Home, Food & Goals

HOME

This past week we've been focusing on settling into our home! Every moment we have seems to have been filled with cleaning, organizing, setting up services, etc.

It was so, so helpful to have family help us get settled. My family helped clean & get all of our stuff into the house and Jeremy's family flew up to see the house and help deep clean & organize.

We are BLESSED & THANKFUL.

It was great timing for me to have this week off of work. I've been able to relax, cook and continue making our house a home!

I had no idea how much this house would mean to me. I thought it would be like getting a car- fun, exciting and useful- but it really has been meaningful to me. And I love it.

FOOD

Last night was our first date night in the house and I made Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili. It was flavorful, healthy, delicious, and easy to make. Like, actually easy to make.

I made Jeremy a burrito and I ate mine, as you can see, in a bowl.

Click here for the recipe.

GOALS

My senior year of high school suddenly it mattered a lot what I ate in relation to how my body looked. I have been figuring out over the past 6 years how it looks for me to be healthy. I have realized it doesn't mean dieting, exercising daily, or anything extreme. Being healthy for me means a balance.

And today I am the same weight I was about 6 years ago as a junior in high school, which has been my goal weight. Yey!

One of the biggest things I've learned is "It's not worth it."

It's not worth feeling sick to have extra sugar.

It's not worth eating milk products and not feeling well.

It's not worth being bloated and overweight to have extra snacks or desserts.

And going with that, I've learned "It IS worth it."

It is worth it to eat real food.

It is worth it to take extra time and cook meals at home.

It is worth having delicious chocolate daily in small portions.

It is worth eating small portions throughout the day because that's what my body is asking for.

Some of the rules I've followed (sometimes not so well) to get me here:

- Don't eat when I'm not hungry

- Don't overeat/stuff myself

- Don't drink soda on weekdays

- Only 1 soda a day on weekends

- No sweets before lunch or after dinner

- Lots of fruits and veggies when possible

- Always have water or tea in my hand

Now to start exercising. I kind of suck at that...

With love from Roseville,

Paige

Prayers for the Black Cat

Yesterday evening I approached a busy intersection where I can almost always bet a homeless person will be standing with a sign.

To my surprise, a black cat was sitting attentively at the spot where a person usually stands.

Now I don't have a love, or even a like for cats, but I felt bad for the dang thing. It was sitting there in the cold, probably minutes away from dashing out in traffic and become roadkill.

I found myself wondering who's cat it was... We're they looking for it? Was it lost? Hungry?

Then I thought, "I should probably say a prayer for the cat."

And I stopped suddenly in one of those moments of clarity and realization.

The homeless people on that corner have become a lawn ornament to me. They're always there, and most likely always will be. And I've stopped thinking about them.

Are they cold?

Are they hungry?

Are they lost?

Is someone looking for them?

And why don't I say a prayer for them? Ask God for their protection?

Why do I experience the 45 seconds of awkward-not-making-eye-contact-and-looking-at-my-phone and not exchange that for what I would give for the black cat?

With love from Sacramento,

Paige

Our First Home

Welp, we've GOT IT! :) Our first house.

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago that I never posted. I was imagining how it would feel when we got our house... ready to press "publish post" when we got the keys. It was filled with lots of exclamation points and bolded words. Descriptions of the rooms and sharing our hopes and dreams for the house.

And I do feel so excited. I do feel like using exclamation points and bolded words... but I also feel quiet. I feel like being still. I feel thankful.

I will be updating Facebook with pictures as we continue to renovate and decorate each room.

In the mean time, I'll give a little synopsis. It was built in 1977 in the city of Roseville, outside of Sacramento. It's along a greenbelt- so the backyard is open to a creek/green park area. It's a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath, 2 story house with the rooms and 2 baths upstairs.

And I'm not sure what it is about the house- but I love it. I love the windows and the smell of the pine trees and that I can see living there forever- a feeling I never thought possible.

So that's all for now :)

With love and THANKS from Sacramento (because we don't have internet yet in our house ;)),

Paige