Waiting...

I can think of about 1001 things that I would rather do than wait. I am not sure if it is my anxious personality, the inability to focus on one thing for any substantial amount of time, or the fact that I am always in a hurry. When I have to wait for something that I am really excited about....it is worse. I feel a constant stream of adrenalin running into my system. It is like one of those little fountains that are often in doctors offices, except, with out the calming effect. I can't sit down and focus on anything.

There are a couple of things that I am waiting on now. I am waiting for time to go by so that school will be done for Christmas break. I am waiting on a rum cake to come out of the oven for a party I am going to this weekend. I am waiting on my niece Addison to get better so she can come home from the hospital. I am waiting on NCNM to give me a call and say yeah or nay so that I know if I will be going to medical school next year.

Sometimes this inability to sit still will cause to me to take action. Checking the cake, studying for finals, making phone calls to check on the status of a loved one. But when there is nothing that I can do to change the status of my application or hurry the process of healing for my dear sweet niece I become frustrated. I would like to be able to say that it is these times cause me to go to the lord in prayer and get down on my knees. But in most cases it doesn't. Don't get me wrong. When I learned about my sister and niece on Thanksgiving night, I prayed so hard, and so long. Waiting for my the yeah of nay for medical school is killing me...slowly.

I have not been to God much for this unknown. I think it is partly because I know that the knows my mind. He knows my fears and my hopes. I think that I am also afraid to pray about it because I am afraid that his answer might not be what I want to hear, which, in two of the three cases it is. Which leaves me stuck. I want to do well, I want to turn to him for everything, but somewhere deep inside me, I know that He already knows.

Yippy for summer!!!

My summer has officially started now that school is all done. I have just about a month of summer left, and I am pretty excited to relax, and have some fun, like I have not had in a while. Summer started with a bang. Not a literal one, just a financial one.

Instead of taking a little mini vacation to the beach, I bought a new fridge. Not the ideal purchase. But it is going to be very pretty in my cute little house.

Here are some of the things that I want to accomplish this summer...

Read a couple of books.

Make a couple of quilts.

Watch a couple of movies.

Go on a couple of runs.

Pretty general things. But enough to get me excited about what little is left this summer. I also want to learn how to use my digital camera a little better. I know this is a random list of thoughts. But that is about how my brain is working these days.

I should keep a note pad with me all the time.

What I like...

Today is beautiful day outside, with lots of sunshine for everyone to share. I love it when it is so warm out that it almost feels like you can't breath.

I have been feeling like I can't breath for a while now. But not because of the weather.

In March I decided to go back to school, and began taking classes full time (14 credits), and I am still working part time. Being the perfectionist that I am, I have had a very difficult time letting go of the other things that I use to do. Keeping up the house, cooking wonderful dinners, scrap-booking and card making, quilting, watching chick flicks. These are all the things that I miss. But lately, the only thing I have time for is studying.

Summer term is just about 1/3rd over, and with 7 weeks to go, I am counting down my birthday, when I will take my last two finals (both in chemistry). To stay on course, I am trying to insert little breaks into my days and weeks, where I take a little time for me. so I don't feel like I am suffocating. Today, since I only had to work a few hours, I came home and decided that it was time to get my hair cut. So I took a quick trip down to the salon, and had a little me time. It was a good time and I like the cut. But now it is time to get down to business.

Yippy for the ideal gas law.

Chili for Breakfast

Yesterday afternoon I met with my Naturopath, Dr. O'Leary. We talked about my diet and mainly the one thing that was lacking from it. Protein. So today, I am starting my morning with a nice big bowl of Amy's Chili. I know...it sounds a little crazy, but it actually is pretty good. A nice change from my routine of oatmeal or plain yogurt with granola.

When we sat down in her office, we brainstormed some ideas about how I can get more protein in my diet. I weigh 160 pounds, and it turns out that someone my size should have 72 grams a day. I was only getting in about half that every day. We also talked about when I am running that I need to take in even more protein. I think she said some where around 130 grams. Yikes! Protein and a complex carbohydrate is a good breakfast and snack because it will leave you feeling full for longer as well as it will help to stabilize you blood sugar over a longer period of time.

So she gave me a good list of things to snack on, which I will include below for you. And she stressed that it would be important for me to get at least 20 grams every morning for breakfast. Hence the chili. Amy's Organic Medium Chili has a whoppin' 15 grams per serving, and each can has two servings. Go Me!

I don't think that chili will be a staple for my mornings from now on, but it is a good change every once and a while. It also is a nice start to the changes I am making to diet.

Suggested High Protein Snacks

- Hard boiled eggs

- Nuts/ seeds (almond, sunflower, pumpkin, walnut, cashews

- Nut butters with fruit or veggies, brown rice cakes

- Turkey or salmon jerky

- Tuna or wild caught salmon wrap or nut thin

- Hummus with veggies or brown rice cakes

- Smoothies

1 tbs. flax seeds, ground

1/2 c. liquid (coconut milk, unsweetened rice or almond milk)

2 heaping tbs. brown rice powder

1/2 c. frozen fruit (bananas, berries or some other combination)

Add water to thin and blend well

Little Hood to Coast Relay

During the month of February Mark and I are having a friendly competition to see who can log the most miles. I as some of you know have a a half marathon coming up in May, and I need to start running a little more than I had been.

So today kicked off with my first run, as did Mark. I started my run with one of my favorite mixes, and did some speed work. I am not a fast runner, so when I say speed work I was alternating running 9 minute miles with about 11:30 miles. Once I was finished, I had run just under four miles. I still felt pretty good, so got into a comfortable pace and just kept going, with the music just playing over again. I ended up running a total of 7.25 miles in 82 minutes. Hip Hip Hooray!

Since we are tracking our distances I documented mine as I should have, under my name for the first day of the month, and added a little Woo Hoo (this is the first time I have run that far). I didn't tell Mark how far that I had run when I when we talked. When I got home in the evening I looked at the chart, and he had run 4.1 miles. Next to it he wrote "It's On" Yippy...hopefully my knees wont feel too bad tomorrow. It would be nice to win though.

Megan Claw the Baker

Last Christmas my baking and cooking supplies almost doubled just like a loaf of bread rising in a comfortably warm kitchen. To my already bursting cupboards I added a Kitchen-Aid Mixer, shiny All-Clad measuring spoons and a beautiful scalloped black cake plate amongst other things.

I have always enjoyed cooking and baking. I don't know if I love it, but it is pretty close. But there has always been something magical about confining my self to the kitchen for an afternoon or late evening of baking. I don't know if it is the way my house smells when a loaf of bread is finishing during the last 30 minutes of baking, or the way chocolate melted over a double boiler with some heavy cream is enough to stir my dog's attention on the other side of the house, but baking brings me a peace that I can't find many other places.

Starting with a semi-organized pile of ingredients; eggs, flour, butter, sugar, chocolate, and mixing them together in a particular order then heating them to a precise temperature creates perfect morsels of edible joy.

Being a perfectionist, I typically follow all the rules and keep my toes in line. But when I step into the kitchen to bake...things change. I know that for a lot of recipes measurements must be exact, mixing order followed and heating temperatures exact. But when I become the baker. I am in control. Perfect control. I alone, am creating and making the cookies, cakes and breads what I want them to be. I may follow someone elses guidelines, but I can adapt recipes how I want them.

I adapted the following recipe from my Health magazine. I omitted the wheat flour, and added cranberries and they turned out perfect. They were not overly sweet and with the oatmeal and walnuts they felt hearty, like there was more to them than just sugar. It is almost 11 pm now, and my eyes are droopy (no it is not from a sugar rush), but I feel like I accomplished a huge feat, creating something from only a few ingredients. What better way to end the night than a cup of warm vanilla milk and a couple of cookies?