Ruth Anne Benziger's Blog, page 4

Trust and Obey 365 Day Devotional

I wanted to offer you the opportunity to join me in reading a daily devotional. I started on the first and I’ll share the first two days, and the top portion of day 3.

You can find a copy of the book here:

I’d love for you to join me and share your thoughts. If you join, let me know! If not, that’s okay too.

Until next time,

Ruth

Perfect Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229826/perfect-crab-stuffed-mushrooms/Ingredients2 tablespoons butter2 tablespoons minced green onion1 cup cooked crabmeat, finely chopped½ cup dry bread crumbs¼ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese1 egg, beaten1 teaspoon lemon juice½ teaspoon dried dill weed½ cup butter, melted1 ½ pounds fresh button mushrooms, stems removed½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese¼ cup dry white wineDirectionsStep 1Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).Step 2Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet; cook and stir green onion until softened, about 2 minutes. Transfer green onion to a bowl. Stir in crabmeat, bread crumbs, 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese, egg, lemon juice, and dill weed until well mixed.Step 3Pour 1/2 cup melted butter in a 9×13-inch baking dish; turn mushroom caps in butter to coat. Fill mushroom caps with the crab mixture and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Pour white wine into baking dish.Step 4Bake in preheated oven until cheese is melted and lightly brown, 15 to 20 minutes.Nutrition Facts

Per Serving: 329 calories; protein 14.5g; carbohydrates 11.1g; fat 25.4g; cholesterol 111.5mg; sodium 381.2mg.

New Year’s Day Dinner

Every year, I try to make something special for dinner that we don’t normally have. This year, I decided to put some steaks together. I added some smokehouse maple seasoning to them and they were simply delicious.

I love cooking in cast-iron!

Next, I roasted some potatoes in the oven. I smothered them with a little bit of olive oil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and salt. This was the kids favorite of the dish and I’ll be making them again next week as part of our menu.

The kid’s favorite.

Lastly, I just heated up some cut green beans to finish it off. I normally cook these for most meals. They are simple and quick and the kids eat them like crazy.

This was my plate. I was able to eat most of this, however, I didn’t finish my steak. It was very filling.

My plate

What did you have for New Year’s dinner? Do you do anything special or is it back to normal for you? Let me know!

Until next time,

Ruth

2022!

The kids and I spent our day doing crafts, watching movies, and spending time together. It was a quiet night and the kids enjoyed watching the fireworks when midnight hit. That’s right! They made it to midnight. I almost didn’t. I was very tired.

We drew pictures of arctic animals. The kids drew a polar bear, walrus, and orca. They came out pretty cute. Then, the kids made a confetti shooter which was so cute to see them launch at midnight.

I hope you enjoyed your day and that you brought in the new year with those you love.

We of course thanked God for giving us everything we have and for bringing another year.

Until next time,

Ruth

January Goals & Intentions

To end the year, I want to fill you in and keep for my own records my January Goals and Intentions. I am not one to make resolutions that are long-term. I try not to make goals that don’t hold me accountable or that I know are not realistic.

This is going to be the start of a monthly series. I’ll be posting Monthly goals and intentions. You will also get to see a goals update post the day before so that I can go over what I was successful at, and what I wasn’t so successful at.

I’m separating each goal into a category of my life and what works well for me.

Here we go!

Personal GoalsPlan out blog posts. This year, I wasn’t as intentional with my blogging as I wanted to be. In December, I was able to come up with a good schedule and I want to try and stick to that. Organize the House and Decorate. I’m currently in the middle of going through all my kids clothes and toys and donating them. Yesterday, we took 5 trash bags full to the donation center. I want to finish cleaning out the house and to put up some décor items that I’ve been meaning to get to. Read 10 books a month. It was hard for me to reach my reading goals because I didn’t put it on my schedule. In 2022, I want to put it on my schedule to ensure that I can reach my goal. Homeschool GoalsGet Into a Routine. We took time off school and I want to be able to get back into the swing of things. For us, that takes time getting into a routine. Read Aloud. I want to incorporate so much more reading out loud for the kids. I think reading to us will help the kids. So, that is a goal of mine to have them read to us daily. One Presentation. I want to have the kids do a presentation on either science or language arts. They will do well to learn to be comfortable presenting to others. I want them to learn to be articulate and not to be nervous. When they get older this will really help them. Faith GoalsReading Plans. I’ll be doing reading plans for 2022. I do one scripture for each plan and I also am going through a book of daily devotion. Prayer Journal. I want to be more intentional with my journaling and praying time. So, my plan is to take 1 hour a day to sit and just be with God. To read scripture, read books, and to journal my prayers. Scripture memorization. I want to work on memorizing scripture. So, I’ll be writing calligraphy and artistic looking scripture to memorize. My goal for January is to memorize 5 verses. Fitness GoalsWorkout 5x a week. I started wanting to workout daily but quickly my body told me that I needed to slow down. So, my plan is to work out 5 times a week for January. Lift Weights. I have some weights and I need to lift some basic weights to keep my muscle tone. My goal is to lift weights 3 times a week. I have it planned that I am going to do three reps of ten. Squats. I loathe squats but I need to get my leg muscles working. So my goal for January is to do squats 2 times a week. I’ll do three reps of ten as well. I’m going to put it on my schedule and I really hope that I don’t end up hurting myself. lol. Diet Goals Meal Plan. I really want to actually plan out a menu for my household. Often times, I don’t know what I’m cooking for dinner until the last minute. So, my goal is to create a menu for each week. Meal Prep. After creating my menu and doing the shopping, I plan to prep the fridge for the upcoming meals to make things easier to put together. Eat Intentionally. As I have been doing so far, I want to be eating with intention. I want to make sure our meals are healthy and fueling our bodies.

These are all my January goals. It seems like a lot, but I’m hoping to get them all done.

What are your January goals?

Until next time,

Ruth

2021 Recap + Goals Update

I was looking through my blog posts and realized that I didn’t really post a yearly goals post. So, I’m going to go off of my Reading and Weight Loss Goals post. I want to look over the goals that I made and update you on what I accomplished, what I still need to work on, and what I did not do.

I’m also going to start doing monthly goals for my weight loss, personal growth, and spiritual growth. I’ll do quarterly goal posts concerning my homeschool to update on the kids progress and how we are doing.

So, let’s look back at what goals I made.

Reading Goals Update

First, let me say that I made a goal to read 150 books and later amended that to 100 when I saw that I was going nowhere near that number. I’ve read 54 and I’m reading 4 books currently. I feel that only one or two of those will close out my yearly number to 55 or 56.

This year, I worked really hard on my health, which I will discuss later on in this post. I also had my faith and dedicated myself to that. I homeschool and that takes time. I just didn’t have the desire to read as much as I have in past years.

I should mention that the books I read with the kids were not listed on my goodreads page. I’m not sure why but next year, I’ll add every book we read. Because reading is reading, right?

I made a goal to join the Book of the Month and I did do that. However, after six months I canceled my subscription. There was nothing wrong with the books, in fact, they were wonderful. I just didn’t have the time or the money to keep buying them and not reading them. I still have all of my BOTM books and have read only one of them. So, look out for those reviews soon. Phew.

I had the intention of joining the Girl’s Night Book Club, but I fell behind after month 3. Again, I didn’t have time to read and I didn’t have the motivation. So, sadly I didn’t participate like I wanted to.

Weight Loss Goals Update

I started off the year at the Las Cruces Wellness and Bariatric unit under the care of Dr. Gomez. I was put on Keto for about 8 months but only lost around 20 pounds. I gained it all back despite keeping track of food, working out, and eating right. After some time, I decided that she was no longer helpful to me and I stopped going to her program and transferred to Albuquerque.

I made 3 weight loss goals before starting the Bariatric Weight Loss program at UNM Hospital. I made a goal to eat right. I definitely have conquered that. I eat clean, I eat enough protein, I don’t eat a lot of fat or sugar. I feel that I have done a great job with my diet.

My second goal was to work out 3 times a week. Given that I had surgery and had a hernia, I did not complete this goal. I didn’t end up doing much exercise due to my health issues.

My third goal was not to be discouraged in my weight loss journey. I feel that there were times I failed. As most of us know, things can get hard. We get discouraged and want to give up. I did get in those dark times but I didn’t stay there for long. I feel great and I know that the more weight I lose, the more I gain my strength, and get moving, I’ll feel a lot better.

I had my surgery on September 14. I’ve lost 86 pounds since May. That is amazing and I’m so proud of that.

There are the goals update. I wish I had posted more goals to update you on. Tomorrow, you’ll see what goals I have for the month of January. It will be much more in-depth. I’m going to post monthly goals and updates each month to let you know how I am doing.

What goals did you accomplish this year? I’d love to hear all about them.

Until next time,

Ruth

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2021 Reading Stats & Summary

Last year, I saw that someone posted this website and I loved it. So, this year, I decided to do it again. If you want to get your stats, you just export your goodreads library and upload it to The StoryGraph

As I stated before, I did not reach my goals this year. I’m not sad because I did read some good books. Here are my stats.

Reading GoalReadPace and Page NumberGenreNumbers of Books and PagesStar Rating

I’m hoping next year I’ll get to read so many more books. If you do your story graph, let me know.

Until next time,

Ruth

Tuesday Weigh-in (15 weeks post-op VSG)

This week, I managed to drink a lot of water, kept my protein up, and did manage to experience great flavored foods. I’m excited about the recipes and the vegetables that I can eat. I feel great and I had a goal of working out. I did start doing a 20 minute workout that is low-impact dancing/walking workout. I also started lifting weights for my arms.

I’m sore and I know that is normal, but I also have more energy and feel pretty great.

Last week I weighed in at 222. It stayed the same for two weeks, if you saw.

This week I weighed in at:

I’m actually so happy. When I started this journey I had a goal to reach the weight limit for horseback riding. I finally can! I’m so happy with that. We will see you next week for the next weigh-in.

Until next time,

Ruth

Morning Routine (Bible Basket)

As a homeschool mom, I have a morning basket for the kids. We sit down together and do bible, history, science, and art together as a group. I have a basket that I created to have all the books, folders, and such to keep it all in.

I thought that I would do the same thing for myself to help keep my morning supplies together. I spend my mornings reading the bible, books, and doing a devotional. So, I created a basket for me. This will be a basket that I can keep in my room and put all my stuff in one place. Easy for me to grab and out of the way of all the rest of the supplies we have.

While I do my morning basket, the kids get their free time or they have to clean up messes that they made the night before.

I wanted to share what is in my basket. First, we start with my bible, my composition notebook where I take notes, and my (new) pocket calendar.

Bible and Notebook

I like to start my day by reading the chapter or passage and keeping notes. I also like to have my calendar handy in case I need to look ahead and plan what is happening in the future.

Next, I wanted to share some books that I’ll be cycling through. I’ll read a chapter or so every other day and try to read all these books to have that influence in the word that I want. I’m trying to be more intentional and trying to spend more time in God’s word daily. Here are a few top picks.

Reading

I also am keeping some devotionals in my basket and I will also be cycling through them. I want to try and get a well rounded experience. So, I have a few things that I’m going to be going through. Here they are.

Devotionals

I am also going to be going through the Fruits of the Spirit. I started to do this with the kids but they were not ready for it. So, I’ll be going through it on my own and I’ll figure out a good way to incorporate this into their devotional too.

Fruits of the Spirit

Lastly, I have a cool resource where I can search for topics in the bible. It provides you a number of verses where you can search A-Z. I use this quite often.

Bible Topic Resource

This is all in my morning basket and I’ll keep you updated on how I’m liking things, what God shows me, and what I get out of them. I know it is going to be a blessing.

Enjoy your day!

Ruth

Book Review: Rhapsody in Blood: (The Miranda Chronicles: Book II) by Susan Old

Miranda, exasperated with her powerful, unfaithful, arrogant husband, Baron Tristan Mordecai, returns to the small farm town where she grew up. Crazed monk vampire hunters, rebellion within the nocturnal world, and jealous lovers of her husband follow, and challenge Miranda’s ability to protect her family.

Watched over at night by an ancient, scholarly vampire, and during the day by a vampire-approved mortal biker, makes readjusting to rural life after years living in L.A. a daily struggle. After settling in for only a few weeks, a visit by the Baron throws her life back into chaos. As always, he stirs up Miranda’s conflicting emotions of love and resentment, complicated by passion and frustration. The night of his first visit succeeds in igniting her fiery temper and on a visit to town attracts the notice of the local police.

Join Miranda in her search for normalcy as the ever-chaotic insanity of the centuries-old vampire society seeks to avoid attention in the modern world. Miranda’s coffee intake increases as she continues to fight the centuries-old vampire patriarchy.

My Thoughts

Miranda Ortega is raising her children in Rossville, where she grew up. To her thinking, the kids are much safer away from vampire-filled cities. Though, they are all over in the house, babysitting, cleaning, taking care of the horses. As the previous story included, her husband is not faithful and makes no apologies. I find that annoying and even though she left his home and went to be in her childhood home, she seemed to be engrossed in the life he led her to.

This story was interesting. Though, I’m finding it hard to like Miranda at all. She’s a mom of four but she’s immature and the language she uses shows that she’s not emotionally mature either. I find sometimes I don’t like her tantrums or the way she parents.

The vampires are interesting but I find that I get lost in the story because there are so many characters to keep track of. Despite that, it didn’t stop me from reading this story.

I enjoy the kids and the interactions, though I wish the baron took more of an interest. They are funny and keep everyone on their toes.