I find it very interesting that one of the two most frequent searches that people do and land on my blog, if only for a short time, is for some form of "love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind." (The other is noni or the Beckers.) It makes me wonder if there are a lot of people trying to find that verse or really wonder what it means. Are there a lot of Christians out there wondering about this verse? How do we measure up?
I've just been spending some time on AHolyExperience and I must say that I am stirred. I went through a season where I read her blog daily. She inspired me to blog more. The music on her site also stirred me. I requested some of the musician's music for Christmas and love the cd's. I have not read her blog for a few months now, you know, life . . . things got busy. So I just spent a few minutes reading her last several entries and can feel a stirring inside.
She does write in my style, but her words move me. The atmosphere that she creates on her site, stirs me. She gets me to think about things in a different way. I'm not poetic, so I sometimes must work at understanding but it is always worth it. I leave her site with a challenge to see something differently, feel something differently, write differently, and express myself differently.
The other day, I opened "The Message" and knew God was going to meet me in those pages. He did . . . He warned me to watch my mouth (see Eph 5), to bridle my tongue and speak in love. As is generally the case, I had opportunities to practice these instructions during the enxt several days . . . sometimes I did well, and other times I fell into old patterns, but at least I recognized it quicker those times. It is a good thing that God doesn't show us all of our faults at once; I know I couldn't take it. But as He enlightens me, little by little, I'm able to make changes, little by little, and grow and mature and then be ready, once again, for Him to show me the next areas to conquer.
Family has arrived, just as I finished the last paragraph, so I must be finished with what He wanted me to share today. On to a birthday celebration, my firstborn turned 18 yesterday, and FIREWORKS!!! What fun! Have a blessed weekend!
I cannot believe that it has been almost two months since I have blogged at all. I guess I'll start by giving an update on the dietary changes I talked about last time. In a nutshell, not good. I have not actually counted those calories completely on any day yet. I did do the morning ones for a while but by the time I got to dinner, stopped. I really do think this is a key to losing my weight, at least for a bit.
I tend to do pretty good for breakfast and lunch but come dinner, I end up getting a second serving. I think I need to include more veggies with dinner since veggies are low in calories and the main dish or casserole is usually pretty hefty in calories. For example, we like to have Spaghetti Bake (I'll include the recipe at the end of the post) but since it makes a full 13x9 pan I don't really fix any side dishes to go with it -- bad, I know. I don't really like salads and that seems the best side dish suited to a spaghetti dish, to me. SO, I end up eating another scoop of spaghetti bake since I am feeling like I still want more food, but I probably am not really HUNGRY but just enjoying the taste of the food so much that I WANT more. So, I really NEED to count calories . . . UGH!!!
I'm really enjoying the Devotions for Dieters that I mentioned last time too. She shared one thing that has really hit home with me and helped me for several days, since reading it.
Add some Umph to your Try and you get Triumph!
Another thing she shared was about what we drink with our meals. The information she included that day said that putting cold drinks in our stomach after eating or during eating can lower the temperature of our stomach contents causing the fats to become more solid and slowing down the digestion as well as causing some of the fat to be stored rather than sent through the system. (At least that is how I remember it.) It was suggested that drinking coffee or hot tea with and after a meal would do more to aid in digestion. I haven't done any research on it myself but I have started to drink some hot tea with and after my meals rather than water. But now I am noticing that I'm not getting in nearly as much water as I should be. Ugh! The tea can count for some of my water intake but because it is a diuretic, I really need to be sure to get more water in.
I'm going to have to print out a calendar that I use for exercise accountability. Since I'm not using JUST the Wii Fit, it isn't keeping track of all my exercise because I forget to enter in my Other Activity Credits on the day I do it and I haven't found a way to enter it for previous days without manipulating the Wii's date. It would just be way easier to have a physical calendar to put an X on for exercising. I don't want to use our general family calendar because it is a write-on/wipe-off AND it is on the refrigerator because it is magnetic. I have found that I am motivated by having that visual.
I guess I'll go for now. I have lots of little things I wanted to talk about but I think I'll try to do one post for each one throughout the week instead of putting them all in one big post.
Spaghetti Bake
1 pkg spaghetti, cooked as directed al dente
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
pizza toppings or 1 pound browned ground turkey (or beef)
24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz mozzarella cheese (We prefer colby/jack cheese.)
Drain spaghetti and put in a large bowl. Mix in egg and parmesan cheese. Place in a 13x9 dish, which I usually spray with oil spray. Spread on the sauce (I just buy a cheap spaghetti sauce from the store to make this a quick and easy dinner to make.) I then put my ground meat, seasoned with garlic powder and onion powder. Finally sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Bake in a 350º oven for 20-30 minutes. If you just drained your spaghetti and browned your meat, it will only take a few minutes to melt the cheese because it is already heated through.
Sometimes I will brown my meat and freeze it to make a quicker meal later. The other day I boiled my noodles at lunch time and had pre-browned my meat. I made up the whole thing and had it just waiting for my son to put in the oven when it was time. It did take about 30 minutes to heat through and melt the cheese since everything was cold.
It is hard to believe that the holidays are now behind us. We had a wonderful season and I am grateful! But once again it is time for me to buckle down and lose weight. I envy Valerie Bertinelli in that she hasn't made any resolutions about her weight for two years now because she finally lost it all. Of course, if I had someone paying me to lose it, I'd probably have the motivation to do it too. I know . . . losing it for my family, myself, and because that is what God wants me to do should be enough. Unfortunately when I'm tempted to eat something I shouldn't or when I lust for something I that isn't good for me, I have given in and eaten it. I even caught myself the other day doing just that. We had some whole wheat macaroni with cheese on it and some turkey hot dogs. There were some hot dogs leftover and still sitting out. I walked by and picked up one and started eating it. I then said to myself, "I shouldn't be eating this but I am anyway." And then I realized what I just thought and put the uneaten half right back down. It amazes me how strong some habits are.
I've done a lot of thinking about what I should do. I realized that of the 120 pounds I have needed to lose for many years, the only ones that have stayed off are the ones that came off because of a lifestyle change that I made and never returned to. I lost 20 pounds because I stopped drinking diet drinks and sweet tea and started drinking water instead. Of all the "diets" I've done, this is the only thing that I have not undid--I still do not drink diet drinks, regular sodas, or sweet tea except on the rare occasion. So those 20 pounds have never come back--shocking. I guess I need to find some food changes that I will NOT undo. I'm going to have to figure out how to make some of my Christmas goodies more healthy, in order to make it through the holidays and not gain. (Hmmm, healthy peanut butter balls, kiefle, and pretzel candy....I don't know about that.)
I found Let's Do Lunch a couple of years ago. (Be sure to visit the Message Boards if you go to that website.) I lost twenty pounds on that one too but never stayed completely on the plan after the first month or two. I started it in August of 2006 and went off over the holidays and took a while to get completely "legal" on it again. By the next fall, I was determined to stick to the program and even did so over the holidays for the most part but even then I ate a few things that were not allowed on the plan. I'd done a lot of reading on health and nutrition and came to believe that certain things were ok and also realized that I cannot live without pizza--I'm a pizzaholic. (I tried many many things to overcome my pizza craving. I put tomato paste and toppings and low-fat cheese on Corn Thins, I tried the one made with popcorn flour, I tried pizza soup and all helped but none satisfied. I even made it with whole wheat lavash/flat bread and whole wheat tortillas but it just isn't pizza. I love pizza!) Over the last several months, I have strayed from the "plan" and over the holidays, enjoyed eating the candies and sweets that I have limited in the past several years. Bottom line is that I have gained all the weight I lost on LDL.
My teenage boys love LDL and are a bit upset with me for looking for something else. They were chunky, quite chunky, from about 7 years old until 2006 when we found LDL. They lost their weight and have stayed thin. They will eat the sweets and goodies they want when not at home, which is not frequent, but then during the rest of the time they eat mostly on plan. I guess that is why I thought I could make a few changes and still lose weight.
The bottom line for me is portion control. Yes LDL does tell you not to eat when you are not hungry but I have a hard time with that, evidently. Several years ago I did Weigh Down Workshop and that was the problem I had with that one as well.
I bought Sue Gregg's cookbooks a couple of months ago. In the Weight Management book she talks about PRISM. I seriously considered that program because I erroneously thought that it allowed you to eat whole grains. Sue's book has several lists of 1200 calorie menus, using her recipes. No, I do not really like to weigh and measure my food or count calories but I think it is what will help me get portion control. The other thing is that I know I need to have a well balanced food intake and if I don't sit down and make a menu, then I end up eating the same thing every morning and staring at the refrigerator at lunchtime wondering what I will eat, ending up eating too many grains and no veggies or fruits.
Then another thing that I was pondering was those people that I've heard about (and caught a couple on a morning television show) that basically made their own diet and followed it and lost their weight. Why do I feel that I have to follow what works for someone else. I don't do that with homeschooling, why should I do that with weight loss.
So, what have I decided to do? I'm basically doing a 1200 calorie diet. I've got the ingredients for 4 more dinners that I don't know the calorie count for, and yes, I could put it in Mastercook to find out, but I don't feel like doing that. So, I've made up menus using Sue Gregg's cookbooks covering my breakfasts and lunches and then picking up with the dinners after I finish off the ones I already have the ingredients for. So for a few days, I may be eating more than 1200 calories but it will still be less than what I would have eaten otherwise.
Remarkably, Sue's cookbooks go well with LDL. She uses only whole grains, no sugar, and low-fat dairy products (which are occasionals on LDL). She uses fruits and some honey (and some pure maple syrup) for sweeteners. I had one Apple Oat Muffin this morning with a Fruit Smoothie. I've never been much on fruit smoothies but she had it listed on one of her breakfast menus and had a recipe for it, so I decided I'd try it today, since I needed something to go with that one muffin. I'm glad I tried it. I was so full! AND I got in about 3 fruits this morning. Of course, since it was fruit it wore off in time for lunch, for which I was starving. We had our dinner at lunch, since we are all here at that time today. I fixed chili but know that I ate too much of it. That is okay though because I probably won't eat anything else today. If I'm hungry I'll either have a small salad or an orange or popcorn.
I first heard about her cookbooks from Cindy Rushton, then later from The Old Schoolhouse review. I checked out the website and was thrilled to see some sample recipes. We absolutely loved that she has a recipe for pancakes using brown rice and oats! We reduce the amount of salt and baking soda called for though, as our first attempt was way too salty for our liking but the recipe was definitely a keeper!
The other thing I am doing is using my Wii to exercise. We have Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Active Life Outdoor Challenge. I'll tell you, I break out in a sweat with that last one. When I first started using the Wii Fit, I would make myself do the stretching and strength for at least 15 minutes before doing the aerobics or balance games. I actually got sore! I know, it just proves how out of shape I am.
So there you have it, I am following much of LDL basics, as Roger Troy Wilson, the creator of LDL, has added whole oats and very dark brown rice or wild rice to the allowable list of foods. I heard one nutritionist say that because Ezekiel bread is made with sprouted grains, your body sees it as a vegetable and not a grain, so that furthers my belief that this bread is good for me and I should eat it in moderation. The other thing is that olive oil and coconut oils are good for you. I believe that my calorie limit will ensure that any nuts or whole wheat or other non-LDL food that I eat will not cause me to keep from losing weight. I guess the 1200 calorie limit for me is kinda like a schedule is for our schooling. It seems like it would be like a straight jacket, binding me but instead it is more like a life jacket, freeing me. Left to my own devices I always think I'm hungry, so this should help me. At least I hope it will.
I hesitated writing about this at first preferring to keep my weight loss embarrassment to a minimum. I don't know why I changed my mind. If this helps you at all, please leave me a comment below.
Oh! Another thing I liked about PRISM was that they have a daily devotion that people say really helps. Like Weigh Down Workshop, they address the spiritual side of being overweight and losing weight. I really wanted something like that. Then I realized that I still have my WDW materials, so I should just reuse them. But I wanted something else fresh, new. So, I googled. I found this neat devotional. It is called Devotional for Dieters. It is a Yahoo Group that only sends out messages from the owner, so it is not chatty. I've only been a member for few days now but I really like it. Today she talked about some memory verses she gave before and gave a new one. I'm looking forward to using this on a daily basis. I doubt that I'll use many, if any, of the recipes but that isn't really the reason I joined.
There is another devotional for weight loss available on the web written by a friend of mine. You can find it here. There are 23 devos to enjoy. She wrote these a few years ago and I'm very glad that she still has them available on her website.
I spent a lot of time yesterday making my menu for 9 days. I know I have to get my mind off of the food. This is why diets don't work, many times, because you are constantly thinking about food and it makes your mouth water. Face it, generally if you are overweight it is because you like food, so reading recipes and thinking about food is only going to make you hungry. About 25 years ago my family went on an extended fast, for many reasons. We looked through low-cal recipe books, planning how we were going to eat differently when we came off the fast. This made me hungrier, if that was possible. I don't want to focus on the food but know that I have to spend some time making the menus, since I'm a picky eater and cannot just follow menus someone else created, so that I have a plan that I can follow rather than floundering and eating something I shouldn't, simply because I'm hungry. I intend to try to balance out my "study"/planning time by spending some substantial time in Bible study on the days that I don't need to do menu planning.
One more thing that I am doing to help lose weight is increasing my water intake. As I mentioned earlier, I don't drink sodas of any kind, as a general rule, or sweet tea. I drink distilled water. I must admit that I don't drink a lot of water throughout the day, generally speaking, so I'm trying to get in more water. I've read that you should drink a half ounce of water for every pound you weigh. I'm not getting that much in, that's for sure, but I'm definitely drinking more than I was and intend to continue to increase as I go along. I've also heard that many times the overweight person eats when they are really just thirsty; I think I must have been that way a lot.
I guess I'll close for now. Blessings,
Michele ºÜº
Recently, I have stumbled upon some music that absolutely ministers to me. I just knew that this pianist had to be a brother in the Lord. I googled him today and found that I was right.
His name is David Nevue. He has some of the most anointed instrumental music I have ever heard. This is definitely going on my Christmas list. (Yes you read that right! We, my mother, sister and I, like to have all our shopping done by Thanksgiving, so we start about now. We start shopping in earnest next month. It is fun because my children are old enough to stay home and babysit my niece, while we go shopping together. This makes it easier to ensure that we are not duplicating gifts and we are able to help each other with gift suggestions when one of us gets stumped. I'll be blogging more about this after our first shopping trip this year.)
Anyway, I have been so stirred by his music that I simply must have a CD or two of his this year. You can visit his website by clicking here. (Click on CDs at that website or on the listen link in the next sentence.) You can even listen to some samples of the different CDs.
He has some interesting articles on the site as well. Let me know if you've heard him before. Like I said, his music is new to me but I absolutely love it.
I was listening to some demos of the CDs for some time today. It has been a beautiful day and I've had the windows open. My brother-in-law was working on our roof and after about an hour, my husband came in and asked me if I was de-stressed because they were falling asleep up there. It truly is peaceful music!!!
I promised pictures of my niece, some time ago. So, I am finally getting around to putting some up. I hope you like them. This "little" darling weighed a mere 9 pounds 12.5 ounces!!!! She was too big to enter this world via the birth canal, so she was delivered by c-section after many hours of labor. Thankfully she never made enough of an exit that my dear sister had to heal in two ways (the normal way and surgically). Much prayer went up for her quick recovery and as little pain as possible. God truly does answer prayer!
Here she is within a few hours of birth with my oldest son.
Here she is with my mom.
I don't have a decent picture of her at one month but
here she is at about two months—Independence Day.
Here is a better picture of her.
This one is at about 3 months.
This one is from last week, she is a
little more than 4 months old now.
She is a big girl! She is making her own "curve" on the growth chart. She is perfectly proportioned but just BIG! She is a little chunk. I think she weighed 16 pounds at her doctor visit last week. Yes, and she is only 19 or 20 weeks old.
For the last week or more, I have been challenged with the quality of my quiet time (and the lack thereof). Thankfully I am a part of a wonderful group of ladies, affiliated with Cindy Rushton, that really challenge me to press on and dig deeper into my relationship with God.
Of course, any time you make a decision to spend more time or better time with God, the enemy comes and throws some blocks in your path, or at least he does with me. So I wasn't feeling very good (more on that in another entry) and decided to go lay down for a nap, because I was feeling so tired, and my eyes burning.
As I lay there trying to go to sleep, my mind was not tired , and so it was tumbling through lots of thoughts. I quieted my mind and began to pray, silently. I then started singing, in my head only, the song "Draw Me Close to You". When I got to the last line of the song, "Help me know You are near," the wind blew in through my open window and washed over me. It was so neat; God was letting me know He was right there with me. It was such a refreshing feeling. He loves me! He cares about me! And the really neat thing is that He loves and cares for you too!
All you have to do is Admit that you are a sinner and in need of a Savior. Truly Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross and resurrected three days later. (The tomb was empty and no earthly being removed His body; He rose from the dead. He showed Himself to many witnesses on and off for 40 days and many saw Him rise into heaven. This is no hoax! People saw Him walk through walls and could put their fingers in the holes in His hands, where He had been nailed to the cross.) And then Confess your sins to God, accept His forgiveness, and follow what He says to do, turning away from the sins of the past. Cool thing is that He will help you do that.
Have a blessed (divinely favored) day and KNOW that He is right there beside you!
Oh My Goodness! I just had to come and write some more about the Romance Toolbox seminar by Cindy Rushton this weekend . . . well, actually today and Saturday. It has already been soooo good!
I was challenged to find the things that make my sweetie happy. At first I thought I was clueless but I realized that I do indeed know at least one thing he loves. QT coffee! Since we live about 20 minutes from the edge of town, he has a bit of a commute each day and a cup of coffee from Quik Trip makes him happy. So guess what? I'm getting him QT gift cards as often as I can afford to. (Things have been a little tight lately, so this will be a nice Valentine's gift for him.)
Then I thought some more and realized that we have always had this little thing. See both of our names begin with 'M'. So we are the M&M's. And when we got married, someone gave us a very large bottle (I think it must've been one of those gallon pickle jars.) full of M&M's. He prefers the peanut ones but I prefer the peanut butter ones. Mmmmm..... Of course right now, I don't eat any of them as I am trying to lose weight and feel that is very important right now.
Let's see, what else . . . I need to nurture our relationship! I don't do nearly enough to nurture our relationship, sad to say. I need to find ways to become his best friend again. We were once . . . I remember the first or second year we were married, we'd argued about something and I was fuming mad. I decided to go for a walk and cool down. He finally found me, sitting on the curb crying . . . I got in the car and proceeded to tell him that I was very mad at him and what made it worse was that I needed to go talk to my best friend about it but HE was my best friend and I couldn't talk to him about it because I was mad at HIM. LOL It is funny now but it was a miserable feeling then. Of course, he hugged me and we got it fixed, whatever it was. But sad to say, as time as gone on, we are not as close as we once were.
You know, Cindy said that it takes work and she is right about that. There is never a time to sit back and relax thinking you've arrived. I realize that while I was just sitting back, the current was separating us little by little.
She said things like, wear what he likes . . . ask him what he wants you to wear. Respect him; make him a priority; put God first; check with him before accepting new responsibilities, and such.
Well, my sweet darling has decided that he is tired and ready for bed. So, I must sign off now.
Well it is another weekend seminar by Cindy Rushton. Once again, I didn't think I needed this one BUT I was wrong! I've only attended one session so far but already I am challenged! And there is the rest of Friday filled with sessions and all day Saturday too! Wow, I'm looking for a great weekend.
Here's the link to sign up, if you are interested:
The really cool thing is that if you cannot afford it or if you are not sure if you really need it, you can Try it for free. You get whatever freebies you are in attendance for too! Yes, you miss out on anything you cannot personally attend but if the rest is a blessing to you, you can always get a ticket to it later and have access to all freebies, audios, text chats, and any extras she puts up! Great deal!
To try it for free, all you have to do is put your name and email in the yellow Try Us Out box! (Scroll way down)
Well, I better close this up...gotta get back to the next session! Hope to see you there!
We go to my parents' home each week. We used to go on Sunday after church. That was a lot easier when we went to the same church and out to dinner together. As the years have gone by, we have gone to different churches; I still miss worshiping the Lord together. Anyway, at first we tried to still go to dinner together and then came the day that my dh said that we needed to save some money and cutting out this $30-$40 each week would be a big help. Then my parents started going to this church that had Sunday evening services; up until a few years ago, we'd all managed to attend churches that didn't have Sunday evening services and believed those should be used as family times instead. (There was an exception or so.) At any rate, we had Sunday Family Days since I got married 20 years ago.
Last year my dad was working a 'part-time' job as a truck driver that required him to go out on Sunday evenings. My dad is really retired and this part-time job turned into a full time job; he actually retired in June or July this year. Anyway, it was hard for him to leave the family gathering on Sundays and go to work (he could decide when he went but if he went later in the evening he wouldn't be able to sleep when he needed to and a sleepy truck driver is not a safe truck driver); plus my mom had gotten involved in their church and was singing on the worship team and in the choir, so she needed to leave the house around 4 on Sunday afternoons too.
Well, when everyone doesn't get together until about 2 and then some have to leave around 4, that doesn't leave much time to enjoy each other's company. (Plus there's the changing of the clothes and getting ready to leave too.) So, we made the switch to Saturday evenings. This has NOT been an optimal solution but it is working. The one sister and her family have had vehicle problems and her new dh is pretty much, always on call and they can rarely make it. My other sister and her husband taught Sunday School two Sunday's a month and couldn't make it each week. Well, when that is the ONLY time that we get to fellowship, it isn't good. (We had been getting together a couple of Saturdays a month AND then on each Sunday prior to this switch...talk about a change...but I am FLEXIBLE and can change! LOL)
You see, we don't just tell our children that family is important. We show them that it is by setting aside time each week to visit with extended family. We also do this by staying home together during the week and not running here and there with our focus outside the home. Now don't get me wrong, we are not self-centered but just trying to stay focused on what is important in life, building family relationships. I hope that some day, when my children are grown, they will value their family relationships and make us a priority too.
Wow, what a bunny-trail! Anyway, back on track now, one day when we were at my parents' home, recently, my dad was talking about how employers have told him that people today really lack a work ethic. I totally agreed with him, especially after he told me that the man had said that people actually make an appointment for an interview and then don't even show up! I was astounded to say the least, and apparently this isn't the exception—many people do this, for no good reason. It is really hard to believe that they are doing this for interviews, just imagine what they would do if they actually got a job.
ANYWAY, I said ALL of that to share my realization I had about an hour ago. I was thinking about this again and have to admit that I have a distaste for people that seem allergic to work or only do enough to get by. Then while I was there, in that judgmental state, the Lord asked me a question . . . Do you treat your 'work' as a job? Oh No!!! I suddenly realized that although I do work around the house, I do not treat it with the same respect that I would treat a 9-5 job out somewhere! Oh how convicting!!!
This is definitely going to take some prayer and adjustments. I do much better when we are schooling, for obvious reasons but, once again, I just realized that I'm not respecting my 'jobs' the way I should. I definitely respect my homeschool 'job' and have schedules and plans to follow. But with my homemaking 'job', I don't seem to treat ALL of it right. I absolutely handle the food preparation as a job, as my weight can verify. LOL But the rest of the homemaking job seems to be doing some slide by. I'm really going to have to seek the Lord for some strategies to doing my homemaking job with all my heart as unto the Lord!!! Needless to say, I would not be a housecleaner or janitor by choice, for a paying job...I'm definitely an office job person. But once again, the Lord just showed me that I'm not even doing that aspect of my homemaking job diligently. In my defense, I don't pay the bills; I only do what is necessary to do the taxes. I also reconcile the bank statement, not a difficult job at all.
I have subscribed to Flylady in the past, and even created my own Control Journal. Of course, those routines need adjusting, because of homeschooling, quite frequently or maybe it is just that I never really finished making them. You see, true confessions now, after doing a good morning routine and homeschooling the children and getting a lunch (which is many times dinner) prepared and eaten (with reserves for dh), I feel like I deserve a break. This is where the faulty thinking comes in. For whatever reason, I feel like I deserve a LONG break. Checking email CAN be a very long series of bunny-trails. Then, because I have still 'worked', I now feel like a 'deserve' to have a little 'down time' and play a quick game (that can really last a while if no timer is set). Then it seems as if I feel that I am 'off work' after dh comes home when really there are some things I could do then.
Then there is the whole subject of school vacations. Once again, it seems as if I feel like I am on vacation when the I've scheduled a vacation for the children. And in reality I am on vacation from ONE of my jobs, but that is a time I could be getting more done in the other, the homemaking job, but do I? Not usually. Well, I have a lot of growing up to do, sad to say. I guess I just found out my New Year's resolution.
I am soooo sorry that I forgot to mention this in my blog the other day! I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all those men and women who came to Oklahoma to help get with the electrical work and get our homes warm and businesses up and running again!!! Without the extra help, we could still be in the dark and cold.
My oldest son took an 8th Grade Reading Proficiency Test today, that is mandatory before anyone can get a Learner's Permit to drive, in our state. At one point I thought they'd also passed a law that said they had to path an 8th grade math proficiency test too. That was absolutely ludicrous! I can understand why you need to be able to read in order to drive, but MATH, be real!!! Thankfully, that is not the case.
Well, he did great on the test. There is no time limit so he decided that he'd just take his time and be sure he was answering to the best of his ability. He got a 96!
We went from there, to the Tag Agency, which in our state is where you must go to get your licensing and what not. We got there and were told that he would have to see a Drivers Examiner and they are only there on Thursdays. It is NOT Thursday.
They told us we could go to a small town nearby—about 45 minutes away. In route, we decided to call to see if they had some weird time constraints. It was a good thing we did because the examiner is only available until 2pm and it was almost 3pm. So we will have to make another trip into town.
It is so odd to have one of my children of driving age. I really feel old now.
We got a new camera! We are all very excited about it. It has been a desire of our's for some time. We used to have a digital camera, purchased about 9 years ago. Well, when we replaced our computer 2 years ago, we could no longer use that camera. It did not have a memory card of any kind. The only way to put the pictures on the computer was through a cable and a program but alas, the program was not compatible with Windows XP AND they had no update drivers. As a matter of fact, the company does not appear to be in existence any longer.
Consequently, we had to use our old 35mm cameras. The digital camera was purchased because of our growing problems with the 35mm camera (battery issues). So several months ago I bought another 35mm camera to tide us over until we could get a new digital camera. While on vacation, I took a lot of pictures one day and was amazed that it seemed that I'd taken so many but still hadn't run out of film. (That was my first clue that something was amuck.)
As it turned out, all of those pictures I'd taken, did not come out. I think that the film was not loaded correctly. Unfortunately, you could not tell this without opening up the back of the camera and thus messing up the film/pictures that may have been taken if it was correctly installed.
The friends that we were vacationing with had a wonderful digital comera. It is a Canon Digital Rebel EOS. It takes amazing pictures. They paid a LOT of money for it several years ago and still love it. Well, I got to thinking . . . it has probably come down in price a lot in the last several years. So, my oldest son and I started looking.
What we found was that their exact camera couldn't be found any longer but the next closest that we could find was about a third cheaper and takes about a third better picture (i.e. 8 mega pixels as opposed to 6 mega pixels).
Now we had the problem of this still being an expensive camera! So my son and I began planning out how we could manage to get the money to purchase this wonderful instrument. Ahhh, Circuit City to the rescue—they offer interest free financing for one year on large purchases.
We had to go into town yesterday to get my neice a birthday present anyway, so we went and got the camera. We had to buy the memory card separately though. Unfortunately, the salesperson helping us didn't usually work in the camera department. We drove the 35-40 minutes home and realized that the SD card will NOT work in our wonderful new camera. Now tell me, what good is a digital camera if you cannot save the pictures? It is like having a 35mm camera with no 35mm film! Ugh!!!
Well, we got back in the van and drove the 35-40 minutes back to town. The clerk told us to find some guy around the corner that would help us. We could not find the salesman that she told us to find. While we were at home, we got familiar with some of the lingo and what was needed. I found what I thought we needed—a CF card and not an SD card. We took it back up to the clerk and she allowed us to open it and see if it worked.
Thankfully, there was another sales associate that walked up and was very familiar with this camera. He told us that what we had was indeed the correct item. But we could not get it in. So, we asked him if he'd try. He couldn't do it either. As it turned out, our brand new camera had some bent pins in the CF slot. We traded cameras.
We've played around with it a lot already! It has been a lot of fun!!! I'll have to play with it some more and see if there are any accessories that I want to have for Christmas. We only got a 1 gig CF card; so I may want to get another one for Christmas. We'll see!
This is really neat because my oldest son, who is 16, is learning how to use different computer programs that we have to manipulate our digital pictures and learning to use the camera too.
My recommendation to anyone getting a digital camera is to get one that is by a well known company. That way, if you upgrade your computer, you should be able to continue to use your equipment. Don't just get a camera on clearance by some unknown company; you may be sorry down the road.
We will be leaving soon to go celebrate my niece's birthday. Which means, we will be getting to play with our camera some more. Whoo hoo!
Well, here it is almost 6:30 and I promised my dd she could get online by 6:45 or 7:00.
I was thinking about the example that I am setting for my children. Is it a good one? Am I doing things that I'd want them to be doing or am I living a "Do as I say not as I do" life?
Well, I hope the answer is that I am really living the way I want them to live. But then I guess that explains why they love video games and computers and movies so much!
One thing that my dear husband and I do is that when we do something that is wrong, we repent to the children as well as to God. I remember my parents doing this when I was a child. If my dad would say something to my mom that wasn't very nice and we heard it, he'd come back to us, after he apologized to my mother, and tell us he was sorry that he shouldn't have said whatever it was he said.
This left such an impression on me. It told me that even adults make mistakes and that is OK. We just need to own up to them and correct them, even if it is a little embarrassing.
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Well, I just found out that we must've put fear into our homeschool group last night, with my comment to them. I told the HERO dads and lads to watch out because my guys were already planning their cake design. Well, I guess they couldn't handle it and decided they needed more time. I just found out that the even has been moved to next spring.
Well, not really, they just decided that it is getting so close to Thanksgiving that we needed to change activities for the same day. It will now be a Thanksgiving Celebration and Fall Family Fellowship and Festival! Wow! That is a mouthful! AND it looks like it will be one jam-packed fun filled day full of food, fun, and fellowship!!! Whoo Hooo!
Well, gotta run so that I can SHARE the computer. There are other people in my family that would like to use it, believe it or not! LOL! Well, I guess I'll be nice and share now.
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
The Holidays are over and I'm not quite ready to start a new count down yet. Maybe I should start a counting up the number of days I've stayed on my "diet".
I have not actually counted those calories completely on any day yet. I did do the morning ones for a while but by the time I got to dinner, stopped. I really do think this is a key to losing my weight, at least for a bit. 
(I tried many many things to overcome my pizza craving. I put tomato paste and toppings and low-fat cheese on Corn Thins, I tried the one made with popcorn flour, I tried pizza soup and all helped but none satisfied. I even made it with whole wheat lavash/flat bread and whole wheat tortillas but it just isn't pizza. I love pizza!) Over the last several months, I have strayed from the "plan" and over the holidays, enjoyed eating the candies and sweets that I have limited in the past several years. Bottom line is that I have gained all the weight I lost on LDL. 
It truly is peaceful music!!!
, and so it was tumbling through lots of thoughts. I quieted my mind and began to pray, silently. I then started singing, in my head only, the song "Draw Me Close to You". When I got to the last line of the song, "Help me know You are near," the wind blew in through my open window and washed over me. It was so neat; God was letting me know He was right there with me. It was such a refreshing feeling. He loves me! 
LOL)
Well, I have a lot of growing up to do, sad to say. I guess I just found out my New Year's resolution.
