Day 30 - A Dream for the Future

I feel like I covered this one pretty well in the last post so I'll keep it simple.

My dream for me and all others in my life is to find inner peace.  So many of my loved ones are also struggling with things in their lives, so I feel that I must extend my dreams to include them.  Each person is going through a unique journey, so it will take something different for us each to find this inner peace I speak of, but I hope that in the future, we can all come together from that place and reflect on the challenges life has thrown us in a positive and contemplative way.

Blogging every day has been an interesting challenge, and I find it suits me.  Perhaps I will devise my own version of the 30 day challenge only with a Taoist twist, stay tuned...

Day 29 - Hopes, Dreams, and Plans for the Next 365 Days

Finally, something I like talking about.  One thing I absolutely love is the future, what could be more full of possibilities?

For the next year these are my hopes, dreams, and plans.

-It should come as no surprise to anyone that at the top of my list would be to become pregnant.  After 3.5 years of dreaming of it, nothing could fulfill me more than achieving this dream.

-I hope to improve my self-confidence.  This is something that affects me in every aspect of my life and I am currently using some books and CDs to try and help adjust my thinking patterns and learning to love myself.

-I really dream of finding that perfect job, or maybe for the next year I'll settle for any job, lol.  My search has been less than stellar and I'm pretty unsure what my next step will or should be.

-I plan to continue to focus on my writing.  It's a hobby that was in the closet before a few years ago and now I really love it and even have a self-published work out there.

-I also plan to continue my quest for inner peace.  This, above all, is the one thing that I always strive for in my relationship with the Tao. 

The next year has so much potential, but sometimes it overwhelms me as well.  Wonderful things could happen, but I need to work on being okay if they don't as well.  That's where the inner peace comes in.

Day 28 - What's in Your Handbag

This seems a little random, but perhaps a better question is what is NOT in my handbag, lol.  I frequently get comments about how surprisingly heavy my purse is, as I manage to cram a lot of things in there without resorting to carrying a tote bag (or beach bag in some cases :D ).  I'll go list form.

A package of freeze dried apples x2
Wallet (containing typical wallet type fare, ID, cards, etc.)
LifeAct Guardian Angel Pepperspray
Hairbrush
Multi-tool that can be pliers and such
package of pretzel M&Ms
purple pen
120" tape measure
House keys
couple tubes of lipstick
ibuprofen
spare vehicle keys
Central Iowa Authors 50k button
hair barret
dozens of random receipts shoved into every nook and cranny
cherry tic tacs
matching purple pouch filled with emergency feminine supplies
2 Fiber plus bars that have been smashed completely flat
small tin of papaya x2
chunky bracelet
pill holder with various contents
checkbook
Various business cards and punch cards
change floating throughout
On the outside of the purse is clipped a reusable shopping bag.

So, it seems pretty random what I have in there, but at some point or another I've felt the need to place it all in there.  I almost hate to mention that I have attempted to clean out my purse rather recently, so this list is much shorter than it would have been.

Day 27 - Your Worst Habit

This one is pretty easy for me.  The bad habit that I've been struggling with for years is boredom eating.  Simply put, if I don't have something to do with my hands, I put food in them.  My waistline certainly shows the results of it, as any eating when your not even hungry likely will, especially when the choices aren't the healthiest.

I come by the act naturally, as my mother has the exact same problem which is amplified at night.  I'm not making excuses here, just stating the truth.  I realize that I am entirely responsible for what goes into my mouth. 

I would like to add that this April, my mom and I are celebrating 5 years without the worst habit I've ever had - smoking. 

Day 26 - Your Week, in Great Detail

I don't know about great detail, so I'm gonna give an overview instead.

Friday: My oldest and youngest nephews came to visit on Friday.  The oldest just got into Magic (a card game) so I helped him build a deck to try and beat his dad.  I fed them Yonanas (frozen and made of only bananas and strawberries) which the youngest (3) claimed to be to hot and taste like jalapenos.  

Saturday: This was the day of my brother & nephew's birthday party.  We went to the bowling alley and watched them open presents and bowl, while marveling at parenting of league bowlers and overall operation of the place.

Sunday: Mom came over to watch Survivor which we missed on Thursday because of our crazy schedule.  We chose our contestants, a tradition we've been doing for several years now.  Played some WoW with the hubby until it was time for Walking Dead which is our favorite couple show.

Monday: Busied myself with research and job hunting until time to go to a cooking class with my mom and some friends.  That class was proof that the people make the experience, because I had a really good time despite not learning a thing (other than curry is used in Mediterranean) and having several complaints about the overall structure.  We decided to pool our fees and do our own version of watching youtube videos and cooking next time.

Tuesday: Really enjoyed the reheated chicken I had made at the cooking class the night before.  More research and job hunting happened in here and then I started preparing for writing group.  We are doing a really fun choose your own romantic adventure project that I really look forward to seeing where it's going to go each week. 

Wednesday: see blog below.

Thursday: At my house, Thursday is girls night meaning that mom and I get together and watch Survivor.  We allow Capt to watch Big Bang Theory with us first these days, because no one should ever be denied BBT.  This time we ventured to one of my favorite spots to eat in Ottumwa, HyVee.  Sounds a little crazy, but their salad bar is fantastic.  For only 5.99 all you can eat soup and salad includes so much food you could never walk away hungry.  We picked up a few ingredients while we were there and made the pumpkin bread recipe I posted a few days ago.

 

Only 45 calories a slice and VERY delicious.

Day 25 - Your Day, in Great Detail

Now, this is a completely boring idea, I don't think anyone would be interested in this, but here goes. 
I'm going to do a 24hour recap, as it's currently the middle of the day.

Yesterday about noon I ate lunch which consisted of leftovers from the turkey meatball and ziti concoction we had for dinner on Sunday.  During lunch I watched Daily Show and Colbert Report that I taped the night before.  After lunch I spent some time looking for books about career coaching and business models.  Once my food settled, I made my way to the basement for some Zumba.  I do Zumba on the Xbox.  My 20 minute workout ended up taking over an hour because of an Xbox update that had to be performed (and our super slow internet).

The hubs showed up while I was walking around and monitoring my heart rate after the workout.  I took a quick shower and talked to him about the events of the day.  One of his co-workers asked if I would come in and talk about I-O psychology to her intro to psychology students, should be fun.  He also brought me a book about social engineering, in hopes to help me learn to better deal with people.

He then threw together a nice veggie and pasta dish in a white wine for supper and we watched Top Shot, a favorite program of ours.  The rest of the night was spent playing World of Warcraft, a recent obsession of ours.  Took an OPK and had much discussion about the implications of my current fertility status.  After hubs went to bed, I watched American Idol, Face Off, and Hot in Cleveland (which turned out to not be on) while doing some work on an application for Indian Hills and a little more research about career coaching. 

Night time ritual (I'll spare the details here) and off to bed listening to Rob has a Podcast.

The first thing I do every morning is take my temperature.  Frustrated at the result, I do my morning ritual in a bit of a grumpy fog.  I knock out a few things from the cleaning list and curse the rain outside.   Hubs starts texting me during his lunch break, and I do a few things for him before asking myself if I've had lunch or not.  Realizing I haven't, I go ahead and reheat some leftovers and watch Daily Show again.  I remember that I haven't done my daily blog, and here I am.

Wow, what a boring person I am!  The interesting thing is that I prefer it that way.  I'm glad everything I had to report was mundane, I prefer my daily business as low drama as possible.

Day 24 - Where You Live

Finally, someone grants me the opportunity to talk about my illustrious town of Fremont.  I have lived here for about a year, and I have to say, it's pretty nice.  Let's get some facts about my little town.

Fremont

Coordinates: 41°12′44″ N   92°26′6″ W
County: Mahaska
Elevation: 837 ft.
Population: 704
Area: 1 sq. mile
Ethnicity: 0.51% non-white
Median Age: 36 years old
Businesses include:
1 restaurant (opened a few months after we moved here)
1 gas station
1 hardware store
1 bank
1 community center

With these outstanding features, you may assume that Fremont attracts the creme de la creme of the nation. While that may not be true, we do have a few notables:

~Steve Bales from Fremont was a flight control engineer on the Apollo 11 mission for NASA.
~Ivan Combe is another stand out Fremontian as the founder of Combe, Inc. a company known for creating products like Clearasil and Odor Eaters.

There are many benefits to living in a small town, and even though we just got here, we felt reasonably welcomed and are fitting in rather well.

Day 23 - A Youtube Video

I don't generally frequent youtube, but sometimes end up there from links and such, so this one was a tough one for me.

Sometimes, when I'm having trouble staying focused while meditating, I seek help from videos like this.  The profound quotes help my mind stay on a track of meaningfulness.

Day 22 - A Website

This is kind of a wide open category, so I'll just share a website I use more than I ever would have thought:  Thesaurus.com.

While I've always enjoyed writing, I've generally depended on my own vocabulary to convey my points.  One November, however, that all changed.  Writing a novel in 30 days is no small feat, so I leaned on this site a lot to help me vary the verbage I used.  The interesting part is that since then, I use this site for EVERYTHING.  I mean emails, blogs, and even simple facebook statuses.  I often find myself searching for a more accurate way to explain my situation or reveal my emotions in less general terms.  Our language has an amazing ability to be very exact or generic, and the more words in your vocabulary, the better you can communicate your true thoughts and feelings, and the less chance your words will be misunderstood.   Ironically, I never used an actual thesaurus much, but this online tool (sometimes the one provided with word will do, although it's a tad limited comparably) has become an integral part of my online presence.

Day 21 - A Recipe

I'm hoping to try this recipe from Sunday Baker sometime soon.  I'm a fan of pumpkin bread (and all bread for that matter) so I am obsessed with the idea of such a low calorie version that even has a cream cheese ribbon.

Pumpkin and Cream Bread

Yield: 2 loaves (14 slices each)

Batter:

• 1-1/2 c. pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 whole egg
• 3 egg whites
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 2/3 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. Stevia Cup For Cup sweetener
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Cream filling

• 8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1 T. all-purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1 t. vanilla extract

1. For the Batter: With an electric mixer, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and egg whites on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, Stevia, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

2. For the cream cheese filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg whites and flour until creamy and smooth.

3. Grease 2 8x4x2" loaf pans. Divide half of the batter between the two pans. Pour half of the filling in one pan and the other half in the second pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Top with the remaining batter.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don't overbake or your bread will be dry on the edges. Cool and remove from pans. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

One serving (2 slices) = about 100 calories