A burlap-y breeze!

I love crafting.  I love the thrill of taking random supplies and putting them together to make something useful and unique.  I have not had a lot of time to craft lately so I was getting antsy.  Last night, I couldn't take it any longer!  Since I am currently in love with all things burlap,  I took about 20 minutes and made a new wreath out of burlap for my front door.  Here are the supplies....

The gray tube thing is half the length of a section of pipe insulation I got at Home Depot.  The whole thing cost somewhere around $0.90 so cost for this portion is approx. $0.45. (That's math! :) ) Obviously, the duck tape and scissors were just laying around the house so, I count those as free.  The burlap was $1.50 for half a yard.  My final project cost, around $2.00!  My wreath turned out super cute!  I added an old rustic ornament to the middle to finish it off.  Here is my finished project...







Restless

There is a song stuck in my head.  Give it a listen and then come back here to let me tell you why...

Isn't that a great song.  Did you catch the words?

"I'm restless till I rest in you."

I don't know about you but, I struggle with being restless. When things in my life aren't going the way I think they should.  When my world turns upside down.  When I don't have a plan.  I try to pick all my worries up, load them into a pack with all my fears, insecurities, and failures and carry them on my back. I try to fix things by myself.  I try to come up with my own plans. 

Doing this is like packing around a bag full of bowling balls.  They weigh me down. They crush me. Still, I try to carry them alone, never asking for help.  Eventually they become too much to bear.  I become hurt, frustrated that I can't do it alone.  I am forced to my knees.  In desperation, I cry out for help and repent for not asking sooner.

Wouldn't it be nice to cut out the middle?

Right now, I am restless.  There is a lot going on in our lives.  My flesh wants to plan, panic, pack up my bowling balls and try to start running.  My spirit is craving something different.  REST. Rest in Christ. I have to trust His promises for our future, knowing that He will provide for Josh's job changes and our finances. I have to choose to fill my cravings with Him and His word instead of food, facebook, etc. I must lean on His strength when I can't find it in me to want to put in the effort for bettering myself physically and spiritually. When I am at my weakest, I must say,

"Still my heart.  Hold me close.  Let me hear a still small voice. Let it grow. Let it rise, into a shout, into a cry!"

Jesus is offering to carry my sack full of bowling balls.  I just have to let Him.  Then, I can rest and trust that He has it all under control for me.

Shiny new gadgets

If any of you out there are paying attention to my blog, you may notice a couple of new things at the top.  I have added a couple of tickers to the top of the blog for sharing my progress.

The first ticker is for my overall progress.  It shows my starting weight (eep! I had a hard time actually putting that out there in the open!), my current weight, and my goal weight.

The second one is my ticker from www.myfitnesspal.com.  On this ticker, I am tracking my mini goal accomplishments.  I have set mini goals for each 10 lbs that I lose with a reward at each goal met. 

The picture in the background of this ticker is representative of my next reward.  I find that seeing that picture each day keeps me motivated and reminds me that my next mini goal is not far away.  You will notice that, right now, it is a massage bed.  That is because my 20lb reward is a massage. Yay.  I am 1.2 annoying pounds away from that goal.

Just in case you are wondering, my 10 lb reward to myself was purple highlights.  I love them.

Glad to be Mad

Since I haven't blogged much on my weight loss journey lately, I will give you a quick run down.  For the past several months I have been logging calories on a site called www.myfitnesspal.com.  It really has been an invaluable asset to me.  The site recommends a calorie goal for each day based on my height, weight, and how many pounds I would like to lose per week (1, 1.5, or 2).  I have been following the plan for 1 lb per week and have seen consistent loss.  This, of course, is not counting the month and a half during the holidays that I decided to sabotage myself.  Up until this week, I had not added consistent exercise to the mix. My progress so far is a loss of 18.8 lbs.

This past week, I decided to change my loss goal to 1.5 lbs/wk, which lowered my calorie goal daily.  I have stayed below goal each day.  I have exercised on a regular basis.  I have generally had one of my best weeks of being on target.  I weighed in this morning.  I gained .4 lbs.

I am mad.

Before I go further, let me say, I think I know what my problem was this week.  My sodium intake this week was way too high.  My water intake was way too low.  Flo is on her way to visit and my anxiety this week has been through the roof because of some stressful life events.  I know how all of these factors affect my body personally.  Frankly, I'm surprised the scale wasn't much higher. 

In the past, I would have gotten discouraged by this stall in loss.  I would have said forget it for a day, week, month, 6 months.  I would have gone for some deep fried comfort and then followed it up with excessive amounts of sugar coated sugar. 

Today, I am mad.

I'm not mad at myself.  Am I disappointed that I could have controlled my sodium intake? Sure.  I am choosing to learn from that. I am not going to beat myself up for something in the past.  I am going to use it to change the future.  I'm not mad at circumstances.  Flo is a regular part of my life.  I will just have to learn to look past her side effects.

I am mad in the sense that, I am fired up. I want to do better. I want to see progress. I want to be serious.

I am glad to be mad because it indicates a change in me.  I'm stronger and I didn't even know it.  I'm not feeling defeated and depressed as I used to.  I'm feeling empowered to do better because I know I can. That's a really new feeling to me.  Even through the loss I have had so far, I have not felt this empowered.

Despite the number on the scale, I'm calling this a successful week.  God has opened my eyes to the possibility of being something more if I'm willing.  That's a pretty good feeling.