He's still workin' on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still workin' on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon my heart,
"Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part."
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

He's still workin' on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still workin' on me.



In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

He's still workin'on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still workin' on me.



Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Cindarella Needs A Night Out


I’m feeling a lot like Cinderella lately. Except I don’t have a Ball to go to and I definitely don’t have money for a new pair of shoes! I know, I know…my plight isn’t any different from every other American mom, but it’s MY life and this is MY blog so I’m just gonna go ahead and vent! My life is work, work, work and not enough play! Laundry, vacuuming, dishes, cooking meals, running errands, scrubbing toilets, and the list goes on. And the last bit of decadence that I rewarded myself with is gone. Food! I know I did this to myself. It was my decision to have the surgery. I just miss eating! It’s not that I’m feeling incredibly hungry because honestly the ½ cup of food that I can have 3 times a day does almost fill me up, it’s just that I still want to eat. The signals from my belly to my brain are just getting mixed up. My belly is saying “I’m full” but my brain is saying “I don’t care, I still want some chocolate!” I’m starting to feel like that proverbial baby whose just had their candy taken away and I just want to throw myself on the floor and throw a full blown tantrum complete with kicking and screaming! It’s so hard to shop at the grocery store and prepare meals for my family. It’s incredibly tempting walking through the snack food aisle and seeing those Gibbles cheese curls sitting on the shelf all lonely, just calling out to me to rescue them and take them home with me! Or the Smore's flavored Pop Tarts or the Texas Garlic Toast……I just miss eating like I used to. I love food and I feel like I’ve lost my best friend, my constant companion when my husband is at work and my boys are in bed at night. My only “friend” who was always there to comfort me when no one else was. I honestly feel like I’m going through stages of grief and only someone whose gone through this surgery could understand. It’s not like someone who’s just on a diet. You could be on a diet and still overeat and nothing happens. But if I overeat right now, I’ll get sick. I’ll vomit. I’ll feel incredibly uncomfortable. Always before if I was feeling down or if I accomplished something, I rewarded myself with food. You know, going out to dinner, ice cream, whatever I craved at the moment. But now, I can’t do that. I can’t even celebrate that I’ve lost 25 lbs in my normal way. I mean I’m happy, incredibly happy. I just miss eating.


Tip Of The Day....Here's another meal idea for breakfast. General Mills Fiber One Complete Pancake Mix is an excellent alternative to some of the other brands. When compared to the Great Value Buttermilk Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix that my family used before, the calories are reduced by 40g, the fiber increased by 4g, the carbohydrates reduced by 6g, and the sugar reduced by 5 g. The protein is the same. However, to give yourself a boost, my husband and I have come up with this idea. We add 1 scoop of Whey protein powder in the vanilla flavor and grind up some Grape Nuts cereal in the food processor to add to the mix as well and this increases your protein by as much as 25g and your fiber by 8g. When combined with sugar free syrup, your off to a pretty good start to your day. Don't forget to add some fruit like strawberries, blueberries, grapes or a banana and your bound to have a great day!

Toot Tooot!



Beans beans the healthy fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot ,the better you feel
So eat your beans with every meal!


I thought it ironic that I mentioned being forgetful in my last blog and then I forgot to give my Tip Of The Day. So today is devoted solely to a meal idea I came up with for either lunch or dinner. I guess I should make it clear up front especially for those that read my blog and are already very health conscious that I’ve come up with these tips on my own and some of them may not be the absolute best thing for you, but as I said before it’s the little changes that add up. So I’m just doing my best to give you some alternatives to some of the less healthy foods we sometimes find ourselves eating because we just don’t know what else to eat. With this in mind, here’s what I came up with for lunch yesterday…..

I began by sauteing one small chopped onion and one chopped celery stalk in just a little bit of butter. I drained and rinsed a can of Hanover black beans and added those when the celery and onions were tender. Separately in the microwave I prepared a pouch of Uncle Ben’s Ready Whole Grain Medley Brown and Wild Rice. When that was finished, I mixed everything together. I then added lots and lots of seasoning…salt, pepper, garlic powder, season all, and a few other things I can’t quite remember at the moment. To add just a little bit of moisture since it seemed a tad bit dry, I added some chicken broth which gave some additional flavor as well. I measured my ½ cup and added a few grapes to my plate and it was delicious! For a normal person without any restriction on their stomach like I have, the normal serving size is 1 ½ cup. Here is the nutritional breakdown….total calories-340, total fat-3.5g, total carbohydrates-64g, total fiber-9g, total protein-14g. The only downfall that I could find to this meal is the sodium content which was 1120mg. This is something to definitely be careful of, especially if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. This can easily be avoided by making a slight adjustment to the recipe. A bag of dried black beans has no sodium at all. So you could soak the beans overnight or use the quick cook method on the back of the bag and then follow all of the same steps to the recipe. This would obviously take longer, but it is the much healthier way of doing it.
One other thing I want to caution you about with this recipe is that beans, as you know cause gas. So be prepared for lots of “music” in your house when you eat this meal! Have fun, enjoy and most of all……HAPPY TOOTING!!!!!