Things to Come

Hi, all!

Just wanted to pop in to say I haven't forgotten about the blog and that we're in the midst of a Whole30 program. Since blogging from my phone it's a difficult task, I will make this post short.
However, I plan to do a review at the end of the 30 days, complete with photos!

Tune in at the beginning of March!

Elf 4 Health Recap

Hello, all!
I said that I would try to do a summary of week 1 of the Elf 4 Health. That didn't work.
Then, I said that I would do a summary of each round. That didn't work, either.
I have now decided to just do a summary of the entire program. I didn't have any other options left.

Round 1, Week 1
Day 1: Go meatless -- I almost accomplished this one, but, as it turns out, sick chickens have the ability to mess up all of one's plans.
Day 2: Unsubscribe from unnecessary emails and printed publications -- I manually unsubscribed from several emails and still am unsubscribing when more pop up in my inbox.
Day 3: Try a new workout -- I tried a new workout that included bursts of jumping rope so I had fun trying to take a picture of my shadow while jumping.
Day 4: Share a new book, blog, etc. -- Thanksgiving Day! Shared several of my favorite blogs and recommended a book that I haven't actually read yet
Day 5: New veggie smoothie -- Okay, so it was a new smoothie recipe that only had spinach as a vegetable.
Day 6: Treat yourself -- Got to sleep in and watch some movies.That's a treat in my book!
Day 7: Meal plan & prep -- I love meal planning, especially planning new uses for Thanksgiving leftovers.

Round 1, Week 2
Day 1: Handwritten note -- sent a little package to my Elfie and a card to another friend. My Elf sent me the best package! You can read about it here: http://pumpkinrosefarm.blogspot.com/2014/12/best-elf-ever.html
Day 2: Eat the Rainbow -- My birthday! And my dog's birthday, so we "ate the rainbow" by having rainbow-colored birthday candles.
Day 3: Go makeup free -- Did this so easily...since I am pretty much makeup-free every day.
Day 4: Do a buddy workout -- I was going to do yoga with a dog, but instead did it with Yoga Cat.
Day 5: Leave an Operation Beautiful Note -- Planned for this one, but my sticky notes weren't sticking. However, I'll be leaving notes from now on!
Day 6: Pantry and fridge purge -- This had (somewhat) happened recently, so I didn't do it.
Day 7: 20 things gratitude list -- I made the list in my head, so that will have to count. On the list was my new Elf friend, which brings me to...

There is a winner at the end of each round and I was so excited to read who it was, because it was going to be my Elf, of course. I was certain that no other Elf could have been as fantastic as mine. I was in for quite a surprise when I read that I HAD WON! HOLD THE PHONE! ME? THE WINNER? I honestly am not yet over the shock. This shock will surely increase exponentially when I receive the prize pack from the sponsors.

Round 2, Week 1
Day 1: Fastest mile challenge -- I was looking forward to seeing how fast I could do a mile, but when this challenge came around, a painful shoulder kept me from running. This challenge will happen, though.
Day 2: Pay it forward -- I did a couple things here and there for people--some for strangers, some for family and friends.
Day 3: Pack a healthy snack -- I didn't go anywhere on this day, so there was no need to pack a snack!
Day 4: Take some you time -- I took a little bit of "me time", but not as much as I would have liked. ;)
Day 5: Do a circuit workout -- Didn't accomplish this one because I still was dealing with pain in my shoulder area of my back..yuck!
Day 6: 3 food groups per meal -- This was fairly easy since most of my meals contain at least three food groups.
Day 7: Clean out your closet -- I had already done the bulk of this a while back, but I pulled out a few more things. I also rounded up several coats and we dropped them off at a local coat drive.

Round 2, Week 2
Day 1: Read, write or meditate -- I got up early and read Psalm 119; yes, it's a bit lengthy, but it's a beautiful chapter and very encouraging, especially when you're just starting out your day.
Day 2: Push-up challenge -- I prefer super-slow pushups, where you take ten seconds to go down and ten seconds to go back up. However, I decided to only do one of this, the first pushup of the day. Then, I proceeded to 149 more pushups during the day; I did regular pushups and pike pushups and some pushups that I accidentally made up and a few modified pushups when my arms got tired. I even did one diamond pushup...whew! Pushup total = 150
Day 3: Share your expertise -- I'm not really an expert at anything, but an opportunity arose to share some of the knowledge that I've learned about Vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2. (Long story short: you need to take D3 and then have K2 with it; the vitamin K gets the vitamin D where it needs to go!)
Day 4: Veggies with breakfast -- Breakfast juice/smoothie with kale and carrots, plus a few other ingredients.
Day 5: What you love about you -- Eep! I was supposed to share 6 things that I love about myself, but instead I opted for making a list in my head that only contained four things.
Day 6: 2015 fitness goal -- My goal for 2015 is to become healthy (two words: adrenal burnout). Unfortunately, my fitness plans will be limited to mostly yoga for a while. Fortunately, I love yoga and so does my cat, hence the nickname, "Yoga Cat."
Day 7: Make a donation -- This was one of my favorite daily challenges. Earlier in the week, I got thirteen inches of hair cut off. I sent it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Foundation and so that was part of accomplishing this day's challenge.


This Elf 4 Health program was so much fun! I have a new buddy (hi, new buddy!) and am about to have some awesome prizes (thanks mostly to my new buddy).
Thanks to Elle and Lindsay for hosting this program!

Happy holidays from Pumpkin Rose Farm!

Best Elf Ever

Buddy the elf must now assume the title of Second Best Elf Ever, because there's now someone in first place: my Elf for the Elf4Health program, Stefanie.
Stefanie fooled me into thinking that she was going to send me a birthday card, but she sent a whole package, full of goodies--and care.

She even sent an elf hat.
Hey, Stefanie? You rock. Thanks

Apologies

Hello!
Week 1 of the Elf 4 Health challenge is over, but I can't write about it right now. (Blogging from my phone is just too difficult!)
Maybe I'll just do a post for each Round...

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elf 4 Health

I'm an elf! No, I don't have pointy ears...no reindeer buddies (I wish!)...and though I may be short, I'm not that short. What kind of elf am I, then? An elf 4 health!
I joined the #elf4health program from The Lean Green Bean. During the next four weeks, I'll be participating in daily challenges.

I'll be paired with another elf for the first two weeks, then a second elf for weeks three and four. We'll be encouraging each other on the challenges. I'll definitely need a little prodding for the workout challenges! 

I'll try to make a recap of the weekly challenges at the end of week.

Of Mice and Men

First, an apology. I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks.

You know what they say about "the best laid schemes of mice and men".... They often go awry! I'm sure I could count more times when plans went wrong than I could times when they went right. In the big scheme of things, God directs things away from how we plan them, to the way that He has planned. He does so for the benefit of His children.

Once again, I recently experienced big plans being directed in a different direction than I'd imagined.

Just before that, however, I had a small almost-catastrophe.

I decided that I would make a batch of gluten-free apple cider doughnuts.

 I had just bought some more of a gluten-free flour blend that claims to be a perfect "cup-for-cup" substitute for all-purpose flour and, from my experience, this is true. Even though I have a doughnut pan, I wanted to use my new whoopie pie pan that is comprised of pumpkin-and-leaf-shaped compartments.

So, I put my doughnut mix into the whoopie pie pan and put it in the oven for a few minutes more than the doughnut recipe suggested. [My first clue that a catastrophe was awaiting should have been this: doughnuts ≠ whoopie pies] After baking and checking for doneness (more than once), I thought maybe I could turn the whoopie-pie-doughnuts out onto a baking sheet. This did not work well either, but got them as close to being done as I could get them without them burning. 

[Hindsight thoughts: should have used that doughnut pan after all...] "Well," I said to whichever dogs might have been listening, "they might look funny, but surely they taste as grand as they would have otherwise." [Okay, maybe that's not exactly how I said it.] 

Then, the tasting. Two bites into it, my face was that of a very disappointed baker. "These don't taste good and I'm going to have to throw them away!" I wailed in despair. "Let me try one," said my mother, the Unofficial Official Taste-Tester of Pumpkin Rose Farm (try fitting that on a nametag).

 Try the doughnuts, she did, and (to my surprise) she said they were very good. "Very good?" asked I, "How could you say that?" "They are good. They taste like ginger molasses cookies." GINGER MOLASSES COOKIES? These were APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUT...things... I took another bite and (again, to my surprise) they tasted good, very similar to ginger molasses cookies. [It's amazing what our minds can do.]

Now that we had identified the distinct taste of ginger and molasses, I had a mystery to solve: I hadn't put either of those ingredients in the mix, so why did we taste them?

Soon enough, Watson and I had deduced that the ginger had come from the cider that we'd previously added spices to, and the molasses came from the brown sugar. Later, there was even another positive opinion of these apple cider ginger molasses doughnut whoopie pie things. Again, I was very, very surprised. [No, I'm not a pessimist. And, hi, Person Who Liked the Doughnut Things..you know who you are.]

What was the lesson I got from all this? Don't bake doughnuts in a whoopie pie pan.

Also, "You can't always get what you want. But, if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need."