Reflecting on Lent: the Recap, and Christina’s Rainbow Cake
What’s with the SUPER long posts lately? And having more than one post in a day? I think what I really need to work on is my blogging addiction!
Well, it’s Easter, so it must be time for the big recap post on Lent.
Basically, you can read this list here and just imagine that all it says is “give up sugar treats,” because that is ALL that I was successful at for Lent (since 2/25 – I didn’t cheat on Sundays). I did have a few granola bars with bits of chocolate, and sports beans, but other than that, I completely gave up cookies, chocolate, soda, muffins, candy, and so on… and I feel GREAT!
I am about to spend the day making cookies, but I don’t think I’ll eat any. I am probably going to wait and have a sweet treat after my office’s Biggest Loser Challenge ends on Wednesday (there are 3 boxes of Girl Scouts cookies waiting to be eaten in my house). I plan on staying off the soda, and only having it on special occasions.
As for the rest of the list? A lot of it had to do with attitude and communication. I didn’t progress very far, but I DID figure out a lot of what is bothering me and why, and I tried different ways to handle it. I think I am getting there! Already I have tried to tackle my frustration this weekend by communicating better.*
And the “frivolous items”? Well, I DIDN’T buy a single magazine or book, which is what I had in mind when I wrote that. But uh, yeah, I did buy new clothes (twice), running outfits, a new computer, and… a new car. Good thing I wasn’t buying any magazines, right? Jeez.
We cut back on eating out, not that we did it much before, but I think that can be attributed to the fact that we are so conscious of what we put in our bodies now.
What did I learn? I learned that I CAN reach a goal, but that it can be too overwhelming to try to tackle a lot at once (perhaps I should follow Nilsa’s “challenge a month” lead?). Upcoming goals for me include really committing to cutting out swearing, and trying veganism, and apparently, working on my blogging addiction (any tips with that?).
Unrelated topic: My sister, Christina, was inspired to make a rainbow cake after seeing this set on flickr. Check it out, it’s pretty cool! Here are her photos below. I totally thought of Tori’s rainbow cake when she told me about this!
It looks like you just use yellow cake mix, then separate it and add food coloring to make the fun colors! Or maybe not food coloring? I am not sure what’s in those little white tubes.
Doesn’t it look so fun?! Christina’s so fun.
Yummy! I hope everyone enjoys it!
Christina made this cake to share with my family for Easter. They are all together, with my mom’s side of the family. I decided not to join them this year, so Steven and I are going to take it easy at home (If you can call him running 12 miles taking it easy! HA HA! I only have to run 6 today.).
I hope everyone has a wonderful day!
*”What’s bothering me?” you ask. Well, how nice of you to ask. Thank you. 1. My face is STILL numb and it’s bothersome to eat. 2. The kids in our neighborhood were damaging the trees in our yard yesterday, playing in the street, and harassing a goose. I went outside to talk to them, calmly and nicely, about all three things. I wondered why their parents were no where in sight, letting them play in the street! 3. We saw Fast and Furious last night, and once again, there were a bunch of very young children in the theater. One woman sat down and let her toddler climb up and down the stairs on his own. Well, of course he fell and started crying. There were 5 or 6 kids that probably got up at least 10 times (no, seriously) and literally ran up and down the stairs, very loudly. And the kids behind us would not shut up the entire time. I finally asked them, again, as nicely as I could, to please be quiet so the rest of us could enjoy the remainder of the movie. It was a fluff movie, but that experience really put me in an upset mood last night. 4. My frickin’ cat keeps waking me up at 6:00 am, and I can’t go back to sleep, and I am lonely, up by myself. (Data just goes back to bed!)
Themocracy
I just wanted to tell you how lovely your blog is and say hello! Gorgeous cake, I love it!
Wow, rainbow cake rocks my face out!
Oh, sorry. I just nommed your cake… I’m sure you can just cover it up with more frosting.
🙂
Nicole – Thank you 😀 Isn’t the cake neat?! I asked my sis to send me a pic of a slice of it too.
Mica – Hee hee. Mine too!
LiLu – LOL! Nom nom nom. It’s okay. We like to share!
That IS the coolest cake EVER! I am sooooooooo going to make that for my daughter. I’ve never seen anything like that before nor have I heard of gel food coloring, I LOVE the way it turned out so bright. I cannot wait to show this to Alexis, she is going to flip! Seems like it’s healthy too, how can that be? LOL!
You did great for Lent, you should be sooo sooo proud of yourself. And, reading the end- the small teensy tiny print- I would have been aggravated too. Where are all these parents anyway? GAH!
Happy Easter to ya! xoxoxo
Cookies!!!!
Wow… look at that cake.
I gave up coffee over a month ago because I can’t stand it ‘black’ and the amount of sugar I put in it to make it drinkable was waaaaay too much. So, upon hearing this, my mom thought she’d coerce me into drinking it again by giving me a package of chocolate velvet coffee ground. I still have not opened it.
I should do this on all sugar. I did that once before and lost 15 pounds in two weeks, and that was ALL I did, cut out (refined) sugar. I replaced them with veggies and other natural foods so I wasn’t going hungry. Yup, I think I just convinced myself (with your help, of course) to stop eating sugar (again).
About the blogging addiction, when you figure out what it is you want from blogging (Affection? Attention? Belonging? Conversation? Friendship? et. al.) , and where else you can find it, you can break the addiction to blogging.
Cute cake!
Have a very mellow and low key run!
I’m glad everyone likes the way the cake looks!! It was yummy too! 🙂 Just separate the batter, use GEL food coloring (makes the color more vibrant… I think?) and put each color in the middle of the plan in plops, on top of each other. It spreads out and makes cool layers. You could probably swirl it all around too! 🙂
How did your run go today? And Steven’s??
Ohhhh that cake looks delicious!! I bet it would be fun to try and make some sort of tie-dye cake…hmmm…
JavaQueen – Did you show it to Alexis? What did she think? I just think it’s so neat and fun! I am proud of giving up sugar for Lent! It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be! Ha ha – my print is teensy tiny! I made it that way since I already wrote so much in big text. Ha ha!
Nat – Sugar, sugar, everywhere!
Sue – I noticed that I lost a bit of weight too, from cutting out the sugar. And my sugar induced headaches are all gone! I think I am addicted to blogging because I feel better getting my thoughts out. I like the attention too, but really, I thinks it’s mostly that it helps me figure things out. I feel like if I didn’t write here, I would just overload my husband/coworkers/friends/family… but I SHOULD work on at least trying to talk to them more.
Christina – Thanks, well, I will tell my sis thanks! We did have a good low-key run! My 6 miles almost felt like nothing.
Christina – What do you mean separate the butter? It would be so cool swirly. I may post the other pics you sent me too. 🙂 My run was good! It was a good temp and only a bit windy. I had blood in my nose and had to keep sneezing, but it was no biggie. Oh, and I wore this WAY CUTE outfit! I’ll send you a pic. Steven’s 12 miles went well too. We are getting so close to the half!
Bethany – That would be fun! Especially tie-dye frosting! Can you imagine?
Happy Easter!
To deal with the kids running rampant in the theater…I usually ask them to be quiet and let them know that the manager will be the next person I speak with. That will usually get them to settle down or it gets them kicked out….and I don’t feel badly about getting unsupervised 10-14 year olds kicked out of the movie. Somewhere along the way, their parents have let them behave that way in public—and I won’t stand for it. And why are they letting their kids run unsupervised anyway? Drives me crazy…
Batter Kim, not butter! 🙂 I mean separate the batter into little bowls so you can dye them individually!
Just showed her right now and she thinks it’s awesome, she has on a mish-mash shirt of rainbow colors today that she just bought and that’s what the cake reminded me of when I saw it. She said, “Mmmmmmmm.” So, yeah, we just have to find the gel food coloring- I have no clue where to get it, do you? Oh, btw Award for you at my place 🙂
What fun!!
I’m so ignoring that cake because I’m not supposed to be eating sweets this month (though I’ve had to thus far slightly alter it to give myself a break on the weekends). But, my advice about your blogging addiction? No more than one post a day! Well, that is, if you want readers to comment. As much as I love reading your posts, I just can’t comment on every single one of them when there are multiples each day!
That rainbow cake makes me happy. How can a person NOT be happy around a rainbow?
I ate cake yesterday (Birthday cake) after eating french toast for brunch and all day and still today I am paying for it. Damn it sweets. UGH!
Great job sticking to your Lent Goals/Promises/Etc!
One of my girlfriends and I went to see the Fast & Furious also this weekend (hello Paul Walker, hello) and had the same problem. There were tons of people talking during the movie, texting on their phones, talking back to the movie, etc. I think that movie draws a different crowd…bleh
I love that cake! The colors are very similar to the cake I made.
I am sad about your stuff at the bottom about parents not watching their kids. I don’t understand that at all. Parents in our neighborhood do that too and I just can’t imagine leaving small-ish kids out alone and not being close enough to jump in if anything happened. My kids always think I am sort of overprotective though so I guess I lean towards the opposite extreme.
Congratulations on making it thru lent! I’m impressed that you were able to stay from all those sugary sweets for so long.
Robin – I need to try the trick of threatening them with talking to a manager. The boys were quiet after I asked them to STFU, but I should have done it earlier. And talked to the kids who were running around like it was a playground. I am surprised they think that is acceptable.
Christina – Oh my god. I am losing it sister! 🙁
javaqueen14 – I will have to ask my sister where you get it! I’ve seen it at our Target. So maybe it’s in the baking aisle at most stores? Ha ha. I don’t know 😉
Mara (Wedding Cabaret) – I wish ALL food was that fun!
SoMi’s Nilsa – I have a hard time commenting a lot when other people post a few times a day too. I expected less comments though. Sometimes I feel like I have a lot to say and I just need to get it out! I should try to do that less often.
sizzle – Do you have the sugar hangover? I hate it when I wake up and can still taste sugar in my mouth!!!
Scale Warfare – I agree. I think it definitely had to do with the movie. And we went on Saturday because this happened to us when we went on a Friday once! Time to start going Sunday nights!
Tori – I was surprised there was not anyone watching them either. You know, they probably dropped their kids off and went to a different movie… or home. My parents didn’t let me do that until I was 14. I think these kids were 10.
Gina (Mannyed) – Thank you! It was kind of hard, but I learned a lot from it!
okay, that cake is super cute!
DeAnne – You and the girls should make one! 🙂