Highway 78

Aaron and I are packing our bags again today to make the long drive south on Highway 78 towards home. The drive is long, and very DARK at night. We are always so thankful when we finally make it to our destination. This weekend that is to my mom and dad's house to celebrate my birthday! Last weekend, Aaron and I were with his family. They are so sweet. They celebrated my birthday there, too! MIL made me delicious Southern Beef Stew, YUM! A personalized "L" shaped birthday cake and that's all I didn't have anymore sweets that night and S'mores by a fire later in the evening. I have been dying to have S'mores ALL winter. I had two then thought I was going to be sick. Don't you love that feeling?

 I've gotten 22 out of 28 things for my 28th year. The closer I get to 28 the harder it becomes. This is not to say there aren't a million things I should and need to do to better myself spiritually. It's sort of challenging to sit down and list them all out. I will keep thinking.

Tomorrow morning my mom and I are headed to the local cupcakery to pick out my birthday cup cakes! I expect them to be very delicious! Think "GiGi's Cupcakes"! Thanks, mom! Tomorrow is going to be sort of my last hoorah in the sweets/dessert department. I have really been thinking about how I gave up Dr. Peppers and all other soft drinks. I can most certainly give up sweets and desserts. I won't completely eliminate refined sugar out of my diet completely, at least not right now. However, I know doing so would really put me over the edge in my weight-loss journey. When I work out consistently during the week and eat well and eat enough, I feel really good and the number on the scale even goes down. BUT my middle area just isn't changing much. Hello, sugar! Doesn't sugar cause you to gain/keep weight in your abdomen?

Daddy is grilling pork chops for me tomorrow! I LOVE when he grills pork chops. He said he special ordered some thick cut chops from the butcher. He's such a sweetie pie.

Well anyway, tomorrow I am going to enjoy that those cupcakes, and probably a waffle at Waffle House in the morning. After that, game over. If you see me at the next bridal/baby shower/birthday party and my eye is twitching or I run and hide while I hyper-ventilate, it will be because I'm trying to say NO to all those goodies luring me to them. Ha, as if they have some sort of super powers...

Sunday, Aaron and I have our second job try-out. We are excited and thankful to God for the opportunity. In our minds we think we know how we would like our future to look. Ultimately, God knows what is best for us and where we will be the most effective. I am so thankful for THAT!

Have a blessed weekend "all" you readers! Seriously, the fact that anyone reads what I have to say makes me all giddy inside!

Leading Up to the List

I just want to cry when I think about the past 27 years of my life. Happy tears, of course! When I try to think back and figure out how I got where I am today, I can only think about my God and His wonderful, merciful grace and love. My life has been relatively easy and carefree. God blessed me with a mother and a father who provided my every need and beyond while under their roof.

Sure my little 9-year-old world was rocked when my family moved from Illinois to Alabama. We moved from an awesome house to an even better one. For many years I enjoyed great friendships in two places. I was able to be near my maternal grandparents.

My teeth are straight. I had a car to drive the day I turned 16. I never remember being behind on the clothing trends at the time, although I am now. Ha ha! I had a cell phone like everyone else. Besides all this my parents loved me daily and supported and encouraged me. (They still do!) They taught me right from wrong. They have shown me what real love and dedication is in marriage. So have my grandparents. Even today I know my parents would do anything for me and my husband. It's a shame that when we are younger we don't really want to be friends with our parents and we think they are so "obnoxious". The older I get the more and more I want to be around them and ENJOY it.

Now, in my adult years, in marriage, God's blessed me with a second family to call my own. I have the greatest family-in-law anyone could have. I pray all married people could have in-laws like me. The greatest blessing of all is to share in the fellowship of Christ with your physical family. My husband's family is amazing. They support us and love us. They care for our spiritual well-being. They are simply fun to be around, too! Oh, and they gave me my sweet Aaron. :)

How did I get the husband I have? It's a wonder. It's hard to wrap my mind around God's providence, but I know it's real. If I never moved to AL, if I never dated that one guy, if I never obeyed the gospel, if I never dumped (or got dumped by, I can't remember) that one guy... well you get the picture. Now thanks to my awesome husband and his desire to serve God we are at MSOP and I've experienced some of the deepest, most genuine friendships I've ever had.

All these things are just the tip of the ice-berg in the "ways God has blessed me" department. It would take me days and days and a reallllly long blog post to list every way God has blessed me. On the other hand, how long would it take me to list the ways I have returned the favor? Not that God is counting every good thing I do, He certainly knows and it is important to Him for my salvation. This brings me to my "28 things for my 28th year". I want this list to be spiritually focused. I want to make my 28th year my best one yet in my Christian life. I want to bring as much glory to God as possible. Now that I am to this point in this post I realize it is getting a little long. Stay-tuned for the complete list: 28 things for my 28th year. Hopefully I'll have it up by my actual birthday on Saturday. I have 10 so far. 18 to go. There is a lot I can do for God and others so I'll have no problem completely this list.

Thanks for reading.

Lemon Protein Bars

recipe

In an attempt to have healthier snacks around the house I made these Lemon Protein Bars from heandsheeatclean.com. Normally I would have gone straight to the chocolate recipe or even the pumpkin one, but I was trying to accommodate my sweet husband who lacks a sweet tooth! He loves lemons so I thought this would be perfect for the both of us to snack on.

These protein bars are pretty good! They ARE very lemony. I followed the recipe exactly except I used whole wheat flour instead of the recommended oat flour. I don't have oat flour. Also, the protein powder I used probably isn't considered "clean", but again it's what I had on hand. I just went with what I had since this was the first time trying a recipe like this and I wasn't sure if we would even like them. When I use up the protein powder we have I WILL be purchasing a clean version. The stuff is just too expensive to just throw it away. 

These are WAY better than any store-bought protein bar I've ever tried. Granted, I've only tried two or three different kinds. Check out HASEC for the recipe and details about these Lemon Protein Bars. There is a lot of good information and recipes for eating clean and just plain being healthier in general. 

I'll be making the pumpkin version next. OH and check out their recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough! One reader said in the comments section that they blended the quick oats to a powder consistency before mixing with the other ingredients. That sounds like it would make it closer to the actual consistency of real cookie dough. I will be trying this one out, too! 

Besides the protein bars I bought fresh veggies for snacking. I washed and chopped and bagged them. TBH, I just don't like raw broccoli!! I LOVE it when it is steamed, and I don't steam it to mush either. I just don't like it raw. AJ likes it however. So I guess I'll be eating the carrots and he can have the broccoli, blech. We also have fruits and greek yogurt and almonds. 

What healthy (even clean) snacks to you keep around the house? 

My Birth Month!

Happy month of March, y'all! This is the 27th month of March since the year I was born. On the 16th I'll be 27. Wow! Lord willing, I have a lot of life left to live! A birthday is sort of like celebrating New Year's again. Well, it's more like.. it's already three and half months (It will be on my bday.) into the new year and I haven't   really done a single thing differently than last year so now I'm going to make it a "by the time I'm 28" kind of thing... That works for me!

I can't say I haven't done a SINGLE thing differently. I have been working out at the gym four to five sometimes more days a week. I have to be honest. It has made a difference! I'm officially down a pant size which is really two sizes because I stretched my larger jeans to the next size up since I was in denial and would NOT buy the right size. Oh and I almost forgot! Since it's March 1st I have officially made it two months without any soft drinks... no Dr. Pepper! I still would like one. Some health professionals recommend limiting yourself to two 12 oz cans of soda week. Does that mean I can start having two a week? That is probably only for people who think they just "have to have" it. I could be one of those people... but for the sake of my pant size going DOWN, I'll try to keep away from the stuff. Now I need to quit eating ice cream! If I can quit drinking DP then surely I can quit eating ice cream...at least so much.

Also, I DID make that skirt I talked about two posts back. It mostly turned out really great... except I didn't like the way it looked on me. I learned a lesson while making it though. When I got to attaching the elastic to the skirt I didn't have any white thread, DOH! So I used red with a zig zag stitch. Well my zig zag was all over the place. I guess I was pulling the elastic too tight and it wasn't going through the machine at a consistent speed and well it looked yucky. I ran it through again, this time with a really tight zig zag. It looked great but it caused the elastic to do something funky so the skirt stuck out away from me too far at the waist. I don't need ANY help looking wider around my hips! Not only that, the fullness of the skirt made me feel old. I have plans to take it apart and use the material to make something else. :)

AJ and I are getting closer and closer to graduation at MSOP. It's less than three months away. I am so excited to start working with a congregation of God's people! We had a "try-out" last weekend. AJ and I both really enjoyed our visit. The members their are really awesome and we both really like the area! They are a good sound congregation that seem willing to work. In fact, they are already working away! We should hear from them this month some time. Please pray for us as we are going through the process of finding a work. Thank you in advance!

Okay so now for my 28th year of life. Should I make a list of 28 things I want to do before I'm 28? We all know how well my list of fun Fall things turned out... Womp, womp, womp... Oh well, I think I will just because I love to make lists! I'll work on that.

Tonight AJ and I are going to a minor league hockey game! I have a feeling we are going to have a blast! (Is it cold in a hockey arena?) Mississippi River Kings vs Fayetteville Fire Antz! lol Fire antz.

When I think "ants" I think that's not much of a mascot, but so much can be learned from the ant. God tells us we can gain wisdom from the ant's ways. (Proverbs 6:6) Ants are "exceeding wise", Proverbs 30:24, 25, in the way they prepare for winter... harvesting food while it is plenty. Not to mention, ants can lift about 20 times their own body weight. Weird, huh?

Where was I going with this? Oops! Sorry. Thanks for reading anyway!

Heaven Will Surely Be Worth it All

Often I'm hindered on my way, burden so heavy I almost fall
Then I hear Jesus sweetly say, Heaven will surely be worth it all

chorus: Heaven will surely be worth it all, worth all the sorrows that here befall
After this life with all its strife, Heaven will surely be worth it all

Many the trials toils and tears, many a heartache may here appall
But the dear Lord so truly says, Heaven will surely be worth it all

chorus

Toiling and pain I will endure, till I shall hear the death angel call
Jesus has promised and I'm sure, Heaven will surely be worth it all.

chorus

Just wanted to share a song today. AJ and I traveled to see his family this weekend. It was his little brother's birthday on Thursday. He is a ripe, old 19! 

We were listening to gospel hymns on the way down including the one above. I am often hindered on my way, but I am so thankful that I have the promise of Heaven when this life is over. That alone is worth any and every sorrow on Earth. 

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; 2 Corinthians 4:17

You can have this same promise if only you will obey the Master.  

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.              Matthew 11:28-30

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6

I am so blessed to be living the life I am. I am so thankful to God for His mercy and care. 

For a free online Bible correspondence course go to You Can Be Sure. Why not be sure of your salvation? 

W.I.A.W.

If you follow a lot of blogs you will notice some bloggers have weekly schedules and do certain themed posts on certain days usually with a catchy title using alliteration liiiike... Wednesdays are sometimes W.I.W.W. (What I Wore Wednesdays) or W.I.A.W (What I Ate Wednesdays). Well over here, for today at least, W.I.A.W. stands for "Wow, It's Already Wednesday?!"

That is exactly the way I feel today! I actually feel this way every week. Every day just goes by so fast and before you can blink its a new week. Several days ago I posted about some things I wanted to accomplish and some things (time-wasters) I wanted to phase out of my life. Well, Saturday I went to JoAnn fabrics and bought the materials needed to make a skirt. I wasn't really expecting to see anything I liked. I actually had to pick between three different fabrics. I am keeping the others in mind for other projects! OR just more of the same project in different prints.

I am having a hard time deciding what style to do. There are two tutorials from Cotton and Curls that I want to try and they are both fairly simple... looking. Haven't tried them yet, so I can't say for sure. Also, my skill level is BEGINNER. I have started two dresses before, got half way through, got stuck and then never finished. This time I want to try and practice correct technique and take my time so the end product is wearable. There will be an end product! Here are the two styles I am trying to decide between.

If I make this I'll need to make it longer than in this picture to  keep it modest while sitting. This being a wrap style I may even need to just attach at the overlap so it doesn't separate. (Thinking out loud.) source

Looking at this tutorial just now to get the picture made me realize how much simpler this one is than the other. source

Simpler is better for a beginner... especially if that beginner is me! I plan to begin working on this tomorrow, my day off this week. If I'm not too ashamed when it's finished I'll post pictures! The material I chose is very similar to the material C&C used in the first picture. I was thinking if mine turns out to be wearable I might wear it to the upcoming Valentine's banquet here at MSOP! 

Without any clever seg-way, I'm changing the subject!

This past week we (MSOP student wives) were required to develop and turn in a Bible class lesson about a certain Bible character or characters. After we turned them in to our teacher we all swapped lessons and now we each have about 25 different Bible class lessons already made up to take with us wherever we are going! I am super pumped about it. It's gotten me even more excited about finding a congregation for AJ and I to work with and begin teaching children's Bible class again! 

I want to share something our teacher, sister Tish Clarke, said about teaching Bible class that really stuck out to me. What she said wasn't a huge secret or something very profound; I guess I just never heard it said out loud before. She said, "When your students leave your classroom they should leave thinking about God and what He means to them rather than thinking about Jonah and a big fish!" Meaning, they need to remember what they learn about God from the account of Jonah and the big fish, not just that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and was there for three days. I haven't taught MANY Bible classes before, but the ones I have taught I think I was too focused on making sure I had enough "to do" to fill the class time and making sure I was going to keep their attention. Those things are important, but not as important as those little ones hearing about God from His word and the application to their life. I can't wait to put this in to practice!  

Are you working on any sewing projects?
Have any tips for a beginner?

   

I'm really doing it!

After two different times starting and quitting, I, along with my awesome gym buddy, have completed the first three weeks of the "Total Body Blitz" 12-week exercise program. I have to say I am feeling great! Pounds are coming off... granted not like on the Biggest Loser, but they are coming off! My jeans are getting looser and looser. That makes me excited! There is nothing like results to make you want to keep going. I had a small victory in our work out today, too. I completed real-deal box jumps as prescribed. You are probably like, woo-hoo... go, you... but it was a victory indeed for me. We had been doing the box jumps on an aerobic step that's only like three or four inches off the floor. Like this one only without the risers underneath.

Today I used a 12" box. It was scary making the first jump because I kept picturing myself missing the box and scraping my shins all to pieces. After that, it was awesome! So the 12" box is the shortest one in this picture. Hey, gotta start somewhere!!

  

Can you believe there are people out there that can jump a 62" box?! Check out this video just for fun. I'm not even sure if that's the highest one. Have you ever heard of Cross Fit? That is definitely something I would like to get in to eventually. Those people are so fit. Although, some of the women are VERY built and that's not my goal. 

Anyway. My diet hasn't been top notch by any means, but I am certainly eating better. I've been keeping up with tracking my calories on My Fitness Pal and I know that has helped. I really want to take mine and AJ's diet to the next level and really eat clean. We have made several changes in our pantry, but one thing we haven't gotten rid of is potato chips!! I don't eat them every day, but on days when we have a sandwich for lunch I want chips. Sometimes we will have apple slices instead, but those chips are so yummy. I could do some carrot sticks. 

What have your work outs been like lately?

Have you had any personal victories?

 

Something worth blogging about...

I think that has been my problem this entire time. The reason I cannot post consistently is because I rarely have anything worth blogging about, besides things of a spiritual nature of course. Even then I haven't been able to keep up the "Light for Your Path" series I said I was going to have. Blogging requires creativity. I like to think that I am creative; however, I believe my creativity has been stunned. "By what?" you may be asking. I blame the television. Well, my television doesn't do anything wrong until I turn it on then somehow I find myself sitting... watching... for longer than I want to admit. Not to mention while I'm watching the TV, I'm also checking Facebook a zillion times (I already quit FB once.) and my e-mail. BTW no one e-mails me... besides the 100 websites I've signed up to receive sale advertisements and things like that. WHY? I don't know. I don't ever buy anything! So... I must blame myself. I've stunned my own creativity into oblivion! awww, man... this has by far been the greatest challenge of being at home daily. I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this, am I? I want so badly to be able to work from the home to have time to take care of my family one day. Here I am having been given the opportunity and I have the time and it's wasted.

The good news is it's a new year! ha ha! Because I couldn't change anything about myself until after the new year came, right? Anyway.

How am I going to quit my TV watching habit? Well, AJ and I have talked about getting rid of the television, but we have yet to decide to just do it. We want to keep it to watch movies of course. So now it's up to just good ole self-discipline. Wasting time while watching TV has not only kept me from blogging like I want to, but it has also kept me from reading more, learning to sew, becoming a better cook, keeping a "house chores" schedule, visiting with friends more often... studying the Bible like I should. Oh man, it's just getting worse and worse.

OKAY. Back to the bright side. Self-discipline. Right.

I'm thankful to God for the opportunity to do right again and to be a better person all around.

So from now on I am going to spend more time doing the things I want to do and need to do for God, myself, for my husband, and for others.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest... let's talk about something worth blogging about!

You know that 12 week "Total Body Blitz" I've tried to start a couple of times now? I have officially made it through week one of the program without skipping a day and doing the workouts as prescribed. I would not have been able to do it without my workout buddy though! She has been a real encouragement to me this week, especially today. She helped me run longer than I think I have in over three years. WOO HOO! Only 11 more weeks to go! We can so do it.

In other weight-loss news, I've been tracking my food and exercise on My Fitness Pal consistently again. I've also gone 11 days without a soda, too! I'm trying to go from now until AJ graduates without sweets. You might be thinking that is extreme and that I can have sweets in moderation. Well, not for me. Sugary snacks, cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc are going to be the death of me... so for now, they are dead to me.

Thanks for reading! Have a very blessed weekend. Don't forget to make your best effort to attend worship services this Sunday.

"I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy might acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of they majesty, and of the wondrous works."  Psalm 145:1-5