It was a rough weekend.  You know the line, "Sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads"?  I had donuts dancing in my head in my dream last night.  They were gray, though.  Not sure what flavor that was.  Maybe sin flavor.  I have completed 3 weeks and am beginning week 4.  Ten more days to go. 

Week 3 was uninspiring because my body quit functioning well (think drain clog), I didn't sleep well at all (awake at 4:30 every morning), and I failed to drop any weight.  I know, I know, losing weight is not the point.  It's not a DIET.  But I'm looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow, um, besides the gold of knowing and hungering for God more. 

Okay, here are my spiritual gems this week:  "The Supremacy of God in all things is the great reward we long for in fasting."  Not the slimness of the waist.  "Fasting expresses rather than creates hunger for God."  Still trying to process that one.

And the best one:"Most of us run the risk of being overly 'sensualized' simply by having every craving satisfied and rarely pausing in a moment of self-denial to discover if there are alive within us spiritual appetites that could satisfy us at a much deeper level than food, and that are designed for the honor of God."

On my way to search out bargain chicken.

It is now day 6 of my fast.  I am uninspired.  To eat.  Anything.  Little did I realize how much food inspired my day, something to look forward to.  I love to cook and actually get excited to try to new things and see how they taste.  Last night I tried a "hash" with chicken, sweet potatoes and spinach.  I threw some rosemary in there to hope to give it some flavor.  It was eaten with a poached egg over it.  If compared to baseball at-bats, it was a bunt that dribbled 3 inches from home plate.  I now feel like I could probably say sayonara to sweet potatoes forever.  Yet, I have 24 more days to eat it, but who's counting? 

On the positive side, I am reading Hunger for God by John Piper.  I have gleaned wonderful gems from it so far.  The reason we fast is because "there is an ache inside every Christian that Jesus is not here as fully and intimately and as powerfully and as gloriously as we want him to be.  We hunger for so much more."  And I love this part: "Fasting is a hunger for all the fullness of God, aroused by the aroma of Jesus' love, and by the taste of God's goodness."  Okay, that does inspire me, and I guess that's the point. 

Sayonara

It's now 3 years after the horrible spring and I never did finish that story.  The rest of the horribleness had to do with kittens.  I won't go into the details now, but out of a litter of 6, we lost 3, having never lost any of the previous 5 litters we've had.  It was very sad.  But now, alas, onto other things. 
Fasting! 

I'm following Jen Hatmaker's fasting from 7, eating just 7 foods for Lent (actually only 30 days of Lent because I want to actually enjoy my Spring Break vacation and eat myself silly).  In the interest of simplicity, and let's face it, laziness, I'm eating her same 7 foods so I don't have to research nutrition.  They are:

Chicken
Egg
Whole wheat bread
Avocado
Sweet potato
Apple
Spinach

I asked my husband to do it with me. He has modified it because he likes to eat a salad for lunch EVERY day of the work week.  This, in itself, would send me over the edge.  I love variety, and I love many flavors mixed together.  So he's eating lettuce instead of bread, and white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes.  My biggest challenge is that I don't really like spinach cooked, especially by itself.  Smothered in cheese and red sauce in a lasagne is fine, but this is a wimpy limpy pile of green stuff that smells slightly like skunk.  My son wouldn't eat it.  He's the other challenge: a 17-year-old that eats food by the pound, by the hour.  He may just have to start cooking for himself. 

So anyway, here it is, day 3.  Not sure if it's fortunate or un-, but I started this journey with the flu.  It makes my appetite much smaller, but my choices don't inspire wellness either, really.  So today it is nearly 10 and I've only had apple cider.  Can't work up an appetite for eggs or something.  Okay worn out.  Going back to bed.