Hi, I’m Rebecca. I write books and I write here at This Joyful Mess to inspire everyone to find JOY in the everyday messes of life. Here you’ll find inspiration, educational resources, and so much more. Please explore and connect—I’d love to hear from you!
7 Secrets the Gluten Free Community Doesn't Want You to Know
You may have heard that gluten free is a diet fad. I mean, if celebrities do it, the rest of us follow, right? You may have heard that gluten intolerance isn’t even a thing, celiac either for that matter...
DIY Shampoo for Any Hair Type: Live Healthy, Live Clean
When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis last year I made some fairly drastic life changes. Eliminated gluten and dairy, cut back on caffeine (though that’s crept back up since I’m So D@mn Tired from thyroid meds being too low, lack of sleep, five kids), and I worked to eliminate as many entry points for toxins as possible. One I’d never considered: shampoo.
Homeschooling and Hashimoto's Weirdness
I used to hate read-alouds. My neck would get tense, my throat would feel stiff and sore and my voice would hurt. (And if you say a voice cannot hurt, I assure you, it can.) Here's my story of how diagnosing and treating Hashimoto's changed my life in an unexpected way.
Strangely Delicious Strawberry-Coffee Breakfast Smoothie
It's gluten free, Trim Healthy Mama compliant (or can be), Paleo, and so much more.
The Absolute BEST Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Egg-Free Paleo Pizza Crust Recipe EVER
Pizza. It happens. In our house it happens a lot. As in Every Single Friday Night. When it doesn't happen, life feels horribly, disastrously wrong. We used to go out for Friday Night pizza. But once my gluten issue and Fish's egg issue were discovered, it was home-baked or nothing at all....
An Update of Paprika, Pepperplate and other Cookbook-Recipe Apps
Once upon a time I was trying to find a recipe I knew my grandmother had sent me in an email. I thought I'd saved it in a Pages doc somewhere, or maybe it was still in Gmail, or on an archive disk. Or maybe ...
Blasted Blight: or What to do with Green Tomatoes
I started the season with ten lovely tomato plants. A few heirloom, some beefsteak, others. All went well for quite a while. We made it through June, July (even with two weeks of neglect while I was at Hamline University), into August. But then the cool nights hit, and the wet days, and the icky constant dampness. Blight set in.
Last weekend I sacrificed nine of my ten beloved lovelies...