

All that to say, life is weird.

For starters, I just celebrated my 7th year of writing on the internets.

How did this happen? The internet has become a teenager while I’ve become middle aged, which makes me old enough to be its mama. Meanwhile, I have in fact become the mama of adorable 20 somethings who are doing amazing things and charming teenage girls who are about to break my heart and start high school. Why does the universe think I can handle these things without an all out break down?!?

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Then there’s my own roller coaster life.

I was the poor appalachian girl who by all accounts should never have made it through high school who grew up to become a doctor who then gave up medical practice to homeschool her girls who gave up homeschooling and then somehow got a book deal and wrote a book TWICE that took her to some very hard emotional places (although the book still isn’t ready for the world), who found her passion for healing again and can’t stop thinking about (and talking about) how these little drops of love (and the business opportunity they’ve created) are totally changing everything about her life. Whew.

And did I mention that we also started renting out our little mountain cottage, which has added a whole new dimension (and workload) to my life? Did I mention the weirdness of it all?

Side note: We also rented out our actual house that we live in during the week we’ll be on vacation, which is also kinda strange and fascinating at the same time. We are considering trading it out in the future for other fun places we want to visit. Brilliant? Weird? Sign me up.

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Not to even mention other things that I can’t talk about but that are keeping my heart twisted up and full. That’s another story for another year that’s needs to be covered in bathed in much prayer.

I don’t know what to say except that life is quirky but also wonderful.

It may not be Andre the Giant whose name makes my heart beat faster these days but this life keeps me in awe none the less and I still want to somehow find a way to hold all the things and people that come in and out of my days with the same child like wonder that I held that little red book with Ronnie Garvin’s signature on the front page. Coke stains and all.

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We’re barely surviving some days and then some days managing to squeeze every ounce of life out of the hours, hoping that the one thing that remains the same is gratitude.

A blessed thankfulness that by God’s grace, we are here to live another day with our whole hearts and our whole attention, with hands and eyes wide open for whatever he chooses to give or take away, and with whomever’s hand He uses to bring His blessedness to us—whether it looks like a gift or not at the time and whether the gift comes as a man who stands 7 feet tall dressed in a unsightly tights or an adorable 20 something with a barrel o’monkeys mustache or even a letter from an editor that feels for all the world like it’s not a gift at all even when deep down I know it is.

I hope you’re watching for it, too—for the way He weaves a beautiful story on the weirdest days out of the strangest little bits of mismatched yarn using mostly our fears and frailty. He knows what He’s doing and He loves us so much in spite of ourselves. In spite of our sin. In spite of our grumbling. In spite of our failure to see the gifts most days. We are loved for the sake of Christ, who has given us His name and made us His own.

That may be the weirdest and most wonderful thing of all.

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p.s. my newest fascination besides Instagram is Periscope. It’s a free live streaming app that seems like it’s gonna be a whole lotta fun! My handle on both is “lifeingrace”

My 7 Favorite Life Lessons from 2014

December 30, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 32 Comments

I’m a New Year’s girl and always have been. The week between Christmas and when the kids go back to school is my nirvana. I guess it helps that my birthday is January 4th but when everyone else is wallowing in that 2nd week of Christmas vacation (Okay, I’m wallowing too!) my wheels are turning a mile a minute. I’m scheming and planning and goal setting and wanting to start 147 new exciting projects. I wake up extra early and write down things as fast as my fingers can keep up. The winter morning light has its own special glow.

I have to MAKE MYSELF slow down enough to reflect on the previous year, but it’s a very good thing to do and it helps that I have a blog to help jog my memory. So here are some things I learned in 2014.

1. God’s Will is not sexy. When I wrote about my struggles with FINDING GOD’S WILL last January, I had no idea that so many of you have struggled with the same thing. I want to do something big and important for God but He doesn’t need my big and important. In fact, He doesn’t need anything from me because He’s the giver of all good things. My neighbor needs me and his will is for me to serve my neighbor. So I spent the rest of the year remembering that every time I stir the soup pot or clean the bathrooms or pay the bill, I am right smack dab in the middle of God’s will for life because I am serving my neighbor. Here’s the short and skinny or you can go read the whole post.

God’s will is for you to be saved. He has made every provision for that salvation Himself. He has given you everything you need in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. You don’t need to do ANYthing to please Him or find Him or discern His will. He is pleased with Jesus and sees you as one redeemed by Christ.

He has placed you in various stations in life and called you to serve your neighbor, since all of YOUR needs have already been met in Him. He has gifted you in certain ways, so that you may serve your neighbor and meet his needs. And the beautiful kicker is this—God hides Himself in your vocation, so that all the service you render to your neighbor, is sacred, because it is, in reality, GOD at work through you, meeting the needs of the neighbor.

2. Jesus is the father to the fatherless and you are more loved than you know. I’ve struggled with father wounds, striving to make up for it in a million ways, wanting the approval and love from people who could never give it. I visited my daddy’s grave site and the truth of who I am washed over like a flood. My Father loves me and that is always enough.

3. Podcasting is fun and exciting and LABOR INTENSIVE. In the spring, I did a trial run with podcasting with a little series on The Life You Love. The Life of Faith podcast was downloaded a bajillion times, which has given me some ideas for a Life of Faith series. Maybe in 2015?! Anyone want to be my podcast producer?

4. Miracles are everywhere if we have the eyes to see. I’m so thankful for my family and they continue to amaze and bless me. Nick moved out and made ALL A’s in chemical engineering. Taylor started medical school and rocked it!! Caiti is nearing the end of nursing school and has been such a blessing to watch. Emme and Elea are having a wonderful year and our older kids are finding their way in the grown up world of work and life. We are so blessed.

5. We are the first responders to the people in our lives. Let’s respond with gentleness and kindness and love and meekness. Let’s link our arms in theirs and walk them home.

6. Writing a book may in fact be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s feels a lot like a difficult labor. And it’s not over yet. Speaking of writing a book, my dear friend Ruth is launching her baby into the world today so GO GET IT!! It’s already #2 on Amazon!!!!

7. There are two things I never want to be without. They are—good books (I think I read nearly 60 this year) and Young Living Essential Oils. Finding and using and sharing these oils has been like the amazing intersection of everything in my life—health and wellness, caring for people, a way to stay home and still use my skills. I LOVE this company. I love these products. They are changing my life everyday. And you seem to love them too—so much so that I may be able to go ad free on my blog this year, which is my hope and prayer! Go get yourself some healing from the inside out.

Okay, smooches and love to you all.

I can’t wait to share my thoughts and plans for the new year!!

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My December newsletter is going out January 1st and it’s full of all the things I neglected to blog about in December along with an update on my crazy midlife crisis hair decision!! #growingoutapixieproblems

It also contains a link to a private page on my blog with free downloadable things, free meal plans, and other good stuff.

You can sign up here!

The Place Where You Are Cared For

November 17, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 34 Comments

Every memory I have of her house is nearly the same—the morning’s bacon fat is hardening in the iron skillet, her handwritten list is on a spiral steno pad topped with her reading glasses, the breakfast dishes are littering the sink and the smell of supper is already floating from the oven, her Bible is splayed out on the dining room table, its margins full of her heart’s murmuring. I tear up every time I think of her and as much as I’ve always loved decor, I can’t recall any details from her kitchen save those.

What I remember is how I’ve never felt more cared for in anybody’s home.

I was working 70 hours a week as a resident and she often picked my kids up from school until I could pick them up. I would drag in, exhausted and often tearful, wishing that I had dinner waiting for my family on the stove and sad that life was so busy and overwhelming. She didn’t make me feel less than. She reassured me that my kids knew how much they were loved and she’d read a little scripture to me and then send me home with enough food to feed my family and make me feel like life wouldn’t always be this way. That was nearly 18 years ago and it’s as clear to me as if it were yesterday.

I’ve spent the last 18 years trying to be Susan to the people in my life.

She changed everything about everything for me. She inspired me without condemning me. She loved me with food and words and childcare and with an indescribable hope that this way of life—this way of love—was possible for me too.

So, if you’re in a season where nothing looks like what you planned, hold on to grace. Hold on to hope. Thank God for your Susan, who has been Christ’s hands and feet to you and then get ready, because your day is coming—your day to make a place where people feel cared for.

And just a little warning, Susan’s life is harder than you think because loving people always is. Making a safe place for another human heart will require that you bear burdens that no one else sees.

I’m so thankful for her love to me, for making a place where I knew I was loved. I will never be able to repay her.

This is the Jesus way of hospitality. What a blessing to have been the recipient of so sacred a gift.

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Tell me the story of your Susan. We all have one!

MY NEWEST BLOG SPONSOR:

This post is generously sponsored by my YL. I am into natural choices for my family, and this is the main way I help boost our immune systems and alleviate lots of minor aches, pains, and injuries. Read more about how we are using them everyday! My Young Living essential oils are also my newest business venture, and the oils are so well loved that they sponsor my blog!!! Thank you, friends! Enroll by clicking here.

Around Here Lately

November 12, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 10 Comments

Four days after I turned my book in, we left for Sanibel for Stevie’s annual medical meeting. It was wonderful to get away and such a treat to spend time with his brother Jeff and Jeff’s wife, Vicki. I’d love to say I read voraciously and did lots of walking and running on the beach. The truth is, I think I took about 5 naps a day (mostly by the pool) and really that’s about it. The weather was beautiful and the shelling was fun, as evidenced by the display I set up on the outdoor table. I was forbidden to bring most of mine home because they were a little stinky but I did enjoy looking at them. [Read more…] about Around Here Lately

A Few Things for Fashion and Health

October 31, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 40 Comments

My friend Cyndi is a style blogger for those of us over 40 and she’s participating in an awesome personal styling service in the form of a 21 day challenge! I’m doing it myself and can’t wait to get started!! Today is the first day to sign up so read a little about it and then click over from my link below and all your questions will be answered! Here a few things to know about the Build Your Wardrobe Challenge!

Style Me Pretty Challenge | Build Your Wardrobe

Imagine waking up every morning and knowing EXACTLY what you’re wearing that day. Better yet, having a closet full of age-appropriate wardrobe basics plus a multitude of mix and match outfits just right for any occasion. No more looking into your closet not knowing what to wear or wandering around the mall not knowing what to buy. All the work is done for you.

How Does the Build Your Wardrobe Basics Challenge Work?

You’ll receive a shopping list of age-appropriate wardrobe essentials perfect for just about any occasion. Don’t worry – you won’t have to invest a ton of money to participate. A lot of the pieces might already be in your closet and you’re free to shop at your favorite stores. You can spend as much or as little as you want.

You’ll get ten days to get the pieces in place. After that you’ll receive 21 days of outfit combos created from those pieces in your inbox daily. You can choose to style your pieces and wear the outfit that day or save it for another day. All of the outfits are able to be downloaded and printed so you can refer back to them.

What’s Included:

Your Build Your Wardrobe Basics Shopping List – A list of wardrobe essentials with links to recommended items plus a downloadable PDF to print off and take shopping with you.
21 Days of Daily Outfits – A different outfit combo each day created from the pieces on your shopping list. Outfits are released at 7:00 p.m. ET the night before so you can have it ready to wear the next day.
Facebook Group – Each style challenge has it’s own private Facebook group where you can show off your style, share shopping tips and make great friends. Most participants agree that this is the best part of the challenge!

Who is the Build Your Wardrobe Basics Challenge for?

Cyndi and I specifically created this challenge for women over 40 who are either starting a core wardrobe from scratch or are ready to update their basic wardrobe. We will provide 21 days of mix and match outfit options created from the pieces in the core wardrobe shopping list provided. It will be great for women who work outside of the home and those that don’t. There will even be some special occasion outfit options perfect for the upcoming holiday season!

Click here to read more about this fun 21 day challenge or to sign up with me if you’re ready to go! This is an affiliate program and one of my sponsors for November. Thank you in advance!

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I also wanted to sing the praises of Young Living Essential Oils, which I’ve been using now for about a year. As you probably know, I’m a family doctor on very extended sabbatical (as in, if you keep reading my blog and supporting my work, I’ll probably be on an eternal sabbatical!) so I was naturally a little skeptical of all the great things I had heard about the oils. I had used other brands of oils before without having any WOW results.

But after using YL and having consistent results over and over, I’m a HUGE FAN. And I’ve always been into natural remedies but these oils have changed everything for me. I think you’d love them too if you tried them. These are medicinal grade oils that are unlike anything else on the market.

We’re entering that season of colds and other seasonal ailments and I can’t tell you how relieved it makes me to know I have THIEVES around to support my immune system and promote overall wellness. GET YOU SOME!!

Also, with all the stress I’ve been under lately, I don’t know how I would have made it without the oils. I use them all day everyday! I’ve been using Peace and Calming at night for relaxation and sleep. I’ve also been using Frankincense all over my face at night before bed (to promote younger, healthier looking skin) and I LOVE IT!! Last week, I burned myself with a curling iron because my pixie cut was driving me crazy. I used Lavender and Frankincense and to promote healing and was so happy with the results. I adore these products so much that I’ve decided to use my referral link as one of the primary ways to sponsor my blog so if you’ve never heard of them or have been wanting to read more or try them out, visit my YL page and get healthy while you help support my site!

I’ll say this for sure—it’s makes way more sense to sign up as a wholesale buyer with the Premium Starter Kit because you get several hundred dollars worth of oils and a diffuser for $150. I just placed another order because up until now, I’ve been using only the oils that come in the starter kit, but after seeing how well they’ve worked in the last few months, I don’t want to be without them when sick season hits and there are others I wanted to try. I promise you that the money you will save this cold and flu season on OTC meds will pay for this kit easily and you’ll be using natural remedies that have so many benefits beyond what you’re even using them for. We have a WONDERFUL private Facebook group that I can add you to once you start using the oils that will answer every question you have and help you get the most benefit out of every oil you use.

Head over and read more! Let’s be oily friends!

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One more thing!! My October newsletter is going out this weekend, so join us is you haven’t already. With your newsletter, you’ll get a link to a private page on my blog that has a November meal plan, a download for a beautiful printable with the quote below, and a free download of my Hospitality ebook. The ebook will give you a fresh perspective on hospitality and some great practical tips as we head into the season of having people into our homes for the holidays.

Join the newsletter here!

Hope you have a dandy weekend! Follow me on Instagram for more regular updates and for a little short story I wrote on IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A PIXIE!

Smoochies,

edie