Make your years count!

Don't just count your years,

make your years count!

Ernest Meyers

This quote was on on a birthday greeting e-mail this morning. My prayer today is that my years will count ~~ in service to the Lord, to my family, to my friends, and to my community. Thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging as I begin this new chapter -- middle age! (50 IS middle age when you want to live to be 100!!!!!!!!)

Getting Serious about Getting Healthy

Well, it is getting awfully close to a VERY BIG birthday and it has caused me to stop and re-evaluate my past abuse of the body God gave me to be His temple here on earth. This past year I have taken several steps to make my life healthier:

1) I lowered my cholesterol from 247 to 165 through natural means (niacin & fish oil) (YEAH!)
2) My friend Tam & I really got serious about walking every morning this summer
3) I got rid of having a period through an easy procedure (Uterine ablation) (Double YEAH!)
4) I started watching "The Biggest Loser" and decided it was time to get my weight down!
5) Now, Tam & I (since it is cold!) have been doing "The Biggest Loser" Cardio workout for 3 weeks (Triple YEAH!!!!!!!!)
6) The biggest healthy step is doing "Stepping Up" a Beth Moore study that really made me think! I know I NEED to "Step UP" each and every day for the rest of my life.

As I get ready for just another birthday, I realize I need to thank God for all he has blessed me with in the past 50 years! Now maybe with a healthier body I can keep up with my grandbabies!

Pantyhose woes!

Well, I haven't posted in a while due to the fact nothing earth shaking has happened, but last week I had something happen that has NEVER happened before! I was at a trainng meeting in Lubbock all last week. Well, the first night we were there we went shopping of course! I was looking for some brown boots. Now, I haven't owned a pair of boots since the 80's, but I had seen a few women my age wearing them and they really looked cute, so I had bought a new brown skirt that absolutely needed brown boots. Well, now I know where all this extra weight has been lurking -- in my CALVES! I tried pair after pair and couldn't get them either to zip or to pull up! When did this happen??????????? I bravely kept looking at store after store with no luck! Finally we went back to the motel and that is when I noticed a Payless shoe store across from our hotel. After I dropped off my shopping buddies, I made a beeline for Payless. No luck there either, but there was a Cato next door. I wandered in there and didn't see any boots at all. The saleswoman pointed me over to the far wall and there was the exact boots I had been looking for! They even zipped up - with a little extra tugging! OK , now the best part was that they were only $27.99!!!! I happily slapped down my plastic and out the door I went! The next morning I pulled on pantyhose - first time since last winter -- and slipped on my new boots and viola! they zipped up! I felt really good in a cute coral colored sweater and my new brown skirt and boots. Now, as the day wore on, my calves were rebelling at the constricting they were receiving, but at our last break, I went up to my room to use the bathroom. When I got back down to the meeting, I was fixing me a glass of ice tea when a lady I really didn't know at all pressed up behind me and whispered the words no woman ever wants to hear! "Your skirt is tucked up in your pantyhose!" she said. Well, needless to say, embarrassment flooded over me! Who had been on the elevator with me? Who was walking behind me down the long hallway? How many had noticed? I immediately jerked the offensive skirt back in place and took my tea to my seat and hoped my face wasn't as coral colored as my sweater! I was mortified to say the least!!!!!!!! The next day I finally had the courage to ask this sweet considerate lady if I was flashing everyone with my rear. She graciously assured me that my skirt had been full enough to drape over my posterier and nothing was showing, but she had a similar skirt and knew that it wasn't supposed to be gathered up on one side! I thanked her profusely!!! Guess that's what a 49 year old woman gets when she sets out to look cute!

Life Satisfaction

I was reading the Sunday paper today and a headline jumped out at me "Where do I find Passion for Work?" Well that got my attention! Don't get me wrong ~~ I really like my job and my farmers are like family to me, but right now, I feel like we are drowning in a sea of paperwork and new programs due to the late passage of the farm bill. As I read the answer to the headline, I found out the man was asking for help because he felt lost. He didn't like his current job and couldn't think of another career he wanted to pursue. He was to the point of not even wanting to get out of bed in the mornings (Boy can I relate to that sometimes!) The columnist answered him by asking him to rate 8 areas of his life on a scale of 1-7 with 7 being "very satisfied". The areas were:

1) Friends & family
2) Fun Recreation
3) Physical environment
4) Romance/significant other
5) Mental self
6) Finances
7) Career
8) Physical self

The columnist urged the man to refocus his efforts and start looking for a career that does one thing: allows him to contribute in a way that makes him feel valuable. That being the best way to get your work energy to carry over into other aspects of your life. She also pointed out that work should just be one aspect of a happy life. She said that in the same way people mistakenly believe that a spouse should read their mind and make them feel better, many people think that their career is supposed to make them happy too!

As I read the column, I noticed several things, but the most glaring omission to the list was God/ spiritual health!!!!!! How can anyone even begin to evaluate their life without taking an honest look at their relationship with God?? Right now, I am in the midst of a Bible study that is kicking my butt and stepping all over my feelings! This study is about the small idols in our lives - things we put ahead of our relationship with God. Even good things like family and physical health and work can become an idol if we put them ahead of God in our priorities. I guess I just mistakenly thought only about addictions and bad things in our lives as being "idols" before this study. In Mark 10:17-31, Matthew 19:16-30, and Luke 18:18-30 (You know it MUST be importatnt when it is in 3 out of 4 gospels!) Jesus meets a young rich man who asks Jesus what he must do to atain eternal life. We have all read the story and it always ends in each of the accounts the same way - Jesus tells him to sell all he has and give it to the poor and then come follow him. The man goes away sad because he is wealthy and couldn't give up everything to follow Jesus. Kelly Minter, author of this study, points out that when the Lord tells us to part with our idols, He is looking at us and loving us. He sees that our idols are in the way. He also know that He has the power to turn whatever we parted with into a hundred fold in this lifetime, while also granting us eternal life. He can do this not because we make it possible, but because all things are possible with him!! So, now I just have to take that to heart and figure out what idol God is asking me to root out of my life - or to at least move it out of His way so that HE can be at the top of my list!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tara!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA!!

Today is my first born daughter's birthday. Tara, you have brought great joy to my life each and every day since you arrived! You were the first to make me a Mom, and a MIL, and a Nana! You are such a wonderful daughter! I admire how you have grown in your spiritual life and walk so closely with Jesus. You are a great inspiration to me as I watch you seek His will for your life. You truly are becoming the Proverbs 31 woman.

Proverbs 31:28-29 " Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."

4th of July

Well, hubby talked me into a little Harley trip yesterday. We went down to my sister and brother-in-laws lake home on Lake Palo Pinto. The air was cool as we left yesterday morning bright and early (well, about 8:30 am). Now, riding on the back of a Harley is not my idea of the most fun thing that we do together. However, hubby enjoys it tremendously and it is a lot cheaper way to travel ~~ I just don't like the pavement rushing by me at 7o MPH!!!! I always take along my MP3 player with LOTS of Praise & Worship music loaded to listen to as we go down the road. The only problem is ~~ I am, (have I mentioned this before?) very technology challenged! That stupid little red two inch long piece of plastic can totally defy me and not want to actually PLAY all the music my son has loaded for me!! I endlessly push buttons scrolling through options, menus, playlists in the hope of hitting the right combination and actually hearing music!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, without knowing just which combination works, I hear music and THEN hubby is stopping for something. Off comes the helmet (oh that feels so good because helmets are NOT fun to wear in the summer heat!), turn off the MP3 player, and wait while the liquid gold is pumped into the tiny tank..... then back on with the helmet and into another struggle with trying to get a song to actually play. Well, today I finally bested that little bugger!!! I just learned to leave it playing and not turn it off until we pull into the driveway. Home safe and sound at last! Now, when do we leave again????

I make plans for the day, and God just laughs!

Well, my son is truly nearly grown up! He set his alarm, got up and got off to work at 6:00 am ALL BY HIMSELF this morning! I woke up at 6:30 and nearly panicked, but he was already gone. Hubby got up then and left to go plow while it was cool, so I slept in, really slept in~~ until 8:45 am and that is LATE for me!!!!!!! Got up started laundry and thought "Well, I will have a leisurely day of laundry and catching up on my Bible Study and reading the paper, then to Kaitlyn's wedding and Dustin's Bday party, blah blah blah! To make a long story short God laughed at my plans!!!! As I was hanging up laundry on my clothesline OUTSIDE (gotta save that electricity!), my sweet MIL came over and said that Smith's Gardentown had called and had some of the grass sod she had been waiting for, but she needed to pick it up today! OK, quick trip to WFalls, I can exchange some stuff at Pennys, get her grass and still make it home in time for the wedding. You know, I am so glad God changed my plans! I truly value the time I get to spend with my MIL ~~especially with my mom being gone now for 4 years. God chose this day to allow me to spend most of it with Ethel and we always have such fun together!! God has divine appointments for us each day and sometimes they are with the sandpaper people in our lives and then again, sometimes they are with the people we love the most! Thanks God ~~ I really enjoyed my assignment today!