Hey, that’s a better title than the alternative titie, “I flushed my glasses down the toilet.” I DID. Can you believe it? Never mind the details. So my alternative methods of seeing are my old contacts (tried those yesterday and remembered why I decided to stop wearing contacts. Its like there’s a constant glare in my left eye.) Today I am making do with my glasses that developed a film on the anti-glare coating. So its like wearing glasses that seem like they always need to be cleaned. But at least I can see. When did I get like this? I used to be able to see the tiniest things perfectly.
Anyway, I don’t have anything outstanding to say, so thought I’d just chat about this and that.
Went to the ladie’s retreat last weekend. It was in Tahoe, and honestly, for me, there is probably not a more beautiful place on earth. I grew up spending a week at Lake Tahoe almost every summer, so there is the nostalgic component to it as well.


No more ladie’s retreats for me though. TOO MUCH FOOD!!! In addition to the three gigantic meals they serve you, there seems to be an unwritten rule that a never-ending array of snack items must be available at all times. Honestly, aren’t these the same women who are complaining about their weight, and trying to lose weight the rest of the year? Anyway, I am not actually blaming them. But for me, it is too hard to resist that much tempting food, and I was pretty miserable (as were my cabin-mates) by the end of the weekend. I loved the speaker, and I loved the worship time. But I don’t particularly enjoy spending that much time in that close a proximity to that many women LOL. Again, its me, not them. To me, my idea of retreat is to spend some time alone with the Lord, and reading/thinking/praying. So I might go on retreat again, but it will be a different kind of retreat.
Some good food pics from the past few days:
I never tried this before. I usually eat my yogurt unflavored, with walnuts or granola or muesli, or sometimes on top of chopped fruit. First, did I tell you about making the strawberry cubes. I took some strawberries, pulverized them in the food processor and then tried to strain them to get most of the seeds out, and put them in ice cube trays to freeze like I do the mashed bananas. I thought they would come in handy for toppings and such. And they have! So I had thawed out one banana and one strawberry cube, and I mixed them up with 1/2 cup of plain (homemade) yogurt. Quite yummy. And it stayed nice and thick too. Of course I had to put some bananas on top. Same idea as that frozen yogurt I showed you the other day.

Southwestern salad.

Topped with my favorite Chevy’s salsa, no need for dressing.

Not sure if this will make sense to you, but I was VERY excited to get this drawn today. Rug camp is coming up, and once again I am scrambling to get my project ready to go. I have had this idea for a long time, but I am always afraid to draw, so I put it off for as long as possible. My friend said, ‘I bet if you just set two hours aside to sketch and draw, you can get it done.’ And I said, ‘well, yes, if I would set two hours aside for ANYTHING, I could get a lot done.’ Hmmm. I think I have a problem with being distracted. Anyway, I took her advice, and it took me less than two hours to get this done. It is my vision of the Bible passage
“Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise
before the Lord, for he is coming!”

The class I am taking at rug camp is on doing a rug in the Klimt style. That’s why the drawing is so full of little shapes and curliques. And if anyone is wondering, I am working like mad to try to get the sheep rug finished, but I don’t think I’ll make it.
So, my last thought of the day is this. Hooray for Dietgirl. She is a real person. She had a great successful weight loss that took a long time, she wrote a great book about that experience, and now, years later, she still struggles with her weight/eating/body image. Just this week alone I have gone from ‘deciding’ that I am going to eat very stringently and get my weight down to 125, to saying, forget about it, that’s not going to happen. And its not like I said forget about it because I wanted to pig out on junk food. No way. I was just enjoying way too much all the great healthy food I have. Started out the day with my fabulous quinoa, got hungry before lunch so had a really good smoothie made with whey (leftover from my yogurt,) almond milk, a little yogurt, strawberry and banana cubes, and some protein powder. That was yummy. So then I wasn’t hungry for lunch until 2:30, and I had strawberries (some of those really great vine-ripened ones) and cottage cheese and walnuts. And then I had one of the blueberry chia muffins. I didn’t need it, but I sure enjoyed it. So then I wasn’t hungry for dinner until 7pm, and I had a great piece of salmon, an artichoke, and some leftover roasted brussel sprouts. And I wasn’t really hungry, but I made some froyo with the yogurt and strawberry and banana cubes. So yes, you can eat really healthy food and NOT lose weight. That’s how its done.