of resolutions and new years...

Well another Christmas has come and gone...now to close out the old year and bring in the new. With the new year comes new possibilities, new plans, dreams and resolution.

Although I have never been much for publicly announcing my resolutions, I have in years past made them. I have at times even written them down and attempted to make them happen. But often times, I have done as many do, reverted back to my old habits and ways shortly after the new year.

According to "experts" it takes about 21 days to create a habit, or 30 to 40 repetitions of a behavior for that behavior to become a new habit. I have also read that you can develop a taste for a food you don't like after trying it as few as seven to as many as fourteen times.

So if these facts are true and accurate, then many of us don't repeat our desired new behavior that long into the new year for those resolutions to become our new habit. I know with myself, changing my eating habits and preferences took time to develop. I didn't wake up the first morning craving yogurt and fruit and passing the biscuits and bacon without my mouth salivating.

And the first few days I didn't have my usual morning dose of Dr Pepper weren't easy...the headache alone was enough to send me running back to Sonic for a route 44 size of my drug of choice. But after a week or so the caffeine was out of my system and I no longer had that desire for the dark brown fizzy stuff. Now, I don't know if I could finish a glass of that sweet syrup-y drink or not. Just so you know, I'm not going to try...because with anything, it can become a habit again. I haven't been delivered from my human nature yet, so I realize that the whole act of creating new habits works in reverse also.

With exercise it takes more than just a few times of pushing yourself to get up off the couch and putting on your gym shoes and pushing your body beyond what it wants to do. Even after months of repeating the behavior, there are times when I really don't want to get up and "just do it". But once you see the results of your hard work, and you know how much better you feel after the workout, your more likely to get up and repeat the behavior for the reward...not necessarily because you want to exercise, but the reward becomes the motive to propel you to repeat the action again and again...At least I find this true for me.

The way I feel after I complete a workout is what drives me even on the laziest of days to get up and move. I have so much more energy and feel more mentally alert and the endorphins kick in to lift my mood to such a level that I want to repeat this feeling again and again. It gets to the place that on a day that I can't workout for some reason or the other, I am actually upset or disappointed that I missed that workout. Along with the pleasure I get from seeing the results on my body and watching the pounds fall off and my clothing size shrinking.

I am at a point now, where I want to push beyond my current physical level and see what else my body can do. I want to change my idea of what a women of 43, 44, 45 and so on can do. I want to show my children that they don't have to become a statistic. They don't have to become over weight, under active and plagued with health problems...

Instead of trying to start my weight loss journey at the beginning of a new year, I find I do better by just picking a time and doing it. So I chose August of this past year to really get serious about my health and weight issues. So far, I have lost twenty-five pounds and feel so much better physically and mentally. I still want to lose fifteen to twenty pounds in order to reach the goal I set for myself. And to reach the goal that Wii fit said I needed to be for my height and age.

As New Years Resolutions go, I suppose mine would include continued weight loss and fitness goals. Continue to incorporate clean eating, getting more natural and pure with my food choices. Which would include adding more fresh real food, cutting out more refined sugar and flour products. But one resolution I have is to grow more of our food this year. I am planning a raised bed garden for our backyard that will provide fresh vegetables for the family. I want to find a source of fresh eggs, milk and meat. I plan to eat more locally produced foods, and rely less on the standard grocery stores. I want to help support local, small farms to help keep their lifestyle part of our culture. Since I can't have my own farm like we did a few years back, I want to help those who do, continue their way of life. Perhaps by helping them, I can come closer to living the life that I desire.

I want to continue to simplify my lifestyle. To not only rid myself of excess things, but to set aside ideas, thoughts, behaviors, habits and attitudes that no longer serve or support the lifestyle that I am seeking. I don't want to be bogged down by things that are contrary to who I am becoming and the direction I am headed. Knowing however, that a mind that is to wide open can be filled with garbage and untruth, so I will continue to hold to those truths which will never become old or outdated, but will always remain...I don't want to be led astray, down a path of deception, so I will continue to seek Him in all my ways...

My plan for this year is to start to train for a 5K. I want to run my first this year, hopefully in the spring or early summer. I know this will require more discipline of me and demand more physically from my body. I feel that I am ready for this challenge more so than I have ever been. I am ready for this next step. I am hoping that this is something that Andrew and I can do together, something that we can work toward as a couple as well as individually.

Some books that I plan to begin to reread in the coming year in order to refocus and renew my convictions and passions in these areas are:

Because it is my road map for this life and the one to come.

This one inspires me each year to plant, even at times when I have been unable to do so.

Because I need to readjust my priorities ever so often.

Because this is the way I want to live my life.

For inspiration and a reminder of how we should be eating.

There are many others I will add to that list. All of these are ones I have read before, more than once, but continue to find inspiration and something new with each reading. I have others on my shelf I will list at another time, for now, life is calling, and that is one call I want to answer!

On The Homefront...or tales from the homestead

Happy Tuesday! Had a great weekend. Didn't do much, just enjoyed.

Got a busy week ahead and Noah's birthday is Sunday. Can't believe he will be four years old! Sometimes it seems impossible that he has been here that long.

Nothing much going on around here, just the usual daily life. Got to get Megan's school year going. High school is going to be different. I am enrolling her in a program from Bob Jones University. She will be doing online school. I think that will work out well for her. This way we can keep exact records of her progress and her high school credits. She will also have teachers other than myself to help her with the difficult subjects: i.e. Algebra, Algebra II, and Geometry. Did I mention I don't do those subjects very well? Anyway, I felt that she needed someone who actually understood those subjects to teach her. Lauren had a tutor at times to help with math, but since this online option is available, I decided to go with it instead.

She seems excited about it and seems to have a whole new attitude about school in general. Lets hope it lasts through the year!

I have Noah a preschool book to help him start to read. My goal with him this school year will be teaching him to read. Then next year we will start working on the other things. I want him to get a good reading foundation and learn phonics.

Lauren is working on her Medical Coding program and should be finished in the spring. Then I am hoping she will continue on and finish the Rad Tech program she had originally planned on doing. She says she would like to go to Bible College for a little while just for the experience at least. I hope if she is serious about it, that she can do that soon. She wants to go to Indiana Bible College. She has some friends there and has visited the area before. I just want what God's will is for her life. If she follows His plan then she will be successful and happy.

She is leaving Thursday to go to California with the Summit Youth group from church. They are going to sing and be a part of an outreach type thing over the weekend. She is excited about that. They fly out Thursday morning early, so if you would please be in prayer for them that they have a safe trip.

Tonight Andrew's company is doing an appreciation dinner for the employees, so we will be going to eat out for that. I will get to see Dick and Nancy again. We were in Kentucky with them and Nancy and I use to get up in the mornings and walk through the neighborhood together. Dick came back out of retirement to do this job, but I haven't seen either of them since we have been here. They have a home in Charlotte and he stays during he week here. She doesn't come with him often and there hasn't been an opportunity to visit with them since coming here.

Tomorrow Megan gets her bottom braces on. She has had her top ones for a couple of months. She is excited about that. Her top teeth are really looking good even after such a short time. So hopefully all will go well. She has been trying to put on weight. She finally reached 90 pounds! She doesn't realize that one day she will look back and be wishing she wouldn't have rushed the pounds on! Funny, I remember myself at close to her age. When I turned 15 I got my drivers licenses and told them I weighed 100 pounds, although I only weighed about 95. But all of my friends had passed 100 and I felt like such a baby weighing so little! Funny how I have spent many years battling pounds...

While cleaning out some things in the garage that had been stored, I ran across journal after journal that I had through the years and the one thread that ran through all of them was; I have never been happy with my weight and the condition of my body. I had written my weight and my goals and kept food journals for years...I was really jolted by this...

Apparently that is one thing I have grappled with for so many years...even at times when I didn't even need to lose weight, I wasn't happy with where my body was...I started thinking that apparently one goal for so much of my adult life has been to be a good weight and be in good physical shape. I'm not talking about like a model or the idea that we see in the magazines and through the media of how a woman is suppose to look. That isn't reality. But I am talking about feeling good about where my weight is but also being physically healthy. One goal I have always had was to run a marathon. To be physically able to have the stamina to run a marathon.

I remember as far back as the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I started running. I wanted to be on the track team in my senior year of high school. I really enjoyed my runs. Of course, I had no idea of how to run correctly and ended up hurting my ankles. So I gave up on the idea. But through the years I have wished I could become a runner.

After reading through all of the journals I found that I had written, I realized that I had to work to obtain the one goal that has consumed so much of my adult life... even if I wasn't actively working toward that goal, I was dreaming of reaching that goal. If something has taken up so much of my life through the years, it much be something I really wanted. Now is the time to work hard to make that happen.

I started going to Curves in June, but slacked off through the summer. Now I have committed to it again and have been going regularly. I have changed my diet, and eat healthy and keep track of my calories. I quit Dr Pepper's and cut out the junk. I only fuel my body with good things...an have an occasional treat, such as the fried oyster Po' Boy I made the other day. But mostly it is lean meats, broiled, boiled, grilled or baked. I eat a lot of seafood! That's not a hard thing, since I could live on seafood. I have changed other habits and replaced them with good things. So far I have lost right at nine pounds! And I am feeling great! I am feeling very positive and know that I can do this...I am going to finally reach that goal of being a healthy weight. I am going to work on becoming the physically active person that I have always desired to become.

My dad always had a saying when I was growing up: Mind over Matter! It is actually quite accurate. 99% of accomplishing something is in your mind. If you set your mind to do it, you can accomplish it.

Success starts in your head, taking small steps forward. I tell myself; Just for today I will eat right and I will exercise. Don't worry about tomorrow, don't worry about the road ahead, just work one day at a time. Eventually you will reach that goal!

Victoria Magazine love...

Have you seen the new Victoria magazine? I use to subscribe to the magazine years ago, but they went out of business. I have kept all of my old magazines and still enjoy looking back through them at times.

Well last year I got a card in the mail; how they found me after all these years and different addresses I have had I will never know; but they were inviting me to come back for their all new Victoria Magazine. I didn't, however, I look at them on the newsstand and I am so tempted to buy one, just to see if it is as good as before.

Today while standing in the check-out line at Food Lion, I saw the July/August issue and I had to have it. So I bought it, and I am only one quarter of the way into it and I am in love...

Of course I am a sucker for anything beach-y and coastal related. This issue grabbed me with the beautiful blues, greens and sand colors on the front...

Oh, I do wish we were going to the beach for our vacation. Those long lazy days playing in the sand and surf...showering at the end of the day in the cool spray of water as you feel the burn of the sun on your shoulders...Dressing in a gauzy cotton dress that swishes around your legs and then going to a restaurant with an outdoor eating area while a local band plays, and enjoying the freshest of seafood for supper...

I want to retire by the beach...in a little cottage along the shore. I want to wake early before sun rise and walk along the beach. I want to search for daily treasures to bring back to the cottage and decorate in an authentically beach decor...I want to dine on seafood everyday...I want to play in the sand and feel the rush of the tide swirl about my feet. I want to walk out of my door and feel and smell the salty spray of water off of the ocean...This is my dream!

Thank you Victoria magazine for reminding me of the incredible wonders of being at the beach...

Life Lists

Several years ago I worked with a young man, who was just out of high school. He had made a life list. One of the things on his list was to run a marathon. He had been working toward that goal and was going to travel to Florida to run in his first marathon.

I had heard of Life Lists before, and had read of people making them, but I had never actually made one myself.


Yes, I have made lists of things that I would like to accomplish, but not a list set in stone of things I definitely was going to work toward before I died. Most of my lists were just dreams I had about doing things. They were always flexible, and often times I would forget about them.


Anyway, reaching toward the ripe old age of 43, which I will be in November, I have decided to try my hand at a Life List. I plan to write down things that I would really like to do, things I want to work toward accomplishing before I am either to old, or dead...

I think the old or dead part is why I never made a list like that before, because I didn't want to think about being old, or dead! I want my list to be a living list, one that continues to grow and expand as I mark some things off as accomplished. I know one thing that I plan to put on that list...


Hang gliding! I have always wanted to hang glide. When I was a child and we came to North Carolina one of the first times, I saw someone hang gliding and I was hooked. I wanted to do it so desperately...but life comes and things get in the way of those childhood dreams, and sometimes we forget what they were.


The other day I was looking at things to do in North Carolina and there is was; Hang Gliding. Something re-awakened within me. I spent many years in fear of those kind of things, that I had forgotten that I did have an adventurer spirit about me at one time. So I got the information and have set in my mind that I will go hang gliding before we leave North Carolina. I am sure that you can do it many other places, but because it was here that I first acquired the dream so many years ago, I think it is only fitting that I fulfill that dream here.


So I have the first item for my Life List. Not that it will be the first I accomplish and mark off, but it will be the first added to the list.


The second item is to run in a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and eventually a full marathon. The exercise and weight loss will go a long way in getting me there.


Every journey no matter how long, begins with the first step. This is my first step toward that journey...


Wow! All of that from just a few sessions at Curves! That place is amazing! It is just what I needed at this moment in my life. I have thought about change, I have talked and written about change...now is the appointed time to do something about it...


So, what's on your Life List if you have one, or what would go on one if you were to start one?


No matter where you are in this journey called Life, it isn't to late to accomplish things you want to accomplish.


My Mom and I were talking the other day about this, how as you get older, you have to start dropping some things off your list...Somethings are impossible to accomplish at some points in life. I know that I will never be able to accomplish some of the dreams I had a 18, or 25...even some of the dreams I had at 35 won't be accomplished, because they were things that as you get older, you are less likely to be able to accomplish. You could probably still do some of them, but because of where you are now in your life, you may not desire to work toward those things. You may want to spend your time on other dreams. After our conversation she did something she has wanted to do for years; she participated in a small way in the Relay For Life walk in a town near her. She walked in the survivors walk... She is a two time breast cancer survivor! And she gives all the glory to God for bringing her through! Knowing that her life mission is not complete, because He chose to let her stay here instead of taking her home...I am thankful for that...maybe the fact that I still need my mom, is one reason He has allowed her to stay here...

Anyway, there will be dreams that we have to drop from our lists because of age, health, time, life circumstances. I can let some of mine go now without the bitterness I once felt toward the unaccomplished goals in my life. I came to understand that some dreams and goals weren't for obtaining, but bringing us to a new place that we get on a different path.
That's okay. I can deal with those dreams that are behind and I can no longer attain, or no longer care to do what is required to attain them.


I don't usually quote movies, I rarely watch them, but one of my favorite quotes from a movie was quoted by Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) in The Bridges of Madison County.

"The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but I am glad that I had them."

That is how I feel about some of the dreams I had in my early years. I had to drop some; like the backpacking around Europe thing. It's kind of hard to do that with a family. I am sure you could, but that was more of a before kids thing...However, some of those dreams are coming back around and are still achievable, like hang gliding.


Let's face it. The life you dreamed of when you graduated from high school is usually not the same life you dream of having when you reach 40. I know mine isn't. That is why it is so hard for someone to decide at 18 what they want to invest their life doing in a career for the next 40 years of their lives. Some people do, some people are just born knowing what they were here to do...others of us, like myself, still don't know! We just move through the days and years doing those things that life brings us. Sometimes I feel like a boat on open waters with no way to steer and no set destination...just moving along with the tides and currents.


The difference is, by giving myself over to God, I have faith that He is guiding my vessel and that He will take me where He wants me to go. He will bring me to the places and in contact with the people that will somehow impact my life and help me to become what He wants me to be. We don't become and then do, it is a journey we are on until God calls us home. When we become, then He takes us home to be with Him. When we accomplish what He put us here to accomplish, our mission is complete. So I am glad that I haven't accomplished mine yet. I am still trying to find mine, but in the process, I am living each day trying to move closer to that goal. Maybe Life itself was the mission----


So with all of that said; I am thinking of things that I would really like to spend my time working toward. Some are large, important things, some are small unimportant to the whole scope of life things, but things I find enjoyable anyway. Some will be personal in nature; inside work; as I spoke of before on this blog. Others will be just for fun type things, like hang gliding. Some will have lasting impact, others will just be for the moment things...

With two things to put on my list, now I have to decide what do I write this list on? It seems like such a special, life altering list should be written on special paper and displayed so that it would be visible...where do people keep a Life List? Some people just write things down on paper and keep it in their wallets, others put it on their computers...

Since I have a tendency to misplace lists, I don't know about the whole paper and wallet thing. And with computers crashing like they do, maybe that isn't such a good idea either...

I suppose I will write my Life List in my journal, that is the one thing that I will hold on to and will always know where to find it.

There are actually web sites devoted to this very thing. Check out www.43things.com.

Abundance blog will help you get started on your Life List.

And check out this book; Creating Your Best Life.

Hopefully this will inspire someone to remember the dreams they once had and begin to work to make them a reality. Remember a Life List isn't about just marking things off, like a grocery list, but the enjoyment of working toward that goal and enjoying the moment while you are making it a reality...

Life really is short! My grandmother who passed away at 94, looked back over her life and expressed how quickly it passed. So even if we are blessed with 94 good years, it gets by quickly and often we put things off and say, "I'll get around to it sometime." Often times we get caught up with raising a family, working, paying bills and seeing to others that we forget to see to ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate selfishness, and neglecting responsibility. But I don't think even the busiest of us can't take out a little time to enjoy ourselves...

I am beginning to ramble; surprise surprise; and this post is getting entirely to long, so I will just end with those famous Nike words: JUST DO IT!