Today I realized: Mind over Matter

There is a particular situation in my life that I am somewhat unhappy about, and occasionally think of actions I could take to escape the situation.

Last night I had a terrible nightmare/stress dream about it though. And I realized that you can't escape something you carry with you in your dreams.

I think this is one reason why God wants us to forgive (although his patience with us is an even better reason). There reaches a point where you are only hurting yourself by holding on to something. By stressing about something, worrying about something, being angry about something, all you can do is hurt yourself.

And that is why I will choose to let things go. Again.

Vacation Adventure: The Sea, The Sky, and Man

Note: This is another post which was made while I was off adventuring

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Yesterday we went to the Chicago aquarium. Jacob took a lot of great video - that works better for fish, I think. They move. :) [insert video]. We had a really fun time. I kinda felt like a kid, seeing the polar bears and the penguins and the jelly fish (Which are much less scary when they are in their tanks and unable to sting you while you swim.) And we got to see the dolphin show, which was very cool. (By the way, if you're planning to visit Chicago, go ahead and get the CityPass. We saved so much money and many hours in line.)

Next we went down to the beach - I really enjoyed people watching there. People are the same everywhere, and I could have stayed there for hours making up voices for all the tourists and locals wandering around.

Then we went up to Hancock Tower at night. What a gorgeous view of the city. I was really glad we did that.

Then today we spent several hours in the Chicago Art Institute. While I could have stayed forever in the medieval, renaissance art (particularly the religious art, and into the impressionists) after a few hours of Monet, El Greco and Cranach, Jake and I were exhausted. We found the van Gogh section and spent a little time there before wandering into Modern art to find Picasso. Picasso is really fun, but what art spirals into as a result of the modern changes is confusing and intimidating to me. We left the museum soon after to take a break.

We then went up in the Sears tower (Or Willet Tower, since they renamed the silly thing...) to see a view of the city during the day. We had a lot of fun at both towers trying to find all the locations we knew (Jacob

obviously knew most of the area, whereas I could only find the couple of places we'd visited.) This is me pinching Jacob's undergraduate school, Moody Bible.

The Lunch Problem

So I have this little problem. I *hate* packed lunches. Well, it's more complicated than that.

1. I *hate* microwaves. I always reheat leftovers in a pan or in the oven because I absolutely despise microwaved food.

2. I *hate* eating the same thing multiple times in a row. I always freeze half when I make a large number of servings of something because if I have to eat it more than 2 times in a row I go kinda nutty. But only buying enough to make 1-2 of some lunch item isn't especially economic either. Gotta reuse ingredients for more than one meal!

3. I reallllly like buffalo chicken wraps which are available in my lovely work cafeteria on Wednesdays. This doesn't really help my wallet or my diet.

So, I'm wondering... anyone have any ideas for me? I'm not too picky in terms of ingredients, it's just the manner of preparation that's tricky.

For now, I'm going to try...
1) A BLT on pumpernickel bread.
2) A cucumber sandwhich on pumpernickel bread (http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,161,134177-253194,00.html)
3) A chicken fiesta salad (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-fiesta-salad/detail.aspx)

The Primary Difference Between My Sister and Me

We have similar physical appearance. We are both smart and have technical degrees in male dominated fields. We both love Broadway and are a bit romantic at heart. We can both get incredibly silly and goofy.

But after dinner with some friends last night I said, "hmm. I think I'm going to go play video games. Should I fight Jedi or a robot? Or I could read my fantasy novel."

She said, "You're crazy. I'm watching Bachelor Pad."

Vacation Adventure: God, Sports and the Arts

Note: This post was typed while out of town, so I thought I would just move the publish date until I was safely home from my adventure.

Sunday July 24, 2011

[insert picture] What a specatcularly spectacular day we had!First we went to Jacob's old church, Covenant, where I about converted myself to Presbyterian. What a gorgeous and soul-refreshing place. Jacob and I were much ministered to through the gorgeous surroundings, the lofty echos of song, and a wonderful sermon about fear, control and faith.

The next landmark of the day was the most AMAZING Cubs game EVER. Anyone who says

baseball is boring has never been to a game like today's. (Which includes me, I'm afraid, before today.) They made a baseball fan out of me! I like it better than even hockey and basketball!

And we rounded the day off with a live performance of Romeo and Juliet by Shattered Globe. Amazing. The characters knew mulitple roles and the audience voted for who played who. Quality, especially since the actors were screaming their lines to be heard. I was quite impressed, amused, and moved.

Dinner of Champions!

More vacation posts coming later, but first, Dinner!

I had one of those days. The kind where I'm both physically and emotionally tired, I need a nap, and I haven't cooked in about 2 weeks and we don't have much food in the house, but Jake won't be home for an hour, so I should probably attempt to make something.

So I went to my very very favorite website, allrecipes.com. A quick search for main dishes with chicken, sort by rating, a glance over the ingredients, and bam, I'm whipping up a batch of "jerky chicken."

It was incredibly fast. I had everything on hand, even though my spice rack is half empty. I subbed some of our cayenne peppers from the garden for the habeneros, and took a nap while it marinated. A little trick I've learned - if you cut the chicken into smaller pieces, it marinates faster AND cooks faster. Magic!

Jacob loved it. I asked if this was a "once in awhile" or an "every week" recipe and he exclaimed "3 times a week!". So I guess it meets approval. And anything I can make in 5 minutes, a 30 minute nap, and then throw in the oven for 15 minutes is a-okay with me.

Domestic Diva Version of Jerky Chicken.

1. In a large bowl or ziplock, combine the following: (I didn't measure anything. No little measuring spoons to clean and who cares if it's exact, it's a marinade!).

• some chopped onion. A few tablespoons
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp canola oil (or sesame. or olive. or whatever you have.)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 habenero. Or 2 cayennne peppers. Or something spicy.
• 2 -3 half chicken breasts, cubed

2. Marinade for 30 minutes or so. Nap. Or facebook.

3. Broil for 5-10 minutes. Yay meat thermometers. Try not to die a horrible uncooked chicken death.

Vacation Adventure: Traveling

Note: This post was typed while out of town, so I thought I would just move the publish date until I was safely home from my adventure.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

What an adventure we've had getting up to Chicago for vacation!

We left Friday afternoon and made really good time, until we hit the terrible rain. We passed one place where the opposite direction was totally closed because it was under several feet of water (our side was fine). And then we got a flat. There was a terrible road and we hit a couple bad batches before the tire blew. We immediately pulled over and changed to the donut, and then drove to the closest hotel. I was exhausted and started crying, and Jake got me to bed and made an appointment with the mechanic in town the next day. Just as we were drifting off to sleep he said, "Huh, I think Dustin used to live about 30 minutes from here. We should see what he's up to" and sent a late night text. (Dustin is one of Jake's roommates and very close friend's from college.)

Then this morning, we were getting our tire fixed when Dustin texted back. Instead of 30 minutes, he lived 5 minutes down the road! He drove right over and we had a really wonderful breakfast catching up with him. I'm so glad that if God's going to give us a flat tire, it could allow us to spend several hours with a friend. :) That was the best flat tire I've ever gotten, for sure.

Then we drove up to the city. It was another 3 hours before we arrived at our gorgeous, comfortable, clean, happy hotel with working A/C and legit Wi-Fi. (We've stayed in some doozies before and this was a wonderful and much needed change.)

We walked around the city for several hours today, and then met up with our friend George for amazing Lou Manatti's deep dish pizza. The service left something to be desired (They were rushing us) but the pizza and the company was awesome!

I'm sitting here in my bed now - exhausted and very happy. My diet is fairly shot for the day, but I had an awesome time and am really happy for this delightful vacation!