Category Archives: Life

Jan 01 2013
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Fitness, Health, Life

2013 New Year’s Resolutions Made Simple

Blah, blah, blah … resolutions … yadda, yadda, blah! We all know the top three resolutions made by people everywhere each year:

  1. Lose weight.
  2. Some form of fitness: work out, get in shape, walk, run, weight train, etc.
  3. Get organized.

Right? Good luck if these are your goals. I prefer not to make annual goals because I know I’m only setting myself up for failure. Those three things are HUGE goals. Without breaking them down into baby steps, they are very difficult to achieve.

Let’s take losing weight as an example. Perhaps in January, a goal can be to cut out or drastically limit something unhealthy from our diets. How about sugar? How much sugar do you consume each week? Each day? Probably too much. New Year’s Day is a freebie. It doesn’t count. If you have any cookies or candies hanging around from Christmas, now is the day to eat them. Share with others if you have to. Just get rid of them! By the end of the month, you should be eating healthier snacks in place of the sugary ones. Here’s a page with some quick and helpful sugar facts. Don’t worry! It’s not full of detailed, scientific jargon. A kid could understand it!

If sugar isn’t a huge issue for you, how about portion sizes? Perhaps it’s more an issue of frequent grazing. Do you find yourself looking for something to eat even if you’re not really hungry? This is usually because you aren’t eating well balanced meals to begin with. Take a look at your three main meals each day and be sure you are starting your day with enough protein to help you power through without crashing, which leaves you seeking snacks to perk you back up. Smoothies are great for that, by the way. Try keeping some low-fat plain or vanilla yogurt, orange juice, bananas, and frozen fruit on hand for this yummy treat.

Also in January, if you want to take baby steps towards multiple resolutions, you could start “moving”. Start adding activity to your life, but don’t jump into a full-blown workout routine. You will certainly risk burning out fast. If you currently lead a sedentary lifestyle, start with a walk around the block. Still feeling good after one round? Go around again! Pay attention to how long it takes and make note of that. Next time you won’t have the excuse of not having enough time. By the end of January, maybe you’ll be walking a mile at least two or three times per week.

Organization? You want to go there, too? OK. Schedule 15 minutes (you can even use a timer – it can be fun to race the clock if you’re a competitive type) and tackle a drawer or two in a room of your choice. If you haven’t used or worn something in the past year, get rid of it. You obviously didn’t miss it! Well, there are exceptions. Maybe you have been missing that shirt that somehow made its way to the wrong drawer. Go ahead and keep that one. If you beat the timer and want to keep going, add another 15 minutes and go for it! After 30 minutes, give yourself a break, though. Again, you don’t want to burn out quickly. Reward yourself … but not with a sugary snack! Time on Pinterest would suffice for me. :)

Don’t give much thought to the rest of the year. Take one month, week, even day at a time. Break it down as small as you need to. Whatever works for you … as long as it does work for you! I don’t know about each of you (whoever you may be), but I’m very easily distracted and derailed. Setting smaller goals and tackling smaller tasks works better for me. I see more success rather than failure that way.

Happy New Year! Here’s to a year of not only achieving goals but surpassing them!

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Dec 30 2012
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Life, Religion

Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed Not From Bible

Not long ago, I was part of a … well, I’ll call it a “lively” discussion about religion. See, we stopped attending church a while back when I had been working on Sundays. I’ve since found another church with a pastor who delivers great messages. All sermons are posted on their website for easy access. I’ve attended the church in person and found it very huge, and I felt pretty invisible. They recommend getting involved in a smaller church group. A separate gathering in addition to regular worship time is hard to work into our schedules right now.

To the point, though… our conversation was about why we’ve strayed from the church we used to attend. Part of that is the recitation of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. I agree with saying The Lord’s Prayer aloud. That’s in the Bible. The creeds are not. Someone in that conversation said that the creeds were taken from the Bible. That’s inaccurate. They were written at least 150 years after the authors all died. See this article for more info.

Matthew 6:5 – right where we are given The Lord’s Prayer – even tells us:

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

I have no other explanation for my hang-up with reciting the same thing every time I gather for worship like that. I don’t think it’s necessary, and it just feels strange to me. The pastor at this other church simply digs into the Bible. Of course, I haven’t made it a habit to attend there either. That’s really two-fold. I find pulling up the sermons online much more convenient and time efficient. Also, without joining a small group, there’s really no fellowship gained by attending such a large church in person.

OK, so there’s sort of a third fold. I’m disillusioned by many who attend church but don’t walk the walk. There’s this great instruction in the New Testament (Matthew 22):

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d]38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[e]40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love your neighbor as yourself. Love others as yourself. Love one another. Don’t hate! Don’t be mean to others. Don’t tear others down. Don’t gossip about others. Don’t judge others. Matthew 7:

“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Under the Old Testament law, we are commanded not to lie. People lie all the time! We are also commanded not to covet. That’s probably the most difficult to avoid, especially in this day and age when everyone wants the latest and greatest technological gadgets. Want, want, want! We don’t turn our backs on our friends for wanting things they can’t afford, so why do some turn their backs on people for their choice in partners? Yes, I just went there. Homosexuality. But remember, love your neighbor as yourself.

I may not be the most outgoing person. I need time alone to recharge. I’m terrible at managing time and planning, so organizing anything to do for others in some spectacular way isn’t something I do. However, I am kind to people I encounter in every day life, no matter what their life choices may be. I’m sure some people have opinions (judgments) about me. That’s fine. I still love my neighbors as myself even if they don’t see it. :)

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Dec 27 2012
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House, Life, Money

When it Rains … Under the House

At the end of my lunch break yesterday, I thought a toilet was running, but they were each silent. Wait. It sounded more like someone was taking a shower. Uh-oh! My thought went to an outdoor pipe that busted one winter when we were out of town and came home to an ice rink on the side of our house. So I put on my boots and went out back. Yep! The small section of PVC pipe that goes from the main one to connect a hose to cracked. A tiny piece of pipe along with the knob attached to it was lying on the ground. Water was pouring out. I shut that one off with the main valve, but it was still “raining” from under that back corner of the house. I couldn’t get my head low enough to look under it to see where it was coming from.

I grabbed my phone and called my husband. No answer. Left message for him. Left Skype message for boss informing of house emergency and my inability to clock back in. Crawled way back in the crawl space but didn’t see water there. However, I didn’t take a flashlight with me. At least it wasn’t pouring into the interior of the house. I found out later that it was a little wet over there.

Back to phone; called Greg again; found out where to turn off the water to the house. I turned that knob all the way to the left while on the phone with Greg. Water still on! WHAT? Back to the right then left again. Water still on! How does that happen?! Half frustrated with the situation and half probably thinking I was doing something wrong (how many ways are there to turn a freakin’ knob?), Greg was on his way home.

I wasn’t downstairs when he shut the water off and don’t know if he encountered the same problem, but he did get it to shut off. Problem! Now the knob spun loosely and wouldn’t turn back on. Busted knob. Now there were two things to be fixed and I was freaking out over how much this was going to cost. My first thought was that we would have to call someone to do it. Not in the budget! Panic. But Greg rattled off a few items he’d need to buy and how cheap they were. OK. Feeling a little better but still like another pile of elephant poo just fell on us.

Several hours, a few trips to the local DIY home store, and many attempt to turn the water back on from the main in the front yard later, and we had water again! DIY may take longer, but you put your own time into it. The value of a person’s time is hard to put a price on, but at least we didn’t have to pay a professional $75-$150/hour to do it. I can’t imagine how much that would have cost! It sounds like a convenient answer for those who have that kind of money to spare or those who have the option of whipping out a credit card to pay for it. We have neither of those. So yes, this scared the hell out of me!

You know when people try to make you feel better by saying things like “At least you have running water in the first place”? That didn’t happen, but you know what I mean. Those things never help because you’re in the heat of the moment and just pissed, panicked, and upset. But I woke up this morning thinking that very thing! There are people who live without running water or electricity. As fortunate (spoiled) as we are with these luxuries, we take them for granted.

A huge thank you to my husband for working non-stop through dinner to fix the problems! He rocks!

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May 15 2012
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Life

Sock Bun Curls

I caved to curiosity. The sock bun curls craze has been hitting the interwebs with links to tutorials all over Pinterest. So I finally tried it on my hair, which is one length and super fine (but there’s a lot of it).

The bun:

After:

You know you’re jealous of my fun PJs!

This isn’t meant to be a tutorial. If you want to try it, search the internet for “sock bun curls”.

Next time, I’ll be sure my hair is more evenly damp before rolling.

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May 12 2012
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Life

Dolce Far Niente

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing

It’s true. Many Americans seem to think that they have to be doing something to have fun. Engaging in some form of physical activity is fun. Absolutely! The belief that if you’re not doing “fun” things a certain percentage of the time then you can’t be happy or fulfilled is rubbish, though.

Remember when Ferris called Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day off? After hanging up, Cameron moaned, “I’m dying.” The phone rang again and it was Ferris to say, “Your’re not dying. You just can’t think of anything good to do.” Here it is (custom made by my husband)…

Why do we feel like that? Why do we think that if we can’t think of something “good” to do, then we’ll be miserable and bored? Is relaxing on a day off not good?

The clip from Eat Pray Love explains it perfectly. We often confuse fun with pleasure. We don’t have to be laughing or doing some physical activity to find pleasure. I find pleasure in being lazy, even when I do get out of the house. For instance, going to the mall and just walking around or even sitting (people watching) is enjoyable to me. I don’t need to have a purpose to go to the mall – nothing in mind to buy, and no mindless spending necessary.

Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what the difference is. I can be lazy at home surfing the internet, reading, writing, or just watching TV, or I can be lazy at a state park. The surroundings are different, but the end result is the same. I get absolutely nothing accomplished.

I am guilty of the accusation in this movie clip. While I don’t feel time is wasted if I’m not having fun in the sense described in the clip, I feel it’s wasted if I’m not productive in some way. Spending an entire day watching TV is relaxing for sure, but I do feel guilty at the end of the day because I didn’t get anything accomplished.

Tangent alert… Some may see making jewelry as boring and unproductive, but that would be productive to me because there is an end result. Moreover, it exercises my creativity. The problem is that I don’t do it frequently enough to keep the creative juices flowing. I haven’t made anything since before Christmas. BEFORE CHRISTMAS! That’s a long time! It’s hard to just sit down and create something. The ideas just don’t come to me, and I sit there feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in front of me. I start an idea and scrap it over and over because it’s not unique enough. But I digress… end of tangent.

Does it make me an old fart because I no longer feel a desire to be out in a crowd cuttin’ it up to have a good time that often? If so, then I’m fine with that because I am having a good time doing more relaxing (aka: lazy) things. My brain is still active. That’s good enough for me! Pleasure.

Dolce far niente!

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May 10 2012
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Life, Philosophy, Religion

Beautiful, Part 1 | Church

Watch this. No, seriously! Watch this!

Don’t be afraid to comment. If you make it through the first 15 minutes, that’s about the point where you might be able to make out someone saying “Dude!” (that would be me). Yes, I said “Dude!” during a sermon at Elevation Church.

That’s what’s kind of cool about this church (besides the fact that the tattooed pastor wears jeans and plaid shirts). You don’t have to sit there all prim & proper. They affectionately call themselves, “the church of the jacked up“.

I still have my issues with the whole faith thing, but there HAS to be something more out there – karma, cosmic energy, fate, or an omnipresent being we call God. There’s still a big part of me that thinks people need so desperately to give fate a name (God) or that they can’t accept that things happen as they are going to happen and leave it at that.

However… there are moments like Sunday that reach out and slap me in the face and make me wonder. I mean really spooky like. That sermon was going to happen whether we were there or not, and it had been planned in advance. We learned something rather sensitive about someone dear to us the day before, and that very thing was touched on in this sermon. I wasn’t even planning on attending until two hours before the service started!

Karma? Fate? Coincidence? Or did this supernatural entity we call God put us there to hear this?

I know exactly why I can’t just let go and believe by faith alone that God exists. I don’t like to be vulnerable. I like to be in control. I don’t want anyone to see me get caught up in something that isn’t grounded – that isn’t hard fact – that doesn’t let ME drive the bus! Honestly, I’m a little jealous of those who are comfortable lifting their hands in worship. This may sound wacky, but to do so exposes armpits, and I am extremely ticklish! To do so exposes more than that, though. It exposes my soul. I’m not comfortable with that.

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Mar 08 2012
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Health, Life, News

Childhood Cancer Awareness

Pink ribbons. Race for the cure. Breast cancer gets so much attention. That’s great! However, other cancers are pushed to the back of the bus – like childhood cancers. Watch this video. Share this video! Make this a VIRAL VIDEO! If Kony 2012 can do it, so can we!

You may think childhood cancers get plenty of awareness through St. Jude’s, but the funds they raise directly are distributed for research for other catastrophic childhood illnesses as well as cancer. Invisible children can be found in more places than just Uganda. Cancer continues to kill so many children because of inadequate funding to support adequate and timely research.

There are so many things that deserve more awareness – deserve to go viral. Lung cancer is another! Kudos to those with the enthusiasm to take up a cause and run with it far enough to get that much attention (good or bad).

This wasn’t meant to be a thoroughly researched post. It’s simply something that came to my mind and I let spill onto a post. It’s not meant to cause a debate, and I’m not diminishing the importance of any one cause in favor of another. Equal awareness opportunity to everyone! :D

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Mar 07 2012
1 Comment
Life, News, Religion

KONY 2012

Watch it. Share it.

Learn more about it here, where you can also sign the pledge (show support) and get the kit (I won’t be doing that). Because I’m trained to listen to all sides of any story for my job, I also want to bring another article to your attention:  Taking ‘Kony 2012′ Down A Notch. I don’t need to hear Kony’s side. This article does bring up some good points. Why does the documentary not focus more on words directly from the “invisible children”? What happens after they capture Joseph Kony? What about the rest of the LRA? Things to ponder.

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Feb 19 2012
2 Comments
Life, Religion

Be Humble and Content

It may be a small book in the Bible, but it tells it like it is. Go James!

James 4

Friendship with the World

1Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn’t it because you are full of selfish desires that fight to control your body? 2You want something you don’t have, and you will do anything to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you won’t get it by fighting and arguing. You should pray for it. 3Yet even when you do pray, your prayers are not answered, because you pray just for selfish reasons.

4You people aren’t faithful to God! Don’t you know that if you love the world, you are God’s enemies? And if you decide to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5Do you doubt the Scriptures that say, “God truly cares about the Spirit he has put in us”? [a]6In fact, God treats us with even greater kindness, just as the Scriptures say,

“God opposes everyone who is proud,

but he is kind to everyone who is humble.”

7Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you. 8Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can’t make up your mind. 9Be sad and sorry and weep. Stop laughing and start crying. Be gloomy instead of glad. 10Be humble in the Lord’s presence, and he will honor you.

Saying Cruel Things about Others

11My friends, don’t say cruel things about others! If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God’s Law. And if you condemn the Law, you put yourself above the Law and refuse to obey either it 12or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone?

Warning against Bragging

13You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” 14What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. 15You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.” 16Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. 17If you don’t do what you know is right, you have sinned.

Source: BibleGateway.com (Contemporary English Version)

It’s not easy for some to be content with what they have. The desire to keep up with friends and family can consume us. Especially when those same people continue to succeed and are able to afford to live such lifestyles … OR when they can’t really afford it but rely on credit cards making it appear to others that they can. But that’s beside the point. The point is that we think, for some selfish and covetous reason, that we need such things in order to be happy and content.

We should just be still and realize that we can be content with much less. We truly can be content with fewer and less elaborate possessions. Homes don’t need to be decorated like display homes. Yards don’t need to be adorned with beautiful gardens. While visually pleasing, that shouldn’t be what we desire as a means of happiness and self-fulfillment. To live life believing that having such things proves your worthiness of living among a certain “class” of society is a such a falsehood. If that’s what it takes, then I’m not so sure I would want to live among that class.

In search of the humble and content class! :D

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Feb 14 2012
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Entertainment, Life

Labels – Breakfast Club Style

There are labels for kids in high school. You can start to see the formation in elementary school, and they continue to take shape in middle school. Definitely, by high school, they are usually pretty clear.

I still don’t know what label I wore. I think (and others will probably have different opinions) I was pretty generic. I didn’t hang out with any one type of person. While I wasn’t close friends with people in any specific clique, I did get along with all types of people – still do.

The character, Brian Johnson, from The Breakfast Club said it best:

Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062.Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong…and what we did was wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us… in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at seven o’clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

(That date was my 17th birthday, by the way!)

As we get older, we don’t so much use the labels we used in high school. However, the labels are still there. We see one another in terms of “types”. We are working parents, stay-at-home parents, executives, multitaskers/over-achievers, even hermits. Deep down, we’re still brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, and criminals. Some of us learn to coexist and get along. Some still can’t (won’t?) associate with anyone other than the same “type” as themselves under any circumstances. I’m still the one who will associate with any “type”. I’m sort of a chameleon that way.

What type are you? What type were you in high school?

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