Kind words, the last book, & some Joyce Meyer ... all for Thankful Thursday {Link up #66}

Today I am Thankful for:

(The numbers refer to my journal for the One-Thousand Gifts... in other words, just ignore them)

284 // Made it home before storms. I hate not being home when it storms because I have nervous dogs. Like honestly - nervous to the point of shaking uncontrollably.  My little Bruno is the worst.  Zoe is smart & goes downstairs in the corner - she's heard all the weather men talk about safe places during storms.  Bruno just can't deal. So I was so thankful to get home right in time for the thunder & lightning.

286 // Got a FB message from a friend thanking me for the encouragement I post some days.  What an encouragement that was to me.  That's an encouragement circle of life happening right there.  There's nothing better than a kind word from someone.

287 // Ricky came to the grocery with me & hung in there the whole trip so he could help load everything. My knee was making moving tough so he got all my groceries in my car for me. I loathe grocery shopping.

000 //  Excited about the last book in the series to finally be out. & got this one at Target & its a signed copy!!! That really makes me happy.

288 // Back roads in traffic.  I'd rather drive 15 minutes out of the way & keep moving instead of sitting for 15 minutes with stop & go & stop & go... makes me green in the face thinking of it.

289 // Our new local Dollar Store. Its basically the only store near us that just opened a few months ago. I needed oats to make my Banana Cookies & I would have otherwise just scrapped the idea instead of driving 40 minutes to get oats... but now, I can pop over to our Dollar Store & pick up things like that.

290 // Our electricity held out.  We had 60mph winds all day long & most of area lost all their power.  Ours did pop off for a few minutes in the afternoon but it came back on & stayed on the rest of the day. Whew!

292 // Hearing our friend Steve teach again in church.  He seemed so much more comfortable this time around.  So proud of him having the courage to get up & share his life & stories with others.

294 // Figured out my remote to my camera.  It got some of my Etsy pictures going ... now to edit.

296 // Talked with the Middle School Pastor at our new church.  We now have a date where we are meeting up & Ricky & I are going to venture into the class & check it out. I'm so excited about it, I'm all smiles.

298 // Chili on a cool night.

300 // Our TV lost access to the local news station that I usually watch in the morning - so I was searching for something to watch while I have breakfast & get the dogs ready.  I came across Joyce Meyers 30 minute show & I have loved getting a little Jesus fed into my morning.  Ricky has since gotten our TV to get our local station back, but now, I'm hooked on watching Joyce.  It really has spoken to my heart on a few rough mornings.  Perfect way to start a day.

301 // My sweet husband. I know I say that all the time - but this is for another reason.  Ricky takes the time to take a guy to work & home again 3 days a week.  He's an older gentleman & works part time.  Ricky drives totally out of his way to do this for him & I always appreciate that Ricky does this for someone.  But this man has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  I was curious how much longer he was going to work as his radiation treatments start soon.  Ricky then told me that he was still going to drive over & take this man to his treatments every day.  God love my sweet husband.  This man has family but it just seems like no one wants to step up to help him.  Ricky said he wasn't going to let this be a hassle or issue for him to get the help he needs, so Ricky will be adding on a few day & every day of the week, he's going to make sure he gets to his treatment &gets home OK.  I can't say enough about the man my husband is.  Ricky's words to me were, "I'd think Jesus would make the drive for him".... truth.

So what good things have been happening in your world this week?

One Sentence a Day: March 2016

Whooo... I know we're nearly a week into April, but this was the best time I could squeeze this baby in.  So it may be a little late to kick off a new month, but I still like looking back at my month.

A quarter of the year already gone!  Can you believe it?  & SPRING - finally here! Thank you Lord!

So here's a look at how March went...

_____________________________

1.  Had to go get some Benadryl so Bruno could rest for the night with his itchy skin.

2.  Took our Grumpy Old Man to the vet to hear that we think its just severe allergies & a lot of testing & trials & meds are going to happen until we can get him comfortable.

On the way to the vet... I'm getting the "oh no you didn't" look

3.  We had snow flurries all day long & I just kept watching it hoping this was going to be the last snow we see until winter comes back at the end of the year.

4.  Enjoyed our Friday evening over a friend's house for a pot luck dinner.

5.  I got in 7 miles on the treadmill watching Fuller House & then was pretty much done for the day.

6.  We got to have brunch with our friends after thinking she was going to go in labor the whole time during church & then stopped at a funeral home to love on some of our old GCC friends.

03.06.16 #VincentsRockSunday

7.  It was in the 60's when I got home from work but instead of doing my run outside, I went back to the treadmill so I could watch more Fuller House.

8.  I bought my first UK shirt & then told Ricky & thought he was going to have a heart attack & then got the rule that I'm not allowed to wear it on any game day.

9.  I spent way too long on my computer trying to get iTunes to sync to my iPod & felt like throwing it all against the wall & just pulling out my cassette player walkman.

10.  Made a huge mistake by doing a new workout 2 days before a race which made me so tight & sore I could hardly move.

11.  I was dumbfounded & couldn't stop watching the mess of the Trump Rally & the protest that caused total mayhem.

12.  I beat my time by 6 minutes from last year in the Rodes City Run 10k & celebrated by a fun game night with friends before loosing an hour of sleep for Daylight Savings Time.

13.  Had our JOY Bible Study group with everyone showing up, making it 10 ladies, 4 babies & 2 baby bumps, & making it a total full house.

03.13.16 #VincentsRockSunday

14.  I had to fight a Daylight Savings Time hangover to stay away to watch Lauren end up with Ben in The Bachelor.

15.  It was such a gorgeous day where we finally hit the 80's & the day was topped off with a hair appointment which always makes me feel better in life.

16.  I tried a new workout with a P90X Kempo kicking video that made me feel like it was a waste of time.

17.  I got to hear Caden Michael's first cries in this world as I was blessed to be in the room with my precious friends as they had their 2nd child.

18.  I had to go to work trying to figure out why everyone was in such a bad mood & not talking to anyone.

19.  Ricky had to work & I had no plans to leave the house all day so just stuck to the treadmill to be in my 9 miles.

20.  We had church at home & then enjoyed the afternoon before heading over to see Caden since he was finally at home.

03.20.16 #VincentsRockSunday

21.  I could barely hold my eyes open all day long out of sheer exhaustion, but made sure to stay up for the Dancing with the Stars premiere!!!

22. After a month of being on hold, my copy of The Martian finally came available from the library

23. I spent way too much time & money while I was searching through iTunes for some new music.

24.  I finally got my 2 crowns on after 3 hours of sitting in a dental chair & being numb up to my eye balls.

#numbface #crookedsmile

25.  My face felt like I had been in a brawl & didn't come out of it well.

26.  We ran the Papa John 10 mile race & it turned out to be a perfectly beautiful day for it.

27.  We celebrated the resurrection of our Lord & Savior on Easter & joined the church we had been visiting for the past 8 months, topping off the day by seeing Batman Vs. Superman.

03.27.16 #VincentsRockSunday ,... the worst picture of me ever!

28.  I felt like an old achy lady getting out to do a run 2 days after my 10 miles race, but I got 'er done as I got to take my running in the beautiful outdoors.

29.  I was all about edamame for the day having it at lunch & for dinner.

30.  I got pulled over by the police on the way to work to find out someone has stolen my registration sticker off my license plate.

31.  Finished up the month by squeezing in one more book making it a total of 7 books read for the month!

So what was the best thing that happened in your world in March?

Read any good books?

Special Easter?

See any good movies?

I needed a sweet treat for my injured soul... or knee... whichever - Easy Banana Cookies!!! {Training Tuesday}

So today, I'm bringing you a healthy, yummy, easy cookie recipe... but I'm doing it backwards this week. I've got to talk about my week that needed me to soothe my despair in something sweet... so don't be confused... or feel free to jump ahead to the recipe...

Week 12 of Half Marathon training

Monday - Run 2.58 miles

Tuesday - T25 Total Body Circuit

Wednesday - Run 3.37 miles

Thursday - Upper Fix

Friday - rest

Saturday - Pilates Fix

Sunday - rest

So last Saturday - the 10 mile race, was the pinnacle of my running... its now what's known as "Tapering"... cutting back the miles. FINALLY. On the downhill slide of the training.

I felt like I made it through this round of training feeling good - having some issues, but I dont think I'll ever train for a half marathon & not be sore or hurt somewhere. Its my horrible joints... & my 44 year old body... it is what it is... but all in all, I felt like I had done really good...

.... & then... the wheels popped off.

Monday - my body was so sore from the 10 hilly miles 2 days before... so it was basically a scuffle.  I actually had to cut my run short because there was a creeper in the parking lot where I run that I wasn't comfortable staying around for - so my run was cut about 15 minutes short...

But it was probably best - my body just was stiff & achy

& then my ran came around on Wednesday. I'm moving along better, but still a little sore & knees giving some fits... & then BAM! They really started hurting - like I stopped at one point & thought, Uh oh, I'm in trouble.

I got home & had ice on them the rest of the night... & its been downhill ever since.

I did decide to NOT do my long run on Saturday. 8 miles were on the schedule... I ended up doing Pilates. I can't tell you how much it messed with my mind... but I can tell a slight improvement on my knee already. I'm just going to give it a week of possibly some walking, or maybe some elliptical work & definitely some strength training.... trying not to let it get in my head that the last 4 weeks of training, I could loose all my endurance... cant think like that... (Oh mercy, please dont let happen)

... BUT, since I was planning on going out for 2 hours to run Saturday & that wasn't going to happen, I had to fill up the time space in my weekend... & I had a load of bananas that were ripe & I didn't want to toss them, I found a quick & easy recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to share

Easy Banana Cookies

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

1 cup quick oats

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch sea salt

OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Just take those bananas & mash them up in a bowl

Add in the oats & chocolate chips, cinnamon & salt

The more you mash it together, the more it all comes together where its easy to form a cookie shape

I took a big spoon full & flatten it out a bit & viola

It made about 8-10 cookies with the ingredient list above.

Oven on 350 degrees - & cook for 15 minutes

The recipe calls to put on parchment paper, but I put on my cookie sheets & they were just fine.

I also let mine cook a little bit longer than 15 minutes to make them a little bit more 'roasted' & put a little bit of brown color on them.

Put on a wire rack & cool

... DELICIOUS!!!!

& so easy that I almost feel like this recipe is a given.

A kid could do it.

Or me....

about the same level of cooking skills here...

I want to note - I used the Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate chips - they are BIG chunky chips - & were so delicious in these. I imagine the dark chocolate would have been great with the walnuts if I had included them.  

Finished product - see how big the chocolate chips are?  YES & YUM!

I ended up having 4 ripe bananas so I made another batch

... & then basically ate them all in 2 days...

But hey, its fruit, some carbs & dark chocolate is healthy!  So its all good!

Honestly, I'm going to make this a habit for when my bananas start going bad. 

I loathe throwing away food.  & I'd rather eat a sweet treat.

I needed a little sweetness in my life after this tough week

.... still PRESSING ON & looking forward to better days ahead!

Hear that Ms. Knee?  Time to get your stuff together!!! Don't let me down now.

The weekend that was well with my soul....

So did everyone survive The Walking Dead finale?

I know a lot of people watch it a day behind, so no spoilers, but....breath in... breath out... breath in... breath out...

Let's just get our mind off of it by looking back over the weekend & some highlights

Friday

... Stopped at the grocery & my knee started hurting EVEN WORSE.  Like before, my knee pain was on the inside of my knee.  When I got out of my car at the grocery, it started hurting on every bit of my knee!  Front, center, both sides, even the hamstring.  GREEEAAAATTTTTTT!!!!

... Usual spring Starbucks order - Venti Green Tea Lemonade - half sweetener - light ice. I can say it in my sleep I think.

... Trying to get tax papers together & see once again why we need a file cabinet so desperately.

... Laid up on the couch with ice packs on my knee catching up on The Flash ... I think with my knee pain I just needed to watch someone who runs really fast.

Saturday

... felt funny knowing I wasn't going to be able to get in a long run for the day with my knee.  It threw me off all day long.

... had to run to the post office & once Bruno saw me put on my shoes & grab my purse, he FREAKED OUT like I had said the magical words, "Bye Bye"... So I gave in. #spoileddogs  I loaded him up in the car & gave him some grumpy old man time with just me & him on the drive.

... worked on my Bible Journaling all morning long.  Fun tip:  I used one of my adult coloring books as a guide to draw on the page!  I'm not that talented to draw some things totally on my own.  It was fun to decorate my Bible with it though.

... ended up getting in  a work out anyways - got some Pilates in.  Never hurts to work on that core.  Ever.

... Made some healthy cookies. I'm going to talk about them tomorrow.

... thought our house was going to blow over all day long with winds up to 60mph ... it was crazy!

... 6 - the number of loads of laundry I did for the day.  & please know I still have lots of piles of clothes to wash. I dont know how Ricky & I have so much clothing for 2 people.

... Spent 2 hours making a new knit project... only to not like it & took the whole thing out.  That's so discouraging.

Sunday

... Oh mercy, I slept horribly.  I'd wake up & it was like I woke up to be WIDE AWAKE. Like I had to force myself to lie back down & go to sleep.,..  & did this a few times.  It was almost like a panic attack.  Well, goodness knows I'm an angry sleepier cracking all my teeth while I sleep - apparently I'm an anxious sleeper as well.

... we had gotten a call the night before from our sweet friend Steve that he was preaching & we knew we had to be there to support him.  So proud of him being up on that stage sharing his heart & seeing how God is using him in this new stage of his life without his wife.  God isn't through with him yet.

... We sang one of my favorite hymns, "It is well with my soul" ... something about that song.  Well, the young lady that sings for the church has the most gorgeous voice, but she's the only singer on the stage.  All of a sudden, I just stopped to listen & I could hear the most beautiful harmony happening. I literally thought there was a back up track somewhere playing... & then looked across the sanctuary to see my sweet friend Kelly singing.  How I miss her vocal talent.  I just stood with my eyes closed & listened to these sweet voices working together.... It really was well with my soul.

... Target trip! ... & BONUS - we got to see some old church friends.  Loved catching up with her on her latest grand baby(s) news & discussing politics.  She is such a wise woman & I love her input on any topics so I loved that we stood in the freezer section & talked for an hour...I could have stayed & talked to her for a few more ... easily :)

... Ricky & I had gotten a salad at the grocery Friday so I didn't have to cook. It was so delicious that we decided to go pick up another salad for lunch on Sunday.  Put edamame on a salad bar & I'll always come back.

... FINALLY got some pictures taken for my Etsy shop.  Now to get them edited this week & get it posted to get this show on the road.

... Time to make out bills.  #anythingmoredepressing?

... I know most people feel excited about the Super Bowl or some other big sports events ... me? I was anxious ALL DAY LONG about The Walking Dead finale.  So when it got closer to 9 pm - I was a nervous wreck.  only to sit through what felt like an hour of commercials & only a half hour of actual show! BOO!... I will say, no spoilers here, I think I did not breath for the last 5 minutes. Like totally had to tell myself to exhale.  INTENSE!!!!!!
... no wonder I'm an angry, anxious sleeper if this is the stuff I watch before going to bed.

ANDDDDD... we're back to Monday.  Just like that.

How was your weekend?

Did you watch The Walking Dead finale?

Has Spring left your area?

Friday Favorites

Favorite Fiber Fun

Hanging Crochet Door Basket

ohhhhh... the things I could put in this!!!

Favorite Jesus Reminder

Favorite Hack

Watch the news - apparently mosquitoes carry everything evil

...so I love this natural way to keep them away!

LINK to find how to make

Favorite Workout

Here's the LINK  for the video for a great 5 minute ab workout.

Favorite Beauty & the Beast


I follow this guy on Instagram - he apparently is Disney artist & his work on Instagram every day makes me smile.  Especially when he does ones of Belle / Beauty & the Beast.
sthompsonart is his user name on Instagram if you want to check him out.


Favorite Organizing Idea



With all the flip flops I have, I SOOO need to do this in my closet!


Favorite Shirt


... & I have no Alfred

Favorite Funnies

.... how I feel around Tuesday of a work week

.... when I see a Instagram post from Disney World

... how I feel about making decisions on things in life




... me every Sunday night after The Walking Dead




... me at 4:00pm today

Happy Friday Y'all!!!!