New Baked Good: January

Well, I suppose this was kind of cheating... but we JUST finished the juice fast so I didn't really have much time. For Christmas, Grandma Maxwell got all of the women in the family a jar with all of the dry goods to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

All I had to do was cream 3/4 cup butter, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla; put small spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes! I can't remember how many the recipe yielded, but they were delicious! I ended up taking most of them to work and they were gone by the end of the day.

Yum!

I promise February will be something more elaborate. Although, especially after 15 days of juice, these were perfect.

When you were young

There's something about this song by the Killers, "When you were young," that's really resonating in my heart right now. I'm not exactly sure what it is right now. I mean, I'm only 25 so... I'm still young. Yet somehow being "21 and invincible" seems so far from where I am now. It seems like ages ago. In my last year of college. So much unknown in my future. So many hopes and dreams.

It makes me realize that I have liked a heck of a lot of life in the last four years. I started dating an amazing man of God. Moved home with my parents. Got my teaching certificate. Got engaged. Moved back to Lansing. Got married. Moved to Mexico. Interned at an orphanage for kids with special needs. Started a garden. Fostered a 9-year old and a 12 year-old Mexican child for 5 weeks. Moved back to Lansing again.

That's a lot of life. I wouldn't change any of it. It's just a lot. And it makes me feel old. Older than 25 anyway. Some call it "maturity." But it doesn't quite feel like that to me. I mean, I'm sure I have and that's part of it. But the LIFE experiences I've had, all in such a short period of time... I've lived a lot of life in four years.

I guess I listen to the song and it makes me feel a bittersweet-nostalgia, those days... "you sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you from your old ways, watch it now- here he comes, he doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentlemen like you imagined when you were young..."

Kind of makes me frightened to think of how much life God has in store for the next four years of my life. How I'll look back on these days when I'm 29 and think that at 25 I was still that silly girl always wanting more.

Juice Fast!

Yes, we are doing it. A juice fast. For 15 days.

That's over two weeks of no food, just raw juice made from our juicer. Yes, I do think we're crazy for doing this, but we got inspired. We had some friends who did it back in the fall and suggested we watch a documentary called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. The guy in the film does a 60 day juice fast, which is insane but amazing at the same time. This is part of our kicking off healthier eating habits.

We are almost done with day 5 now and I have a lot more confidence that we can see this through. The first few days were awful. We almost caved and ordered a pizza. But we're sticking it out. And learning a few tricks to make the veggie packed juices actually taste good instead of suffering with the awful taste. I'm physically feeling like I have more energy and I'm more alert. It's also strange that I haven't had any coffee in six days. SIX DAYS. I don't think I've ever gone that long without coffee since I was like 12.

We're only 1/3 of the way done, but I am already feeling like my pants are fitting a bit looser. I'm not getting my hopes up that this will drop a ton of weight off of me, but I am confident that my eating habits will change with this fast. And that a 5-day fast is something that I will do every 3 or 6 months.

Let's see how I'm feeling in another couple of days :)

New year, new ...?

It seems that new years are always centered around some new hope or new goal for the year. I don't believe in resolutions. Most of them never last past the first month of the year. This year for me is a year of new goals.
Yes. Goals.

My wonderful husband suggested we sit down and come up with some big goals for the year- things we want to accomplish or grow in this year. We've written down actions steps for how we will achieve these goals throughout the course of the year as well, to help us stay on track and really make a difference. For me, these are the big things:
I want to become more healthy in my eating habits and exercising.
I want to grow in my relationship with God.
I want to have a more intimate relationship with my husband.
I want to get actively involved in an outward/service ministry.
I want to pursue purposeful friendships.
I want to express myself artistically through photography and painting.

That's a lot of things, but I think it's going to be a good year.
2012, bring it on.

Happy New Year

It's funny thinking that this time last year, we were just starting to plan our adventure of moving to Mexico. Now at the start of 2012- been there, done that. Moving on. We're still going back on trips with our church. But we're definitely also moving on.

I don't know exactly how I feel about that yet. But I am interested to see what adventures 2012 brings... Here's to something new!