Summer of Peace

     Well, it has come to my attention that I haven't blogged in a while. I apologize for that. Things have been a little busy. My friend and I embarked on another 2 week challenge to loose 4 lbs. That ended up not working for either of us! Not because we didn't try but I am realzing the more and more I try to invest in myself, the more motherhood gets in the way. Which, I wouldn't have it any other way. She happens to be a mother also and her kids were busy with kid stuff that week also. So, we decided to take the weight loss goal back down to just a pound. This, we both accomplished. So, as of right now, I am 8 lbs down from 4 weeks ago.... or was it 3? Can't really remember. Anyway, I need to finish out this week, wait! It's Friday. This week is finished out... Hummmmm.... Well, after this, camp starts and my life totally flips upside down! So, during the summer, all bets are off! I will still try hard but I can't set goals during the summer. I have 2 goals during the summer: 1) To find a way to make my children feel like they are still #1 in my life 2) To show every camper and every staff member the love of Christ and the peace that can come when in His presence.

     Those 2 goals are my focus and really, nothing else matters. I think that there are times and seasons in everyone's life where goals change. The season of life requires it to change. People get into trouble when they don't change goals with the seasons of their life. Just because my season of life changes every summer and every fall doesn't mean that my health is going to fall off the deep end. It just means that I am reprioritizing. I am thankful for the times of the year when I get to reprioritize. It keeps me from being bored.

     I also think that people tend to have harder lives than necessary because they don't ever reprioritize their life. It causes people to become stressed, worried and peaceless. Not even sure if that's a word but I like it! If your peace is always being stolen, one reason may be because you are putting the emphasis of your life on the wrong thing for the season of life you are in.
When we first had children, we couldn't save money because we were paying for formula, diapers, baby food, doctors visits, shots, clothes, burp cloths, etc... There was a great opportunity for peace to be stolen because we couldn't save a nickel during those months. We just reprioritized. Raising babies was the focus. Then, the pressure of that goal was lifted. Now, the seasons of life are different. So, again, things are changed.

     This keeps stress down and peace overflowing....

So, here's to a summer of peace! Hope you enjoy it!!!

End of 2 Week Challenge

     Well, today was the day. The weigh in. For the past 8 months I have been in a slump of maintaining my weight and in fact, putting some of what I lost, back on. Fun Times. Anyway, the goal of these past 2 weeks was to work harder than I ever have, do more exercise, lots more cardio, break out the P90X and see where that lead me. Could it be true that I just wasn't working hard enough? The Answer? Um Yes! It was true. I write this blog tonight, 7 lbs lighter than the first blog of this 2 week journey! Woo Hoo. So, nothing is wrong with my Thyroid. It really is that I just wasn't doing enough... Who Knew? That makes me upset because I thought I was doing so good because it was so different than the absolutely nothing that I was doing before. Still, it wasn't enough to keep progressing.

     What a lesson. With every victory we have, comes the mandate to not only continue on but continue to improve. Doing something was better than the nothing but not as good as the more I'm doing now!

     Sometimes, the little that we do to trick ourselves into thinking that we are doing enough, is not, in fact pushing us past the problem, but rather prolonging our misery in it. I was doing something, but it was small and all it was doing was convincing me that I was doing something. In reality, the something I was doing was keeping my existence in my misery. In order to move past whatever state we may find ourselves in, it takes work. It takes sacrifice. It takes saying "no" when your mind is saying "yes". It takes doing the whole hour long cardio video and not 15 minutes of Pilates. Doing more work to get better results is not natural for our state of humanity. We want results to come out of what we are already doing. It just doesn't work like that. If you want something different, then you have to do something different.

     Say no to that piece of cake. Throw those chips in the garbage. Date your spouse. Play with your children. Save more than you spend. Hold your tongue. Get out of bed when you want to sleep in. Do those dishes. Wash those clothes. Put down that coke. Drink water. Eat veggies. Ask them not to bring the chips and salsa. Order it grilled and not fried.

     Or not. It's up to you. Just like, it's up to me. Another 2 week challenge faces me tonight. 4 lbs in 2 weeks... Let's see if I have it in me...

Ooops I did it again...

   Oops I did again! Yes. I ate cheese in a burrito... 2 days later, I'm at the Dr. Sinus Infection and the worst throat infection I've ever experienced. I have had to eat soup for 3 meals today because nothing else could make it down my throat without feeling like I was swallowing the knife drawer. Ran fever, body aches... This is unreal. They seem to be getting worse. Everytime I have gotten sick in past 5 months (3 times) it has been because of eating dairy. I can tell you the meal that made me sick. I will get it into my head and more importantly, I will develop the discipline I need to overcome this. That's all it is, lack of discipline. What is more frustrating? I am an extremely disciplined person. O well. At one point in all our lives, we will pay for the choices of food that we put in our mouths. We will either pay for the choices of fried food and red meat with bypasses and open heart surgery or we will pay for eating dairy with a sinus infection from hell and a throat infection that feels like that's where it came from! OR, we will pay for our salads, fish, vinaigrette dressings, grilled options, vegetables and a disciplined exercise lifestyle with a long and healthy life...

    Which leads me to my next subject. My friends and I have our 2 week weigh in tomorrow morning. In case you are new to this blog, let me briefly catch you up: I have been in a weight slump for about 8 months. Couldn't loose and slowly but steadly gaining. Healthy as all get out but still heavy enough to be put on cholesterol medicine. So, it has become my mission to get myself off of this medicine. I am 32, almost 33 in 3 weeks and I am way to young to be starting medicine that I have take for the rest of my life. My Dr thinks it's because of my weight. So, I read a magazine that had an article from a country music singer named Trisha Yearwood. I am a big Trisha fan which is what drove me to the article in the first place. She lost 30 lbs and said somewhere in the article that she finally realized that she wasn't trying hard enough to loose weight. A light bulb went on! "Me either", I thought to my self. So, 2 weeks ago, 2 friends and I joined together to go on challenge. 2 weeks is all we wanted to start with because it was a short enough goal to keep us motivated and long enough to see some results. We made a deal and we would try to loose 5 lbs. Tomorrow at 8:45 is the weigh in. Moment of truth... if we all made it, then we get to go buy ourselves a new work out outfit. If we all didn't make it, then no outfit. It has kept us all motivated because none of us want to be the one that keeps the others from getting a new outfit. I guess tomorrows blog will be the one to read. The answer to the big question:

     Was I really just not working hard enough?

About My Daughter on her Birthday

I have spent a lot of time this past year talking about my health but this blog is going to be different. Why? Because this blog is about my daughter.

This night 6 years ago, I was laying in a hospital bed waiting to give birth to the baby that would make me a mother, the girl who would teach me patience and unconditional love, the precious soul that would bring a joy to my life that I had never known and the child who would forever change my life.

 For those of you who know Campbell, you know what I am about to tell you is the truth: She has such a love for life. She loves everything and everyone.

She is a gift giver. For her birthday party, she attempted to make everyone in her class their own book out of copy paper. You could give her tissue paper in a bag and it would be the best thing she has ever gotten.

 

She loves to dress up. She dresses up in her dress up dresses every day and every night. Before she went to Kindergarten, she would get up every morning and put on some Disney princess dress up dress and stay in it until she would put back on her PJs that night.

 

She loves her horse!

 

 This year, she was able to compete in her first horse show. Her and her cousin Olivia were in the lead line class and they won First Place. It was amazing.
She was on cloud nine and I was over come with pride. She asks to go out every day after school and ride her horse with Poppi.

    

She loves playing T-Ball.                                                                   She loves fishing with her daddy!





 

Campbell is the joy of my life and she bring so much joy to everyone around her. She has done great in school, she is a hard worker. She offers to help me clean the house. She is polite and thoughtful. I can't imagine my life without her in it. I am so grateful to the Lord for the honor of raising this Angel. I pray the Lord give me wisdom to guide this precious life.

 

It is with a very thankful heart that I say,

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!