wonderful wednesday!

Trying not to focus too much on the fact that my Bitty Baby has run away from home... but we sure do miss him! Stubby woke me up howling at the back door this morning... I thought that might mean Bitty was out there... but he wasn't. Then Stubby led me on a game of hide and seek... as if he was saying, "have you checked here? what about here? under the couch?"... bless his heart. Austin is really bummed too.

He's just a cat, right? We had a client in the office yesterday whose 18 year old son committed suicide last weekend. I know the difference between the loss of a person and an animal returning to their instinctive behaviors. But... still... when I wash the dishes and he doesn't climb up on the door of the dishwasher to "help" me unload it... ducking to avoid getting splashed with water... when I put on my makeup and he isn't perched on the counter supervising everything... when I sit in my nest and he isn't on my chest blocking my view of the laptop... when he doesn't walk across my keyboard, putting on the caps lock.... when I can eat a whole meal without having to push his nosy self out of my plate... when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and don't have to move him first... when I come BACK to bed in the middle of the night and don't have to move him to reclaim my spot... there's definitely a void in my life with my baby boy missing.

This is a good life here and I am so grateful for what God has done for us... but it can be a bit solitary for me here at home, now that Austin is of the age that he prefers hanging out with friends to hanging out with mom. It's lonely sometimes. A good cat fills that lonely place... and Stubby, bless his heart, he's a good cat but he's one of those cats that would prefer not to be picked up and he doesn't have the mobility or the curiousity to really shadow me the way that Bitty does. Did.

People keep telling me he'll come home. For some reason... I just don't think so. My gut feeling is that he's not coming back.

But I slept well last night... and I feel pretty good today... and although I haven't actually SOLD anything this week, I'm feeling encouraged and enthusiastic about what I'm selling, and that definitely helps.

I've eaten well this week too...yesterday it was a fried egg sandwich (egg fried in pam, whole wheat bread) for breakfast with blackberries... chickpea caprese salad with the beautiful orange tomatoes and purple basil... hummus and cauliflower for lunch... cocoa roasted almonds for snack... fresh whole wheat cheese filled tortellini with my own homemade tomato sauce with a fresh tomato, spinach, basil and parm sauteed in olive oil for dinner. I love what I'm eating. I realized this morning that I didn't have any meat yesterday... and took a piece of fish out of the freezer to thaw for dinner. Breakfast this morning was one of my stuffed cabbage rolls - purple cabbage stuffed with mushed chickpea, brown rice, onion, peppers... in tomato sauce - and the leftover pasta veggies from last Wednesday night - pattypan squash, okra, zucchini, green tomato, corn... really happy breakfast! Lunch will be... my chili lime salad made with black beans, corn, bean sprouts, tomatoes, chili seasoning, lime - topped with 1/2 an avocado and served with multi-grain crispbread and an orange.

Ok... time to dash... have a Wonderful Wednesday, y'all.