Day 3

Yesterday I changed my mind last minute about dinner and made cheese enchiladas instead. I mean, really last minute. Josh was due to arrive in 15 minutes along with my sister for dinner. It's fun being a stay at home mom and confusing your poor family with rather sporadic behavior. ;)

Today's plan is:

Breakfast - Josh had cereal and tea, I had some oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar.

Lunch - The amazing taco salad. Josh hasn't tried it yet and I want to indoctrinate him.

Dinner - Veggie burgers! With potato salad and green beans.


I didn't want to eat breakfast this morning. For some reason if I don't eat soon enough after getting up I stop wanting to eat altogether and just drink coffee. Then I get really hyper and irritable and wonder why. I heard a distant voice belonging to my mother (or is it the health conscious media?) that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I buckled under pressure at got some yummy oatmeal.

The Salad

This is the taco salad I made for lunch yesterday. It was really quite good! I will definitely make it again soon.

Day 2 of Veggies!

I wanted to note that I am tracking how much protein, carbs, calories etc. I am getting - in case anyone wondered. Also, I do have snacks during the day which consist mainly of fruit or a granola bar. Josh is not tracking these things, but since I'm cooking for him I figure he's got a good chance of getting enough of what he needs!

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with brown sugar and walnuts. I absolutely love oatmeal with coffee in the morning!

Lunch:
Egg salad sandwiches with baby carrots

Dinner:
Most likely bean and cheese burritos with some type or two of vegetable.


Last night I made up a list of meals I could make and came up with quite a few! It's amazing how many things you can eat without meat added.

Day 1

Today our family is starting 30 days of being vegetarians. We won't go vegan, just will not eat meat including fish. It's not that I have something against eating meat, but it sounded like a fun challenge and generally healthy (If I can keep myself from eating lots of ice cream). I will post the meals we have each day here on this blog in case anyone is curious. If you have any ideas or good recipes please feel free to comment!

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with brown sugar (Josh does not eat breakfast generally, but when he does it is cereal)

Lunch:
Taco salad with salsa, black beans, cheese, veggie crumbles and rice cake "chips".

The chips are made by Quaker and are pretty good. I'm not usually a chip person, but every now and then the mood strikes me. Also the veggie crumbles are supposed to be like ground beef. I like the Morningstar Farms brand of veggie products but will probably branch out and try other stuff.

Dinner:
Spaghetti, bread, and salad



So it begins!

Ninja

My husband left yesterday to attend his grandfather's memorial service. He is driving through the night with his sisters (still on the road) to make it on time.

Back at the ranch - I mean home - we are enjoying some girly outings and plan on visiting my sister.

Now I leave you with a funny picture...

Spring all year

I was looking at one of my potted plants this morning. The first thing you have to realize is that me having even one potted plant that is still alive is a small miracle.

This particular plant I received as a gift when my daughter was born 8 months (has it really been that long?) ago. It's a succulent type plant (I think that's what they are called anyway) with beautiful little white flowers. It sat on my china shelf in the kitchen, brightening the room with it's lime green pot and white flowers. Then the trouble started.

I forgot to water it half the time. Then I would remember and flood the poor thing with a mini-monsoon. The white flowers eventually fell off except for one or two. The branches slowly died one at a time. It was near the "all-dead" mark being categorized as Miracle Max's "mostly dead". I had very little hope that the remaining branch would survive, but thought to give it a try anyway. The plant was placed by a window in the warm sun by the sink. Since I do dishes at least twice a day I see it all the time, so it tends to get watered more often. The dead branches were removed and coffee grounds were added to the soil to aid in nourishment. For a long while I saw no improvement. Then yesterday I noticed how much it had grown! It still was attached to that dead main "trunk", but it was steadily growing and putting out leaves.

Isn't that what the Lord does with us? When we come to Him, He takes us from our shelved and near dead state and brings us into the warm sun of His presence. He removes the dead branches, waters us with His Spirit and nourishes us with His Word. If we stayed stuck on the shelf, trying on our own to grow and produce flowers we would continue to die. We need the Lord's life giving presence, Spirit and Word.

I've got the joy...

It's amazing what a little sleep does to a person! The world will seem empty, meaningless and depressing - add a little sleep and it helps one's perspective immensely. That and prayer. I think that is what actually made me feel better more than the sleep. If I hadn't prayed what I did no amount of sleep would make me feel better.

I think it interesting that so often I find myself expecting my outward circumstances to make me feel happy or better or okay, but really those things happen when I choose to trust the Lord and lay at His feet my burdens. He is the secret to a good and joyful life no matter the circumstance.

This verse was brought to my attention a few weeks ago: "In Your presence is fullness of joy" ~ Psalm 16:11b