MJR–That’s All Folks!

Really? Truly, I cannot believe it has been nearly a month since I began My January Rest. One more day. Then what will I do? I’m planning a Starbuck’s date as I type!

One would think a month would seem long, even tedious, when you are struggling through saying no to self, redirecting self, and finding humor with self. This year has been harder than other Januaries and I believe it has been mostly due to busyness plus dietary changes. I need a few weeks to process this year’s rest, then I’ll I write My MJR Review.

Since I have only ONE more day left, I’ll try to catch you up on some more tidbits from this month’s rest. One more day until Starbucks is back on the table! I did say so long Starbucks but fate brought me back through my Starbuck’s doors in January. We usually never walk by there but this day we did. My friend needed to stop in quick and visit her friend Polly. I stepped too inside, out of the cold–and sniffed the aroma. Hopefully, no one was watching as it could have been embarrassing. We had a good laugh about my Starbuck’s rest violation because temptation was calling my name. I professed to her that wasn’t cheating, since I was only smelling and not drinking.

Our shopping experience has been bizarre this year. My husband has been a shopping boundary buster and being the secure man he is, he is perfectly fine with me telling on him. He has however been steadfastly supportive. It is partially because he is a man, that we have the boundary dilemma. Our girl is anemic. I asked him to pick up one–note the word one here–steak. While I have been instructed to go vegan–which of course means no red meat–for osteoporosis, my girl’s doctor is saying eat more iron dense foods including red meat. There are a plethora of opinions about eating plans and I’m being challenged by conflicting viewpoints seemingly daily. Sigh.

That is why I asked him to purchase one steak. One. He came home with a half of cow! I confess to only a small dose of hyperbole here. He bought steaks and roasts then packaged them and packed them in the freezer: the same freezer I’ve been trying to clear out! Hero or boundary buster? My man saw a problem and wanted to fix it. If one is good, sixteen slabs of beef are better, right?

We’ve had red meat three times this week. Sigh again. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but we were suppose to be eating up existing food for MJR, right? You are starting to understand my point.

He also purchased a gluten free cereal. Officially I am on day 15 of my gluten free test (which I hadn’t planned on and has made MJR even more challenging.) When I found out that I couldn’t eat my organic granola and grumped, he must have noticed. When I enquired about why he bought the new cereal, he said, “You have to have something to eat.” Sweet he is. Maybe a boundary buster, but a tender-hearted, sweet and supportive one he is.

While I am telling on him, he also bought corn. His reasoning was that we’ve been looking for a specific type for about six months and when he went to the store, there it was. Of course! Just like the canvas that never goes on sale, did go on sale, but the sale ends in January. I didn’t buy the canvas but he bought the corn! He bought it and said not to use it until February, but I forgot and used it for our southwest salad. Now I’m busted too.

We have purchased very little groceries this month outside of the unsanctioned extras that my husband purchased. Mostly we purchased milk, lettuce, spinach, peppers, a cucumber, tomatoes (which I didn’t ask for but was very happy to have), one bag of frozen green beans (to complete a meal for company), one pint of blueberries and one blackberries (again, his being nice to me). No bananas. I still have three apples left! I think I must have had three bags of apples and it seems that I am the only one dedicated to eating them.

Today, my husband was making monkey bread for our girl when we officially ran out of butter in the middle of the recipe. I knew we were low, but I wasn’t planning on baking, especially something deliciously sweet and sticky and full of gluten (I’m not bitter though.) One of our neighbors rescued us. Our girl was delighted and I was satisfied to see her enjoy her daddy’s love.

Our girl said she needed cream rinse and everyday shampoo. I made her use up the rest of her cream rinse before buying more. Last week we came home with shampoo by mistake. Since she wanted an everyday shampoo, I kept what we purchased; shampoo problem solved. I’m from the era where you had one shampoo. Period. I’m learning.

Back to the store for conditioner.

We are out of a lot of things. I’ll spare you the entire list, but our girl ran out of cotton balls and I discovered she was using mine. I told her to stop, but then, I thought, I don’t want her to use mine because I don’t want to run out. I decided the right thing would be to share. I took half of what I had and because they were large, tore them in half, then shared. I suggested that she use them sparingly. We are going to make it and I faced my selfishness.

I have one heel of GF bread. I feel like Frances, in Bread and Jam for Frances, trying to make my bread last perfectly until February. February is almost here! That means I can shop for the items on my February list. Soon.

Having two lists can cause a problem. While preparing salad for company, I realized that we didn’t have any extra virgin olive oil because I put it on the February list instead of the regular one. They were coming in minutes. I found a bottle of Tuscan Herb olive oil and it worked great. Then I decided to try a drizzle of it on my lentil stew. If I hadn’t ran out of my standard go-to, I wouldn’t have thought to try it on my stew, which I will do again, because it was so good!

We ran out of Feta cheese but we have plenty of cheese left due to our affection for a little cheese shop close to his family’s home in Wisconsin. We had our family dinner out and it was mostly good. I had a real eye opener as to what it is like for a person with Celiac to try to enjoy dinning out. After a lot of waiting, and several oopses (including bringing me low sodium soy sauce instead of GF and they put sauce on my sushi), I finally got to eat. I was upset about my focus on the food and not my family. It was my first attempt at eating out GF. Friends, if you struggle with dietary complications, you have my sympathy!

About a week ago, I craved a Panera Power Kale Salad, which was sad because I had a couple of weeks to go before that would be a possibility. What are the chances that my neighbor texts me and says that she has a kale salad that she didn’t care for. Seriously! After a text-a-thon, which resulted in her going through her garbage for labeling to determine if the dressing was gluten free, (now that is a good friend) I had my kale salad and it was awesome! I might have bugged her one too many times last year when she lovingly reminded me that it was My Rest, not her’s. Seriously, she is a great sport and the kind of neighbor you love to have. Sometimes God loves on us in the most unusual ways.

Tonight I feel sad that My Rest is almost over. There is so much good that comes out of it. And, I long for rest. I’m hoping you have enjoyed My January Rest posts and that you might take a new journey with me beginning in February. While My January Rest is about resting from physical things in order to give myself to greater things, my Finding My Rest posts will focus on how I find my rest in a spiritual sense.

Have you participated in My January Rest? If so, how? Would you be willing to share how the process has impacted you? Do you have any questions for me? I hope to get a few questions to answer as a part of My January Rest Review.

Thanks for joining me for My January Rest journey.