I have a hard time even writing that date. September 2nd, on Labor Day, 28 years ago was the day my older brother Jonathan died in a car accident. It's always an emotional time for our family and once I became a Mom it hit me even harder what that has been like for my Mom. 💔💔
It has been very special for my Mom, my younger brother and his his family, and my family to all be together on Labor Day weekend. That hasn't happened in 20 years (since I went to college)! It's been special for our kids to play together and to enjoy this time as a family but also so heartbreaking to think of what Jonathan's family might have been like and imagine more cousins running around laughing.
I wish so much we had more pictures from when I was a growing up and our family together. This is why I always push for you to take pictures , not only to documents weight loss but to remember these special moments with those you love. (Not even for you but for them) I urge you today, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, take a picture with the ones you love...you won't regret it.
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 ...
My flight was delayed and I ended up getting home pretty late last night but thankfully I got to sleep in my own bed (I slept pretty terrible this trip).
Penelope has a little performance today for the theater camp she did this week. The kids have Bible school next week and then we leave for our big Montana road trip, which we're all very excited about.
We don't have any other major plans this weekend except for doing some preparation for that trip. Mostly just excited to catch up and get some rest this weekend. We'll do a Livestream in Locals Monday evening!
How has your week been going? What are your plans for the weekend?
I just realized that the great value canned chicken I've been using says zero carbs but has modified food starch in it. I found some clean ones I will be buying from now on. You really need to read labels.
Happy Thursday! Yesterday we taught a session on Emotional Intelligence, and a big part of that is having Self Awareness. We used this graphic to help people dive into the root of their reactions and emotions. We usually only identify the core emotions in the middle of the circle, anger for instance. But anger can come in the form of frustration which can come from resentment. Or we might notice we are sad, but really it's coming from hurt that stems from feeling isolated. When we know the more specific emotion we are experiencing, it can help us respond more effectively.
So often we tell ourselves we're struggling because we lack willpower, motivation, or discipline. But if we pause and look deeper, the real issue may be stress, loneliness, overwhelm, disappointment, insecurity, boredom, or feeling out of control.
Many of us don't eat because we're physically hungry. We eat because we're tired. We snack because we're stressed. We give up because we're discouraged. We reach for comfort because ...
