Monthly Archives: November 2016

holidays, vegetables

Mashed sweet potatoes

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Mashed Sweet Potatoes

You might be wondering why the dish above is empty… That’s because these sweet potatoes were so yummy I didn’t get a picture before I ate them! 😀 Ha! But it’s a super simple recipe with 4 ingredients!

5-6 medium sweet potatoes

1 TBSP butter

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more if desired)

Wash the sweet potatoes, cut out bad spots & cut the ends off a little. Prick each tator with a fork in several different places. Wrap in foil and bake at 350 degrees for an hour or hour & a half. Take them out and unwrap to poke with a knife and see if they are cooked through.

Peel the sweet potatoes while warm, then place in a bowl and mash with a fork or with the hand mixer. Add the butter, salt and cinnamon. Blend well.

Eat while hot. Don’t expect leftovers! 😀

coaching

Thankful Living

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BE THANKFUL

Take time to be thankful, speak often in praise,

Arise in the mornings and grateful hymns raise;

Let gratitude fill you, show forth to the world,

The blessings of Jesus and serving the LORD.

Take time to be thankful, as “to-do lists” grow long,

Lift high Jesus’ Name, sing aloud joyful song;

Be grateful for voices and hands, legs and feet

That are able to work in the cold and in heat.

Take time to be thankful, as the world rushes on,

Not caring for others who live all alone;

To busy to help them – “I’ve too much to do!”

So they pass right on by; not caring – Do you?

Take time to be thankful, e’en when no one else,

Has uttered forth praise for all that’s in-house;

Perhaps if you start being thankful today,

The “flu-bug” of thankfulness will ne’er go away!

Take time to be thankful; give thanks in ALL things,

For dry spells in harvest or the rainbows bright rings;

Let’s be thankful for everything sent from above,

All the bounties of earth from our God, who is LOVE.

Written and © by Shannon Beeghley 10/19/12

“In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the desire of God in Messiah for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

Blessings on your day! ~Coach Shannon

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coaching

Raising your standard of Giving

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Financial health- what does this involve?  While this subject may not seem to fit the category of the other posts on health in terms of food health, you would have to agree that financial health would be of importance in the category of the health of our mind! 🙂

Many people lay awake at night wondering how they will make ends meet. I’ve been there. Many pour over their meager budget wondering how to make it more meager. How will I feed my family? Pay the mortgage? Put gas in the car?

Many people drive to work at a job they hate, but don’t feel they have a way out. Financial stress has caused many a heart attack or anxiety attack.  It can cause irritability, anger, bitterness, fear, or broken marriages.  The credit cards are maxed out and you live paycheck to paycheck, typically not really even making it to the next paycheck. Life seems bleak with no hope. Is there a way out of this cycle, this unending hamster wheel that keeps rolling the faster I try to run from job to job???

THERE IS HOPE! 🙂 I just felt this subject of financial health is important to discuss and want to share some of the ways I have been helped with regards to finances. Money is not a bad thing. How we choose to handle money impacts our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Luke 16:11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?” 

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

I have several friends in the past couple years who have diligently worked on debt elimination and have achieved their goals. One person said it was the biggest weight off his back! After careful planning and talking to several advisors, both personal and professional, I am well on the way to financial freedom in the next 1.5-2 years! Each little bit that you pay extra on your loans will soon snowball into a greater effort! Skip those daily doughnut or bagel and coffee stops! Pay extra and be the example to the next generation. Show that we don’t HAVE to be bound by debt/student loans/credit card debt. Live with fewer materialistic items so you can be debt free. Have a garage sale/bake sale/craft sale. Get your children involved and teach them the true benefits of saving quarters so they add up to dollars! 🙂 Print this out and show yourself you can save 25 cents a week! Here is the template for saving $1 a week for a year.

Here are some ideas below to stretch your dollar farther or ways to assist in changing your beliefs about money. Some people want to know if investing is scripturally legitimate. They want to know if money is evil.  Money can be used for good or evil.  It is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil.  The Bible never condemns money itself, only the misuse of or the wrong attitude toward it. (CBFS) 

  1. Crown Biblical Financial Study
  2. Money Life Indicator
  3. 17-ways-rich-people-think-differently
  4. Simple Living on a Budget here and here
  5. 7 Things to keep when money is tight
  6. 50 ways to make money on the side

Blessings on your journey to true financial health! I am here cheering you on in your successes! It is truly liberating to cut up the credit card after paying it off! 🙂  When God blesses you with a check in the mail from an anonymous giver, give Him a tenth, then use the other amount with wisdom.  When you are given more than enough, raise your standard of giving! You will reap the blessings.

One final thought is to work with a financial coach. I gained a lot from this financial coach. She has many resources on the subject of financial health. ~Coach Shannon

coaching, drinks

Homemade Vanilla Coffee Creamer

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Coffee

Coffee… what’s not to love? It is something to look forward to each morning, or it is something to wrap your hands around as you and a friend talk out the problems in your worlds. The fragrance is soothing to many, the taste is something acquired. It can be bitter or sweet or semi-sweet. It can range in many flavors, colors and tastes.

One taste many people have acquired is having a flavored creamer in their cup of dark brew. These come in many different choices too.  I tried to google “How many different coffee creamer flavors are available?” but only got recipes and not a statistic! 🙂 I suppose there are as many flavors available as there are people! Ha! 😀

Here are the ingredients from Coffee Mate Creamer- Water, Corn Syrup Solids, Vegetable Oil (High Oleic Soybean and/or Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed), and Less than 2% of Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative)**, Mono- and Diglycerides, Dipotassium Phosphate, Artificial Flavor, Carrageenan. **Not a source of lactose.     Seriously, who would want to drink processed ingredients like that when homemade is so much better and just as easy to make??

I was looking to make my own, and found a recipe on the side of a Watkins vanilla box!  20161021_184259

I decided to concoct my own with the ingredients I already had. Here is the recipe I created:

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Vanilla creamer

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

Mix in a pint Mason jar and put in a shaker ball (from your shaker bottle). Screw the lid on tight and shake till blended.

I want to try it with coconut milk sometime and maybe add in some cocoa powder. Or try it with peppermint extract and cocoa. So many possibilities of flavors and KNOWING what you are putting into your body!

You might wonder how I made the lid? 🙂 Just take the old milk carton and draw around a Ball canning lid, then cut to fit! I found this idea in a video on Facebook and it has worked amazingly well! These lids will work for children who like Cheerios and you don’t want them spilling the entire snack jar onto the floor! 😀

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Here are some websites of other homemade flavored recipes!

Over 2 dozen flavors  and 10 ways to flavor your coffee without buying flavored coffee

Have fun concocting your own recipes and let me know what works for you! 😀

~Coach Shannon

coaching

The silent monster

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(Join me here as I invite guest blogger, Alisha Bonnell, to share some truth in learning to manage the silent monster…)

“Do you remember how as a child, you would always have “dad” check under your bed / in the closet for those nasty, scary, unwanted “creatures” out to ruin your night sleep (also known as monsters)?
Do you remember how your dad, knowing how important this monster hunt was to you, would exaggerate and pretend to pull and tug on those “darn monsters” and then with a big kick, he’d kick them out the door?
Yeah I remember that too!  To me, my dad was (and still is) my superhero.
Do you remember when you reached the age of “there are no monsters in my closet or under my bed.  Actually monsters don’t exist!”
I was so happy when that age came.  I don’t know about you, but I just knew that I would never have to deal with that problem ever again.
Haha, yeeeeah, well …. was I wrong!
So … umm … I have this big scary monster … and well, he likes to think he’s my shadow.  He seems to follow me everywhere.
In fact I’ve decided to name him!  Yes, yes, I’ve named this monster.  I figure, if he’s going to stick around, then he just needs to have a name.  I’d like to introduce the monster named …
R E J E C T I O N
You see, Rejection has always been in my life.  Of course, as a young girl, I didn’t realize who exactly was following me around.  Actually, I didn’t realize it until I was bawling my eyes out the other night.  As I thought about / analyzed everything I have experienced in my life, it made perfect sense … it was/is all due to Rejection (can you say light bulb moment?).
Allow me to give you the brief history between me and Rejection:
Rejection first made his appearance the day my father walked out on me and Mom.  I couldn’t understand why my “daddy” left.
At ten years old, my childhood best friend left for CA without saying goodbye.
I was always the last one chosen for games.
No one really liked being my friend.
I was told (by a guy) that I was too fat for any guy to like me.
… fast forward to this year …
I was given attention and affection by someone who could see I was naive and insecure.  Who was a master of words, and knew what I needed / wanted to hear.  Who has been given the opportunity to really show me that they meant what they said.  Have they?  Nope, Rejection has won the battle once again.
This last experience has really torn me apart.  It changed me, for the good and the bad.  It opened my eyes.  It has made me grow up a bit more than before.  It has made me make a huge decision in my life.
I feel God has allowed me to experience what I experienced this year for this one reason.
I have been living my life accepting Rejection.  Making him my “best friend”.  Allowing Rejection to be the norm in my life.  Expecting to be rejected by everyone I become close to.
I didn’t know it until just the other night, but me allowing Rejection to be the norm, has affected more than one aspect of my life.  It has affected:
>> my Spiritual life
>> my attitude
>> my outlook on life
>> my trust
>> my attitude towards family
>> my attitude towards friends
And while it has affected those aspects of my life, the irony behind all this is this:
I’m terrified of Rejection!
Haha yeah I know, can you say contradictory?  I hate the thought of being rejected.  To this day, I think about the possibilities of being rejected.
Daddy leaving us
Friends leaving for no reason
Never being loved by a man to call my own
                                    …. the list could go on!
What am I going to do about Rejection?
Well, I could go about it the childish way …
“Daaaaaddy!  Daaaaaaaddy, heeeelp!  There’s a monster following me around!  He won’t leave me alone.  Get him please Daddy, please!”
… and in a way, I did just that!  Confused now?  Let me clear up the confusion with the following verses:
“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” Psalm 34:17-20
I didn’t call out to my earthly Daddy, I’ve called out to my Heavenly Daddy.  My Daddy has delivered me out of my troubles.  He has saved me!
So to answer the question “What am I going to do about Rejection?”, I’m conquering him with Scripture!  I’m tired of living my life accepting Rejection as the norm.
Now I know this new road isn’t going to be easy.  I’ll always have Rejection longing to come back into my life, but I can’t live captive to him … I need to overcome.  As 2 Corinthians 12:9 says:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
I will gladly allow His power to be made perfect in my weakness.  He is the strength I need to overcome.  I can do all things (Philippians 4:13).
So I leave you with this:
This girl doesn’t care if she’s still the last one to be chosen in games – I’ve never been a fan of kickball anyways.  If I’m never loved by a man to call my own, that’s okay.  I’m already loved by a man who thinks I’m to die for (literally!).  If my friends decide to leave that’s fine, can I ask one thing: will you please let me know what I did wrong, so I don’t repeat it with my other friends?  I’m ready to live my life as an over-comer of the not so scary monster …
… I’m ready to live it in the hands of the One who made me, loves me, and will never leave or forsake me! “
compiled by Alisha Bonnell, blogger at Alisha in Progress .  She has been blogging for over a decade, lives in Virginia and strives to let her light shine for the next generation to know how rewarding it is to be a follower of Messiah!
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Do you also struggle with this monster? Need a listening ear? I’ll listen… feel free to comment below or send me an email at mannafoldblessings@gmail.com.
~Coach Shannon