Piecrust Promises

 

(written for the kids church newsletter)

One of my favorite Disney movies as a child was Mary Poppins, which could possibly be because it is the first movie I ever remember watching on the beta tape player in my own home (how many of you remember those! I know I am dating myself there!)! Mary Poppins is a hard-core nanny, or so Michael and Jane think when she first shows up but soon they fall in love with her and after an exceptionally exciting day while being tucked in for bed, they say to her “Oh, Mary Poppins promise you will never leave us” to which she replies, in that lovely British accent, “that is a piecrust promise, easily made, easily broken.” I never understood what Mary was saying as a child but as I have continued to love the movie and watch it that phrase has become one of my favorites. I often find myself thinking it or using it with my children or in conversations. Sadly in society today to many pie crust promises are made everywhere from politics to at work, to ourselves and in the home. No one wants to hear ‘Piecrust promises.’ We were created to crave stability and consistency; it is part of that God-sized hole in our chests, (more of that at a later time.). When someone makes us a promise, especially one of significance we want them to keep their word, and we should expect the same from ourselves when we make a promise. God does not make ‘piecrust promises’. What he says He will do. This week in our Bible reading we read about Abraham, a name who is known for his faith (Hebrews 11) a man who had hope when there was no reason to hope, but he knew that God had made him a promise and he held on to that promise for a long time, 25 years actually! Because God is faithful and what He says he will do will happen. Do you or do I have that same trait? When I make a promise does it stick? What about with our kids, when we promise them something do we follow through with it, or do we get too busy or just forget about it? When I tell my daughter to clean her room and then we will play a game, do I sit down and play it? Or if it is clean your room or I will take away your Barbies, do I take them away? Sadly I have to admit that my consistency in discipline with my kids  is not always my strong point, I find myself thinking I am being too harsh or choosing to reduce the punishment or sometimes I just forget about it all together. Reading about Abraham this week has made me realize that I am not showing them the character of God in those actions. Just like I want consistency in promises, my children and your children NEED consistency in their promises, too. When I forget or change my mind or just choose to not bring it up again I am not showing them the character of a loving God who NEVER makes piecrust promises to His children. To model the heart of God to our kids we need to be faithful and consistent in our promises to them, following through with them no matter the cost or inconvenience to us. Just as God promised Abraham that He was his great reward, our children will reap the Great Reward of knowing who God is when we model it in our lives, for theirs. So are you making ‘piecrust promises’ to your kids or where your kids can see them? If so I challenge you today to start modeling God and let’s strive to be faithful like He is faithful, I mean chances are I won’t have to keep taking the Barbies away for 25 years!

This blog started for me as a 'requirement' to track my fitness for a work project but now I think I am going to attempt to use it regulary to get that writing itch out of my system so here goes to a new start of Takin' it down a notch. I thought about a name change but really i need to take lots of things in my lifedown a notch, my schedule, my weight my clutter and many things up a notch, my quiet time and my commitment to myself as well as my childrena and thier education as well as mine. So no name change! But accountability! So keep me accountable, comment, then I will have to reply!
So here is to a couple of 'Notches' on the belt or the paddle or wherever they are going!

Black Friday- Was it really worth the wait?

Uhmmm - in a word NO! I was outside at Target at 11:30 last night to wait for a few blankets and some movies! I mean really, I don't think it was at all worth my time and the crowds! OH MY!! I have been an avid Black Friday shopper since I got married and I have never seen crowds so bad for the big event! We are in a college town so there were way too many college students out spending mommy & daddy's money and standing in the middle of the aisles at Target!! But I was home and in bed by 8 and got to sleep in a quiet house all to myself, better than if I had been at work the night before and even better since I am at home now on call! Although I am sure my bank account would rather me be at work tonight, you can't ake it with you! The good thing is I think I have gotten my kids shopping all done, I am going for the minimalist approach this year, they are way blessed and to spoiled and they know it so this year I am keeping it to a minimum or at least that is the plan. We will see how that works out.

As for the health and fitness in my life well I did not pig out yesterday and even made sure I ate my veggies! and i skipped the cheesecake!! But I have also skipped the workout and I am feeling guilty about that so tomorrow I will make up for it and just make it so I moved my rest day! Here is hoping for a good night sleep!
Later!

SO total randomness starts now!!

The whole purpose of this blog starting was to track my weight loss for the contest at work but now it is going to just be ablout life in general. I really don't feel like my life has a whole lot to be exciting enough for anyone to want to keep track of but I find myself reading other peoples random thoughts so I figure, who knows I may get a few followers eventually and especially if I work at it, so that is on my new list of goals! Being a successful blogger! Now to get followers?? Hummmm?? Note to self work on that!

I have been reading a book, well sorta reading a book! It is a prebook to a book that will come out in Dec. The book is PUSH: 30 Days to Turbocharged Habits, a Bangin’ Body, and the Life You Deserve, by Chalean Johnson. For those of you who do not know who she is, she is an exercise guru and self made millionaire. The book is about getting where you want to go and giving you a road map to do it! You do a chapter a day with homework!! And by the end of the 30 days you should be well on your way to having developed habits of getting this done to accomplish the goals that you set in the 2nd chapter. I am on day 11 and have been doing pretty good about it. If I only could seem to stay home then I would be able to get more done!!! But that will come with time, well maybe, and maybe I will have to just learn to be more efficiant at getting it done on the run. In the book you choose 1 goal from your list of 10 that is your PUSH goal and it is the one goal that will give you momentum to accomplish the rest of your goals, not necesarily the most important hing on your goal list but the momentum builder. My PUSH goal is organization of my house and my time!! I figure who couldn't use that and let me just tell you that is a big project in my house, sometimes I feel like I beloongon Hoarders!! OK not really! So tomorrow starts the first small step of getting the garage cleaned out and organized, the purging of the winter clothes! I think I might be able to clothe a school not a child!! So tomorrow the project starts and the list builds!! I am really excited about getting this out of the way and over with! Join me on the garage cleaning journey!

If you are interested in her book here is a link to her website or you can purchase it through Barnes & Noble http://www.chalenejohnson.com/pushjumpstart/

The biggest loser is over

So the Biggest Loser contest at work is done. I am not the winner but I do believe I won my team. The best thing about the whole contest was not that i lost weight, because really I did not lose to muchonly about 10-11 lbs, but that it has gotten me motivated. At least I think so, although you would not know it from the last 2 days of my lazy life with no exercise! But really it has gotten me motivated to get the extra pounds off. So I will continue in the weight loss until I hit that covetted goal weight, which I will share at a later date! Once I am closer to it! I also have the goal of keeping up the blogging about my weight loss and life in general. I will continue to share about my journey and hope that i can even get a few people to join in along the way.

Almost done

So i stayed the same this week on the scale. Not a great feeling. But not much I can do about it at this point. I wish i had pushed harder at the beginning so I could have lost more than I have and more importantly gotten the $$$ involved in winning, I was looking forward to a new camera that didn't really come out of my pocket. Even though they do this at work about yearly, I have a feeling this will be my only attempt at the Biggest Loser so here is to the last week and we will see where it takes us. At least to the top of my team and that is probably it, there was no published results from last week so i don't even know if i am still in the top 10, but I will give it my best shot this week and see what I can lose and although I am happy with the loss of space, the shedding of pounds right now would be better!

One more week to go!

My computer has been freaking out for a week now so I am once again behind!! The reason for that freak out would be that I tried to install Dragon Naturally Speaking so that I could just talk my posts and it would do all the typing for me, since my brain runs faster than my fingers but that did not seem to work out for me, instead it raised my blood pressure and my blood sugar!! And cost me a lot of time on the phone to the antivirus company!! But on the weight loss subject...I am # 10 on the Biggest Loser challenge and that is better than I thought I would be. I figure that the field will widen this week because I am guessing that the people that are in the top 10 or so will really try to kick it in to gear. I know I have been working a little harder at it this week, not that I am sure it is really helping out, but I am working atit. My hubby keeps telling me I am losing weight or at least space but "you have to remember that muscle weighs more than fat." Yeah Yeah Yeah!But I need to scales to drop not the pants size or the bra size right now! So I am hoping that this week proves better than last since the final weigh in is next week and i would love to have some $$$$ from all this effort!!