Motivation

I definitely needed this motivation today.



Thank you Shape magazine for inspiring me to work out today! :) Happy Wednesday!

Thailand... A Sweeping Overview

Are you ready to hear about Thailand?!? I'm finally over my jet lag and feel put together enough to share with you all how the trip went! 

This blog will have three parts: 

1. A summary of how the trip came together and went overall 

2. A short timeline of events and photos

3. Links to a video and the testimonies from the students on the trip

I hope you will enjoy it and I hope it moves you as much as it has moved me. To God be the glory! 

God really moved and it was evident that he was with us throughout entire journey of our trip. 

There was a lot of confusion when I first began planning the trip last July. We were actually supposed to go to Haiti, but plans fell through in November. There was a lot of scrambling...trying to figure out if God had something different planned. I had about given up, but then during a prayer time I felt prompted to ask about Thailand. I received an answer almost immediately stating that Headquarters thought Thailand would be a great fit for our team. Without having the team fully set, I booked tickets in late December. Any later and the ticket prices would have become unaffordable. 

Over the next 4.5 months our team raised $31,500. There was not a week that went by that money did not come in. I was constantly blown away by how God continued to bless our team. We had fundraisers that were rained out and when people heard this they donated close to $1,000. We had fundraisers that should not have done as well as they did. Our yard sale raised close to $3,000. We sold water and hot dogs during a festival,  held a city-wide raffle, sold chocolate covered strawberries and wrote letters. In just 4.5 months... God gave us exactly what we needed. Hardly anybody could believe that it had happened to fast. I felt certain that God was calling us to go and preparing the way. 

In late May, early June (right around annual conference) I found out that we would be running an English camp at a Buddhist school while in Thailand. I had never done an English camp before, nor had anybody else on my team. Most of the people on my team had never been out of the country.

Two weeks before we were to go, I found out that the camp would be longer than I had anticipated. One week before we went, I found out we would have 600 kids on a daily basis. I about lost my mind. I spent about a day crying and wondering how God could have actually wanted us to do this trip. The next morning I received an e-mail from a friend who had no idea what was going on. She said she felt like God had prompted her to pray for me and she felt led to tell me that it was a good thing that I facing something I could not handle on my own. She said that God did not want me to get out of whatever it was that I was facing, but that instead he wanted to show me, show our team, show our church that God was the one who was in charge and that God would be glorified through it. Again, she had no idea what was going on...she just said it was something that God put on her heart to pray for and to tell me.
After that, I had a great confidence in moving foward. 

Our church pulled together in one week and donated craft supplies (due to this new large number) and it exceeded what our need was. 

It was extremely evident that God was working in Thailand, using us in Thailand, moving in the Thai Pastors and blessing their ministry abundantly. We spent five days teaching English at the school and we only had about 150 students each day instead of the 600. Instead of all the students coming at once, they had one grade come each day of the week. Every day we told the students and the teachers that we were Christians and that we believed in Jesus. I had prepared a theme for the week of "American Holidays" and each day we taught the students about a different holiday to illustrate a different Bible story. We taught them about the holiday through flashcards, games and crafts and we taught them the Bible stories through story telling, games and flashcards. Every morning we taught the students a new holiday. On Christmas we shared the story of Jesus' birth. On Valentine's Day we talked about the Prodigal Son. On Thanksgiving we told them the story of Jesus healing the blind man. On Independence day we talked about Jesus calming the wind and the waves. In the afternoons, we taught about Easter and with every group we told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

At this Buddhist school, kids were learning about Jesus for the very first time, talking about Jesus, singing about Jesus. Not only were the students participating, but the teachers started to get involved as well. One teacher, who we found out was a very strong Buddhist, ended up being the translator for the Bible story station. Everyday she was telling her students the story of Jesus' death and resurrection 3-4 times. The principle was so pleased with our work at the school that he invited our team to be part of a special ceremony which was a great honor. By the time we were done there were requests from 3 other schools to have our team or a team like ours come to their school and teach as well. 

One of the very best parts of the trip was that we had the ability to pray over every student in grades 2-6. Every day they would line up and ask for our autographs and our team members would pray for the students as we signed their papers. Imagine, a person who has never been prayed for receiving prayer for the very first time. 

I say this not to brag, but to say to God be the glory. From the beginning... our trip seemed impossible. A week before we went, our trip seemed impossible. We were not the most equipped and we were not the most prepared and we were not the most knowledgeable about the situation we were getting ourselves into. However, in our weakness, God was glorified. God made his presence known to around 800 Buddhist kids and there is a wide open door for the work to continue. 

I believe our students were deeply impacted by this trip and experience. I know that God is moving and working in their lives as much as he was in the students' lives at the school. 

Enjoy the pictures below! 

July 24th - We left bright and early and headed to the airport. We boarded our plane and flew for the next 20 hours until we reached Bangkok. Can I just say that international flights have come a LONG way from what they used to be back in the day. No more of this one movie per flight business. No, it is like Redbox! You can pick whatever movie you want to see, however many movies you want to see all flight long. Plus, each seat has a touch screen complete with T.V. shows, music, games plus all the movies. I don't even know why I bothered bringing a book. :-P

In the airport...the kids are making a "Glory Tunnel" for one of the team members who was not able to make it to our Sunday day of prayer before we left. 

Final Destination! 

Late July 25th we spent the night at a hotel and the next morning we traveled to our main location.

Our bedroom! 

July 27th the pastors wanted to take us to a zoo and aquarium...which was so fun! The main thing that stood out to me was that they felt the need to keep the guinea pigs locked up in a cage, but let the zebras roam free around the zoo grounds... 

You could get so close to the animals! Kris got his foot bit by a baby tiger!

Just hanging out with an orangutan... you know. 

Lock up those crazy guinea pigs! Let the Zebras roam free! 

Nothing like ending your day with a good sip of coconut milk. Apparently I was going for a romantic kind of photo and Kris was going for a "We're a gang and we're gonna beat you if you steal our coconut" kind of photo. 

July 28th we held a church service and spent time coloring a mural on the wall of one of the children's play rooms at the place we were staying.

Not the best picture...but you get the idea. 

July 29- August 2 we held our English camp at the school. We had close to 800 kids throughout the week, but thankfully only about 150 kids during each day. They divided the kids into groups based on their grades and this made way more manageable than what we had anticipated going in.

One of the grades at the school. 

All the kids wanted our autographs. We used it as a time to pray for each student who came to us. 

This kid wanted his stomach signed.... and Kris did it. 

The team teaching the kids the song "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy." 

The kids loved singing and dancing with us! 

At the end of the week they honored us by giving us a gift and thanking us for coming. We actually received invitations to come to three other schools while we were there. 

 August 3rd we headed back to Bangkok and visited the world's largest market and discovered the best mall I have ever been to in my life.

This mall was across the street from our hotel. 

August 4th we took the team to a place called Elephant World...which was amazing. We got to pet, feed, hang out with, make food for, sit on, swim with elephants.

Making elephant food! 

August 5th we toured the city of Bangkok, got caught in a thunderstorm, cut our tour short. Headed to a new hotel for the night.

Reclining Buddha 

August 6th we flew home. 

It was truly an amazing and incredible experience. 

If you would like, below you can watch a video of our trip that one of the girls on our team made. 

If you would like to hear the students, leaders and myself talk about the trip you can follow this link and hear our report from church this past Sunday! 

Thank you so much to all those who supported us on this adventure! 

Marriage Monday

On  my wedding day I was 100% sure I wanted to marry Kris. I sat in a chair tucked away in one of the classrooms at my home church, and I waited until they told me it was time to head to the sanctuary. There was no doubt, there was no fear, there was no uncertainty. I always wondered if when I walked down the aisle I would have doubts about the person I would marry, or if I could really commit my life to somebody for...ev...er. There was never a moment when I thought that it was not right to be making a commitment to Kris.

How then, you might ask, did we find ourselves nine months later sitting under a tree on a blanket at a marriage retreat questioning not only if we should have gotten married, but if we should remain married?
There was no infidelity, there was no abuse...it was simply a case of the all too common "we aren't getting along, we grew apart, life is too hard and we would be better off on our own" syndrome that is so common in our world today.

How thankful am I that two years later we are at a place in our marriage where we see more days of triumph and joy than fighting and tears. Not that there aren't fights and struggles, but that God has renewed us and our marriage and I believe blessed us as we continually choose to follow Him despite our feelings or frustrations. We continue to serve God and thus put one another first instead of simply "looking to our own interests" (Phil 2:4), which in the olden days we did quite a bit of.

Somebody made a comment to me today that they felt like Kris and I were the perfect couple, had the perfect marriage. While I thought that was so sweet of them to say, the truth of the matter is that we are not the perfect couple, we do not have the perfect marriage. We have been to the edge and back; we argue, we fight, we have good times and bad times; we have a fierce, deep love for one another, but most importantly, we have a deep and fierce love for God so that no matter what we are feeling or aren't feeling, no matter what the other one does or doesn't do, at the end of the day we still have a reason to be together and fight for our marriage.

I share this with you all, not because I love over-sharing or want to open the deepest parts of my life to just anyone, but because I believe so many people are afraid to speak out about their own marriages and the struggles they face because they look around and feel like everybody else is the "perfect couple." I share this so that you will know my heart on this subject and know that I am not one of those people who have it all together. I too am merely a traveler doing my best to make it to the end, just like you.

And to my fellow travelers, I feel like lately God has been putting the issue of marriage on my heart and I want to travel with you through this. My heart breaks to see what marriage has become in our country. My heart breaks as I look at marriage in the church and see that many of them are no different than marriages of non-believers. My heart breaks as I see church people suffering in their marriages, caged by silence because to open up and talk about problems in a marriage has become taboo. How did that happen anyway? Why do so many people suffer in silence, never telling a soul what they are going through until it is too late?

I've prayed and asked God how I can be involved in coming alongside of those who are struggling in their marriages. How can I connect with those who simply just need to talk about it, who need encouragement. I know many people see me as young and see me as still a newlywed, but the truth is I feel like God has given me wisdom to speak on the topic. At my age and with my trusty three years of marriage under my belt, nobody is going to hire me to speak at a marriage convention or lead a class or write a book and that is okay...I don't need that. I feel like God has been speaking to me lately about how this blog can be place for me to share what His message is and the lessons I have learned along the way. This blog can be a place where people who are struggling and feel like they have no other place to turn can come and connect with me. I promise that I can encourage, pray and love on you.

So marriage Mondays it is.  Every Monday I hope to write on the topic of marriage and I hope you will join me as I believe God wants to bring freedom, new life and joy into all our lives and our relationships!

Coming up later this week: Thailand mission trip, the great salad ideas you all gave me and more!

Salad Week: Salad in a Glass

I hopped over to Cass' blog earlier today and it looks like she and I had the exact same idea! Salad smoothies! And why not? In this day and age a smoothie is a perfectly acceptable substitute for a salad. Plus it is quick, easy, and delicious. The one I drank today was not only tasty and refreshing, but it gave me a total boost in energy!

One tip before I give the recipe: I like to use apple juice in my smoothies because it masks the taste of the vegetables and it balances out the tartness of the kiwis. My smoothies never ever taste like vegetables. If they did I would not be able to drink them.
If you are looking for specific fruits that are great at masking tastes try apples, kiwis and bananas. Basically you can add whatever vegetables or fruits you like to your smoothies. I have found that as long as I have apple juice and kiwi in mine I will always (no matter what else I put in) end up with about the same taste. This gives me room to throw in different types of vegetables depending on what I have in my fridge. You can use whatever you have. I have had smoothies with broccoli, spinach, kale, carrots, cucumbers etc. If this idea scares you, start small. Add just a small portion of veggies or one veggie and see for yourself if you can handle the taste. Later, as you adjust, you can add more until you are getting a decent serving (or more) size!

(Today's) Salad in a Glass

Ingredients: 

1 cup of apple juice 

2 kiwis 

1 apple 

1 carrot 

2 cups of kale

1 cup of spinach 

1 Tbsp of honey 

Just in case you are confused about kale (I was when I first started using it) there are different types, but nutritionally they are the same. I tend to use curly kale because I like the look of it and it is easy to prepare. If you use curly kale make sure to take the time to cut the kale from the stalk in the middle. You can discard the stalks and just use the curly stuff. 

Directions: 

1. Cut up apple, carrot and kiwi to bite size pieces 

2. Put ingredients that hold the most water in blender first. Ie. Apple juice, appple, kiwi. 

3. Add carrots, kale and spinach 

4. Blend: Every blender is different. It may take some experimenting on your part to find the setting that will work best for you and your smoothie. My blender has a "liquidfy" button and I have found that this setting creates the best smoothie for me. Not all blenders have this setting...so it is a matter of experimenting. Your smoothie should not have chunks of any kind. 

5. Pour in a glass, get yourself a straw (because everything tastes better with a straw) and enjoy! 

Don't forget to check out what Cass and Tracey are doing today! Thank you so much for joining us for salad week. Hopefully you found some salads (or created your own) that you can enjoy! I will wrap it all up tomorrow by posting some of the salads that you all shared with me. 

Salad Week: Chicken Cobb Salad

I know this is coming in a little bit late today, but that is only because instead of eating salad for lunch I had a big ol' slice of pizza. It was delicious!

However, I then made this salad for dinner....

I'm so in love... I want to eat this all over again.... maybe for breakfast tomorrow. Too soon? 

Oh. My. Gosh. It was amazing. I am not one to normally toot my own horn and I can't really because this salad came from a cookbook... but I seriously felt like I was eating dessert while I was wolfing it down taking small lady like bites...slowly.

This salad could be classified as a fancy salad or an entertaining salad. It is super simple (which I love), but it is delicious and looks awesome when you take the time to put it on a platter like the recipe suggests.

We've made this salad before and used a salsa dressing. It was good. Tonight, I used Newman's Own Lite Lime dressing and it took it to a whole new level. My friend Stella got in on the action the other day mentioned that Peruvians love to put lime on their salads. It was ironic because that day I had just bought this dressing

boom. 

thinking I might enjoy it because I love all things lime. Peruvians have it going on because lime on salad in the best idea I have heard all month.

Here we go.

Chicken Cobb Salad W/ Lite Lime Vinaigrette 

(aka dessert guacamole yum yum yum) 

Ingredients: 

Romaine lettuce  

Tomato 

Avocado 

Chicken strips (seasoned to taste) 

Bacon 

Bleu cheese (optional... Kris used this, but I did not) 

Lite Lime dressing (Kris used Thousand Island... poor Kris) 

Onion (Didn't put on this time, but wished I would have after I finished it.) 

Directions: 

1. Wash and dry lettuce, place in bowls or on platter

2. Thaw chicken and cut into strips. Place in skillet on stove and season with salt and pepper. 

3. Slice tomato, avocado and onion 

4. Fry strips of bacon on stove

5. Add bacon, chicken, tomato, avocado, onion and bleu cheese to bowl. 

6. Lightly douse with Lite Lime dressing

7. ENJOY! 

I'd like to welcome Stella and my Moodle (mom) to the table today as well. They have both shared salad ideas so we are now up to four extras getting in on the action! That's awesome! Don't forget that you can still participate in salad week. Have a great salad idea? Share it! One day left! As my sister-in-law Cass pointed out on her blog... I never realized how easy it was to eat a salad every day. Doing this challenge has helped me see that this can definitely become a new healthy habit...especially when everybody is sharing recipes. 

Don't forget to check in with Cass and Tracey tonight and see what they cooked up! 

Salad Week: Buffalo Chicken Salad

This salad could be called the surprise salad. I discovered it by accident, but I love it so much that I have been eating it for the past two weeks and can't get enough! Technically, this salad came into existence a long time ago,  but had I never met Kris I would have never discovered my favorite salad! 

When we met I did not eat very many vegetables at all and rarely ate a salad (if ever). I was the person in a restaurant that would order a burger and say, "Hold all the healthy toppings please." Kris, on the other hand, loved vegetables. He was the first person I ever met that talked about them in a way that made me want to eat them too. If you know my husband, you know that he is super charismatic. He can make friends with anybody and anything. He has a way about him that can bring life and energy into anything he is doing. And truly, this is what happened with Kris, me and vegetables. He would say things like, "You don't like spinach? Spinach is awesome. Spinach is so healthy. Spinach is packed with nutrients. Spinach is like the best thing you can eat." I would sit there and literally think, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I am missing out on something so amazing as spinach. I need to try spinach right now. RIGHT NOW." He was never trying to manipulate me into eating vegetables; he simply was just describing how much he really loved vegetables. His attitude and mindset was so contagious that I caught on quickly. 

Slowly but surely I began to try and eat new vegetables. Then, Subway happened. Ever since I can remember (and I'm talking as far back in my childhood as I can remember) I have always ordered the same sub at Subway: tuna on wheat bread with extra pickles. That is honest to gooodness one of my very favorite meals. I LOVE that sub. So Kris and I would go to Subway and I would order my sub and he would order his: buffalo chicken, spinach, tomato, jalapeno, pickles, hold the cheese, hold the ranch on wheat. Being the girl in the relationship, I started to feel like a fatty fatty two by four every time we went out. Eventually, and I like to think it was me...although it may have been him, one of us came up with the idea to get a foot long (his style) and split it. He raved so much about it and promised me that it was so good and the truth? I loved it. It was delicious. So most of the time I started ordering this sub instead of my good ol' tuna. 

Eventually, we realized that we could make this exact same sandwich at home for a fraction of the price and so for a while we did. Until last week. Whew. Finally we are caught up to speed. Last week, we decided to have lettuce wraps for dinner. Kris made his southwestern style with beans, corn, tomatoes, chicken and cheese, and I went for the Subway classic. Sliced chicken (cooked in the skillet with a dash of salt and pepper), spinach, tomatoes, jalapeno, pickles and a little bit of buffalo sauce. Halfway through eating it and realizing that my lettuce was not doing such a great job of wrapping, I realized that I would be better off cutting it all up, tossing it together and eating it with a fork.....A SALAD! Mind blown. 

Here's the thing. Ever since I was little part of my problem with salad was the dressing. I hate most salad dressing. I generally do not like the "classics" of Ranch, Italian, French, Thousand Island etc although in recent years I have learned that I enjoy a few vinaigrettes. The lettuce wrap turned salad I made excited me so much because I realized I could use substitutes for dressing and enjoy a salad the way I like. I could use buffalo sauce, hummus, bbq sauce, salsa or even mayonnaise as salad dressings! My mind started racing with all the possibilities. Seriously, think of your favorite sandwich or burger. Think about the toppings you put on it. Now think about the condiment you put on it. BAM! Remove the bun, add extra lettuce and you have a salad! 

So, today's salad is a tribute to sandwiches, to alternative dressings and to deliciousness. I must warn you that if you try mine you will experience heat and spice...just the way I like it! 

Buffalo Chicken Salad 

(Today I made mine without the chicken. It is good either way.) 

Ingredients: 

Romaine lettuce 

Spinach

Tomato

Sandwich pickles

Jalapeno (in a jar or raw)

... if you use raw I would recommend only two or three rings of it. 

Buffalo sauce (I use Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce)

Chicken 

Extra Ingredients: 

(You may want to add a little bit of these to off-set the heat.) 

Ranch dressing (I added a little bit of this to today's salad.)

Cheese (I added a few blue cheese crumbles.)

Additional veggies

Directions: 

1. Cook chicken (if using) however you generally prepare chicken. Usually I will a) thaw the chicken, season with salt and pepper, slice and toss into a skillet or b) put chicken in a crockpot, cover with water, set on high for 4 hours, remove and shred. 

2. Chop tomatoes, pickles and jalapeno (if raw). Word to the wise: less raw jalapeno is more. I made this mistake the second time I made this salad. If you enjoy raw jalapeno and want more of it then you may want to remove the seeds. The seeds add WAY more heat. 

3. Wash and dry lettuce and spinach (or if you weren't raised by my mom just open the bag and use immediately ;-) ) and put in bowl. 

4. Top with chicken, tomato, pickles, jalapeno, buffalo sauce (use sparingly) and any other additional ingredients. 

5. Enjoy! 

Don't forget to check in and see what Cass and Tracey are making. I seriously wish they would come and cook for me! Also, remember it is not too late to join in the fun. Two of my friends (Daisy and Sally) have posted about salads they make, and I can't wait to try those out, too! You don't have to have a blog to participate. Leave a comment, post on FB, take a pic and upload it to Instagram...whatever suits you best! 

Salad Week: Grilled Salmon and Grapefruit Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

This is one of my all time favorite cookbooks. I usually love everything I make out of it and I have taken to drawing stars on the pages of the recipes to definitely make again.

Barnes and Noble

That being said...you would think that I would follow the directions a little bit more carefully then I actually did. And had I done that it probably would have prevented me from making this face. 

My vegetable face...aka my "I'm being punished" face.

Kris calls this my vegetable face. I call it, I'm being punished face. When I was little, my parents used to make me sit at the table until I was done eating all my vegetables... so sit I would and it would feel like torture. This is the face I would make while chewing. Now I still make that face when something I eat takes me back to that period of time in my life. Ugh.

As you can probably tell, I didn't really care for this salad. I was a little bit nervous going into it because it has a number of really strong elements: salmon, grapefruit and a homemade vinaigrette. I thought it would be okay though because I love all the above mentioned items. It probably would have been okay had I followed the exact directions of the book.

Here's what I did differently: 

1. Baked the salmon instead of grilling it. 

2. Used old (really really old) salmon from my freezer... fresh or newly frozen is always better 

3. Used a sparkling blood orange juice drink instead of regular blood orange juice

4. Used fresh grapefruit instead of jarred grapefruit as they recommend

The last two changes I think were okay...although I would like to try the dressing again with the regular blood OJ as opposed to the sparkling OJ. 

My main issue with the salad was the salmon. It was probably because my salmon was not quality fish and because I chose to bake it instead of grilling it. If I were to make it again, I would either bake the salmon with my other salmon recipes (with other seasonings) or grill it with their recommended seasonings. The flavor was definitely off and to be honest ruined the salad for me. It honestly smelled a little bit like a pumpkin which just isn't good. Most of my salmon was left in the bowl by the time my salad was gone. 

Here are the positives and negatives of this salad. 

Negatives: 

1. Smelled like pumpkin

2. Fish was gross

3. Took more time to make then I like to spend on any given food item (I had to thaw the salmon yesterday, get up early to prep the grapefruit/onion/dressing this morning and then cook the salmon and prepare the salad at lunch. It was the salad that never ends!) 

Positives: 

1. It was the first time in my life that I was picking through something to find broccoli and spinach rather than picking through broccoli and spinach to find something else. I was actually looking forward to the broccoli and spinach bites! 

2. The dressing was worth making again. It was relatively easy and fun to do. 

3. I got about two - three servings of fruits and vegetables from this salad

4. It looked really fancy... so if you love salmon and grapefruit it might be a good one for you to try out for entertaining purposes. :) 

So, without further ado, here is how you make it. 

Grilled Salmon and Grapefruit Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Compliments of Cooking Light

Ingredients: 

(serves 4) 

2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion, cut into 1/2 inch think slices 

Cooking spray

8 cups mixed baby salad greens

1 (24-ounce) jar red grapefruit sections, drained

Blood Orange Vinaigrette 

*I chose to add raw broccoli and sunflower seeds to this salad as well. I feel this was one of the better choices I made with this salad. The vinaigrette masked the taste of the broccoli and for me that was a very good thing. 

Blood Orange Vinaigrette Ingredients: 

1/3 cup blood orange juice

1 tablespoon minced shallots

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

Doesn't my shallot kinda look like a snail? Also, does anybody want some shallots? I bought way too many.

Directions: 

1. For vinaigrette combine all ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Serving size about 3 tablespoons. 

2. Prepare grill. 

3. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Coat fillets and onion slices with cooking spray. Place fish and onion on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Cover and grill 5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork and onion is tender. 

4. Cut onion into bite-sized chunks. Place 2 cups salad greens on each of 4 serving plates; arrange grapefruit sections, onion, and fish evenly over greens on each plate. Drizzle Blood Orange Vinaigrette evenly over salads. 

Vinaigrette, grapefruit and broccoli 

Completed salad... so pretty! 

So there ya go. Not the best, but not the worst either. A pretty middle of the road salad. How's that for a sales pitch? 

Now, if you are sitting there feeling bad for me because I ate pumpkin salmon fish today so I could participate in salad week on my blog don't feel too bad. Why? Because what goes great with salad? Sweet potato! This is a staple around my house. Kris and I can't get enough. They are delicious, nutritious and oh so delightful. 

Sweet potato chips

Here's a freebie for you because I kinda feel bad about posting a 2.5 star salad. Wash, peel and cut sweet potato. Toss in olive oil (or garlic olive oil if you have it... yum!!!) and sprinkle lightly with seasoning salt. Set oven to "broil" and pop in for 10 minutes on a baking sheet. Flip at the five minute mark. They are the best!

Don't forget to check out what Cass and Tracey are making today! I've definitely been getting some great inspiration from their salads this week! Also, I have to make a special shout out to my friend, Daisy. She is joining us in salad week and posting her photos to Instagram! Way to go Daisy! Remember, you can join in the fun, too! Leave a comment with your favorite salad or post a pic on your Facebook or Instagram. Who knows... maybe I will take my favorites from all of you and do a special post with them on Saturday.

Salad Week: Mom's Mandarin Orange Salad

I used to pray that God would make me like salads. I'm not even joking. I was an incredibly picky eater growing up and people just assumed that I was a picky eater because I wanted to be a picky eater. They were wrong. I wanted to like the food that everybody else liked. I wanted to be able to eat my vegetables with a smile. I so wanted to be one of those people who went to a restaurant and said, "I'm going to order a salad."

So I prayed, "Dear God, please make me like salad." Somewhere along the line God answered that prayer. (He also answered my prayer to make me like potatoes and chicken soup, but that is a different story all together.) This salad that I am featuring today is one of the very first (if not the first) salad that I truly ever enjoyed. Everybody can thank my dear mom for this wonderful creation.

Mom's Mandarin Orange Salad

Ingredients

Organic Spring Mix

One can of Mandarin oranges

Chow mein noodles

Newman's Own low fat sesame ginger salad dressing

Directions (do we really need these?) 

Here is what I'll say with this salad: eyeball it. I don't have exact proportions because I just put in whatever looks right. 

1. Fill bowl with spring mix

2. Throw on oranges and noodles (you often need less noodles then you think) 

3. Add dressing

4. Enjoy!

Don't forget that I am doing salads all week long here at Abounding Joy! Also, my sister-in-law Cass and cousin-in-law Tracey are getting in on the action too! Check out their blogs here (Cass) and here (Tracey) for some more great salad ideas!

Do you want to join in the fun? Link your favorite salad recipe in the comments section!

Finding My Motivation

My health really took a big hit this summer. It was 100% completely my fault. Between traveling (Nevada City, San Diego, Texas, Thailand) and making the final push to get everything in order for the mission trip, I had very little time to myself. I had little time at home, little time to rest and little time to make an effort to take care of me. One of the goals I set for myself was that once I was back from Thailand I would start saying no to more things and become diligent in taking care of me once more. This includes: exercise, healthy diet, adequate rest, doing things I enjoy and taking care of my house. Honestly, after we got back from Thailand, I slept for about four days straight. I am still not completely back on PST,  but I am close. But, this week (1.5 weeks removed) has been wonderful in terms of taking back my life.

One thing I am using to help me do this is Twitter. Twitter? I know, it sounds weird. However, I got the idea from my "Health" magazine. It recommended following certain sites/people like "Harvard Health" to find daily motivation. I made an account, followed their recommended people and also followed my two favorite health magazines: "Health" and "Shape." It has been so great. I just jump onto Twitter and it is loaded with quotes, tips, workouts, MOTIVATION. Love it!

It sounds stupid, but Twitter really got me excited for my workout this morning. Between Babe Ruth quotes and workout ideas... I was pumped up!

Usually I walk hills in the mornings for about 45 minutes. This summer, I rarely did this and it was very apparent. :) This week I started walking again and it felt great. I had bought a watch to use in Thailand and now that I am back I have been using it to time myself and motivate myself to go faster on my walks. I felt really fabulous after today's workout and so I wanted to blog about it because a) I want to remember how accomplished and great I feel today and b) maybe it will inspire you to get up off the couch and start working out too.

Friday is usually what my walking partner and I call "the short walk." She has limited time on Fridays to walk so we cut our walk by about 15 minutes. Today we were really moving and after I dropped her off at her house only 14 minutes had passed. Usually it is another 10 minutes to my house. For some reason (probably Twitter) I felt so motivated to start running home instead of walking. Well, there are some pretty big hills so run/walk. Anyway, I got home in 7 minutes instead of 10! Woot woot!

This put me at just over a 20 minute workout and I wanted to keep it going so I logged on to my Twitter and pulled up this post from Shape magazine. If you check it out, I went with the jump roping. I did 10 reps which took five minutes. A five minute workout? Sign me up! It was great because it kept my heart rate up, allowed for a rest period and didn't take a long time to complete. It was the perfect thing to tack on to the end of my walk. Plus, I had the added bonus of being able to watch "The Amazing Race" while I was doing it.

Then, because I really want to focus on building arm strength, I decided to end my workout with a little yoga. I pulled this article out of my "Health" magazine and it is so awesome. However, I will never post a picture on here of me doing it because.... well I don't look anything like the picture. I look more like a whale trying to do ballet. Anyway, check out the photo below to get the full workout. Basically, you just do each pose for five breaths and then repeat 5-8 times. I'm working up to it. :D

So there it is. My 30 minute, Friday workout. What motivates you to workout?

Next week is Salad Week on my blog! I am partnering with a couple of other bloggers to bring you delicious, easy salads all week long. I'll have fresh easy ideas all week long starting on Monday!