Tag Archives: lessons

Listen to your body….

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Or eventually it will give you no choice.  Yesterday, I blogged about my headache.  That was earlier in the day.  After I picked up our girls from Religious Ed. I came home, and promptly got into bed to REALLY get rid of that meddling headache for once and all.  It was about 11:45 a.m.  I briefly said hello to Hubby when he came in to check on me after Mass and the next thing I knew….it was 2:45 p.m.   So much for the day!!!  I had two hours to kill before Mass with the girls @ 5!!  (so we made Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls to continue celebrating our Easter Octave!!)  However, my headache was GONE.  And boy, was I rested!!  I thought I’d have a hard time going to sleep last night, but ZERO problem.  In fact, I was supposed to get up and meet my girlfriend at the gym and after turning off my alarm, fell BACK to sleep for another 90 minutes.  OY!  I’m blaming it on the ceiling fans.  It’s really making sleep phenomenal.  But truly, I obviously needed the sleep and since I didn’t give my body what it needed, it took it anyway.  So beware!!  What are you neglecting YOUR body of?  You might want to tend to those oversights, otherwise the body may just take over and give you no choice.

Have a great day!  Check in with the rest of the May-bloggers and see what they’ve been up to, hopefully they’ve been doing more than sleeping!!

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva 

MB

Brite  

Amanda 

Lea 

See?  Our cat has NO problem just sleeping whenever he feels like it.  I should take my cue from him!

I really didn’t want to but….

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I’m glad I did.  Go to the gym yesterday that is.  That’s the good thing about having accountability partners, you do NOT want to be the only one who didn’t work out–(not without a good reason anyway).  I was feeling lazy yesterday by lunch time and really just wanted to go nap somewhere, but the other girls had already gone and were giving me the “eye” and asking me what my plan at the gym was going to be, soooooooo.  I went.  Mostly because I do better when I have someone to account to.  I am a little competitive.  I remembered we are having a luncheon today to celebrate May birthdays (mine included) and I’ll surely be partaking of some delicious fare.  And I’ll be going again today at lunch.  Mostly because of the luncheon.  But also because I’ll have to do legs.  Since my arms and upper body are sore, I can’t ignore my legs!!!  Friday I am meeting a friend in the wee hours of the morning (urgh!) and that will wrap the week up for strength training.  Here’s the deal though:

  • I can complain all I want, but the truth is I’ll get out of it ONLY what I put into it
  • After 4 months of consistent exercise, I HAVE SHOULDER DEFINITION!! Yup.  It’s not crazy muscle magazine fitness, but I clearly have muscle peeking through and confirmed by Hubby, daughter and son.
  • I may not WANT to work out, however, when it’s done…..I never regret having worked out
  • Nike has it right.  Just do it.  Lace up the shoes and go around the block. 20 minutes is gone before you know it.
  • I do have more energy.  I do sleep better.  My clothes fit better.
  • It’s the one thing I do for ME and it benefits my entire family!
  • God gave me this body, this temple, it’s MY job to take care of it and glorify Him through it.
So find some time today to give your body what it needs.  Excuses are abundant.  What do you have to lose?
1 Corinthians 6:19  

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Here’s our growing list to May’s challenge.  Check ’em out and join in!  Comment and I’ll add you in!
Have a blessed day!!

Apurva  (new to blogging…hope we don’t scare off forever!!)

MB

Brite  

Amanda 

Lea 

And so it begins…..

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In the beginning…..everything seems so exciting, shiny, full of promise and hope.  New school clothes.  Unopened packets of pens, paper, folders, dividers.  Unscathed backpacks.  Unscuffed tennis shoes.  And then you settle into a routine and as you near the end, ripped shorts, crumpled paper, graffiti’ed backpacks, holey shoes and you plug on with your eye on the prize because the end is just. around. the. corner.

Ah.  And so it realistically be with the blog challenge.  Every day in May.  Seems fun.  Exciting. All these ideas floating in my brain.  And then finding the time to put them down.  Struggling between what I want to say and how it’s coming out of my brain.  Often not even on the same hemisphere!!

The reality is, I LOVE a challenge.  I always work better under pressure with a specific goal in mind. Whether it was when I used to run and was training for a race or with my girlfriends at the beginning of the year when we decided we could do ANYTHing for 12 weeks!!  (here it is into our 4th month and still plugging along in our new routines!)  I’m a structured person.  I wish I was more relaxed sometimes, but it’s not where my comfort zone is…a first-born, goal-oriented, nurturer.

HOWEVER, you may be more free.  Less inclined to stay inside the lines.  YAY! for you.  I’ll live vicariously through you and maybe gain some courage to step outside the box once in a while.  So, join me in our blogging “challenge” for May.  Blog each day.  Blog some days.  Use words.  Use pictures.  Use both.   Send your blog name in the comment section, I’ll add you in.  So far, we are FOUR.  I look forward to sliding into the end of May, tattered, blogged and having “met” other bloggers and styles to steal learn from throughout the 31 days!

Have a wonderful day!!

Brite  (this awesome Mama is the sweetest and gentlest!  with 4 little ones–including a newborn, she homeschools, farms, sews, cooks and sometimes includes great pictures of life’s ups and downs)

Amanda (I just met her yesterday through her blog, and Brite, and I enjoyed her pictures and her theme for May–pictures and Scriptures–FABULOUS combination!)

Lea (her 5th year of this challenge, I stole it from her, she’s crazy busy, the MOST creative person EVER, a God’s girl through and through and after all these years of knowing her I finally figured out how she gets it all done.  She doesn’t sleep.  Which is why I’ll never capture her cape!  I love sleep too much.)

Expectations.

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As your life is likely as busy as ours this time of year, I’m sure you are familiar with the reality of things not always working out as expected.  It’s life.  The planets are NOT all aligned for every event to occur without a hitch and if one can’t practice some flexibility in life then it’s going to be one bitter horsepill to swallow on a regular basis.

This weekend I was sure that we were fairly open in our schedule sans for two events:  1.  Walk through Bethlehem on Saturday evening  2.  Children’s Christmas program at our church Sunday afternoon.  Now, in hindsight,  one would think my spidey senses would have been tingling…ERROR, ERROR, ERROR at the complete ridiculousness of an “Open” schedule at this point in December, however, they failed me.  My calendar, the one right on the wall of the kitchen.  The one that we write our life on.  The one I pass a million times a day.  Yes.  That one would have reminded me of all that was planned this weekend.  And that would require looking at it.   live and learn.  live and learn.  Fortunately, I did look at it Friday night, so I had a few hours to mentally prepare:

  • Routine Saturday chores, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc…..AND get our youngest to her liturgical dance practice.  It is the 3rd Sunday (Family Mass) and they perform a little dance and have practice the day before.  Oops.
  • “Happy birthday, Jesus” annual lunch with my grandparents.  At our house.  Menu????  Oops.

So, though it wasn’t a lot of extra activity, the activities DID require time management, organization and calm.  We pulled it off (because generally I work better under pressure, not so great for my stress level, but TREMENDOUS for my focusing abilities).

Amid all the flurry of activity, the biggest disappointment was our Walk through Bethlehem.  Having never been to this particular event, nor had I spoken to anyone who had an idea of how it all operated, we went in blind.  Sadly, we made the call to exit the line after realizing we were looking at least a two-hour wait before we got it.  We don’t do lines well.  When we are ill-prepared for the line, it’s even worse.  However, we regrouped, and drove around to look at Christmas light displays and ate cookies in the care (Dad totally rocked on THAT little preparation!!).  So Plan “B” was a hit.  Mostly.  At least it restored harmony to the family.  Mostly.  And we were able to salvage the evening.  Mostly.

 

 

 

 

The Roman Soldier casing the place…the only part we sa

 

 

 

 

Some of the lights from our drive 

 

 

And because we weren’t busy enough, the baking bug hit me Sunday.  Between Mass and the Christmas program, we baked away:  Poppy seed bread.  Chocolate chip cookies.  Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  and our family favorite, Buckeye Balls.  I’m done.  done.  done.  done.  done.

Good lessons learned this weekend:  Check the calendar.  Always.  Twice daily when it’s December (or May).  Roll with it and be prepared to modify the “Plan”.  Expectations are destined to fall short.  Flexibility is king.  Have plenty of preparations on hand.  Or a decent time frame whilst the bread is baking to make an impromptu trip to Publix to re-stock.  Enjoy.  Every.  Little.  Moment.   It will be January before we know it!