Resolution 2012: Work on resolutions I improved upon in 2011!

 A year ago I posted some New Year Resolution Candidates for my goal of completing my first resolution. I am proud to announce that I completed TWO! I read 3 books AND didn't eat ONE snicker doodle!!! YAY! For the rest of them I didn't hold myself too accountable as I was just mainly going for the completion of a single goal but, I did improve upon myself GREATLY! So I am going to continue to fine tune these skills I didn't fully master last year in 2012. 

I do brush my teeth more often I am almost up to once a day on a regular basis thanks to a commitment to make sure Drew's teeth get brushed.  I want to work to at LEAST once a day and flossing. I will say for the record; I still don't have a single cavity though so I must not be that nasty to being with.

Read my Bible daily (or at least a verse or two). I made GREAT strides in this category due to my Bibile Quest: heaven in 2011! I am still reading the Bible straight through from beginning to end and am currently in 2 Kings! HUGE progress. 

I will continue a regular work out regimen. I did WAY better with this than I ever have! Up until I got pregnant and sick I was working out several times a week. I cannot WAIT to start again. I am only feeling like doing little bits right now but, as soon as I have Felix I will continue and improve upon my new habit :) 

So that is all! This year my resolution is to improve upon my oral care, continue my Bible reading, and get in shape again! Cheers :)

"Whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less..."

I saw a quote on a friend's page that said "Not everyone has to like you." A simple statement that I love. 


 As I have gotten older I have realized that I don't want everyone to like me. If everyone liked me I wouldn't be me.  Nobody should expect everyone to like them if they know people they don't like.  That makes sense doesn't it? The world is made up of so many people, many VERY respectable people that I don't like. The fact that I don't have a natural inclination to be friends with them doesn't mean they are bad people or that they are lacking something as individuals, it just means we are different in ways that don't make us compatible as friends.  It is that easy folks. 


 It shocks me how when someone finds out they aren't liked by another person that there is some expectation that these two individuals HAVE to be mean to each other  Really?!? As a Christian you shouldn't expect me to be mean or get baited into some sort of argument just with you because I don't like you.  There are plenty of people that I don't like that I can carry on a pleasant conversation with.  In fact trying to be pleasant to people who aren't exactly my favorite at first has been what has gotten me some of my closest friends. It is SO important to try to be nice to people we don't like when we have to come into contact with them. It is even more important to try to understand them if we can.


If you need your space from a certain person so you can keep peace, by all means do that but, when you come into contact with them or have to make contact with them the best policy is to be as cordial and pleasant as humanly possible. If you find out someone doesn't like you either keep your distance, try to mend things if they mean something to you, or shut-up and move on. You are still a fearfully and wonderfully made individual, one person's opinion shouldn't mean that much! 


One of my all time favorite books 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis has great things to say pertaining to this issue. This is something I have tried to live by as much as possible. I am not perfect at it but, I think it is important for everyone to read. 


Here is an excerpt that I love.

I pointed out in the chapter on Forgiveness that our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves. It means that we wish our own good. In the same was Christian Love (or Charity) for our neighbors is quite a different thing from liking or affection. We 'like' or are 'fond of' some people, and not of others. It is important to understand that this natural 'liking' is neither a sin nor a virtue, any more than your likes and dislikes in food are a sin or a virtue. It is just a fact. But, of course, what we do about it is either sinful or virtuous.
Natural liking or affection for people makes it easier to be 'charitable' towards them. It is, therefore, normally a duty to encourage our affections — to 'like' people as much as we can (just as it is often our duty to encourage our liking for exercise or wholesome food) — not because this liking is itself the virtue of charity, but because it is a help to it. On the other hand, it is also necessary to keep a very sharp lookout for fear our liking for some one person makes us uncharitable, or even unfair, to someone else. There are even cases where our liking conflicts with our charity towards the person we like. For example, a doting mother may be tempted by natural affectionate impulses at the expense of the child's real happiness later on.-
But though natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that the way to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings. Some people are 'cold' by temperament; that may be a misfortune for them, but it is no more a sin than having a bad digestion is a sin; and it does not cut them out from the chance, or excuse them from the duty, of learning charity. The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his 'gratitude', you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.

Love it. Great words to live by and good things to think about.

The Sweet Promise of a New Season.

So.... it has been awhile since I have really blogged and I miss it. I have a lot of hobbies to juggle  and one usually takes a backseat to the other, especially with being a mom and all.  I have announced to almost every other social website I participate in that we are having another baby, but not the B, so there you go! I am currently 10 weeks along and I have had one heck of a ride with this baby.  I was uber sick with Drew and I was sincerely hoping to not be sick with this baby, but no dice. I have been even sicker and in different ways. I will spare you the details but, what you should know is that I am now keeping down food thanks to Zofran and the baby is doing just perfect.

Being so ill and due to some financial stuff I had to take a leave of absence from work. All of this has been the perfect storm of stress for my personality type and at times I feel like I have just been battling to keep my head above water. However, I have learned a whole lot about myself and God and trust.  It is amazing to me how many people are there for you when you are fun and healthy and then just slide to the background whenever you struggle.  I have been disappointed by certain people and really surprised by others' willingness to help.  I know that I was placed in this position to be forced to learn how to trust that God will take care of me even when I don't feel supported by people I expected to. I need to rely on God for strength and not myself or any other person. People are just humans after all.

Also I think a season change will help me a ton. I cannot wait for this weather to cool down. My favorite season is Fall and I want it here so badly. I want to go outside. A hay ride would be great. I want to decorate with pumpkins and eat a big bowl of chili. I want the trees to change color. I want that nice crisp football evening where you have to put on a hoodie. I can't wait to go to a fall festival. I even love the smell of the Autumn air. Hot apple cider. Halloween (of course Spooktackular). Ahhh. There is so much to look forward to. One day at a time God will heal me and make me a better person for living my circumstance. Everyone goes through tough times but, I have the privilege of being able to see mine as a learning experience; Not every person is so blessed. And those are my thoughts for today folks.

Best Dessert/Candy Bar you can make at home EVER.

So my copy of this recipe is getting pretty torn up. And even though I will probably save a copy in the good ole computer I think it should be also documented on my blog, not only to save it but to share it.  It is stinking fantastic stuff. :)

1 1/4 cup Butter (not margarine)
35 to 40 Saltine Crackers
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips
1 cup DARK Brown Sugar
14 oz Can Condensed Milk
3/4 cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)

In a medium sauce pan melt 1/4 cup of the butter.  Pour into foil lined 15X9" jelly roll pan.  Arrange crackers over butter.  In same saucepan melt remaining butter; add sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.   Remove from heat, add condensed milk. Spread over crackers.

Bake in pre-heated oven 425F for 10-12 minutes until mixture is bubbly and slightly darkened. Remove from oven.  Cool 1 minute. Sprinkle with chocolate chips; let stand 5 minutes until melted. Spread chocolate.  Sprinkle with nuts and press into chocolate. Refridgerate until chocolate is set. Remove foil; cut candy into small pieces.

Holy Guacamole! It's HOT.

So now that football camp/school activities have started I am stuck indoors being bored and trying to beat the heat.  This year is going to be a tough one to get through. It is John's tenure year so he has basically agreed to do every function he has been asked to do on TOP of football and teaching. He is coaching basketball this year right after the conclusion of football season. So he will be coaching until the end of February. YIKES.  I SO wish the drive to Reeds Spring was shorter. He will not ever be home :( I just wanted to blog and gripe a little bit... I need to find something productive to do with this day! Later Gator.

Peace that Passes Understanding.

In my life I have had several chances to become ridiculously irresponsible, to step off the path and take the adventuresome yet lonely route into Nowheresville. Life off the beaten path is excitingly refreshing if you can stay within sight of the road. If you don't explore you never learn and yet, you wander too far and you are running from reality. You begin to find yourself searching for anything to sustain your life and true purpose. When you loose your direction you find loneliness and confusion. Nothing is scarier than coming to the realization that you are out in the wild with no lifeline, facing the huge bear that is yourself. Only God knows why I never did more than have fleeting moments of such irresponsibleness.

Because I am such a carefully calculating individual I suppose that God installed some sort of super natural strength of conscious in my brain and for that I am thankful. Any time I have wandered even the slightest bit too far, I can feel it in my heart. I have always had great regret upon a bad choice. Every consequential lesson reverberates from each mistake I can remember making. It all tracks back to who I am. And when you really think about how all of that fits together it is pretty incredible. In every instance of my irresponsible use of free will God has incorporated each mistake to enrich the life he has so graciously given me.  This is truly grace overflowing.

When I sit back in the conundrum that is my analytical nature, paying attention to every nuance and detail that makes my life precious, I am thankful that I push through the less appealing sides of the that nature. Most often it produces very unnecessary fretfulness, but sometimes it allows me to enjoy and appreciate the intricacies of life that most people overlook. The miracles of God's grace and surprising patience in my life has given me peace as of late.  I can read accounts of how God acted in other people's lives long ago in the old testament and still be a little frightened. The mass smiting of cities and peoples are enough to make anyone nervous, but I have to go off of my own experience in this time period, post resurrection.

The Bible says the God is unchanging and steadfast. I think this is true to a point, but the evidence suggests that He (at very least) deals with every individual differently. There may be a lot of mysteries to be solved but, I think each individual must use their own experiences to define who God is to them. He created everyone in His own image, and yet one of us can be completely different than the other. Then you throw in the factor of free will and you have an indefinitely eclectic human race.  The big factor that I can see in my lifetime is the grace God affords to those who try with their whole heart to be good people. Some people have a natural inclination to be good but, I believe the biggest rewards come to those who have a hard time being good and find a way to do it despite their hindrance.  God is with those who struggle. He may seem silent, but He is most certainly there.  I find Him on the other side of each pain and misunderstanding no matter the length of the trial. I know I will never understand God in this lifetime. I am glad that I can begin to find the *peace that passes understanding.

*Parenthetical Note:
I had always let that verse slide by me and not really pay attention to it's true meaning.  It is a great feeling to find an epiphany in something I had heard so many times and missed. To most people It means that God's peace is beyond what we humans can understand, but I think it also means that His peace literally surpasses the act of understanding itself. I believe we can take the verse to a deeper level and apply it. To me that is just one more way God continues to amaze me. There is always a deeper meaning.

Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"

A Blog just to Blog.

I actually don't  think that I have a whole lot to blog about.... I will say that I have really been enjoying the weather and that makes me happy.

My monthly goal for exercising is up to 600 minutes a month! Apparently all I need to do to stick with a resolution is say that I can't do it...

Well, that is all I have. I am really stinking bored. I am going to find something else to occupy my brain.

Good day to all!