Top 5 Posts of All Time: Gluten free, Dairy free!

Because everyone else is doing it :)

What are my top 5 posts of all time?

1. Gluten-free Dairy-free Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2. Gluten-free Dairy-free Biscuits: WOW!

3. Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

4. Gluten-free Baking Mix

5. Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Cornbread Casserole

5 posts of gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free goodness!

Legacy 5K: Race Re-cap

Hello, friends!

I know I've not been super-active, but I have some exciting stuff in the works. A few hints: an update on my Weight Watchers journey, a series on meal-planning, where I share my monthly GFDFSF meal plan with you, low maintenance guide to fermenting, and some running updates as well.

On a whim, I signed up 2 Thursdays for the Legacy 5K, which was on 2 Sundays ago. Believe it or not, this was only my 4th race of my adult life. When I ran my first 5K in 2003, I ran it in 29:46 (9:36 pace). I ran for about 6 more months, and then I stopped running for 4.5 years due to many factors, including major hip and back issues. I ran a 5K in 2008 in 32:05 (10:20 pace, but it was a huge race and I lost a lot of time trying to gain speed). Soon after I got pregnant and stopped running again.

I ran a little last summer (2010), stopped for the winter, and started again in May when I re-joined Weight Watchers. Then I ran a 10K in July in 58:10 (9:22 pace). I had a goal in mind for the Legacy 5K of 28 minutes or under, but I didn't tell anyone. At the very least, I was hoping for a new 5K personal record.

Here's a race recap for you :)

Starting out, my legs felt a little heavy, so I wasn't running super fast. I figured I'd assess my pace at the first mile marker. I looked at my pedometer at 5 mins, and then again at 10, and thought, "I'm either running at a super-leisurely pace, or there are no mile markers." Soon after that, I saw that people had started running by me, going the other direction, and could see the last turn in site.

I got to the halfway point at just around 13:33 or so and thought, "I could do this in 27 or under!" I also figured my legs felt heavy because I was running at a sub-9 minute pace and didn't know it! Of course, having no mile markers, I didn't exactly have anything to gauge my pace on, so I just ran a little faster. The homecoming stretch was short, so I sprinted and inadvertently passed a guy The crowd was yelling, "You can take him! You can catch him!" I wasn't trying to catch him, just trying to finish fast :)

My official time was 26:08, over 3.5 minutes faster than my previous PR and almost 2 minutes faster than I hoped to run it! I came in 66th place out of 258 people.

A couple cool things:
When I walked into the registration area and was looking at the sponsors, thinking, "It'd be great if I could get some free running gear!" Not 10 minutes later, a woman was going around, asking people to test out running socks! So I got free running socks :)

The race took place at a plaza, sort of an open air mall. Whole Foods was one of the sponsors; that's how I heard about the race because I get emails from them. They had a deal that if you register in the store between 5-7 PM on Thursday, you get entered into a $25 gift card drawing for the plaza. Well, when I registered at 6:30, the race organizer said, "As of right now, you have a 100% chance of winning the gift card. No one else has registered so far." I found him at the race, and I did win the card! So I paid $20 to run, and I'll get a $25 GC!

My next race will be the Chilly Half Marathon.

New Ministry Blog

I have separated out all my ministry posts and started a new blog: Living With Unveiled Faces. I'll be posting food, recipe and healthy living stuff here at this blog and ministry stuff at my other blog :)

10 Days

That's how long it's been since I've posted here!

I've been focusing a lot on my other blog, which I'm actually moving here in the next few weeks. I'm also trying to streamline my life by decluttering my blog reader, which now contains about 2/3rd's of the number of blogs it used to, but probably only about 1/3rd of the number of posts to read. Some of my favorite bloggers post 1-4 times a day, but I decided unless they are a friend, I just don't have the time to read them.

I'm also trying to streamline other areas of my life. I reorganized my kitchen yesterday and put some things in yard sale boxes. I gave 2 huge boxes of stuff to Teen Challenge Boston (I'll post about that in my other blog later). I've been trying to get rid of stuff on Freecycle, as well as packing stuff away for the yard sale we will have in the spring.

It's been warmer these past few days, so we've been getting out for walks, though people still have not cleared their sidewalks! But it's nice to be able to get a little exercise, even if I have to walk in the middle of the street half the time.

I have a new blog!

I have a new blog: BK on a Budget. Special thanks to my friend, Jess, who came up with the name :) Here's a quote from my first post:

In this blog, I'll share some basics of couponing that can be done simply by reading some blogs, getting the Sunday paper and printing coupons off the internet. I'll also share freebies, giveaways, and random ideas about making money, scoring deals, and getting gift cards.

I'll continue posting some stuff here about frugality, while mainly using this blog to focus on healthy living, ministry, writing, reading and daily life.

So make sure to go over and add the other blog to your blog reader, if it interests you :)

Freebies Friday

I got my Free Raw Chocolate Powder in the mail yesterday! Here's the evidence:



Oh, wait, that one was taken with our digital camera that is clearly dying. The one taken with my phone came out better:



I also got my Omaha Steak order in the mail yesterday! And yes, I do see the irony of those 2 things.

I also won a free copy of The Frugal Duchess of South Beach over at Tight Fisted Miser yesterday!

I win! Again!

I added pictures to my recent post about the Walgreens extravaganza :)

More Simplifying in Regards to Blogging & Blog-reading

I've added a "Subscribe to" in the top of the right column of my blog (there has always been one at the bottom of the page). Then I went to every blog that I read & added it to my Google Reader. This will further streamline my internet time. Last night, I cleaned out my other 2 e-mails accounts (one had over 800 e-mails in the inbox!), and I'm down to 14 e-mails in one inbox & only 8 in the other.

I feel lighter already!

Follow Me, As I Follow...

If you look to the right of my blog, you can click on this thing that says "Follow this blog". It may only work for blogspot-ers, but if you're a blogspot-er, please click. I have 2 followers, and one of them is me. That's kind of sad :)

Bear & I shared a yummy, freshly picked Cortland apple from the farmer's market. Yum!

The 5 Blogs I Read the Most

I wanted to take a moment to share with you all the blogs I read the most.

These are in no particular order :)


Kristen's Raw - raw, vegan, and healthy living talk
Green Smoothie Girl - green smoothie talk

Confessions of a CF Husband - the blog of a man whose wife has cystic fibrosis

The Simple Dollar - a financial blog by an everyday guy

Everyday Thoughts Collected - the blog of my friend and ministry colleague Randy Thomas

One of the reasons I generally check these blogs daily is because they all basically blog daily, if not at least on a regular basis. So to all the bloggers out there - if you want people to frequent your blog, make sure to write regularly.

In fact, here's a good article on blogging: 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers

Travels & Illness

We safely made the trip up to His Mansion today, and Roy did go along, though I think it made his illness worse. And he has to go back to work tomorrow. Poor guy :(

I'm building up my list of blogs to read, and I'm specifically looking for more blogs on finances, simple living, and food :) By "finances", I don't mean "get rich as quick as you can and don't care who you step on to get there". I don't really have time to explain what I mean as there's a Bear trying to climb into my lap, but I mean more like simple living/"Your Money or Your Life"-type stuff.

Night!

This is my new blog :)

This is my new blog! My blog on my site was so inundated with spam comments that I couldn't keep up with moderating them. I'm hoping I'll be able to control it better here.

Comments are not moderated, but you have to have a Google or Blogspot account to comment.