Strong(er) in March

What's going well? We've gotten into the swing of having more regular dates. We've had some epic and some everyday ones (exploration of new places and commonplace errand running). Regular dates definitely strengthens our marriage and helps me feel more positive about life overall. Praise the Lord!

What's about the same? I am still reading my Bible and doing the Bible recap. I am fasting for Lent (from a food and a few activities). The goal of Lent is to focus more on Jesus and grow stronger in my faith. I hope it is doing that, but I am not sure right now.

What might not be getting stronger? Although my pull-up program reps are increasing, I am not sure I am getting stronger (Bomgren, 2023). I am getting tired of them and without seeing progress, I am tempted to quit the program. Shall I? Is it serving me? I have yet to decide.

I am still running. I am thankful for that. I have been having a few weird health things, which makes me worry that I will not be able to run like I want to run. I also caught a cold this past week. Boo!

I did buy more collagen and running fuel. I do not like the new running fuel brand, but if I have a hope of getting stronger, I have to fuel! We will see how things work out for my race in a few weeks.

Overall, this month, I feel like I am getting hard, not strong. Truth strength is not hardness. Hard things snap and break. Strong things handle the load. They are flexible (to an extent). I want to be that kind of strong.

The thing is that I am not strong on my own. I can only be strong with the strength that Christ gives me. As Tara-Leigh Cobble (2025) says in The Bible Recap “True strength and courage is established by being mindful of God's presence in our lives.” May I grow in my awareness of the Lord, even as I seek to grow stronger in the every day of this life.

References:

Bomgren, L. (2023, October 4). How to get better at pull-ups (12 week guide). Nourish move https://www.nourishmovelove.com/how-to-get-better-at-pull-ups/

Cobble, T. (2025, March 23). Day 082 (Joshua 1-4) -- Year 7. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Bible recap. https://thebiblerecap.podbean.com/e/day082-year7/

What I've Been Listening To and Watching This Month

I am taking a little break from reading, so for this month's wrap-up, I'll share some of what I've been listening to and watching this month. Instead of everything, though, I'll just share the good stuff:

Listening:

The Bible Recap (the companion to my daily Bible reading)

Lent and Fasting with Dr. Darren Whitehead on That Sounds Fun (a helpful discussion about the value of fasting)

Time Management for Real Life: How to Plan Your Week Without Overwhelm with Megan Sumrall on Make Fit Simple (an interesting take on time management for women and budgeting for "unexpected" tasks)

Equinox Trainer Amanda Katz on Nailing the Basics (Fuel!), Eating Disorders, and "Looking" Fit on Lane 9 (I appreciated Katz' take on what "balance" looks like as a fitness professional and marathon runner.)

Why Ozempic Isn't a Miracle Weight-Loss Drug with Amanda Martinez Beck on Rethinking Wellness (Skip over the Ozempic talk and consider the discussion about gluttony as a sin because it takes from others-an interesting thought)

Big Sister Pep Talk: You're Not Selfish on The Lazy Genius (Kendra Adachi has some important things to say here. I can be selfish, but I can also fail to take care of myself, which has negative consequences for the people around me.)

Coach K: Love in Winning, Love in Losing on Everything Happens  (Watch out for one swear word at the end, but otherwise, this is a great talk on character and leadership.)

Watching:

Although I have watched a few videos and TV shows this month, the only thing I can really recommend is Levi Kelly's house tours. We found Kelly via the Tiny BnB TV show, and then discovered his YouTube channel which includes tours of not just tiny Air BnBs, but a variety of homes. We enjoy viewing and discussing what we do and do not like about each home. It is good relationship building and also helps us think about what me might like in a future home, should we leave where we are.

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Anyone want to share what media they've been into this month? Please drop your best podcast listens and movies or TV shows in the comments!

Eats and Empties (Week 13)

The Eats:

Greek yogurt chicken salad (All Recipes)

Honey BBQ chicken with citrus slaw (How Sweet Eats)-Made by my husband

Mexican meatloaf with potatoes and vegetables (Meal Prep in an Instant)-Frozen for the future

Sourdough discard bagels (Acts of Sourdough)-our first batch of this calendar year

Tuna pasta salad (Tastes Better from Scratch)

Turkey and cornmeal dumplings (Eating Well)

The Empties:

Five pound bag of carrots

Frozen chicken broth
Chipotle pepers in adobo sauce
Container of cottage cheese
One pound bag of frozen corn
Bottle of cumin
Frozen full-of-veggies white chili (Oatrageous Oatmeals)
Container of Greek yogurt

Fresh green beans
Three 12 ounce packages of frozen green beans
Old honey
Head of iceberg lettuce
Frozen jalapeno
Bunch of kale
Frozen light and fluffy egg casserole (Meal Prep in an Instant)
Half gallon of milk
Grape Nuun tablets
Old onions
Old peanut butter
Five pound bag of potatoes

Head of romaine lettuce

Frozen simple French lentil soup (The Full Helping)
Frozen slow cooker vegetarian lentil chili (Budget Bytes)
Frozen half-loaf of sourdough bread

Frozen loaf of sourdough sandwich bread
Can of diced tomatoes

Can of tomatoes and green chiles
Frozen tomato paste
Two cans of tuna
Pound of ground turkey
Frozen leftover turkey from Thanksgiving

What went to waste: 

An entire bag of onions molded! 

What I Learned from the Ideal Week Exercise (And I Didn't Even Do that Much of It)

I got intrigued about the "ideal week" when I heard Jess Connolly (2025) talk about it on her podcast. What was this ideal week, and was there any way to craft such a week for myself? My time sure felt out of my control, and if I could do anything to infuse some joy back into my life, I wanted to do it!

After some Google searching and blank template finding, I finally discovered an article on this so called "ideal week." I am not sure who coined the idea, but I skimmed the article at Full Focus and printed out the template (Hyatt, 2024). The idea I took away was to block out my week and then try to make myself more efficient. Well, I only got so far as to block out my work days and commute time. On a 5 am to 9 pm schedule, that left very little margin. (I get up at 4:30 or 5 am and got to bed between 9 and 9:30 pm.) What stood out to me, though, was that commute time. If I had to commute, what could I do with the time?

The first thing I discovered was that I could use the drive home to call my parents. I am a routine girl, but after my parents moved out of state, I had not found a new regular time to connect with them. Enter the commute: not the best time for a call, but better than nothing. 

I also realized that some days, I have power about how long that commute is, at least in terms of minutes. I like to get to the office at 8 am, and sometimes I have to do so. Traffic is thick at those times, which makes the commute longer. Some days, however, I have choices: I can go in late and make up the time later, or I can work from home and commute at an off-peak hour to save time. A few days of less fighting traffic reduces at least some of my stress.

Besides that commute, I don't really have a lot of other things to move around right now. Sure, I could probably optimize my work day a little bit, but overall, my life is just one of wake up and attack the day, except where I create my own margin. That is what the ideal week exercise showed me: that I have a little more control and power over my time than I exercise. Time is not the master, I am (and hopefully, Christ in me).

The optimal time to do things rarely comes along. The second best time is the time I have. I can play. I can rest. I can work. Rarely can I do all of these at the same time. I can make the best of the time I have, though. It's not ideal, but it's the deal I have, and I have to make or break it.

References:

Connolly, J. (Host). (2025, February 2). Episode 67: Hobby girls. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Jess Connolly Podcast. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/jessconnolly/episodes/Episode-67-Hobby-Girls-e2u8frg

Hyatt, M. (2024, December 12). How to better control your time by designing your ideal week. Full Focus. https://fullfocus.co/ideal-week/

Eats and Empties (Week 12)

The Eats:

Colcannon (Budget Bytes)

Corned beef (The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook)

Instant pot split pea soup (Healthier Steps)-Our favorite split pea soup recipe!

Hawaiian pork (The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook)

The Empties:

Head of cabbage
Corned beef brisket
Green onions
Head of iceberg lettuce
Lemon
Half gallon of milk
Onion powder
Five pound bag of potatoes
Radishes
One pound bag of split peas

What went to waste: 

Nothing that I know of !

Rest

Rest. Oh, that elusive thing that of which I never seem to have enough, and of which when I have it, I always want more. And to be fair, sometimes when I have a chance to rest, I don't take it, but choose to work instead. But God. God created rest, and he said it's good for us. Guess what? Science proves it. Go figure.

I continue to learn more about rest as God impresses the need for it on my heart. For example, there's the walkie talk analogy Dr. Becky Kennedy (2024) shared on her Good Inside podcast with Laura Mae Martin. When you're productive, you're holding down the walkie talkie button. To hear anything back, you have to let go. "That's how they work," she says. And so it is with God, with intuition. When I'm busy, busy, busy, I don't hear from God. I get out of tune with my body. I don't know what I would want or need if I could rest. I have to really stop and pause, and linger in order to tune in, in order to hear. Oh, how I didn't like to hear this, and oh, how I needed to hear it!

Later in the podcast, Laura Mae Martin talked about babies and music. She reported that her baby's music teacher said that babies don't hear music when it is playing. They hear it when it stops. Might that be true of life? That we don't "hear the music"/see the good unless we actually stop and get quiet? This thought convicts me.

As I continue my running life, I realize more and more the importance of rest days. Yes, some days I want to go out and run more, but then I remember the bigger workout on the calendar tomorrow. I must rest today to have energy for that tomorrow. 

Rest days are crucial not only for saving energy, but for gaining fitness. Exercise breaks the body down. On rest days, the body rebuilds. As Amanda Brooks and Laura Norris (2023) say in Tread Lightly, "When you're resting, that's where your body can actually then really take in all of the work and like slingshot you forward." Hmm. I guess I really can do too much work and get to a place that I can't recover from it.

I do not think that rest will ever necessarily come easy to me, because laziness is not rest, and I think I, as a human, tend to swing towards extremes. Understanding more about rest and its purposes, though, convict me to pursue it, motivate me to find pockets for it. May it continue to benefit me in all the ways that God intends, the above of which I am sure are far from the whole of what He intends for this good gift. After all, He originated it. He was the one who rested on the Sabbath and insisted that the ground lie fallow once a year every seven years. It should not come as a surprise that He, the Creator of the Earth, knew the science of why rest would benefit it!

References:

Brooks, A., & Norris, L. Hosts. (2023, June 16). How to run faster! (No. 19). [Audio podcast episode. In Tread Lightly. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tread-lightly-podca/episodes/Episode-19-How-to-Run-Faster-e25d9k6

Kennedy, B. (Host). (2024, August 19). There's power in setting boundaries. (No. 166). [Audio podcast episode]. In Good Inside with Dr. Becky. https://www.goodinside.com/podcast/8939/theres-power-in-setting-boundaries/

Eats and Empties (Week 11)

The Eats:

Anaheim green chile salsa (Food & Wine)-frozen for future use

Banana oat flour muffins (Fit Foodie Finds)

Homemade pizza sauce (Budget Bytes)

Hummus and red pepper soup (Turnip the Oven)

Macaroni and cheese (Meal Prep in an Instant)-Frozen for future use

No-rise protein pizza (Fit Foodie Finds)

Steamed artichokes with dipping sauce (The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook)

The Empties:

Anaheim pepper
Old apples
Jar of applesauce
Artichokes
Sourdough discard bagel (Acts of Sourdough)-a holdover from marathon fueling
Five pound bag of carrots
Two heads of cauliflower (some frozen for future use)
Cauliflower rice
Twelve ounce bag of gourmet cheddar cheese
Two pound bag of sharp cheddar cheese
Pickled chiles
Cilantro
Costco container of cinnamon
Frozen chicken broth
Frozen chickpeas
Two 24-ounce containers of cottage cheese
Container of Greek yogurt
Can of crushed tomatoes
Head of iceberg lettuce
Frozen kidney beans
Mayonnaise jar
Half gallon of milk
Seventy ounce container of picante sauce (Salsa)
Old protein powder
Pumpkin butter
Sprinkles
Two cartons of strawberries (most sliced and frozen for the future)
Tomatillos
Can of tomato paste
Zucchini

What went to waste: 

A little bit of onion that went bad

Real Life Marriage: The Sacredness of Firsts

I expected to kiss when I got engaged. I saw value in making a kiss meaningful, but I had no intention of saving my first kiss until marriage, that is until my boyfriend, now husband, told me that was his intention. Since I also held to the value of the man being the leader in the relationship, I went with it.

A dear friend asked me sometime around our engagement if I thought that marriage would be overwhelming. She expressed concern after hearing how little (physical or otherwise) my fiance and I shared. (In addition to sharing little physical intimacy, I held to strong beliefs about not sharing details of my finances before marriage, for example.) I told her that I was, and I wasn't. I saw marriage as a commitment, and I figured that might be the safest place to expose some of that stuff. It was, and it wasn't.

Because of my strong boundaries, marriage brought with it a lot of firsts: first kiss, first intimacy, first sharing of finances, first house buying etc. Some of that was challenging. I had to faith the truth, and untruth of some of my assumptions. Some things required some figuring out. Still, by God's grace, I don't regret those decisions. There is a sacredness about having all of those things with my husband. There is a bonding factor that engaging in those firsts with him brought to our marriage. Now, when I look back on the firsts, I see him. I see us. There is no comparison. There is no, "That other guy." There is only us.

I am not here to impose my values on others, but I would like to commend saving "firsts" for marriage, not in an ascetic "I kissed dating goodbye," way, or a legalistic, "we can't." Rather, out of respect and reverence for marriage and the sacredness of that covenant, I suggest waiting for things. Firsts are special. They only came once. One-hundred percent, waiting it is worth it, because the sacredness of the future marriage is worth it!

Eats and Empties (Week 10)

The Eats:

Carne asada street taco bowls (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Homemade cruffins (Sally's Baking Addiction)-the baking challenge of the month, and it was a challenge!

Light and fluffy egg casserole (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Minestrone soup (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Simple French lentil soup (The Full Helping)

Sourdough sheet pan pancakes (Coco Et Sel)

The Empties:

Two pound bag of frozen broccoli
Old brown rice
Bag of baby carrots
Five pound bag of carrots
Two 32-ounce boxes of chicken broth
Old celery
Chia seeds

Chickpeas

Three 32 ounce boxes of chicken broth
Old chili powder
Frozen easy stovetop mac and cheese with jumbo shells (Great Value box recipe)
Twelve ounce bag of frozen green beans

Dry kidney beans

Dry lentils
Half gallon of milk
Twelve ounce bag of queso quesadilla cheese
Frozen onions
Homemade pizza sauce (Budget Bytes)

Red onion
Frozen ricotta stuffed shells
Head of romaine lettuce
Smoked paprika

Can of diced tomatoes
Dry white beans
Whole wheat macaroni noodles

What went to waste: 

Nothing that I know of

Afghan 84

Another one is done! I started this one using the yarn from afghans 80 and 82, and then had to make a run to Hobby Lobby to get more. (Thankfully I got there in time to get the last three skeins on the shelf!) All in all, this was, as the pattern claimed, an easy afghan. Although I started the edging with skepticism as to how it would turn out, I ended up liking the way it turned out. 

Hook: size J Boye ergonomic crochet hook

Yarn:

I Love This Yarn! turquoise

Pattern: Crochet baby blanket with easy border (Melanie Ham)

Finished size: 39 x 41 inches

Eats and Empties (Week 9)

The Eats:

Chunky lentil and vegetable soup (Budget Bytes)

Fajita bowls (Meal Prep in an Instant)

Full-of-veggies white chili (Oatrageous Oatmeals)

Oil free crispy potato wedges (Plant-Based and Broke)

Original Texas chili con carne (Serious Eats)--made by my husband

Ranch dressing (How Sweet Eats)

Roasted red pepper hummus (Kim's Cravings)

The Empties:

Top roast and tri-tip meat
Black beans

Frozen bell pepper
Old dried chives
Frozen chocolate muffins (The Toasted Pine Nut)
Old clementines
Fresh broccoli
Two pound bag of frozen broccoli
Two pound bag of shredded cheese
Two 32 ounce boxes of chicken broth
Carton of a dozen eggs
Marshmallows
Frozen onions
Red bell peppers
Five pound bag of potatoes
Head of romaine lettuce
Can of petite diced tomatoes
Slivered almonds

What went to waste:

Chunky lentil and vegetable soup (Budget Bytes) in a jar that I filled too full and put in the freezer, resulting in shattering of the glass and needing to throw away the soup