If I hadn’t had small group at church last night, it would have taken a lot of convincing for me to believe today is already Thursday. And now it’s basically over. This week is zooming right on by. Yowza! I even almost forgot about my weekly Thursday ritual of lunch with Peter. A message from him suddenly popped up asking me when I planned on leaving to meet him for lunch. Uhhh…now???

I scurried around to head out for our weekly lunch date because you know I wouldn’t miss that. Peter even suggested grabbing lunch out this week since his work had bratwurst on the menu, which didn’t appeal greatly to either of us.

We decided to visit a sandwich café that we have wanted to try for awhile.

As it turns out, Cuzi Café is basically a glorified Atlanta Bread Company or Panera Bread, but why should I complain about that? I love both of those places! I love me a good sandwich.

I ended up ordering our sandwiches to go since the weather looked too gorgeous to ignore. We headed to our typical park lunch spot to enjoy our lunch together. And enjoy it, I sure did!

I picked a half and half combo – half of a sandwich and a half-sized salad.

For the sandwich, I chose the Avocado Delight which had thick avocado slices, tomato, cucumber slices, mushrooms, spinach, onion, and roasted red peppers with a dill sauce on nine-grain bread.

That sucker took some skill to eat. All the avocado wanted to slip out with every bite. Don’t worry. I handled it. I wasn’t going to let a bite go to waste.

For my salad, I went with my all time favorite combo of spinach, pecans, dried cranberries, apple slices, blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.

I truly don’t think any other salad combination can compare.

It ended up making the perfect lunch to enjoy outdoors.

Later in the afternoon, I had to make up my run from the morning. I usually hit up the treadmill for some interval action on Thursday mornings, but couldn’t make it this morning since Braedon caught whatever bug Makenzie had earlier in the week. I considered going to the gym to try a new treadmill interval workout this afternoon…but one look outside convinced me otherwise in about .2 seconds flat.

That is prime outdoor running weather right there! Anything from low 50s to high 70s feels fabulous to me and makes me want to run all day. Or four miles. Whatever.

Since I had a killer speedy run a couple days ago, I decided to just run this run care-free style. I picked a familiar route so I could leave the Garmin at home. I ran sans music. I la-di-dah-ed my way through the run and soaked up the glorious fall day. It was perfect. Until I tripped hardcore and gave myself a black eye walking back to my car.

Kidding!!! Although I know you wouldn’t put it past me after this week, huh? It’s just purple eye shadow because I felt like being a dork. I completely freaked Peter out and had him going. It was awesome.

Alright my friends, it’s about time for me to catch up with some TV shows and snuggle time with Peter. Night!

• Do you prefer dining outdoors or indoors?
• What are you up to tonight?

This morning, I wanted to go ahead and share the second installment of the “Stuffed With Emptiness” series, which means I never got the chance to share my great time from last night. We had a good one in small groups this week. Starting with the quintessential fall food: chili!!!

Too bad it wasn’t really chili weather. We’re back in the 80s here. Oh well. Air conditioning has a purpose and I couldn’t pass up this bowl of delicious from one of our group members.

I love me a good vegetarian chili, but a hearty, meaty chili like this one takes the cake sometimes. I even topped the classic chili off the classic way with some cheese and a handful of Fritos.

Yummm.

My pants couldn’t resist either.

My fingers still haven’t figured out how to hold onto things.

And my TMI threshold still hasn’t figured out an appropriate limit since I just posted a picture of my crotch on the world wide web. Crotch shots…pregnant in bikinis…cabbage stuffing bras…you get it all here, folks!

Moving on before I completely embarrass myself.

THE WALL

Last night’s discussion focused on the the topic of “faithfulness” – in the terms of persevering even in hard times.

In this past week’s sermon, our pastor shared the analogy of “the wall” that long distance runners face. The distance that suddenly wants to smack you down. The moment when you must decide to push on or give up. While much of our emphasis lay in persevering in our faith, even during trying times, I still couldn’t help but apply this concept to all areas of life.

It hit me that anything worth living for is HARD WORK.

Living a healthy lifestyle. Growing as a person. Developing a deeper faith. Training to achieve a goal. Being the best mom/wife/sister/friend you possibly can. Pursuing a passion. Loving someone.

All of those things we value most in life take time and energy. They often push us out of our comfort zones. They don’t always work out perfectly. They can hurt us. They can exhaust us. They can make us question everything.

You know what’s hard? Breaking through binge eating. You know what’s hard? Being a mom. You know what’s hard? Pouring yourself into a passion and having to sit back and trust. You know what’s hard? Having faith in something unseen.

We all have such things in life. But they make life worth living. We need faithfulness, perseverance, and commitment to reap the rewards. We’re made to break down those walls…and it will feel so good to come through the other side.

• Do you like chili? What kind and what toppings?
• What walls do you have to push through in your life?