The message from my church on Sunday has been sticking with me this week. The pastor preached from Genesis 12:1-3 and it had a wonderful perspective about how we should look for blessings in our hardships. He spoke about how we all have ways in which we are "cursed" and deal with hardships and in those times it is often very difficult to see in what ways we are truly blessed.
Many times our first instinct is to ask "What is wrong today" or "Why am I sad today" instead of "Where am I being blessed today?"
Now that doesn't mean we have to deny the ways we are cursed or pretend that those things don't exist, but we do need to make an effort to acknowledge the ways we are blessed even with the hardships we are going through.
We have to get in the habit of seeing blessings in the midst of our obstacles. And one of the important things he shared is that we need to remember that we are blesses so that we can be a blessing for others.
"I will bless you and make your name great, SO THAT you will be a blessing."
This whole message spoke to me in several ways but it really made me think about the things I have seen in this group lately. I see people who only a few months ago were really struggling and now they are thriving, feeling more confident, and encouraging others. I am so grateful for all of you and how encouraging of a place this has become, it's been a huge blessing to me and I hope it is for you as well.
Also if you are currently struggling try to focus on the blessings you do have, and think about the ways you do have the ability to be a blessing to others.
If you want to listen to the whole message I will link the recording below, but today I encourage you to think about the ways in your life you are blessed, and how you can be a blessing to others.
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Tuesday! Thanks to those that hung out on the Livestream last night. One of the topics we talked about is breaking a stall. And unfortunately the best advice I have for breaking a stall is "keep it boring" and just stay consistent. Honestly that's been my motto this year. I love variety of course, but the more simple/boring I keep things with my food the better results I get. Usually when we add "variety" we add a lot of diary, or carbs, or those replacement recipes that increase cravings or contain hidden dairy/carbs/calories.
It might be hard to get into a routine at first but I do find that just eating the same things most days is actually a lot easier. And if you really enjoy that food (and know how to cook it), you'll still look forward to it each day.
If you're feeling stuck, just focus on consistency and keeping that food simple, and I PROMISE it will work...you just have to be patient.
Boring =Results! Have you found this to be true for you?
Happy Tuesday evening!
We spent the day at the farm show w/out 5 yo who didn't feel well. Which was probably good as it was windy, cold, rainy. We figured we walked 3+ miles. So lots of fresh air and exercise.
We ate breakfast on the way (location is an hour away from our house.) They had a Chicken Club Protein Bowl, so I had that. The "cheese" was plastic american cheese and it had tomatoes on it; but otherwise it was just eggs, bacon and chicken breast. I also had about 1/2 of my normal protein coffee on the drive.
We skipped lunch.
After some farm errands in that city, we came home to chore and go through all the swag we got. Caps, tee-shirts, flashlights, rain gauges, fly swatters, chip clips, pens and I seriously will never have to buy another note pad or sticky notepad, ever! And of course the nice grocery bags and 5 gallon buckets.
Then we took the grandkids swag in to them. Stickers, caps, corn hats, coloring pages, rubber bracelets, pencils.
Then we went to our Mexican ...
Good Evening Y'all!! I haven't been feeling well since Saturday. Got a cough and some head congestion along with headaches. Today my energy has been really zapped. I napped today for about 2 hours. I haven't done that in months. It was a real struggle today to not eat the crap that I use to eat. I made it though. I shared my breakfast earlier. So for dinner I had pulled pork and smoked pulled chicken. For the Life Relaunch event that I was a part of my husband smoked a pork butt and a couple whole chickens. So we're eating leftover pork butt and chicken. Y'all my husband does an excellent job of smoking some meat.
So here's pictures of my food today. I had some more chicken after I what he put on my plate the first time. The second helping of chicken I didn't finish. I have had 80 ounces of water. I raw lmnt in one of the 40 ounce cups. Plus I drank a coke zero and diet mountain dew today. I gotta work on those. But for now I'm working on consistency. Which for me is mostly meat with ...
