Lots of good things on my mind this morning. The sun is shining and spring is here. Feeling sad for the people of Oklahoma affected by the horrible tornado. Feeling hopeful for all the people who are working together to help. If you want to help with funds through the Red Cross, it’s really easy to do:

Donate to Red Cross for Oklahoma.

There’s an app that you can download to donate as well. I think our prayers are even more powerful than the funds.

I’ve been listing a few things over the past couple of weeks that I’ve been thinking about that I thought might be worth sharing.

*b* list of spring good things:

• spring cleaning: I’ve been super focused on this since Sunday. I came home from church and dug into our family room. I’ve been increasingly drawn to a “less is more” approach to decorating. Not minimalist my any means, but much less than my usual. I cleared all the shelves and boxed up one medium sized box with the overflow, then dusted and cleaned thoroughly and replaced with less. I also vacuumed the furniture, moved everything and vacuumed and edged everything. In the past two days, I’ve also washed the insides and out of every window in the house! This house is an easy window washing house, which I appreciate. I have a lot of my Gram in me, because clean windows are a pretty major priority to me. If you are looking for a great window washing spray, I am a big fan of the Armorall Auto Glass Cleaner spray and plain white heavy duty paper towels…not the cheap brands. I haven’t had good luck using vinegar and newspaper, but I realize it’s more environmentally sound. Since our family room is the one room of our house we spend more time in than any other, having it spring cleaned feels really good. I try not to think about how quickly it will be trashed!
  
• healthy eating: I know I’ve talked, written, and instagrammed my journey to healthy eating/living often enough, but there are a couple of specific things I wanted to mention here. Have you tried black sesame seeds? YUM! I add them to my brown rice, oatmeal, salads, and anything else that needs a little zip. So good. I looked for them at Whole Foods, but they’ve had a stocking issue with them. I did find them at Target under one of my favorite labels, Market Fresh.  Also, I really like adding Nori seaweed (which comes in sheets) to my brown rice, and I may try it on my oatmeal soon too. Cod filets. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoy these cod filets. If I lived on the coast, I probably wouldn’t go this route, but for the midwest, this works, and it’s actually really good.

I can make two fish tacos with one filet, so I’m getting a decent amount of protein for 9o calories. I’m aiming for at the least 50 grams of protein a day and typically getting more. I learned the hard way that I need to pair complex carbs with my protein or I feel really tired. I’m getting better at this. I’ve only lost about 4 or 5 pounds in 5 weeks, but I’m happy with that. I don’t have lots and lots of weight to lose, so this is good. I would be super happy with 5 more and then be able to maintain that. But if I stay where I’m at, I’m okay with that too. I did learn one thing about the choices I’ve made recently. For about the last five years (at least) I’ve had a chronic tickley cough. It wasn’t anything bad and I knew I wasn’t sick, it was just there. On Sunday, we met Jared, Beth and Eli for lunch and the ice tea dispenser at the restaurant was labeled wrong, so all they had was sweetened tea, which I do NOT like! I decided to have a diet coke…hadn’t had a diet pop in weeks. I had just a little and it tasted okay, but I wasn’t dying over how good it was, so that was that. We left the restaurant and I started to cough. I coughed for an hour. I’m done. Not going back even for a treat. I did not like the way it felt. I had gotten so used to it in the past, that I didn’t think anything of it…but it’s tiring to sit and cough and have a tickle in your throat. That can’t be good anyway. So it occurred to me that there are probably lots of little benefits of my healthier choices, that I’m not even aware of, but if I went back to my old ways, I would probably notice that I didn’t always feel so good. One last thing on this subject. I think if you are eating whatever is convenient and not taking the time to eat well, you are really doing yourself a disservice. I no longer have the cravings I used to have and I am really enjoying the good food I’m eating. If you aren’t, you should at least give it a shot. For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I have this area of my life where I want it to be. I’m letting myself have the freedom on weekends to indulge a bit, but I have found that I am still gravitating toward good food most of the weekend. We have such good food at home, I don’t want to go out much at all and if I do, it has more to do with being with people that I want to spend time with. I do want to mention that I’m loving the new skinny menu and lifestyle menus at Kona Grill. The seven spice ahi is SO yum. With eating 5-6 meals a day, it’s not a ton of food, but perfect for how I’m eating. Otherwise, I would choose sushi or one of their salads. They have a gluten free and vegan menu too. Word.

• photos & printing: I touched on this briefly not too long ago, but it’s still on my mind. If your photos are important to you, print them. Technology is ever changing. I would venture to say that almost every personal photo that I’ve taken and have on my computer is in print at least once and typically more. I almost always order a “proof” of each image of my family/friends. I don’t want to risk someday thinking that having it on my computer is enough. So buying a disk of edited images is great, if you are getting them printed…or at least your favorites. Don’t just have them sitting indefinitely on your computer or on a disk. I am practicing what I’m preaching on this one!
• jcp: I recently ordered two dresses for under $30 each from JCP. They both fit and I like them. So affordable. JCP has gained my attention and even more so now that they have a Jonathan Adler line! Check it out! Love the tufted couch, the bleecker collection and the upholstered headboards. Not inexpensive, but not out of line.
• jcrew baby: Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a crush on JCrew everything. Favorite store for many years. Have you seen their baby collection? I am in awe. The most perfect baby clothes and blankets I’ve ever seen…but they are pricey. It would have to be special occasion for me to justify. The cashmere blankets wouldn’t be in my price range even for special occasion, but visually they appeal to me like no other baby products I’ve seen.

LOVE. So special.

Okay, that’s all I have today. Hope you’re having a wonderful day!

God bless!