Sunday, July 30, 2017

Day Six

I have enabled comment moderation on my posts due to a handful of comments left on my blog this morning.  I am pretty sure they were spam related, and since the purpose of my blog is not to host advertisements for anyone else, I enabled the moderation.

Yesterday ended better than it began in terms of my challenge and today is off to a great start.  I am firmly committed to seeing this through.

Psalm 119:103
How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

This week I plan to also crack down on my diet that I have been very, very laxed with.  So here's to a great week, may we reflect His glory.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Day Five

OK, so the hardest part of each day?   From about two in the afternoon until bedtime.  This is the part of the day that I am more likely to fail and eat cookies or have a soda. Not so ironically this is also the hardest part of the day for my kids and their various issues.  I never realized how much I have idolized food, how much I seek it for comfort.  Ick.  I do not like that about myself.

The challenge is going ok.  Yesterday I had a root beer.  *sigh*  Today I had cookies, I haven't had cookies since this started, I have even served them without a problem to other people in my home.  After today though, I am unfortunately going to have to limit what we keep in our home until my challenge is completed.

It's been a rough week.  I am thankful today is Saturday.  I am off to listen to my oldest read aloud to us, and then I am going to read aloud today's Torah portion, a chapter or two in Anne of Green Gables, and await my handsome husband getting home.


unbeknownst to him, our adorable chihuahua had a heart hole punch stuck upside down on his nose yesterday :)

Friday, July 28, 2017

Day Three & Four

Day three did not go well.  At all.  But I am ready for day four, a fresh clean slate and am determined to complete my less sugar challenge.

Psalm 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Today we are cleaning the house from top to bottom.  It is not even eight am and I want to just plop down and read a good book.  But, the house really is a mess, so I am going to light a candle, put some music on, and get busy.  Our puppy has been sick again, my husband has been sick, and my kids have been battling migraines on top of their other chronic health issues...in short this has not been a fun week, nor has it been a productive week.  I cannot control any bit of it, except to get the messy house cleaned up, so that's what I am going to do.

Hope you guys have an awesome weekend.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Day Two

OK on the challenge front, but have lost two nights of sleep with a sick puppy :(.  We have an appointment this afternoon at our vet.

My husband and youngest are also hugging the couch today, they are not feeling good either.  Fun times, right?

I am hanging out in 1 John.  Paul Washer speaks often about the testing of your salvation through 1 John.  Yesterday morning, after a very, very, very loooooooooong night I read through 1 John 1, verse by verse...did you know that it says if we claim to have fellowship with Jesus yet walk in the darkness, that we lie.  What exactly does it mean to walk in the darkness?  Well, I used Blue Letter Bible and was amazed at the picture that began to form in my mind.  To walk here means to make progress, make one's way, make due use of opportunities, regulate one's life, conduct one's self, pass one's life, go that way, be occupied with...the darkness here refers to being in want of light, ignorance of divine things, and its associated wickedness.  So if I am understanding this verse correctly, it means if I choose to occupy myself, my days and my time, my attention and my affections with things, no matter how innocent they may seem on the surface, if they promote darkness at all...then I am in great danger.

This brought me up short, it made me think.  You see I love to read.  I absolutely love to read.  I read quite a bit and develop great affections for the books that I spend my time either listening to or reading.  For me, it's been a bit of a struggle recently because I have found myself questioning if the books I am choosing, do they honor God?  It's actually been about six months or so that it has been bothering me.  Last week I heard a sermon and it was in direct answer to a prayer I had prayed asking for clarification.  Again, here in 1 John, He seems to be answering me.  Drawing me away from the things that have captivated my heart and my attention, returning it to where it needs to be in order for me to live each day to the fullest.

I have no desire to tell someone else they should or should not read something, trusting instead that if it is something that God wants to deal with them on, He can and He shall, just like He is dealing with me.  Instead, I would urge you to seek His face and His will regarding anything - no matter how small and insignificant it may seem to you - because after all, nothing is more important than seeing what He has to say about it, right?




Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Day 1 and some odds and ends

Mostly off to a good start yesterday.  The first few days are actually the easiest for me...it's day three or four where it gets really hard, and I desperately want to throw in the towel.

Kari Patterson's book, Sacred Mundane  launches today.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Here is a book trailer she has released.  If you aren't already a reader of her blog, please do yourself a favor and go check it out!!  Either way, do not miss today's post.

We just finished listening to Tom Sawyer as an audio book, my oldest is reading More Stories from Grandma's Attic aloud to us, and guess what?!?!  I started reading Anne of Green Gables aloud this past week.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Anne of Green Gables.  I love the book, the movie with Megan Follows, and the audio version.  I actually have two copies of the audio book - one on CD from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre and another one we got recently on Audible read by Rachel McAdams.  Speaking of Audible, do you utilize Audible?  If so, then be sure to check out Sarah Mackenzie's page on current audible deals.

One last odds and end this morning, I just completed Misty Winckler's sweep and smile challenge and am preparing to go through it again.  If you are interested in finding out more, check out this link.  It starts again this Friday (the 28th).

Have an awesome Tuesday.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Sugar Challenge Take Two

Well, I tried this not too long ago and failed SPECTACULARLY.  So, here I am, ready to try again.  This time I know a little more about what I can and cannot do...so I have changed the challenge a bit.

First of all, I have never successfully fasted.  Not once, except for when it was imposed by someone else pre- or post surgery.

I spent so many years literally starving myself trying to fit the ideal body type for ballet, it's like I have lost any desire at all to do anything to lose weight or discipline myself to do without something, even when there is a very good reason to do so.  I started dancing when I was four or five years old and danced constantly until I was twenty-five, then intermittently for the next five years as we started our family.

But I want to fast.  I want to experience what it feels like to seek God with everything that is in me.

Which leads me to my two main reasons for doing this sugar challenge in the first place.  One - I want to break the craving cycle, second - I want to prepare for a fast.  I realize that as long as I am hooked on sugar, a fast is going to be ever so much harder, if not impossible.

I don't want to set myself up for failure so I am going to do a less sugar, not a no sugar, challenge.  I am going to allow myself the following - the 1/2 tsp of sugar in my decaf coffee and then either cinnamon life cereal or 1/2 tsp sugar in my oatmeal for breakfast.  I am also going to still eat fruit and yogurt, and twice a week I am going to allow myself to have hot chocolate.  But other than that, there will be no candy, cake, sugar, soda pop, ice cream, jelly, jam, or cookies...and I am also going to add in no fried foods (so basically NO eating out :) ).

I'm going to be bathing this attempt in prayer.  In my weakness, I pray He will reveal Himself to me strong.  2 Corinthians 12:9.

Tomorrow morning I begin.  I will give a small update everyday.

Friday, July 21, 2017

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV



Monday, July 17, 2017

Sacred Mundane

A few months ago (I think...I am terrible about losing track of time!) I signed up to get to read/review a book, Sacred Mundane by Kari Patterson before it is released on the 25th of this month.  I am so behind in everything, yet I didn't want to rush through the book just to give it a review...I wanted to savor her words.  So I think I am cutting it close on posting this.  But here it goes...

I love Kari's writing, it portrays a depth of God's grace and faithfulness, a heart that seeks after Him steadily, consistently.  I love to get a new notice in my inbox that she has posted a new post on her blog.  Not only is she a homeschool momma, she is a deeply practical and real person.  I have emailed her a few times and she has taken the time to not only email me back (she does not know me in real life) but to also answer my questions and to offer encouragement.  I have read one other book by her, I purchased Faithfully Frugal for my kindle a few years ago.  HIGHLY recommend that one as well.

This new book...is AWESOME.  Seriously.  I am getting several copies for birthdays that are coming up, I want to get copies just to hand out to people when I meet them, when they have a new baby, or move into a new house, or get a scary diagnosis, or are having an average type of day.  This is a book you want to read with your best friend  The highest compliment that I think I can give Kari is this, above all else that I have said in my review, this book makes me want to follow hard after God, to appreciate and be thankful for what I normally would be indifferent towards, and to not just accept the hard moments, but to savor them, knowing they are doing His work in me.

You can pre-order it here.

You can check out her blog here.

PS...I always wonder this when I read a review, so I do want to mention :
even if I had not been given a free copy, I still would have said the exact same words I shared above.