Persevering in April

What a beautiful evening it was to take a walk/run! I felt energized by the gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. Out for an hour, I went a total of 5.03 miles, with my average pace less than 12 minutes per mile for the first time. (Ok, it was 11:57!)  So yes, I have persevered in my quest for fitness. At the beginning of April, according to my "Runkeeper" app, I did a 3 miler at an average pace of 13:27 minutes/mile.  So there has been some improvement. I love walking/runnng and watching all the flowers and trees blooming and changing along my routes.

I continue to do  Zumba  and weight training classes a couple times a week, did a  spinning class a couple times, and do my "100 Pushups" and "200 Situps" apps 3 times a week. They are getting harder, and I'm having to repeat days on the pushups instead of adding. But oh well, I'm just a weak middle aged lady after all! Weight loss is still slow... I have 8 pounds to my goal.

My boys come every Sunday for dinner, and it's funny how differently they express themselves. When they came today, Nick said, "Wow, Mom, you're skinny!"  Earlier, Craig had said, "Mom, you are looking beautiful." Eric said he noticed but he didn't know what to say so he didn't mention it! Gotta love them!

It was more difficult this to make time for Bible reading and study. For some strange reason, I have tended to oversleep or have a hard time getting out of bed frequently this past month, and I don't do well at fitting it in later in the day! So I need to get my rear out of bed when the alarm goes off! In fact, I need to make it earlier, because for May I am focusing on prayer.

Our church is going through the "Circle Maker" books in small groups that will meet for four weeks. We have joined a Tuesday night group, and have met once so far. This challenges us to pray boldly, and to circle and claim scriptural promises that apply to our prayer requests. I am excited about being challenged and inspired with this.

Onward I go in my quest to improve my physical and spiritual health!

Another Niece Gets Married

Yesterday I was privileged to attend the wedding of yet another beautiful niece. My sister Hope's third daughter, Adrienne, married a young man from the far northern land of Ontario, Canada. I fear this is the best picture I have of the happy couple. They looked very happy indeed. Ah, young love.

(I am really annoyed because the room was kind of dim so the pictures are dark. I lightened and cropped some of them, but none of my editing carried over when I imported to the blog. Grrr.)

I made sure to get a picture of myself with the bride, because I have failed to do so at the other weddings of my nieces and wish I would have done so for posterity. Her dress was gorgeous, sewed by her grandma, Barbara Troyer.

Her beautiful younger sisters Janelle and Camille, are far too young to walk down the aisle for a few years yet! This day was especially bittersweet for them as they face the reality of losing their beloved older sister's daily presence in their lives. I feel their pain, but least they have each other!

My adorable niece Serena's purple polka dot outfit with matching polka dot tights and purple sandals was so cute. She was not inclined to stand still and pose! The photo that I cropped and edited looks really great.  Grrr.

Adrienne's older sisters Brianna and Jenna came from the east with their husbands and babies. Brianna's miracle baby, Janae Hope, was being held by a nice little old lady so I just put her picture in the picture! Jenna's two little girls are absolutely adorable, and she is expecting a boy in August!

I was so delighted to hold sweet baby Janae!

More sisters - Jenna's little girls Hannah and Phebe are cute as can be.

And here are two of my own precious sisters. I wouldn't let my baby sister Jean be photographed with us because she is too young and pretty. (I was 17 when she was born!) No, I'm not really that vain, she just wasn't in the area when we took this spur of the moment picture.

I am so thankful for all my wonderful sisters, nieces, and great-nieces! I pray Adrienne and Graham will have a long and joyous marriage in their igloo in the far North. Oh, wait, I heard they were going to get to live in a house after all. And the story continues.....

I Love my Lucy Shirt!

My dear old friend Lou, who has had the pleasure of working with me for many years on our women's retreat team, thoughtfully blessed me at this year's retreat with a bag of gifts, ostensibly for my friend Barb (who has loyally been my roommate there for at least the past three years). This bag contained various items for Barb to give me just in case I forgot to bring them. For some reason, Lou has this unreasonable idea that I forget something every year. (Possibly she's getting forgetful, did I mention that she's a very old friend?) 

It's true that last year, Barb provided our other roommate Cindy with a new toothbrush after I accidentally used Cindy's toothbrush. (She really shouldn't have left it out on the counter because it looked just like mine.) And I didn't forget my underwear last year, my dear roommate Cindy stole it and hid it from me, so I temporarily thought I had lost my mind and forgotten it. If I forgot to bring anything else to retreat over the past few years, I have forgotten what that might have been. I am getting old too.

I certainly have never forgotten to bring clothing, but apparently Lou had doubts that I could be trusted to bring even this basic necessity. Among the plethora of useful items in this bag was a unique t-shirt. It still had the tag on it, with a red "Clearance" sticker and the price of $4.99. I bet Lou thought I would have to be pretty desperately shirtless to wear it. It was also a size Medium and too tight for me back in February. (Barb was kind enough to give it to me anyway.)

We had a Ladies Bunco night at our church this week, and I thought it would be a perfect place to wear this special shirt, if only it wouldn't be so small. Oh joy, I tried it on and it fit!

Lou begged to have her picture taken next to me in the shirt, so I graciously acquiesced.

The back of the shirt has another full size picture of Lucy. It's pretty special to wear a shirt that is so all around cool, especially when it was given to you with so much love! I may have to wear it the whole weekend at our next retreat. Or maybe I could give people turns at wearing it if they are nice and don't steal anything from me or play other practical jokes. Possibly people would even pay me to have a chance to wear it. It must be getting late because splendid ideas are popping into my head like crazy. I better quit now!

Love My Country Walks

I love living in the country and taking walks. The weather and the seasons cause the view to constantly change. The past month, I have enjoyed viewing floods that turned the fields into lakes. I have watched flowers bloom, then peek out of a blanket of snow, then emerge and rise again to meet the sun. I have walked in gentle sprinkles, driving downpours, hail and sleet, in spite of trying to choose times between precipitation. Oh yeah, the sun came out once also! 

An awesome benefit of a flooded road is that there is very little traffic. You pretty much have the whole road to yourself and other walkers (and their dogs).

Where this sign says "Road Narrows" they occasionally need a one that says, "Road disappears". There have been many days during the past couple months that I have to turn around after about 1 1/2 miles if I want to walk instead of swim.

When I walked on March 22, the snow had completely changed the landscape.

It was especially fun to follow the footsteps of my husband and his dog, who had walked a couple of hours earlier.

I didn't even need boots I just walked in the tire tracks.

It was really sad to see the damage to trees. These had to be cut down.

The "lake" was especially scenic one day when the sun came out.

The hyacinths were just as beautiful as ever after the snow melted.

It is a joy to watch the progression of buds to blooms of magnolias, a variety of different daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips along the way. The sweet fragrances are splendid as well.

I do have a few spectators as I journey on.

 You never know - sometimes a whole herd of sheep will turn and run away as I approach. Other times they stand and stare. I would like to say they stare inquisitively, but it appears to me that it's more of a stupid stare.
 
I suspect some people may take a blue sky for granted. Not me. I marvel at the amazing beauty blue sky and sunshine!

I thank God for good health and a strong body that allow me to get out and enjoy the beautiful place I live, for the changing weather, and most of all, for the anticipation of a sunny weekend with temps in the 70s!

March: Commitment

Commitment. It's the difference between success and failure when you want to change something in your life. I am currently enjoying the results of a commitment I made in November last year. I had joined Weight Watchers in October 2010 when it became a health insurance benefit. In a year's time, I lost 15 pounds and gained back 5, because although I wanted and wished to lose weight, I never really committed myself to following the plan.

In November 2011, I was inspired by watching the Biggest Loser show. I wondered how successful I could be if I stuck to the Weight Watchers plan (tracking and eating only the allotted points per day, with healthy foods) and exercised 6 days a week for an hour (or more)? I weighed on on Monday, November 7th and started a Word document on my laptop called "Biggest Loser". At the top of the page, I put this quote:
"Satisfaction does not come from indulgence; satisfaction comes from achievement." (Calvin Coolidge)

I open that document every morning to record my weight and any other pertinent info. I track my food and exercise on the Weight Watcher's eTools site each day as well.  I joined a gym, my church started hosting Zumba classes, and exercise became really fun! My niece's wedding date was almost 6 weeks away (Dec. 17) and my first goal was to lose 20 pounds by then. I didn't make it, but I lost 18, so I didn't feel too bad!  It's amazing what happens when you have a good plan and are committed to sticking to it! I have lost 37.8 pounds since November 7th, and am committed to following through to my goal, 12 pounds away. I feel absolutely great!

So it was time to commit to improving my spiritual health as well. I had been challenged to a more committed prayer life at Helen Sannan's funeral in January and prayer was especially important as we prepared for our retreat in February. While there, I was challenged to spend more time reading God's word. Mim Schlabach shared how she had made a commitment to daily Bible reading many years ago, saying that since she found time to eat food every day, surely she could find time for spiritual food daily as well. After talking to her before retreat, I had made a commitment to daily Bible reading, but not a specific amount of time. I have always had the desire and intention, but some days were just "too busy" to open my Bible. Our awesome retreat speaker, Jenna Silva, also challenged and inspired me to spend more time in the Bible. So that became a part of my commitment for March.

I started another Word document and committed to spend 10 minutes a day this month reading the Bible. Each day I typed the date, the time, and the chapters I read. I also typed (or cut and pasted) passages that I really liked or that really spoke to me. Like this one:

"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this." (Psalm 37:4-5)

After I read through some of my favorite New Testament books, I started a 61 day reading plan on Bible Gateway.com that takes you through the key stories of the Bible in chronological order. (That website has lots of different reading plans.)

I love my time reading the Bible. I especially love reading all the scriptures that I were my favorites last month and are now all on one document for me to read!

"O God, you have taught me ever since I was young,    and I still talk about the miracles you have done.Even when I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God.
   Let me live to tell the people of this age
      what your strength has accomplished,
         to tell about your power to all who will come." (Psalm 71:17-18)
 (That whole chapter is one of my new favorites!)

In April, my theme word will be "perseverance".  My weight loss has really slowed down this past month, and I need to persevere and not be discouraged. I also want to use a Bible study book this month along with my reading.

By the grace of God and through His strength,  I will persevere in my commitment to spiritual and physical health!

Above and Beyond

So here it is the end of February already and it's time to tell you how I didn't do so well with February's life theme. However, I did notice lots of other people excelling at it!

This past month, I wanted to focus on going above and beyond people's expectations. This does not come naturally to me. I have enough trouble just meeting expectations in various areas of my life.

On February 1, I woke up very early thinking about how many things were piled up at work. So I got up at 4:15, and was at the office by 5:45 to do certificates for the Academic Awards Dessert that was happening the next day. I went straight from work to Millersburg to meet Sara, the co-director of our women's retreat. We went to Aldersgate (retreat location near Salem) and had dinner there, also meeting with the chef and discussing our menu. I had planned to come home and make a dessert for  the Academic Awards, but by 8:30 pm, I recognized my limitations and stopped at the store on the way home and bought a dessert.

I was pretty proud of myself and thought I was off to a great start to a month of going above and beyond expectations! Unfortunately, it was  downhill after that! I did a few little things here and there, but nothing worth bragging about! Oh wait, I did take a boy home one rainy day when he was standing outside the school an hour after the dance ended and he couldn't get ahold of anyone. (I was scared to death the whole way that I would get in an accident and the kid would get hurt and his dad would kill me. His dad once yelled at me when he forgot to pick up the boy after school and the kid disappeared. Dad declared that I should know his son is an airhead and do a better job of watching out for him. True story. Turned out the kid walked the three miles home in the rain that day.)

I digress. But anyway, I constantly observed people who amazed me the way they went above and beyond!

Like the parent who surprised us on February 2 by bringing in a gallon of coffee from Starbucks for us, saying she knew it would be a long day with the Academic Awards that evening.

Like my co-worker Trudi. When someone comes in and needs to go to the Counseling Office, I just tell them that it's around the corner, fourth door on the left, and it says "Counseling" above the door. Not Trudi. She gets up out of her chair and actually walks them around the corner. But that's nothing. One day she supervised a "BEAR Time" acro-yoga class when the leader was absent. I was shocked when she came back and said she let a student "fly" her, with other students gathered around spotting.  She said it felt a little intrusive with his stinky feet on her tummy lifting her in the air, but he wanted to show off his skills, and she was willing to sacrifice her own comfort level. It made him really happy that she trusted him to do it. What a saint! I admire her so much!

Another day I got a call from a parent (who is a full time teacher at another school) asking how many staff we had. She brought treats several times last year, including some amazing strawberry shortcake last June. She showed up on Valentine's Day with red and pink heart trays and platters filled with fancy cupcakes, strawberries and chocolate, enough for all 68 of our staff. Now, my office co-workers and I also brought treats for staff, but my contribution was not quite that awesome! (Ok, it was just a bowl of little orange Cuties! But it was healthy!) This woman amazes me - I don't expect any parent to bring treats for the whole staff, much less multiple times a year, and absolutely fabulous ones at that!

This is getting lengthy, but I have to mention the awesome hairstylist Lacy Kennedy (at the Lyon's Den downtown Albany). She colored my hair a couple weeks ago and I asked for something a little different, maybe a little red. Let's just say it took a great deal of extra time and effort before a little red turned into something we were both pleased with. I was then shocked at how much less she charged than I have been paying someone else the past many years. Really, that's all you charge after you work on my hair for three hours? And the whole time with a smile on your face and not the slightest hint that I am a huge pain in the rear?! She even let me know when she had a little block of time open the next week if I wasn't satisfied with something! I love you, Lacy!

I have been very busy the past two weeks working with an amazing team of women getting ready for our annual church women's retreat. If I tried to tell all the ways these nine women exceeded expectations, this would get very long indeed. So I will just say that after months of observing all the behind-the-scenes things they did, and then seeing the results of their talents and efforts, I hold all of them in the highest esteem.  They excel in areas such as decor, drama, publications, worship and music, activity planning, details and follow through, and best of all, loving God and caring about other women.  They are encouraging and totally fun to be with! I have learned so much from being around them and they inspire me to be a better person. Interestingly enough, the motto of Aldersgate, where our retreat was held, is "Exceeding Expectations"!

So I am disappointed in my own lack of follow through on this desirable character quality, but feel very fortunate indeed that I seem to be surrounded by people who constantly exceed expectations! (Including my own dear husband who was out scraping snow off my car before 7 AM today!) I don't have time or energy to list nearly all the examples I saw! I'll keep my eyes open for opportunities to exceed!

I am excited about next month's theme and hope to do better with it. I'll tell you all about it soon.

Hope in 2012

In December of 2011, I realized that an amazingly fabulous date would be happening the next year. My next birthday will take place on 12/12/12! I began to ponder how I could possibly celebrate in a way that was worthy of this "golden" birthday! (My age will even be a multiple of 12! Well, ok, 12.5 x 4!)  I forewarned Will that obviously 2012 was going to be a great year and that we should start planning the birthday party now!  He resigned himself to the fact that 2012 would be all about me. I expect nothing less from my loving husband.

As I contemplated how to build up to this momentous day of celebration, I mulled the possibility of choosing a topic or quality each month to learn about and focus on, something that would benefit my life as well as the lives of those around me and make this a memorable year.

Then on December 31st, my niece Brianna gave birth to her first child, Janae Hope, and the baby faced serious complications, as I shared in Hope for 2012.  I began to think about hope, and my first month's focus was chosen for me.

On the last day of January, I was able to post a picture of her sweet face with no tubes! Her feeding tube just came out, and her lungs have recovered slowly but surely. When she is able to eat and keep enough down, it sounds like she will be able to finally go home. Hope and faith are alive in her parents and all those who love her.

What is hope, really? The first thing that comes to my mind is my little sister, Hope, who I enjoyed calling "Hope Dope Cantalope" many years ago. Funny how still sometimes when I hear or say the word "hope",  immediately "hope dope cantalope" echoes in my mind!

In the Bible, hope is a confident expectation that something will happen. It is the part of faith that is focused on the future. I looked up "hope" in BibleGateway.com and got 178 Scripture references. It's hard to pick out the favorites, but I have to share a few.

Job 13:15 "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face."

Psalm 43:5  "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." (How many times is that repeated?! Interesting!)

Psalm 62:5,6 "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Psalm 119:147 "I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word."

Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

This past month, the importance of placing my hope in God has been so evident as I have been around friends who are dealing with the loss of loved ones, who are suffering from illness themselves or in loved ones, who are discouraged about loved ones with addictions or who are making other destructive choices, and other seemingly hopeless situations. My hope is in the God who created the universe, the God "who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us" (Eph. 3:20-21).  The only way to have joy in spite of these situations is to place our hope in God and wait on Him.


January was an awesome month, with prayers answered, successful weight loss efforts, and retreat planning with an amazing group of women who have become wonderful friends and prayer partners. February promises to bring all kinds of fun and excitement! I'll tell you about February's theme when the month is over. Or maybe sometime this month. It all depends what happens and whether or not the mood to write strikes at the moment I have the time to sit down and write! Hmm, maybe self-discipline will have to be the focus of one of the months. Doesn't that sound entertaining and uplifting!