Random Thoughts by Pina

So one thing I needed to conquer in my quest to go organic was cooking with whole chickens. The money you save by buying whole chickens is amazing...and costco is the cheapest place to get them but the thought of tackling a whole chicken is frightening! The first time I tried cooking a whole chicken, I roasted it for about 1 1/2 hours...it didnt cook all the way through. Which is ok because I was planning on using the meat for various dishes, like enchiladas, tacos, stir fry, etc. Today I decided to cook it in the crock pot. I put a layer of onions and garlic on the bottom of the crock pot and I covered the chicken in montreal steak seasoning (no MSG...YAY!!!). I let it cook on low for about 6 1/2 hours. After 4 hours I threw in some organic orange carrots from trader joe's and some organic purple carrots and organic red potatoes from the farmers market. Seriously...buying from the farmer's market makes me feel so good! I love supporting the farmers and I love buying local prod...

So, when I got a gym membership about 10 months ago I agreed with my husband that I should be working out about 3 times a week to make my gym membership financially worth it. I was doing really good until about 2 months ago. I think that finals, along with getting a new job, new schedule, and my own laziness has really got in the way. Lately I have been lucky if I make it to the gym 2 times a week... The interesting thing is that I am finally at a place in my life where I am comfortable in my own skin. I have learned to finally embrace the way God made me and realize that no matter what my outer appearance looks like the true beauty comes from a heart after God. I have comes to terms with what a real woman looks like. Not the woman on the cover of Cosmo, not the woman in any victoria secret catalogue. Those women are beautiful...but they are fake. They have no ounce of cellulite, they NEVER have stretch marks, their skin is perfectly smooth. A real woman, no matter how physically fit t...

So...I realized that I tend to not post until I have a big long blog about something that I feel is a huge issue or whatever. I am going to try and post more often just about my daily life along with the big important (to me) posts :) So, I finished my 3rd semester of nursing school. It was difficult in different ways. Instead of being really academically challenging the hardships came in the form of bad communication between teachers, and just not really knowing what to do. I felt as if this semester they just kind of threw us out in the hospital practically on our own and didnt really explain what was expected of us. Somehow I floundered my way through it and my patients recieved the care they needed...I just felt like I needed to take some ativan before every shift :) Anyways, I have been working as a CNA now for about a month at a home health agency. At first I really hated it, but I have started to see some benefits from me working there. It has helped to be more thorough with my ...