Overwhelmingly Blessed

We have been so blessed during this process of praying and planning for our summer in Germany. There is no way to do what we have had to do without the faithfulness of The Lord and without the most amazing family and friends (a true blessing!).

We have friends who championed the idea with Ethan, believing he could do it and highly suggesting he consider it. Other friends were among the first we told about this crazy idea and they immediately supported and offered to check our mail, take care of our car, etc, instantly easing my mind. Our families didn't bat an eye at the idea. In fact, the Joneses and Princes have been our biggest sounding boards, giving advice, calming nerves, and praying diligently. We have bosses and supervisors who have worked with us from the beginning of this process to allow us to go and still have jobs in August (this will never cease to amaze me). We had friends who would sit with us, listen to us, and encourage us to keep dreaming, including sending a book about Germany with the most encouraging note! We've had friends offer to store some of our stuff. We have friends willing to take the day off work to drive us to the airport. We have family and friends who have invested in us financially, which is so humbling and inspiring. Our family and friends have prayed for us the whole way, being the voice of reason and calm.

Most of all, we have seen God be so very faithful every single day of this journey. If anything, we will have story upon story of God's provision and blessings. Not every step had been a breeze and sometimes things felt crazy and unclear. However God had always shown us that this path is one he is making for us. We are thankful and we celebrate what God has done and is doing!

A Summer in Germany

It's been over a year of praying, planning, saving, discussing, and dreaming.

We are well on our way to accomplishing one of Ethan's goals in education: to study abroad.

Ethan and I are headed to Germany for 2 months this summer! He will be studying German and gaining mastery of the language. German is a required research language for a PhD in Old Testament and this experience will help Ethan be a better researcher in his field. It is not required for his degree to study abroad, however, Ethan has a goal of doing his best in mastering German, so this is a great step for him.

Because I can read your mind and I know you're wondering, here's some Q&A...

So, where will we be? Good question. We will be in Göttingen, a small university town in north central Germany. We have some dear friends who are currently studying in Göttingen, so we look forward to being there with them.

What will Ethan do? Another good question! Ethan will be going to classes Monday-Friday. He'll be in small groups of people speaking only in German. What's cool about this program is that the people in the classes are from all over the world and from all different professional backgrounds. He could be in class with a doctor from Africa and a banker from Australia. The common ground is the German language everyone is learning.

What will Emily do? Great question! I plan on making friends, drinking coffee, reading books, walking in the park, visiting the local farmers market, exploring, and cooking meals for my hard working husband. I will likely spend a lot of time with our friends in town, too! We also have several friends visiting us (how crazy is that?!) and I am delighted to show them around.

This is an exciting time for us and we are thrilled to be going! God has been so very gracious in every step and we are looking forward to seeing how he uses this experience. Please pray for us as we prepare to go and follow along here for updates on our journey, if you'd like!

Love y'all!

Cold/Flu Bomb with DoTerra

A few weeks ago, I started feeling like I was getting a cold and was pretty run down. I started running a fever and really didn't want to get sick. I looked up the protocol for a cold/flu and started it right away. In less that 24 hours, I was back to normal with no symptoms at all!

This is what I did:

• Every two hours, I mixed 5 drops lemon, OnGuard, melaleuca, and 3 drops oregano and applied to the bottoms of my feet with coconut oil. I put socks on to keep it in place. You're actually supposed to do this mixture in an empty gel capsule, but I didn't have any.

• I diffused OnGuard and Breathe together constantly and kept the diffuser near me.

• Drank lots and lots of water with a drop of lemon.

• Used peppermint on my throat and back of neck for congestion.

• I did that for a whole day. The next day, I slowed it down to every 4 hours applying the bomb on my feet and continued to diffuse. I tried to drink a lot of water, but I'm actually really bad about that.

What I felt was surely going to be a winter cold and make me feel terrible, turned into just feeling poorly for about 2 days instead of longer. I have been reading that using the oils can shorten the duration of a cold/flu virus and now I believe it from experience!

*All these oils were contained in my Family Physician Kit. However, you could do the allergy shooter of 2 drops peppermint, lemon, and lavender in 2 oz of water or orange juice every 2 hours. From what I've read, that would have worked as well. And as a side note, that allergy shooter is what I do when I feel my allergy symptoms coming on. More on that later.

My Journey with DoTerra Essential Oils

I've been using DoTerra essential oils for a little while now and wanted to share my amazing experience with them. I rave about them because they work! 

I ordered the Family Physician Kit because it contained all the individual oils I wanted to purchase, plus a few extras that I was able to try out! It contains a 5mL bottle of each: lavender, lemon, peppermint, melaleuca, oregano, frankincense, Deep Blue, Breathe, DigestZen, and OnGuard (the last 4 are oil blends).

The lavender, lemon, and peppermint are the single oils I use most. Ethan and I both suffer from mild seasonal allergies. We've been using the combo of these three oils to treat the allergies and I have been able to stop taking my meds! We diffuse the lavender at night and we have both been sleeping better. We also put lemon in our water each day which tastes wonderful and helps reset your pH levels and detox your liver (**if using essential oils other than DoTerra, please be sure to check that you can actually ingest them. DoTerra is the highest quality and are safe for internal use). We diffuse peppermint in the afternoon to help perk us up in the afternoon slump.

OnGuard and Breathe are constantly being diffused in our home. OnGuard actually purifies the air and Breathe helps you, well, breathe better. OnGuard is the DoTerra equivalent to Thieves oil that you might have heard of. We put it on the bottoms of our feet for immune boosts, too. Breathe is great to rub on your throat if you feel stuffy or if your throat is bothering you. You will feel it working immediately.

If you know me, you know I have had 'tummy' issues my whole life. DigestZen is my new best friend. I keep a bottle on me at all times, but lately have rarely had to use it. I think the lemon in our water is helping a lot. But the DigestZen calms the stomach and intestinal tract. If you start having those tummy issues we all hate, you just rub a few drops on your abdomen, sit back and relax, and feel better in a minutes. I'm not joking. I love this stuff. And it smells amazing to me!

If you have questions, please let me know! And if you want to look around the DoTerra site for more info, check this out: www.mydoterra.com/emilyrosejones

Favorite Stretches/Yoga Poses

Good morning!

It's rainy and yucky here today, which made waking up hard, but my nails are painted (finally) and the flowers on my desk are beautiful, so it's a happy day, nonetheless. God is so very good to us!

I have a new blog in my list of 'favorites.' Primally Inspired.

When I started looking into cooking gluten free dinners, Kelly's website was one of the first I came across and I have drooled over every single recipe of hers that I've tried. I'll have to do a whole post of my favorite recipes she has posted.

But today, I want to share with you some posts she did about stretching for good posture.

-Stretches for Low Back Pain and Posture: Sitting at my desk all day and wearing heels most days, I tend to have a little low back pain. Truly, if you do these stretches the way she describes in sequence, you'll feel stronger and more open. I even mind myself more aware of my posture the next day.

-Stretches for Rolled Shoulders and Posture: Again, sitting at my desk and working at a computer or reading and typing papers, you will notice that your shoulders will roll forward. The first few times I did this, the next day, my muscules were a little sore. Just goes to show that I needed to strengthen the back muscles to hold the shoulders in better posture. I have found these so very helpful.

I usually do both of these routines back to back, at least every other day. They are very helpful and easy to do! You should try them and also check out Kelly's blog. She's great!

Happy Monday, friends. Have a great week!

A few homemade snacks...

So, how about a proper blog post?

Earlier this year, in an attempt to save money and better control the ingredients we eat, I started making our snacks. Ethan and I both eat 3 small meals per day, with small healthy snacks in between. Since we started enjoying these homemade snacks, we've never gone back! I'm not a huge Pinterest user, but here is a link to the board for the healthy food: Healthy & Yummy. Here are a few that we use regularly...

No Bake Energy Bites : I make mine a little differently. I double the recipe, which lasts Ethan and I one week. I don't use the flax seed. I used unsweetened coconut, all natural peanut butter, and sometimes I don't add the vanilla. We have tried it with cinnamon chips instead of chocolate and it is amazing! You can change this up in so many ways, but they are delicious and I highly recommend them.

Frozen Granola Bars : We keep these in the freezer for an evening snack/dessert substitute. They are easy to make and delicious. We don't always add dried fruit and I have used honey instead of maple syrup and I think we liked that better!

Homemade Lara Bars: I don't have a recipe to link for you, but here it is: 4 cups pitted dates, 2 cups raw almonds, 1 cup chocolate chips, 2 Tbsp peanut butter.  Put half the almonds in a food processor and chop. Add chocolate chips and pulse until combined and chopped. Put in a bowl. Put half the dates in food processor and pulse until it forms a combined ball. Add half the peanut butter and pulse until combined. Put the almond/chocolate chip mixture in the processor with the dates and pulse until combined. Put in a 9x13 in pan. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Press both batches in the same 9x13 pan until stuck together. Cover and refrigerate until set (a few hours) and cut into 16 bars. Wrap individually or keep in the pan and remove as needed. They don't have to be kept cool during the day, so feel free to sick on in a bag in your purse to munch on during the day. These are YUMMY!

KIND bars: Do yourself a favor and make these IMMEDIATELY! They are crunchy, sweet, salty, and fabulous. You have no idea. I don't make it all organic, for the record, and I used peanut butter instead of sunbutter. But these will quite possibly change your life. Wow.

Happy snacking!

A Quick Update

It's been a while since I've posted. It's not for a lack of happenings in the Jones world, but because I just feel like everyone will be bored by what I have to say. But here's what we've been up to:

• This summer we moved into a rental house. Actually, it's more than that. We are taking care of our friends' house because they are living in Germany for one year. It's been nice to be off campus and our of an apartment for the first time in our 7 years of marriage.
• Ethan began teaching at the seminary as a teaching assistant. He is doing this in conjunction with his job at the church. He is talented and smart and absolutely loving it.
• Ethan is in year 2 of his PhD and is reading like crazy. He enjoys school very much and I'm glad that God has called him to it.
• I hosted 2, one day girls' retreats at church for our ministry. They were both a lot of fun, totally different, and allowed me to have one of my best friends come in to speak. She nailed it and I'm so proud of her. Read her blog here: www.elissawroberts.com
• We went on vacation to see our friend on the coast. We had 3 days of rest, eating, and beach walking, but mostly a lot of talking. We love and miss Michelle too much.
• We said "see you later" to our precious friend, Sarah, who is following God's call to Asia. She has been a crucial part of our ministry for 3 years. We miss her but are so proud of her.
• We said "see you later" to some of our best friends, Lauren and Kevin, who are following God's call to Asia, also. If I write too much, I'll start bawling my eyes out, but let me just say that Ethan and I are so blessed to call these two friends.
• We have visits from both our families, which we always love.
• We have entered the 'season of weddings' at church. One of the joys of working with college and young adult age people is watching so many sweet relationships form. We've had 2 and have at least 3 more coming up.
• We are looking forward to Thanksgiving break when we'll head to New Orleans for a few days with my parents!

See, what did I tell you? Super exciting, right? No. But we are happy, loving life, and so thankful for what God has blessed us with and what he's doing in our lives.

Hopefully, I'll update more quickly next time!