Category: Uncategorized

3 tips for night time bladder control

by courtneyecollins, posted in Uncategorized

I don’t know about you, but waking up multiple times a night because of my bladder was driving me crazy. I needed my sleep.

After five kids, most people expect that I have bladder issues, but our last child was born in 2015 and I haven’t struggled at all. I can run and jump rope with no issues.

A few months ago though, I began waking up every night as if I were pregnant again. I would literally have a completely full bladder several times a night.

I thought I simply needed to drink less, but that didn’t do the trick.

I was also having some pretty intense discomfort right above my pubic bone that I had assumed was maybe cysts associated with ovulation possibly since I had dealt with those when I was younger. And what’s worse is that I was starting to feel like my bladder wasn’t emptying properly during the day too.

I started doing some digging and came up with 3 simple steps that have helped my bladder understand that we are sleeping during the night.

Step 1: Cut out food and beverages after dinner.

I love to drink my Magic Mushroom “cocoa” from YourSuper each night so I make sure I do that right after we finish dinner. I think of it as my dessert. Not a drop or crumb after that. This gives me a couple hours before sleep to completely empty my bladder.

Step 2: Completely empty your bladder.

This is something that I hadn’t realized I needed to address and, if I’m honest, I think that my cell phone (gross, I know, but I’m a mother and sometimes that’s my only quiet time/space all day long) and my stress level (hello 3 months at home and a world gone mad) had a LOT to do with this part. When you go to the restroom, go alone. Literally. No phones, no books, no magazines. Leave your “to do” list at the door and RELAX your body. Breathe deeply and sit there long enough to fully empty your bladder. I can’t tell you how many times in the last two weeks I’ve sat there a tad longer only to find that there was still a lot more.

Step 3: Bladder care.

My bladder care looks like pelvic floor care and essential oils. Yes, oils. Hear me out. I was doing some reading about how essential oils can support the bladder when I came across a “hanging” bladder section. (Essential Oils Pocket Reference) I realized the pain I was feeling happened a lot when I needed to have a BM and when it was full. Furthermore, when I needed to poop, I couldn’t empty my bladder until after I was done with that part.

I decided to give the oils a try and wouldn’t you know that my nighttime AND daytime issues have significantly decreased in just 2 weeks. (Night one, I was only up once and now i’m sleeping through the night).

Here are the oils I use and where I apply them:
(Scroll to bottom to grab these oils for yourself)

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me. If it does, I’d LOVE to know about it.

Sweet, uninterrupted dreams, friends!

xoxo
Courtney

P.S. If you don’t have those oils, you can grab them from Young Living Essential Oils HERE. (Even if you’re not a Young Living member)

I use only YL because they are the only company on the planet who owns and co-operates their farms all over the world where each plant is sustainably grown to be the best possible purity and potency. They do this via their Seed To Seal promise.

If you’ve never tired, YL, all three of the oils I mentioned can be found in the Premium Starter Kit (as well as individually when added to the Basic Start Kit) HERE. The Premium Starter Kit makes you a wholesale member of YL forever. You’ll receive 24% off of anything you need forever. No monthly required expenses. I call it the “Costco of Healthy Products”. Order what you want, when you want at the best price.

Easy Gluten Free Pizza Dough

by courtneyecollins, posted in Adulting, Gluten Free Meals, Hacks That Work, Uncategorized

pizza9Once again I find myself definitely not being a food blogger, but having a recipe worth sharing. Our photos are real life. The pizza was good.

I have been afraid of yeast recipes for years. I’m not sure why, but when you need to avoid gluten, you’ve got to get brave. Am I right? I don’t want to remove every pleasure of eating and I certainly don’t want them to never be able to eat in public. We are going for a “healthy alternatives at home” style of life so that if we go out, we can eat without concern because we know we are eating the cleanest possible things the majority of the time.

This recipe is so simple and customizable for flavor choices that I’m considering attempting to use it for a cinnamon roll situation. I’ll keep you posted.

Here are the goods:

– 3/4 cup of warm water
– 1 Tablespoon of raw organic sugar
-1 packet of yeast (1/4 oz)
– 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill One for One Gluten-Free Flour
– 1 teaspoon Pink Himalayan salt
– 1 large organic egg
– 1 Tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil (Avocado oil if you are making something sweet)
– 1 Teaspoon Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar
– 1/2 Tablespoon Oregano
– 1/2 Tablespoon Basil
– 1/2 Tablespoon Garlic powder

Instructions:

– Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
– Line pizza pan with baking paper or use pizza stone
– Gently mix yeast packet and sugar setting aside until foamy (3-5 mins)
– With an electric mixer, gently mix flour and salt and seasonings adding in egg, oil, vinegar, and yeast mixture.
– Mix on low for 1 minute
– Using an oiled spatula, move the dough onto parchment paper. Oil your hands and gently press the dough out to your desired thickness. (We have found that thin crust is nicer with this recipe)


– Bake for 8-10 minutes
– Remove and add toppings


– Bake an additional 8-10 minutes


– Enjoy pizza night!

Clean Crispy Treats

by courtneyecollins, posted in Uncategorized

I’ll just cut to the point because I do NOT love recipe blogs that take one hundred scrolls just to find the actual recipe and instructions.

I decided to make this recipe for my six year old who faces some food allergies.

It is Soy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free.

Here is what you need:
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1. Box (or 6 cups) of One Degree Organic Foods Sprouted Brown Rice Crisps
2. 3 bags of Smash Mallow marshmallows (We love the Cinnamon Churro)
* You need 48 of these mallows.
3. 5 Tablespoons of Kerrygold butter. (We use the salted)
4. 1/2 Teaspoon of Himalayan salt (optional)
5. 9×9 glass baking dish

Steps:

* Grease your 9×9 glass dish with a bit of the butter.

1. On low heat, melt butter in a large pot.

2. Add the mallows. Stir constantly. Resist the urge to turn up the heat. Hang in there. Remove from heat then they are *just melted. (Resist the urge to over melt or these will become hard instead of gooey goodness.)

3. Gently stir in the salt and cereal. I used a silicone spatula to prevent crushing the cereal to preserve the fluff.

4. Press into the 9X9 pan

5. Cool completely. Slice. Enjoy

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Great Minds

by courtneyecollins, posted in Adulting, Faith, Uncategorized

I don’t know about you, but I love to talk. I think it’s fabulous to be in a group of gals and talk it up. Sometimes I’ll come home super late from teaching a class or a girls dinner and my husband will ask “Was it oil or Jesus?” Apparently I really only ever talk about your physical health or your heart health?? He knows me so well.

But when I was just twenty-nine, I sat at a table with a group of woman who I considered to be my friends. As I listened, I heard one of these women share a bunch of facts about another woman. And these were absolute facts, but somewhere deep inside of me, a little voice began to ask me questions about the nature of the conversation.
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Why do we do that?

Why is it so hard to avoid discussing other women when we get together?

I think Eleanor Roosevelt was on to something when she said:

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” 

But there we sit. Starbucks in hand and somehow, we decide it’s okay to speak the name of a woman not present.

And we hide it so cleverly as “prayer concerns” or need-to-know information. Maybe we even cloak it in false compassion to let someone know that they’ve been gossiped about.

Gossip is a nasty beast, isn’t it? It always manages to beget more gossip, but can I tell you something? I bet if you think about it, you’ll find it’s true for you as well.

Never one time in my entire life has it been to my benefit or growth in any way shape or form for me to know what another woman said about me behind my back. It always hurts me. It always poisons my mind and heart. It always creates a grudge or a need for confrontation.

I’ve shared this before, but a few years ago I distinctly heard the Lord (not audible by in my mind) tell me that I could wait on Him in woman to woman situations. He told me that the majority of the time, the negativity towards me is perceived but not really about me at all. Usually, women are cold, distant, confusing, or rude when they have something hurting them. And he asked me to wait instead of confronting.
He knows me so well. (I guess creating me gave him an eye witness credibility on my character.)
You see, I have a quick tongue. It’s also sharp and accurate. I used to really pride myself in putting people into their place and calling their hands on the drama they were putting out.

But from that first whisper at the table with my friends so many years ago, I knew the days of me using that gift for myself were over. I was ruining it. He wanted my controlled, targeted, effective words to be used for so much more than that.

Someone came to me and told me that it was painfully obvious that my dear friend was overtly against me. In her words and actions. This person prompted me with some advice to confront my friend. Thankfully, my mind had an idea. That idea was to wait on the Lord.

Three days later, I saw my friend in person and it didn’t take more than a moment for her to burst into tears and confess to me that two very hard and unimaginable things had happened to her in the previous week. Things that took my breath and broke my heart for her.

As women, we need to share more ideas. We need to dream together. We need to pursue our purposes together. We need to do this for us. Because when we love someone, we want to inspire them, not tear their heart out. Because we are GREAT minds being waisted on small-minded chatter.

Every second we spend discussing another woman is a second we spend promoting woman on woman crime. Mom shaming. Body shaming. Career shaming.
And those seconds are ones where ideas are lost.

What could we accomplish if we focused on ideas? What if every get together was a mastermind?

What if you purposed to intentionally select who you talk with, who you give your seconds to so that you unleash your purpose to make this world better?

What if we all decided to be Great Minds?
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10 Tips For Natural Birth

by courtneyecollins, posted in Adulting, Faith, Pregnancy/Labor/Birth, Uncategorized

Hi there sweet momma to be (or papa because let’s face it, my man researched for me because I was too busy being all kinds of pregnancy extra.)
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I bet you’ve come across this because you are about to have a little human enter this world and you need some birth hacks that will save the day.

While I sincerely hope to put this all in a precious, bound, collection one day in the future, people are having babies now, so I thought I’d paraphrase for you.

There is a TON of books and articles and posts everywhere you look. You could go right now and spend your nest egg on books at the local book store that would coach you on everything from pregnancy fashion to how to puree a chicken nugget.

I’m going to focus on maximizing the impact and minimizing the time spent weeding out the details.

Here we go:

1. Relax. Your incredible body isn’t going to mistake how this whole thing works. Sure, there are factors that could arise because this is humanity and there is margin for things being funky, but on the whole, we’ve been birthing babies since the first one was born and while I cannot promise your birth will be like any of my five, I can promise you that you get to choose how you approach it. Calm moms have all the fun. Pregnancy ball and chill, sweet friend.

A tense body will get in the way of things loosening and softening and dropping. I like to use the term “press in”. We’ll get to that, but for now, relax.

2. Move. In the days leading up to your baby (and really the entire pregnancy), be active. As active as you feel like. Take walks, breathe fresh air, let the sun hit your skin, and just move. Salsa dance with your partner in the living room. Park at the back of the parking lot at the grocery store.
There’s a reason old wives tales say to vacuum and make whoopie. Moving loosens up your hips and pelvis.

The thing I didn’t know about movement until my 3rd child was that while it progresses labor very well, it also detracts from the mind focusing on discomfort. When you’re moving, you’re not laying on your back thinking about how you feel.

3. Eat and drink. Unless you are under restriction for good reason from your provider, eat and drink. Birth is a marathon and not a sprint. Your body and your baby still need water, protein, etc. It’s about to Hulk out and it needs fuel.

4. Relax your bottom jaw. We tend to tense up at the beginning of contractions. I know I did. But in my 5th delivery, my smart husband told me to just let my bottom jaw hang open. Game.Changer. pal. I was able to keep swaying or moving or just not panic. It worked far better than any other coping tip I’ve tried.

5. Get into the water. There is just something about a bathtub or a pool that is soothing, and the added bonus of taking your weight and baby’s off of your ever-expanding pelvis is unmatched. Try your bathtub or a birthing pool wherever you are laboring. You can maintain rhythmic movement in water and progress with much less intensity.

6. Shhhh. If you’re not in labor yet, let’s play a game. First, make a high pitched sound. Note how your entire body tenses up? Now, make low sound from your gut. See how that relaxes your body and especially your abdomen? Low and slow wins the race.

7. Stay off of your back. Laying on your back forces your baby to work against gravity. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

8. Just say no to IV fluids unless something is wrong. Fluids will make you and your baby swell a bit. Do I need to explain that one further? Nah.

9. When you “literally can’t even”, it’s probably go-time. There is a special word in the stages of labor called “Transition”. This is what happens when it’s time for baby to head on out. It also coincides with some crazy thoughts. For most women it’s definitely work laboring, but when your mind becomes irrational saying “you can’t do this. get drugs. you’re going to die. it’s too hard” that’s usually right about that time. Tell someone when you get crazy in your mind and see if it might be time to settle into delivery.
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10. Press in. The rhythms of labor are long lost on TV and movie deliveries. We all picture ourselves on our back screaming in pain while we push on a ten count. If you dint’ know this already, when your baby is ready, your body will push for you. It’s crazy, but it’s real. So as you approach this glorious unfolding, press in. It’s okay to feel it. It’s good to sway and move and trust your body if it tells you to squat, get on all fours, lay on your side, or sit on the potty. Relax that bottom jaw, breathe well, and press in. Because the truth is, in mere moments, you’re going to be holding a life you got to carry and the feeling of birthing that person is unlike anything else this world has to offer. You will never regret it and you’ll be love drunk about it forever.
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p.s. Contractions feel like period cramps. They start small and build. If you’ve ever had a strong period, you can do this birth thing. Trust me.