About Me
Hello!
My name is Dena, and I’m a Christian, wife, grandmother, RN, writer/author, and an ordained deacon with a bachelor’s degree in counseling. I’ve worn a lot of hats, and the newest one I’m wearing is blogging.
Originally I started blogging back in 2009 to have a place to write encouraging posts. But life intervened and blogging got shuffled to the back burner. So now, I’m getting back into something that I have always loved doing–writing.
However, my direction has taken a turn from the original. My prime objective is to share with you, my reader, healthy lifestyle and aging well postings. My aim is to offer information that will help you become a healthier, more confident, stronger you! And besides all the fresh material coming your way, I will drop in posts from my previous blog as well as new inspirational content for your encouragement and blessing!
JUST ADDED! I have a brand new section for you to check out! I am now publishing blogcasts – short videos around 15-20 minutes, just long enough for a refreshing break in your busy day. Look at the Blogcast feature in the menu bar!
Welcome New Friend!
I’m so glad you stopped by! In this blog, I hope you will find a warm word, a helpful tip, and maybe even something to ponder. Do you have questions about a how to enjoy a healthy lifestyle that’s not all-consuming? Do you want to learn about ways to incorporate exercise and fitness that are age- and joint-friendly? Are you looking for tips to help transition from one life-stage to the next? I’m ready and willing to help! I will be sharing my best tips, guidance, and information for these topics and more.
How Can I Help?
Throughout my 35 years in nursing, I’ve been interested in how I can improve my health and that of my family. Many of the people I’ve cared for in hospital bedside nursing were ill because of poor lifestyle choices and unhealthy habits. They just didn’t know how to eat right or what foods and habits were helpful or harmful.
It made me feel so helpless to care for patients whom I knew would go home and return to the same unhealthy patterns, and back into the same condition. There were young people heading for a lifetime of health problems. Older folks suffering physical damage that a lifetime of poor health habits had caused. How could I be of help to them?
It had to begin at home. I had to find ways to better care for myself before I could make a difference to anyone else. Surely there were better eating habits and healthier self-care products. I needed to find ways to stay fit that would work for working moms with no time as well as folks who, like me, were “putting on some miles.”
My journey to a healthier lifestyle began by learning what’s harmful and what’s healthy and to begin weeding out the toxins in my own home, replacing them with products that are in harmony with nature and the human body. It’s a life-long journey as I adopt healthier habits and find more wholesome ways to care for my family and myself, and it would be a joy if you would join me!
Help for a Joyful, Healthier, and More Balanced Life
That’s why I’m here now, to reach out to you and offer you the benefit of those things I have learned and will continue to discover. Most folks, especially busy working moms and homemakers do not have the luxury of time to research toxins in cleaning products or the benefits of essential oils.
Whether you are a working Mom, retired, or somewhere in between, if you’ve got health issues or just need to adopt a healthier lifestyle to improve your health, the idea of a healthy makeover of your entire lifestyle and household may seem staggeringly impossible.
Perhaps you are facing a daunting stage of life where things are changing at a dizzying pace. Maybe you just feel overwhelmed by all the hype about which exercise routine is best or whether you should make your own laundry soap. Friend, you’re not alone.
If all the noise, chaos and distraction of life has sucked all the joy out of simply living, I’d love to help! I can demystify some of the issues that have you bewildered or stressed out. If you have a question you’d like to see answered here, just click the email link and drop me a note. I’ll do my best to get the most up-to-date information and research posted right here.
And one more thing: there’s no perfect solution to anything. Hopefully what you read here will be helpful and perhaps make your life easier or healthier. But what advice or encouragement you take from here may not be the answer you need or even want. If not, don’t give up or despair. If I can’t give you the help you need (though I’d certainly love to try), keep seeking. There is someone out there who can!
A New Day to Start Over!
The story of our lives is not written in conquests and successes. Rather it is in stops and starts, failures and new beginnings, in chapters with good endings and bad. I’m writing this blog as an exercise in discipline and faithfulness, to encourage and to be courageous, and ultimately, to shine a light on the path for others to follow. I find I regularly let myself down with regard to my own expectations, not to mention those of others. So I have to remind myself that tomorrow presents a new opportunity to succeed (or to fail).
One of my favorite quotes says,
“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow”.” (Mary Anne Radmacher)
And because we so desperately need God’s mercy, His grace, His compassion, His forgiveness – He boundlessly provides an unending river of it from which we can draw fresh every day. My life verse is Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV):
“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
You have a fresh, new opportunity to start over every single day! Will you join me?