And thus begins life at full speed (and Daniel Fast menu)

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Life in our house is back running at full speed.  Uni started back this week and already I have an assignment looming and due in 3 weeks!  Just as well I have but one book left to be reviewed.

And on that note I am very excited to have surpassed my goal of reading 20 books over the summer.  Since today is the last day of summer I can now confidently report I have read a whopping twenty-nine books!  Yep, a really good summer.

To add to the current speed of life I'm finding that fasting does not make more time to spend in prayer.  In our case it has meant less for two reasons.  First I am having to put a lot of time into planning our meals.  Secondly, whatever I'm cooking for us often has to be supplemented with 'normal' meals for the kids so I'm doing a bit of doubling up in the kitchen.  I found a new Australian Women's Weekly mini cookbook at the newsagent today, simply called 'Vegies'.  On a quick flick through it looked to have some tasty things we could try next week.  Below has been our plan for this current week.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Toast Sliced banana	Quinoa salad	Vegetable Curry Brown Rice
Tuesday	Banana & Raspberry smoothie	Toast Tomato & avocado	Bean nachos
Wednesday	Banana & Raspberry smooth	Potato wedges	Roast vegetable bake
Thursday	Toast tomato & avocado	Leftovers	Roasted vegetable medley
Friday	Toast banana	Leftovers	Chickpea & Vegetable casserole
Saturday	Fruit salad Smoothie (banana/raspberry)	Potato wedges Avocado salsa	Tofu & Vegetable Stir Fry
Sunday	Toast tomato & avocado	Leftovers…toast… potato wedges…	Minstrone Bread
Snacks	Fruit, mixed nuts/seeds, hommus/guacamole & carrots, popcorn

For those who might be concerned I again cooked chickpeas and borlotti beans the Nourishing Traditions way to add protein and bulk to most of our dinners so that we're getting as much protein as these particular omnivores can seem to find in a day.  I must confess, the other day while watching TV there was an advertisement for KFC burgers.  Now I don't like KFC and we never eat there, but I suddenly found myself thinking those burgers looked really good.  Then again, on the same night Dh stood over a pan of chocolate chip slice to breathe in the aroma.  I think we've both hit 'desperate'!

Foray into Fasting (Daniel Fast Menu Plan)

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We've been going for nearly a week.  We're still alive and beginning to say things like "I really miss having a cup of tea"...or my more emphatic "I just want a cracker with butter on it!".  And what I wouldn't give to use eggs in my cooking...

We have been surprised at the things we miss most and the things we couldn't care less about.

As I mentioned a post or two back Dh and I have chosen - well, I chose and he agreed to go along with it - the Daniel Fast for our 21-day church-wide fast.  Our church encouraged us to choose anything that was meaningful to us, but my understanding is that a fast is to do with food.  Choosing to avoid other 'things' is abstinence rather than fasting.  So I chose the Daniel Fast.  We've eaten lots of fruit, lots more vegetables and dipped our toes back into the idea of legumes - something we tend to avoid a bit around here.  With Mr Busy's negative attitude to the texture of 'evil beanies' (as he used to call them) and the unpleasant physical side effects we just don't eat them much.  Basically, the Daniel Fast is plant based foods and water - no animal products.  I found lots of helpful information here and here.

Despite being faced with many times a day when we would love to just grab whatever we feel like eating, having to be intentional and considered about the whole thing is not all that bad either.  It reminds me to be intentional and considered about the things I'm praying about.  I've discovered I'm really bad at focused prayer.  I'm really good at the quick prayers.  You know, the ones where something pops into your mind and you just have a little moment with God and keep going with what you're doing?  Yeah.  I'm good at that stuff.  I'm not good at keeping my mind on more sustained stuff.  I confessed that to God this morning and now my prayer is becoming "help me to pray".

On the food front we're eating surprisingly well.  We've both been surprised at things we've enjoyed this week.  Mr Busy was away on school camp so the girls have done a bit of their own thing.  My brother and his girls had dinner with us on Monday - my girls made dinner for all of them while I made what Dh and I ate.  They've had some of our meals with some taken out and meat thrown in and sometimes they've had to make a salad to go with something I've dug out of the freezer and thrown into the oven.  It's worked OK, but maybe Mr Busy's return will force me to be a bit more organised.  The boy is an eater!

Below is our menu for the first week.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Toast Sliced banana	Quinoa salad	Chickpea & Veg Casserole
Tuesday	Toast Sliced banana	Leftovers	Nachos Salad
Wednesday	Porridge Sliced fruit	Citrus Walnut Salad	Vegetable Curry Brown rice
Thursday	Fruit salad	Leftovers	Roast Vegetable layer bake
Friday	Porridge Sliced fruit	Leftovers	Pasta with tomato & veg sauce
Saturday	Fruit salad	Salad in pita bread	Hungarian Casserole
Sunday	Toast w. tomato, mushroom, avocado	Salad in pita bread	Coconut Pumpkin Soup
Snacks	Fruit, mixed nuts, hommus/guacamole with carrots, popcorn

 

 A note on legumes -I tried cooking chickpeas and borlotti beans according to the directions in my 'Nourishing Traditions' book.  Perfect!  No unpleasant, smelly side effects.  I didn't cook my pulses for the 6 hours they said.  I think the chickpeas went for about 3-4 hours and the beans for 2-3 hours after an all-night soak.  It was worth the time and effort rather than opening a tin.

More Book Reviews....Shadowed by Grace

My review for 'Shadowed by Grace' is here at Relz Reviewz.  Great story, especially with a movie about the Monuments Men coming out sometime this year.  Check out my review....

Big Catch Up and Preparing to Fast

Afternoon tea in Leongatha in January

 

Perhaps the reason I haven't posted much is that nothing much has happened.  We've all gone back to school and we're all fairly content with the beginning we've each had.  My greatest joy has been to see Mr Busy so much happier and settled than he was last year.  Same group of kids, but with some new teachers and a friend or two makes a huge difference.  He's off on school camp next week so things will be quiet around here.

I've quite surpassed my summer reading goals and I might even fit in another one or two books before Uni begins and the end of summer is official.  I've even read some non-fiction books lately (those who know me will be shocked!).  Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted and 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess make for very compelling and challenging reading.  The timing has been perfect though.

I have been more than a little shocked over the last week as Dh has agreed to undertake not only a year-long leadership preparation program, but also a church-wide 3-week fast.  Both are way out of his comfort zone so I deeply admire that he willing to do these with me.  We have chosen a 'Daniel Fast' so after a great deal of research our fridge is now overflowing with fruits and vegetables that will suit our restrictions and tastes.  I had consider doing Jen Hatmaker's '7' fast, but our purpose and intention are not about addressing a wealthy culture's excess, but about seeking God in a number of corporate topics within our church and a couple of personal issues as well.

Book Review Catch Up

I'm catching up on some of my book review, which Rel has posted in recent days/weeks.  Clearly having plenty of time on my hands has not meant being diligent in keeping up with posting these things!

First, my review for Home Run by Travis Thrasher has been posted here.  This is book is a novelisation of the movie by the same name.  It was sooooo good I now want to get the movie!!

My reviews for Before the Dawn and Sweet September are in one post together here, given they are the beginning of a 24-part series.   Fascinating set up with different authors contributing and collaborating on this project.  Kathleen Bauer is the pen name under which the series is written.  I would imagine there are many readers who would be a bit confused about a single story being written by so many different people.  Anyway, you can read my review to see how I felt about that aspect.

Breakfast with Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker at my breakfast table...via YouTube

I first 'met' Jen this time last year when a friend directed me to her blog and a post about brave mothers raising brave kids.  She had a lot to say about boys, and given I have a boy (my friend doesn't) my friend thought I would find this post of interest.  I laughed long and hard - she's a very witty lady with a sense of humour I 'get'.  That post began our 'friendship'.  I laugh out loud long and hard over Jen's posts quite often.  My kids don't get it, even when I read out what made me laugh.  In the same way they don't laugh as hard as me when we're watching The Cosby Show.  Because they're kids and they don't get humour that is specifically related to  parenting.

The other day I was reading Jen's blog, and a post in which she talked about how she was taking steps to reduce the amount of time she is away from her family and be in her life again.  Wise, wise words.  I had my own moment on Sunday (remember, we just got back from holidays on Saturday?) where I started to panic about something I had said yes to at church.  You know, something worthwhile and important and it was only for six months and no one else has stepped up to lead this group and you would be so good at it.  You know, that kind of thing.  I know you know!!  Anyway, on Sunday I stepped back and prayed about the thing I said yes to and then spent some time with Nehemiah and I was again struck by his response to the people who were deliberately trying to derail his work to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  He told those men "I am doing a great work; I can't come down.  Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?" (Nehemiah 6:2-3 - The Message).  Indeed...why should my family, my work and my study suffer or stop because I have been asked to do something that is not within my season to agree to?  God took me out of ministry in a very clear way when I began my degree and I still have a year left to go of this season.  On Monday I emailed the leader of this group and explained all this to her and she accepted my change of mind very graciously. 

All that to say Jen's post really resonated with me in a very personal way.  Again!

Then I found heaps of stuff on YouTube with Jen speaking on different things and so I have been indulging myself in listening to some more of her wisdom and perspective on what it means to be a Christian in the 'West' in our modern lives.

So because YouTube makes these things possible I had breaky with Jen this morning.

Book Review: The Girl in the Glass

My review for 'The Girl in the Glass' by Susan Meissner has been posted here at Relz Reviewz.  I always love books written by Susan and my very high expectations were met completely.  I also thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Italy through the pages of this book.  I won't say more - I said it all in the review!!