a little of this and that

today is important for 2 reasons:

#1:

today marks the end of a 10 day daniel cleanse for maria and i. on our way back from KY we talked about the desire to cleansed and tossed around the idea of the Masters Cleanse or a juice cleanse, but because part of my job at work is to eat with the patients, we settled on using the Daniel Fast as a way of cleansing = just fruits, veggies, nuts, brown rice, and basic olive oil and other "non-processed" seasonings.

It was all about detoxing and giving our bodies a bit of a jolt and jump-start! Gosh, it was hard...but i think we both enjoyed getting creative with cooking new things that we could eat and that tasted yummy! While I don't think I'd like to eat this way forever, it is definitely a good exercise in discipline and being aware of taking care of our bodies.

Still, I won't lie--meat, cheese, and any salad dressing I want sounds pretty good for tomorrow!

#2: Chicago!

today maria and i are getting ready to leave for chicago! we are going to visit our brothers--ben at wheaton and maria's bro tyler at Judson. we've been wanting to for a while and it worked out that we both had a ticket and a free weekend to do it! these days it is hard to be spontaneous so we had to plan for a while...but it has been something fun to look forward to after so much school work! i've only been to chicago once so i am looking forward to revisiting and enjoying good time with family, friends, and a big city! not to mention, maria and i can't WAIT for some good food = chicago pizza, after this cleanse :)

school certainly hasn't slowed down...tests, projects, papers...i am going to be ready for a break. but we have to learn to enjoy the little things. doing this cleanse has certainly made me more appreciative of the small things--a moment of quiet with the Lord, a good bowl of soy corn chowder, a good night of sleep, a walk with Judah on a brisk fall day, a good conversation with a co-worker about Jesus...

with such business around me, i am grateful for these little reminders of what it means to truly live life to the full.