Three Thought Thursday: Episode 14

1. Another Lenten season has come to an end. I wish I could say this Lent was a little more sacrificial for me, but I'd be lying if I did. Instead of giving up something major this year, I decided to focus on a few specific goals instead, namely losing ten pounds and getting from 10mg of prednisone per day to 5mg per day. Mark told me from the beginning that losing ten pounds in six weeks was a little bit too lofty of a goal considering I only had ten pounds to lose and didn't plan to pick up a rigorous exercise routine or diet. I guess he was right. I lost six of the ten pounds. But I'm not disappointed. That's still about a pound a week! And I definitely feel better about myself. Honestly, that was the goal: to focus on taking better care of the body that God gave me. So much focus has been on being a mommy that I had given up on myself to an extent. For people who see me regularly, I doubt the change is noticable. But my brother Pat, who last saw me at Christmas-time, was in town this past weekend and said, "Hey Dog! You look like you circa 2004!" Compliment? I'll take it. As for the prednisone goal, I'm proud to say that it is in the bag! I've officially been on just 5mg of prednisone for two weeks now. I had to gradually work down and spend a while on 7.5mg before making the final move. But so far I have been happy to see no flares since moving to 5 and that includes making it through another visit from Aunt Flo, where I was anticipating a flare to pop up. Yea! Praise God! Overall, while not extremely sacrificial, this Lenten season has done wonders for how I feel physically and how I feel about myself mentally. Which I'd like to think is how God would want it. And the best little Lenten gift of all was the birth of my very first nephew (I'm finally an aunt!), Jackson Patrick, to my brother Mike and his amazing wife, Casey. I'm so excited!

2. I got this little funny in the mail this week from my mom:

Toally brightened my day! Especially the little note from my mom at the bottom.

I can honestly say I am ALL of these things, usually on a daily basis. I considered omitting "veterinarian" since we're not currently owners of a quadraped, but after seeing my boys at Uncle Andy and Aunt Abby's house this past week, I better keep it on there...

3. A few weeks back I wrote about trying out new non-meat recipes for Lend this year instead of relying on take-out fried fish. I'm happy to announce that we didn't get take-out at all during Lent this year! Instead, we tried a variety of yummy new recipes and ate at our friends' house a few times. My favorites that I attempted were Lamu-style Mahi Mahi and Eggplant Parmesan. The fish was phenomenal. We actually had it twice--first filleted and then shredded up for fish tacos. And it's super easy to make, to boot! Since we don't have the best fresh fish around here, I used frozen fillets and it was still delish. The eggplant parmesan was quite the process to make but was so worth it. Definitely not as healthy as the fish but a very yummy comfort food style meal! I'll definitely be adding both to my year-round recipe collection!