The Peace Settled In

 

Last week was intense. It felt like every time I turned on the news or hopped on social media, more people had reason to fear. Government employees were losing jobs that were considered safe in the past. There were talks of banning mental health medications. (Having grown up the way I did, I have strong feelings about this.) Those in charge even tried to change historical fact. (Can we say 1984?) The more I was bombarded with these things, the more overwhelmed I got. I had to do something about it. 

By the end of the week, I desperately needed to feel peace! Thankfully, I had already scheduled an appointment at the temple. I considered canceling it, and even talked over the pros and cons with my friend and my husband. They strongly encouraged me to go. During my prayer, I asked if I should go or stay home to clean as I do most Saturdays. Then, I opened my scripture and read this:

"Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits are contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice - yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord shall command - they are accepted of me."-Doctrine and Covenants 97:8

 At this point, I knew I needed to make the sacrifice and go. I would still have the time to do laundry, dishes, and the other cleaning I was planning around the house. 

Now, I had faith that I would be blessed by serving in the temple. I was able to feel the excitement of going. I quickly showered, gathered by things, headed out the door, and drove to Fort Collins. As I drove, I craved the peace I knew I could feel once I was there. 

As I sat down in the Endowment Room and the doors closed, I felt a rush of relief. It was such a strong feeling that tears ran down my face. I sat through the session soaking in the peace and relief that can only be felt through the spirit of the Lord. My prayers were answered!

Making Weight Loss Goals Again

I have rewatching Biggest Loser lately after watching a podcast episode on YouTube where Jillian Michaels interviewed some of her past contestants that have continued to be successful. I loved listening to them talk about their time on the show and decided to search out old episodes after they said they are available to watch. I found seasons 10 to 17 on Prime. It looks like the rest may be available to purchase on there, but I'm not willing to do that. 

I am very inspired by this show. I know that losing as much weight per week as they did is not healthy, but watching what I eat and exercising is healthy. This show gives me hope that weight loss is possible. 

I finished season 11 last week. For about the last month or so of that season, the girls were getting to be smaller than me and losing 3 or more pounds per week. So far, this is the most inspiring part of the show. I think I can lose 2 or 3 pounds a week if I really try. 

Another inspiration from this show came from one of the men. Each week, he wrote his goal weight of the week. Each week, he met or surpassed his goal. I have decided to follow this example by putting my goal for the week on my hand. This is not going to be an easy goal to meet, but I think I can do it through a lot of hard work. 

I know I have tried to lose weight many times just to gain it all back. I hope to be able to create the habits necessary to lose weight and keep it off. 

Chocolate Raspberry Sourdough

 Today, I made a raspberry and chocolate sourdough loaf. It was originally going to be made with strawberries and white chocolate chips, but we have a lot of chocolate chips in the house, and there were no strawberries at the grocery store last night. I started making it first thing this morning, and we had it with dinner. It tastes like a desert instead of bread. 

The recipe came from a Facebook post. I'm fairly certain it was AI generated because I had to alter it to work. I believe I altered it enough to avoid any copyright issues that could come up from posting it. 

Raspberry Chocolate Bread

Combine:

• 1 cup active sourdough starter
• 1/2 cup squished raspberries 
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Red food dye as desired 

Kneed the dough for 8 to minutes or until smooth. Shape into a ball and place in lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let raise 4-6 hours. Laminate the dough on a lightly floured surface. Spread raspberries and chocolate chips on the dough. Shape the dough and place in a proofing bowl. Cover and let raise for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 450. Place dough in a Dutch oven and bake with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 20-25 minutes or until the bread is a golden brown. Cool and serve. 

Valentine's Day 2025

Chad and I agreed that our trip last weekend counted as anniversary and Valentine's Day. (We often combine them since they are so close together.) It kind of made the day boring, especially since I already gave the kids their gifts. However, we did still celebrate a bit. 

First, Noel went shopping after work and bought me some presents: a weighted stuffed bunny, body butter, and socks that I can wear to church and the temple because she knows I'm not a fan of wearing my purple long socks with emojis with dresses (I will wear them to church with my boots if it's cold). These gifts were so thoughtful that they almost made me cry. She is seriously so thoughtful!

Then, made a heart shaped pizza. It was a bit lopsided, but still tasty. Sean and Chad even tried to convince me that it looked more like a heart than I claimed. 

After dinner, Chad and I went out for ice cream...at the grocery store. Are we romantic or what? He even searched for the rocky road that I really wanted. 

Finally, he went to bed as I stayed up until the boyfriend went home. The sweet small thing he did, and often does, was put the remote on my pillow. He likes to sleep without the tv, but I need the distraction for my brain. When we go to bed at separate times, he puts the remote and sometimes my Kindle on my pillow so I don't have to search for them in the dark. Then, I make sure the sleep timer is set so he doesn't have to sleep without it on too much at night. (We have tried sleeping without the tv, I struggle to fall asleep.) 

I love my family and the little things they do to show love. We may not need a day set aside to prove it, but it nice to have a day set aside just for love.

Feeling the Love

 

As we get closer to Valentine's Day, I am doing things around the house to help us all feel loved. I already gave my kids their presents, little stuffed hearts and candies, and yesterday I made sourdough with a heart in the scoring. I will also be making heart shaped pizza on Valentine's Day and Valentine bread the following day. I love that there are so many cute ways to celebrate this day of love. I wish there were other days during the year to give me an excuse to do such things. 

Chad's Birthday

 

Last night, we celebrated Chad's birthday. It was a day late because we wanted Super Bowl food on his birthday and knew we be concentrating on the game. He agreed that it would be better if we waited a day. 

I think he had a good celebration. It wasn't the big party he had last year, but he wasn't turning 50 this year. We had dinner and desert at home with all of the kids. He chose chicken enchiladas, Snoop Dog's brownies, and ice cream. We also played a game of Exploding Kittens. After dinner, he opened his gifts, and we sat around talking and enjoying each other's company. 

I don't know for sure if he enjoyed his celebration, but he seemed to have liked it. My hope is that he felt special and loved. 

13th Anniversary Trip

 Chad has been looking forward to our 13th anniversary for a long time. As soon as he found out that my first marriage lasted 12 years, he said that we needed to do something big for lucky 13. At first, we were planning an Alaskan cruise. That idea changed to a train ride across the country. Then, we thought visiting our friends in Florida and going to Universal Studios would be fun. (He can get free tickets to Universal Studios because of his job.) Eventually, we landed on a trip to Colorado Springs where we would stay in a historic hotel and play tourist. 

Friday night, we headed down to Colorado Springs and checked into The Mining Exchange. This historic hotel was probably the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed. We took advantage of the valley parking, checked in, and went up to our room. We were impressed right away with the amazing customer service, the cleanliness, and the many amenities. 

After checking out their art gallery, we changed into our nice clothes and went to dinner at Red Gravy, and little Italian restaurant around the block from where we were staying. This was the kind of place where we didn't feel out of place dressed up, but there were also people there in jeans. The food was good, the service was decent, and we lest happy that this was the place we chose.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to play tourist more. 

We started with hiking at The Garden of the Gods. We had stopped here with the kids when we did our staycation in 2022, but they didn't want to hike, so we just walked around one little area and took pictures. This time, we hiked what we could of a small loop (some of the trail was closed for maintenance). It was beautiful! I hope we go back to hike other parts of it in the future. We even saw a small heard of big horn sheep as we were leaving. 

Next, we went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We had heard plot was one of the best zoos. The kids have been talking about it since they went with their grandparents years ago. It was very nice, but smaller than we had expected, and some of the animals were inside areas we couldn't get to because of the cold. We were able to see a lot of animals, though as we made our way through this cute zoo build on the side of a mountain. 

Finally, we went to Ivywild School, a historic school that has been made into a food court. It was cute! The classroom were the restaurants and stores. For the most part, the school feel was still there. We got souvenirs at the small gift shop and ate deep dish pizza after roaming the halls of this unique building. I would totally recommend going if you are into historical buildings. 

This trip was perfect for us. We were able to do everything we planned, have good conversation, and not totally break the bank. I wish we could do stuff like this more often, but I guess it wouldn't be a big, special anniversary trip if we did. 

So Pretty

 

I have been making sourdough bread since last spring. I have been able to make it taste good, but haven't made one as pretty as I wanted yet. I had decided around Christmas time that I just wouldn't be one of those people that made fancy sourdough even though I had found a few recipes I liked. 

Today, I made another un-loaf thinking it would turn out just like the last one. However, this time my starter hadn't sat dormant for as long. I carefully followed the recipe, and ended up with my prettiest loaf to date. 

This may be my new favorite recipe after all. 

Smack in the Face

 Chad found a documentary series on Max called The Weight of the Nation. It is an HBO original that originally aired in 2012, and it is very eye opening. This 4 part series goes through the risks of being obese, what we can do about it, and how to help kids on the path to obesity. To me it was all information I had heard here and there, but having it all in one place was a bit scary. 

I have been overweight most of my adult life. When I was in my early 20s I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism a bit after the weight gain started. As I had kids, it got a bit worse. At least one point, I started counting calories and exercising with friends which was fun. (That's right. I wasn't doing it to please my husband at the time like he claimed.) Then, I really started to lose weight once he was gone. Unfortunately, I have gained it all back plus some since being married to Chad. 

In 2017, I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, and I freaked out. I got very serious about tracking my food and exercising. Each time I went in for a follow up, I had lost weight. However, I also kept getting diagnosed with more issues while my thyroid was not being given the priority I thought it needed, so I switched to a different doctor that I had seen that was further away. They said I had no indication of having a fatty liver. I was relieved and went back to my old way of eating. 

I am now close to my heaviest weight in my life. I don't like it, and I'm uncomfortable a lot more than I should be. I already read a book about a fasting regime and started a workout routine. However, after watching this documentary, I am back to feeing scared about my health. I feel the urgency to take off as much weight as is healthy. I don't want to have a heart attack. I don't want diabetes. I don't want cirrhosis. I am making changes. I just hope it isn't too late. 

Un-Loaf Review

 

I made the viral un-loaf over the weekend because I was unable to take the time to make sourdough for the last few weeks. (It normally takes the whole Saturday). As I was telling Chad how much I was missing having it in the house, I remembered people talking about the un-loaf in the sourdough group I follow on Facebook and decided to try it. 

I started the process Saturday night after getting home from the Mammoth game. It was late enough that waiting 14+ hours meant that I didn't have to do the shaping until after church. Then, I was able to take a nap (my favorite after church activity) while I waited for the next rise. After that, it baked for about an hour with the lid on and 5 minutes with the lid off, so I was able to relax while it baked as well. 

At first, I was a bit disappointed in the final product because it isn't as tall as I'm used to and it wasn't as tangy as I wanted. However, I realized that it isn't going to be the same as a classic sourdough boule because it is made with a different process. Also, the tangy flavor comes from the started. I'm not sure why, but my starter seems to be losing its flavor. 

That being said, I will be making this again. I have grown to love sourdough bread for many reasons, and this is a way to have it without being stuck at home for an entire day every time I want to make it. I will, also, make more traditional loaves when I am able. 

Fasting Like a Girl - Trial

 I finished Fast Like a Girl this month. For the most part, I really liked this book. The idea that timing the length of our fast to our hormonal fluctuations makes a lot of sense. One of my first thoughts was, "No wonder intermittent fasting is so much harder some weeks!" As I read, I soaked up as much information as possible. (This is part of the reason I am such a slow reader.) There were some parts that I didn't fully agree with because they went against the knowledge I have had from classes and other books, but for the most part, this book made sense. 

I have decided that I am going to try her plan for a few months and see if it helps me feel better. I have already written it out on a calendar for the next three months. I am starting with her 30 day starting plan. The following 30 days I'm doing the advanced starter. Then, I will be doing her suggestion for people with thyroid issues. I am combining this with regular exercise to try to even out my hormones that have been out of wack most of my adult life. 

What am I not changing? I will still be drinking my Diet Dr. Pepper in the morning. In my opinion, of people can have coffee with heavy cream, I can have diet soda. I don't understand how having coffee with a fat bomb keeps you in a fasted state but diet soda doesn't. You get caffeine your way and let me get mine the way I want. I will also not be switching to grass fed beef and dairy products. That is just not in my price range, and I haven’t seen any studies showing significant benefits (not saying they don't exist). 

I want to make significant changes in my health, and I am hoping this fasting protocol will help. I just don't know what else to try.