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?

I had another crazy day today. Fortunately this time it was crazy busy and crazy fun, instead of crazy clumsy. After I hit the ground running spinning with this morning’s cycle class, I had special plans with Makenzie. Her first field trip!

We visited Uncle Shuck’s – a corn maze & pumpkin patch north of Atlanta.

As a family we have visited this little haven of fall every year for the past few years, but today’s trip had some special and learning for the kids.

We learned about products that have soy beans in them and how to recycle…

(holy junk food propaganda! but let’s not get distracted)

The kids learned how to measure pumpkins…

And they got to learn some fun facts in the "Maize of knowledge”.

The simplest things always take on a new level of excitement when done with children. The many smiling faces and off-the-wall-energy will get you excited about corn, hay rides, and goats too.

Or at the very least, cute kids sitting in a pumpkin patch will warm your heart.

Just keep a keen eye. The little man thinks mulch is fine cuisine.

I, on the other hand, prefer the orange globes behind him as my cuisine of choice. And I was quite disappointed to not get my pumpkin bread fix during our Uncle Shuck’s visit today. It’s tradition!

The craving wouldn’t relent, so I came home and made some pumpkin oats for lunch. I could eat breakfast all day every day, so this actually made me quite happy. Especially since I had to rush my breakfast this morning.  I needed to make up for it.

The pumpkin oats didn’t kill the craving, though. I had to bring out the big guns. Well, looky there.

I offered to bring a dessert to tonight’s small group and had the ingredients for the easiest pumpkin spice cookies on hand for such a need. If you don’t know this simple mix, you must give it a shot – one box spice cake mix and 2 cups (or one 15 oz can) pumpkin. Mix it all together. Plop on a baking sheet by the spoonful and bake ‘em up for 15 minutes at 350.

I love adding white chocolate chips to mine. Heavenly! I will happily eat as many as necessary to satisfy my field-trip inspired pumpkin cravings. Yes, siree!

• What was one of your favorite field trips for school?
• What is the last craving you had?
• PS – The next “Stuffed With Emptiness” post coming tomorrow.