Weight Loss Giveaway Game

September 13, 2011

Been here before?  Scroll down for updates...

When I lose, YOU could win!

Now that Kynthia is 6 weeks old, it's time for me to crack down on the weight loss issue!  Gotta try and lose some of this baby weight before the next baby comes along...Ha! 

I thought I'd try something fun to motivate me to keep working at it.  I love to create little things here and there, but sometimes have a hard time finding an occasion.  So...I'm going to offer a giveaway gift every time I lose 5 pounds!  Here's how it will work:

*Visitors (that's you!) will leave comments on THIS POST.  

*Whenever I lose another 5 pounds, I'll draw a number and the corresponding commenter will win the giveaway gift for that round.  

*You can leave as many unique and meaningful comments as you'd like on as many days as you'd like.  I will update my progress and journal my feelings/thoughts/accomplishments/struggles on this post.  (I'll just keep editing it to add an update)  **clarification:  by saying "unique and meaningful", I just mean, please don't copy and paste your comment over and over for more entries.  Yes, people do this!)

*Second, third and fourth drawings will be held at the same time as each 5 pound drawing when I meet the following further goals:  1. drinking adequate water daily, 2. staying within my eating plan daily, 3. doing some sort of physical activity daily.

I'm hoping the combination of your encouraging comments and my desire to create a little something will motivate me to lose a little of this extra weight this fall!  Keep in mind that the giveaway gift will be small---but it will just be a little something to say THANK YOU for encouraging me along the way!

So, start leaving your comments now...and please bookmark the page so you can come back and hold me accountable! Ha!

Have a great day!

September 30, 2011

 So, it's been a little while and I thought I should give an update!  I've definitely had a rough time of it!  I got down to just a half a pound away from my first 5 pounds...and then gained again!  :(  I'm on a pretty good track this weekend though, so hopefully I'll be checking in soon with a good loss!

October 6, 2011 

Success!!  I am happy to report that I've FINALLY passed the 5 lb. mark! :)  (I actually passed this mark on Monday but have just now gotten the chance to update...)  Those of you who've struggled with weight loss know it's so much more in the mind than anything else! :)  Anyway, I did the first drawing and the winner is...Faith Hope and Cherrytea!  I will be contacting you today for your address so I can send you a little something.  Thanks so much, everyone!  Keep the comments coming and hopefully we'll be doing another drawing here really soon!

My Thoughts on September 11th --- Ten Years Later

I just got home from our church service where we discussed and remembered the horrible events that took place in the US on this date 10 years ago.  I've been mulling over this post all week long---should I be as open and honest as I'd like to be?  Do my thoughts really even matter all that much?  Am I so far removed from it all that I have no respectable perspective?  This afternoon, I think I want to just take a few minutes and get my thoughts out about this day...it's been a long time coming.

I'll be honest with you, I'm the type of person who approaches things with an attitude of "deal with it and move on".  I know that sounds heartless---more than heartless---in the context of the horrific events of 9/11/2001...but stay with me for a minute.  As the last 10 years have gone by, I've found myself more and more irritated with the memorials, the remembrance events, the moments of silence, the replays, the photographs, etc. etc. etc....basically, the reminders---every. single. year...on this date.  I've been guilty of thinking, "It's over.  It was sad.  Let's move on now."  Of course, those thoughts made me feel guilty, ashamed, heartless...but they were real.

This year has been different.  I've been reading the many stories, flipping through the countless pictures, and attempting to watch videos that became very emotionally overwhelming at times, trying to give myself some perspective and see if it may have just been my own selfish immaturity that caused me to be so indifferent to past reminders of the terrorist attacks that day.

I think the bottom line is that for me, life has gone on.  It's not that I've forgotten that day 10 years ago...it's that, in the meantime, life has happened.  I've had 7 more children since then.  I've gone through the death of a baby, countless moves and several job changes, health issues---basically, I've lived and I've let life go on.

Today, I want to take a few minutes and remember.  I want to write about that day and allow myself to work through the things that I was too young to work through 10 years ago; because the truth is, that day rocked my world to some degree.  It changed my perspective, squashed my innocence and exposed my ignorance---I just didn't really realize that until now.


Though I've not really thought about it before now, I do remember where I was when I first heard the news.  Jamie and I were living in our hometown of Baker City, Oregon and our oldest daughter, Lynzie, was about 20 months old.  I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with our second child, Michael.  I was awake but not yet out of bed when the phone rang at about 6:30 am.  My mom had been watching the news early that morning and called me frantic.  She told me to turn on the news, that "it was horrible", but she couldn't really get the right words out to tell me what was happening.  By that time, here in Oregon, both planes had hit the World Trade Center buildings and our news was showing the videos over and over again.  The news people were still pretty shaken up and no one really knew what to say.  I remember my mom saying something about this being history and that our world would never be the same.

Thinking back on my initial reaction, it's hard to believe I could be so naive.  All I could think as I watched the news videos play over and over was, "how could someone do this to America?"  It wasn't the, "how could they be so cruel..." point of view; it was the "how could they be allowed to do this?"  In my 21-year-old mind, it seemed literally impossible for someone to attack America...it was as if I believed it was not allowed by some high world law.  I was so secure in my status as an American...in knowing I was "free".  Didn't "free" mean "safe"?


The attacks happened on a Tuesday.  That following Friday night, we headed to the Columbia River to camp with my dad and his wife for the weekend.  While the guys were out on the boat fishing, Theresa and I spent hours contemplating all the changes we anticipated happening now that Armageddon was upon us.  The gas prices had already begun to rise---although I'm not sure why they did or why they're still where they are.  I can remember being overwhelmed with fear that the draft would be reinstated as we prepared for World War III.  My husband, only 22 at the time, was easily draftable.  


Over the next year or so, I remember being so scared when a plane would fly overhead.  I'd either be afraid it was a terrorist or sure it was headed to fend one off.  I can remember when I was a little kid and my mom would always say, "look at the plane, kids!"  My brother and I would get so excited and we'd watch the plane until it went out of sight---imagining where it was going and what happy people were looking down on us.  It just occurred to me that I've never pointed out a plane to my kids.  Nowadays, planes = bombs in some subconscious part of me and they're not fun anymore.

Over time, that fear has worn off.  I've experienced so much more of life in the last 10 years.  I've grown into a "real mom" with pressing issues right here within these four walls.  New York and the other affected areas in the East seem so far away---I've lived my entire life within hours of the West coast.  I still don't know anyone who lost a loved one or otherwise experienced the attacks personally.  I don't drive or walk by the three areas of devastation.  For me, it's over and done with and I've moved on.


But today, as I spend this quiet time contemplating this date and what it means for so many people, I am overwhelmed by how much I am truly affected.  I'm weeping for the 3,000 children who lost at least one parent that day.  I'm hurting for the daughter of the firefighter mother I read about who died after saving countless lives that day.  I'm thinking, if it weren't for 9/11, where would these people be now?  Would I know any of them?  Would I have met them online through BookCrossing?  Would they participate in the Pink Saturday blog hop with me?  How many marriages would have taken place or children would have been born?  How would the entire course of history have changed had these almost 3,000 people lived past September 11, 2001?


In addition to that, what would our world be like?  What would the thousands of soldiers have done with their 10 years?  What direction would our nation have taken had we not had all this to deal with?


Other than my oldest daughter, none of my other children have ever lived in a USA without war.  Despite the fact that I've been relatively indifferent with my feelings about our country, I think I have some of the most patriotic kids around.  I have to attribute some of that to their experiences as kids of the 21st century---the millenium that went to war in infancy and finds itself still there a decade later.


So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I sense myself turning over a new leaf in my feelings toward America.  All this talk of remembering the date and never forgetting those we lost and those who bravely sacrificed for others has me thinking:  of course we're going to remember.  Remembering is not the problem---I think the issue is that we don't grow complacent in our remembering.  We need to actively remember the horror of 9/11 so we can make conscious decisions to live bravely and to esteem others higher than ourselves.  

I want to truly be able to say that I don't live in America, America lives in me.  Tonight I'm committed:  the next time a plane flies overhead, I'll look up and, with all the excitement I can muster, I'll say, "look at the plane kids," and we'll all wave at the happy people flying above the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Linking with:
A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life
Cottage Style Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage 
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
Tuesday Link Up Party 
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe
Home Link Up at Raising Arrows

Showing Compassion-- Part Two

This is part two of a study on showing compassion to the unsaved.  I posted part one yesterday---you can read that here.

As I said yesterday, the Bible says that, as Christians, we are called to compassion.  1 Peter 3:8-9 instructs us in this way:  "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another;  love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."

Unfortunately, we often refuse to show compassion to those around us who need it the most.  There are several reasons for this and, if we're honest, we'll see that we are all guilty of the hypocrisy of ignoring those whom Christ would have us minister to.

One reason why we are not compassionate toward the unsaved is that we have a Sense of Superiority.  Proverbs 6:16-17 says this:  "These six things the Lord hates, yes seven are an abomination to Him:   A proud look..."  There are times when we observe someone who is obviously unsaved and we think things like, "I'm better than that."  "I would never do that."  Etc.  This dangerously prideful attitude is displayed obviously on our faces. 

What's that you say?  You've never had the proud look?  You don't even know what it looks like?  Well, then this would be the perfect time for you to go look in the mirror so you can see exactly what it looks like!  In all seriousness though, think about a time when someone has given you the proud look.  It was very obvious, wasn't it?  They might have been trying to hide it, but you saw it didn't you?  Don't be fooled into thinking you can hide the proud look too!  Something that is so important to remember is that many people, especially those who have been hurt by Christians before, are very discerning of false kindnesses and false behavior.

How can I get rid of my proud look?  It's a simple answer but not so easy to put into practice!  Our proud looks will disappear when the sense of superiority is erased from our hearts!  Once we stop thinking we are "better than that" or that we are "above that behavior" and acknowledge that "all have sinned and fall(en) short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), we will have no more problems with the proud look because we won't feel superior anymore!

Confession time!  Do you have a problem with a sense of superiority like I sometimes do?  Comment and let me know.  Next time, I'll share another reason why we're not quick to offer compassion and grace to the unsaved in our lives.

Go to Part Three