Weekly Update, and Plateau Perspective

Weekly Update:

Exercise: 4 30-min walks in my classroom

Weight Loss: Still to be continued. :)

So. Puppy.

I love him dearly. But I may have hit the side of his kennel last night in anger. He was screaming!!! Then I got up and went out to the couch. Where I slept for an hour.

Granted, the little guy only screamed for about two minutes. But it was enough to piss me off.

And... when I pick him up to take him out to potty, all the love comes rushing back. He's just so darn cute and cuddly.

Seriously- I'm not going to injure him. Really.

I just may think about it at 2:30 in the morning when I have yet to get more than one hour of solid sleep and have to be up at 6:30.

Or maybe this is all a funny joke I'm telling you guys... Maybe.

So. Exercise.

Less this last week due to some bug I've picked up and am fighting off - not to mention the addition to our home. The bug has yet to vacate, so I may not be doing much more than my classroom walks this week either.

So. Weight loss.

Well, I was able to stuff myself into my old 12 jeans! Woohoo! Muffin top? Oh yeah. Still! They zipped up. And I had to wear something to the vet - MacDuff peed on the other ones on accident.

It's not the same as feeling that I'm really back into them, but it is a small bit of inspiration and motivation. Progress is happening people!!!

And let me tell you...

It's esay to forget the progress I have made over the last two plus years:

This change required hard work

 

Perseverance,

Sacrifice,

and Dedication.

Yes, I regressed some. Gained back 30 pounds.

But that does not a failure make.



Remind me to look at this when I melt down again.

So tell me: How do you keep yourself motivated? How do you let the little things go and focus on positives?

We Women

Some of My Best Girls.

This past weekend, I spent time at one of my favorite places, Twin Rocks Friends Camp, for a women's retreat.

This is the second women's retreat that I've been to. Both times, I have been the youngest by far. No matter, though; I'm always excited and interested to learn from the Warrior Women who have gone through the battles before me.

The theme this year was the God-Centered Home, or God's Homemaking. There were many wonderful ideas about creating a godly environment in our homes. Many women shared their varied backgrounds - multiple marriages, traditional home and family, dysfunctional family upbringing, nontraditional family configurations. All in all, it was a great time for learning and sharing for the group of women who attended, me included.

However, what I took away, first and foremost, is this: We women need each other.

Have you heard about The Mommy Wars? I hadn't. Not until I read a blog post over at Five Kids Is A Lot Of Kids. Beth has a magical way of bringing humor and truth and vulnerability to her writing. Read her post on Mommy Wars here.

I was quite surprised to learn that this was really a blown-up version of an issue I have been dealing with on a much smaller scale. I wrote about defining femininity here, trying to unravel the mess of opinions in order to say that each woman, each person, needs to do what is right/best for them. In short, that is what Beth said as well.

We women need each other.

We DON'T need women (and I'm speaking to women here) who judge our decisions, compete with our lifestyles, or gossip about our loved ones.

We DON'T need any help feeling guilty or badly about ourselves. Pretty sure we got that one in the bag all by our lonesomes.

It is hard enough to get through each day with a smile on our face. I'll speak from my perspective: It is difficult enough for me to accomplish all the necessary tasks, make the obligatory decisions, spend time with my husband, find time for myself, get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, and make time for people who don't live in our home without added stress and negativity.

I strive to surround myself with women who have similar values and goals. No, we do not all have the same lifestyles. We are so different! Those differences give us greater opportunity for learning, growing, sharing, and a whole lot of laughter. My community is SO important to me.

These Mommy Wars? Really? Let's just take a stand here - decide what is best for our families, and let everyone else do the same.

Can we trust the women in our lives to be doing the best that they can just to get by?

Can we let our judgments and opinions go long enough to simply be supportive, loving, and encouraging?

I need this! Don't you?

We women need each other.

I witnessed the power of camaraderie and fellowship this weekend. Women holding each other up. Figuratively and literally.

Younger women helping older women carry luggage and get up the stairs.

Older women helping younger women make sense of trials and struggles in their lives.

Women doing crafts together.

Women taking walks together.

Women playing Bocce Ball together.

Women eating together.

Women crying together.

Women praying together.

Women laughing together!

I realize that not all women are as socially stimulated by other women as much as I am. But I still believe that there is something special about female friendship. And I am really starting to believe that being choosy about which women get our valuable time is more important than I had thought.

We women need each other.

Married. Single. Divorced. Young. Old. Fat. Thin.

Doesn't matter.

We women need each other.

So tell me: How do you find/make time for friends in your life? What is your favorite way to spend quality time with these friends?

Why I Love "Friends"

I love the TV show Friends.

In fact, I got my husband addicted to it.

I like to speak "Friends" with my own friends.

I actually feel like the main six characters are my friends.

Yes, I am just that silly, but I also see the humanity and reality of these characters. I can see myself in every single character. Do I like that porn and casual sex are treated with levity and portrayed as commonplace? No, not exactly. But both of these are part of this world. That doesn't make it okay, but it doesn't do any good to pretend that the world isn't full of sin, and really, struggling humans.

You see, I love the writings of people like Don Miller, Anne Lamott, Brennan Manning, and C. S. Lewis (thinking of his memoirs). These people tell it like it is. These writers understand how I interact with Jesus. The books, movies, stories that shout "JESUS" after every sentence leave me bruised and annoyed. What I love, what I relate to in works such as Blue Like Jazz, is that Miller chooses Jesus. He tells stories of his life. Adventures. Struggles. And at the end, he still chooses Jesus. That resonates with me far greater than a Christian How-To book.

Don't mistake me. I enjoy those books too. They also have a place. But they do not speak to my soul in the same way. A good friend of mine briefly detailed why she loves Brennan Manning's work, specifically his newest, All Is Grace. This friend of mine speaks my mind. Read her reactions here. (And seriously, while you're there, read it all. She is a fantastic writer.)

My soul, my spirit, resonates most with music and story. I see Jesus in every story I hear. Stories are about us, us humans. Stories, good stories, tell the truth. That is also why I love theatre. Theatre is about storytelling.

So I watch a show like Friends and see myself, the broken pieces of my human self. I see the brokenness of our world. I see a world in need of Christ's healing, His grace and mercy.

And best of all, I hear laughter. LAUGHTER! That is the other component that sets my soul afire. When I watch Joey and Chandler hug it out, when Ross covers his legs in lotion and baby powder, when Rachel and Monica bicker, when Phoebe (well, Lisa Kudrow) almost laughs at her own jokes, I LAUGH!!! Sometimes my sides ache from it. 

It is not derisive or ironic laughter. It is the ability to see our humanity and find the humor in it. The humor, not the guilt. 

Kevin and I had a four-hour conversation one night of our beach trip all about the focus of the Church, especially what is preached. I was being really hard on myself, beating myself up, again, and he told me to stop it. "What? Why? You are too easy on me! Being hard on myself helps me to get better! To be better!"

"How?"

Crap. He did it again. Focusing on my guilt, my mistakes, my failures, my humanity - all that does is keep my eyes away from where they truly want to rest - on Jesus. My history with the Church primarily involves feeling badly about anything and everything I do wrong. (The definition of wrong could be a whole other post.)

Yes, we are to evaluate our mistakes, learn from them. I believe we need to be self-analytical enough to track our patterns, figure out where we go wrong. But guilt? Why does guilt always accompany this process?

Is it learned?

Is it taught?

Is it right?

Is guilt from God?

Is it bad to watch Friends, laugh at the jokes, the antics? Not to me. I don't plan on letting my future four-year-old watch Joey woo some poor girl with "How YOU doin'?", but I do not believe it is wrong to acknowledge the humor in our humanity - without guilt.

If I see two men kissing in a play, I'm not going to walk out. 

I'm not going to boycott The Golden Compass, the movie or the books, because the story is "against the Church". In my experience, this story points on many truths about the Church. It is a wonderful story. As everything, take it with a grain of salt!

If we, the Church, bury our heads in the sand and refuse to laugh at ourselves, we are lost. We lose our relevance to a world in need of compassion, grace, mercy. This is why I love Stuff Christians Like. It's true! It's funny!

Naming my issues, mistakes, failures is productive. Dwelling on them to the point of self-loathing does nothing. That is not of Jesus. That is not acting in the freedom brought by His grace and mercy. So, as ever, I will laugh. And move on.

And go watch some Friends.

So tell me: What makes you laugh?