It feels like I'm cheating Weight Watchers recipe of the evening

Hi all! I thought I would share this yummy dish I just whipped up in literally 15 or 20 minutes with what I had in my house! I had some left over asparagus from an Easter casserole that was about to go bad, 2 TBSP of 1/3 less fat cream cheese from a Sip-N-See I hosted a couple of weeks ago, a lemon that was about to spoil from the punch at the same shower, and an opened box of whole wheat spaghetti. Then I remembered a yummy recipe from a cookbook of mine to adapt and voila! Since my husband hates asparagus and I love it, I made 2 servings - one for dinner and one for lunch tomorrow. :)

Here is the adapted recipe:

2 servings of whole wheat spaghetti (8 points)

1/2 bundle of asparagus cut to 1-1.5 inch pieces (ZERO points)

1 TBSP olive oil (1 point)

1 garlic clove (ZERO points)

1/2 cup skim milk (1 point)

2 TBSP of 1/3 less fat cream cheese (2 points)

Zest of 1 lemon (ZERO points)

dash of nutmeg

1/4 tsp of salt

ground pepper to taste

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (3 points)

2 servings = 15 points, 7.5 points per serving

1. Cook spaghetti until al dente

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and asparagus and sauté, tossing constantly for 2 minutes. Pour in about 2 TBSP of water and cover pan. Cook until asparagus is just tender, about 5 minutes. Combine milk, cream cheese, lemon zest, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Pour mixture over asparagus and bring to a boil, let simmer until preferred consistency.

3. Drain pasta and return to pot. Pour on the asparagus sauce, toss, and stir in Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

YUMMY! It feels like I'm cheating, but I still have 3.5 more points for the day! Time to raid the Easter candy ;)

Under Attack

So I'm ready to completely acknowledge that I am under attack. For those of you who feel that spiritual warfare is "wierd," you may want to skip this post! We Methodists don't really talk about spiritual warfare often if at all, but I grew up in a Methodist church in ALABAMA. Truly, it was more like going to a Baptist church where we said the Apostle's Creed, but I digress.

It took a textversation with my girl Christie for me to realize that the devil has been really working me over lately. She texted me at 11:20pm to make sure I was ok, because she had been thinking of me all day. Luckily, I was able to "talk" because I'm having trouble sleeping... I was telling her about how much that our house not selling was weighing on me. She was telling me to "COMPLETELY give it over to God," so that I could quit worrying about it and "pray for God to take it everytime it crosses your mind. Because if you've really given it up to God completely, and you're still thinking about it, it's the devil trying to take control of it."

I was amazed that I had been on her mind all day. Matt and I had a rough night the evening before, really talking over how emotionally burdensome this house has become. And I woke up meditating on Matthew 11:28, "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." The Holy Spirit is cool like that. He gave me the words I needed, and encouraged a friend to pray for me all day. Because He already knew what I discovered while texting with Christie, that I was under attack.

I told Matt before he went to bed (and before Christie texted me) about the verse I woke up meditating. And I told him, "I know the scriptures. I have the answers. I just need to be reminded from time to time. The Holy Spirit and I are cool like that." Talking about the Holy Spirit kinda wierds Matt out (he grew up in the church we now attend, which is more like an actual Methodist church where you don't talk about spiritual warfare). It brought me comfort to be reminded in such a direct and obvious way that God is with me wherever I am, whatever I'm going through. As much as I KNOW that I am under attack from the evil one, I am reminded that GOD is fighting for ME, so I need not worry!

Cool, huh?

New landscaping!

No, not on the house we live in. We can't do anything there until THIS house sells:

And why wouldn't it sell? There is nothing left to do to it!

I will admit, I had lots of fun at the nursery picking out the flowers for the window box. Hopefully in a couple of weeks you will be able to see them well. There are dark pink geraniums, light purple torenias (clown roses) that will cascade, and 2 vinca vines that will cascade as well. We also got pink petunias for the hanging baskets, and of course the azaleas went in last week (they are a dark pink/light purple like the torenias).

I'm not really a fan of pink, but flowers come in limited colors! I could have done some red today in the window box & hanging pots, but the azaleas were already in and they were PINK so I had to stick with it. I can't have my flowers clashing and looking all crazy.

So now we are officially finished with all the improvements at 146 Lynda Circle. The landscaping was the last thing left to do, and it's finished. I'm so glad. Now if we could just get someone to come look at it! Hopefully our open house on April 11th will go well. If you are in the area, come check it out & bring a buyer with you!

Struggling...

So, obviously I've "fallen off the wagon" with Lent, so to speak. It started out so well, and I was so enthusiastic, but here lately I'm struggling. My Lent was about something that I should be doing all the time, not just for 46 days. I should be focusing on the blessings that I have and the things that are going my way, instead of selfishly obsessing over the things I don't have. I know all of this in my head, but my heart is stubborn like me. And so I struggle.

My struggle is ambiguous. It's hard to describe or pin down into one thing. But it's real just the same. I have a job that I LOVE. I have family and friends that I LOVE. I have the most AMAZING husband that I LOVE and adore with all that I have in me. I have a gorgeous house that I LOVE, with a front porch and a rocking chair that I get to enjoy while I'm working (in a job that I LOVE). I mean look at what we're doing this afternoon:

I am blessed beyond measure, but still I struggle. I'm having a hard time falling asleep, even when I'm exhausted. I'm trying to stay positive about the house we're selling, but look at how long it's been since we started trying to sell it! That's right folks, over 7 MONTHS. UGH. We had it listed with a realtor for 6 months to no avail, and now we are doing it on our own. We've worked really hard in the last few weeks improving the one thing that was consistently lower on the feedback from our showings, curb appeal. We are hosting an open house on Sunday, April 11th 2-4pm. Hopefully something good will come of it.

This is before:

If you can't tell, the foundation and trim are a "country blue" color that I've ALWAYS hated!

This is after:

Taupe foundation and black trim, with landscaping and shutters (those teeny bushes are azaleas). Tomorrow we add a window box under the picture window & hanging plants!

If you know ANYONE in the Chattanooga area looking for a great starter home, that's close to downtown, in an awesome neighborhood in Red Bank (that's county not city taxes people), please send them our way!!! I loved living in this house, and am very attached because I bought it as a single girl. It's a great house that I spent lots of time and money updating and, if I do say so myself, it's a fabulous buy! Here's the link to our listing!!!

In the mean time, I'm going to continue to remind myself how blessed we are that we could even MAKE this move and afford 2 houses so that we could get the house of our dreams while we wait on the perfect buyer (or ANY buyer) for our first home. I'm also going to try and pull myself up out of this funk, with the good Lord's help. Prayers are appreciated, buyers welcome!