Ruth Anne Benziger's Blog, page 7

Tuesday Weigh-in

13 Weeks Post-op VSG

This week, I tried to focus on drinking more water, getting in enough protein, and being intentional with my meals. I’ve been so busy and have had many distractions. I didn’t think much about food because I don’t get hungry.

I’ve posted a few recipes that were really good. I’ve made lots of food that make me want to explore more flavors. I want to try different things. It has taken me some time to enjoy food again after surgery. Texture is a big thing that often has me feeling like I have to vomit.

Last night, I had a chicken cordon blue and it felt like I overate, but I hadn’t. The heaviness of the food sat differently for me. I have to be more mindful of that.

I wanted to say that my weight loss is going pretty well. I even had chips, cookies, and stuff that I shouldn’t, but I still managed to lose. I have to be more mindful of eating more intentionally, but I’m not perfect. I still try sugar free options that I shouldn’t overindulge on.

I’ll try to do better.

Last week, I weighed 225.8.

Today, I weighed in at:

I did the math and I have to get my BMI under 35 before I qualify for my hernia surgery. Which can’t come soon enough. I’m having some issues in that department. I need to weigh around 190 pounds to get my BMI in range.

I see my doctor on March 25th and I’m hoping to lose enough weight by then. We shall see. I’m going to do all I can.

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 14: What Christmas Means To Me

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Christmas for me is about celebrating the birth of Christ.

It’s so fun to get excited about the Christmas season because of decorations, food, drinks, presents, and all the holiday fun. But for some of us, the season is the most important. This part of year, we thank our dear Father for bringing his son into the world to live for us, love us, show us great wonders, and to die for us.

I hope you will allow me to share some scripture with you. Jesus Christ is my savior and I owe everything to him. He is gentle, loving, kind, compassionate, my judge, my God. He is there when I’m lonely, there when I’m angry or sad.

He is the same today, yesterday, and forever.

For the month of December, I have been reading through the book of Luke. If you want to join me, you may do so. I’d love to have some dialogue.

I want to share some scripture with you.

Jesus loves you, he died for you, and he is coming again soon.

Whosoever shall believeth in him shall have life everlasting.

If you call upon him today and ask him to come into your heart and save you, he will. God loves you and he cares deeply for you.

He is my savior, my friend, my father.

Thank you for letting me share.

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 13: Reading Goals 2022

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In 2021, I had so much going on mentally and in my life that I didn’t focus a lot on reading. I’m normally used to reading around 80-100 books a year. This year, I’ll be lucky if I get to 50. But you know what? I’m not sad about it. I had a lot going on and I grew as a person. So, that is a win in my book.

I do want to set my goal for 2022 at 100-150 books. There are so many books on my list that I’ve been saving up. I’m not going to give you a detailed list because that would make this post rather long. Rather, I’m going to tell you what I plan on reading and when.

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I like to set small goals instead of large. That is a huge reason that I don’t make new year resolutions. I rarely follow through and it leaves me disappointed.

Instead, I’ve chosen to set a goal to read 10 books a month. If I did that, I would reach my goal of 100 books a month. I could probably get away with more, but I’m going to set my goal small.

I also plan to do my book reviews, update my blog more often, and some other surprises that I have coming. So, I’m hoping that I reach my goal next year.

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I’m going to reach high and try to get it done. If not, no sweat. I’ll still be happy with wherever I end up going.

I plan on branching out of my normal Romance genre and reading other stuff. For instance, Christian, cookbooks, skills, gardening, and more. It’s gonna be a fun year.

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There are some authors that I really want to discover in 2022 and here are a few of them.

Taylor Jenkins ReidNancy JohnsonSarah PennerMay CobbLaura DaleTracey LangeCharlotte McConaghyMatt Haig

These are just a few of them and there are probably so much more!

What are your reading goals for next year? What genres do you want to read? What authors? I’d love to hear your goals.

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 12: 2022 Book Review Goals

Today’s post is short and sweet.

When I first started this blog a couple of years ago, I started writing Book Reviews. It’s always been a staple for me. It will always remain so. I love reading and sharing my thoughts and feelings on the books I read.

Now, I want to make some changes on what I write for my book reviews by adding more of my personal opinions. If you are worried about spoilers, don’t worry, I’ll post a warning on the top of each of my posts. But, I do want to start adding more because I have a lot to say sometimes.

My goals next year are to do a lot more reading, to add more personal opinion, and to try and collab with other readers on my reviews. I did a buddy read in the past and I need to do more of that.

So, those are my goals. They aren’t elaborate, but they are important to me.

I hope you will stick around and see what I’m reading and what books have me excited.

So far, you can look forward to these:

I also plan to increase my reading. This year was really hard for me and next year, I’m hoping to have more time to dedicate to reading.

There you have it!

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 11: Craft Ideas for Kids

The holidays are my favorite time of year because not only do we get to decorate our homes, trees, and put lights up, we get to do lots of crafts with the kids.

The kids are very artistic and have been since I started homeschooling them. We tend to do many art projects through our lessons. It helps them use their creativity and helps to express themselves. Plus, it’s fun!

So, this year, I wanted to share a few crafts that the kids have done and some that I found on Pinterest that would be fun to do and that we plan on doing.

I hope that if you have kids, you will go check out my Pinterest Board and find crafts that you can enjoy with them. It’s so fun and makes me happy.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you do crafts and what kind of crafts you do. We would love to see them.

Until next time,

Ruth

Ginger Bread House

This year, Arielle really wanted to do the ginger bread house. She’s been hounding me over and over but we have had so much on our plate, we hadn’t gotten around to it.

Well, today I finally let her do it and it came out so cute.

Arielle getting started!

If you can’t tell by her huge smile, she was pretty darn excited to get it done.

Arielle loves the rainbow because God put one over Noah’s Arc.

I love what she ended up doing with the top of the house. She had some trouble with the front but she worked really hard to make it look nice.

I love her creativity and use of color

The frosting was really hard to work with and I had to try to help her hold the bag but I think she did pretty well.

Sticky frosting didn’t work that well.

Here is the finished product!

Finished!

Arielle was so proud of her house and now it sits drying. Such a cute picture of her with her house!

Ginger bread house 2021

Next year, we will do another and compare how it turned out. Maybe she will do better next year, and we will have some better frosting on hand.

I hope you liked her hard work as much as I do.

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 10: Festive Movies

Each year, we watch the same Christmas movies. You know that you do. It’s okay, they are classics for a reason, right?

Well, for us we watch Home Alone way too much. I regret nothing.

Here is a list of movies that I love and that I tend to watch every single year without fail.

If you watch the same movies, let me know and if you watch others, share those with me.

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Let me know what movies you like to watch.

Until next time,

Ruth

Homemade Chicken Soup

Every winter, I make my famous chicken soup. I usually add noodles to beef it up, but this year I made it with no noodles. I added potatoes instead. With bariatric surgery, I can’t eat the potatoes but the kids can. It’s so delicious.

First, I used the broth from a chicken that I cooked last week. The broth was so delicious and added the perfect taste to the soup.

Chicken Broth I made

I always love to add broccoli into my soup, I know it’s not for everyone. It’s so good and gives it a perfect taste. After the soup is cooking for a bit and the broccoli softens, I cut it up into smaller pieces.

Broccoli are little trees

Next, add carrots. I add baby carrots because when soft they are easy to cut and small pieces. Plus, I love them and they are good for you.

Don’t the colors look great together?

I add shredded cooked chicken into the pot, but you can add what is best for you. I used precooked chicken that was roasted and seasoned so it gave it a pretty good taste.

It looks like a lot of chicken, but the protein is high.

I add half a can of mild Rotel sauce to give it some tomatoes and some spice. Plus, I feel like chicken soup must always have tomatoes in it. I love the colors of food and the combinations for asthetic.

Beautiful combination of color and flavor

You can’t forget the onions. I personally used previously frozen onions because they were already chopped and because they thaw easily in the soup.

Don’t forget the onion

Don’t forget the spices. I add garlic powder, pepper, parsley flakes, and oregano. You can add what you like, but these are the basics for me.

I didn’t mention that you fill the pot up with water after the broth

I chop up zucchini, yellow squash, and potatoes into small pieces and add that to the soup. I add a tablespoon of better than bullion to add more flavor. Heat it up and until it boils. Cook on low for 30 minutes until vegetables are soft.

Look how gorgeous that soup is!

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Ruth

Blogmas Day 9: Cocoa Ornament Craft

A couple of years ago, I made these really cute ornaments that I put cocoa ingredients in and put on the tables of our Christmas party at church. I thought that since I have the pictures of what I used and the beautiful ending product, I would share that with you.

They make a cute gift or stocking stuffer too.

First, you start with clear ornaments, if you can find them. This year, I could not find what I was looking for. I bought these boxes at Walmart.

I bought 3 boxes

Next, you will need cocoa to add to the ornaments. You can add from a packet or from a container. It’s up to you. I used packets because it was what I had.

I used this from Walmart

You can’t leave out the sprinkles, and decorations. So, I added these to each ornament after I had put the cocoa in. I stuck to one type of sprinkle per ornament, but you can mix and match and do what works for you. I added the pearls to each after the sprinkles were put in.

[image error]Sugar pearls, ribbon, and holiday sprinkles

Before I put in the sprinkles, I used the ribbon and surrounded the outside of the ornament for decoration. You’ll want to do this before you add cocoa or it will be a little messy when you tip the ornament to put the ribbon on. I learned the hard way.

The sprinkles looked so cute and the pearls added a classy look to them when the sprinkles were all put in. Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of the pearls, but trust me on this. Look out cute they look!

[image error]I thought they came out so adorable!

After all the cocoa, sprinkles, and ribbons were on the ornaments, I had to put the top back on and I added these cute gold bows to the top to complete the look.

[image error]Complete!

A lovely lady from our church decorated each table with these beautiful center pieces and I thought my ornaments looked really cute around them. What do you think?

[image error]Church Party Décor

I thought it made an adorable addition and people got to take them home afterward.

There you have it. A simple and cute craft that doesn’t take a lot of time or money to put together. I hope you will give it a try and even come up with other ideas to add to these adorable ornaments.

Until next time,

Ruth

Book Review: The Rise of Magicks: Chronicles of The One, Book 3 by Nora Roberts

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Year One and Of Blood and Bone concludes her stunning new trilogy praised as “A match for end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King’s The Stand.”

After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its ways. Fallon cannot live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness—if, indeed, they can be saved.

Strengthened by the bond she shares with her fellow warrior, Duncan, Fallon has already succeeded in rescuing countless shifters and elves and ordinary humans. Now she must help them heal—and rediscover the light and faith within themselves. For although from the time of her birth, she has been The One, she is still only one. And as she faces down an old nemesis, sets her sights on the enemy’s stronghold, and pursues her destiny—to finally restore the mystical shield that once protected them all—she will need an army behind her…

My Thoughts

Fallon Swift is a grown woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders. As she completes her training, she now trains those who will fight for her, The One. In doing so, she must undertake cities, sacrifice those people who fight for her, and help those rescued. It’s a hard job for someone so young, but with the New Hope originals, her friends, her family, she is able to do just that.

Taking down city by city, Arlington, D.C., and Pennsylvania is no easy task. There are many foes. There are many alliances to make, people to protect, and places now to keep running. As a team, Fallon, Duncan, Antonia, and the rest of the people in New Hope must seek to heel the darkness that has taken over and replace it with the light.

If you’ve been reading you know they have an enemy of Dark Uncanny. They also have Eric, Allegra, and Petra. I won’t give the ending away, but you will see the justice that is brought for all they have done. You will see what Fallon leads her people to take, who they save, and sadly who they lose.

The completion of this trilogy made me cry, made me happy, and had me wishing that it wasn’t over. I became very fond of all the characters of this story. I will surely be going back many times to visit New Hope and the people who touched the lives of this story. I had a few moments of balling and a few of anger at certain scenes.

Roberts has a way of evoking emotion in her readers and this story was no different. So, if you haven’t read the final tale, please do. You will not regret it. There is epic battle, love, friendship, and fierce loyalty. The Rise of Magicks ends with the light.