trust God, bake cookies, and keep running.

hi, Sunday. faith, pjs, coffee, the lakehouse to myself (with the pups, of course!), baking for the family and a little schoolwork = a rather ideal morning. today, i am content to simply be.

here’s to hoping for a better, healthier week ahead, and to try and remind myself to be thankful that i can surrender control when i feel overwhelmed. if being sick these past 12 days (i know, i can’t believe it’s been that long either) has taught me anything, it’s that i need to schedule in more rest and slow down. more down time, more quiet time spent reflecting upon my life and my goals and my prayers for the future, which i think God can – and will – use to clear my anxious thoughts and fears that i’m letting time pass by without living on purpose. i want to do so much and be so much and push myself to get involved in so many things, and sometimes, a little rest and prayers for clarity & simplicity are all that will calm my soul. i need a little more faith in my uncertain hours.

all we can do is strive every day to be content with where we’re at, while praying and hoping for our dreams and desires to be fulfilled in the future. that’s the cool thing about life — it keeps going, and surprising us, and we need to remember that great things could always lie just a little ways ahead.

and sometimes, the best way to forget stress is to make something. like cookies. because everyone’s family likes cookies, and mine has been so good to me this week that i wanted to surprise them with a little treat. i came across this recipe on Domestic Fits and knew it was exactly what i was looking for. we are a family who loves all things oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate. done and done.

Flourless Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutesTotal Time: 17 minutes
Yield: 12 cookies  *Note: She says 12, but I got 20 out of it and prefer them smaller. Personal choice.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup whole oats
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• 1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl gently stir together all ingredients.
3. Using a cookie scoop, add golf ball size mounds to a cookie sheet that has been covered with parchment paper, evenly spaced. Flatten to one-inch circles using your hand.
4. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Pull the parchament off the cookie sheet and onto a flat surface. Allow to cool.

i was happy with how they came out and really like the combo of oats & pb. i prefer my cookies smaller, and still thought that the 20 yield were good-sized. not into jumbo cookies.

and to counterbalance all that yummy sweetness, let’s talk running. 🙂 i’m running the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday, March 16th, exactly two weeks from today. i want to say i’m excited about it, and i’m sure i will be when the race day comes, but right now, it has hardly registered on my radar. i only just looked up the course path this morning (of course we start in Central Park with the killer hills, why wouldn’t we?). we get to run right through Times Square, which they close off for the race, so that’ll be pretty sweet, and we end down on Wall St. near my job. after the initial hellishness, it should be a super flat, fast course.

it’s just hitting me that i’m pretty under-prepared, all things considered. don’t get me wrong — i’m in good shape and strong, and i’m confident that i can run this and do fairly well. it’s just been drastically different from my first couple of halves, where i was psyched and training and a bit nervous and all runnered-up. maybe running a full marathon last fall got me a little overconfident in my ability to run distances so that i’m not worried about 13.1. maybe the awful cold this winter has made me less excited about running outdoors. maybe these past 2 weeks of less running and more resting has left me tired and undertrained. regardless, i’m hoping i can get a few good longer-ish runs in in the next two weeks. the longest i’ve done to prep for this was 10 miles two weeks ago, which felt great, so if i can do another 9-10 miler this coming weekend, i think i’ll be in good-to-semi-good shape to tackle this race. surprisingly, it’s actually my first Manhattan race! the other halves i’ve down in the NYC area have been Brooklyn, Queens and Jersey City, so that alone is exciting.

and the bright side is that for once, i’m definitely not at risk for any over-training injuries. pretty sure my IT bands and calves are happy about that.

Questions:
Any races coming up for you? Are you feeling prepared?
Favorite cookie?

Advertisement