Bible in 90 days

Last year I tried to do the Bible in 90 days challenge but I didn't finish.

I didn't get very far at all.

This year I was determined to do better.

And I did!

I finished in 88 days.

Considering how many days I had to read 2 or 3 days worth, I probably could have read it in 60 days but we won't even go there.

I loved doing Bible in 90 days because it gave me a broad overview of the whole Bible. I think a good comparison would be if you had a painting by a master (Renoir, Van Gough, Matisse) and only looked at it with a magnifying glass. You might know exactly how he painted that ear or eye or flower but never know the painting was of a girl, a man or a field of flowers. Sometimes you have to step back to see the whole picture.

I still think Bible Study is incredibly important but I think you can get a lot from an overview. It's true you can't read in depth when you are reading so much at a time but there is still value in reading through all the events, not just the ones that are easy to read.

Would I do it again? Yes, definately! I am planning on participating again in July when it happens again.

In the meantime, I plan on studying more about the Gospels also with Amy at Mom's Toolbox.

Menu Plan Monday

This is my first time to do Menu Plan Monday by orgjunkie but I am hoping it will be a regular thing.

One thing, my family is gluten free and I am again cooking completely dairy free so some of these ideas are not fully fleshed out. Last night I intended to make a chicken, rice and broccoli thing for dinner but when I got in the kitchen it turned into Thai peanut coconut chicken and rice with broccoli for a side. And it was YUMMY!

Monday: Potato Hash (grated potatoes and ground beef and then whatever else I feel like throwing in)

Tuesday: Pork chops and mac and cheeze (shhh don't tell the kids what is in the cheese sauce) with broccoli that my 8 year old son requested.

Wednesday: roast chicken and vegetable quinoa salad.

Thursday: homemade tacos and bean burritos - I want to try out a new tortilla recipe

Friday: split pea soup and shepherds pie

Saturday: Burgers and coleslaw with pina colada ice cream for dessert.


Check in here to see other meal plans!

3in30 February closing thoughts

February is officially over and now it is March. So how did I do on my February goals?

Not so great but not horrible. sort of.

On reading the Bible every day, I am way behind. Like a week behind. I should be able to get caught up this week. I think. I am over half-way through though.

As for doing meal plans, I did do this and I mostly followed them. However, I didn't always get them done at the beginning of the week. One week it was Wednesday before I had the plan done and I was supposed to do it Monday. I don't know about you but Mondays are crazy for me so I am thinking do menus on Sunday (which is going to be one of my goals in March so pretend you didn't hear this).

And exercising didn't happen. I can give a long list of excuses but I am not going to do that.

So February didn't go as planned but that is ok. I am just ready to get on with March.

My March goals are going to sound somewhat familiar because some of them are carry-overs or refinements.

So without further ado:

• Bible Reading: You had to know that this was going on here. When I do my Bible reading, I just feel better.



• menu plans & grocery list on Sunday: To me Sundays are sit around after church, flipping through the paper, maybe catch a football game. I can just as easily flip though cookbooks looking for recipes. I am working on getting a menu plan that includes some cooking some freezer meals, first I have to find out what is gluten-free that freezes well. And we like.



• declutter: Oh how I need to declutter. I thought about putting it down for all three this month but I decided that that was a bit much.

I also want to focus on getting earlier to bed and getting up earlier but still getting more sleep (I just might be perpetually sleep deprived.) And I hope that will make my days flow better.

While I am getting up earlier, I should also eat breakfast. It is not my favorite meal of the day.

And I need to . . . .

That is the difficulty with 3in30, there are so many things I want to put down and I don't think I should try that many at once. I would really like to get all 3 goals mostly accomplished one month.

To look at more 3in30 goals you can look here At the Tuckers Take Tennessee.

I don't know what to say

I don't think I need to say that I miss you. I dreamt about you and you were alive and it was normal again. When I woke up I was so very angry that it was normal and I didn't take the time in my dream to get a few more hugs, even just dream hugs.

I think about all the things I want to tell you or ask you, but you're not there.

It has been a year, and I still miss you Daddy.

a confession

There has been a double standard in my life for years. I made my kids do something I refused to do.

It is shameful, isn't it?!?

My kids are allowed to politely say they don't really like a certain dish or ingredient but they also have to eat a few bites of it if it is part of the meal. For instance, if onion soup is part of the meal, they have to eat a few bites of it but then can just eat the other meal items. I don't make several different meals each time we eat but I do make sure that if we are having something they hate (onion soup) there is something with it that is also part of the meal but something they like (or tolerate).

But they still have to eat a few bites of the unliked dish.

I tease Hubby because he won't eat beets which is one of my favorite vegetables. He has tried them occasionally in the past few years but still says they taste like dirt. Actually, I kind-of prefer not having to share.

Then yesterday it occurred to me that I first tried coleslaw 30+ years ago when I was 4 and . . .

Well . . .

Let's just say it didn't like me. My mother insists that I already had a stomach bug but I have always had my doubts about that. And I wouldn't try it again.

Since I generally wasn't a picky eater and was willing to eat almost everything else, my mom let it slide. She would occasionally ask me to try it but didn't try to force me a second time.

So over 30 years passed with me refusing to try coleslaw. I also wouldn't have it on my plate. I would have it served in a separate container so I could put it as far away from me as possible if the waitresses wouldn't substitute. I didn't even want to look at it. Or smell it (shudder).

Coleslaw was the only dish that could turn me back into a 4 year old.

I wasn't fond of guacamole but I would taste it periodically to see if I still didn't like it. A year ago when we first started gluten-free and were also doing dairy-free, I tried some avocado and it tasted buttery (in the best of all possible ways).

Coleslaw was still avoided.

And this was my facebook status yesterday

It says "I just googled "coleslaw" on my phone and autocorrect suggested "vile" - I agree with google."

But what I didn't say was that I realized it was a double standard and was googling it to find recipes.

I realized I needed to try coleslaw again but I also knew that homemade would taste better. I found a recipe and all of the ingredients were ones that I didn't mind eating either by itself (carrots & cabbage) or mixed with something else (apple cider vinegar). I did cut the cabbage too thick so it didn't look like coleslaw and then I was able to call it salad so my kids would try it with a more open mind than mine.

They won't request it but both said it wasn't bad. They were somewhat surprised when I told them what it was and possibly even more when I apologized for the double standard. Hubby loved it. He has long liked coleslaw and was happy at the idea of homemade coleslaw (possibly also happy about all the probable leftovers.)

Did I like it?

Well . . .

to be completely honest . . .

Yes, I did. I don't think it is my favorite salad (I love green salads with fruit) but I would be more than willing to eat it again. I also want to try out some other recipes that I avoided because they were "slaws."

Do you have a favorite slaw recipe?

You know you have been wearing your hair up too much

when two inches have been cut off and no one notices. Not even your husband. (Ok, to be completely fair, he thought maybe it was shorter. But he wasn't sure.)

Although I suppose it is equally possible that everyone hates it.

Or the color is off putting.

I am thinking of going back to the natural color for awhile but what I have right now is not it. It looks like I tried to copy Ree (Pioneer Woman) and that color just doesn't fit right on me.

What am I naturally? Probably a dirty blond or light brown.

Umm, yep, it hasn't been the natural color very many months since I turned 13.

3 in 30 February Check-up

This month I am doing better than I did last month. For the most part.

But that isn't saying much.

My first goal is reading the Bible every day and I am doing pretty good on that one. I am not behind on the Bible in 90 Days (today is day 40!) but if I am honest, some days I don't read at all and then I have to catch up the next day.

The next goal is doing meal plans. You wouldn't think it would be this hard but it is. I spent 2 hours on it on Monday. Well, I got the meal plan written down, then cleaned out the freezer and found stuff that had been forgotten and so changed the plan. That is why it took 2 hours. But it has been great. I looked at the weather so I could plan cold day meals on the coldest days and it was wonderful. I want to do some bulk cooking but we are still trying to find new recipes (or variations that we can eat) but that will make the whole thing even better.

My other goal was to exercise for 15 minutes a day. Did you know that Texas has been experiencing a freakish couple of cold spells? Really, really cold spells. No, not as cold as it gets where you live (probably) but cold enough to make Southerners miserable. And I have been miserable. We do have a fully functioning heating system but I am a wimp and I was the only one freezing. I just look out the window and feel cold. The idea of jumping around and moving when I really just wanted to hibernate was more than I could bear handle. Next week will be one of those crazy/busy weeks so I am thinking not then either.

So to sum up: I am doing well on 2 out of 3. The other goal is being ignored.

How are your goals?

3 in 30 February

Tomorrow is the first day of February and time for a new set of goals. While I could just redo my goals from January, (especially those that didn't go so well) I decided not to do that.

Well, not completely.

Without further ado here are my goals for February:

• Reading the Bible every day: I did do fairly well with this one, I am not behind on Bible in 90 days. I did get behind a couple of times but was able to catch up, but its only day 28 so I still have more to go before I have read all the way through. I am almost 1/3 of the way through!



• Plan meals for each week: I don't mind planning out the meals but I have not successfully followed a plan for a week. If I plan some easy meals and more difficult meals but don't set the day of the week, I cook the easy ones first and then skip the harder ones. If I plan set days to do each meal, then I get aggravated because the warmest day of the week is the one I put down for chili - since this is Texas we could be having chili on the day it is 80F out and the next day have a low of 20F. So not only do I have to keep our schedule in mind, I also have to look at the weather. I am hoping that if I stick to the meal planning thing for a month, I will figure out how to do it so that it works for me.



• do some form of exercise for at least 15 minutes: yes, I know 15 minutes isn't very much. Some days though, that may be all I can manage. Plus my hope is that if I do it for 15 minutes, I will add on some extra and make it 20 or 30 minutes worth of exercise for that day. Also, if when the 15 minutes becomes habit, I can up that habit to 20 or 30 minutes. I think.

So now you know what my goals are for February. What are yours? If you haven't set any goals yet, you might want to join 3in30.

Oh, how did I do in January? I did well with reading the Bible but not so good on cooking real meals which is why I am trying to plan meals to cook. The food diary was done I think one day out of the month. Again, meal planning should help with that one. So all in all, January wasn't great with meeting my goals. February will be better though. Right? Hello?

Soon I am going to have a new AMAZING recipe for you

My kids love to enter Youth Fair in our county and they love too cook - which works out well for youth fair.

And my daughter is stubborn. don't know where she gets that.

In our county, youth fair is very well supported and the kids that go to auction typically do pretty well. Being gluten-free makes it more challenging though because I am pretty sure that a cake made from weird ingredients would not do as well if it goes to auction. And I don't know that a cake made from sorghum (for example) would score as high as one made from wheat even if it tasted equally as good.

Yet she wanted to make a cake.

So we needed to find a cake that was naturally gluten-free. Or at least one with very little wheat flour so that a change to almond or oat flour (neither sounds as weird) won't mess the cake up too much.

On Thurday we baked. All. Day. Long. and we only made two cakes.

One of them, a Czechoslovakian poppy seed cake was underwhelming. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't good - 3/4 of a cup of poppy seeds for one thin layer is just too many poppy seeds. But that cake was fairly simple.

The other cake, a dacquoise, is one of the best desserts I have eaten. It also takes all day to make. The layers are of baked meringue and then it has white chocolate buttercream and dark chocolate buttercream in between the meringue layers.

Before you start gagging at the thought of all that sugar, I need to say that the meringues don't seem to be quite as sweet as the top of a chocolate meringue pie. The buttercream also isn't as sweet as the stuff on birthday cakes, in fact there is a bit of a bite from the unsweetened chocolate in the dark chocolate buttercream (it also has semisweet).

OH! And it also has a ganache - you know, chocolate melted in heavy cream.

And this is one of those recipes that you don't want to know how many calories there are.

You REALLY don't want to know.

But it will wow the socks off of a loved one.

The recipe will be posted soon but I want to get pictures just so you can see how this looks.

A challenge, an attitude adjustment, a long day

After I complained and griped and stomped around about the 4-H Food Challenge, my husband finally said "either take her out of the contest or quit complaining. You are ruining all the fun for her."

Oh.

So I stopped. I made a conscious effort to only say cheerful things quit complaining out loud. I still think it is stupid less of a challenge to have all the teams making the same exact dish but the kids still did learn so very much. Even some of the parents learned something.

On Daisy's team each kid picked something to focus on, one learned to food pyramid and how to fit different things on the pyramid; Daisy learned about the vitamins, mineral, and other nutrition facts as well as substitutions that could be made; S focused on food safety and safety in the kitchen (cut away from yourself, wear closed toe shoes, etc); and B learned how to figure out cost per serving. Then they had to present the facts for the dish that they made to 3 judges - not knowing if they made the correct thing or not.

S had never competed before and was in tears before the challenge because she was positive she couldn't do it. The others had all competed in different contests before but not in this one so they were all nervous. Even Daisy, who looked as if she did this every day, admitted she was nervous.

We weren't allowed in the room where they were doing the competition. We weren't allowed near where the judging was happening. We sat in the hall. For 4 hours. The teams got a late start and then they have 40 minutes to fix the dish and figure out what to say. And then the judging starts. And the judging per team takes 8 minutes. So it took awhile.

When we went into the room where the awards were going to be given, Daisy kept saying she hoped they would win. I kept telling her that there were so many other teams competing that it wasn't likely, especially since this was their first time at this contest.

But I was hopeful, especially when I found out they were giving ribbons for 5th place. Then I found out their category had 11 other teams.

When they called 5th place and it was another county, I was a bit more discouraged but still hopeful. Then they called 4th and was less hopeful. Then they called 3rd and I gave up thought it really wasn't likely. Then they called 2nd place and it was Daisy's team.

They were so very excited!

And now we get to focus on Youth Fair where I have 2 kids that will be cooking and Daisy is also entering the in the Arts and Crafts division. Did I mention she made her Christmas gifts this year? She made a scarf for her great-grandmother, her grandmother, and me, she also put a blanket stitch on 4 blankets, plus made some hot cocoa mix. So she is going to enter a knitted scarf into the Youth Fair.

And now I am tired.

3 in 30 January check up

How am I doing?
Well . . .

• On reading the Bible every day, I am actually doing well. I have read some every day and I am a bit ahead on the Bible in 90 days challenge. I like to stay one day ahead so that I am not behind if I am not able to do a full days worth one day. Honestly though, I am really enjoying it, and learning from it. Since it was only a few days before that I read where the Edomites came from (for example) I remember the connection when the Edomites don't let the Israelites pass through their land.
• Keeping a food journal: I stink at this. Seriously. I journaled one day. Really I need to figure out some app for the Blackberry that makes it easy because I always have my phone with me.
• On cooking more real meals: I did! I cooked a healthy, balanced, delicious meal for every day of the week. And then I woke up. So really not so much. I did do 3 meals with a TON of left-overs. We had homemade tomato soup (full of veggies) with grilled cheese sandwich (homemade bread), PW's Chicken Tortilla Soup (except it was more like a casserole because I didn't add the water. Because I doubled it. And my pot was too small. seriously), and homemade chili (which needs a bunch of work to taste right since there was no mix involved.)
  
  As a side note, I think it should be required by law to state if the serves 8 is 8-that-are-also-eating-Thanksgiving-dinner or 8-that-haven't-eaten-all-day-long-and-this-is-all-you-are-cooking. Because it really makes a difference.
  
  As another side note, we like chicken tortilla casserole.

So I guess I did halfway in all :-/

Next month I will challenge myself to breathe every day, eat every day, and brush my teeth every day.

The end.

A new challenge

I don't know about you but I am not huge on New Year being a big new start. After all, I still weigh pretty much the same as I did last week, bank account is still about the same, kids haven't turned into perfect angels. Everything is pretty much the same except I have to correct myself every time I write the date (I will finally get used to writing 2011 about April or May).

On the other hand, January does seem to be a good time to challenge myself and I do have some goals I want to practice. Did you know it takes 21 days to make a (good) habit? So if you start now, by the end of January you can have a new habit.

With that in mind I have decided to do 3 in 30. Meghan Tucker and some others decided to break all these goals down into manageable pieces by tackling 3 a month. That's all. No 20 page lists of self improvement goals. Just 3.

Then next month 3 more.

See it doesn't sound too hard does it.

So what are my goals for January? Mostly things I have been needing to do for a long time.

1. Read the Bible everyday Last year I signed up to to the Bible in 90 days and I wasn't able to finish. This time I will. If you want more information about this years reading challenge (its not too late, it only started January 3rd) you can go here
2. Cook more meals I mean real meals not just a quick throw together of omelets or mac and cheese. I need to increase how many veggies we eat too. I am not saying I can do it for every dinner but I would like to cook 5 healthy main meals a week. (ok, I would rather have a genie or fairy that would do the cooking for me, but we all know that won't happen.)
3. Keep a food journal Being gluten free has helped me tremendously, fewer headaches, less joint paint, better digestion, clearer thinking. I know suspect that there might be something else that bothers me. I do still have headaches and more frequent than I would like. I am hoping a food journal will help point to whatever else I need to remove from my diet.

And that is the gist of it. Do you want to take the challenge too?