Weekly Weigh In

Not much to report weight wise, but I did have a few people comment to me that my pants looked too big, so that's exciting! Pretty soon I'm going to have to go shopping! I have been struggling with being an emotional eater. Whenever I'm stressed, depressed, sad, or really happy about something, I want to eat whatever sounds good at the moment. I need to work on my discipline and my will power.
Speaking of discipline, I have to confess that for the last week, I have not been getting up early to do my devotions. The girls haven't been sleeping good, so I've been up with them in the night and I'm not feeling good, so when 6 am rolls around, I just want to stay right in my warm bed. Our house has been especially cold in the mornings due to the outrageous price of heating oil, that makes my warm bed even more appealing! I know these are excuses and I am missing out on so many benefits. Please feel free to ask me how it's going. Susan did that a few weeks ago, and it helped jump start me!
I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that the doctor was impressed that Anna has been saying a few words. She can say, "DaDa", "MaMa", "LaLa" (for Rylie),"PaPa" (for Grandpa), and "BaBa" (for bottle, which she is starting to use more insistently and pointing at her bottle). One of her favorite activities is to sit on the floor and dump all of the toys out of her basket and then see how many of them she can put in her mouth! She also quite enjoys pulling her sisters hair. At first I thought it was accidental, but now I'm seeing the gleam in her eyes as she reaches for her. She has the best smiles, they always make us smile!
My Cubbie slept in her new Cubbie vest all night. She put it on over her pajamas so her Daddy could see it when she got home! This morning she walked around with it on and her Cubbie bag slung over her shoulder. We are working on the letter "F" this week. We went outside and collected fall leaves which she glued to a construction paper tree trunk. She also made the letter "F" out of fish stickers. She is doing such a good job learning her letters, I'm very proud of her.
Please pray for my poor hubby, he's home sick in bed! He was up half the night sneezing and hacking!

Blustery Fall Day

I love this weather! The wind is blowing, the air is crisp, the sun is shining! Give me this over a 90 degree day anytime! However, my head is pounding, and stuffed up, Anna is coughing, and Ryan's throat is hurting, that's the downfall to this season! Thankfully, Rylie seems to be feeling fine. She is now officially a Cubbie! She is so excited! She learned her verse last week and her Cubbie motto, now this week she has two more to learn. Then she will get her vest and book, which she is really looking forward to.
I had my first night back teaching the Puggles last week. This year I have a group of young two year olds. It was fun, but exhausting! I think things will go smoother in a few weeks after they learn how to sit still and follow directions. If anyone has any good game ideas for this age, I would appreciate them!
Our women's retreat was this weekend and it went great! I was so thankful for Linda, Deb, and Kate speaking to us. They put in a lot of effort and taught me a great deal. I was very happy that my sister, Jen was able to come up from another state for it! It has been so incredible watching her grow in the Lord!
Sunday was an exciting day. I haven't mentioned it on here yet, but for those of you who don't know, our church is praying about merging with another church. This Sunday we had our first combined service so that people could meet one another, see the facility, etc. When the singing started and I heard 450 people all praising the Lord together, I got tears in my eyes. A merger means lots of changes and challenges, but it is also very exciting and I think can be a great growing opportunity for all of us. I would be sad to leave our church building (the offices were my home for most of my life, in fact my bedroom is now my husband's office), but I feel like this is the direction the Lord is leading us. I want to be where He wants us. We have a real opportunity to minister to this other church that is needing a Pastor and help with ailing ministries. It would be an answer to prayer for our space needs. There will be kinks along the way, but if we all keep Phil. 2 in mind and think of others as more important than ourselves things should go easier. I know there will be challenges but I love what Tim C. said to me Sunday night, he said that he was in awe Sunday morning looking around and was thinking that here are all these people wanting to be in the middle of God's will and willing to be in the middle of that, no matter what His will is. I love that attitude!

Interruptions

This past week, I've been feeling like I have been in a hamster wheel. Do you know what I mean? Where you feel like you are just rushing around but not really getting anywhere? I have been complaining that I have so much to do (combination of "real life", getting ready for Women's Retreat, MOPS, catching up from being sick, etc.), and I can't get anything accomplished because I keep getting interrupted. I'm ashamed to say that I was mostly complaining about my children interrupting me! How utterly selfish! The Lord has convicted me greatly! My precious daughters are blessings! I was further convicted/encouraged when I read this C.S. Lewis quote on Girl Talk:
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time.” The Quotable Lewis, (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1989), 335.
Hopefully that will encourage you as it has me!

Weigh In and Updates

Drum roll please . . . One Pound! Actually I'm pleased. There were two weeks of not loosing anything, so to see the scale move in the right direction was encouraging. My total so far is ten pounds lost! I am also pleased because I grew lax in counting my calories and was more estimating them, so I was worried that perhaps I had gained weight. This week I'm back on track of counting those calories closely.
Ryan didn't loose any this week, but he was also pleased that he didn't gain any either. He has been way too busy and preoccupied to count his calories the last few weeks.
We have had a fun week so far. Monday night, our friends, Chantal and Justin came over to have dinner with us and the Groth's. The Groth's are the missionaries Ryan and I (and Rylie in my belly) went to minister with in Poland four years ago. They were home on furlough so it was great to catch up with them. Justin and Chantal are planning a trip to Poland in March to minister with them.
Tuesday, I had a Women's Ministry Board meeting. (Ladies from Valley, please plan on attending our mini retreat Oct. 3-4. We are planning some great things for it!) After our meeting, Becky took Anna home with her and Ryan, Rylie and I all went to Panda Express for dinner and then saw Kung Foo Panda at the dollar theater! Since Ryan has been so busy lately he thought it would be good to spend some extra time with Rylie. She really enjoyed the evening, especially the popcorn!
Yesterday, the girls and I went to Borders. My secret sister gave me a gift card for there! (If you read this, thank you!!!) It was fun browsing for the first few minutes then both girls realized they did not enjoy looking at Mommy books. I should have known better! At any rate, we came home with a book for Daddy on poor grammar (I call him my grammar nazi), a pop up Cinderella book for the girls, my favorite movie (Bride and Prejudice, a modern Bollywood remake of Jane Austin's classic), and a novel for me (I, Elizabeth). They did not have the best selection of Christian books. Almost all the good ones they had, we already own, either at home, or in Ryan's office at Church.
I think I might take the girls to the fair tomorrow morning. If you go before noon you can get in for free tomorrow!