Make Your Dash Count

I’ve been trying out different protein powders trying to find one that doesn’t make me poop my pants.  Doing this carb cycling it’s nice to have a mini meal that is pretty much grab and go.  Well, we have a winner!

Even though yesterday was my cheat day, I knew I was going out to dinner last night to celebrate my SIL’s birthday and even though I made pancakes for Hannah and Jacob, I felt like a smoothie.  I added 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk to the blender with a cup of ice cubes and a frozen banana.  I thought it tasted just like a Wendy’s frosty, but Hannah didn’t think so.  All I know was that I loved the flavor, and it kept me full for a long time.

Have you guys heard of bone broth?  It’s like the next big craze after the Green Monster smoothie.  You cook down beef/pork/chicken bones with onion, carrots, celery, peppercorn and parsley.  There is a place in NYC called Brodo where they have a window where you can order it just like a coffee drink.  I mentioned it in my blog post yesterday (did you guys see I blogged over the weekend?  Saturday was the Cooking Club recap and Sunday was my two scone recipes.)

I had pork bones I bought a while back when they were .99 cents a pound.  Yesterday I bought chicken feet and a beef femur bone.

Chicken feet look and feel weird.

It was a good thing Hannah was at work when I did this because pretty sure she would have thrown up.  I sent this picture to my brother and sister and Charlie just answered “Why?” 

Yesterday was Tony’s sister’s birthday so we went out to celebrate with her, her son and grandson.  This was the first birthday that Tony wasn’t at the table cracking jokes.  No one mentioned it, but his presence was definitely missed.  I had an amazing burger, but only could eat half. I think it has to do with my mini meals, I can no longer eat as much at one time – that’s a good thing!

And then there’s me!  Klassy as ever.

Saturday night I was trying to find a movie to watch.  I remember Tony and I could spend up to an hour watching previews until we found one we both wanted to see.  He always wanted war movies and action packed movies, I always leaned toward romances and quirky films.  So when I got to this movie, Where Hope Grows, I knew Tony was pointing me in the right direction to watch this movie.  He would have hated it, but he would have rented it just for me.  Any time we are at the grocery store and there is a special needs kid packing our groceries I’ll strike up a conversation, tell them what a great job they are doing.  The premise of the movie was that a guy was a washed out athlete, and sees that this boy “Produce” who works in the produce department is always happy and wants to find out how to be happy again.

At the end of the movie, there is a car accident, but you don’t know who dies yet.  The next to last scene of the movie is at a grave sight, and the minister said these words, and it felt as if Tony were speaking them just to me.

You know it’s in moments like these I am reminded of one profound truth. Life is short. And it’s meant to be lived with courage and not laden with fear. And you have to decide are your dreams bigger than your memories or will you stay stuck in the past. Life is meant to be lived. And lived abundantly.

You look around the cemetery and you see there are two dates on every tombstone. Their birthday and their date of death. And every human being is guaranteed those two dates. But that little dash that lies in between those two numbers? That’s what defines our life. So make your dash count! Live – really live.

So that’s going to be my mantra going forward without Tony – making my dash count.  How are you going to make your dash count?