Thursday, April 28, 2011

Watch me grow!

Its that time of the year!!!   Cant believe its time to plant the garden. Actually for Kansas I am a little late compared to others.  I have an excuse.  I have a baby.  I also have been going down the list of how to improve our back yard and it is getting overwhelming. Last night a friend came over and brought his rota tiller to help me prep the garden. The plot of land was all filled with weeds.  Underneath  the weeds there is nice dark soil infused with worms 

As the tiller  cut through the earth I was so glad I didn't have to do all that by hand.  Planting the seeds
and wondering if the plant will grow  is kind of  exciting.  This part of the process is the perfect time to reread the parable of the sower and the seed (Luke 8).  It is a good  time to refelect what the soil in my life is like.  I think I have been like the weeded soil and let things like business and tiredness crowd in and steal my nutrients, spending time with God reading bible and praying, helping others, finding people to connect with.  So just like we are doing to our yard it is time to deal with the weeds and start planting new seeds of thought.

I am planting this outdoor vegtable garden with only things I know we will use.  I am hoping that will help us cut down on the amount of money we spend on groceries. So my motivation is to meet  the needs of my family by being able to cook with fresh ingredients.  Hopefully the garden will produce so much we can be generous and share with others.

Other updates
Most my goals are at a stand still point or in push pause at least for the last week.  I have lost a few more pounds so that is a plus. 
But last night  Bill plopped a large pile of paper on the couch and said "there you go."  He has been dilegently writing a book so I get to be the first to read it.  I am excited to see the product of  his creative processes. His dream is to self publish the book and sell enough books to make us independently wealthy.  That would be awesome.

Charleigh is growning and changing everyday.  She is like a little sponge suprising us with neat new advances daily.  I will have tell you more about that later.  It is our bed time and we all need our beauty sleep.

 Good night to all of you!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Sunday, April 17, 2011

weigh in report


(Scale pictured does not reflect my accurate weight or my goal weight.)
Yesterday morning the scale and I had an appointment to see  if the numbers the appear were in my favor.  I hate it when I initially step on and the numbers roll above and below where your weight should be until it finally stops and registers the accurate total. As I  looked at the final number I had to smile. To date from right after Charleigh's glorious entry into the world to now I have lost 8 lbs. I might have only lost 1 this week  but every pound counts!!!  The 2 pounds I have lost since seriously starting Weight Watchers Points Plus Program  is better than the the 6 pounds the 3 1/2 months  before. 

I am finding the program easy to follow.  I don't know why but there is a difference in counting out the 43 points that I can have each day with weight watchers compared to the 1800-2200 calories I could eat if I were just counting calories.  Luckily you get 49 extra points to "spend" during the week to give you the ability to eat normally and sometimes spurge. 


I did really good at not using those 49 points this week until today.  This morning we went to a pancake breakfast the cub scouts sponsored.  We bought tickets from one of the kids from our couples small group.  It was yummy but between that and the stress of our plumbing situation that is not where it stopped.  I ate quite a few carbs today (my downfall food group).  Then in the evening, since our church has started a babysitting coop. (One or two couples watch the children while the other parents go have dates. That way you get 11 dates a year and you pay for it with one time of watching 15+ kids.), Bill and I escaped for a few moments alone  We went to Planet Sub; I got a 6 inch Philly steak melt sub and  we shared a bag of chips (14 points) and then to Cold Stone and shared a Strawberry Banana Rendezvous Love it dish of Ice Cream ( around 15 points). Whoops!!!  If I were not breast feeding that would be one whole days point allowance.  So the rest of the week the goal will have to be stay on target.  The saving grace for today was that I went out and worked in the yard for a couple hours which burned 6 points so really I only blew  23 of the 49 extra points.  So all in all so far I am OK.

 This next week has one potential pit fall the Easter Holiday.  Bill's dad is coming to town to meet Charleigh so we will probably show him around town and eat out for a couple meals.  Bill says I always go over board when we entertain. Hopefully I keep that in check but we will see how that plays out.  We are just glad he is making the trip to see us. Well  until next weeks weigh in.
Chow for now!!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Trials, Faith, Perserverance, and Joy

The last two weeks in our small group we have been studying 1 Peter. If you are not aware let me  include a few verses that was our food for thought. 

 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you,5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.7 These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed

Life for the most part has been smooth sailing for Bill and I.  We have had a few bumps in the road along the way.  Tonight seems like a trial so right now this verse is taking on a little more practical meaning.  If you are my friend on facebook and current on event you know the outline of events that transpired tonight April 15th 2011. 

Bill and I were enjoying our typical Friday night routine since Charleigh's birth of pizza and relaxation.  Charleigh was asleep on my lap after finishing her dinner and I started smelling something quite vile.  At first I thought is was my precious daughter letting off her own scents to let us know she was still there alive and well.  After smelling it off and on for about  an hour I checked her diaper to see if she had left us a present.  That is when Bill got up to go upstairs and stepped in a pool of water at the base of our stairs.  Our floor drain in the laundry room had been backing up.   We suctioned up the pools and started discussing what should be done as we watched the water bubble up through the drain.

As we have been working on our yard we have been looking at how our tree roots are exposed and making the terrain bumpy.  We have been wondering how hard it would be to get grass to grow in those areas. The other thought is what to do if we can't.  I don't want to have an ideal place for the kids to make mud pies every time it rains.  The topic of how those tree roots might be effecting the house came up so we decided we would use some chemicals to kill the tree roots so they did not effect the plumbing.  Bill bought them yesterday and we were going to use them last night.  Too late!!! We think the fact that it has been raining all day has not helped matters any. To make matters even more complex the house warrenty company called this week  asking if we wanted to renew. We had decided that due to needing to tighten the belt on our monthly budget we would pass on the oppurtunity.  It official expired two days ago!!!

So we started sucking up water with our shop vac calling friend for recommendations on plumbers.  We called a couple places only to get answering machines.  REALLY when my fingers do the walking in the yellow pages and I stop on your ad  because it says 24 hour service I would expect an answer. Sorry I got side tracked...I put Charleigh to bed while Bill continued to man the shop vac.  Around midnight he told me to go to bed so at least one of us could get some sleep and be ready to go when Charleigh decided to get up.  So I slept soundly till 3:30. I awoke after a freaky dream of waking up in a parellel universe where no one at the church would help me find my way Charleigh and my way back home and when I tried on my own bunnies with fangs chased me while hoodlem boys threw cow manure on me. (The plumber's answering machines and faint sewer smell must be getting to me.)

I went downstairs and Bill and I both fell asleep while trying to finish the show we were watching when the tragedy occured.  So now I am on suction duty.  The water flow is slowing down a little but that still doesn't solve the problem.  We can't do anything that requires water running down a drain. 

So that brings me to the main point the verse I referred to in the beginning says that trail of all kind come to strength our faith.  Makes me think of  James 1:2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything

Testing of faith develops perserverance...the ability to go on.  For us the trial is inconvience, mess and finances.  We are already relying on God for provision and he has been faithful and I believe that he will do that.  Why?  Because as we have been having our bumps in the road he has kept reminding me that this move was part of the plan for us... He provided us with this house and opened the door wide. Did he bring us here just to fall flat on our face I don't think so. 

Consider it pure joy...This has been anything but joyful.  Being tired from being up all night, people not being available to help us, the smell that is lingering in  our house.  Wait a minute....as I have been writing this blog I am reminded of all the real tragedy that has happened on the other side of the world this last month.  People displaced from thier homes, who have lost family memebers and everything they own.  Now that is a trial. The first thing to cause us to be thankful is we were downstairs so we did notice it in the early stages of the problem.  We still have a wonderful home. Our family is healthy and happy.  Just now as I ran upstairs to check on my daughter, who is still sleeping, I saw the rain has stopped and the sun is shining, the birds singing.  I saw the beautiful  colors of Kansas spring time.  Thank you Jesus, in advance, for how this situation will end up because I now you will continue to be faithful even in during a minor trial like ours.

P.S. Got a hold of a plumber they can't get here till this afternoon but at least they are coming.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

To Read or Not to Read...and an Overall Update

I did it!!!  I finally did it. Up until this last years I have only been reading text books. The library was a place where you went to study and find research for papers...yuck.  That whole time,  I would check out books from the library but only for my preschool classroom never for me. My problem with checking out  personal books is finding a book that I might like to read. If the story or topic doesn't catch my attention in the first few chapters I usually give up. I am trying to turn over another leaf.

Thanks to the inspiration of the Wamego's MOM's club book club; last night I  finished my first pleasure reading book in at least five years.  The book they read last month was I would tell you I love you but then I would have to kill you. by Ally Carter. It is the first book in a four part series. It  is a  young adult fiction novel about the life of a teen girl who is going to secret girl school to be a spy.  To some it sounds pretty goofy to be reading stories about a teenage girls struggles but  the books was  funny and  uplifting.  The story even had a few little  twists and turns that keep the story interesting.  So today I checked out book 2 in the series. Hopefully it will be as good as book 1.

Note on parenting:
Charleigh is changing like crazy.  She is starting to get her balance  while sitting and getting her crawling stance.   She is starting to be more social with the little  girl that I take care of during the week.  It so funny to watch her stick out her tongue spit and coo at the little girl as she hands her toys.   I am hoping that it is a good friendship in the making.  We are also wondering if the teething process will soon be coming.  She has been fussier this week, chews on everything, and is a little drool monster.  Her latest fascination is in paper  so as I have been trying to read while holding her or laying next to her on the floor she has to  try to grab the pages or if a paper is in my hand her goal is to stick in her mouth.  That is when the nearest chew toy comes in handy as a substitute.

Spiritual note: 
I have not been doing so great with memorizing my verses but have been striving to at least read some of my Bible daily.  I am realizing the rubber needs to meet the road now that I am getting in the habit of reading this book that God breathed his life into.  I am battling a few issues in my life more now than before I was a mom. The biggest areas are having fears for not just me but now for all of us, at times  feelings of  not being good enough at juggling all the different hats a mom has to wear, and balancing time for me like doing personal devotion, or doing a work out and time for serving others outside our home.  I am still meditating on the last verse  I memorized....prepare our mind for action...... As obedient children...not just listen to My (God's) words sit on the couch and watch the world go by know the truth.  Instead let it penetrate you and die to your selfish desires and fears and believe (present active participle)  and know ME and then step our and claim what I am saying is true and DO what I am asking you to do.  It is hard to let him take the reigns and be the guide but I have never been disappointed when I do surrender.  Still looking for ways to make this all tangible outside the four walls of my house.  But as for our family, we are trusting God for our day to day provision and so far he has not let us down.  He has continued to be faithful. 

Physical Note:
I was not doing so great with the weight loss journey so I started following the Weight Watcher plan this last week.  I have also slacked in the couch to 5K training due to the crazy spring weather  but this week decided to add in Turbo Jam on the days I can't run.  Both those changes have made me feel so much better.  I also have been inspired by watching the 11th season of the Biggest Loser.  Who would have thought that the show would help me along my personal journey.
 
So all in all everything for me is going great!  I hope it going just as well for you.  Until the next time... Adios Amigos