Hello! Long time, no blog!
For today, just a single quote for you:
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
— Kahlil Gibran
Trying new things
I’ve been using Blogger for the past five years or so, but I’m going to give WordPress a go. I’m terrible at posting, mostly because I’m not usually inspired when I’m in front of my computer. Inspiration comes as I’m living life…and it’s forgotten by the time I get back to my computer.
I downloaded the WordPress app to my iPhone. We’ll see if this helps me to be more consistent about posting!
Math Blogs?
I don’t really care for math blogs (or anything beyond basic math), so I wanted to help balance the results of this poll:
Take a minute and answer for yourself!
“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” ~ Rosalia de Castro
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
“Nothing is happenstance…”
I certainly hope this is true. I’ve been grounded recently by things I’ve seen and heard.
The loss of a friends’ baby girl. She only lived for 26 days after she was born. She was on a ventilator for the entire time (save her last few hours on this earth). Her brain, hear, lungs, kidney, liver and limbs didn’t work correctly. It was a miracle that she lived as long as she did. She is now experiencing the glory of God’s presence. The loss for her parents, though, is immense.
An old friend’s wife, Erin, who almost died from blood loss after the birth of their child. The doctors performed a hysterectomy to save her life, but this means she’ll never give birth to another baby.
The letter from the children’s home that we support that shared the story of a boy whose mother died from substance abuse when he was six. Her last words to him were “I’m dying and it’s your fault.”
A request through our church’s prayer chain to pray for a single father who hung himself at his apartment over the weekend. He’s in critical condition. If he dies, he’ll leave behind a young daughter and a fiancé with two little boys.
At the time, I wonder “Lord, why do these things happen?”. After some time has passed though, I can see that “nothing is happenstance.” These events have an impact on my life.
Our friends’ loss helps me to see the blessings in my life and to marvel at the extent of their faith. Erin’s passion to adopt a child, instead of wallowing in the loss she’s experienced. She’s working hard to raise money so they can adopt a little girl.
The letter encourages me to pray for the children at the children’s home. I wonder if there is a child out there without loving parents that we could welcome into our home, to show them how much God loves them. The prayer request makes me think about my own struggles with depression.
All these things have deepened my relationship with our loving Father. I do not know why bad things happen. I only know that there is an almighty Creator who cares for me, and for you.
How I lost 55lbs … and you can too!
Here’s my ten step program for weight loss. Don’t worry – it’s easy! If you’re a woman, of course. Plus a few other caveats. And the standard disclaimers do apply…results not typical, individual results may vary. Blah, blah, blah…
But enough about that, onto how it’s done!
- Be a woman. This is essential, especially for step 2.
- Get pregnant. See why step 1 is essential?
- Gain 50 pounds by eating fried chicken, barbeque, pizza and chocolate ice cream. Limit vegetables and anything with much fiber.
- Give birth to an almost nine pound baby.
- Breastfeed and/or pump as much as possible. Burns lots of calories!
- Complete Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. It’s a bit of a beating, especially the first time around and after you’ve become addicted to carbs after step 3. However, it really works, so I recommend it.
- Repeat steps 5 and 6. It’s hard to balance the two – your body needs carbs so that you can do step 5, but too much carbs prevents weight loss. Slowly, but surely, your body will figure it out. At least, mine did.
- Drink lots of water. As in, your body weight or more.
- Exercise periodically. Once or twice a week should be enough.
- Eat at least two Snickers bars a day. I don’t know why this part works, but it certainly worked for me. I’ve lost five pounds since I started this practice last week.
So, obviously, this is not a real weight-loss program. I was thinking back to my journey of weight gain and weight loss over the past couple years and thought I’d share my story. I use an app to track my weight, and it graphs my progress. I’m quite proud of having been able to lose the weight I gained when I was pregnant, but I have to give a lot of credit to genetics.
And when I say “ a lot”, I really mean A LOT.
