Pressing on

 (A frittata I made this week)



This has been a long week.  Back to getting up at five.  That's actually about the only thing I went back to this week.  I didn't go back to eating the same way I've been eating.  I didn't go back to not exercising consistently.  I didn't go back to Worn.  They weren't really new year's resolutions.  It just happened that I got fed up with how my mind and body were feeling at about the time the 1st day of 2013 got here. 


So I'm pressing in and pressing on.

I bought three new books on my kindle.  I am about a third of the way through If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn.  Excellent.  Challenging. A Need-to-Read.   I purchased It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig and have read the first four chapters and used several recipes already.  I also purchased A Long Obedience In The Same Direction: Discipleship In An Instant Society by Eugene Peterson.  I haven't begun that one yet, but I'd like to ask the ladies at church if they'd like to go through this book with me sometime in the near future.

I started teaching the second grade Sunday School class at church. I take it as a great privilege and responsibility teaching God's word to children.  I intend this to be my focus as a seed-planter in God's Kingdom for the year ahead. But I would still love to get together with the women of Pathway and I think (just by looking through it) that the book by Eugene Peterson might serve as a good way to do that.

Today was the 10th day of this Whole30 Challenge that I've embarked on, with hopes of feeling better and stronger... being healthier.  Basically its eat as much vegetables, meat, eggs and fruit as you want.  No grains.  No dairy.  No sugar.  No artificial anything.  Nothing in a shiny package or box (except Lara bars which I have discovered is God's candy bar- made of dates, cashews and coconut flakes). The first three days without sugar I felt like I had a bowling ball the weight of Texas for a head, but now I feel just fine.  I mean, I wouldn't say a miracle has occurred in 10 days or that I'm full of energy and strong as an ox, but I would say I can definitely see a good difference.  No bloated belly.  No somebody-just-unplugged-my-energy-source-and-I-have-to-lay-down-and-close-my-eyes-right-now-at-4pm.  No cravings (which surprises me).  I think it's all the good food I have been eating that is keeping the craving for the sweets I haven't been eating at bay.  If I was subsisting on chicken breasts and carrot sticks I'm sure I'd be massively craving. 

I've found some really yummy recipes and made up some pretty tasty ones of my own.  You definitely can't eat this fresh and well without good planning, especially while working full time.  There's no room for, "I'm in a rush I'll swing by Chik-Fil-A."  If I've craved anything, its been chocolate, cream and sugar in my coffee, and Chik-Fil-A nuggets, fries and lemonade. 

I guess the 30 days is just a time period to form a new habit and sort-of a time to "reset" your body's diet.

I'll post recipes and pics later. 

I went back to the gym this week because I need to.  I'm not a Crossfitter.  I'm not a competitive athlete... I'm not even an athlete.  I exercise for the same reason I brush my teeth.  And if I don't go to the gym I'll find something else to fill the time and before I know it I haven't exercised in a month.  I don't know if it's all in my head or if this Whole30 diet is having an actual effect, but I did 6 sets of 10 repetitions of strict push ups without having to go to my knees this week.  Last month, when I did push ups last, I couldn't do more than 5 strict push ups without going to my knees. 

But, it's only been a week.  Now to press on for a disciplined life.  I tend to start things with gusto, with sprints, and give-up after the first mile.  Consistency is not my strength.  God has been forming long-suffering in me.  Patience.  Endurance. He seems to be calling me to press forward.  His call is not to sprint, but for a long-obedience in the same direction.

Quieted,

Sheila

Summed up thoughts on a Sunday

We went to The Mystery Castle in Phoenix today.  Take 7th street as far south as you can go, take a right and you're there.  There's a fee to get in, but I think its worth it.  The man who built that place must have been a bit odd, but definitely interesting and innovative.  I wouldn't want to live there, but it was a really intriguing place.  My dad and grandfather would LOVE it!  They too are self-made masons.

I made homemade meatballs this afternoon. A top pick among the homemade foods in this house. Served over spaghetti squash "noodles" in a simple tomato and basil pasta sauce. Buon Appetito.

I need to delete my food blog.  It's just not going to happen.  To many things I want to do, not enough time- scratch that- not a priority right now.

I have been wanting to post over at My 145:4.   Next post should be: The 6 Days of Creation, but I have an answer to the child-asked-question, "What's a Christ?" in mind.   The blog is turning more into a journal /commentary on the Bible for my boys.  That's fine too.  Not exactly what the title implies.  Maybe I should re-title the blog: A Journal Thru the Bible for My Boys.

I am not a very educated person.  I have an A.A.S.N (associate of applied science in nursing).  The people of Pathway are very educated people.  I love them and I feel very...elementary compared to them when it comes to knowledge in any arena.   I would love to go back to school to get a higher degree in nursing (or a culinary degree) but that too is just not a priority right now.  Maybe one day I can be smarter.  

A lesson or 10 in pedagogy is a priority though.  I don't have a higher education, but I am a student of the Bible and enjoy teaching it to my children, the children at Pathway, anyone who will listen, and most recently in a women's Bible study.  I would like to know better how to teach.  As I'm approaching 40 I think I've figured out what I want to do when I grow up: teach.  Even as a nurse, one of my favorite aspects of nursing is teaching.  I love helping kids, parents and school staff learn health-related things.  But when my knowledge is limited, its hard to teach.  You can't teach what you don't know.  As a nurse, my teaching realm is pretty small.  When it comes to the Bible I may have an opportunity:

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong... -1 Corinthians 1:27

I think teaching and cooking are similar.  I like to do both very much.  Neither do I have a formal education in.  When I'm researching something, be it the Bible or a health-related topic, I pull out the ingredients.  When I prepare to teach it to someone else I mix, bake (pray), wait and taste-test. When I deliver a teaching I feel like I'm serving up something good, something palatable though taken from raw ingredients.  Something that will help another grow.

I decided this weekend at practice I'm going to have to become a baseball savvy woman.  I saw Trouble With The Curve a couple weekends ago with my husband.  I'm 100% confident I will never be as savvy as Clint Eastwood's screen daughter in that movie.  But I'm going to have to learn to keep score (which in baseball involves a lot more than just how many runs there are), how to run a line up, how to read where the players go on the field and how to do some basic hitting, fielding and throwing.  I want to be a good backup for the head coach.

Quieted,

Sheila

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.- C.S. Lewis

I hate playing catch up here.

As I've said, I process life better in the second-living of it- i.e. writing. Or talking it out with God, which is what I do for the life I can't second-live in public writings.

I took up early-morning walking with my black lab Bailey a week or so ago, when it started getting cool in the mornings. I take her down to the local park on-leash and then release her to chase rabbits to her hearts content in the empty park. While she lives the Labrador Retriever dream of chasing a fast-moving small animal, I walk and talk to my unseen Lord.

I watch His sun rise on the just and the unjust, and breathe in deep the air He keeps filling my lungs with, and pour out my complaints to Him. I usually stop my self after a few thoughts and take notice of blazing fireball bursting over the eastern horizon and realize I have more reason to give thanks than to complain. I begin thanking Him for His promises and the everyday blessings and ask for the wisdom to live in relation to situations my heart is heavy with. The park becomes better than coffee. Walking and praying is very invigorating. People come to mind and there's no radio or email or list to make to distract me. I picture myself bringing these people, some by the hand, some in my arms, to my Father in heaven. I am so privileged to get to be apart of what He's doing in their lives.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a female Indiana Jones. I wanted to be an archeologist. I wanted to go dig up ancient treasures out of the dirt. In a way, I feel a little like a female Indiana Jones of the Bible.

For the last month I've been digging thru ancient writings of the Bible, searching for treasured and timeless truth, preparing to deliver a Bible study. I feel like I hit a vein of gold, or uncovered the corner of an enormous buried treasure!

The nature of the God of the Bible is the same from beginning to end. He loves humility and hates haughtiness. He is sovereign and dangerously all-powerful and good! He cares for barren and widowed women and fatherless children and those who are oppressed. He is faithful to His promises even when those He has entered into a promise with act wickedly. He deals with wickedness and has mercy and compassion on whom He wills. He wills to show that mercy and compassion on ANY who will humble themselves before Him. He is faithful. He alone has the right to condemn and He alone is the one who can save. He is passionate. He sees me. He cares for me. He is patient with me... with everyone. He is the same God to Tamar and to the woman caught in adultery at the feet of the Savior in the New Testament and to me. He is my hope all day long!

The laws of the LORD are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.- Psalm 19:9-10

I made a really yummy gluten-free margherita pizza tonight. I used Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Dough Mix and sprinkled the bottom of the pan with flax-seed meal for some extra goodness and texture. I topped it with Barilla's tomato and basil sauce, fresh basil leaves picked from my school's sensory garden, and whole-milk mozzerrella. Buon appetito!

Tomorrow I'll be talking with the kinder and first grade class at Pathway about how God fed the people of Israel with "What is it?" (manna) in the desert. I pray these kids will know the Greater-Than-Moses who has delivered them from the slavery of sin. I pray they will taste the goodness of God and feed on His Word in their sojourning... even when they don't understand and ask, "What is it? What is this all about?"

...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.- 1 Peter 2:2-3

Quieted,

Sheila