Perks of Sustainable Living

Last spring, I decided to change my life and lose a ton of weight.  I went back to Weight Watchers and then back to Curves.  Curves lasted about a week because my knee was in huge pain.  Weight Watchers lasted until I stopped choir in May.  Work became crazy until June 30th and really hasn't stopped being crazy, but I'm back to my fall routine.  Last Sunday after church went to Weight Watchers expecting to find that I gained- but I lost 4 pounds over the summer- 10 pounds total since I started last Spring- not awesome but certainly not bad for not trying at all!

Hmmmm.  Maybe it was water weight.  After all, I had worked hard in the Temple Terrace Community Garden for two hours on Saturday and sweated a lot.  But today I went to Curves- and voila- last 8 pounds AND 8.5 inches from 5 measurements of my body since March.

To what do I attribute this miracle?  Part of it is the Community Garden.  In addition to my porch, I've been tending the library plot.  But I've also been faithful to the idea of sustainable living- my son Rob and I are now cooking with fresh herbs and vegetables more than ever before.  We've been experimenting with all sort of things from A Simpler Place in Time, and we've been eating out a lot less.

But even though I'm losing on my own, I'm going to keep up my self-improvement streak because I feel so great and have so much more energy now that I am back into my fitness routine.

Close with a quote that Donald Trump tweeted yesterday
If you are going through hell- keep going. Winston Churchill

If this sounds a little bit smug, google the phrase and then go to Rodney Atkins song of the same name.  I found it a little sounded a lot better there!  Have a great day- and whatever you need to improve- just keep on going- the journey is great!

Acceptance

Here's a copy of the post I did for my Faith Formation page today.  Warning: content is religious- so if that turns you off- then skip.  Think that it is also inspirational, so if that turns you on, read on.

I promised my kids that if I had some thoughts from the daily readings that I would pass them on- so here's what I wrote:

Here is a link to the readings from today:
September 13, 2012 Readings

Here's the thing I never really noticed before- it's in the gospel:

"Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."
Luke 6:37-42

It really hit me that what this was saying was that if you want God's gifts in abundance, then you have to give God's gifts in abundance.  And of course, we know that the greatest of all God's gifts is love.  Another thing that I was reading today was talking about how all that we crave as human beings is acceptance- and that total and complete acceptance that we all crave comes from God.  It also talks about The courage of self-acceptance because if we good enough for God, then we should be good enough for ourselves.  That was another message that hit home.  The line that really hit me there was 

"I cannot be more demanding than God, can I". 

 And of course, I think that I am- a lot!  We probably all are- because we can see all that we could be and aren't- but God sees that too and loves what we do- which is better than doing nothing at all.

So let us go out today, giving God's gifts in abundance- and remembering that the greatest gift is accepting others as they are, knowing that God is accepting us as we are- with all our faults and imperfections- and that the more that we accept others as they are- the more that we will be accepted as we are.

The Right Soil

These are what my Simpler Place in Time herbs looked like June 3rd.  I put them in my window garden and they lanquished, then I put them outside in the pots and they both nearly died.  When my sage and mint died this summer, I replaced them with these two pots that barely contained a wisp of a plant. And this is what they look like only a few weeks later...

The purple basil is now the tallest plant in my garden.  The chocolate mint is spreading all over the box.  If you look carefully here- you'll see two kinds of mint- the chocolate mint has darker green leaves with less texture- over on the right side of the water reservoir is the spearmint saying hello.

Which got me to thinking- we all need the right kind of soil and the right kind of conditions to grow.  I have been having so much trouble with the Discipline of Self-Esteem lately- when I follow it, I thrive, but I don't want to follow it- so maybe I need new soil?

And here's my Dr. Who analogy- I'm sure you are just dying for this one... Warning- Spoilers- skip to the next paragraph if you haven't seen it and want to. 
Spoilers here:
Saturday, we saw the Asylum of the Daleks.  It started out with Amy in a photo shoot.  Although it was a fabulous shot, Amy was just not Amy- and then you see Amy getting a divorce and you know that Amy is really not being Amy. Luckily the Daleks capture Amy, Rory, and the Doctor and bring them back together for an adventure- because even the Daleks know that the Doctor requires companions.  And Amy really requires the Doctor.  Amy was raised near a crack in time- she doesn't really live in her own time- she really belongs to all times and places- the whole universe pouring into her being- so on the planet in her new adventure- she realizes that it is here that she is really alive- even though she is in great danger of becoming a Dalek herself.  In sharp contrast is Oswin Oswald, a woman trapped in a Dalek body, but fantastically alive and amazingly living the Discipline of Self-Esteem.  She left Earth to go traveling in space- that she felt that was what she was meant to do- and in her first voyage- she crashed on the Dalek asylum planet and got changed into a Dalek.  But here comes the Doctor- he needs to be able to start over with the Daleks- and here she is tapped into the Dalek mind and being able to open the shields allowing the Daleks to destroy the planet and herself- and she is able to destroy all memory of the Doctor from the Dalek mind- a mind that for all of history has been concentrated on doing nothing except destroy the Doctor.  Fantastic- nothing kept her from being herself.  What an amazing journey!

Spoilers over:
So if you are in the right soil, you will grow and become the person that God meant you to be.  Sometimes the right soil can be pretty horrific- but if your soul can grow and become- it is the right soil.  But if you are in the wrong soil- even soil that looks perfect- even with all the money and all the power and all the fame in the world- but in soil where you simply don't want to live the Discipline of Self-Esteem, then you are in the wrong soil.  Luckily, as human beings, we can change our worlds and make them what we want them to become- even sometimes in our imaginations.  When I was a child, I needed to live that way- it was the only way to become an adult without letting my soul die- just like Oswin in her world- but now I'm an adult and I've been living in a cocoon long enough- just have to find the place to grow- and it is always a journey of discovery.

Yummy weekend

Been tired since my surgery- then had all the deadlines at work exhausting me.  Thank God for Labor Day!  Long weekend to get caught up and to cook some goodies.

Sunday watched the Pioneer Woman Frontier Fiesta episode. Everything looked really yummy so went shopping for supper immediately and made everything in there except the virgin mango margaritas- and of course modified everything. 

Mango margaritas: Couldn't find mangos, so followed a suggestion in the comments and made them from pineapple- pretty pedestrian- will be looking for mangos and try again some other time.  Think my son has me spoiled for cocktails because his are so exotic.  Also just made half the recipe.

Mexican Rice Casserole: Didn't need 12 servings for 2 people, so made a quarter recipe- the only canned tomatoes that I used were my usual Del Monte Original Recipe Stewed Tomatoes.  Also didn't have cayenne pepper- so used smoked paprika instead.  It was super yummy comfort food.

Refried Black Beans: Used a large can of black beans instead of fresh because we didn't have time to soak 12 hours.  They were also super yummy comfort food.  Will definitely make these two recipes again.

Tequila Lime Chicken:  This didn't really go.  We love skin and bones on our meat, so used whole chicken breasts- did not have time to marinate properly and baked these instead of grilled them.  Did not really go with the meal and the flavor did not permeate the meat- will definitely try again- but didn't get it right this time.

While we were at the store getting what we needed for this meal- ran into a large beautiful bunch of collards with our name on it.  Rob decided that we needed to cook it with ham hocks, so we got those.  Madethem with Paula Deen's recipe- except we started with a pound of ham hocks and skipped the butter- Yummmmmeeee!  Added some baby potatoes to the collards the last 30 minutes and loved the flavor.  Served these with a turkey breast we had bought earlier.  Discovered something really cool- you can cook a turkey breast frozen- just takes longer- this is definitely something I'll try some week when I know I won't have a lot of time to cook and want some leftover meat for meals.

That's all for today.  Tonight I'm going to try this tomato sauce (cut to 1/3 size) to use up some of my regular basil which had lead it's life and needs to be harvested- will do this with Mario's eggplant recipe cut in half.

Until tomorrow!