Weighing in on the issue

Just a quick update as I am waiting for my little camper to run through the door at any moment.

No movement on the ticker this week. I suppose I will be OK with that. I have been walking farther this week. Wendi and I had a great walk on Thursday - 3 miles at a rather quick pace - it felt great.

I am trying to focus on all the positives about feeling better, walking faster and farther, eating right and being healthy. Trying not to focus on the number on the scale and the size of my pants. Way to go Wendi for dropping another pound!

I hope you all know that blogging about this is just my way of keeping myself accountable. I really don't want this blog to become all about my weight or my journey to loose the pounds. I just know me and if I don't keep myself accountable this way I will go bake myself some brownies or give into a big bowl of ice cream. So there you have it.

Yea! My girl is home!

The finished product

Here is the painting that I did for Eden's room. I wish I could take the creative credit for this, yet I cannot. Kim @ Lifesong posted a picture of her daughter's room and I really liked it...so I copied the idea.

I had asked Ron to help me come up with a good verse to put around the border. We came up with ideas like 'do all things without complaint' but thought that maybe we should have something a little more encouraging. This week in my bible study the verse just popped out and screamed that it would be perfect for Eden.

"And this is my prayer: that your love will abound more and more in knowledge and depth and insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Jesus Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ." Phillipians 1:9-11

That is really the prayer of my heart for all my kiddos, but it fit perfectly for this project. I would like to do something similar for each of the kids claiming an individual verse for each of them.

No other gods

I have been working on this Bible study this summer with a group of girlfriends and can I just say this is much harder than I thought it would be. The study is No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. I thought I would have this one in the bag. Just a sweet little summer study, no pressure, no conviction, no changes to be made. OK, maybe a little one here or there but nothing life changing or altering. Then God shows up...hmmm...leave it to HIM to get in my business. This morning as I was walking with my music it seemed each of the songs that were loaded on the player was speaking directly to my issue. Argh!

The study is about confronting the idols in your life. I was thinking big, hairy, ugly, obvious idols. You know like a golden calf, something like that. Not the more subtle one that has been clinging to my for well, let's just say a very long time. I knew it was there and I always struggle with it, but I never considered it an idol. The author defines an idol as anything that we place too much value on. Something that takes the focus off of the Lord and puts it somewhere else. Another word she uses is 'functional idol'. The verses that the study starts with are in 2 Kings 17:33 "They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods." and 17:41 "Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols." These were believers loving, worshiping, giving to God, yet serving their idols. This has really been hitting me this week. One my walk one of the songs was Jeremy Camp's 'Enough'. Especially theses lyrics:

And all of you
Is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in you is more than enough

Even though I know all the words to this song and sing it loud, I really don't think I believe it. If I did I don't think I would let some of the things that occupy my thoughts be there. I don't think I truly believe that God is enough. Ouch. If I did believe this I would not think so much about what other people think, how my kids act, how much I weigh, what I am wearing, how my hair looks, what grades my kids get, what people think about how well my husband does his job, or the kind of car I drive. This is just the short list. I could go on and on. Not that any of these things are bad to think about, it is just the value I place on them. These things are all just symptoms of the idol I have that needs to be put in it's place. So now I go to work on tearing down the idol...only with God's help will I be successful.

I can't believe that it is already past the fourth of July! Our family reunion was held in a forest area so there were no fireworks at all. So without the sparkly festivities it didn't seem much like the fourth.

I sent one of my kiddos off to camp this morning. I will be sending another one off each Monday for the next couple weeks. Ron and Emma leave next for youth camp and then Ron and Eli for boys camp. Eden was so excited she could hardly stand it. She was a bit worried she didn't pack enough candy...big worries.

Her room is all painted so this week I am working on getting her moved in and the room finished. This is the fun part! I am asking the Lord to give me a great bible verse for a piece of artwork that I am doing for the room. I will post a pic when I get it done.

Have a great Monday!

Happy 4th of July!

Just a quick update of the weight thing before we head out of town to celebrate with family for the 4th.

This week my ticker moved one pound. I will be glad to take it since I really didn't think it would move at all this week. I am so glad that I didn't buy that box of doughnut holes at the bakery the other day. I REALLY REALLY wanted to bring them home. They called out to me and promised to be my new best friends... but I knew they were just trying to deceive me. Have I ever mentioned that cake is my dessert of choice? Any kind of cake, even in the form of little seemingly innocent little balls of goodness. I really shouldn't dwell on those little guys so much or I might have to go rescue them after all. I don't plan of being too good this weekend. I do plan a trip to the Cold Stone Creamery just because it is tradition on this trip to make a big family trip to the store. Yum! Looking forward to that so much. Hopefully that will be the only binge of the weekend.

Wendi and I stepped up the walking a bit this week and walked over 2.5 miles a couple times. I also did some swimming. I am so glad for the really short hair cut I got a week ago. It has made the swimming thing much more appealing not thinking about doing my hair afterward.

Have a wonderful weekend celebrating with friends and family!

Kim @ Adventures in Switzerland has given me a little love. Thanks Kim!

When Kim received this award/tag she stated that she was surprised. I am amazed too that anyone stops to read the stuff I post about or come back after reading. I am certainly not the most entertaining, most theological, or even the most entertaining. This blog is mainly just a way for me to process what is going on in my life. A way for me to actually complete a thought in one place. Even if it sometimes takes days to complete it.

So this is the deal. I tag or share this award with all those blogs out there that I love, that I read regularly, that I relate to, laugh with, cry with…you know, that make my day. I will comment on their blogs to let them know they've been tagged and then they can link back to me when they've posted their taggees (I guess you'd call them).

Jamie @ Purposeful Pursuit - I love ya! I have the pleasure of calling Jamie a real life friend. I have been friends with her sister Beth for many years and I guess with that family if you get one you get them all, which is wonderful because the whole family just awesome! Including Wendi! I love checking in on Jamie everyday to see what antics her family is up to or what God is teaching her. I have to tell you Jamie is the real deal!

Second, I would like to share the award with Sarah @Life in the Parsonage.
Sarah makes me laugh! She just throws her stuff out there for all to see. You gotta love a girl who posts pictures of her before and after shots. Sarah also has a very compassionate side and love the people who live in her tiny town.

I guess why I like both these bloggers so much is because the are both married to the ministry. They make me feel like maybe we are not weird after all ;o)

There are a couple more bloggers I would like to tag....but they would have to be blogging or at least have a recent post! I'm just sayin'...

Imagine with me for a moment...

I have started painting Eden's (10) room. I had great visions of the end result. The quilt set I bought is green, yellow and white strips. Lovely and fresh. It reminded me of Spring, very light and airy. I took the sham with me to match paint. We picked out 'Darlin' Clementine green' (aren't clementines orange?) and 'Corncob yellow'. Do you have a visual? Good.

It all started out great. I got a fresh coat of white paint on the ceiling and trim. Ahhh...clean and crisp! Then I started to trim out the yellow. My first thought was 'Hmm...this is really yellow' After the yellow was painted I started with the green. I think it was mis-named. It should have been called 'Oh my hayday! This is really really green. Like neon LIME GREEN!'

It reminded me of a few years ago when I bought a new brown bed set for my bedroom. I wanted it to be relaxing and peaceful. So I bought some blue paint to go with the brown. I was wanting the spa type of thing. That is not what I got. My ever-so-decorator-savy sister in law came over and saw it and said "This is like a Blues' Clues kinda blue." Not exactly what I was going for. Not exactly at all.

When my mom saw it she told me I should always keep my blinds closed becasue it looked so tacky from the outside. Thanks mom. We lived with Blues's Clues for a year until my mom brought me over a 5 gallon bucket of bland brown paint that she got at Lowe's for $5 and said 'Here, my gift to you.' I think she really hated that blue.

I have come to the conclusion that I am good at picking neutral colors like taupe, beige, brown, etc. But I probably should stay away from the bold bright hues.

One a positive note Eden loves it! It is bright, vibrant and screams 10 YEAR OLD! I wonder if it will scream 11 YEAR OLD or even 12 YEAR OLD?