Picture a Day

June 18: I don't know how I got on the subject, but I have been thinking of doing P90X!!! Now I can't get off the subject!.... am I crazy?!

June 17: I got to watch So You Think You Can Dance on tv this week, instead of on YouTube like last week :) I am really excited for SO many great dancers this season! I am happy ONE of the Kasprzak brothers made the top 20, but I think they should have let them both in and not taken Tony at aLL... I'm glad he was the first to go.

I am also excited about the choreographers, they have some new ones on that are doing a great job! They have some old ones that I am GLAD to have back. And they have one in particular that I wasn't sure about last season that I totally like this season! She's so cute!

June 16: My sweet daughter come up to me so worried on Tuesday... she asked me to untie lambie's legs :)

June 15: Ahhhhhh, still enjoying those flowers my husband brought home for me last week. I was surprised he remembered I liked sunflowers so much, since even I tend to forget until I see them again :)

Of coarse he knows I love daisies and and snapdragons :). But I also added those lavender fluffy things on the top left from what my son picked and gave to me from our backyard :)... so sweet from BOTH my men! :)

June 14: And look at this sweet thing they made in their Sunday School class :) Adorable!!!

June 13: ...Yes - more STYYCD! I had to catch-up online before I could watch it on tv on Wednesday :)

June 12: And yes - MORE cuteness from another one of my kiddos! :) He's wearing his daddy's work boots :).

Weigh-In Wednesday

As you know and have heard, I joined Weight Watchers 4 weeks ago.

I am done making excuses for my poor eating habits and excess weight, I want to be healthy and LIVING when it is my turn to be a grandma! And I want to be energetic for my kids NOW!

I have been meaning and meaning to start blogging about it all, but I figured I would start today since it marks my one month point in my journey.

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I started at 184.5 pounds and my goal is 130 pounds in 2010, good Lord willing. But my first goal is to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight of 165 from 5 years and 3 babies ago :).

I did NOT sign-up for Weight Watchers, I am learning through my sister-in-law and mother-in-law who live with me right now. They have been off and on the program for years and I have seen it work for them. I actually REFUSE to sign-up because if I cannot do this on my own, and if I cannot do it for free, then it will not be a long term success. I am also determined that this is the ONLY time I am "starting" to loose weight.

Food

Before WW my portions were totally OFF!!! I would use having just had a baby and nursing babies as excuses to eat more, but not healthy. Just being on it this month has really shown me a lot of my bad choices, like my "easy / back-up" foods being things like a pot-pie = WAY too many calories for one meal... and fast food, candy bars, ice cream, sodas? Oye!

Water

I have ALWAYS struggled with drinking enough water, even while pregnant and nursing! Maybe, just MAYBE I would have 2 or 3 cups a day. Now my goal is 8 and I have been hitting about 6 regularly.

Exercise

I have been attempting to walk, bike (in my garage on a trainer) and do Pilates (with a video), and I switch them out throughout my week. When I walk it is up and down hills pushing a double stroller for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. When I bike it is usually one gear, sitting the whole time for about 35 minutes. And when I do Pilates the workout is just shy of 1 hour. These are all a challenge to do with my three kiddos in the picture :).

Challenges

I haven't been struggling with the food part of things, that has actually been very much a blessing. But I have been having a hard time MAKING myself get out for walks or on my bike without the excuses of weather, kids sleeping or something hurting. And the excuse for Pilates is finding I time to roll around on the floor without me looking like a fun new toy!

Successes

In my first month I have lost 12 pounds and 4.25 inches!!!

Plans for the Week

I need to get back on board with my 8 cups of water and exercising without excuses!!!

Weigh-In

I will back track here so you can see what I have meant to blog...

Start week: 184.5 lbs.

1st week: 179.5 lbs. - lost 5 lbs.

2nd week: 177 lbs. - lost 2.5 lbs. & 1.5 inches

3rd week: 173 lbs. - lost 4 lbs. & 1.5 inches

4th week (this week): 172.5 lbs. - lost 0.5 lbs. & 1.25 inches

Now onto my Visual Motivation...

This was me below my goal weight about 10 years ago... but it is nice to see there are small bones in there!!!

This was me closer to my goal weight about 9 years ago... with GUNS!!! This really IS another side goal of mine, I want muscle definition again! I want a ticket to that gun show!!!

This was my first belly shot pregnant. This was about 6 years ago. I was 165 pounds then and now I am only 7.5 pounds away, like I said before, this is my first goal.

NOW... these are the start of a series of photos I will be taking every 4 weeks...

The picture on the left is before and the one on the right is after.

This is me down 12 pounds...

... and 4.25 inches...

... and this is my favorite - even though I HATED the before shot from the back, it is VERY encouraging to me to see the results! If you notice my under-arm area, my upper-back and (sorry) my bum, there is quite a noticeable difference back there! Praise the Lord!!!
I encourage you guys to use visual motivation! It's powerful for me! If you have a before shot you can keep up or you take one like I did, it REALLY makes you WANT an after!

And go with this quote... "The mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground." Author Unknown We can do this!!! Together!!!

My Walk Monday

If you haven't noticed... I am totally getting caught up here on My Walk Monday posts, I think I have written like three this past week.

I am sorry for missing, I am working on being more consistent since you guys are "following" along WITH ME ;) forgive me.

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I said in "last week's" MWM post that God has been taking me ALL over His word and really blessing me with it, and I said I would share some of that "this week" so...

A prayer from Psalm 3...

You, O Lord, You are a shield about me, You are my Rock and I trust in Your strength. You are my glory, I am NOTHING good without You. You know when I am weak and broken, You care when I am sad and struggling. You take my breath away, always being there for me to encourage me through. You are the One who lifts my head.

I cry to You and You are always faithful to answer me, You ALWAYS listen and care, Your lovingkindness is beyond anything I can even ask or think.

I lay down and sleep and when I wake up You sustain me, You support me, You stand me up. You comfort me, You help me, You give me strength. You nourish me, You nurture me, You keep me alive. You keep me going, You provide for me. You hold me, You back me, You justify me! You alone are the reason I live.

In Jesus name!... I will not be afraid of the HUGE trial ahead of me and round about me. I trust You Lord with my husband and my kids, I trust You with my choices and my shame. I trust You Lord with my brokenness and pain... I will not be afraid of any outcome with You in charge because You are amazing God!!!

You know Lord that I often feel many are against me, not only my family or my friends but those I cannot see, they want me to turn from You. Lord, my adversaries have increased, they say of my soul "there is no deliverance for her!", they want to destroy me! But I WILL fight Lord, fight on my knees! I cry to You Lord, arise! Save me, O my God, for You have smitten my enemies! You are The King of kings and The Lord of lords, You are The Beginning and The End and I know how they end! You will destroy them in the pit of hell, they have NO POWER over me!

Salvation belongs to You my God and my King, and blessings are on Your people!

Blessings are on YOU my dear ladies!!! Now exercise that muscle of faith and GO!

Yes! another Ta-Da!

Here is my TA-DA for the week :) - yes I have one!

It's another layout for my youngest daughter's baby album... and this one was from another PageMaps sketch! :) I'm STILL loving them!!! This one is from their September 2008 archives...

I added a little photo off the the left and popped it up, so fun.

I had a great time with the simple paper circle embellishments... of coarse one of my good friends saying nothing is simple with me, so I had to ink them and hand-stitch them down :).

I also really liked diggin' out my old decorative scissors for my scalloped edge... I remember when I used to cut my photos with those!!!! Ahhhh! That was very bad for me!

I liked the titling on the strips of paper with my new favorite - CHOCOLATE BROWN rub-ons from Close to My Heart...

But most of all I had a good time with my sister-in-law, hangin' out and scrapbooking.

Now onto my running TO-DO list...

1. Pick a date for a Close to My Heart party???
2. Hang ledge for black and white photos in my room.
3. Hang my new Ikea lighthouse photo :)

If you want to join the others and share your craft related Ta-Da's and To-Do's visit the Sunday Scrappin' home.

Picture a Day

June 11: Thursday I found a new - old friend on Facebook, we were buddies in high school and she was in my wedding! :)

I also had a very bad day on Thursday, it was a battle that's for sure!!! The end of it got better for me though, my hubby came home with flowers, and I spent a lot of time with the Lord... just what I needed!

June 10: More facebook, geeze! I'm on there too often! It's another one of my downfalls... it even showed me that I only know 50% of my husband!!! LOL!!! (I knew the answer to the last one here, but I just thought the answer I chose was funny.)

June 9: Tuesday my kids had their lunch outside for a little picnic :).
And this is what JJ decided to do with the blanket afterwards - look at the peace :).

June 8: Monday I watched a little So You Think You Can Dance on Youtube :). I don't watch tv, so when I have time - I watch it online. It was more auditions... I like the Kasprzak Brothers a lot! I also remembered REALLY liking a Broadway guy last season too, so I looked it up and it was one of the same guys!!! I'm do glad he came back!

June 7: Let me just say... this is NOT for eating! :)

June 6: Saturday I went to my old church's annual "big" crop of the year, it was fun! I even got some work done!!! :)

June 5: Oh, and this is probably my favorite snack when I am craving peanut butter after making my kids pb&j! :) Only 2 points for my peanut butter fix.

My Walk Monday

Wow! Hello again ladies - or just LADY :) my faithful buddy Angela! I love you - thank you for being with me on Mondays :)

Since my ladies retreat, and a newfound commitment and resolve to REALLY FIGHT for my walk with Him, God has really been taking me all over the place in His word and blessing me with it. But I think I will get back to that in my next MWM post, because I still want to talk about some other things I learned at my retreat! :)

One thing mostly that was really the point of recognition for me... when we talked on the subject of women with issues, the speaker had us in Mark 5:21-34 reading on the woman with the issue of blood. We were asked "Is your issue causing you to bleed out everywhere? Making others unclean? Can you NOT stop talking about it with family, friends, acquaintances or even strangers!!?"

I thought OUCH!!! Yeah I bring this up to like EVERYONE! Yes even strangers! And now I bring it up in a different light to let you know I am letting go - FINALLY letting go!

You see I HATE video games and my hubby happens to like them very much. I equate them to a mistress when I am being zoned out, put on the back-burner, not as interesting or exciting, I happen to be a very bitter and angry person. Games have often ended up just making me HATE the man I love and in turn have made him hate-on me and then we have a giant rift in what used to be a very loving relationship.

I would bring this up with family at parties, with friends because I would HAVE to tell them WHY I wasn't okay! With acquaintances or people I really haven't seen in a while because I had to see if there were others struggling like I was... and YES even with strangers, because again, I had to make sure I wasn't alone!!! I WAS BLEEDING OUT ALL OVER THEM!!! Trying to suck them in to complain about their gamers also = making them unclean. This was a TERRIBLE realization!

But now I am reminding myself I am NOT alone! My Jesus will NEVER leave me, nor forsake me! (Hebrews 13:5b) And since He is right there I just need to reach out in faith and touch Him like the woman that was healed from her blood. Then He can tell me also, "Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your affliction." Mark 5:34.

I no longer want to try and fix this issue in my own strength and my own thoughts of how things should be working out! That would make me like Sarai with Abram and Hagar!!! (Genesis 15...)

I also don't want to be like Sarah at a ripe old age "dying" to have another child, not being satisfied with one, and then dying in childbirth! If this problem is "killing" me it is going to be the death of me! - the spiritual me at least, and I DON'T WANT THAT!!!

I don't want to WASTE my years away pushing something to happen in MY time that wasn't supposed to happen yet. I don't want my fingerprints all over my husband's clay (him in The Potter's hands), I want the Master Craft-Man to leave HIS prints all over him!!!

I want to live a life that shows my God, my Saviour, my King, my Jesus that He is enough to satisfy me. I want to be like Hannah who left her brokenness in His hands and prayed with trust in His demonstrated skill. I want it to be said of me, "Blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what had been promised to her by the Lord." Luke 1:45

Now I leave you with this...

1 Timothy 6:6-8 - "Godliness actually is a mens of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content."

A while away...

Sorry I have not written in so long... I am going to do a lot more soon though.  I have been totally bummed to be missing My Walk Mondays on time and my Picture a Day posts, but I will get caught up!

As I have mentioned before our internet service has been on and off and on and off again.  Well I was away at a Women's Retreat this past weekend and I couldn't even tell you all I was going because my internet went off for good last week!

...But my hubby fixed it while I was gone and now I am getting things situated at home before I plan some posts and get ready for this year's "BIG" crop that I usually help plan at my old church :).

I'll see you soon!!!

PS... I will be "back-posting", so the new posts will be bellow this one till I get caught up :)

Picture a Day

June 4: Wakin' up a little late for having three little kids you think?! :) Thank the Maker for some extra sleep, He is so good :).

June 3: MMMM! Three points baby! Yumm!!!

June 2: I was happy to find this big guy at my home since I was struggling so much with the itchy bug-bites left over from camping! Ugly, but he does the job.

June 1: Back home again from my weekend retreat... back to toyland, toyland! :)

May 31: A banana slug!!! :) I haven't seen one of these since fifth grade science camp!!!!

May 30: The camp-grounds at the retreat were beautiful! These were just the weed-flowers that were in the grass, lol! :) God's beauty is everywhere! (I will share more pics later.)

May 29: I left for my "surprise" woman's retreat on Friday at like 10:30 in the morning, when we got close to where we were going we went out for lunch :). This is what my friends drink from my church on the East Side :).

My Walk Monday

Now it's time to speak of the Woman's Retreat I went to the weekend before this (back-posted) post was to be written :)

It was totally a Godsend that He sent me! Nothing happens by coincidence. I thought I wasn't going till the day before someone dropped out and the night before at Bible Study I was counseled to take her place. I am glad God sent me! I think I have FINALLY come to the point in my walk with Him that He has wanted me in for a while - submission :).

Anywho... the speaker was VERY good, her name was Carol Wolaver and she has a ministry as "The Pottery Lady". She shared her knowledge from the terms of pottery with us and applied them as us being the clay and God as the Master Potter as it says in Isaiah 64:8, it was eye-opening to me! I mean I knew I was the clay and God was in charge of forming me, and I know I can sit SCREAMING in circles on His wheel sometimes, but this is even more profound!

Step one: He picks us... Psalm 40:2a - "He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay..."

Step two: He cleans us... Hebrews 10:22 - "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Step three: He softens us, to make us ready for the shaping... so He presses us into The Rock and kneads us.

Step four: He sticks us FIRMLY to The Rock... Psalm 40:2b - "He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm." (In pottery terms I guess the clay gets thrown onto the stone.)

*Sometimes in order for the clay to stick better, The Potter will stick that new piece of clay to a little discarded piece of the last clay worked, because the last clay already learned how to stick. (God sticks us to other mature Christians and means for us to learn from them how to stick to Him.)

Step five: The Potter centers us on Him (the Rock or the wheel).

The way Carol did so was she brought the clay up high...

Then she pushed it down...

To humble it low...

Then she would hold it down there a bit and slightly let go to see if it would move her hands...

You see if we are not willing to be humbled, if we are complaining, kicking and screaming, trying to push His hands away and talk Him into doing it our way, the centering process will only take longer!!!

We could even fly off the wheel at this point, then we have to start all over with the picking and cleaning and softening and throwing, then guess what... MORE humbling!!! It's a necessity to be centered on the Lord!

Step six: Then we need to be yielded. This is where The Potter pushes down into the heart of the clay, right down to it's core! This is the exciting part, because this is the start of the shaping process, but this is also when the brokenness comes... Psalm 51:17b - "A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

*Before yielding you are full of yourself and when you submit it The Potter's touch you make more room for His hands!!!

*Carol reminded us that anything that touches the clay must first go through The Potter's hands... 2 Samuel 22:31b - "He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him."

We also must learn to rest in Him and trust in Him - trust is shown by demonstrated skill - hasn't the Lord demonstrated His skill to you Carolyn?! Trust Him!!!

Step seven: This is where the stretching starts! He will never give us anything we cannot handle, He is faithful... 1 Corinthians 10:13 - " No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."
... and MORE stretching...

Step eight: After the stretching, we start to resemble what The Potter had planned. Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."

Step nine: After we are taken off the wheel He places us on a shelf for a LONG time to dry. I forget how long Carol said the drying pieces need to sit, but we all know this can be a dark and lonely time don't we?

Matthew 11:28-30 - "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you WILL find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

*"A wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands." Proverbs 14:1.

* Only The Potter can see down into the heart of the pot when the work is in progress. "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7b.

Step Ten: The fire! Isaiah 43:1-3b - "But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Isreal, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Isreal, your Savior."

* We can come out a bit dirty...

* But He will just pick us up and clean us again... :) Isaiah 61:3 - "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

MMMM!!! Meditate on this a while ladies, chew chew chew... yum!!!