Bullet points because I'm too lazy to connect all of my thoughts/experiences about a variety of random things. I know you are still waiting on Russia updates, but I'm still sorting through and processing from that trip, so bear with me. I'll try and have some Russia things for you soon.
1. Last week was our week of eating out. We were given a bunch of restaurant gift certificates for our anniversary, so we decided to use all of them up last week before I jumped back into my food intolerance diet. It was so nice not to have too cook much and to have leftovers, but that just made it that much harder to jump back into my diet, which requires I cut out gluten, casein, sugar, eggs, and almonds.
2. I mentioned being in somewhat of a funk, so DH and I decided to head up the canyon for a wildflower hike last Friday. We thought it might be too early for the peak viewing time because of how cold and rainy our spring was. We were right, but we still enjoyed seeing some new sights from the beginning of the wildflower season. Here are a few photos:
As we were driving up to our favorite spot, we caught a glimpse of snow leftover from winter! Can you believe it? It was August 5th and there was still snow on the very top peaks. Amazing.
Our favorite spot involves walking around this lake. We love it because it's not too far (less than 2 miles), but you get to see such a wide variety of flowers from the beginning point to the end. It's incredible the different diversity that we see as we walk around.
Indian Paintbrush was in bloom.
As were Columbines. I love their wispy tails on the back end.
I've seen Columbine before when we've been up, but it must be an early season wildflower because the Columbine was thick this time. I always thought it grew on a single stem like the above picture, so I was shocked when I saw 3 or more blooms on the same stem. I don't know if you can see that here or not.
We literally saw fields full of Columbine. It was great as it was a new sight for us because we usually wait to go up to the mountain lake until the flowers have peaked. This was pre-peak, but it was still good.
I loved all the different colors we saw- the blues of the Lupine, the white from the Columbine, red from Indian Paintbrush, there was pink from Sticky Geranium, yellow from mule's ear, and more. I always appreciate the distraction from life (and IF) by going into nature and taking pictures. I love God's handiwork and creativity! Dh said he's taking me up to the lake again this weekend to see if more flowers have come out, and I'm thinking they will have because we saw so many buds just waiting to open. I can't wait!
3. Friday night we also went to see a show because we got 1/2 price tickets. Can't beat that price. We saw "South Pacific" and they started off with a 91 year old WWII veteran leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. It had me in tears as I thought of my grandfather who pass away in November as he was also a WWII veteran. I thought of how I'll no longer be able to hear his stories from the war.
4. DH's little sister gave birth on Sunday, which put a damper on my otherwise good weekend. I should be happy she chose life for her child, but somehow it just seems so unfair that God has blessed her with 2 children now as she continues to live with her abusive boyfriend. She claims he won't allow her to have either of the kids baptized. I don't know if that's true or just her excuse, but I can't help but think of their eternal destiny at the moment.
5. Dh and I gave our Russia presentation Sunday after church and it went really well. We ended up talking for 30 minutes about our trip and people had lots of questions and comments afterwards, which makes me think they were really interested in what we had to say.
6. All this week I've been taking pictures and recording everything I've eaten because I've been participating in a research study. The study examines the microflora in your gut, so I get to finish the study tomorrow with a stool sample and bloodwork on Friday. Is it nerdy that I'm excited to get the results back from the bloodwork and stool sample? I'm hoping maybe I'll learn something new about my gut or the inflammation in my body as a result of the test results I'll get (for free!).
7. Fall feels like it is right around the corner here. Our daytime temperatures are still in the upper 80's, but overnight it's been dipping down into the low 50s! It makes for great, free air-conditioning overnight as we open up our windows and cool the house down, but I'm afraid fall is coming early. I even saw a few of the trees in town starting to turn yellow and it's only mid-August. I have a bad feeling fall will come early and winter will last long. I hope I'm mistaken. Maybe the weather will just stay like this for awhile because I absolutely love it.
8. I have found an amazing new way to satisfy my chocolate cravings without sugar.....roasted and ground cacao beans! Have you heard of them before? I hadn't until I saw something at a local artisan/specialty grocery store. I absolutely love chocolate, but haven't been eating any since I'm trying to cut out sugar. This cacao drink, however, I could not pass up. Basically, you brew the beans like you do coffee- in a coffee maker or french press. They smell like milk chocolate, but after they are brewed, the drink has a much softer, milder taste. You can add milk, sugar, or coffee to your drink to change it up, but I just drank the beans brewed black. It was so good and satisfying and evidently, the company claims the beans to be extremely high in antioxidants. It's low in calories and has no sugar, no fat, no dairy, no sodium, and no cholesterol. Intrigued like I was? Try it out. The one I bought is called Crio Bru, but I'm sure there are other brands of roasted cacao beans as well.
9. Finally, I'm back seeing a chiropractor again. I have a love/hate relationship with chiropractors. I love being adjusted and feeling better, but I hate the fees and treatment programs they try to get you signed up for. Our budget doesn't allow for that. It's actually been over a year since I've seen a chiropractor, and my lower back and neck were in serious disarray (guess where I carry my stress?). So off I went to a new chiropractor. If I could find one that did acupuncture, I'd definitely be excited. I've had 2 adjustments this week and feel amazingly better already, but he tells me I have a terrible curve in my neck (only 1% and it should be 18-20%) and am starting to get bone spurs in my neck already. I do believe it because my grandmother has battled back pain for years, has numerous bone spurs, and has had back surgery a few times. But I know he's going to try to sell me on a regular treatment program, and I'm just not sure I want to invest the money into that, but then I think....the 1st time we got pregnant I was being treated for my lower back by a chiropractor. I wonder if there was any connection??
Phew- I had a lot of updates. Congrats if you read your way through. I can't wait for Prayer Buddies to start tomorrow. I'm anxiously awaiting my assignment!
1. Last week was our week of eating out. We were given a bunch of restaurant gift certificates for our anniversary, so we decided to use all of them up last week before I jumped back into my food intolerance diet. It was so nice not to have too cook much and to have leftovers, but that just made it that much harder to jump back into my diet, which requires I cut out gluten, casein, sugar, eggs, and almonds.
2. I mentioned being in somewhat of a funk, so DH and I decided to head up the canyon for a wildflower hike last Friday. We thought it might be too early for the peak viewing time because of how cold and rainy our spring was. We were right, but we still enjoyed seeing some new sights from the beginning of the wildflower season. Here are a few photos:
As we were driving up to our favorite spot, we caught a glimpse of snow leftover from winter! Can you believe it? It was August 5th and there was still snow on the very top peaks. Amazing.
Our favorite spot involves walking around this lake. We love it because it's not too far (less than 2 miles), but you get to see such a wide variety of flowers from the beginning point to the end. It's incredible the different diversity that we see as we walk around.
Indian Paintbrush was in bloom.
As were Columbines. I love their wispy tails on the back end.
I've seen Columbine before when we've been up, but it must be an early season wildflower because the Columbine was thick this time. I always thought it grew on a single stem like the above picture, so I was shocked when I saw 3 or more blooms on the same stem. I don't know if you can see that here or not.
We literally saw fields full of Columbine. It was great as it was a new sight for us because we usually wait to go up to the mountain lake until the flowers have peaked. This was pre-peak, but it was still good.
I loved all the different colors we saw- the blues of the Lupine, the white from the Columbine, red from Indian Paintbrush, there was pink from Sticky Geranium, yellow from mule's ear, and more. I always appreciate the distraction from life (and IF) by going into nature and taking pictures. I love God's handiwork and creativity! Dh said he's taking me up to the lake again this weekend to see if more flowers have come out, and I'm thinking they will have because we saw so many buds just waiting to open. I can't wait!
3. Friday night we also went to see a show because we got 1/2 price tickets. Can't beat that price. We saw "South Pacific" and they started off with a 91 year old WWII veteran leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. It had me in tears as I thought of my grandfather who pass away in November as he was also a WWII veteran. I thought of how I'll no longer be able to hear his stories from the war.
4. DH's little sister gave birth on Sunday, which put a damper on my otherwise good weekend. I should be happy she chose life for her child, but somehow it just seems so unfair that God has blessed her with 2 children now as she continues to live with her abusive boyfriend. She claims he won't allow her to have either of the kids baptized. I don't know if that's true or just her excuse, but I can't help but think of their eternal destiny at the moment.
5. Dh and I gave our Russia presentation Sunday after church and it went really well. We ended up talking for 30 minutes about our trip and people had lots of questions and comments afterwards, which makes me think they were really interested in what we had to say.
6. All this week I've been taking pictures and recording everything I've eaten because I've been participating in a research study. The study examines the microflora in your gut, so I get to finish the study tomorrow with a stool sample and bloodwork on Friday. Is it nerdy that I'm excited to get the results back from the bloodwork and stool sample? I'm hoping maybe I'll learn something new about my gut or the inflammation in my body as a result of the test results I'll get (for free!).
7. Fall feels like it is right around the corner here. Our daytime temperatures are still in the upper 80's, but overnight it's been dipping down into the low 50s! It makes for great, free air-conditioning overnight as we open up our windows and cool the house down, but I'm afraid fall is coming early. I even saw a few of the trees in town starting to turn yellow and it's only mid-August. I have a bad feeling fall will come early and winter will last long. I hope I'm mistaken. Maybe the weather will just stay like this for awhile because I absolutely love it.
8. I have found an amazing new way to satisfy my chocolate cravings without sugar.....roasted and ground cacao beans! Have you heard of them before? I hadn't until I saw something at a local artisan/specialty grocery store. I absolutely love chocolate, but haven't been eating any since I'm trying to cut out sugar. This cacao drink, however, I could not pass up. Basically, you brew the beans like you do coffee- in a coffee maker or french press. They smell like milk chocolate, but after they are brewed, the drink has a much softer, milder taste. You can add milk, sugar, or coffee to your drink to change it up, but I just drank the beans brewed black. It was so good and satisfying and evidently, the company claims the beans to be extremely high in antioxidants. It's low in calories and has no sugar, no fat, no dairy, no sodium, and no cholesterol. Intrigued like I was? Try it out. The one I bought is called Crio Bru, but I'm sure there are other brands of roasted cacao beans as well.
9. Finally, I'm back seeing a chiropractor again. I have a love/hate relationship with chiropractors. I love being adjusted and feeling better, but I hate the fees and treatment programs they try to get you signed up for. Our budget doesn't allow for that. It's actually been over a year since I've seen a chiropractor, and my lower back and neck were in serious disarray (guess where I carry my stress?). So off I went to a new chiropractor. If I could find one that did acupuncture, I'd definitely be excited. I've had 2 adjustments this week and feel amazingly better already, but he tells me I have a terrible curve in my neck (only 1% and it should be 18-20%) and am starting to get bone spurs in my neck already. I do believe it because my grandmother has battled back pain for years, has numerous bone spurs, and has had back surgery a few times. But I know he's going to try to sell me on a regular treatment program, and I'm just not sure I want to invest the money into that, but then I think....the 1st time we got pregnant I was being treated for my lower back by a chiropractor. I wonder if there was any connection??
Phew- I had a lot of updates. Congrats if you read your way through. I can't wait for Prayer Buddies to start tomorrow. I'm anxiously awaiting my assignment!
Your wildflower pictures are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the chiropractor wanting to get you into treatment! I've been thinking about less appointments myself. I hate to spend the money, but maybe if things are fixed younger, we can age gracefully and in less pain.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the study you are doing. How did you get involved? It sounds like a lot of work if you have to record & photograph your food intake. I would have a hard time being diligent about that. :)
Hoping you have a great week ahead!
I love the pics of the wildflowers and thank you for educating me on many of their names. We saw a bunch of wildflowers on our recent trip to Yellowstone, but I didn't know what any of their names were, so it was cool to read your post! I loved seeing wide open spaces as far as the eye could see filled with those yellow flowers (again, sorry, I don't know their name!).
ReplyDeleteHave fun on your hike again this weekend, that lake looks beautiful! Can you go swimming in it? I think that would be awesome!!
Thanks, CM!
ReplyDeleteHis Perfect Timing- yes, aging gracefully with less pain. That is a good way to look at it! As far as the study- it was through a local university and I only had to record food for 3 days, so that wasn't too bad.
JBTC- yes, I bet you saw some of the same wildflowers in Yellowstone! The yellow ones might have been mules-ear or Arrow Leaf if they looked like sunflowers. And yes, you can go swimming in the lake. Want to come visit??:-)