RAIN SOUNDS

This is amazing. (I found it on Annie's blog.) Enjoy!

AN AMAZING WAKE UP CALL

I was having a hard time getting up this morning, but after falling back asleep twice, the good Lord interceded by having a friend "accidentally" dial my phone number at 6:30 AM.

At first she felt terrible about waking me up, but when I told her I had been unsuccessfully trying to get myself out of bed for the last hour or so, we shared a good, hearty laugh.

The second wake up call came in the afternoon, after I decided to take a short break from the computer and sat down on my bed to read. It wasn't long before I fell into a deep sleep only to be awakened with a start by the loud ringing of the telephone. Was I really awake, I wondered, as I heard a voice telling me I had won a PNC Bank Grocery Giveaway of $365 in Giant gift cards.

Thank you, Lord, for your unexpected blessings, and the ingenious way you provide for my needs. This was truly amazing!

SIX WORD SATURDAY

When I saw Cate's post today, I remembered having posted something similar over here, so I went back to take a look.

I still wouldn't be able to choose just one phrase, but I've narrowed it down to three.

• How did I wind up here
• God's agenda proves better than mine
• When all else fails, God doesn't

FITNESS FRIDAY: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A ROCKET SCIENTIST

This week's assignment was to write about our top three (or five) tips for health and fitness. In Brenda's words, "If someone were to remember only these 3 (or 5) things, what would be the most important things for them to know?"

1. LAUGH: Look for the humor in things and laugh, laugh laugh. God's Word in Proverbs 17:22a tells us that "A merry heart does good, like medicine." Science tells us that a good belly laugh, among other things, massages the internal organs, increases the flow of oxygen, and activates the endorphins (which are the body's natural pain killers). A man by the name of Norman Cousins healed himself of a life threatening disease by watching a steady flow of movies that made him laugh. He wrote about his recovery in a book entitled Anatomy of an Illness.


2. FORGIVE: Harboring anger, bitterness, and resentments can only hurt you. They poison your system, and have been scientifically proven to be the root of many ailments. Best to follow the exhortation found in Ephesians 4:31-32, "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."


3. BE GRATEFUL: Focus on your blessings rather than your disappointments. Look for things to be thankful for. They are all around you if you open your eyes.


4. STAY ACTIVE: Physical activity makes us strong. Take an example from the past. People walked to where they were going instead of jumping into a car, and physical chores kept them fit without the need for fancy equipment or a membership at the gym.


5. GET ENOUGH REST: Sleep is really important, because it is while we sleep that the body regenerates itself. We cannot function at our best when we are sleep deprived, and it definitely affects both our physical and emotional health.

Oops. I have used up all my points and still have one thing to add. The importance of putting natural things into our body, like water and unprocessed foods. Learn to read labels and avoid anything that contains ingredients you can't pronounce, or that is processed, loaded with sugar, and/or contains hydrogenated oils.

Now it's not to say that I actually adhere to all these points, but I am trying.

FITNESS FRIDAY: SETTLING IN

"For it is God who works in you to

will and to act according to his

good purpose." - (Philippians 2:13)

Last week I posted about a very liberating aha moment I had experienced related to this fitness journey we are on, and when I first saw this week's assignment, I was tempted to skip it. After all, what more could I say than what I already had in that last post? However, here I am again.

This week has been pretty uneventful. It's sort of been a time of settling in and becoming more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, rather than trying to do things the way I thought they should be done. Although I didn't start out with any specific goals, I found myself seriously focusing on portion control and drinking more water, and wound up shedding those couple of extra pounds I had gained back the week my walks increased my appetite to ravenous proportions..

I can't wait to see where the path leads next.

FITNESS FRIDAY: JUST A LITTLE THINKING

"I will give you a new heart and put a

new spirit in you. I will remove from

you your heart of stone and give you

a heart of flesh. And I will put my

Spirit in you and move you to follow

my decrees...and keep my laws."

(Ezekiel 36:26-27)

This week Brenda gave us an open assignment. Since that means we can write about anything, I'm going to share some thoughts--after first praising the Lord once again, for his awesome and unexpected blessing that enabled me to purchase a Wii and a Wii Fit. This is so fun, it will surely keep me moving even on the hottest of days. :-) Now if only I could find something to motivate me to stick to the rest of my goals.

It seems like I've been battling the same old battles week after week, year after year, for almost half a century now, and wondering why it's so hard to break bad habits. Seems like I'm forever setting goals and declaring new beginnings, only to fall short time and time again. I can so relate to what the great apostle Paul says in Romans 7:15--"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." That's me to a tee, and I spent much time this week pondering that very question.

Well, a few days ago I took one of my neighbors to an Alpha course. This week's session was all about the Holy Spirit. Nothing new that I haven't heard or read about before. My mind started to wander a bit, but all of a sudden I was sitting bolt upright in my chair. It was one of those moments when you see something you've seen a zillion times before, but this time it jumps off the page and knocks you right between the eyes.

The Lord brought something to my attention that was so obvious, I couldn't believe it hadn't impacted me before. All along, without realizing it, I have been trying to do what the "Law" proved it was impossible for us to do. I have been trying to transform myself, when the Holy Spirit is the only one who can set me free from my various bondages. Hello!!!

The whole purpose of the law was to show us our need for grace. Nobody was able to keep all the commandments, ever. The old covenant was constantly being broken. However, God promised that one day He would make a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33) and the law would become something inside of us instead of an external thing. Instead of all those rules weighing us down from the outside like a heavy sack of potatoes, we would be energized by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

The moment we come to the foot of the Cross and receive the gift Christ offers us, we receive complete forgiveness of our sins. The barrier between us and God is removed, and the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and begin His work of transforming us from the inside out. This takes time. Only rarely does it happen overnight.

Sorry if I've gone off on a tangent here, but it's been an incredible experience to have the light turned on and to finally realize (in my heart rather than my head) that all I have to do is turn everything over to the Holy Spirit and let Him take the lead. Not only is transformation his responsibility, God (through His Spirit) "who works in [me] to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13). What ever success I have is a result of His grace and His grace alone.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU LORD

For several months now I have been dreaming of some day owning a Wii. However, given my downward spiraling financial situation, that hardly seemed like a realistic dream. So imagine my surprise when a certified letter was delivered to my door, and inside the letter was an unexpected check for unpaid royalties long written off, that not only enabled me to catch up on the bills and pay off my overdraft protection loan, but there was even enough left to purchase a Wii and a Wii Fit. How awesome is that?

I have had many incredible experiences of the Lord coming through for me at the 11th hour to meet a pressing need, and I've always been very, very grateful, but what manages to really melt my heart and humble me, is when He chooses to indulge me with a totally unnecessary want.


To add a little extra icing to an already perfect cake, my bloggie friend and sister in the Lord, Valerie Lynn, sent me another beautiful award. Thank you, Valerie, for making the day complete.

FITNESS FRIDAY: THE SERIOUS SIDE

This week's assignment was to talk about the other motivators for our fitness goals, other than just wanting to look better. Brenda wants to know what we are up against in terms of actual health issues, or potential genetic ones. Mine are high blood pressure, cholesterol, and osteoporosis.

Eating the right foods, taking the right supplements, and getting enough exercise are vital to my keeping them under control without having to resort to prescription drugs, and for the most part, I do eat pretty healthy. It's the portion control that trips me up and keeps the scale from budging. On the positive though, not budging means that the numbers are not going up either, so that's a good thing.

As far as my week's goal to walk instead of drive to wherever I needed to go in town, I am happy to announce that I did meet it. and what a great feeling that was. The only day I took the car locally, was to do my grocery shopping. The weather has been so gorgeous, those walks were real mood boosters. My only challenge has been that all that fresh air really revved up my appetite too. LOL.

FITNESS FRIDAY: HMMM

Brenda gave us two questions to answer for our assignment this week.

1. Tell us how you sneak exercise in when you can't "get to they gym" or "the treadmill is broken" or whatever. What do you do at work/around the house/etc. to move more?

and

2. Let us know how your week went. Let us know your goals for next week. Not your long-term goals, just your goals for next week.

In response to question 1, I can think of many ways to move more, but in all honesty, I haven't been putting them into practice. Like the town I live in is so small that just about everything is within walking distance, and when I first moved here I would use my feet instead of my car to run errands. Now it seems I'm always in too big of a rush. And as for how I sneak in exercise, that's a big hmmm. Does doing the 10 minute Walk at Home routine on my WW DVD instead of one of the longer ones count?

In answer to question 2, I'll have to say that my week started out great, but things soon fizzled out. You see, I was so psyched up after taking you on my virtual tour last week I was raring to go. However, after one good walk along the path, it started to rain and rain and rain, and it's still raining, even as I write, and sadly, I allowed that rain to put the kebosh on my plans when it didn't really have to.

So next week, weather permitting, my goal is to walk instead of drive to wherever I need to go in town. I have already ordered a bunch of books on tape from the library to keep me motivated. And in case it continues to rain, Plan B is to do the 30 or 45 minute exercise routines instead of the 10 minute ones.

FITNESS FRIDAY: VIRTUAL TOUR

This week Brenda asked us to "Pick an area of your home or life related to your fitness goals and give us a tour. Let us know what's working for you in this space and what's not working. What dreams do you have for this area of your life?"

I picked my work areas for the tour. I have an outdoor area and an indoor area, and since it's such a beautiful day today, let's start outdoors.

There's a little path leading directly from the parking lot to the bike trail, so we won't have any traffic to contend with, or anything like that. And as you can see from the picture, the path is quite lovely, so I am without excuse for not using it more consistently.

When I first moved here I would walk about two miles on it at least four or five times a week, listening to books on tape as I walked, which was a double blessing because I've always loved to read, but rarely have time to sit down with a book. This week I started walking again, and am hoping to keep it up from here on out.

Let's go inside now to my indoor fitness area, which is the carpet in front of my TV. If you want to see what the actual room looks like, just pop over to my Clean Home Carnival post where I gave it a bit of a makeover..

The picture on the left shows my videos and "equipment," as well as the door of my clothes closet. Nothing very fancy, as you can see. I use that door to do wall push-ups against. I try to do 100 wall push-ups three times a week, and lately I have been pretty consistent about that.

I also use the door to do resistance exercises, using a piece of tubing (that green thing you see dangling there in the top left corner of the picture). I close the door on it to hold it in place, and then I can do things like rowing or arm extensions (as in the picture to your left).

The white pole is actually a plastic broom handle that I use to do stretches that strengthen my shoulder and upper back muscles, as in the picture to your right. (That's not me in the picture though. LOL)

My main indoor workout consists of a routine from either the Sweatin' to the Oldies exercise video which, by the way, really does make me sweat, or from one of the DVDs, and I try to alternate between them for variety. Sad to say, this is another area where I have become totally inconsistent.

My goal is to do one of these workouts at least three times a week. This week I picked the Weight Watchers Walk at Home DVD, and so far so good.

If money were no object, I would love to have a Wii. That may not be my greatest need these days, but it is still at the top of my wish list. I would love to have a Wii with Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

My dream is be to be so commited to regular exercise that it becomes second nature, and as a result, I am fit, trim, full of energy, and look good in my clothes.

P.S. Hope you have enjoyed my tour, and if you're having trouble seeing the details in any of the pictures, just double click on them and they will be enlarged.