No more eggs, please and thanks.

Week 3 is over! One week left! SO EXCITED, I cannot tell you. I am ready for some different foods (i.e. cheese, cheese, cheese and meat).

Let me describe last night's events:
Scene: Jenni and Jake return home from seeing one of my awesome middle school small group girls in her school play. Jenni and Jake have spent the entire ride home discussing how Jenni could "kill" some restaurant chips and salsa, and Jake could "dominate" a McDonald's Big Mac (regardless of the inevitable trip to the toilet that would soon follow).

Jake: I think I'm just going to have broccoli for dinner.
Jenni: (possibly being over-dramatic) I CANNOT EAT ANY MORE BROCCOLI. I will throw up. I don't want eggs, peanut butter, strawberries, spinach, anything. UGHHHHH.
Jake: [chewing broccoli].
Jenni: How close is Fazoli's?
Jake: [puts down fork] You're serious, right? Don't joke about that.

And that is the story of how we shared a dozen Fazoli's breadsticks last night. And they were DELICIOUS. I have no regrets. And I have two leftover in the fridge today. Score!

"Realizations" this past week:

1. I hate each and every one of my 7 foods right now. Maybe except for milk.  I know it's petty and silly, but I just do. This month's fast has quickly turned into a mental challenge. The first few days of the month were hard because I was really hungry, but the past few weeks we've kind of been on auto-drive with our 7 foods. It hasn't been as big of a challenge. But something snapped in our brains yesterday, and now we've got to dig in more mentally. I think this is also an opportunity to realize our weakness and use prayer to help us push through. Maybe this final week is what it's all about: learning to rely on faith and prayer to sustain me and not relying on my own strength (because I am weak right now!).

2. We haven't been super creative with trying recipes with our limited ingredients, but there's been a few that have been fun. Jake has perfected a chicken/bean/rice bowl and I managed to make creamed spinach using milk. I have also added peanut butter to my morning smoothie to make a PB &J smoothie (ice, peanut butter, strawberries, spinach, water- in that order for maximum blending speed), modified from a recipe on the "100 Days of Real Food" blog.

My next cooking experiment will be the picture above, minus the glorious, glorious bacon.

3. We have flat out "cheated" a couple times for the sake of hospitality. Jake had a cookie that one of his friends offered, that he really wanted Jake to try for his coffee shop, and I had a banana that a 4-year old offered me on a home visit. And we are okay with it.

4. "Eggs" from a fast food restaurant are probably not the same eggs I eat at home. So earlier this week, I decided to order a breakfast burrito from Sonic (tortilla=bread in this instance). I even asked for only "eggs", no meat or cheese or salsa. Well, lesson learned folks. That thing ripped up my stomach for a solid two days. Come on Sonic! I really like you and would give my left arm right now for some tots. But don't make me an unbeliever because of that burrito. Take that one back to the quality control kitchen, please.

5. We have found another way to buy whole foods locally. Through LocalHarvest, I found a family farm in the Ft. Scott, Kansas area that delivers to the KC-area monthly, so we are going to start getting meat from them next month. Possibly butter. AND WE ARE ON THEIR WAITING LIST FOR BACON! Can't wait for that call.

6. The rumor floating around our house is that Jake will be writing a blog post this week!!! Pins and needles, folks!

Sorry, waiter.

Another week down, folks! We did it! We have actually been feeling pretty good this week. I am still generally hungry a lot, mostly because I don't think I picked very filling foods. Jake did a better job at that.

Story o' the Week:
We went out to eat with friends on Saturday to Longhorn Steakhouse (oh the smells!), and that was kind of hilarious. I felt bad for the waiter. Sorry sir. Here's how we each ordered our meals:

Waiter: For you, sir?
Jake: Can I get the Napa Grilled Chicken, but without any seasonings or toppings?
Waiter: [Does a double take from his little book and back to Jake] So, you just want plain chicken?
Jake: Yes. And a side of rice and a side of broccoli. Thanks.
Waiter: Alright. And you?
Me: Hi. First off, let me apologize in advance. I'm so sorry.
Waiter: No, no it's fine (before he realizes I will be a total pain). What can I get you?
Me: Can I get the grilled chicken and strawberry salad, but ONLY with the greens and the strawberries? I know, I know.
Waiter: So just greens and strawberries? That's it? How about the raspberry vinaigrette?
Me: Can I just get olive oil and balsamic vinegar?
Waiter: OK.
Me: Can I also get a side of broccoli?

Imagine this salad minus everything awesome (i.e. only lettuce and strawberries).
Sorry delicious looking chicken! Go away now!

Ugh. We devoured us plenty of bread though. And I even think they were wheat loaves???  Well done Longhorn! I think my favorite part of the whole meal was when our food was delivered, and one of my friends across the table had ordered the same salad as mine, but with all that was supposed to be on it (see above). Super depressing, yet super funny comparison!!! ***P.S. Even though I am only supposed to have spinach, I decided eating mixed greens was an O.K. substitution. It's not like I substituted sugar-crusted bacon or something like that.

We also had some "realizations" for this week:

1. We are loving that we know EXACTLY what we are eating. I mean that in two ways. First, that we don't really have to think about what to cook for our next meal. It's pretty simple. Only 7 choices. Second, we are eating whole foods! Sure, the bread has a few more ingredients, but we are trying to buy whole wheat bread from that awesome bakery (Great Harvest Bread Company- Go here to find a location near you). That bread has 5 ingredients. Even before reading this chapter of "7" and focusing on only 7 foods, I had been dilly-dallying in the whole food "movement." Wasn't very good at it, but was learning about it. I found a great blog called "100 Days of Real Food" (go here). She gives some great ideas for creating meals using only whole foods, as well as the reasons behind it (i.e. did you know that some other countries such as the U.K. ban certain artificial coloring in food, but the U.S. doesn't? It's interesting). Anyhoo, we hope to continue eating lots of "real food" long after this month is over. But I may have to sneak a Coke and some Cheetos every now and then. Oh, and MEGA-BONUS of eating whole foods? Continued weight loss! Nice to see you again, pants-that-I-haven't-worn-in-a-year. Holla!

2. We SOOOOOO need to be on a food budget. We did some calculating, and in the first 2 weeks of February, we have spent 30ish% of the amount we spent on groceries/eating out in January. So we are on track to spend about 60% of what we spent in January on food. Wowza. Unreal!!! We were buying and eating way too much. Buying food we didn't eat (i.e. a whole bag of apples and eating a few, and the rest sit in the fridge for weeks, spoiling) and eating out way too often (and generally making unhealthy choices).  We realize that once Feb is over, we'll probably eat out more often, but we definitely have an idea of a budget now. We are going to allot ourselves a certain amount of money each month for eating out, and a certain amount for groceries. We've talked about trying to share meals, like giant Chipotle burritos and Chinese food. Buuuuuut, I'm going to need my own egg roll. Sorry.

I am hungry.

We just finished our first week of "7". I have managed to eat a supersized container of spinach over this week. That makes me feel pretty good!!  Eating only 7 foods has been simple, but definitely not easy. For example, this thought has crossed my mind several times this week: If I have to eat one more peanut butter sandwich, I will explode. And the "guts" that explode out of me will probably have turned into peanut butter because of how much of it I've eaten. Confession: more than once I have resorted to just eating PB straight out of the jar. I used to do that in college too. Good times.

Here are some realizations we have come to over this first week:

1. Before "7", we never really let ourselves get truly hungry. At the first inkling of being hungry, we would grab something to eat. That, my friends, is a recipe for gaining 15-20 pounds in the past few years. We have learned it is okay to let yourself feel hungry. Makes you appreciate your next meal a little bit more.

2. There are a lot of ads on TV for food and restaurants! When you are only eating 7 foods, you definitely start noticing the ads for all of those foods that aren't on your list. :( Jake and I had a conversation last night about what foods we really missed at that moment--- for me, it was Chinese. For Jake, Mexican. Crab rangoooooooon..........how I miss thee.

3. A welcome side-effect of eating 7 foods is some weight loss! Jake has dropped 7 pounds this week, and I think I've dropped about 3 (side note: Men. I think he could have just thought about losing weight and it would've happened). We are eating healthier than we ever have as a couple. We are hopeful that the healthy eating aspect of this sticks with us long after month one is over. On another side note, I have started Jazzercise. It is way fun, and it totally works you! Thank you Groupon.

4. We wish we would have chosen the same foods. We have only 2 foods in common: broccoli and bread. We both chose our 7 foods based on how functional we saw them for ourselves. For example, as a fairly type A personality, I need a set breakfast and lunch everyday. It just fits better in my routine if I don't have to "think" about what those meals are going to be. So that really determined what foods I chose. However, we've learned that it kinda stinks to watch the other person get to eat something not on your list (I'm talking about you, Jake's chicken, rice, and beans).

Spinach/strawberry smoothie before.

Spinach/strawberry smoothie after.
Tastes better than the mustard-y color it looks.

5. On an awesome note, grocery shopping is quick and easy! But boy, were those Little Debbie snacks speaking my name. I really think I could have just grabbed a box of Valentine brownies (do you even know how many variety of Valentine Little Debbie snacks there are??? Unreal!) and scarfed the entire  box down in my car, and NO ONE WOULD HAVE EVEN KNOWN!!! It would have been so, so good.

6. It is fun to share with others about "7". For example, Subway. Subway has been super nice to me. I have visited the same Subway twice now to request a "sandwich" of bread and olive oil. The guys looked at me funny the first time, so I explained to them about "7", they still acted a little perplexed, but gave me my bread. I came back a few days later, and one of the employees recognized me and helped a sister out again! Shout out to Subway!

I also was able to share about "7" with one of the families I see for early intervention. On Monday morning, day 4 of "7", my stomach apparently did not think my spinach/strawberry smoothie was adequate. So it started to growl. And by growl, I mean monster growl. In the middle of my visit with this family. Kind of embarrassing. So I explained to the mom what Jake and I are doing this month, and she was so sweet! She asked me in the kindest voice, "Would you like some bread?" I replied, "Oh no, that's okay. I'll be fine." She responded with, "Are you sure? We have this really great 5-ingredient bread. We get it at a bakery, and it's so fresh that the bakery tells us not to close the bag all the way after we buy it so it's allowed to cool on the way home." And I said, "Well, sure then!" And it was DELISH. And kind of a bonding moment between this family and I. 

7. We are trying to have some grace for one another. Like when Jake ate some fried chicken at a spiritual retreat he was on because he was unable to cook there. Grace given! And when we ran out of sandwich bread on Friday,  I couldn't make a PB sandwich. I called Jake, explained the situation, and asked, "Can I just please go to Fazoli's and order 6 breadsticks and just enjoy the heck out of them?" (Forbidden due to garlic topping---not one of our 7 foods). He said, "Yes, yes, that's fine. But just make sure you pray before you take your first bite because it will be so good!" And I did. And it was.

All in all, successful first week. Not to say I'm not already tired of my 7 foods, but we're making it through.  P.S. I have discovered that the fried peanut butter sandwich (prepared just like a grilled cheese) is OUTSTANDING.

Jenni's Day 9 food log:
Breakfast: Glass of milk (we are out of spinach, so no smoothie)
Lunch: PB sandwich on sunflower bread from my new favorite bakery, Great Harvest Bread Company
Snack: Challah bread from GHBC.
Dinner: 2 eggs on toast and broccoli.

Jake's Day 9 food log:
Breakfast: 2 oranges
Lunch: Rice, beans, chicken, broccoli "medley"
Snack: Challah bread
Dinner: Challah bread

7

It has been a VERY long time since Jake or I posted to this blog. Two and a half years to be more specific. Time to re-ignite the bloggin fire!! What better time to do so than when Jake and I are embarking on a new journey together: the journey through "7: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess" by Jen Hatmaker.

This is the description of the book "7" from Amazon.com: "American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born. 7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence."

Jake and I are really excited about our journey through 7. Why on earth did we decide to do this, you ask?  Well, we found ourselves too "comfortable". We would eat what we wanted, when we wanted. We would arrive home from work, sit on our couches, watching TV, playing on our cell phones/iPad/laptops and not really spend time with one another. Sure, we were sitting next to each other, but were we really growing closer?  We needed something to shake up our comfortableness. Then, Jake stumbled upon "7", and here we are. We are looking to grow closer to each other and grow more dependent on God rather than "stuff" to fulfill our lives. We are also intentionally setting aside time on Tuesday nights to talk about the book, the focus for the month, and pray.

We started 7 yesterday, February 1st, 2013. This month's focus is food. We each are allowed to eat 7 foods the whole month. After much thought and internet research, we decided what we would be eating for 28 days straight. We tried to choose the same foods, but in the end, only share 2 foods (which we will be eating together often for dinner, generally the only meal we get to share together due to work). We are allowing ourselves olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, vinegar. No other spices or seasonings.

HERE. WE. GO.

Jenni's 7 foods: bread, broccoli, eggs, peanut butter, spinach, strawberries, milk
Jake's 7 foods: bread, broccoli, black beans, brown rice, chicken, oranges, coffee

Jenni Day 1 food log:
Breakfast/Lunch: spinach/strawberry/milk smoothie
Dinner: 2 eggs on toast and strawberr ies

Jenni's thoughts on Day 1:
Not so bad! I do miss my Coke and wondering if I'm having a caffeine headache already?? Also, I totally almost accidentally cheated already. It was a very honest mistake! As an early intervention therapist, I see kids at their daycares. So yesterday, I was at a daycare during snack. The teacher offered me a rice krispy treat (ingredients=none of my 7 foods), and I said, "sure!". 7 has not crossed my mind at this point. The moment she touched the plates, I remember, "Oh no!! I can't have any. My husband and I just started a diet (easier to call it a diet in those moments than explain the whole kit and kaboodle), and I can't cheat on my very first day. Thanks though." (sad face). I'm thinking March 1st might call for a rice krispy treat?????

Jake Day 1 food log:
Breakfast: 2 clementine oranges and coffee
Lunch: rice, beans, chicken
Dinner: Chipotle (rice and beans soft taco---we decided that tortillas can be considered "bread")

Jake's thoughts on Day 1:
Jake says, "Chicken is a lot more bland than I realized going into this."

We are here!

On Wed, July 14th at about 7pm, we arrived at our new home---Port Orange, Florida. After over 25 hours total of driving, we finally made it. We were exhausted, but excited about this new journey.

First, we arrived at church and met up with the youth. They are SO excited to have a youth pastor---Jake is going to be amazing, and I will support him in any way I can. :) We then met a bunch of members of the church, hugged and shook lots of hands and talked with many smiling faces.

Then, we headed over to our new house (furnished vacation home). It was so nice to be "home". We unloaded our stuff, and realized that we decided to keep WAYYYYY too much stuff in our home instead of storage. Oh well, I'm sure I'll "need" a bunch of it at some random moment in a few weeks.

Yesterday, a bunch of folks from the church met us at our storage unit to help us unload the u-haul. It went SO much faster with 10 people unloading. Their help was amazing! And as much as I'm convinced KC's humidity truly is awful, the humidity here is actually even more intense. But fortunately, we have the ocean to help cool us off (which Jake and I enjoyed yesterday afternoon). Yessssss.

That's our little update for now. In short, we've experienced amazing people, amazing church, amazing scenery, and amazing seafood. Looking forward to continuing our life here :)

Being Patient with Today

My mother, like all good mothers, is constantly pregnant with good advice. As our wedding date moves ever more close I have in mind a great piece of advice my mom would share with me when I was young.  Mom was always quick to advise me not to wish my life away. This advice seems to carry a special weight to it these days. It is difficult not to think about what comes next when so many big events await. Our wedding is in two weeks and we move in four, and as the days come and go it is easy to live only for those dates. However, in doing that the normal days are missed.

As I began to write this blog I was sitting on the grass at Youth Front West in the midst of Jr. High Camp. God created everything I could see - the grass, the sky, the trees. I could feel the wind and the ground and the bark of the tree as it pressed against my back. As all of good creation eased itself into my senses I was reminded of mom's great advice. If I were to live only for tommorrow I would miss all the special blessings for today.

Daisy day!

First of all, this blog is going to be about daisies.

Second of all, it is my first blog ever, so you're talking to an amateur here folks.

Third of all, gardening is awesome. I love flowers, growing vegetables, anything to do with gardening. I might not have the greenest thumb on the planet, but it is definitely not for lack of trying. I had an herb garden last summer. RIP herb garden. Got infested with little gnats/fruit flies/the most annoying little creatures on earth. But, back to the love. Seriously, I WAS the president of the nature club when I was 8. Granted, this was a club, started by me, in my own backyard. But we had 4 members. And it was my backyard, so of course I was prez. We tried to grow a lot of different kinds of plants. I distinctly remember strawberries and some sort of squash that took over the yard. I digress. The point of this is that I love gardening and flowers. So, how lucky am I that I have found someone who loves to give me flowers? He doesn't give me flowers all the time, but every now and then, in the perfect little unsuspecting moment, he surprises me and I get the biggest smile on my face.

Two days ago, Jake surprised me with beautiful yellow daisies when I got home from work. He even planted them in our Royals popcorn tub and jimmy-rigged this contraption to let them sit outside on the windowsill of the loft (and even though the worry-wart inside of me wants to think it's going to fall 5 stories down, I know it's not, because that is one SERIOUS contraption that is not going anywhere). They are beautiful and full of buds and thriving in the window. I love these daisies and the man behind them. :)

Fourth and final, I am going to try to figure out how to post a picture of the flowers for the blog world to see. You'll be impressed, you know it (by the beauty of the flowers and the beauty of my ridiculous technological skills). Get excited!!!