Happy Thanksgiving…Let The Feasting Begin

Ekkkkk……it’s almost Thanksgiving! And right after that Christmas will be here before you know it, right? I’ll be honest I’m definitely a Christmas girl! I love ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS! 🎄🌟🎅 The sights, the sounds, family and friends coming together….the food😋

Duh…duh…duhhhh….the food for a lot of us can become such an issue of shame, guilt, and pain. Turkey, ham, gravy, pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, mac n’ cheese, cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole….Oh so yummy and honestly I can’t wait! But I remember a time when I didn’t feel that way. These 2 holidays would cause me a lot of anxiety over food. Most of us have already pre-attached shame and guilt before we even get to the holiday meal. That’s sad to me and I remember it all to well. Having an eating disorder or disordered eating wrecks havoc during times like this especially. Will I binge or restrict? How much will I gain or lose? What does so and so think of me? How can I best protect my image?

Culture tells us to eat a certain way, don’t eat this or that. If you do eat it now your bad, now you take on all the shame and guilt and tell yourself I’ll do better next time. Am I right???? During these 2 holidays you will hear ‘Happy Thanksgiving, don’t eat to much!’ Or if you Google Thanksgiving you’ll find 10 Tips to not gain weight during the holiday. Or Avoiding Holiday Weight gain. Or How to Make Your Holiday Healthy. Whyyyy? Why does everything go to weight or our image? Why is it always protecting body size? This says so much about our culture today.

Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Let me speak a little Truth 💣 💣💣💣 over you!
You are made in the image of God. That’s means you are not an image that needs to be managed and manipulated and contoured into something the world says it’s approved of.

YOU ARE ALREADY APPROVED OF beautiful one!

One meal, including leftover won’t kill you or destroy all your progress but all the worry, stress, and anxiety surrounding it will. To much cortisol in your system is worse than the meal you’re about to eat. For some, food equals anxiety and then we slap labels on food like “good food” and “bad food,” that causes more anxiety than the one meal you could enjoy with family and friends.

When you are in a chronic state of anxiety over food….and yes soooo many people are, it will absolutely affect your body. You may feel bad and have some symptoms from elevated cortisol levels. Some symptoms might include

• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Headaches
• Intestinal problems, such as constipation, bloating or diarrhea
• Anxiety or depression
• Weight gain
• Increased blood pressure
• Difficulty recovering from exercise
• Poor sleep
• Muscle pain or tension in the head, neck, jaw, or back

In all likelihood, once this happens you’re like “See, I told you I just can’t eat that particular food. When in reality it could very well just be the stress of cortisol on your body and not necessarily the food you ate. We stress so much over food and image and don’t realize the impact it takes on our body.

I read this the other day and thought how true that is. “Rest assured, the fear-mongering around calories and holiday meals says more about our culture than it does about our bodies. In reality, our bodies are smart; they are meant to be resilient. So go ahead: savor every last bite of that turkey or pumpkin pie, totally guilt-free.” The Every Girl blog.

Feasting is all over the Bible. So why do we not want to feast? We will fast all day long. But feasting is scary for some of us.

VERSES:

And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we [must hold] a feast unto the LORD. Exodus 10:9

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Exodus 12:14

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month [shall be] the feast of tabernacles [for] seven days unto the LORD. Leviticus 23:3

And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. Genesis 26:30

I could go on and on but I won’t. You can take a dive for yourself. Feasting is part of God’s best for you, we just don’t think that includes all the yummy foods He gave us.

Imma say it again for the people in the back!🤣👊

Feasting was Gods idea. He invites us to feast and it’s part of Gods best for us. Just let that sink in for a bit. Ponder it my friend. This is just one of the ways He shows us his goodness and abundance.

He’s the God of Abundance!

God lavished his love on us and pours out his blessings over us. His blessings include food sweet friend. So I say this year, turn our hearts toward gratitude and this year while you’re feasting at the table with family and friends, eat with a heart of gratitude.

I’d like to challenge you to a new way of thinking….Feasting is ok and food was meant to be enjoyed and satisfying. Tell the food police “Byyyeee!” Don’t say to yourself or the person beside you ‘ You’ve ate enough’ or ‘You’re getting MORE FOOD???’ Or ‘Don’t eat too much’ This causes more shame and guilt to people around you.

Let’s go of guilt and shame of eating a beautiful meal with family and friends. Enjoy the moment. Come to the table with grateful heart. Take in His goodness and love.

I hope y’all have the best Thanksgiving holiday ever walking in freedom.

Thank You Lord for the small things
Like me and her on the porch swing
For summer nights and fireflies
And the sound of my old six string

Blessings, on blessings, on blessings, on blessings
If I still got breath in these lungs
And that’s all I need to get down on my knees
And be thankful for all that He’s done

For my mama, for my friends
For Your love that never ends
For the songs that make us dance
On this ol’ dirt floor
For my babies, for my girl
For the way they changed my world
Waking up today
Yeah, I just gotta say
Thank You Lord
Yeah, I just wanna say
Thank You Lord (oh, now)

Thank You Lord for the hard times
For lighting the way in the dark times
For pulling me in, forgiving again
The times that I took it too far, I

Big hugs,

Nicole ❤️

Home For The Holidays- Some Of My Favorite Things

Welcome to the Hopkins Homestead Traditional Christmas.

The smell of Christmas is in the air. Yep you guessed it, Bath And Body Works “Winter” plugs in and their “Fireside” candles are my favorites. I stock up enough to last me all year long.

Did I mention I’m addicted to Bath and Body Works? My husbands jokes and says he’s created a Bath and Body Quicken category in our budget🤣🙈 He simply doesn’t appreciate me, I’m saving him so much money. I only buy them on sale and always have a 20% off coupon….he should thank me😜

My tree isn’t up yet, it has to go in the corner and I have to take my favorite chair out. It will go up first part of December as well as the outside decorations😍😍Yep, that’s a Christmas movie on the TV. I had to have some unexpected surgery last week but I’m gonna say if you have to have surgery this is the best time to recovery, all the Christmas movies on TV, keeps your heart happy and laughter is good medicine.

Our builder put tile around the fireplace but we decided to change it several years ago. We had our Worship Pastor change it out to the stone. It’s the same stone that’s in the church. The same church our daughter was married in. I think it’s just the little touches that no one may even know about that make your house a home. Sweet reminders to me💗

One of the things I always hope you feel when you come in our home is love, joy, and peace. So I try and surround myself with sweet reminders.

I’ve always loved opening our home for family, friends, ladies smalls groups, and company parties. It’s one of the things that makes my heart happy, to serve and love on others.

Another Kirkland’s picture, purchased on clearance a couple years ago.

Actually Kirkland’s has prolly thrown up in my house🤣 Love and Hope 💗💗 There’s a funny conversation piece in the bathroom you can’t see, it’s a Dirty Santa gift……an emoji Pooh 💩 plunger. It always gets the laughs and the occasional text or post🤣🤣🤣I’ve had these little mailboxes since our girls were little. They maybe old but I just can’t part with them. I paid $4.91 for both….after Christmas deal!😱 Store in the original box.

You can’t have Santa 🎅 without a sleigh. The sleigh and present lights up real pretty. A gift from a dear friend.

Special gift from a friend😍

The Sant clause picture below was another after Christmas deal from Kirkland’s a couple years ago, ridiculous price. It’s bigger than it looks. Side note…. I think I need to move my table over, it’s off center 😬

This was a little table I had that was super cute already but I wanted to chalk paint a bedroom set and I had never done it, so I thought I’ll try it out on the table first before I destroyed a bedroom suit, LOL. It actually turned out great, I did it like 4 years ago. Chalk paint is so easy and changes the look of everything.

The little Santa and deer are very special to me because it was my mother in laws, who has since gone on to be with the Lord. We miss her dearly.

I was so excited when I came across that Santa and deer picture at Kirkland’s a couple of years ago, it just made the entrance to our home so much more special to me and a reminder of loved ones who have passed.

This our Snowman ⛄️ it’s on its last leg I think. We bought it the same time as the mailboxes, $4.91 😱 I’ll continue to do what I can to save Frosty ☃️ I love him 😍

A great find from last year on eBay. Vintage Fitz & Floyd Santa cookie jar, perfect condition and original box. So cute and great deal!😍

This guy has always been one of my favorites too, bought him same time as the Snowman and mailboxes. $14.91😱😱😱 Still looks great! The dogs kinda freak out at first and my grand dog, Gus will dart past it like a bolt of lightning because he’s scared of it. He’s a bulldog with irrational fears 🤣 It’s so funny.

New gift from a precious friend. It’s very special to me😇

These jars get used all time, I just change the look for different seasons. Bought them years ago from Kirkland’s. Would love to find another set somewhere.

The red polka dot gift is actually doubles as a drink dispenser, it’s just too cute to not use as decoration. Another after Christmas deal years ago. I think we paid $4.91 or $9.91. Either way it was a steal! I always think of the Grinch when I see it for some reason. I love the Grinch with Jim Carey.

The little hot chocolate station doesn’t look as cute as usual, it’s just out. There’s so much more stuff in the attic I couldn’t get it all down and go through. But it will get the job done this year. I keep Hershey kisses in there but it might be missing a few 😉😋

It’s Elf, need I say more! 🎄😍 My oldest daughter bought me the picture a few years ago. I love it! The Elf candy dish I got at Hobby Lobby last year….it might be missing some candy too😉

#TheTable, many a meal has been ate here with family and friends. Old stories told over and over and new ones. Lots of games, birthdays, and holidays.

This is one of the many things my ever so talented middle daughter has made me. Love it so much!

This is another things she’s done for me. I love it😍

There’s so many things you can do to make your house feel like a home and don’t cost that much. Especially when you have a daughter with a silhouette 😉 But seriously you can find this kinda stuff on Amazon, Etsy, and other online sites. Buy and apply and it just makes it so homey.

A fresh coat of paint can completely change a room.

Throw pillows on your couch and if your tired of your olds ones now you can buy pillow slip covers. Or even go on Pinterest to show you how to make them. How easy is that?!?!

I love some Kirkland’s too, I mean really who can resist?!?! You can always find good sales and coupons for them.

Then there’s TJ Maxx, Hobby Lobby, Home Goods….Ohhhh my word! It’s like Heaven.

Hope you enjoyed our little Home For The Holidays and Some Of My Favorite Things.

Making your house a home can be so fun and honestly not so expensive if you are patient and look for sales…..you can create you and your family a little haven. Something you love coming home too and sharing with others.

I also suggest saving some monies for after Christmas shopping, you truly can get some of the best deals! Just FYI 😉

I hope this holiday season is filled with love, peace, and joy. God bless you sweet friends! Happy early Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Big hugs,

Nicole💗