Early Mornings

I have discovered that I love waking up early in the morning.  The hardest part is getting out of bed, and honestly it can be a struggle to get up early and really only happens for about half of the week (I’m talking 5:15 AM early!).  When I actually do make it out of bed though I feel completely energized and ready to go once I actually start work at 8.  If I make it out of bed I do the following:

5:15 ---Hit up 24 Hour Fitness and struggle through an elliptical torture machine while listening to some music. 

6:00 ---Hate the gym and leave but love how I feel after working out…as though I could take on the world….enough so to wink at the desk guy on the way out even though I have no makeup on and my hair is all sweaty from working out…..ok the winking part is a lie…but the no makeup and messy hair is a very real and scary reality that I don't care enough to work on that early in the morning.

6:15 ---Have some time to catch up on reading, devotionals, listen to a podcast or journaling.  I’m more productive at this time in the morning, especially if I have made it to the gym and back already.

7:00 ---Get ready for work and actually have time to cook breakfast instead of grabbing something packaged to go.  Occasionally I indulge myself by swinging by the coffee stand on the way to work and picking up some coffee or green tea with an almond croissant…..those are my favorite days but I only do it a couple times a month or I wouldn’t cherish the croissants as much.  They are phenomenal.

It is super hard to get up this early in the morning, but literally by the time I get to work at 7:50 I have a spring in my step.  I find that when I roll out of bed at 7:00 I end up rushing to get to work, am grouchy, and am kind of sluggish all day long.  I don’t ACTUALLY make it out of bed at 5:15 every day but what a difference it makes when I do…..I at least try to get up by the 6:15 time.  I do have to intentionally go to bed early and lay out all my gym clothes or I will use it as an excuse in the morning to stay in bed. 

I have been trying to get up so early because I joined the gym and find that my evenings are so busy I can’t even make it to the gym….it’s actually been a good way to have some time to myself.  I’m thinking of getting a new phone so that I can listen to podcasts and have some iTunes at the gym….I think if I get any phone has been out for the last three years then it will be an upgrade!

Here is a song that has been stuck in my head the last few days and am listening to bright and early this morning!  It is Beautiful Things by Gungor.  They are good.  Listen to them sometime!

For all the Ladies out there

I was emailed the below note at work today. I normally don't pay attention to email chains but thought this one was cute.  As girls, self-confidence issues are never absent, skinny OR chunky!  Hopefully one of these days we can show the next generation of girls that being healthy is more important than looking like a supermodel, that being genuine is more important than popularity, and that loving and reaching out to others is far more valuable than wealth.  Here's to all my beautiful lady friends.  Continue to be your amazingly real selves!

"Recently, in a large city a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.  It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"  A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To whom it may concern,
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.) They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.  They have a wonderful time with dolphins and stuffing themselves with shrimp.  They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bearing Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.  Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs.  They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans.  They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.  

Mermaids don't exist.  If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human?? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex?  Just look at them...where is IT?  Therefore, they don't have kids either.  Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?  

The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that we have to be skinny people to be beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.  With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.  So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.  Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, "Good grief, look how smart I am!"

Benny

I have always wanted to grow vegetables and never tried.  I am incredibly talented at not keeping plants alive.  The only one that has lasted so far is the bamboo plant I have at my office.  But I'm not sure if bamboo counts.  I bought an air plant at a Christmas bizarre that I went to with my mom.  When I say air plant...I mean it should be able to survive my sad plant caregiver skills. It does not need to be planted in dirt and literally just breathes air. See below:

 

Once a week you drench it with water.  This should be a piece of cake.  These small plants can either hang in the air, or you can just set them in a container with no dirt.  The root I was told was really only needed if you wanted to glue them to something!  I don't normally name plants but I named my air plant Benny since I figured this one should be able to last long enough for me to develop an emotional bond with it. 

Unfortunately Benny has not been doing so well.  I should take that back, he was doing well until I pruned him.  I was just trying to prune him and pull off a brown dead leaf and the poor guy's whole root came off.  So now Benny is soaking in water on my desk...I'm hoping it's like a starfish and the root will regrow?? Probably not but worth a shot. I haven't decided if I am just going to never ever name a plant again....or go with Benny II, Benny III, Benny IV, and so on.

Soup. Tomatoes. Olives. Artichokes. Brownies. Ice Cream. Strawberries. Nachos. And more Chips.

Today I had some friends over after church and made a huge pot of Zuppa Toscana Soup.  I made it a little extra spicy today.  So extra spicy that the soup pot poured out steam filled with the smell of the red crushed pepper and made everyone cough and not be able to breath from inhaling red pepper smoke.  Who needs a fire alarm?  Apparently medical masks are needed to survive my cooking.

My friend Alyssa came over to join the soup eating festivities.  I love pregnant ladies, or at least I do until they start eating all my food.  Alyssa, my current favorite pregnant friend, lives across the parking lot from me.  She came over and ate a bowl of soup.  When she was done with the soup she snacked on the cherry tomatoes from the salad..….then the olives.  She would have had more olives but we ran out and she told me not to worry about opening another can when I offered.  She then rummaged through the fridge and found some artichokes (I didn’t even know we had those).  And then found some salsa that she ate with some of our tortilla chips.  Meanwhile, I made some caramel turtle brownies for dessert.  While the brownies were cooking she asked if I had cleaned out the bowl yet.  I hadn’t so she immediately took care of scraping the brownie batter and eating that.  Once the brownies were out, we had brownies with ice cream and cut up strawberries.  She took hers in a to-go bowl and went home for an afternoon nap.

I went to an evening church service and when we got home I received a call from my favorite pregnant friend asking if any of us were hungry. I told her to come on over, we at least had some left over soup if anything.  She showed up and while I was looking around trying to find something to eat she informed me she was thinking of nachos.  So….we proceeded to make some nachos with cheese and salsa and sour cream.  So good.  After I cleaned up all the nacho makings and we were sitting around the table talking….she got the chips and salsa back out to munch on.  I can't wait to be pregnant someday......Sunday eating and napping days sound amazing.  Well, off to restock my fridge....love you Alyssa!

Ignoring Martha Stewart

I have been learning about hospitality this week.  I know this sounds elementary but it is something I have been thinking about.  I love helping to organize events or parties and spoiling others.  It is always stressful but I really enjoy seeing other people have a good time with each other.  What I never seem to remember to do is invite people over or open up my home.  It is normally last minute when people come over and quite frankly, most people have to invite themselves over (which I love!).  What I have been trying to smack into my head lately is that everything doesn’t have to be perfect to invite someone over.  Yes, I prefer the apartment to be clean and I would love to wow them with my best meal, but that is not really the most important reason to open up my home. 

A lot of times when I don’t initiate conversations or reach out to people it’s because I personally can feel self-conscious.  I guess in a way I figure “why would they even want to come over to my house?”  In our society there are many things people can do other than come over to my house.  We’re not exactly the most personal society, we are extremely fast paced and love being efficient.  

I am reading a book by Max Lucado right now called “Outlive Your Life”.  It’s been a good book so far that I would actually highly recommend.  One of the chapters I read this week was on opening up your door and heart to others.  At one point he mentioned that “In a church auditorium you see the backs of heads. Around the table you see the expressions of faces”.  I think I liked this phrase because so many times we can just go to church on Sundays and not even really think about the others in church that are in our church family.  Are we really even mentally present or just waiting to get to the Sunday afternoon nap or football part?  Anyone can put on a happy face on Sunday and who really knows how they are doing?

I realized in a way I need to get over myself with the thoughts of “why would people even want to come over to my house”.  As much as my thoughts are self-doubt they are also excuses for me to stay holed up in my life and not share it with anyone, because it can be dangerously painful letting people too close.

Another part of the chapter that I like was that it stated “When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: You matter to me and to God.” You may think you are saying, “Come over for a visit.” But what your guest hears is, “I’m worth the effort.”  I have many friends that have invited me over to share in random spaghetti or soup meals that have literally made me feel like I was worth the effort.

So I’m going to try to not listen to my Martha Stewart voice anymore telling me that things have to be absolutely perfect. Because really my life isn’t perfect, whose is?  And I know way too many people that are worth the effort to invite over to ignore opening up my home.  I had made soup the other night before a study that was going on at my apartment.  It was just soup, literally some spices and water that I added noodles to.  Some of the girls that showed up had come straight from work or soccer and were able to grab a bowl, it was a little thing and really didn’t take much time to make but it was nice to be able to do even a small thing like have some good healthy soup for them if they wanted.  It didn’t have to be the Stuffed Cheese Manicotti with Olive Garden Salad and Whine.  It is still fun to be able to spoil people and throw parties.  But I think I will try to be more intentional with having people over with the attitude of “they are worth inviting over” instead of the “why would they want to come over” one. 

Bread Making Night

I am learning how to make wheat bread tonight.  I've made bread before in a bread maker but we are making REAL bread.  It has been quite the process complete with grinding our own wheat.  I didn't even know this was possible without a windmill.  Apparently you can buy (or borrow!) a wheat grinder.  The one we used was a small box and sounded like a vacuum cleaner on the verge of blowing up.  The only problem with making bread is that it takes an hour to rise, and then another ten minutes to rise again, and then has to raise again once in the pan.....so here it is over two hours later and we haven't even put it in the oven yet!  Not sure how practical it is for if you are hungry...but I'm hoping it tastes delicious!  But that's all for now.....just bread making, nothing interesting. :)

Flash Dance Party

I have two new room mates!  They are fantastic girls, and drama free…so far. ;)  A few weeks ago we were all sitting in the living room having a nice quite evening with me reading, and them doing homework and watching TV.  Our apartment door suddenly burst open and in rushed six of our friends holding a bright yellow boombox (complete with cassette player) blasting the song “Everybody Dance Now” and started a dance party in our living room.

This only lasted for the duration of the song since we are all way too old for this behavior now and not in shape for dancing that intensely for longer than one rendition of “Everybody Dance Now”. 

I’m just glad it didn’t happen tonight as I am watching “An Affair to Remember”, an older movie I hadn’t seen yet, and am near tears.  Darn old movies, get me every time.