I have had a good last few days. Yesterday was Husband’s birthday. We celebrated early on Monday by going to Mongolian Barbecue for dinner (you get a free meal on your birthday!). I made myself a stirfry with chicken, broccoli, edamame, carrots, peas, onions, and bean sprouts. I put 2 scoops of peanut sauce in it and an egg. They grilled it up, and I ordered some brown rice to eat along with it. I ate about half of my dinner, and packed the rest up for lunch the next day. We then rented the movie “Mongol” (keeping with the Mongolia theme) and went home to watch it. I do admit, I had ice cream. But all in all, I was proud of myself that day. Tuesday we both had the day off work. We woke up, ate some breakfast (I had yogurt, a hard boiled egg, and a plum) and hit the road. We went to the nature center, where we looked at the wild animals and walked the trails. We hiked about 2.5 miles. The trees were gorgeous, and we had good conversation. I wish all exercise was that easy! I didn’t do so well for lunch, though. We went to applebees and split some boneless hot wings, and I ordered the spinach dip and chips. I ate half. Not the most nutritious lunch in the world! We went home, watched a movie, did some housework. At 7:30 we went to Barnes and Noble to meet the inlaws. I ordered an iced chai tea, and sipped it over the course of an hour and a half.

Yesterday I did awesome. I had an apple, egg, and yogurt for breakfast. I had the leftovers from my stirfry for lunch. For dinner, we had a tossed salad (romaine, half an egg, a little cheese, no dressing). I then made an AWESOME meal, thanks to Rachel Ray! I pan fried pork in a tablespoon of olive oil. I cubed a butternut squash, peeled and cubed a honeycrisp apple, and mixed them up. I chopped an onion and cooked that in the pork oil until softened, then added the squash and apple, a bit of sage, and a cup of fresh apple cider. Once the squash was cooked, I salted and peppered to taste, and removed it from the pan. The cider was left, and I simmered that a couple minutes until it was thickened and poured it over the pork.

It was fabulous, and we have more squash left over for tonight!

Today I am going to go home at 4:00 and either take a walk, or attempt running. I’m not sure I should dive right into running; we’ll see. For dinner, I think I’m going to cook up a spaghetti squash we have had for awhile, and maybe throw in some onions, red peppers, and a little olive oil and parmesan. MMmmm… when I actually HAVE produce, I love to cook it.

As for my last post, it was rather heavy; there is something about blogging that makes me very open and honest. This is a good thing, although it’s scary to open myself up so much! I’ve been praying, and it feels good. We need to find a church. We left ours about a year ago due to doctrinal issues. We were attending a Baptist church, and felt that it was overwhelmingly judgemental of our fellow brothers and sisters, as well as the unbelievers around us. We wanted to find a church more loving, and with more effective outreach. Instead, we just fell apart. My husband took some classes in school that are testing his faith (philosophy, science..) and we haven’t found a new church. We know we don’t want to return to a Baptist Church, but we don’t know what we should try? We briefly attended a Methodist church, but the messages there were very “fluffy” without much substance, and it seemed like a very showy church. We aren’t turned off from Methodist as a whole, but that specific church is out. I know that there are issues I disagree with within Catholicism, but besides that, I’m not sure! I think we pick at the details too much. I’ve looked at some Lutheran sites. I want to avoid the “mega-churches” in the area… and I want to attend somewhere with a true biblical foundation. Knowing that we’re leaving the country for a year in March makes it hard to commit to a church.*sigh* Lord, I need your help…