You are nobody special

In my writing class the other day, this was the prompt we were given: "In one page, say everything important there is to say about the world. (If you had only one page to fill with everything vital, urgent and necessary that you know/feel/suspect, what would that page be? Of the world as you have experienced it, what is absolutely crucial to report?)" I had a difficult time getting going on this assignment because I could not think of where to begin. Each day for a week I'd think about it and try to figure out what direction to go, but got nowhere, until finally, on the day of the class, I figured out the path I wanted to take. And here's what came out of it.

You are nobody special. The good news is, neither am I. The world will try to make you think that others are more important, but the truth is, they're nobody special either. We all came into the world the same way and we'll all leave it the same way, albeit, by a number of different means.

We're all tiny cogs in a very big machine. We're more important as a whole than as an individual.  The world doesn't care about you. If one of those cogs was replaced with another, the machine would continue to run as usual, without a second thought.

There are the few that will make an impact on the world. They'll rise up and incite change. But even they are nothing without the thousands and millions and even billions of others.

If you want to change the world, you're more than welcome to try. But in my experience, what's more important is the impact you leave on those closest to you.

Life is what you make of it. If you want to go through life on your own and never let anyone else in, you can. If you want to have fun all of the time and never think about the consequences, you can do that, too, but it'll probably catch up with you sooner or later. Or you can build a life for yourself and the people that you care about and the people that will come after you.

To me, the most important things in life are a smile to brighten someone's day, helping those who may not have as much as you do, being there for your friend when they really need you, spending time in the arms of the one you love. Little things that make an impact on those around you. Those are the legacies that really matter. Because to those people, you are somebody special.

Lovely Spring

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced

Teaching us to breathe

What was frozen through is newly purposed

Turning all things green

So it is with You

And how You make me new

With every season’s change

And so it will be

As You are re-creating me

Summer, autumn, winter, spring

-Nichole Nordeman, "Every Season"

It feels as if the year just started, yet here we are and it's April and spring is in the air. I love it when the warm air begins to move through and the plants and flowers start coming out. It's amazing to see how every year, new life is given to the things that were "dead" just a few months before. I love the beautiful reminder of rebirth and renewal. It gives me hope.

I've been a little MIA from the online world lately because I've been doing some soul searching. I've been praying and trying to figure out what's the next step for me. I'm continuing to make changes and adjustments and working to find my niche.

I'm enjoying my job and my writing class and I'm trying new things with my diet and my health. I'm learning to trust that God will see us through... whatever it may be, finances, my health, Jarrod and my relationship. It's hard to give up control, but I'm working on it.

For this month, I'm going to continue to keep it simple.
-I want to start writing every day. Even just 15 minutes at first and work it into my daily routine.
-Continue on working on things for my health, drinking more water, taking the right supplements, getting more exercise and eating the right things.

That may not sound like a lot, but with what I've been dealing with lately, it'll be plenty to keep my hands full.

Pass the nutmeg

My mom is a wonderful cook. All growing up, she always had a fabulous homemade dinner on the table when we came home from school. I'm still constantly calling her from the grocery store asking her about some ingredient or asking her how to making something.

One of my favorite dishes she makes is pork chops in a creamy mushroom sauce. Basically, it's pork chops slow cooked with cream of mushroom soup. But of course, I can no longer eat cream of mushroom soup since 1. it has cream in it, and 2. soups are thickened with either flour or cornstarch, neither of which I can have. So I decided to make my own cream of mushroom soup.

I found this recipe on food.com and it sounded simple enough.

• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons onions, chopped
• 1 -2 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 -3 tablespoons flour (separated)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup light cream or 1 cup evaporated milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1. Cut the mushrooms into slices.
2. Melt butter in large frying pan. Add in onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until onions are soft.
3. Blend in 2 T. flour and stir.
4. Add in the chicken broth and heat until slightly thickened while stirring frequently.
5. Stir cream with additional 1 T. flour and seasonings. Add in cream to soup. Heat to thicken while stirring frequently.

I switched out the flour for almond flour, which seemed to work just fine. I also used some of my homemade yogurt in place of the light cream. I boiled it down probably just a little further than you're supposed to to thicken it up a little.

I have to say, it came out pretty good. I don't feel that the yogurt changed the taste much at all. And the nutmeg really set it off! That's the taste that I've really  noticed each time I've tasted it.

So I seasoned my pork chops with a little thyme and rosemary, seared them, and covered them in soup to simmer. You're supposed to let it simmer for about 3 hours to get them really tender, but I didn't have that kind of time and only let them go about and hour and a half. They were good, but would've been even better with that extra time.

Overall, big success as an SCD dish. I just had leftovers for lunch and it was just as good. I almost wanted to lick the leftover soup off the plate. Even if I wasn't on this diet, I would probably use this recipe in the future.

What the doctor ordered

I just spent the past few minutes taking my boss' advice and enjoying a few minutes outside. I could not imagine a more beautiful day! The sun is shining, the sky is a deep Carolina blue, and the cold seems to be gone for good (one can only hope here in North Carolina).

I even took my iPad with me and did a little writing for my writing class. (As a side note, I used to say that I'd love to have an iPad, but just don't really have a real need for it. I was wrong. Everyone needs and iPad.) As a homework assignment, we're supposed to write about our favorite place. I couldn't help but think of a beautiful, warm beach and that made being outside on a day like today even more enjoyable.

So yes, I have started a new job. I'm in my second week at a psychiatry office here in Raleigh. I'm heading up things in the office, taking care of scheduling and updating files and filing insurance, all the fun kind of stuff. It definitely is a change of pace from working at the news station, but a welcome one for me. I'm doing the whole 9-5 thing, which I've basically never done. This is literally the first time since Jarrod and I have been together that we've been on the same schedule, other than our college schedules.

I've decided the most difficult part of being on this schedule is the whole getting home and immediately having to dive into dinner preps. Especially since I've been on this new diet that requires a bit more legwork than I'm accustomed to. But at the same time, I consider that a rather small issue when compared to having to go to bed at 7:30pm when it's still light out until after 8:00.

I love being able to sleep in in the morning and get ready in the light! (I actually went into work at the station one time wearing one brown and one black Rainbow because I'd been getting ready in the dark.) I have time to make myself breakfast in the morning and now that I'm getting used to it all, I want to take a couple of days a week to get up early and do some exercising... both physical and mental.

I've also really enjoying working here at the doctor's office. The people are really nice and I've been enjoying getting to know the patients.  I get to pretty much run things the way I want and have a nice combination of time to myself and interacting with others. I'm getting into the swing of things now and liking the laid back nature of the position. But there are things I do miss from the station, such as the fact that there's never anything "breaking" around here. At least not for my position. But that's OK. For now, I'm just going to enjoy being able to relax a little more, not feeling so much pressure, and sticking to a normal routine. I'm also going to enjoy my first normal holiday coming up in just a few weeks here (ah, the finer things in life!)

Poetry and Prose

I just got home from my first writing class at Wake Tech. I think I'm going to like it. It's not even so much about the class, but I think it'll be the motivation I need to get me going. Already, I'm feeling really excited about writing and I think that's what I really need. Just a push in the right direction.

The class has about 12 people in it. Some of them have actually been published before, but some others have never written in their life, but wanted to give it a try. I fall somewhere in the middle, probably more on the unexperienced side. But that's OK. I think that's right where I'd like to be.

We didn't get into too much in the first class. We did the whole introduction thing and getting to know everyone. Then we did a couple of writing exercises and read them for the class (yikes!) I've never been to big on reading my stuff in front of a crowd, but that's part of the push that I think is going to be good for me.

I'm looking forward into really getting into stuff next week. I need to keep reading my writing book, too. (So as part of my goals for this month, I had wanted to have it finished by the time I started this class. That so didn't happen!) I think it'll provide a good foundation for what we do in the class.

I want to also keep up with my writing exercises. I was doing pretty good at doing them every day before, but haven't been lately. I think that's a really important aspect. As they said in my book, if you want to be an athlete, you have to exercise and practice every day. The same goes for writing. You have to work at it every day. Plus, I have my new iPad and this gives me a good excuse to use it some more!