Busy Bee!

Wow, I had a lot more to do this weekend than I thought! All sorts of fun stuff though (well, mostly). A lot of the things I can’t tell you about right now cuz they’re secrets!!!! Within a couple days I should be able to share some of my craftiness. [But here's a hint: weddings, puppies, and peppermint!]

There was a guest speaker at church this morning. I forgot his name (he’s the state pastor of Florida) but he had such a great message and he talked a lot about the correlation between running and life. Specifically training efficiently and racing effectively, in both running and in life as a Christ follower. How we need to train properly so we can run the race set out before us. He mentioned specifically a lot of younger people tend to not want to do the training. We want to just go out and run, and don’t always realize we need to train properly first. Then, middle aged people tend to think “eh, I ran some good races before, I’m still in shape now,” etc. But we need to keep training. We’re only as in shape as our last couple weeks of training. And training is not fun. Well, it can be. But it is hard work. You have to push yourself, push hard, past the limits you thought you had, past the goals you set before, and keep pushing. Then the races – some races will be phenomenal (blowing your old PR out of the water!), some races will be decent (you’re comfortable the whole time and do fairly well), and some races will just plain stink. But we can keep training. There’s always another race.

Anyway! I told y’all I’d share some of my Christmas gifts!

Pictured: Alton Brown “I’m Just Here For the Food” cookbook, Heart to Heart Recipes cookbook (the proceeds went towards medical fees for a little girl with leukemia, I believe), my CUTE snowman mugs and platter, Cranium, Lipton Pomegranate Blueberry White Tea, and some of my favorite things – mini bake ware! Mini loaf pans, mini springform pan, and mini angel food cake pans. Not pictured: giftcards (Whole Foods, Target, Old Navy), cash, a stainless steel bowl, a few other misc. things, and a beautiful canvas my sister-in-law Jordan made Ross and I! Here’s an up close picture of it:

Jordan is SO crafty and talented! Plus she is a wonderful person and inspires me to be a better person every time we’re together! I’m blessed to have a sister-in-law that is awesome and that I have so much in common with (we’re even the same age…well, she’s 3 months older, but still). Here’s a picture of the two of us from Christmas Eve (sorry about the hair in my eye):

Also – I know this is primarily a food blog and I’m sorry I haven’t been posting many food pics lately! I suppose I could have posted pictures from my southern holiday meals, but honestly? I really wan’t excited about them, and I may have been a bit bitter that I didn’t get to make a single thing. There will be more food recipes coming, but here’s a quick, healthy salad I made Ross and I. It was our first meal back from Alabama, I don’t think either of us have ever been so excited about spinach and fresh salad before!!

Yummy spinach, cucumber, grilled chicken, drizzle of Annie’s Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette, and a new product – broccoli slaw! It was quite tasty. I actually found it at Walmart. I think it’s actually called broccoli cole slaw and it’s just shredded hearts of broccoli, red cabbage and carrots. So good! I’m not a cole slaw fan at all, but this raw was yum!

Tonight food-wise the hubs and I just split a can of Amy’s black bean soup and some Hawaiian sweet rolls. sweet and simple!

Thanks for still reading! I may continue to be a little “all over the place” the next couple days because we’ll be in Sarasota for round 2 of Christmas with my family. But stay with me! I have some great ideas for the blog I’ll hopefully be featuring in the New Year! Much love everyone! Enjoy your last few days of 2008!