This all-inclusive post from FITBOMB goes deep into the details of how our bodies are made to consume certain foods and how the American carb and sugar-laden diet is slowly changing our bodies for the worse. It’s a crazy long post but it’s worth the read if you’re interested in knowing more.

Here are a few things I’ve learned so far from this Paleo lifestyle change:

• Fat = friend…consuming a higher than “normal” amount of good fats does not automatically mean you will die from heart disease. There’s nothing wrong with using your leftover bacon fat to saute the next meal’s onions in.
• If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re not, don’t…when your food choices are all healthy ones, your body will tell you when it needs more.
• Carbs were calling the shots…the first couple of days into our Paleo challenge I had a constant, dull headache and I felt nauseous at times; I could just feel my body pouting, saying ‘Hey! What’s going on? I want some bread!’
• Temptation will lead to failure…we removed all temptation by ridding our entire apartment of non-Paleo foods; out of sight, out of mind.
• Preparation & planning are key…I printed off a calendar and every Sunday I plan out our meals for the week, make a grocery list and go grocery shopping.

Now, do we plan on living with a strict Paleo diet for the rest of our lives? Maybe! It all depends on how we feel when day 30 rolls around. They say it will take about 2 weeks for your body to fully adjust from a carb-based diet to a fat-based diet so hanging in there for an entire month is important. My guess is that we’re going to feel amazing and thanks to this 30 day challenge our meals in the future will be more centered around meats and vegetables instead of grains and sugars. Here’s hoping that weeks 2, 3 and 4 are just as great as week 1 has been!

“I am a complete sucker for a fresh start. The new year is like manna from heaven.

I’m overwhelmed with list-making and dream-seeking and soul-searching. Hope swells and washes the memory of past failures clean.

I couldn’t care less that I’ve made this list 20 times before and didn’t follow through with it.

As a matter of fact, this tendency toward renewal and resolution  wasn’t even our idea.

We borrowed it from our Father who promised new mercies every morning and fresh starts ‘seventy times seven’ times.

I completely believe deep down in my heart that this year will be different. You couldn’t convince me otherwise if your life depended on it.”

Amen sister. What an amazing attitude to adopt…who cares if there are those few resolutions that appear on my list year after year, it’s OK to fall short because there will always be another fresh start, in Jesus.

I’m a list-maker at heart so I never miss the yearly opportunity to compose a list of self improvements and 2012 was no different. Except this time it was a little different; I wanted to shoot higher than I ever have before, I wanted to “make resolutions with reckless abandon.” So I did.

- Always be joyful, inside and out. {1 Thess. 5:16}

- Pray continually; be thankful for every tiny gift. Set aside time with God daily. {1 Thess. 5:17-18}

- Live healthy: be active, eat more veggies, drink more water.

- Read at least 20 books…feed your brain!

- Be in the moment, relish this chapter of your life.

- Explore new hobbies.

- Use your God-given talents to serve others. {1 Peter 4:10}

- Love more intentionally.

Here’s to a wonderfully blessed 2012.

Christmas 2011 was jam-packed with family, friends and fun. It’s always nice to be able to spend a good amount of time with both of our families and I am incredibly grateful that Mark doesn’t have to work between Christmas and New Years.

We spent the first few days of our holiday vacation in Rogers with my family. Once again the annual Christmas Eve barn service was cold, wet and muddy; to be honest I wouldn’t have it any other way, it’s kind of a tradition now. We also got to hang with our favorite fat cat, Jack…if you received a Christmas card from my parents you already know but Jack has officially changed residences. He is much happier living in a big house with more room to roam and he loves to go outside and climb trees and hang with his other kitty friends. My parents are quite smitten with him and I don’t think they would give him back even if we asked. He still loves when we come to visit though and we found out that he especially loves Christmas trees…

…and tissue paper. He played in our giant paper pile for hours and even took a nap hiding beneath the crumpled sheets.

Though the weather was a little icky during our stay in Rogers we made the best of it. On the 26th my mom and I went shopping all day while the boys went to see a movie and go bowling. I always love looking at the discounted Christmas decor and for once I splurged on some pretty ornaments at Marshall’s. My mom and I had so much fun spending the day together :)

This year I was inspired by some snow globes made using bottle brush trees in mason jars from Anthropologie. I couldn’t quite handle their $30 price tag so I made some of my own to give out as little gifts to Mark’s coworkers and some family friends. They were so simple to make!

After spending a few days in Rogers we headed to Houston to be with Mark’s family for New Years. When we got there the table was cleared and covered in puzzle pieces…they had a puzzle made from our family picture taken on Memorial Day. It turned out to be a lot harder than it looked and we finally completed it at 2:15am on January 1st! We all decided that this needed to become a tradition so we took a picture of ourselves with the finished puzzle and a puzzle of that picture will be made to be worked on during our July 4th trip up to camp in Maine. Once that puzzle is finished we’ll take a picture with it, and so on and so on…

While in Houston we stayed pretty busy; we assembled Logan’s new bike, we went indoor rock climbing, I went to a painting class, Mark played golf, we watched some movies and got lots of great quality family time!

I still love giving out cookies to this day, it’s one of my favorite Christmas traditions. But since I can’t send cookies to everyone I wanted to at least share my favorite holiday cookie recipe with you!

Molasses Spice Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus more for dipping
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 2-1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.

Beat butter with white and brown sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Next add molasses, mix well. Reduce speed and gradually add in dry ingredients. Once fully incorporated, dough will seem very soft but don’t add any additional flour.

Refrigerate for at least a couple hours, preferably over night.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Pour some extra sugar or sprinkles into a bowl. Scoop large tablespoons of dough and roll between palms into balls. Roll tops of dough balls in the sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes, until cookies are browned, still puffy, cracked on top and the edges have begun to set but center is still soft.

I always use Grandma’s dark molasses, it’s the best of the best and I like to put it on my pancakes too!

Every time I make these cookies it makes my kitchen smell like Christmas and it takes me back to those fun times baking cookies with my mom :)

I also tried a new twist on my typical sugar cookie log today; red and white swirl! It wasn’t easy to do but I still believe it’s less hassle than using cookie cutters. I divided the dough into two equal portions, added red food dye to one half, rolled each dough ball out into same-sized rectangles, put one on top of the other and then rolled it up into a log.

All of these festive cookies are going on a big platter to Mark’s coworkers tomorrow!

I’ve been a little disconnected from this blog lately, notice I said this blog…yes, there is another. My dad recently “commissioned” me to start a new blog for Sunfood Farm through which I’m sharing various recipes I’ve tested that spotlight vegetables grown in his garden. It’s been fun so far and his customers are loving having the blog to turn to when they need ideas for how to cook with their vegetables. The site is sunfoodrecipes.wordpress.com if anyone is interested.

Things around here have been pretty busy with multiple trips to Houston to see family, soccer season coming to an end and the upcoming holiday season. On top of all that we’ve been a one car family for almost a month now; Mark’s car was totaled in a mild rear-ending accident {it wasn’t his fault and everyone was fine}. Since I don’t work, having only one vehicle isn’t the end of the world but there are times when it requires some planning ahead. We actually had a 4Runner for about 48 hours but then our over-thinking practical selves decided we didn’t want to commit to being SUV people just yet; sometimes I hate how responsible we are, haha {not saying that owning an SUV makes you irresponsible, we just didn’t have a legitimate reason to own one besides the fact that we wanted to}. We’re still looking to buy another car soon but nothing out there is really wow-ing us right now so we’re taking it slow.

This little guy was our best effort at pumpkin carving this year, I got the idea off of Pinterest. I think he’s pretty cute.

My 25th birthday was one of the best yet…Mark and I went down to south Congress and spent a some time at my favorite store, then grabbed some food across the street at Coat & Thai.

One unexpected surprise came when I put on my watch for the first time that day; I’ve only had it for a few months so I’d never seen the little birthday cake that pops up for your birthday. Simple things like this are what make me the happiest.

The next day we had dinner with my parents at Monument Cafe in Georgetown and afterwards we all huddled in the car while I opened presents because it was so chilly outside…what a memory! The most meaningful gift by far was the small square that my dad passed on to me; it was my grandpa’s when he was a carpenter and I can remember my dad using it for all of his projects in the shop at home. I’m looking forward to using it for all of my future projects too :)

I found the nightstand on Craigslist; the curved edges of the top surface and the sturdy wood construction were what first caught my eye.

Thanks to a little help from my dad and some of his tools I cut the sink hole with a jigsaw, added some supports for the interior boards and lightly sanded the whole piece.

I used Kiltz oil-based primer to help the paint stick to the surface more easily.

After the primer dried I applied two coats of semi-gloss, no VOC paint that had been color matched to my curtain fabric. The backboard is half inch oak plywood that I had cut to size at Lowe’s. I painstakingly cut out the curves with a hand saw and then sanded like crazy to get it smooth because said jigsaw from earlier in the project was no longer in my possession {thank God for power sanders}.

I pried off one of the drawer faces to use for the oven door and attached it using a 12 inch piano hinge. Am I the only one that finds installing hinges to be extremely confusing?

This is where things started to become more fun…the faucet is an upside-down “L” painted silver and screwed in place from below, the faucet handles are glass knobs from Hobby Lobby, the stove burners are painted wooden plaques hot glued in place and the burner knobs are just painted wooden knobs screwed in from below. I made sure to leave all of the knobs a little loose so they would be able to turn.

And now for some after shots…

The two shelves were made from some leftover backboard pieces and the framed scrapbook paper serves as a dry erase board for grocery lists or doodling.

I love it…love, love, love, love it! Now what to do with it? I guess it’s up for sale!

Source List

• Craigslist: nightstand
• Salvation Army: stainless steel bowl
• Dollar Tree: oven light
• Michael’s: wooden “L” & craft paint
• WM: wooden burner knobs
• Hobby Lobby: faucet knobs & wooden plaques
• Lowe’s: primer, paint, drawer pull, magnet clasp, oak plywood, piano hinge & paint brush
• Items already owned: curtain fabric, curtain dowel, oven rack, picture frame, screws & nails.

Total work time: about 15-18 hours including shopping time {excluding paint drying time}

• Lou Mandy picked me up on our way to begin the day at the hair salon but we were running a little late so we drove on the then “closed” Knob Hill Rd because it was faster.
• Getting to see all of the beautiful sunflower arrangements for the first time.

• Looking at pictures on someone’s digital camera of Mark seeing his surprise apple cake.
• Peeking through the window of our dressing room to watch all of our guests arrive.

• The minute or so alone with my dad just before we walked down the pathway to the ceremony.
• The cow heard mooing from a field nearby during our wedding vows.

• Trying not to look Mark directly in the eyes because I knew I was going to cry.
• The amazing feeling of walking into our reception and seeing every single person that I love filling the room.
• Seeing people having such a fun time with the iMac photo booth.

• Dancing my last dance with my Papa.

Though it’s hard to decide on a favorite moment or piece of our wedding day, I’d have to say that spending time with my family and friends was by far the best part of it all…well, that and actually marrying the man I love!

Entry table {courtesy of Grandpa Rand} showing off some of my most treasured pieces.

Dresser top where I keep my mom’s childhood jewelry box.

One of my latest craft projects…

Key drop spot by the door…

New necklace holder from an old wooden frame…

Thrifted vessels to someday turn into succulent terrariums, inspired by Jacob & Tracy.

We’re slowly finding new bedding; the pillow is a start…

Being unemployed is fun for a time {the afternoon naps have been awesome} but there’s only so much cleaning, organizing and crafting I can do in our one bedroom apartment before I begin to get bored. So on with the job search I go. Please keep me in your prayers as I venture back into the world of resumes, interviews and hopefully job offers!

Wednesday we laid out on the grass at Zilker Park, eating Kerbey Lane chips and queso while listening to the Old 97′s play during Blues on the Green. We went with a few good friends and greatly enjoyed the fun, relaxing evening. The next night we went on a double date of sorts with one of my soccer friends and her husband to South Congress for 1st Thursday. After dinner at Guero’s we walked the streets of SoCo laughing at the street performers and checking out the many vendors that were set up selling their jewelry and wares. I bought a great photo print from a local photographer and we finished off the evening with a little dessert at Amy’s Ice Creams.

On Saturday morning Mark and I decided to go on a little hiking excursion and hit up Mount Bonnell and the 360 bridge area. The views of downtown from atop Mount Bonnell were great but the hike was less than exciting {if you could even call it a hike} but the rocky cliffs near the 360 bridge did not disappoint.

On our way up to the top of the lookout on the west side of 360 we stopped to watch a couple of rock climbers repel down the steep cliff on the east side. From above we had an amazing view of the bridge and Lake Austin and we hiked a trail that followed the cliff’s edge for a while before heading back down once the temperatures got too hot for comfort. Woo hoo for free Austin hiking adventures!