Happy Birthday, Raechel!

We are celebrating Raechel's 10th birthday today. Double-digits! For her birthday breakfast I made apple fritters (fried sourdough bread with diced apple and cinnamon, glazed with a small amount of honey). She requested chicken and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner, and for dessert a chocolate cake with vanilla icing. I just love celebrating birthdays! Please take a minute to say a prayer for her continued health and growth in the coming year. I'll wait...

We are five days into the new year, and I haven't royally messed up any of my resolutions so far. I consider that quite the accomplishment. Ha! My friend Gwen asked about my plan for breaking my sugar addiction. My plan is rock-solid and brilliant in simplicity! I'm going to (this is good).... STOP EATING IT! Seriously, my first step has been to accept that I do, indeed, have a serious problem with sugar; that I am, in fact, a glutton when it comes to junk food, and that gluttony is a spiritual problem as well as a physical one. At one point, I was eating some kind of junk food pretty much all day, and the only liquid to pass my lips would be soda. That is way beyond a "craving" and into the realm of full-blown addiction. Step one has been to banish denial. The rest really is as simple as maintaining an awareness of what I am feeding my body. To give myself a jump start, I intend to do one or two master cleanses this year. I will also fast once a week in reparation. That is deceptively easy to say, but I fully expect it will be difficult to do. Which is why I am relying on my ultimate weapon- prayer.

So, after all that you're probably wondering what kind of chocolate cake I will be making. I plan on using the sourdough starter as a base, and honey for sweetener. I will try to pay attention to how I make it, and share the recipe if it is worth sharing.

God bless!