By Nicole

That really hurts.  And that too.  Every move I make, every breath I take.  Curses on your shredding tactics.  No wonder I never last more than a week or two.  Will I ever see the end result of a full 30 days? After I do a Jillian Michaels workout, I always feel a lot better about myself.  I stand a little taller.  I wear a tank top to show off my biceps, and I want to drink a protein shake.  And I usually do drink a protein shake.  One with a banana added.  For the potassium.  The blessed potassium that will soothe and reassure my cramping, screaming muscles.  I almost want to rub banana on my hip flexors sometimes, even though I know banana paste is not effective.  So I opt for IcyHot, the rub of champions.  And I snuggle up to Jason, smelling like menthol and methyl salicylate . For two or three days I limp around.  I sometimes make noises of pain so that people know I am working out again.  Or ...

Day.  Week.  Month.  Year... haha.  That makes me laugh because it's the same!  Anyway, in keeping with my Eeyore tone.... I am just wiped out.  Today was the kind of day where I got home and couldn't even muster up the energy to take off my boots because my feet felt like they were now connected to the leather.  Fused by my cotton socks.  So, I sat in them for a very long time.  They'd been on my feet for over 15 hours...  I sat in my boots in my delightful, gold velour chair eating M&Ms and trying to find the willpower to stop that too.  I so cheated today.  Like 300 calories over.  But, when I was savoring that chocolatey goodness, I almost didn't care.  My girlie and I took a late night trip to the Home Depot for a very specific paint supply that none of the stores in our town carry.  On the darkest, most blustery night of the week, I drove so many miles, humming David Crowder Band's "E...

Over the last few months, I have had it in the back of my mind to choose various hymns and research their history.  When I hear a new "contemporary" song that I really like, I often find out that it is actually a re-make of an older hymn.  The Art History major in me is interested in the story behind these hymns.  What was the writer going through?  What did the song mean for that time period?  So, needless to say, I was really excited when I saw that there was actually a book that already did the work for me.  Then Sings My Soul: Book 3 by Robert J. Morgan is the third (obviously) in a series of books that takes a deeper look at Christian hymns and their origins.  After the introduction, Morgan divides the book into four parts: The History of Hymnody, Do You Know These Hymns?, Six Hymn Stories I Love to Tell, and Hymning in Private and Public.  Just the introduction had me.  Morgan gives an exciting explanation of St. Francis of As...

(photo from Amazon.com) The hook at the beginning of the summary of Kim Meeder's book , Fierce Beauty , was what drew me in when I selected it to review for Multnomah.  "True beauty is not about how you look but how you live."  There were many segments in this book that brought tears to my eyes, if I wasn't already full on crying.  Kim is so honest and open in her writing.  She also has an incredible talent of painting such a vivid picture in her descriptions.  So often I felt like I was right there with her.  Without any pretense or sugar coating, she gets right to the heart of every lesson.  Her illustrations and comparisons are truly inspired by God and cut straight to the quick.  The book is divided into three segments:  The Problem, The King and The Warrior.  Each segment has five or six chapters that provide real life stories and examples that delve deeper into God's purpose for our lives, as women of faith.  This world ...

When I was a teenager, I was very hardheaded and rebellious.  Kind of an insidious rebellious, I was a sneakily defiant, naive, lying, Jiminy Cricket-squashing brat.  I always secretly felt guilty... but like a hardening heart, the voice of my conscience grew steadily quieter and quieter.  When I was a bit older, I could silence the occasional roar with a good solid flow of alcohol. Okay, well I am getting ahead of myself... well... completely off track.  Back to sneakiness.  It started with the gateway activities of chewing tobacco, music and cusswords.  Then I started smoking and listening to music with cusswords in it.  Gasp.  Back then, BMG was really big. You could order 10 free CDs if you signed up for the monthly offer for a year or something like that.  So I signed my life away.  For a teen working a part-time, minimum wage job, having to throw down 20 bucks for the newest hit CD was a big deal.  Why do ...

I underwent a unique version of mostly unconstructive criticism today.  Please don't be alarmed.  It happens on at least an annual basis.  But I would like to pose a question to you all: How do you respond to criticism?  How would you respond if you had to endure, in the place of someone else, criticism and complaints that were out of your control and not your fault? What would you do if you couldn't respond at all? Okay, fine... it's a series of questions.  And again, I really am fine.  But I would love to hear everyone's answers!!

I found this blog this morning and kind of liked the idea.  So I am listing all the things it is okay to do when you are having a snow day.  Click to Whispering Writer's blog because she explains the okay thing better than I do.  I may or may not have done all or none of these in the last two days (or at other times)...  Here goes nothing. Hey it's okay (on a snow day)... To stay in your pajamas for most (or all) of the day. To skip showering, even if you have ran on the treadmill. To make your family eat leftovers for dinner, even when you have been home all day and could have cooked up something fabulous. To leave your kids to their own devices in the living room so that you (and maybe your husband too) can run and hide in their bedroom to play with their Legos To not race to your child's rescue when they crash on the sled and are laying in the snow sobbing theatrically. To steal your kid's turn on the sled because they won't stop crying about ho...

A friend sent me this link on Facebook today.  http://jezebel.com/5874927/i-guess-i-forgot-to-wean-my-baby   I read the article and laughed a little.  I just took it at face value and didn't read any further into it.  So then I thought, 'Hey, maybe I will leave a nice little comment giving reassurance or some humor.'  Kind of like we all (you that are reading this) have been doing since we met on NaBloPoMo.  Helpful, happy, positive, uplifting, supportive comments.  Boy was I in for a sickening featured comment ride.  How are people so mean?  What is it about the anonymity of the Internet that just makes people more ignorant, rude and downright awful to one another?  How did a harmless article about weaning turn into an insult-slinging soapbox on vaccines?  Crazy pants, all of them.  With not nice manners and even worse attitudes.  Judgy Judgers...  Urg.  It kind of ticked me off, and I almost wanted to l...

What a long and wonderful weekend.  Complete with snowmen and sledding, sleeping in (kind of) and doing whatever we want.  As usual, on long, uncommitted weekends, I find myself in the kitchen.  It's just where I end up.  I am constantly behind on dishes and irritated about the clutter on my countertops, but I realized this weekend that it is mostly my own doing.  Remember when I canned all those pickles and the applesauce ?  Well, that was on top of cooking dinners, making lunches and at least one other kitchen project... oh yeah, freezer jam that flopped.  Let's all pretend that I meant to make freezer sauce... because that's what it turned out to be. This weekend, my kitchen project was to make stock.  What sparked the idea was an antiquated vintage cookbook series that Jason just had to buy at Goodwill a few weeks ago.  It had a whole section about how to make stock.  At first I rolled my eyes and mumbled ab...

The title was a test.  Did you pass? I am holding true to my mention of writing about Esther.  Well, I am more going to explain how I have come to love Esther so much, and how I am hoping that I can get a small group of 5th grade boys to love her too.  When we moved back home, Connor was three months old.  We were going to church at the church I grew up in, and I didn't consider myself a very recovered Christian at that time.  I was going through the motions, but I wasn't really seeking a relationship with God.  I hardly read my Bible, and I didn't feel very "good".  But my mom didn't know that, and she didn't really care I don't think, because that next summer, the summer that Connor turned one, she volunteered me to be the new Stars leader.  One of the women was stepping down, and the head of Missionettes was freaking out.  Well, I couldn't very well back out of it since it was my mom who said I would, so I said yes.  I had...

...your bags are so full, they begin to multiply.  A few months ago I completed a What's in Your Bag? blog post.   That post is only a faint glimmer of the true, sloppy, hoarding, unorganized mess that is me.  I've never liked this part of the person that I am, and I have always had the desire to change, but somehow, I never really have.  Here is proof: 1.  I daily lose something inside my purse.  2.  I regularly think about cleaning it out.  3.  I rarely do. This time I don't have pictures to prove it, but I need it on the record about what I was doing last night that was more important than blogging.  The story starts with Monday night.  I was  getting ready for bed when Jason  asked me where a set of keys were.  That simple question resulted in a frantic search through all of my work bags, coats, and the office.  They were, of course, right where I had left them (that's not always the cas...

Tonight we had pork loin chops, steamed cauliflower and salad. Tuesday is looking like grilled cheese and fruit and veggies.  We are eating at the church and hanging out until Rangers is over. Wednesday is crockpot steak and veggies.  I add Lipton Onion soup mix and it's on.  So easy.  I might pack a salad for myself, since Leilee and I are at the church tonight and Jason is home with the boys. Thursday we are having some brats and coleslaw.  There will also be salad. Friday I am going to try a recipe for quinoa cakes.  We'll eat those with salad. I'm eating a lot of salad.  With not a lot of dressing.  For some reason (probably because I just paid $100 to be part of this challenge ), I am extremely motivated and excited about counting calories and seeing what myfitnesspal.com will tell me at the end of the day. And just for laughs, I clicked a link on Facebook to a great post about what working out REALLY looks like.  This might b...

Jason and I decided, on a last minute whim (which is how we usually decide most things) to sign up for a local weight loss challenge .  We have both done versions of Biggest Loser at work in the last 12 months.  Sadly, some of those pounds have snuck back up on us.  So, we dropped the kids off with Grandma and raced in to sign up Saturday morning.  Literally, at the last minute.  Thankfully, the newspaper had printed the end time incorrectly, which gave them an additional two hours to be there for all the lasties like us.  This challenge ends March 31.  Expect to hear random updates or complaining about how hungry or sore I am.  If I can lose 2% of body weight, I at least get a t-shirt.  My goal is at least 7%, since that's what I lost for our challenge at work.  And truth be told, I didn't try that hard. Then, we dawdled and bought fresh herbs and compost activator and some new fish and Christmas wrapping paper for 75% off (score!)....

I did it.  I skipped a day.  It was an intentional decision, brought about by my hope to have a less encumbered year.  While I have loved blogging everyday, and I am actually proud that I developed this habit, the perceived "need" to blog daily has sometimes often interfered with quality family time over the last few months.  Since I want to spend the year living towards an unencumbered perspective, I decided that extra focus on my family is much more important in the long run than my ramblings being sent into cyberspace each day.  So I made a conscious decision to snuggle with my oldest son when he needed it the most and to sit next to, and actually watch a show with, the hubby instead of tapping away on my laptop, absorbed in whatever I had chosen to type up that day.  It wasn't easy.  There were quite a few times that I would begin to compose in my head.  Fragmented paragraphs have been written and lost somewhere betwe...

I liked the post on Periphery so much, that I decided I should have a year of the "word" myself.  I spent a good part of today letting words bounce off the walls in the back of my mind.  I had a good start because of what I read in the comment section of S.'s post.  I thought about words like 'freedom' and 'change' and 'health', but they all kind of felt like resolutions.  Because I have a tendency to get inside my own head and go a little crazy, I started thinking about what life would look like this year if I lived like nothing was weighing me down.  I often encumber myself, adding stressors and expectations that I shouldn't be worried about.  Even when no one expects anything of me, I put something on my own self.  I am the car wreck of overachiever meets procrastinator.  So 'unencumbered' sounds really good.  I need to shake off some extra weight.  Literally and figuratively.  And, for this post, we'll just focus on the figur...

This girl will not go to sleep.  This girl is talking about her blankies, and bears, and Santa.  This girl is pinching her armpits and blowing raspberries to stay awake.  This girl is singing songs about a funky monkey and farting in her blanket. No, really.  This is a play by play post. This girl will be the death of me.

This month, I received Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald.  The basic principle is that today's church leaders need to invest in creating disciples, or deep people, who will impact the church and become tomorrow's church leaders.  Following the rabbinical example that Christ set and applying some business principles, like an elevator story, a training plan and lots of meetings, Gordon tells a fictional account of how his church began to cultivate deep people in their church community over a two year period, from the birth of the idea to the actual completion of their first training program. The book takes some patience to get into. It felt like it started kind of slow.  Maybe it was because I felt like I was missing something because I hadn't read his other book.  It also felt strange because I knew that he was presenting a real idea in a fictional way.  I never could figure out if he had actually put the type of mentoring that he portrays ...

So I think I may have created a habit.  Even though I have said that I won't be committing to posting everyday... I feel like I have to.  I don't necessarily want to break this habit, so I will see where it goes.  For now, my hubby and I have a huge mountain of laundry to tackle.