A Little Anecdote and A Recipe

After telling this little anecdote to my husband last night, and he told me I should share it on my blog. So here we are. :) When I run in the mornings, I listen to Pandora, and the latter half of this week, there was an ad for a free tall House Blend coffee at participating Starbucks on Friday before noon. So, I decided that I could treat myself to a free coffee yesterday, and because I felt bad about not spending any money (and because I've been craving chocolate haha), I'd also buy a brownie. 

I proceeded to carry out my morning routine as per usual, leaving for work a little bit earlier than normal for my Starbucks stop. As I stood by the bakery case looking for the brownies, I glanced at the cold case with sandwiches, parfaits, etc., wondering to myself if I wanted to buy anything else while I was there. Just as I was deciding not to buy anything else, I realized that I had made one big misstep in my morning. While I managed to grab the fixings for my lunch, I hadn't remembered to grab my apple for breakfast. No breakfast=bad plan, especially when drinking coffee. And so, I ended up not only buying my brownie but also buying a protein breakfast pack, therefore spending far more money than I'd planned to. At least the coffee was free!

Moral of the story: don't forget your breakfast when stopping for free coffee!

Earlier this week, I made Baked Oatmeal Squares from this recipe here. I really like them, although don't make them expecting something supper sweet, because while they do have some sugar in them, they don't taste like dessert. The dried cherries really are the best part. The next time I make these, I'll probably put more in than the recipe calls for.

We've lots to do today. Buying plants for my balcony garden, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning around the house, buying a grill.....oh, yes, we're buying a grill. I'm so excited!! Hamburgers on the grill tomorrow for supper! :)

Have a lovely weekend!

Sunday Morning Thoughts #2

In the past month and a half, I've been running rather sporadically. A day or two here, another one there, skip a week, run a couple more days, etc. Clearly inconsistent, and of course I wasn't seeing any results that I wanted to. I wasn't motivated. I don't like running. I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. You get the picture.

Last weekend, I was thinking about a concept that the Christian ministry my husband and I are a part of talks about,  and I realized that I was thinking about my running all wrong. The concept is:

I had never thought to apply this concept to something so basic as running; it was only for more spiritual, enlightened things haha. But of course that isn't true. I realized that I needed to make the decision that I was going to run consistently first. Then I would begin to have the desire. The details would come in my increase of capability during my running: stamina, muscle strength, lung capacity. And eventually I would see the deliverance: distance running, toning of body, more energy.

So I made the decision. I ran Monday through Saturday of this past week. Friday, I hit my first stride where I felt that I could run forever. And every day I've had the desire to run. Mind=blown. I was beginning to think that I'd never be able to develop a desire for running. I'm so thankful for this past week of learning. I will continue to run. I will continue to have more energy. I will continue to have the desire. I will see the deliverance. 

Sunday Morning Thoughts #1

Over the past few weeks, I've embarked on what I consider to be two huge projects: organizing the office and organizing the bedroom! Now, one would think that having been married 8 months and me living in our apartment 9 months, this would already be a done deal. Er, not so much. I've found that it's been a lot harder than I imagined to combine two people's things, especially when one of the people (me!) has a lot of stuff. We've come a long way, gotten rid of stuff, gotten rid of more stuff, organized, reorganized, and finally it all seems to be coming together. It's not finished, but we're getting closer!

Organizing our life together has definitely been a process, though. And not one that I really wanted to tackle most of the time. We probably could have had the results that we're seeing now sooner if I had decided to motivate myself sooner. Making the decision is the key. It's easy to put things off, saying, "I'll do that later." But then all the I'll-do-that-later's start to build up, and you're overwhelmed with all of the work to do and don't know where to start.

Just pick a place and start. It's as easy and as hard as that. Make the decision, draw yourself a schedule if you work that way, and then dive in. Putting things off doesn't help you in the long-run; I'm the ultimate procrastinator, I would know. :)

Who you are, what you do, who and what is around you is up to you. Every morning we're given a new day. Make yourself.

And remember: don't just be a wannabe; DO!