Exercise and motivation

I've decided the time has come to get serious about my weight.  No health issues yet, thankfully, but I'd like to keep it that way!  I'm just tired of always feeling TIRED!!  So yesterday, I went to the local gym and renewed my membership; I was HOPING to get over there today, but unfortunately, I've got TWO clients whose waters decided to break this AM, so I'm trying to get things done around the house before I get called out to a birth..... sigh...... all these interruptions in my life -- no wonder it's so difficult to exercise and eat well.

Additionally, I was at Best Buy and ran across a really neat gadget that I bought for Mackenzie and I to use.  It's a "game" for the Nintendo DS called "Personal Trainer: Walking".  We set this up today on my Nintendo system, and it looks like it's going to be very helpful and informative.

(No, this is not a paid advertisement!!!)  The two little devices you see on the package above are sensors that you can clip to your belt or pocket, drop in your purse, or whatever.  You can then push the button on the top and "beam" the information to the software in your DS. It will keep track of how many steps you walk each day; graph information so that you can see your periods of activity or inactivity each day; also check active or inactive days of the week; and lots more.  Up to four people can use the same system (you'll need additional monitoring devices, though) and then you can compare your results with others in the family.  They say you can also clip this on your dog's collar and monitor his or her activity throughout the days and weeks as well.  We briefly considered this, but decided the dogs would probably pull them off each other's collars and swallow them -- definitely not a good idea!!

Anyway, it starts with a low target baseline of 3,000 steps per day and will adjust over time, or you can manually adjust it as well.  Mackenzie is so excited, she walked all over the house and then took one of the dogs out for a walk and has already managed to get her 3,000 steps completed in less than 3 hours!! 

Hopefully, this will be a great motivation for both of us to get up and get moving!!  We'll write more about this in a few days or weeks and give our progress report.

____

Life's tangled messes

My youngest daughter Mackenzie has been very interested in knitting and crocheting for the last year or so.  For Christmas, I bought several different colored skeins of yarn for her to experiment with.  She worked with them busily for a while, then the needlecrafts seemed to vanish out of sight and out of mind.  However, this week, I decided to help her clean her VERY messy room and while cleaning, found the box of yarn.

I started to say, "Hey, I found the yarn box!", then I saw her looking down at the floor and away from me.  As I opened the box, I realized why -- two of the skeins of yarn were huge, twisted, tangled messes.   

The usual "mommy thoughts" started flowing out and the typical "kid answers" followed --

"What on earth happened here?" -- "I tried to wind it into a ball."

"How did it get so tangled?" -- "I started pulling the end and it worked for a while, then the wrapper came off, and it all just jumbled up, and I didn't know what to do.....

"Why didn't you ask for help? I could've helped you or given you directions on how to do it right....."  -- "I thought I could do it on my own......"

"And now it's such a huge mess..... how will we ever get it untangled?" -- "I know, Mommy, I'm sorry......."

As I sat there on the floor, trying to make some sense of the twisted pile of yarn and trying not to actually say the angry comments that were running through my head, the thought came to me that this situation so closely resembles my life sometimes. How often does God look at my life, asking me, "My child, what happened here?"

"Well, God, I just wanted to ......."

"How did the situation get to this point?"

"Well, you see, God, I just started by doing THIS and then I tried THAT, and I thought I could fix it, but it all got messed up, and I didn't know what to do...."

"My precious child, why didn't you ask Me for help? I've got the answers you need."

"I don't know, God -- I really thought I could figure it out on my own...... and now everything's such a mess...... I'm so sorry.......Can You fix the mess I've made of my life?"

In the end, it took several hours over two days to get the first skein untangled and wrapped neatly in a ball; we're still working on the second skein! And again, as Mackenzie and I work through that process, I sense God teaching me another lesson -- that when I "follow the directions", try not to figure it out myself, but do things according to His plan, I don't have a jumbled mess in my life that will take ages and ages (or sometimes years) to untangle!

So often, people have to go through the "school of hard knocks", making a mess out of their lives, before figuring this lesson out. By God's grace, maybe these teachable moments I had with Mackenzie will have lasting benefits for both us, as we continue to learn to follow His "directions" for our lives more closely and avoid some of life's entanglements.

____

Random streams of consciousness.......

I keep thinking I should post something, but nothing "major" or "interesting" seems to be happening right now...... just so much "life stuff"....... So, here are random thoughts........

Wedding planning....... blah...... how is that girls who are so excited to be bridesmaids can't find the time to get their measurements to me to order dresses?  Yikes....... time marches on and I KNOW alterations will be needed, but I can't seem to be able to light a fire under these gals and get them moving......

However, I really am enjoying the time spent with Morgan on planning the wedding, and we've had fun going shopping and working on-line, putting together wedding registries.  It's fun to watch the joy she has in planning her own home -- brings back fond memories of that time in my life, so many years ago.....

My nephew Russell is getting married in October to a gal in Honduras.  I found out that it will cost less than $400 to get there -- I wonder if I'll have any money left over after Morgan's wedding to be able to go to that one??  And if I go, I could make their wedding cake too....... Of course, that idea had me thinking about things I might have to bring along -- cake pans, icing decorating tools, cake mixes..... hmmmmmm...... if I brought along two pound bags of powdered sugar, I wonder if TSA folks would suspect me of smuggling cocaine INTO Honduras and check all my luggage??  (that thought definitely got me giggling!!)

I got a box of flowers last week from a client who had her baby last year.  It was her baby's first birthday and she sent me the most beautiful note along with the flowers; it read: "Pam, a year ago, you helped bring our baby Jack safely into this world. Thank you so much for your unflagging spirit that night. Every day, Jack is an amazing gift! Best regards, CS & HS"  Wow....... it's moments like that that help me remember why I do this job; most of my clients are amazing, wonderful people, and every time I see a baby born, I'm witnessing a miracle -- there's just no other way to describe it.

Nelson's talking about finally installing the wood flooring in the upstairs of the house.  We bought it last year; it's been sitting in the garage, waiting for the time and $$$ to install it, but now with the wedding coming up and potentially hoardes of people to come through our house in the next few months, he's decided it might be time to step things up a bit.  YAY!!!  I hope this finally happens......

Nelson went to the hardware store last night; I don't even know what he went to get, but he came home with a beautiful new orchid plant for me!  It's got fairly small flowers that are a very deep purple color, and the flowers have a long throat on them.  I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

Our choir from the homeschool group had their year-end performance last Thursday, and as usual, pulled it all together at the last minute!!  They did a great job!  I love playing the piano for these kids -- they're just so much fun to work with.  Now the band/orchestra concert comes up in two more weeks -- I need to keep Mackenzie busy practicing that violin!!  And she's been sick for the last few days, but no time to let up on practicing now, with the concert coming up -- I'm such a MEAN mom!!

Taxes -- now there's another random thought......  I just can NOT seem to get myself motivated to work on these this year and now Tax Day looms.  Guess I'm filing an extension of time for now!!  It's sure not going to get done in the next two days!!

It's also getting close to the end of the school year, which is prime time for selling old homeschooling materials.  I have SO MUCH stuff to get rid of -- and I'd love to make some money off of them -- but organizing it all is just one more thing in my ever-growing list of things that need to be done.  So much stuff, so little time.....   I need to clone myself three or four times in order to catch up......  It's like that T-shirt I saw:  "God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things -- and right now, I'm so far behind, I'll NEVER die!!"  That's me.....

At least my paperwork for the homeschooling program is up-to-date....... One thing's done, anyway!!  Now if I could just find the surface on my desk..... such a mess....... maybe that ought to be today's project......

I suppose I've now frittered away enough time on the computer, rambling on and on....... Back to real life!!  Mackenzie's Pioneer Girls group is going bowling this afternoon, and we've got a LOT to get finished before we leave.  'Bye for now.......

It's official.....

We're "on" for Morgan and Solomon's wedding on August 20th at 2:00 pm at this church:

Looks like there's a LOT of work in front of me in the near future -- wish me luck!!!

_____

Hallelujah, Christ Arose!!

I wish a blessed, joyous Easter to all my friends!  Spring has arrived here, reminding of us the newness of life we find in Christ!

_____

I don't want my children to be happy

I found this blog post today through another friend's blog.  It says -- so well -- many things that I thought while my kids were growing up, and thoughts that I still have about parenting.  This is so well done!!


I really don't have anything to add to what she has to say, so without further ado, go read here.

____

So I'm a bit slow.......

Obviously the learning curve on technology is way ahead of me.  I've been doing this blog for a year now and JUST NOW figured out that I could make the font larger!!  Oh, I am soooo technologically challenged!  Well, hopefully this change will make it easier for you -- and especially ME!! -- to read now!!


____

The moving begins!

Morgan and Solomon signed the lease on their apartment yesterday. Solomon will start staying there in the next few days, Morgan after the wedding in August. In the meantime, we're going to start getting her stuff moved in there, so there will be less work in the summer. Here's some photos from the first day of moving:


Of course, first we need to start with the floor plan that Morgan has been promising to show her friends:

This is the room shown as bedroom #2 on the floor plan.  Morgan & Solomon plan to use it as a studying room/room to store all their books.

View of the living room -- as you enter the apartment, this is the view to the right side--

And the view straight ahead, into the kitchen --

And to the left side, with the breakfast area in the back.

Breakfast nook; the closet contains their washer and dryer. 

Looking into the kitchen from the breakfast area.

 Bedroom #1

The "moving crew" with Morgan's most recent purchase for the apartment.....

Here come all those cheerful volunteers!!

Re-installing the feet of the sofa.  Morgan was able to buy this pair of couches from a local on-line recycling group for only $100 -- a very nice find!!  Sofas are clean and in pretty good condition -- and the price was certainly right!

Morgan starting to unpack....

....and feeling very "domestic"!

She's certainly having fun arranging HER space!

Meanwhile, the moving crew decided to take a break and see if those sofas were really as comfortable as Morgan said they were!  Nelson/Dad relaxes on the love seat.....

..... while Matt and Becki check out the sofa!  Looks like it IS pretty comfy!!

So Day 1 of moving was accomplished with no problems or setbacks.  I'm sure this will just be the first of MANY loads of stuff getting driven down to Virginia.

____