Leaving for Work

I leave for work before my kiddos are up during the summer. Every morning I make my way to their rooms to pray over them and give them a kiss. Lilly was missing from her bed. :) I quickly found her. I cherish these moments and praise God that they have each other. Teddy is still one if my best friends. I text him almost daily and talk with him regularly. We were always close growing up and I pray that Lilly and Owen have the same relationship. Love these two! 

Weight Loss Wednesday 2

Am I skinny yet? That is the question I ask myself every morning when I get up. Then I make my way to the mirror and  can see the answer.  I decided to weigh myself only on Wednesday’s and this week’s weight loss is a whopping 4 pounds. Seriously this is going to take forever, but I’m committed!

My thoughts are being changed and so is the temple!

I’m eating clean and with all honesty I have not had one headache, or sugar craving. We have no junk food in our home at all, so there is no temptation to snack on junk. I learned to make frozen fruit pops and they are fantastic and curb any craving for something sweet. We eat tons of veggies and we are becoming experts on cooking them in different ways.

We have a camping trip coming up so I’m praying that the Lord fill me full of control to not celebrate our anniversary and the 4th with camping food. To ensure I don’t splurge on our trip I’m taking veggies and fruit. There will be tons of hiking so I will definitely be able to keep up with my workouts. This week in all I have been walking a good 4 miles a day, I am starting to also do some weight training. We shall see how it goes! Clinging to the fact that God has given me power over my food choices! I am supposed to consume food, food is not supposed to consume me! Until next week!~

11Years

Today is the 11 year anniversary of the Day my sweet brother in law Matt received his new name. Matt was kind and loving and really was a wealth of knowledge. I wish Lilly and Owen had, had the opportunity to meet their gentile giant uncle. 

Matt is no doubt worshiping and walking with Jesus. We miss him and even though time passes we continue to pray for healing in the hearts of our family. 

Put-Put

We had so much fun playing mini golf! I love this season of our lives the kids are so much fun! They have such great personalities and are so competitive. I won, 2 shots every hole Gary still plays hockey and the kids are totally getting there. We had fun, loving and enjoying Summer! 

Map My Run, I Walk

Map my run scared me silly this morning, on my walk. Here I was in my zone of praying  and admireing The Lords beautiful work and this voice comes on and says 1.97 miles! I'm sure it was funny to people who saw me jump. I love that I can put my kids on a scooter or a bike and say let's go! Loving summer!! 

My littles waiting for me! They thought I would walk right by them! 

Weight Loss Wednesday

I have been very confused lately about the person I see staring back at me in the mirror. She is not who I expect to see. What has happened to me? It looks like the woman in the mirror ate me... the only thing I recognize is the hair and that is still the same mess it’s always been. I had a moment… It was not good, trust me there was tears and maybe some babbling, whaling and just why me sounds coming from my master bathroom… I think I needed this moment and in all honesty it did me good.

I went to my Bible, not right away but the next morning after I fell asleep praying that overnight God would miraculously change my body and just make me normal again. I started to read  one of my favorite verses I was reminded that I need to Deny myself, I flipped my bible open to Matthew 16:24 just  as I have hundreds of times, but this time I read it with new eyes. Jesus said to his disciples, “ if any of you want to be my follower, you must deny your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me.

Let’s hear those words again “ DENY” and how about “SELFISH”. Tough words for my Monday morning. But those were words from Jesus.

 Everything that is in THIS WORLD says just the opposite. The world tells us it’s okay to eat what we want, to spend money that we don’t have , to conform to this world. This is just the opposite of what Jesus says.

With Jesus, if I want to gain I must give up and deny my selfish ways. I want to be filled and I will be because I am willing to give up the needlessness. Sugar and carbohydrates do not fill me, He does. I am willing to go the distance for my relationship with Christ. I am willing to show Him that this body He gave me I will keep a temple for Him to live in. I will conquer my cravings and redirect them to the only One who can consume me.

I want to honor the Lord in every part of my life, I want to be a great wife, mother and worship leader and this stronghold needs to go in order for my life to align where He wants it. I have decided to post every Wednesday breaking down my progress. I thought about starting another blog, but decided against it because this is part of my family life. I am not making these changes just to feel and look better. I’m making these changes to become closer, more obedient and more dependent on Christ for every moment. Those little candy bar cravings are nothing compared to Jesus.  My prayer is not just for me but Lilly and Owen. I want them to know, feel and see my dependency on Christ in those little moments that we think don’t matter. I want my kids to know that Gary and I are not superheroes that we are nothing without Him.  

I’m not exactly sure of my goal, or even how long it will take me to get there but I’d like to start by losing 65 pounds. I started this week we hiked Seven Bridges, I walk about 45 minutes on my lunch breaks and at least 1 mile when I come home from work. All soda, junk and processed foods have been eliminated from my diet. I am waiting to get a caffeine headache and have a sugar meltdown but so far so good! God is speaking to me and though it’s only been a solid week I feel strong in Christ that I can do this!

 

 

 

 

Social Media

I go back and forth with social media. I really enjoy reading peoples statuses and keeping up with family and friends. However I do find myself in this mode of obligation to check Facebook and obligation to participate. It’s very easy to get sucked in! I have been an avid user of Social Media to keep in touch and to spread the Word. However I am rethinking once again the healthy aspects of using an outlet such as Face Book for myself and my family. I have read posts that are inappropriate, or just way to much information. I have always been surprised at the amount of information that people are willing to share, because let’s face it how close are we really to the 578 “friends” we have on social media sites. I have decided to once again to deactivate my account. I will however check in and comment from time to time to time and will continue to share Bible verses that are important to my life. I can share scripture through my Bible app without ever accessing Face Book. If you reading this than you know we have a family blog. I like my blog and print it every year or so as a journal for our family. I am going to continue to update our lives through our BlogSpot page.  I feel in this day of needing and wanting more, less is really the way to go, I love my family and friends but have such a desire to focus on Kingdome living and my family.

Summer Nights!

Math Reading and Writing

Every night except Wednesday and the weekends we play school. I say play school my kids say.. Really it's summer! Well learning never stops and summer slide is a real thing. The kids were doing amazing at the end of the year and I don't want them to forget all the good stuff. Lilly is working on Vocabulary, writing in cursive, multiplication and division. Owen is working on extending his sight word list, addition and subtraction. And as a family during devotion we are reading Heaven Is for Real. Side note it was raining...enough to cool things down...and Lilly felt it cool enough to wear her winter coat! :)  

Thankful For These Moments

We had a long day of hiking yesterday. We were all worn out, after our hike we came home showered grabbed a quick bit to eat and we were off to church. When we got home we decided to order a pizza and just relax. I love these moments where Lilly and Owen are content with just a simple moment. They are so special! 

SUMMER!

Its here! I've been waiting for this moment since September! We have tons of activities and hiking we want to do this summer! And today we started with Seven Bridges! It was stunning and so peaceful! I could have stayed admiring Gods creation all day! We are alreading planning our hike for next weekend! 

Frisbee!

We played some frisbee the other night and it was so much fun! Out neighbors stopped by for a little bit! It was all fun until I went to take a picture and Gary got me right between the eyes! My family laughed so hard! 

Allie Visit

We had a wonderful time with Allie. She is such a smart and sweet little girl! We had so much fun at the mining museum, cousin sleep over and then our trip to Kansas. Kansas was beautiful! We visited the Leavenworth area and then ventured over to Weston Missouri which is stunning! Old plantation homes huge beautiful trees! It was simply beautiful! We had a fantastic time with the Perry's and can't wait to return, it's a quick easy drive over the prairie. Can't forget to mention the amazing Korean and BBQ food! Gary and Ted had the chance to return to yestr years by catching up on some xbox while Steph and I went antique shopping! The kids had water fights and ice cream. It was a great trip and we can't wait to return.