^^^ Fan of alliteration much? Why, yes. Yes I am.

Happy Monday, friends! I hope most of you here in the US have the chance to enjoy a day off in celebration of Memorial Day. Take a moment to remember and say a prayer of thanks to all of those who make the sacrifice to serve our country. Blessings abound in our freedoms and we need to show gratitude for them daily. I know I appreciate my freedom of religion. And my freedom of speech. Could you imagine trying to shut me up? Likely impossible.

We already did most of our celebrating action Saturday and Sunday, leaving today open for more relaxation and normal activity. Works for me! As I mentioned briefly on Saturday, the family & I enjoyed a little hike that morning. We headed out to Sawnee Mountain – a short hiking trail relatively close to us with a fabulous lookout at the top.

We strapped the kiddos in and headed on our way…

Watch out for the poison ivy!

Although, I don’t think I ever remember getting poison ivy before. Now that I have said that, I need to find some wood to knock on.

For some reason this hike took a lot longer than I ever remembered. Odd, considering we go every year. I think my body just felt a little tired from the week. I got very excited when we finally made it to the top.

The beautiful scenery rejuvenated me to make the trek back down. Although I can’t lie. I wouldn’t have minded being in baby B’s spot and catching a little cat nap instead.

Even with achy shoulders and legs, we had a great time all together. Family love!!!!

The second half of our memorable Memorial moments came Sunday afternoon. Every year my friend Nikki’s family hosts a pig roast BBQ. Every year we go and have a fun afternoon eating good food and catching up with family friends.

I ran 8 miles that morning and therefore had “long-run hunger” in full force by the time we got to the BBQ. I happily loaded up my plate with the goods. A pulled pork sandwich, a scoop of potato salad, a scoop of peanut coleslaw, and a hunka hunka burning love watermelon.

Yay for watermelon! It’s finally in season!

After devouring my plate and chilling for awhile, I obviously got my hands on a slice of the congratulatory cake.

My friend’s younger brother graduated college! The younguns in our families are growing up! It’s so strange to think. I always get a little weirded out that my sister is old enough to live with a guy and maybe even get engaged. Eep! Where does time go? Seriously. I feel like at the rate this year has gone, Christmas is tomorrow. Anyone else agree? Slow down Earth spinning around the sun. Slow down!

• Any Memorial Day weekend traditions of your own?
• Have you ever gotten poison ivy?

I hope you all had fabulous weekends! Mine was superb. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my special decisions. I will have to get to the date night one in my next post, because in today’s post it’s all about recapping the special holiday. 🙂

Sunday morning, we all got purtied up for church service.

As I expected, going to worship on such a special day had me all emotional. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t tear up at an Easter service. I take that back – I actually tear up in many worship services. What can I say? God’s love never ceases to amaze me.

After church, we went out for brunch with my family.

We had coupons my family wanted to use to save some money. For IHOP. I never really had a problem with IHOP before, but it’s been awhile since I have eaten there. Let’s just say my tastes have changed. I hated it! I ordered the Nutella crepe which came with banana and topped with strawberries according to the menu. This is what I got…

The crepe may have tasted good. I don’t really know because all I tasted was strawberry juice with unnecessary whipped topping. Plus flimsy bacon with cold, dry eggs. Sound delicious? I ate it because it was 12:30 by this point and all I had eaten was a small bowl of cheerios 5 hours earlier. I just know that, from now on, I will go with my gut to pay the extra $10 for brunch at The Flying Biscuit. At least I had time with family!

An early dinner with Peter’s family made up for it all though. We did the normal Italian thing there with a large get together and copious amounts of pasta, salad, and sweets. I had some ravioli, garlic bread, half a spicy sausage, and some salad for my meal.

Then, we let things digest for awhile with lots of chatting, goofing around, and preparing for fun with the kiddies. More egg hunts! M has certainly caught on and was on a mission to fill her basket.

The day finally finished off with sweet treats. I ended up making the triple layer cookies & cream bars per Peter’s request and they seemed to be a hit again. I nabbed one for my plate, along with a vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting (courtesy of my sis-in-law), and a small bite of lemon cake.

I was actually happy that I didn’t overstuff myself with the sweets, which I can easily do on special occasions. I know I would have if sweets were what I had given up for Lent!Speaking of which, I wanted to finally share some things with you all.

For Lent, I gave up some of my morning “me time” and viewing blogging as more than a hobby. What does that mean? For starters, instead of waking up around 6 am to type up a morning blog post for the day, I traded in the blog writing for time in prayer or to read my Bible and devotional. That meant only having time during naps to prep posts…which in turn meant me dropping to posting typically only once per day instead of twice per day like often before.

During Lent I also gave up checking any and all blog stats. Page views, subscribers, ad revenue, etc. I had come to a place where I no longer cared about “building my blog” and I wanted to make certain my actions reflected that. My view of blog success had changed – because I admit to getting caught in the appeal of growing my readership - and I took the 40 days of Lent to solidify that change in perspective. To me, blog success has nothing to do with popularity and page views. Blog success for me is the following:

• having the opportunity to share my passions
• creating mutually beneficial relationships with readers/bloggers
• perhaps motivate someone in the process – to care for their health, grow closer in their relationship with God & Jesus, take on pregnancy with a fun approach, adopt a more positive daily attitude, etc

The past 40 days confirmed for me even more that while my path does involve blogging and sharing my story (from overcoming binging to my faith to motherhood to my weight loss), it is no longer my GOAL. My goal is to ever grow closer to the God who loves me. My goal is to have the strongest relationship I can with all my loved ones.

My goal is to live a healthy, fun-filled life. My goal is to inspire others to health and hopefully one day pursue something along the lines of personal training. Instead of trying to one day reach the point to blog for some income, I hope to continue living my life and fit blogging in where it will. The money it brings can simply add to my life – you know…funding things like races and blog conferences and dinners out. 😉

I guess what I’m trying to share is that Lent means so much more to me than going 40 days without something. It means sacrificing something so you can learn and grow during that time. I know I did. I hope, with or without Lent, you have strived to learn and grow personally too. And that you always strive for the most fulfilling life possible – whatever that may be to you!

• Heavy: What’s something important you have learned recently?
• Light: What was the best thing you ate this weekend?