Mesa Parks Adventure

We visited (almost) all the parks in mesa! It started in January 2025 as an excuse to drive our new car around. Then it became a good low cost (but fun!) date activity. And then it became an adventure to get to all 90 parks in our city. As we went along, we changed the confines of our quest, eliminating some of the aquatic and recreation centers, as well as all of the basins. Last week, we concluded our exploration with park number 80. We got to see a great bit of our city, and we learned some things along the way.

Despite being in the desert, our city has done a pretty good job of preserving land. I am not sure how the city manages to keep all the grass mowed, but I didn't see any park that was completely unkempt. (Based on what I see at the park near us, I hypothesize that the city contracts out for park care, but I cannot be sure.) Yes, some of the parks shelter some houseless people, but for the most part, they remain useable to the public. Props to the city for that.

It is easy to see which parks are older and newer, based on the park signs. Some parks still have the ancient Mesa signs. Some have the newer signs. I wonder if they will ever change all of them.

We don't think that aquatic centers and recreation centers should count as parks. Resources, yes. Parks, no. But when the summer relegates us inside, maybe these centers become the equivalent of parks? We did see people out at the parks at many hours of the day and evening.

Many parks do not have restrooms. This probably helps with upkeep. It is good to know when planning things like a picnic, though.

All in all, we enjoyed this pursuit. While the parks were our goal, we benefitted from the time spent together and learning more about our city. And as an aside a little bit of a house snob, I think I enjoyed seeing the homes around the parks almost as much as, or more than, the parks themselves.

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Readers, what quests have you taken on? Have you completed them yet? Please share in the comments!

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And if anyone cares, yes, our final park run was fueled by sourdough:

Sourdough zucchini bread (The Pantry Mama) and sourdough zucchini muffins [with cheese + chives] (The Pantry Mama) for breakfast, and a refreshing dinner of sourdough zucchini slice (The Pantry Mama) and a riff on this skinny chicken salad from The Savvy Spoon made with green pepper and onion for the veggies.

Real Life Marriage: What If?

"What if we met sooner?" I grew up hearing my dad ask my mom this question. After my husband and I got married, we started asking it, too.

"What if we had met in high school?" Would we have liked each other? "What if we met in our twenties?" Would it have worked?

Then there are the other, "What if's?" "What if my husband had gone to college in Washington?" Would he have ever moved back to Arizona? "What if I had stayed in Arkansas?" Would we have ever met?

We could, "What if?" all day long, but I am convinced that everything happened as it should. I was very caught up with myself in high school, and was definitely not emotionally, mentally, or spiritually healthy enough to get into a serious relationship. Saving faith in Jesus was a must-have for me, and my husband did not find that until later in life (but before we met, because we met at church!) My husband was not ready to go to college right after high school, and learned a lot of other skills by going straight into the workforce. I wanted and needed to move back to Arizona for some healing in my family relationships, things that needed to heal so I could be in a better position to get married. "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end," the author of Ecclesiastes writes (New Living Bible, 2015, Ecclesiastes 3:11). I could not agree more.

I really and truly believe that God brought my husband I together at the right time. We had pretty much stopped looking for people to date, after all. But God knew. He was preparing us. He was ordered all our steps aright. We trust Him to continue to work, even as we walk forward together into a life full of future, "What if's?"

Reference:

New Living Bible. (2015). Bible gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-Living-Translation-NLT-Bible/

Evening Roosevelt Lake Adventure

What do you do when it's nearly 110 degrees outside? Go to the lake! And not just any lake, the largest lake that exists solely within the Arizona state borders: Roosevelt Lake. I truly had no idea how big this lake was, until we drove, and drove, and drove, and still found more water (and that even with water levels being way down).

We set out from home about 3:30 PM and arrived at the lake around 5:00 PM. First, we went to the Roosevelt Bridge overlook. From the overlook, we saw the bridge (the longest of its kind in North America), a wide view of the lake, and plenty of boats! 

From there, we worked our way around to the dam overlook. (Beware, the road is barely wide enough for two cars). The dam is truly immense, and the buildings beneath it sparked our curiosity. We saw what we are pretty sure was a bald eagle land on one of the sandbars behind the dam.

After driving a bit more, we settled on one of the many recreational sites, Cottonwood Cove Picnic Area, for dinner. We looked out over the water, watched a storm roll in, and even spotted a javelina! On the way home, we drove through Miami, Superior, and Gold Canyon, and even caught up to rain storm (or it caught us)!

Could we have done other things with our evening? Sure! But this was a great way to get away, see some new scenery, and reset and refresh before the week starts again.

Curious about the sourdough? Dinner was elevated PBJs (elevated because I made the raspberry chia seed jam, upped the nutrition with Creamy protein peanut butter and put in all on sourdough sandwich bread). 

What We Cooked and Ate (Week 31)

This Week's Eats:

Banana zucchini overnight oats (Hummusapien)

Carrot cake sourdough muffins (The Pantry Mama)

Creamy dill potato salad (The Country Cook)

Quick raspberry chia seed jam (Food by Mars)

Sourdough sandwich bread (The Pantry Mama)

Southwest egg roll in a bowl (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Vegetable frittata (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Creamy protein peanut butter (Cheat Day by Design)

Egg bake casserole (Food 52)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

Sourdough blueberry muffins (The Pantry Mama)

Sourdough chocolate zucchini muffins (The Pantry Mama)

Sourdough bread

Sourdough zucchini bread (The Pantry Mama)

Run to Eat? No! Eat to Run!

I put it off for a while. I did not do it for my 15K. To be fair, I had not really needed to carb load for my 10Ks, since they were under 90 minutes. But then it was time. Time to rip off the bandaid, go against all modern diet advice, discard my usual whole foods, whole grain, high protein, high produce way of eating, and eat all the carbs. I did it for a day, and it worked! Then I did it for three days, and it really worked! And I was off to the races on carb loading, literally.

I carb loaded for all of my recent longer races, including that first half marathon back. The rule is to carb load for any race over 90 minutes (Featherstun, n.d.). This allows the body to max out its glycogen stores (which should also be somewhat replenished by fueling during the race to avoid bonking). More glycogen means more speed! (Burning fat for fuel is possible, but provides much slower results.) Sports medicine science says to carb load with 10 – 12 grams per kilogram of bodyweight for two days, or 8 grams per kilogram for three days (Thomas et al., 2016). (I have aways gone with the latter.) Some say that only one day is needed for the half marathon (Rosner, n.d.). The Featherstone Nutrition Calculator always tells me to carb load for three days, however. I figure, "What could it hurt?"

Another benefit of carb loading for three days is that it simplifies digestion. Things like fiber take 36-48 hours to pass fully through the body, so carb loading with simpler carbs for three days ensures that any potentially irritating foods have already passed through (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2025). It is also easier to eat simpler carbs in larger amounts (T100 Triatholon, n.d.). I told myself while carb loading that it was not forever, and that an extra few days of eating carbs before the half marathon could only stand to help, not hurt my results. And I definitely carb loaded three days before my marathons.

The problem is that just carb loading was not enough. Endurance sports require enhanced overall nutrition. While I increased that somewhat over the past few years, I apparently did not increase it enough. That, the health professional think, is what caused my recent injury. And so, I set out to eat more.

No science is perfect, but the thought is that energy surplus is best for runners. The current number is 45 calories per kilogram of fat free mass per day (Melin, 2019). For the average American woman weighing 170 pounds and being at about 40% body fat, that is about 2,000 calories a day, and that is without exercise (Borrud et al., 2010; National Center for Health Statistics, n.d.)! With increased energy expenditure due to long-distance running, it is easy to see how a person could get behind. So I ate more.

While recovering from my injury, I ate as much or more than while training for my marathon. Yes, I gained weight. It wasn't fun. But I wanted to return to running, and I knew I had no chance of doing so and not getting hurt again, so I ate. While I was not running, I was eating to run, because that is the commitment that the sport requires.

In a society that says eat less, move more, runners have to eat more to move more—and not just junk, because then they feel like junk. They need lots of carbs, lots of fat, lots of protein--all the things. Sure, I eat simple carbs when carb loading, but that is just for three days. The rest of life is a lot of focus on a lot of nutrition, something I am learning even more about as I progress back to running again*. I am learning anew what it means to eat to run, not run to eat. Regardless of what society may say, eating to run is serious business!

*Note: I am not a dietitian, just sharing what I have studied and learned along my running journey, most recently with a lot of professional dietitian support!

References:

Borrud, L.G., Flegal, K.M., Looker A.C., Everhart, J.E., et al. (2010). Body composition data for individuals 8 years of age and older: U.S. population, 1999–2004. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital health stat 11(250). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_250.pdf.

Featherstun, M. (n.d.). Carb loading: What, why, and how-to. Featherstone Nutrition. https://www.featherstonenutrition.com/carb-loading/

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2025, June 6). Digestion: How long does it take? Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/indigestion/expert-answers/digestive-system/faq-20058340

Melin, A. K., Heikura, I. A., Tenforde, A., & Mountjoy, M. (2019). Energy Availability in Athletics: Health, Performance, and Physique. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 29(2), 152-164. Retrieved Jun 27, 2026, from https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0201

National Center for Health Statistics. (n.d.). Body measurements. Center for Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm

Rosner, J. (n.d.). Carb loading by race distance: Half-marathon and marathon. Science in Sport. https://www.scienceinsport.com/sports-nutrition/carb-loading-by-race-distance/

Thomas, D. T., Erdman, K. A., & Burke, L. M. (2016). American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement. Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 48(3), 543–568. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000000852

T100 Triatholon. (n.d.). Fuel up right: Best foods for carb loading before a triatholon. https://t100triathlon.com/articles/nutrition/best-foods-for-carb-loading/

A Case for Not Commenting on People's Outward Appearances

Someone walked into church the other day, and I immediately noticed that he had lost a substantial amount of weight. He seemed healthy and happy, but then I wondered, "Is he really?" While I do believe that each person has bodily autonomy and can do what they want with their own body (without hurting others), I also believe that our culture also focuses way too much on outward appearances. Though a person may look like they are on a journey to get healthier no one really knows what is happening on the inside. I would argue that what is happening on the inside is what really matters.

A lot of people are fighting battles no one knows, battles that don't present with the same "halo effect" of weight loss. What about the woman facing fertility struggles, doing everything in her body and mind to get pregnant? What about the man facing prostrate cancer, getting radioactive treatment that, at least for a while, has no outward signs? What about the person vigilantly monitoring supplement intake in order to overcome a nutrient deficiency? What about people like me trying to gain weight in order to heal a health condition? Does culture complement any of us?

Plato is said to have written, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." I wish we could take this into account. What if, instead of looking at people, we asked how they were doing? What if instead of complimenting weight loss, we asked how people were feeling? What if we stopped complimenting people on their bodies, and instead affirmed their character? We never know if changes in one's body are intentional, either (Depth Counseling, 2025). The person could be dieting, or they could be sick. Yes, I believe we should steward our bodies and take good care of them, but I also wish our culture would stop focusing so much on them.

There is more to life than the body: mind, soul, spirit; relationships, hopes, dreams, fears. Can we give the body comments a break, and instead focus on the humans inhabiting those bodies? I think our holistic health as a society would be a whole lot better for it!

Reference:

Depth Counseling. (2025, April 8). A case for not commenting on people's weight loss. https://depthcounseling.org/blog/a-case-for-not-commenting-on-peoples-weight-loss

Weeknight Salt River Adventure

Think Dobbins Lookout is the best place in the Phoenix Metropolis to catch an Arizona sunset? Think again! Try the Salt River!

There are Black Canyon of the Gunnison level rocks and cliffs.

Plenty of places to sit and just be (Of course, we would find my husband out on a ledge.) 

Calm and quiet all around

When my husband told me he wanted to go on a weeknight adventure, I was down. It had already been a long week, and I just wanted to get away. Sourdough zucchini pizza and carrots packed well for dinner in the car, and off we went. We stayed until near dark and then drove home at dusk. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better evening!