Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Tag: Faith

EducationFaith

Goals, Goals, Goals!

By Audrea2 Comments

It’s back to school time around here. I go back next Wednesday, August 7th and the girls and the rest of the students join us teachers the following Wednesday, the 14th. So, in our house that means we’ve already started setting goals.

My oldest daughter started a homework packet with great gusto at the beginning of the summer. However, her interest and my insistence waned as the summer waxed. Because of that, she has quite a bit left to accomplish before she returns to school. So, she has the goal of completing 2 pages a day. My youngest is just starting to read and I would like her to have more practice before she starts kindergarten. To help with that she has a goal of reading 2 pages in her decodable books each day. The girls’ school offers a superintendent’s award for reading each semester of school based on the AR points that students earn. They earn points by taking comprehension quizzes on books they read or have read to them. In order to reach the goal of getting that award each of the girls set an AR point goal today for the first semester of school.

In the spirit of this goal setting, I am setting some goals for myself with this blog. I already have some health and fitness goals in place to help with my “temple journey”. I have the goal of losing 5 more pounds by September 6th. I have the goal of completing all of the workouts (except the extra Friday ones) in the Beta phase of Focus T25 in this and the next 4 weeks (even with going back to work next week!!). Now I am setting the lofty goal of writing at least one recipe, one family/faith/farming, AND one health/fitness entry a week for the month of August!

I quite honestly only set goals for myself that I am at least 90% sure I can attain! However, I honestly have no idea if I can reach this one with starting back to school and maintaining my work out goals! But, this is something I enjoy; this is something I want to grow! Right now a lot of my life seems outside of my control. I’d like to stay home with my girls, but God continues to call us to school. I like to know that we have enough money coming in to pay all of our bills, but since my husband resigned from his job at the beginning of July (a decision we made together), I don’t know that. He has received a call for an interview this week and has some other applications out and we are trusting God to provide the best career for him. So, in an effort to focus on the things I can control and things I enjoy, I thought it might be a good idea to set a loftier than usual goal in this! It will give me something concrete and enjoyable to focus on when the chaos surrounds and threatens to overwhelm me!

So, here we go!! What are your current lofty goals? I’d love to hear them!

FaithHealth

Still Going…. Strong!?!

By Audrea1 Comment

I am still going on this journey of weight loss and health and MOST importantly Jesus worship!! Although, I admit that I am constantly having to readjust my focus to the latter and am more often out of focus than in. My self-imposed timeline of September 6th gets me quite off track in the Jesus focus, but also keeps me on the straight and narrow.

I think I will have to work more at keeping focused ALONG WITH staying on track between now and my next post. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I have lost 11 pounds as of this morning and 12.75 inches so far. I have 5 pounds and 5.5 inches left to lose. I have also completed the Alpha Phase of the T25 workouts from Beachbody. I think that is what I can attribute most of my lost inches to. I continue to track my calories on the My Fitness Pal app and have recently adjusted them back up to 1280 a day instead of 1200 at the suggestion of my accountability friend. I was feeling hungry all the time and dizzy sometimes. With that information and her suggestion that people never go below 1200 calories a day I felt it was best to up my calorie setting. I have trouble using up every single allowable calorie. I feel like I have to have a green number on the side of my totals at the end of the day. This way I can leave 20-40 calories on there and still get enough in my body for what I’m doing.

Like I said earlier, my focus isn’t always what it should be, but I’m working to get there. step by step. I am too grumpy about “deprivation” too often. However, it is up to me if I view it as deprivation or working toward a goal. I was just reading an email from Stephanie at Six Figures Under and although it was a budgeting tip from a budgeting blog, it fits for this journey too. She was talking about decisions we can and need to make today that our future selves will be able to thank us for later. And just like starting a new business or blog or setting up a budget or an IRA fund will give our future selves something monetary to thank us for, we can make health decisions that we can thank ourselves for later. We can budget our calories just like our dollars, we can start a fitness commitment just like a business, we can invest in groceries that truly nourish our bodies and sometimes even our souls just like we invest in an IRA. And then our leaner, healthier, happier and (maybe one of these days when I get my focus right) more peaceful future-selves will thank us for that, too!

FaithFarming

Forever is accomplished by small steps!

By Audrea2 Comments

Since moving into what both my husband and I pray will be our “forever home” (we would NEVER like to build again), we have been working to make it truly into our home! We moved in over Thanksgiving Break and now it is almost July and it seems we’ve only scratched the surface of the “finishing” touches.

The three MAJOR finishing touches are the fences, the detached garage and the barn. Right now he is outside finishing the front left pasture (thank you Jesus for dead weeks)!! Once that pasture is done we can bring our horse and pony home!! We’ve gotten two bids for finishing the garage, but nothing actually nailed down to get it built on the foundation we have gotten completed. The barn just will not happen until next summer as long as we stick to God’s best principles about money, spending, stewarding, borrowing and saving. And, as we were putting mulch into the flower beds my husband designed, formed and welded for me (yes, he’s that good!!), I thought this is a GREAT step forward. Now maybe you’re wondering, like my mom did, what plants we put in. And maybe you’ll be slightly confused, like she was, when I say, “None!” But our flower beds are now beautifully finished with black mulch that contrasts amazingly with the stone work around the bottom of the house and porch and our lovingly transplanted Iris leaves poking out in the corners! We will look for deals on perennial plants at the end of the season and plant some in early fall if we find any. And, although it is tempting to see what isn’t done, I am coming to realize that the joy is found in seeing what is done and looking excitedly forward to what is yet to come.

So, instead of lamenting the fact that we only have a pad for our garage we should celebrate that that pad is fully paid for and that it means a garage is coming. Instead of wondering or worrying or being frustrated that our flower beds lack flowers I will rejoice that my husband can build flower beds for me, that we had left over metal border from our “old” house, and that he thought to make them for me without my asking. I will rejoice in finding mulch for the sale price we hoped to find at one store and didn’t, but found instead at the next store as the “always” price! And that fencing, well it’s the most amazing part because it’s all paid for too…. AND by this evening will be far enough along that all of us can live here!

So, our forever home may not totally be here yet, but we are here in it. And every new step brings us one more step closer to forever. So it is just up to us if we want those steps to be light and joyful or heavy and hard! It’s all about perspective and choosing to rejoice instead of worry, brood or lament!

Faith

All This Noise

By Audrea2 Comments

Isn’t it amazing that something that sounds so easy like “Be still and know that I am God.” can be SO HARD!

Lately I feel like I am drowning in a sea of noise. There is actual noise from my lovely and rambunctious and adjusting to a laid back summer schedule daughters. This noise should make me smile and laugh and enter into their imaginary, sunshiney world! However, due to the other noises I’m NOT! Inside my head there is SO MUCH noise. There is unbelievable unrest at work that weighs heavily, even though I am a teacher and I am on summer break! There is unsettledness in my husband’s job as another head coach leaves and a new one is hired and the possibility for getting the job he actually wants at work hangs just out of reach, but possible once again! There is noise that counting calories, and entering EVERY MORSEL that passes my lips is hard and weight loss is slow! There is noise to get up and work out and I don’t to, the girls were up again last night during yet another thunder storm!

I crave the peaceful surrender of being still and knowing that God is God! But even that craving feels like more pressure and more noise! So, I am pressing on. I am trying to just breathe and enjoy the girls! I keep entering EVERY MORSEL I eat and I get my workouts done whether it is early or late. I pray and I try to sing praises! And I wait. There are no answers at work. I can’t always keep up. All I can do is the task right in front of me, because lifting my eyes beyond the next step might just crush me! And I pray that somehow, I’ll find the faith to look up, not to see what’s coming, but past that to my help that comes from the hills.

Maybe God’s help comes from the top of a hill so that looking up hills won’t seem so daunting or hard. So that hills will come to mean sustenance, safety and rescue. If you have any thoughts on how to grow in being still, I’d love to hear them!

EducationFaithHealth

The Key to this Journey is the Definition!

By Audrea2 Comments

I have not written for a while before today because when my weight went up during my weigh in and a LOT of stressors came into play with work, I just wanted to stop. I continued working on this journey. I prayed for dedication, direction, peace and strength and I continued. That alone is a huge victory even though I couldn’t and still don’t really feel it! Sometimes, simply NOT stopping is a HUGE step forward.

It has been in this time of stress, feeling like a failure and battling discouragement that I have come to realize, through God’s direction no doubt, that I must understand that this is a JOURNEY. And guess what journeys can be fun and light and spectacular! AND they can be hard and dark, uphill and tough. BUT they are never short.

I may not get to my goal weight before I go back to school in the fall! That’s a huge bummer to me. I really wanted to check this off my list before the additional time constraints and stress of the beginning of the year. However, school will always start again. Life will always bring stress and hard and mess. It will also always bring joy and light and refreshment. And, I have to learn to journey through it all. So, whether my path is uphill or down, lighted or dark, I just have to keep walking and praying and choosing the joy and peace of Jesus! This journey will likely always seem long until I get to heaven and realize that it was short compared to eternity. That can be a comfort, but even that cannot be my sole focus. Because God has placed me here and told me to live today and then He will give me an easy yoke and light burden.

Health

Why no meals should be skipped on this journey!

By Audrea2 Comments

A few days into this newest journey towards treating my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and gaining health through a healthier relationship with food and getting more exercise, I had a meeting. That meant I just had time to eat a few pieces of celery and some cottage cheese right before I headed out the door. Not the most filling lunch I’d had so far on this journey, but it’d be okay I told myself. After all it would mean fewer calories that day and that would help with the lower weight part of the journey!

Of course I was wrong!! When I got home about 4 hours later, I was super hungry and ended up snacking and tasting as I made dinner. My snacks and tastes more than equalled a meal and I still had a full dinner. My calories may have still been okay. I’m not sure because I didn’t enter my food that day. However, the most important problem with the lack of lunch was that I could tell I wasn’t controlling my snacks and tastes, my hunger and sense of deprivation was.

So, I may NOT skip meals. If something beyond my control happens and I have to go for awhile without eating, I have to plan my next meal accordingly and eat according to the plan. This is not so much in order to control my calories, but to control my control. Anytime I am not in control of my eating, I am out of balance! So, staying well nourished is key on this journey!

FaithHealth

Should this Journey be Indulgent or Not!?!

By Audrea2 Comments

So in exploring this journey as a healthy walk towards Jesus through the life He’s meant for me to live, I am taking a more laid back and baby steps forward approach. Therefore, NOTHING is off limits. That fact goes back and forth from being freeing to paralyzing to derailing! Today I am discussing the idea of whether or not a journey to having a body that is disciplined and trained to be a temple for the Holy Spirit should include indulgences or not. Now, I am not talking about having some fruit for dessert! I mean true indulgence of ice cream or chocolate or cake or something arguably not even a little bit good for you like Dr. Pepper!!

I think that in view of our ability to enjoy food and gain more from it than nutrients that it is OKAY to have some indulgences. There is a key though that I think can make a difference between indulgences that glorify God and indulgences that derail both our goals and even our relationships with Him. I am not at all saying that our relationships with Him would be permanently derailed, but that the wrong kind or time of indulgence takes it from enjoying a creation of God to elevating food to an idol.

Yesterday was kind of a rough day after my less than successful weigh in on Wednesday. So, I think that it was a dangerous time to indulge! Because I was rather down it made it very easy to allow food to be a comfort and then that comfort could take the place of God where He should be in His role to complete me and order and direct my steps!

So, when you are in a good frame of mind and you have been working hard and following the set of guidelines that you and God have set up for your good health and wellbeing, INDULGE! Do it gently, slowly and focused so that you can enjoy the pleasure God has sent you through your indulgence.

HOWEVER, if you are down, sad, frustrated, defeated or struggling in any other way. It may be wisest to skip the indulgence. Turn to God with any and all of your feelings and emotions! After all, He is the only one who can heal and help!!

I think I could have indulged well yesterday evening given a better frame of mind. As it was, I know that I indulged beyond what my body needed or what was best for my goals. I knew that my body needed a chocolate chip banana muffin as an indulgence instead of ice cream to “keep things going”. So, I made that healthier choice for the added fiber and whole foods. That was good! But, I also had a bite or two or three of ice cream as I made my daughters’ bowls and a spoonful of peanut butter to go with it. So, in reality, I should have had one of those indulgences, not both and neither in addition to the two tablespoons of chocolate chips I had earlier in the evening. Since, I was still disappointed from my weigh in, I had received stressful information from work and I am struggling with how to best support my husband through some stressful situations he is dealing with himself, indulgence in a quick sand! So, in light of all of these stressors, prayer would have been my best and healthiest indulgence! There was nothing wrong with the foods I ate, the problem comes when I’m eating them to feel better!

FaithFarming

Fencing Freedom!!

By Audrea1 Comment

I was struck with a thought about our freedom in God while my husband was working to finish the fence for our back pasture. We recently built a house on 15.8 acres of land. This has been a long time dream for my husband and something I treasured for his sake. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of having land set off from town, a place to just “be” and a kitchen designed to host and serve! We had various ups and downs through the process of buying the land and definitely through building the house!!

Before we bought this property, we signed on another property that would have needed more work to accomplish our goals, but seemed to be in a better and ideal spot! After we signed, the seller backed out and we were told that he could even though the contracts had been signed by both parties. It was a pretty big blow to us as we wondered if it meant we should stop looking for land, stay where we were, or just buy a house that was already built. We continued to pray and seek God’s plan as we wondered. He brought us to the land we have now. Land that needed no clearing, the other land was almost entirely wooded and we want pasture, and was less per acre and bigger. It also happens to sit right between very good friends of ours who also happen to be our plumbers and a wonderful lady (who actually sold the land to us) who is turning out to be another Grammie for the girls! We are EXTREMELY blessed!

Like always, building took longer than expected, but we moved in over Thanksgiving break. Both my husband and I teach and he coaches football and track. So, between school and sports he has been VERY limited in time to devote to the fencing we need to add to the property. Spring Break was the first time he was able to get time to devote to it. So he spent almost all of Spring Break (Thank you Jesus for the beautiful weather!!) fencing off the back pasture.

One of the days he was out there working, I stopped to take some pictures and it struck me that although it looked like he was making our land smaller by adding a barrier, that very barrier would free us to fulfill more of our dreams. And that struck me as just like following God. To an outsider, it looks like all God does is set up road blocks and boundaries that keep us from being free to do whatever we want. Things like: Go to Church on Sundays, Only Marry a Believer, Abstinence Until Marriage, Be Holy as I am Holy, Don’t Be a Stumbling Block, all scream Boundary Line, Restriction, Rules, and Limits! BUT, EVERY single one of those things bring us to true freedom, realization of ACTUAL goals and dreams, AND protection from SO MUCH pain! That fence that Adam built did make our yard smaller, but it also opened up the possibility to run cows when we’re ready and to bless our neighbor by running his cows on it until we do. These rules from God may limit us from something that seems good right now, but they free us from guilt, shame, fear and give us the freedom and strength to gain SO MUCH more and SO MUCH better! Just like our children actually feel safer and freer when we give them boundaries, because it lets them know we are there and they are safe, we should revel in God’s boundaries. They do not limit us! They simply reassure us that we are loved, He is there and we are safe! Then, that reassurance allows us to GO and DO ALL things through Christ who strengthens us!