Its March!!!

It is so close to being Spring and I cannot wait! The days are already getting noticeably longer and it is very energizing! I am finding that although it is giving me more energy to make the most of every day it is also making it a bit harder to be content. I am so excited for things to come that I forget to truly enjoy every second that I am living now. We just paid off my car this week and I was thrilled and it got me to thinking about how that is one step closer to buying a house as we can save for a down payment which is one step closer to starting a family and I am looking forward to this summer and gardening with friends and on and on. Being excited isn't the problem, but getting too attached to those future things is what can be dangerous. We finished our taxes this week as well and found that we are owing A LOT of money. I was crushed! I was hoping to get a refund as we need to replace our car batteries and Mark's windshield. I had not expected to have to fix all of those things out of pocket and pay the government a ton of money. All of a sudden my mind started swirling with thoughts of how we will not have a house and we wont be able to have kids forever and by then I probably won't be able to have kids and we will be in an apartment for the rest of our lives and carrying laundry down 2 flights to wash, etc. Of course that is all crazy and I see that now but it is really how I felt. I also felt ashamed letting myself get so deflated so quickly. Being someone who is constantly encouraging people to put their faith in God and to rely on his perfect plan and wisdom to work things out, it is completely opposite of what I was doing. I have been guilty more than once of claiming to fully trust Christ while at the same time trying to tug on his sleeve saying "but what about this and that thing or dream". I need to work more on completely trusting. I have never been left stranded before and I don't know why I let myself get so tied to these dreams as if they are going to complete my life. If I get to own a house some day that would be cool, but I am going to be fine if I don't. If I can have children some day that would be awesome, but if not, I will be fine too.  God's plan has continually worked out for his glory and my good every time, I have no reason to doubt that now. :)

Some good stuff to eat!

This is just a standard chicken soup with barley, however I cut all of my carrots into little hearts, because I love Mark so much and I wanted to surprise him lol.

These are mini power bars most close to LARABARS. I found the recipe here. They only take three ingredients to make! http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-3-ingredient-energy-bars-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-184306
They are sooooooo good. I individually wrapped them and put them in the fridge so they will last awhile and be easy to grab on the go.

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YUM wings! These I made using a variety of suggested recipes and some of my own inventing. Mark has been on the hunt for the perfect hot wings. I went to West Side Market with a couple of gal pals and while I was there I came across some beautiful wings so I got a bunch to experiment with. I made three different kinds: traditional hot wings, bar b que and asian sweet and spicy with sesame seeds. These were baked instead of fried so healthier and quite tasty!

Mushroom Barley Soup. We eat vegetarian about 1/2 of the week so this recipe was great and cheap! http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/mushroom-barley-soup-00100000093673/index.html I added celery and a different spice mixture to mine because it was what I had. It was very good.

Also, I want to recommend Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I have been so short on time lately and have found that when I don't always have time for a full blown workout and shower that I can't easily find an excuse to not work out for 20 minutes, this has been great to carry me through this busy time with coaching. Especially with my hubs doing it with me. Then it is bonding time, work out time and it keeps us motivated! :)