adventures in cooking

i've had a lot of free time this week since i earned a day off (holler to paying it forward). i haven't really known what to do with my time, but i think i've decided to cook something new on my days off.

i've gained 6.4 pounds in last month (sick, i know) and i feel like i need a motivation to loose weight. my ww leader said she lost 60 of her first 80lbs just by changing the way she ate. i figure it's a good place to start. i get bored with cabbage and celery vegetable soup, so then i go for the super cheesy dilla. 

so this adventure is two-fold: do something constructive with my time and find some foods that taste good and are healthy.

today, i made wheat gnocchi, a mere 7 points per serving (including the sauce and cheese). YUM!

on either thursday or friday i'm makin mo-mo's, nepali dumplings that have capture my taste buds. not sure how healthy they are, but this is more to satisfy the 8 month longing for them!

any suggestions?

bad friend

dear fellow blogging friends,

please forgive me. i have been a slacker at reading all of your blogs. today, i had about 350 unread blogs. i would love to blame this initially on the lack of internet, then the new job schedule, but the reality is, i've had time, i've just lacked the motivation. so please forgive my selfishness. i look forward to reading and commenting in the days to come!

with such love,

cindy

super size

i went to weight watchers today after a month "hiatus." and let's just say, well uh, it wasn't pretty. so when i got home after running some errands, i made some veggie soup and have some spinach in the crock pot. 

and then, i decided to watch super size me, a documentary about a guy who ate nothing but mcdonald's for 30 days. three words: oh my goodness.

i highly recommend this movie. and i highly recommend that you give up fast food-all fast food-with me this year, if not for life. 

i'm serious. dead serious.

books for 2011

i like reading. i also like books, so i have this horrible tendency to buy books, and then they sit on a shelf for a really long time.

i'm excited to read more. throughout nursing school, i just didn't have the mental capacity to read for pleasure, so i'm excited to be able to do this again. below, i'm listing some of the books i want to read this year. i'm trying not to repeat authors so that i can read different styles and be challenged to think for myself. here we go:

• finish living the cross centered life by c.j. mahaney. it's a book that is kicking my butt, but i love it. 
• peace child by don richardson
• into the depths of God by calvin miller
• worship matters by bob kauflin
• the great omission  by dallas willard
• fifty reasons why Jesus came to die by john piper (you knew i'd read one from him, now didn't y'all?)
• forgotten God by francis chan
• either the four loves or the problem of pain by c.s. lewis
• persuasion by jane austin
• potentially finish irresistible revolution (i really love this book, but, as i've blogged before, i get impatient while reading it)

clearly, this does not add up to 12. what other books should i dive into? suggestions are very welcome.

2011: addendum #2

so they reality is, i suck at keeping goals. i set the bar too high and ultimately fail. so at this point in 2011, i'm adjusting my resolutions, not because i believe they were bad, just unrealistic in some ways. i think my thinking was wrong too. i thought that refraining from certain things would force me to spend time with Jesus and then, i would love Him more. to some extent, that's true. in joshua, i committed to not doing certain things, and i learned to love Jesus more and follow Him "more." but i'm not in that place. i don't have 60 people doing the same thing with me and keeping me accountable. and the reality is, if i refrain from certain things, i end up wasting time in other things. 

so yes, i hope to watch less tv and i hope to spend less time on fb this year, but more than all those things, i hope to fall in love with Jesus more. i want to be consumed by His love and love Him wholeheartedly.

i hope to spend more time fasting and praying, practicing spiritual disciplines too often approached with flippancy. i hope to read a book a month, in order to stimulate my heart and mind, remembering that intelligence is used for the glory of God. i hope to spend sweet time with the Lord in the seemingly mundane.

so there's that.

eustace scrubb

"There once was a boy named eustace clarence scrubb. 

And he almost deserved it."

this is the opening to my favorite narnia book, and potentially my favorite c.s. lewis work. voyage of the dawn treader is an amazing tale of adventure and redemption. over the past eight months and eight days, i've felt more like eustace than i ever have before.

eustace is a spoiled child, expecting everything to go according to his own controlling plan. this is me. i make seemingly amazing plans, but they rarely work out the way i anticipate. the "curve ball" of life happens (aka Jesus) and i seem to be at a loss. but those plans are always better than i could have thought.

in the last 3 months, i think that i am most like eustace on the island where there is vast treasure. he sees these wonders and riches before him, and cannot resist in taking as much as he can. this has been me. i've such riches and blessings put before me, and all i want is more. my thinking was distorted by what i perceived and thought whole-heartedly to be good and right. 

but just as it was not right or good for eustace, it has not been good for me. in fact, it has caused much distortion of who i am. i have become this dragon, this being so unlike the one i used to be. where is my focused devotion to the Lord? where is my desire to serve Him, His people, and the lost? why have my desires of the past been so altered? 

but the exciting part is that eustace does not 

stay in dragon form for the rest of his life.

eustace meets aslan.

 

through his encounter with aslan, he is changed. the process is painful, but the old, scaly shell is stripped away, leaving a new, fresh self. this is the stage i find myself. i have built up scales and hardness with my apathy and striving for things without focus on the Lord. these callouses must-and i mean must-be stripped from me. and so i dwell in the presence of the Almighty, my Abba and King, and pray for renewed devotion and love in Him. i beg to be restored, no matter how painful this process will continue to be.

i know that this way is better. i know that God is faithful and that He loves me. so in this i rest as emotion and spiritual reshaping take root. praise Him!