WARM SPRING DAYS

I love these warm spring days. The earth is coming back to life! My lilac bushes are loaded with oncoming blooms. I love the smell of the lilac bushes and the honeysuckle blooms drifting through my windows. I have all my garden seed ordered and have my garden planned out. Today was so warm that I went and laid in the sun for just a little bit. The sun gives me my much needed vitamin D. I am still training for the mini marathon the first weekend of May. Today I ran 5 miles. My son, Greg is going to be running the marathon with me. Our three little hens are laying. We get three eggs every day. Soon they will have company. Our baby chicks will be here the last week of this month. I hope everyone is enjoying the spring season.

THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S BIBLE

I absolutely love this Bible! This Bible connects the Word of God with our history and forefathers. There are little treasures throughout the entire Bible. You will turn a page and there will be a quote by one of our founding fathers. Sometimes there will be an entire page devoted to a historical fact about our country, for example the page that tells about our coins and currency is in the book of Proverbs. In the front of the Bible there is a family records section for everything from weddings to ancestors of interest. There is a page for military records and public service. I have been using some of the quotes on Facebook. Here is one of my favorite quotes; "The secret of my success? It is simple.It is found in the Bible,'In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths'." This was said by George Washington Carver. As they try to take our true History away from us it is publications such as this that will keep it alive. This is a Bible to pass down to future generations. I received this Bible free of charge from the Book Sneeze book review program.

Garden Planning

I love this time of year!  I start planning my  summer garden.  I will be pouring over my seed catalogs, seeing which ones are offering the best deals on the seeds that I want. 

We are expanding our garden this year.  We are using our smaller garden patch for just potatoes.  We are going to plant our red potatoes and sweet potatoes there.  I hope to have enough to last through the winter this coming year.  This past year I had enough to make it to January. 

In our bigger garden patch we will be planting our green beans, corn, carrots, dried beans, tomatoes and peppers.  I may even plant some watermelon. 

I always plant my pickling cucumbers along the trellis of our pool deck.  They have always grown very well there. I plant lettuce in small bed alongside our walkway around the house.  I will be planting my lettuce in the next couple of weeks.

This year we are going to plant some fruit trees.  I plan on two apple and two peach trees.  I also plan on planting some blackberry bushes back along the edge of our field. We want to plant a couple of pecan trees, but we are not sure where to plant those yet.

Our garden saves us a lot of money through the year.  A garden is a lot of hard work, but it is totally worth it.  I know what has been put in the ground and put on the plants.  I can a lot of what our garden produces for our winter meals. We of course enjoy the fresh vegies through the summer season. 

Growing up we always had a garden.  I learned to can from my mother and my grandparents.  If you went to my grandparents in the summer you knew you would be working in the garden alongside them.  I may not have always enjoyed it then, but I cherish those memories now. 

Before and After

 Starting in June of last year I embarked on a journey with God. I began a class with Weigh Down ministries after a reminder from my sister-n-law about them. We all know that gluttony is sin, but do we really know what gluttony is. I have journeyed with God through this class. I have learned to eat using my God given hunger signals in my body. I would pray each day for His help to make it through the day without over eating. God had been my rock, my shelter, and my help through this journey. He is still helping me as I journey day to day.

  I have lost a total of 37 pounds. I went from a size 14/16 to a size 8. I have maintained and stayed at the same weight for 3 months now. Even through the holidays I was able to hold it steady with His help. Here are some before and after pictures. The before picture was taken in Hawaii last spring and my daughter took the after picture this morning.

April 20ll

February 2012

I have donated an entire wardrobe and had to buy new.  The Lord has blessed and allowed me to find some bargains when I needed new clothes.  I am beginning to search for spring and summer clothes now.  I have only a few short sleeved tops.  I need some spring and summer dresses and outfits.  My husband says that I lost the weight just so I could go shopping for new clothes.   He has done nothing but encourage me through this journey.  I am hoping to lose another 10 pounds before I am where I want to be.  I have began training for the mini marathon, so that along with being vigilant about my eating habits should help shed those last ten pounds.

I have never known such freedom.  Before I started this journey I was enslaved to diets and diet food.  Now eating the way God designed us to eat I eat the food I want to eat.  I really put Him to the test the first couple of weeks.  I would eat homemade ice cream every day.  I still lost 6 pounds those first two weeks.  With diet  foods we are trying to get the food to behave instead of working on our own behavior.  God has taught me through this journey that it was my heart that needed to be worked on and not my food.   I praise God each and every day for this new found freedom from the slavery of dieting. 



My Winter Journey

I hate going to the doctor and it takes something drastic for me to go to the doctor. In November I started having pain in my right side. I tried to ignore it, but it would not go away. I finally gave in and went to the doctor. He thought it was my appendix. He ordered a full blood panel and sent me for a CT Scan of my abdomen. The CT scan showed that everything in the right side of my abdomen was perfectly healthy. The blood test was a different story. the blood test showed that I had an over active thyroid. The doctor was puzzled over the over active results because I have all the symptons of a slow thyroid not an over active. He ordered more blood test to check for antibodies of Graves ore Hashimoto's disease. The pain in my right side was completely gone now. I fully believe that God was behind this, He knew I would not go to the doctor unless I really thought something was wrong. He gave me a reason to go to the doctor so that I would get the care that I actually needed. If you let your thyroid go untreated it can damage other systems of your body. When the second blood test came back my thyroid was slow and I had antibodies for Hashimoto's autoimmune disease, which is the most common thyroid problem in the world. My doctor has me on a very low dose of thyroid hormone treatment and he wanted me to take vitamin D, B12 and Biotin. After being on the hormone for only 4 days I am already beginning to feel better. I am resting better at night and my energy level is returning. My doctor wants me eating healthy and nourishing my body naturally through the foods I eat. What we eat can make a big difference in how we feel physically. I have researched Hashimotomoto's and found it is primarily a genetic disease. It can be present for years before it becomes active. It can be activated by stress,pregnancy, or a virus you get. It can be easily managed and treated. It will be something I have to deal with for the rest of my life. I am very thankful it was found before it damaged other systems of my body. My husband says that the pain in my side was God spanking me and pushing me to the doctor. I am very thankful and praise God for that push.

INVASION

"Invasion" written by Jon S. Lewis is a book that would be a good book for young teens and some pre-teens. I actually enjoyed reading this book. I like sci-fy stories. This book brings the fantasy stories of the comic books to life. I would recommend this book to those which have young teens or preteens. In the beginning of this book Colt McCallister's parents are killed in a suspicious accident. After the funeral Colt Finds out that there is much more to his family than he ever imagined. His grandfather, father, and brothersnhave all been part of an organization called C.H.A.O.S. They protect the earth from aliens. He moves in with his grandfather and that is when the action begins. Colt meets a boy in his new school named Oz. Oz is part of the same organization. Oz starts putting Colt through training. The heads of C.H.A.O.S. want Colt as the next head of the organization and because of that his life is in danger along with his friends Danielle and Oz. Like I said above this is a very good read for teens and preteens. I received this book free of charge from Thomas Nelson for reviewing the book.

OPENING DAY

Well, yesterday was opening day of shotgun season for hunting deer here in Indiana. I was up at 4:00 in the morning. I was fixing deer steak, gravy and biscuits for the hunters. After breakfast was over I got ready to leave for a district. At the quiz, the team I was coaching, which is our B team came in second. Greg ended up in 7th place for the day. His overall average put him in eleventh place. Eleventh place was one place two low to make the district team for St. Louis. After returning home I went hunting with my daughter Emily. Her husband and mine were trying to run deer to us. I shot a four point buck and she got a button buck. It was exciting. My buck ended up being bad. It had a tumor or something above his right eye. The eye looked bad also. We are not going to feed our family with a deer that has something wrong with it. Overall it was a successful day. I was dead on my feet by the time I got in bed.