In the Storm

Swimming Stats

Swam 1000 meters today (met my goal!); in addition swam no less than 100m laps, some 150, and 1 - 250m lap. Thankful to God for the new Hunter gym and the pool!!!! Shoulders and arms feel like jelly but I sure feel good. Reminder - my end of March goal is 1600 meters. I think I can, I think I can.

Today again

1. I swam 750 meters (that was my goal); but I also swam 5 - 100 meter laps. My goal was at least 1 - 100 meter lap. So I exceeded my goal.

2. Why don't people pull to the side of the road for an ambulance?

3. Making yummy Nestle Tollhouse cookies - several kinds; slaving over them (yeah yeah - so I'm opening the package, breaking the cookies into pieces, placing them on my stoneware and putting them in the oven)

4. Turned in another layout (my 4th) at Savannah Scrapbooking - a Design Team layout

5. Wrote my letter and turned it in today for Mission support, for our June mission trip to ETS

6. Reading W.E.B. Griffin's, the Witness. His books are phenomenal.

Just browsing

the TV and internet at work...Rachel Ray 30-minute meals made this awesome looking pizza, called Mega Meatball Pizza. What sounded so awesome about it was the dough. Before topping it she prepared the dough using EVOO (alot of it), fresh rosemary finely chopped, and salt and pepper; then baked it. This reminds me of the bread from Macaroni Grill that you dip in the EVOO w/ cracked pepper that they serve with every meal. That bread is a meal in itself as far as I'm concerned. So I think I'm gonna try this pizza.

Visited Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries website and read one of the devotions her daughter wrote. Talked about how we make idols out of movie stars and sports figures and we may be contributing to their self-destructive behavior. She wrote, "At the end of the day, idolizing a person is as futile as worshipping a wooden statue, for both are corruptible and they shall both return to the dust.  God alone is incorruptible, and not only does he alone deserve man’s worship but he is the only being who is not corrupted by man’s worship." Only after first recognizing the Creator’s masterful hand behind every facet of life should we appreciate and savor the talents and the beauty of another…and even then, let us tread carefully, for ours is a jealous God."

"In Romans 1, the apostle Paul condemns the human race for suppressing the truth of God; he says that we should have seen God’s invisible attributes through that which is displayed in the created world. He goes on to declare that we didn’t honor God, but exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.  We failed and continue to fail to rightly credit the Creator, and instead we worship and serve the creatures that he has created.  When we gaze upon the beauty or marvel at the talent of another and we fail to recognize that it is God alone who is the author and the source, we are not only lying to ourselves but we are doing a great disservice to our fellow man. 

I must remind myself this daily when I see someone advancing in the scrapbooking world or even someone who is an awesome speaker/bible teacher not to idolize them beyond acknowledging their talents as God-given and remember to give God all the glory, praising Him for the beauty bestowed before me and the teaching taught to me.

Thought it was an interesting view on idolatry and seems to be very fitting for today and society as a whole and how we seek out news about those popular and then wonder why they fall.

Right here God I am reminder of your gifts, that they come from you alone, your beauty is beyond compare. I worship you alone.

As promised...

Miss Ella, 3 months old.

Gratefulness

What am I grateful for right now:

1. I have this super fantanstic job that I love, doing something that I love: meteorology

2. My digital camera xTi

3. My awesome friend Lori

4. The Hunter Post gym is opened with an indoor pool for swimming laps

5. The brothers in Christ my husband has who he can turn to for anything

6. Our old vehicles (24 years, 13 years, 11 years) that are still running

7. Laughter

8. W.E.B. Griffin for writing these awesome books

What are you grateful for?

Swimming Stats 1

Just thought I'd keep somewhat of a log: went swimming today; freestyle only; 650 meters. My goal today was 600 meters so I surpassed my goal. Long range goal by the end of March is 1600 meters, but another goal is to build up to swimming more than 50 meters in one stretch. So my goal for tomorrow is to at least swim 700 meters but also swim a 75 meter stretch at least once.

Ok

I did it! I went swimming. It has been more than 3 years since I've been swimming. I don't mean playing around at the beach, I mean lap swimming. My lungs were screaming, my arms and legs feel like dead weight - and I feel great!! So I only swam 400 meters - I know from experience that it doesn't take long. So my goal is 1600 meters straight by the end of March. That's a lofty goal. But I'm really siked. The pool is on Hunter in their new post gym, which is huge. I really need to check out their other stuff too. The ladies locker room has it's own sauna and jacuzzi. When I pulled into the gym parking lot it was packed but once I got inside, because the gym is so big, it seemed like there were hardly people there. The ladies locker room was near barren. Can you tell that I'm soooo excited.

Shades of Ella

Ella is 3 months old now. Let me get my camera out and she responds immediately as if to say, 'take my picture grammy' - aren't I just too cute for words. Well, ok, she is that. Ashley watches Ella on Fridays while Elizabeth is in classes. But I'm here too. We had a blast putting Ashleys sunglasses 'shades' on Ella because Ella just went along with it, hamming it up for the camera. So anyways, I downloaded these fabulous page elements from Creating Keepsakes and decided to make another quick digital page. It's the lazy me coming out. I'll probably still make a non-digital page using these pictures for a Design Team layout too. But here it is...

Innocently

the boys asked last week, after hearing that Indiana got over a foot of snow, "Can we fly up to Grandma's this weekend and play in the snow?" They weren't thinking about the cost. They weren't even aware of the cost. I believe all they could imagine was the fun they could have. Besides, they remembered the winter of 2004 in Indiana and the fun they had then playing in the snow. Did a layout for my DT work for Savannah Scrapbooking regarding that very conversation. Enjoy! I did.

Friday Observations

1. Started and completed my first required layout for my design team (DT) work for Savannah Scrapbooking and turned it in.   

2. Took some pictures of Ella today - she's a hoot                                                                         

3. Washing clothes today.                                                                                                             

4. Blogging.                                                                                                                                  

5. Jeff called to tell be one of his bible study partners had a heart attack - he's younger than Jeff. Prayed for him.                                                                                                                          

6. Love having the Air Hockey table in my scraproom. Like the boys being up in my room with me. They'll stop and check out what I'm doing - they love my scrapping.                                                

7. It's clear and cold out - simply beautiful.                                                                                  

8. Beautiful - the word that John spelled correctly in his class spelling bee. He got a package of Pralines from Savannah Sweets as a reward.                                                                                

9. Pralines - yum! my all-time favorite candy.