October 17, 2013 I received my book… and I wrote about the THM journey here with additional entries following. I wasn’t so much seeking to be a trim healthy mama as much as I was determined to be a healthy mama who happened to figure out how to be and remain disciplined and trim. I had such determination and such confidence. And success, too. Life happened. And failure. This morning I’m cleaning up from a few different events in the last several days and all I see around me are large bowls, serving platters, large carafes, stacks of other dishes,…
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Have you ever asked yourself what you’d do if you knew you were dying? Or, how would you live differently if you knew this year was your last year to live? I was talking with my friend on the phone this morning and as I was recounting different ongoing family situations, I related that even though we had a real “wake-up call” last summer, we haven’t changed things we do or don’t do all that much. As I hung up the phone, it occurred to me that I must not take, or respond to, wake up calls all that seriously. …
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Just recently I was sharing with my church family the many times the Lord has given me a song for a season — songs playing in the theater of my mind in different seasons. Through the years, here in this blog, I’ve shared clips of songs or meaningful words that have carried me through difficult days or trials. Interestingly (and thankfully!), the Lord has often used music to direct or focus my thoughts. When my mind would tend to wander in caves of worry or despair, songs have been my pillar of fire in darkness; songs have been my anchor…
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All the information, booklets, visits from the different therapists and the remarks of different doctors in the days and hours prior to leaving the hospital following my husband’s open heart bypass surgery didn’t prepare me for the recovery road. Yes, I’d listened intently. Yes, I’d taken notes and appeared to comprehend all the information they were giving me — giving us. I guess I was prepared for what they’d specifically instructed me to do when we returned home, but I wasn’t prepared for the other stuff — the other stuff that they didn’t tell me. And now, looking back, I…
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I glanced down at the clock as I pulled into the parking garage. I rounded the corner and pulled into the same space I’d vacated just 7 hours earlier. Knowing the segment queue was on the :20’s, quickly clicking through the radio stations, I was hoping to hear one of the morning “phone taps” my girls had replayed for me a couple of times. These “phone taps” are pranks a radio host makes on unsuspecting individuals. Twisted, I know. But, given the situation I’d been experiencing, lots of my thoughts were scrambled in those days. Precious minutes were ticking…
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Have you considered that the dailiness of God’s Word ever reveals the timeliness and the timelessness of His eternal Word? I mull this over as I reflect on the weeks gone by… the events of different days and the Co-incidents I was so privileged to see in God’s Word — His living Word — His timely, timeless, living Word as well as in experiences and events around me. O that I could just more plainly see, expectantly grasp what I read each day — each day’s applications are profound but I so often miss them in the moment. But God. …
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As I write this, I’m sitting in a large dining room, high atop a mountain overlooking a sweeping valley, many miles from home. In many ways, it feels strangely reminiscent of the time we spent in the hospital. Looking out over the valley, the sun streaming in through the east windows, home seems an eternity away. Nearly five weeks have passed since my husband’s bypass surgery and many of the uncertainties and events of the early post-op days seem a distant memory now — events all covered up with our new normal and activities of each passing day. How would…
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Just as I’d left it the night before, my parking space was waiting for me to pull in. Up the elevator and down the hall, as I rounded the corner I heard my husband talking on the phone. Wait. What? He’s making an order. Is he on the phone with Leisure? Leisure is a division of Keller Supply in Seattle. Yes, yes, he is… he is making an order for pool parts for the boys. Of course he is. At that moment, I realized he was going to be fine. O, I’d have tentative moments of wavering over the next…
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It’s a beautiful day here! Sunshine always seems to change my outlook — sort of, no matter what I’ve got to do, if the day’s a sunny one, generally, my attitude is sunny, too! It’s taken me all these months of ‘working at’ the Trim Healthy Mama plan to get confident enough to begin sharing some of the different recipes or how I’ve learned to use the different recipes in the book — but every day I learn something new! Ever a “free-styler” I have to really work at following the recipes. But I’ve come to see and really appreciate…
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A continuation of posts in a series of thoughts looking back on our life and experiences with the Advanced Training Institute and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (hereafter, ATI / IBLP)… I want to say at the outset, that it wasn’t all bad — ATI / IBLP — for I cannot really accurately recount the good things we learned in the ATI / IBLP years in our family or the blessings we reaped from what we experienced. And I don’t want to belabour an increasing list of negative points or excuse some of the more egregious errors in the…