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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Healthy You Challenge

Diana over at Scale Junkie has set a Healhty You Challenge (HYC) to give those of us who need a littel support in becoming healthier. Whatever your health goals are, to increase your exercise, loss weight, eat better, this is a great way to obtain online support from people who are running the same race as you are. Click here to read about the challenge.

This is my story, to eat better, to increase my movement, and lose weight. I would like to lose a total of 90 pounds but that is a real turn off. After all, who wants to wait that long. I have to decided to break my weight loss goal into small sub-goals. My first goal is to lost 20 pounds by 6/6/09, my daughters high school graduation.

Here are my results as of Saturday, March 28th.

That 2.5 pound lose was my first week and I consider that great due to the fact that we had three sports banquets/pot lucks that week. Last Saturday when I weighed in I found myself with no loss but no gain.

I am finding out that sodium really makes a big difference in my weight especially when I don't drink at least eight glasses of water. I was doing really good with the water until middle of the second week. Not sure why but the water consumption drop way off again. Also, I believe increasing my activity was also starting to help, but I started to fall into old habits fast with that too.

I haven't given up, everyday is a new day. As I post this I have already eaten a healthy breakfast (something I usually don't) and have planned snacks for the day.

I believe that hearing from others with a common goal is a great support system. With that in mind I have joined the world of Twitter. You can get the link to follow me in my sidebar. I encourage others to do the same and follow each other. We can post our sucesses and bombs and encourage each other on to a healthier life. I won't deny I am still getting used to this Twitter thing, if you have text messaging you can do it all through texting once you have it set up, it's actually a very easy way to stay in touch.

So how about it, want to take the Twitter Update challenge with me and encourage each other into a healthier life style?

I know, it's not healthy to spend a lot of time on the computer or our phones :-), but the support will be great.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

A Day At The Park

It's that time of year again, cheer tryouts. KJ has cheered for the last two years - boy can that take a bit of the budget, and she is going to try for year three.

One of the fund raisers the squards and their parents can do is work in the consession stand at the local ball park. Right now the Huskers are playing, this summer it will be the Saltdogs.

KJ and I worked Wednesday afternoon, 54 degrees is a little cool for a ball game if you ask me - but nobody did. We had a great time, it gave us mother/daughter time and a chance to watch/listen to part of the game.

I am not a cap person with my hair up and a cap on I look like a chipmunk with my cheeks full, at least one of us looked cute.

I am thankful for:

  • an employer who let me off for the afternoon.
  • the opportunity to raise money towards various cheer expenses.
  • the opportunity to spend time with my daughter.
  • and I was so thankful when I came home and found out praise team practice was rescheduled for Saturday. Why does spending a day out in the fresh air make us to tired? We won't talk about the fact that my feet were not on speaking terms with me for the rest of the night.

What are you thankful for?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Moment Of Silence and Prayer

Please stop and take a moment to pray for MacMama and her family at My Charming Kids. Their infant son is very sick and the strength and faith that this mother has is like no other.
Click on the link above and catch up on their story. There is no love like a mother's love, except that of the "Father".

Monday, March 23, 2009

"Not Me!" Monday



Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This is a great way to start the week. This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

Even my family is even getting into this. Just when I think that


  • My daughter DID NOT come into my room at 7:15 a.m. to find me in different stages of dress and tell me she has band try outs and has to be at school at 7:00 a.m. I DID NOT throw on a pair of jeans and a sweater (too heavy for the weather) and put a pair of socks in my purse to be put on later. I DID NOT grab my make-up, hair spray etc.. shove it in my purse to finish getting ready at work. I DID NOT manage to get out of the house in 5 minutes only to find my oldest daughter car parked behind mine. I DID NOT take the van that was sitting on the other side of the garage just waiting to be back out. And I most certainly DID NOT drive my daughter to school barefoot. Gees, wonder how she did.
  • I DID NOT start this post earlier in the week and scheudle it to be posted first thing this morning and then FORGET to go back and finish the post. I would never post anything 1/2 undone. What an idiot.

Have a great week.

Friday, March 20, 2009

What's in a year?

One year of life is about to come to a close with another year wide open ahead of me, what will I do with that year of my life? Will I lose the 70 pounds I so long to lose? Will I get my household organized and put in order? I know, maybe I'll write that great novel I've always wished I had in me.

Though these are great goals, through the love and grace of God my heart is weighing heaving with different goals this year. My goals are simple: to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. To love my neighbor as myself (including the girls that have hurt my daughter - wait a minute do I really need to include them). To learn how to live a life of simplicity and contentment.

Only through God's grace have I made it this far; when I reflect on the past there are so many times I wished I would have said/handled things differently. But they are just that - in the past.

I have listed below the lyrics of a song from Point Of Grace that addresses our past and I find it to be so true for me, that song is entitled "Heal the Wound".

I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretendI never knew the me back then

I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I've been But it's the memory of
The place You brought me from That keeps me on my knees
And even though I'm free

Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar

I have not lived a life that boasts of anything

I don't take pride in what I bringBut I'll build an altar
withThe rubble that You've found me inAnd every stone
will singOf what You can redeem

Heal the wound but leave the scarA reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart Take the pieces of this heart And heal the
wound but leave the scar

Don't let me forget Everything You've done for me Don't let me forget
The beauty in the suffering Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You areI am broken, torn apart

Take the pieces of this heart And heal the wound but leave the scar.


I still want/need to lose the weight, I can't help further the kingdom if I am not in the best shape/health I can be in. And I do need to keep things organized at home or that will lead to utter caoas. And as for that great novel, only God knows if one will ever materialize.

But I do know with God anything is possible.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Healthier You Challenge

Diana over at Scale Junkie has set a Healhty You Challenge (HYC) to give those of us who need a littel support in becoming healthier. Whatever your health goals are, to increase your exercise, loss weight, eat better, this is a great way to obtain online support from people who are running the same race as you are. Click here to read about the challenge.

This is my story, to eat better, to increase my movement, and lose weight.


This is really sad, I have never weighed this much before. I'm not even sure if I ever topped out here when I was pregnant. I would like to think that I am the type the can set a goal and go for it. Who needs those baby steps......I do, my first goal is to lose 20 pounds by my daughter's high school graduation (June 6).

I got on the treadmill Saturday and after only 15 minutes of moderate walking I could feel pain in my lower back and hips. I got on the Wii Fit last night and after 15 minutes felt it again. I am too young for this. How can I help God further the kingdom if I can't even further myself more then 15 minutes of movement.

Current hobbies:

  • Reading
  • Blogging
  • Movies
  • Napping
  • Eating, lots of salt, little water intake, too much diet coke

Tell me what wrong with that story, am I a disaster waiting to happen? Not to mention the weight gain is screwing up my thyroid medicine, which is probably why I want to nap more; and if I take off some of this weight I might actually be freed from the CPAP machine.

New goals for this week:

  • Move for 15 minutes a day
  • Reduce salt intake, I realize food has different tastes, however everything to me taste salty. I need to find the true taste of the food I am eating.
  • 1-2 diet cokes a day. I know this seems like a lot, but your are looking at someone who could easily drink a six pack.
  • Drink 8 cups a water each day.

With health issues present why do we still continue our old habits? Because they're comfortable and familiar to us. It's time to break the cycle. I want to be around to see and play with my grandkids.

Stop by next week and see how I am doing, I'll be honest.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

"Not Me!" Mondays

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This is a great way to start the week. This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

Even my family is even getting into this.


Just when I think that I won't have anything to blog for NOT ME Monday, I go and do a bonehead thing.....

  • My daughter DID NOT give her overnight guest two hand towels to take a shower.
  • I DID NOT wake up 10 minutes before I had to be a praise team rehearsal. I did not wait until after rehearsal to put on my make-up scarring everyone into a counseling session.
  • I DID NOT fall asleep during my daughter's band concert. And I surely didn't jump when the lady beside me accidentally hit my arm. I am much more attentive then that.
  • I DID NOT look for my cell phone and wonder where I put it WHEN I was talking on it.

Never underestimate the power of being human. Have a great week.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Beautiful Life

Beauty can be found all over, all we have to do is open our eyes and look and learn to be appreciative. Melissa over at The Inspired Room has set up her "12 Months of Goals" to help her live the life she wants to live. No marathons, unless that's what you want to do, just the simple everyday things we take for granted. Visit her web and learn more about it.

In January the goal was to concentrate on "Living a Balanced Life" and reflecting on the goals you can incorporate through out the year to help you meet that goal.

February's goal, and it continues on, is to find beauty everyday. That sure makes you look at different things and situations in a different way.

For the month of March the goal is organization. I don't know that I will ever be so organized as to ALWAYS know where EVERYTHING is or NEVER forget a date on the calendar, however, by organizing my life and my home it will help me to find peace and even more beauty. Here are some ways that I have found to organize and help me find peace and beauty in my part of the world.

  • Daily routines around the house. I've made my list - I don't always get it done - but what I do get done gives me a sense of accomplishment.
  • Daily scripture reading and prayer. Asking God to go before me ALWAYS brings peace and beauty to my day.
  • Stop procrastinating, organization of the time - time management. Ok, I am very much working on (but improving) on the procrastination and when I use Nike's phrase "Just Do It", that brings so much simple beauty to my life because I am no longer worrying about getting it done.
I consider myself a fairly organized person, but reflecting on the goals is a good example of how much I need to do yet. For example, last weeks post was on the beauty around us. That's great I need to focus on that, but that was February's goal and this is March, see what I mean. A little behind but I am not going to beat myself up for it. I am going to take baby steps to a more simplistic life with the help of God and Melissa's goals this year.

Have a beautiful and organized week.



Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Gonna Be A Bear

I received this poem via email and there was no author name. Didn't want anyone to think I was taking credit for some one elses work. I could never come up with this on my own. But this was too good not to share, I can SO relate.

In this life I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd like to come back as a bear. When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling, he EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup, gonna be a bear!

Monday, March 9, 2009

"Not Me!" Mondays

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This is a great way to start the week.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

Even my family is even getting into this....

  • My sister DID NOT sleep with a blanket that the cat threw up on. After all her cat NEVER gets hair balls.
  • I WAS NOT totally excited to receive my first blog award. I DID NOT run home and tell my H all about it. I am an adult after all not a child.
  • I DID NOT enjoy my lunch hour on Friday in the park. After all who likes 60 degree weather after temps have been in the 20's and 30's.
  • I DID NOT enjoy listening to the birds when I woke up in the morning.
  • The trash can DID NOT get so full under the sink that the trash started to jump out at us each time we opened the door. Four people live in this house, you would think someone would take it out.
Have a great week not doing anything...... :-)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Why Go To Church

Here is another great e-mail I received:

If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!
If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read this.
If you're spiritually Curious, there is still hope!

A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. I've gone for 30 years now, 'he wrote', and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons.

But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'

This started real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of editor.

It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this, they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals I would be physically dead today. Likewise if I had not gone to church for nourishment I would be spiritually dead today!'

When you are down to nothing...God is up to something! Faith sees the invisible, believers the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

"Premios Dardo" Blog Award


This is officially known as a "Premios Dardo" blog award aka a smoking typewriter award. This award is: "given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing... created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

The first part of accepting the award includes posting the picture and linking back to the blogger who awarded me.
Thank you goes out to Tami at The Miller Family for giving me my first blog award. Tami is a new blogging friend of mine and I just love reading her blog.

Next comes the fun task of putting my name in a Google search and share 10 results!

1. Eeek, the very first result was actually me - Facebook.

2. Timberline Secondary High School, Campbell River, BC (where ever that is)

3. Sheryl K..... is the # 3,384,659 ranked full name in the U.S. - (Interesting)

4. Sheryl K..... - Para-educator

Sorry, I don't have 10, four is the best I can do.


I am passing this award along to:

Dee @ Jumping Tandem
Jill @ Sneaky Momma
Cynthia @ Crumbs in the Minivan
Dawn @ Dawn's Cottage

These are some great blogs, hop on over and check them out.

Friday, March 6, 2009

A Beautiful Life

Thank you Dee, over at Jumping Tandum for finding this wonderful idea from The Inspired Room & sharing it with us.

Melissa over at The Inspired Room really wanted to start this year off fresh and focused on living a beautiful life. That doesn’t mean an expensive or perfect life, or setting unrealistic resolutions, just living a life that is intentional on finding contentment and beauty every day. So often in the rush of life we miss out on what is really important. This is herway to keep herself enjoying life everyday with no regrets. Click here to see how the plan works.



The beauty I have seen today is not in color. The park I spent my lunch in could be considered bland- not much color because it is only March.

But what I did see/hear I saw with the eyes and ears of my heart. I sat there and read about prayer and then prayed. I listened to praise music. I could hear God in the music and in the wind as it rustled by. I could see Him in the words I was reading. I could see Him in the robins that flew by - telling us that spring is on it's way. I felt His love in the warmth of the sun as it shown on my back.

I am at peace.

Am I Rushing Spring?

I went on a walk during my break this morning. I was determined to find some colors of spring:

I walked by this:


I took this picture with my phone, must have been too close, however, it's a bud. Yayyyyy....


Then I continued my walk, the only other COLOR I could find was this moss by the building I work in. Again, not a very good picture, but you get the idea.
I have realized that I don't work in a very colorful neighborhood or it could be that it's March 6th in the middle of the country.
Either way....signs of rebirth.
Go Spring.....Go Spring....Go Spring......

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Thoughts to Ponder


Don't miss out getting what you need because you're looking for what you want.

Getting on our knees

Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter.

Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are refered to as the Sundays in Lent. This I did not know until I started actually questioning what Lent really is.

The number 40 is connected with many biblical events, but especially with the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness, I think I knew that one.

Lent has traditionally been marked by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. By the way, what exactly is almsgiving? To be honest I had not even heard that term until I was sitting in a Catholic baptism this last Sunday. For some reason I couldn't let this term go undefined. According to the
Crossmap Dictionay: "Alms" is anything given gratuitously to relieve the poor, as money food, or clothing, otherwise called charity.

God uses all sorts of ways to get our attention, to speak to us, and to teach us - we need to listen.

To put it in simple terms (because I usual need the simple version) Lent is the preparation to celebrate God's wonderful redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for as Christians.

In her blog
Jumping Tandem, Dee asks the question, "So much space between me and the holy. The sacred. How did that happen?" How does that happen I ask? Part of itis the enemy and the busy life we think we must lead - but that's just my opion.

Dee reminds us of the spirtual disciplines - Inward, Outward, and Corporate, holy experiences, and sacred pathways. Folks, it's time to unplug, yes enven from blogging for a while, to shut off the cells phones and Ipods, the television, and other distractions in our lives. It's time to get on our knees and give thanks to The Holy One, the one who offers grace and forgiveness when we don't derserve it. The one who gave his only Son so that we may have eternal life. To the one who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It's time we stop making excuses and narrow that gap between ourself and the holy, the sacred and it all starts with getting on our knees.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

To God Be The Glory


I attended the baptism of the granddaughter of some very close friends of ours this weekend. This was a Catholic service and very different for me, I have been Baptist for many many years and have never attended a Catholic baptism. I mean no disrespect in any way, but I am sure God was laughing his head off where my H and I were concerned.

The kid in front of my was wearing a baseball cap (backwards), I didn't give it a second thought. An older gentleman came up from behind, sounding disgusted and asked him to remove his hat while he was in church, the hat was removed and that was the end of it. Part of me thought, does it really make a difference? What matters is what is on the heart not on the head.

It was a beautiful service of baptism, different for me, but beautiful. However, Gods humor did not go unnoticed. We were sitting with the family. At one point in the service the family started to get up and go to the back of the sanctuary. I felt a tug on my arm and was being told to "come on". Now mind you I wasn't necessarily paying as close attention as I should have and had no idea where or why we were going. Women were taking their purses so I grabbed mine. The lady beside me left her gloves in the pew, not knowing where we were going I grabbed them for her - bright red gloves no less.

While getting out of our row the owner of the gloves lost one of her shoes, tripped over it and kept walking. My H didn't know whether to pick it up, kick it under the pew, or just leave it until we came back, at least he knew we were coming back to our pew and wasn't carrying bright red gloves. Our group stopped - great we just went to the back of the sanctuary to the baptismal. There I stand with these gloves, quite obvious that I have no clue what I am doing. I handed them to the owner and just pleaded stupidity. Thank the Lord she was the mother of our good friends.

In our church I am used to sitting during the prayer so when the priest said "lets us pray" I bowed my head only to realized a couple of seconds later everyone else was standing up. I quickly jumped to my feet, my H got a good laugh out of that one.

The Lords Prayer is also said a little differently then I am used to, we got to a point towards the end and everyone stopped, everyone that is except my H and me. We continued to finish the prayer for a few words until we realized that no one else was.

The communion service is a lot more ritualistic then I am used to. I sat and wondered if all that was necessary. Then I thought what honor, glory and respect those rituals are meant to give to God.

To be honest I am not into the rituals but it did make me think about the honor that was given to God. I started to think about this during the service and have continued to think about it through out the day, how do I show God honor and glory? I don't have a quick answer to that right at this moment. I'm sure some ways are obvious and some are not so obvious, but I am definitely going to give that question a lot of thought and meditation.

How do you show God honor and glory, by removing your hat in church? Now when I look back at that hat situation, yes it did make a difference, by removing the hat it shows respect, honor, and glory to God.

Monday, March 2, 2009

"Not Me!" Mondays

Welcome back to Not Me! Monday! This is a great way to start the week.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

God does have a since of humor :-)

Even my family is even getting into this....

I DID NOT consider using dog shampoo when I realized my daughter took the only bottle of shampoo with her to swim. I would never run that low. I also did not break out into a chorus of "Jesus Loves Me" when I found a bottle of shampoo turned upside down in the back of the cupboard with a fraction of an inch of shampoo. Go God....Go God.....Go God....

My dog DID NOT wait until company arrived to show off her talent by scooting her butt across the floor.

Also the above mentioned dog DID NOT dig through the dirty laundry and pull out my daughter's underware and start chewing on them - GROSS.

My H DID NOT leave his cell phone on in his coat pocket at work (no cells phones allowed). When it started to ring he DID NOT look around and wonder what idiot left his cell phone on.

I DID NOT received a text from an unknown person telling me to kick butt again.

While attending a Catholic service I DID NOT continue on with the Lord's Prayer when everyone else stopped.

Stop by next week and see what other things my family and I haven't done.
P.S. I DID NOT go back on Tuesday and add the title to this post. I always remember to include the title with all my posts.