My first cooking video!

Oh my, I've made my first cooking video, and it was so fun! It turned into a bit of a vlog of our life, which made it even funner.

On today's show: how to make Paleo fudge.

You should make this fudge this week if 1) you like chocolate, 2) you like fast, easy treats; 3) you follow a Paleo diet; 4) you don't follow a Paleo diet; 5) you're trying to reduce inflammation but still want to have gastronomic fun; and 6) you will be with family this weekend and you want to make them good eats.

This stuff is LEGIT.

Here's the video (or, click HERE to watch)!

A most joyful Thanksgiving week to you, my friends!

-Sarah





© by scj

Overcoming depression when you have Lyme disease, POTS, CIRS, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Part 1: "First Steps"

My friends,

I've got a new thing in the works! As I heal, I'm able to collect and compile so much of what I've learned on this gnarly, glorious journey. At first, I planned to put everything in a chronic illness survival handbook as a resource for my sick friends. But as I've prayed, I've decided that the best way to put this information into the world is via Youtube.

And so, today I've linked the first of many videos in this series.

Today, I share some of my journey with depression, and I share some practical steps you can take to confront and manage your depression.

Although this series was born out of my desire to help my friends with systemic illness, this video is for anyone who is dealing with depression — for those who have other illnesses and those who don't.

In the latter half of the video, I describe three activities that can help you confront and manage your depression, including writing your own Psalm of Lament to help you process your depression and its accompanying grief with God. I've created a template to guide you through writing your own Psalm of Lament. To get the Psalm of Lament Activity Guide, enter your email below.

Get Psalm of Lament Printable
 

Find the video HERE, or watch below.

I hope this video is helpful, my friends!

I'm cheering for ya, Home Skillets.

-Sarah






© by scj

Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) Video Series

My friends,

As I have blogged about the healing I've experienced using the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) throughout the last 14 months, I have had many people reach out to me with questions about the program. There has been so much interest that I have been unable to engage everyone's questions.

And so, I have made a video series answering the questions I get asked the most.

My hope is that you can share these videos with your friends and family who may benefit from DNRS.

The series contains four videos.

The first describes my health history; the second explains what DNRS is; the third describes my progress using DNRS; and the fourth answers frequently asked questions.

I hope these will be helpful to you and your loved ones with Lyme, POTS, ME, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, food sensitivities, mold-related illness and more!

I also hope you can ignore my tendency to make up words in these videos. It turns out making up words is one of my special gifts. Talking is still difficult for me — my brain still has trouble with word recall and word scrambling — so dear friends, please overlook words such as "coinsisting" (consist + coincide = coinsist!). Or, if you are feeling spicy, begin implementing them in your daily life.

Come to think of it, conisist could be a helpful addition to your vocabulary!

Click HERE to watch part 1, "My Health History," or watch it below:

Click HERE to watch part 2, "What is DNRS?" or watch it below:

Click HERE to watch part 3, "My Progress," or watch it below:

Click HERE to watch part 4, "FAQs," or watch it below:

A very hopeful, light-filled Tuesday to you all, my friends!

I'm cheering for ya, Home Skillets.

-Sarah

UPDATE: For DNRS training tips, Health Warrior Encouragement, and Q&A livestreams, follow me on Instagram  @SarahJacksonPanther




Subscribe to The Scoop, a monthly newsletter filled with information and activities to help you care for your body, mind, and heart. I'll share the supplements, tests, recipes, and types of doctors I love best, as well as tips for managing depression, PTSD, and anxiety.

Enter your email address and the first issue of the The Scoop will be in your inbox within a few minutes! (Don't forget to check social, promotions, and spam folders).

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Are we friends on Instagram and Facebook yet?!

© by scj

A Birthday and Best Laid Plans

Jay and I are in the throes of moving into our new place, and we are having so much fun.

Our first day back in Orange County was my birthday, so we postponed all unpacking and devoted the day to celebration.

I've recovered from my flare-up, so Jay brought me my very favorite breakfast — in bed: pastries filled with real whipped cream!

In a victorious attempt to reenact our honeymoon, we ate all seven of these bad boys by ourselves, after which we promptly took a nap. Now that I am the ripe ol' age of 33, my idea of a good party is eating food while horizontal so as to transition to napping with minimal effort. Who knew 33 would be so glorious.



(Pastries are from Cream Pan, a Japanese and French bakery in Tustin).

After our nap Jay took me on a mystery outing. "Get dressed up and make sure you're hungry when we leave!" he said.

Our first stop was my favorite restaurant in Orange County, Gabbi's Mexican Kitchen. We ordered plates piled with homemade tortillas, pork, mole chicken, and fresh salsa; and we spent most of the time discussing the fabulous nuances of the food.

I'm so glad I'm married to someone who likes talking about food. I've missed food confab all these years (it is very hard to get excited about daily servings of squash, my friends) and I'm making up for lost time. Also: it's still hard to believe I can eat real, live dessert on my birthday.

When our bellies were full, Jay took me to the symphony to see Rachmaninoff. It was his first time at the symphony, and he loved it! I did, too. Whenever I go to a concert, I feel like the sound waves rush toward me and wrap around me in a big hug, as if to say: "You're here! We've been waiting for you! We want to invite you into our beauty!" It is one of life's best feelings.

And of course, we closed the night with a trip to Stars Hollow — we watched Gilmore Girls. It was the perfect end to a delightful day.

The next day we began moving stuff into our new place.

I wish I could report that we have been strategic and efficient movers, but we have been the absolute spaciest movers I have ever known. We've tried to be strategic and thorough; but we are worn out from the summer's fast pace, and our attempts at efficiency quickly morphed into a comedy of errors.

First, we headed to the storage unit in one city so we could bring some of its contents to my old place in another city. Then, we realized the keys to the storage unit were at my old place. So we turned around and headed to my old place to move my piano, before realizing the blankets to drape over the piano were in my storage unit. After successfully moving the piano (sans blankets) to a third city, we finally made it up to my storage unit, only to find it had closed. So we headed to a fourth city to pick up a desk, and determined to make it to our storage unit the next morning before heading back to the third city to drop some stuff off, before heading to the second city to drop other stuff off.

We traveled 70 more miles than we intended, but our spirits are still high, baby!

Now our little abode is piled rather high with boxes and is rather void of furniture, so we've been using box furniture:

A box dining room table! It's just the right size for two and doubles as a gift and mail holder between meals.

I love our box table dinners. I think I will miss them when we have a dining room table. This is probably a good thing, because Jay and I are shooting for the stars with our dining room table dreams. (I will tell you about them later!). Our grand plans mean we will have either have a beautiful dining room table soon, or we will not have any dining room table for quite awhile. Our track record this week makes me think I may be getting my box table dinners for awhile longer...

What a beautiful life it is.

Happy Thursday, friends.

-Sarah



© by scj

Horses

The townhouse Jay and I have been staying in the last few weeks backs up against horse pasture. Some evenings, just as we are sitting down for dinner, the horses are released from their stalls to graze. We love watching them search for sweet clover. 

We often wish there was clover against the fence nearest our back patio so the horses would draw near enough for us to pet. Sometimes we try to convince them that the feeding opportunities near our house are tremendous. I may stand on the fence and wave a giant carrot in the air, or I may do my best horse call — which is, incidentally, a Mariachi shout — but despite my best efforts, the horses stay put. Until two mornings ago, when I pulled open the shades and saw one of the horses eating brekkie, right next to the fence nearest us. 

Excited at the prospect of hand feeding the horse (I have named her Stella), I ran outside and over to the fence where I was able to pet her. A few moments into petting Stella, I realized that, in my excitement, I had forgotten to put pants on. This is not the first time I have forgotten to put pants on before leaving the house; and I am beginning to wonder what old age will be like for me — and, more importantly, for the people who have to look at me, if this pant trend continues. (Have mercy!).

So I ran back inside to put pants on and grab some carrots for Stella. She was ready and waiting when I returned, as were a number of hungry horses.

This here horse is Jay's twin, with its tan hide and blond hair:

I have named him Barney. Jay is not sure if he is a Barney. (And neither of is sure if he is a "he.")

Do you see the resemblance?!

Once the horses learned we were the sole neighborhood carrot distributors that morning, they were eager for more.

So we kept more carrots comin'.

It was my favorite breakfast of the trip!

I hope you are all having a lovely Thursday!

-Sarah



© by scj

Peck of Pickled Zucchini

My husband is a non-profit ministry founder. A skier. A volleyball player. A brat-and-summer-squash griller. He is a wash-the-dishes-right-after-dinner kind of dish washer, and a "sure, I'd love to run to Michael's Craft store with you" kind of pal. And, he is a Panther-who-pickles-pecks-of-peppers. Or slices of zucchini and yellow squash, as the case may be.

I was not familiar with his pickling ways when I married him, but boy am I delighted with them.

Today, I came down to the kitchen where he was prepping dinner and noticed this in the fridge:

Pickled squash!

Jay was preparing to grill some brats when he thought, "I sure do wish we had some more of that cheesy bread from the other day. That would be great with these brats"

But we had eaten all the cheesy bread, so he thought, "I wonder if I could hollow out a zucchini and stuff the brat in it..." He ixnayed that plan, along with a number of other potential plans, before landing on the mother of all plans: PICKLING! He would pickle some vegetables and cover his brat with them!

So he diced up some squash, covered them with pepperoncini juice, and stuck a teacup on top to keep all of the squash pieces fully submerged in pepper juice.

Don't I have an innovative husband?

It's just one of the may things I love about him.

Happy weekend, folks!

-Sarah

http://sarahchristinejackson.blogspot.com/search/label/DNRS

© by scj

DNRS FAQs

My friends,

If you are considering, or in the midst of, limbic system retraining using the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS), you may want to check out this blog post of FAQs by my friend Mariah, who has healed completely after 13 years of illness using DNRS:


https://mariahshealthjourney.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/faqs-about-dnrs-for-people-dealing-with-chronic-and-mysterious-illnesses-cirs-food-intolerances-ibs-lyme-fatigue-and-much-more/


Happy Sunday!

-Sarah



Subscribe to The Scoop, a monthly newsletter filled with information and activities to help you care for your body, mind, and heart. I'll share the supplements, tests, recipes, and types of doctors I love best, as well as tips for managing depression, PTSD, and anxiety.

Enter your email address and the first issue of the The Scoop will be in your inbox within a few minutes! (Don't forget to check social, promotions, and spam folders).

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© by scj

An Update

Friends,

I'm in the throes of homework as I head into the semester's home stretch, but I wanted to give a health update for those of you who are doing, or considering doing, DNRS.

The spring has been a bit harder for me as I've been exposed to some unique limbic system triggers that have caused a few flare-ups. However, the wonderful news is a flare-up doesn't last more than a week now, and generally, no more than a day. So: Woo hoo! What tremendous progress!

My physical activity the first half of the semester was delightful, but it eventually forced me to confront how very malnourished I am. I am pushing through the fatigue of malnourishment, and as I do, I'm thankful to be gradually adding more vitamin and mineral supplements to my diet. Yay for a body that is embracing these new supplements!

There have been other tremendous victories this spring:

I went paddle boarding and I felt terrific!

I traveled for fun for the first time in many years! I spent a weekend last month in northern California visiting my college roommate and her husband, and boy was it glorious.

I'm learning to play volleyball! I've had three lessons now, and I'm loving it. Learning new things is so good for brain retraining, and learning new things on the beach in the sunshine is so good for the soul.

It's looking like I will need to do limbic system retraining for more than a year (My year anniversary is the end of June), but I will do it for as long as it takes to return to normal.

This program keeps working, you guys.

Praise Jesus for such an invaluable resource.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I'm cheering for you,

Sarah


© by scj

Dopplegangers and Dinglehoppers and Dilbert

A friend recently sent me a text with this photo:

"I've found your doppelganger!" she said. "Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6."

Two things, guys:

1) It turns out dopplegangers and dinglehoppers are not the same thing.

2) I've had two people tell me they've found my doppelgänger in my adult life, and they've both suggested Honey Lemon. I've heard she is a big of a nerd, so Iiiii'll take it.

However, because my special computer glasses have a reflective coating that makes my eyes hard to see, this comparison may be more apt:

Have you seen Big Hero 6? A classmate told me the movie would make me cry, which seemed to be his way of saying, "You will love it." By this point, my classmates know: crying is my jam, man.

So: Big Hero 6. I'm going to try to rent it this weekend! Or the weekend after! Or the weekend after that! Basically, when my homework load is small enough, I will rent it.

Happy Monday, friends.

Cheering for you,

Sarah



© by scj