Outside My Realm of Thinking

I was originally waiting to post on what I learned this lent, because for me its been a hard lent.  But something else came to mind today, of which may just be a little bit of my lesson from lent after all, but almost I think it stems from the new year and resolutions made then.

Post thesis I was determined to figure out who I am outside of studentdom, and what it meant to be me.  For a while I felt like I wasn't making any progress because I wasn't accomplishing what I thought I had to do.  One of the things I was determined that I needed was to find young Catholic moms who could enrich me and I them and we could talk about how to teach the Catholic faith to our kiddos etc. I thought this would help me be spiritually fed in the way I wanted to be and so it had to be a good thing.

Well today, I went to a young Catholic mom play and pray group.  There was nothing wrong with it, but I realized once I was there, that it was not how God wanted me to be spiritually fed.  I think I would even return to it again, because Ben seemed to have fun, though he totally was doing his own thing most of the time. (totally my kid in this because apparently I drove my mom crazy with this behavior.) So, even though it was a good experience, my eyes were opened to what I already had.

I realized in what I already had, that I was being spiritually fed.  I had been going to a Catholic Women's Bible Study once a month, and while most the people there are all at least 15 years older than me its been feeding me spiritually in a way that I originally didn't think it was.  Originally I felt like the odd ball that was too young to have any wisdom and speak up in the group, but I kept going, a God thing for sure, and eventually I did have things to say and share that were well received.  And besides that for a lot of it I enjoy sitting back and taking it all in because these women do have a lot of faith wisdom to share even though I originally didn't think I fit in with them.

Besides that, I have been having play dates with 5 or so young moms all in different spiritual states, none of them practicing Catholics.  Oddly, I find I have a lot in common with them.  And as my husband alerted me to yesterday, as I was overhearing his conversation (bad me!) to another friend on the phone, I am being spiritually fed by these ladies too.  These ladies stretch me to listen to another faith perspective and to reassure me of my own faith choices.  I get to practice compassion in a whole different way to those who are maybe like me in some ways especially when it comes to parenting but totally approach things differently in other ways such as faith. Each woman is so unique and I love learning about each of them as we grow in our friendships.

And so as my facebook status kind of states: Sometimes, when you are looking for something, you begin to realize you already have it.  It's just in a different form than what you thought it should be, and it takes the searching to make you appreciate what you already have.

Food Cravings and Aversions Take 2

I have been told that each pregnancy is different, and this has totally been proven to be true so far. Thus, I wanted to list my food aversions and cravings, and if you don't care about this, well tough luck.  I am gonna list them anyway. I should then link back to the post from last time if I can find it in the archives. (yes, that would be the smart thing to do!)

Cravings:
BBQ chips, seriously decided these were the best things in the world one day.

Grapefruit - I am totally upset that it only has like 80 in a whole one.

Peanut Butter - I think its a protein thing.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Ice Cream - Totally buy this every week at Target.  I should invest in a vat of it.

Greek Yogurt - It has good protein in it!! and for some reason I like that its thick & I feel full after eating it.
Salad - Raw veggies rock my world right now.

Fruit Salad - I went to this international dinner with any dish imaginable there and man the only thing that satisfied me was this.  Oddly it was apparently made by a German, don't associate fruit salad with Germany is all I am saying.

Chicken Nuggets and French Fries - Pretty Standard as it was core of my diet last time.

Hard Boiled Eggs - These were totally my snack of choice for the 1st trimester but since week 13 hit I've been over egged out.

Aversions:
Mint - For the lover of all things mint, this is weird.

Cooked Veggies- Stirfry as much as I want it to taste good just doesn't.

Fish - More recently, I think its because Lent has me all fished out.


So I am sure there are more, and my husband could tell you them.  Overall, its been a challenge these past 5 weeks, because this lent we made it a commitment to not eat out.  And really up till week 16 I know for sure my mind changes all the time on what actually tastes good at the moment.  Needless to say dinner is a challenge and my loving husband just kinda eats whatever I make and I hope that I still like it too when I'm done cooking it.  I've gained some weight so I guess its working so far.