Day 10

Tonight I should have taken taken a picture of the dinner I made. It was so good. I cooked brown rice in veggie broth and then warmed black beans with some corn with cumin spice. Then served the brown rice with the black beans and corn on top of the rice then added organic garden salsa on top of it all. It was so tasty and delish!!! Maybe tomorrow when I have left overs, I'll take the picture. We might have these dinners that we have had this week again next week. The spaghetti and tonight dish that Hannah called Mexican goodness.

It has been amazing to me that I have enjoyed this food so much and the recipes just flow from me without following directions. And yet this shouldn't surprise me at all not after Jesus tellingly to do it and then telling me that I could do this with only Him through me.

One week

So it's been a week. I almost can't believe it. And all in all a great week. Jesus has been so merciful to me and loved me so well. I am loving the food that I have been eating. And still have yet to have a caffeine withdrawal headache. But most of all not craving sugar, or caffeine. It has been my joy to take this road of sacrifice and concentrate on my Lord and Savior.

I'm so proud of Hannah also. She has done well without complaining. She is missing chicken, right now, which I find funny since mostly she would choose no meat at any giving time.

I tried something new for dinner last night without a recipe. It was speghetti made with sautéed yellow squash and zucchini with garlic, olive oil, and italian seasoning then put tomato sauce,all natural, added more seasoning and multi grain pasta. It was so good and quite surprising. I was not sure what to expect but it turned out amazing. Should've taken a picture.

Thankful to the Lord for His love and mercy.

Day 5

So it looks like I'm posting every other day.

So today was Sunday, and I took the sabbath off from the fast. It felt so good but I think that I also made good choices along with eating some meat. I think that I will now be able to do this. And with the help of Christ then maybe one of these weeks I won't have to even take Sunday's off. My devotion talked about the sabbath being the day off from the fast to celebrate a mini Easter.

What a wonderful sabbath, church was so great! The Word was spoken in truth and so alive with great stories and very pointed statements. Then a wonderful dinner with friends. Where the laughing continued as we talked about the "talk" and about the older kids dating and I even learned a lot when Hannah is old enough to date.

I look forward to tomorrow and what the Lord will reveal in my food and about sacrifice. Good night!

Day 3 of Lent

I missed yesterday but the day was good. I discovered corn on the cob with a small amount of olive oil and garlic salt. So so good!

Today has been ok. I have struggled with hunger a little more then previous days but still not bad. 3 days without caffeine headache and praising Jesus all the way about that. I worried about the headache more than anything going into this so feel so blessed to have not gotten one.

Today is Hannah's birthday and I made her the bean soup for dinner very enjoyable. She has a couple of friends over to spend the night and they wanted a snack so they each wanted to try the soup and they both liked it. I was very pleased about that also.

So all in all, a good 3 days and 37 to go.

Blessed be the name of Jesus and the sacrifices that He made for me so that I could be loved and feel loved.

Day 1 of Lent

Today was a good day. I was very concerned about a headache from no caffeine but didn't get one until late afternoon. Praise Jesus!!! Didn't have hunger pains and enjoyed all the food that I ate today. Now if only the tv commercials didn't show food and restaurants all night.

I didn't try anything new but made sure that I had what I liked available and I even packed my lunch and ate it at a clients who offered me Moes and Menchies. Of all the times that I have been there for meetings today he offers me lunch. Isn't that humorous?

So all in all good day 1. Thank you Lord for a great day!

Lent starts tomorrow

So Lent starts tomorrow, and I will begin the journey of partaking in the Daniel Fast. A lot of mixed emotions have transpired in the preparation of this coming day. Thankful to Jesus that He had 3 weeks to get me ready to go into this Season. I will hang onto His words to me "I know you can't but I can" as we go day to day through the 40 days of Lent.

I am planning to make regular posts to track progress, post recipes, and share what the Lord is revealing through the obedience of fasting. I know it all won't be easy, pretty, and fun but I will also find a new appreciation for whole foods and hopefully my palate will change for the better. One thing I know this is going to change my life.

So here is to the journey of Lent, walking with Christ day to day in sacrifice and prayer and repentance.

Pure Luck or Divine Appointment

Our bible study is in the 2^nd week of Kelly Minter's Ruth– Loss, Love and Legacy. It is a wonderful study. Today I studied day 3 of week 2, and it was on Ruth 2:1-3. Kelly had us spend a few minutes on the words "As it turned out" from verse 3 of chapter 2 "So she (Ruth) went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech." So the conversation, was this a struck of luck or God's orchestration? My first thought is exactly God's plan. But do you always see things as God's plan or just luck? It made me think of an instance just a few short months ago, and as it happened I thanked God for putting it together because I knew that it would lead to something real soon.

I was sitting at church talking to a friend on Easter Sunday, when a woman came up to us and introduced herself to us and then asked where we were from and we found at that she lived within a few minutes from me. You see my daughter and I have been going to a church where right now we are moving all over Atlanta to meet. My heart has been attached to this place of worship since the very first time that I attended over 1 ½ years ago yet we really knew no one except the people that would go with us. And trying to figure out how to make this church our home was causing me some concern. My heart was attached but what about my daughter and what she needed with the opportunities for youth and friends. The Lord kept leading me to believe that this was for me but what about her. And I know that you are thinking that God already knew about her and how it would work if this is where He wanted us to be. I know that thought also but I couldn't "see" it working out with my own eyes so the concern took the place of "seeing". So back to Easter, I talked to this woman and besides finding out where we were from she pointed out a couple of families from the same area as I lived and told us about a couple more. I was so excited about what could be the possibilities and within a couple of weeks I was contacted through Facebook about a small group that was going to be meeting during the summer with all the families from our area. I started reading about the other families and there were kids my daughter's age and a few older and younger. My eyes were starting to "see". So over the week prior to meeting, I started praying very specifically about what I wanted from this small group. The first night we met 6 families and before I left I felt like I knew these people for a long time. My daughter within a few minutes could be heard laughing and talking. On the way home my daughter used the word pursued. She said "Mom, the kids pursued me and welcomed me into the group. I felt like I belonged there. When do we meet again?" I was praying thanks from that moment. She started telling about the things that happened. She laughed so hard trying to retell me some things. I hit the "I guess you had to be there" because I didn't understand or it just wasn't funny to me.

So that was the last of the "things" that needed to take place to call this our home church. Easter Sunday was God's design for my daughter and I to make the finishing touches to our new church home and family. I still thank God for making that divine moment "seen" so as I didn't miss the burning bush and just cook s'mores on it.