So close to Egypt

Again, I've been super busy. I am almost finished with A River in the Sky.  I can tell you the tag on the Blind Date with a Book lied.  This is not a mystery that takes place in Egypt, but in Palestine (modern Israel).  There is kidnap, fever, spies, archeology, and riots; however, only mention of their time in Egypt.  They are currently banned from Egypt for reasons unknown to me.  I'm sure if I read the rest of the series, I would know the reason why.

Busy Busy, Shockingly Busy

I have been so busy lately, I mostly watch ID (Investigation Discovery) with my family while we eat and then I work on my Spanish lesson with Duolingo.  ID is bad for me, if I start a few minutes of a show, I have to figure out what happened.  So I try to stop myself before I even begin. Plus,  I feel like I never have time for my chores; the need to get done chores. I haven't even had time to get to the gym lately 😡 Not to mention, I got an ear/sinus infection on the right side of my face.  It was so bad, I thought that I had cracked a tooth.  I've been taking some decongestion medicines and bam, no more tooth pain (thank God).  It has been a rough couple of weeks, but I am excited to keep learning at my job.

Longing for Logan

I have not been very into movies of TV lately.  I really want to see Logan, though.  Oh Hugh J

With my first week of work, working my second job, and hopping from bride’s maid dress shopping to a graduation party on Saturday, I haven’t had very much down time.  What down time I have had, has been devoted to cleaning and the dogs! 

Squat it like it's hot

It's a girl's prerogative to change her mind, right!  I already re-designed my dream home.  And I need to redesign it again.  I need to change some of the sizing up again.  I don't want a house this large.  And I know it can be condensed down further.  Plus, my dream home is like a hobbit home.  I want the outer walls to be made with recycled tires and heated floors! 

Physical: Last night I went to the gym and I hex squatted 100lbs (2 sets of 10)!  I also got 50 lunges (25 each leg), my lifting, and 2 planks lasting longer than a minute!  I am very excited to see myself progressing in that area.  My weight, still exactly the same!!!  In November/December, I tried Garnica Cambogia.  I gained 10lbs in the first week and I have yet to lose that weight.  I don't know if it was just my bodies reaction to that product or what, but I'm not to pleased about it!  I must fit into my size 8 dress for my friend's wedding in June.

Relationships: I have been meeting so many amazing people at work this week.  I am so happy to be around PEOPLE!  Yay.  Which leads me to... 

Career: I started my new position this Monday.  I have another 5 weeks of training to go.  This week has mostly been introduction to the company, our benefits, and filling out paperwork.  We are starting to learn some stuff about the position and our expectations.  I am a little nervous, but I know that God has led me to this position (after a year of applying and being turned down for because there were "more experienced candidates."  I still want to know HOW?!?!?  But this job I have now, is a million times better than many of the positions on which I got passed up.   

Spiritual: God is oh so good to me.  I have an amazing support group through my DGroup.  The study we are doing, Focus on the Family's The Truth Project, is beyond amazing.  Every time we have a meeting, it's like my eyes are opened to something new I had never thought of before.  It is astounding.

Dream Design

Today I spent way too much time designing my dream house on Smart Draw.  Now that I have it done, I love it a lot!  I don't know if it can actually work, but I am hoping it is structurally sound enough to be created into my home! It's bigger than I was thinking.  If it was just me, I'd simply have the garage and first floor.  If I want to adopt or foster later on or even have guests, it is nice to have the loft area.  I am like in love with this design though!  Can I have it already?!?!?

Garage underneath the house with cold storage off to the left.  You can see part of the main level just to get an idea of where it would be located in the house. 

Main Floor

Loft area for guests/kids.  Again, you can see part of the main floor too show where it is in relation to the rest of the house.

Physical: I am getting more physically fit without seeing so much change in my weight/shape.  I haven’t really checked my measurements in a while.  DIET!  I need to do it, not just think about it.

Relationships: Ugh, I still need to set something up for the book club. 

Career: Soon, soon, SOON!  I cannot wait.

Spiritual: I am holding onto His promises.  I don’t want to gain the whole world and not have Jesus.  I’m working on being satisfied in Him instead of my circumstances.

Embrace the Struggle

Ahh! I had this all written and just never ended up posting it last night. I was severely lacking motivation last night.  It took me HOURS to make it to the gym. 

Physical

I have been working out on the regular for about a month now.  I haven’t seen any changes with the scale, but I have had a non-scale victory of noticing my cardio/lung capacity increasing.  I was able to run for 6 minutes straight without taking a break (as of today, Friday, I ran for 15 minutes straight)! EXCITING!  In addition to hitting the gym about 5 days (or more) a week, blending weight lifting, yoga, and cardio, I have been taking the dogs on long bike rides.  The warm weather wave has made it amazing to get out and soak up the sun and blow off the dogs’ cabin fever and mine!  Vitamin D, not from a bottle!  Yay 😊

Relationships

I am working on changing my rather reclusive lifestyle to a little more social.  My dogs keep me pretty tied up.  I love them to death, but my life pretty much revolves around them.  I love cuddling and training and exercising with them.  They just aren’t human companionship.  I am posting on a local website to get a book club started up.  This will do double duty: making me be social sometimes and getting me back to reading on the regular. 

Career

I will be starting my new job SOON!  It is all in the works.  I can’t wait.  Mostly, because I just want the structure of having a job, I’ll be learning new systems, and to be able to pay off my debts!  That is the best part.  And then I can start saving for buying my own home 😊 I have been scoping out some land that is for sale and really decently priced.  Dreams, dreams, and more dreams have been filling my noggin.

Spiritual

I know that struggle brings endurance and character.  I also know that God is faithful; He will bring me through any storms or trials.  I can learn from these hard times and grow in His word and promises.  My God is a big God.  He is an amazing, incomprehensible God. 

Favorite Song(s) of the week:
I've been enjoying my workout/yoga playlist.  Some of my favorite, that help me push through, are Bitch I'm Madonna by Madonna and Yoga by Janelle Monae.  They just get my blood pumping!


Favorite Quote(s) of the week:
May we not turn away from the struggle of the cocoon. - The Truth Project

Me to vet: "Are betas toxic to dogs?  I think my fish jumped out of its tank and I haven't found the body.  I think my dog ate it.  He's pooped a lot this morning already."
Vet: "Not from what I have read, are they toxic to dogs."
Me: Ok.

*Two mornings later, fish swims to the top of the tank!


Favorite thing done this week:
Lots of walks and bike rides in the sun.
Nearly 70 degree weather in mid-February
Teaching lots of yoga

Favorite show/movie of week:
Fear thy Neighbor - very interesting and a little annoying. 

Favorite thing read:
The Donald Trump entry in the Cultural Intellectual Devotional book.
I've also been getting into my "Blind date with a book" book.

Favorite event:
Finding my fish in the tank!  (Seriously, I pulled the conch shell out of the vase and search the sea glass at the bottom and Mara, my fish, was no where to be found).  She just swam right to the top of the tank yesterday morning. 

Most inspired moment:
Feeling strong and fit. 
Raising my face to the sun.
Studying The Truth Project with my DGroup

Thought(s)/Epiphany (ies) of the week:
There may be struggles in this life, but this is simply the changing stage.  We are being made new and changed into something beautiful.


Weirdest dream:
I can't even remember any of my dreams this week. 

He spoke, and so it was

WATCH FIRST

I’ve been really confronted lately with the power of my words.  In addition to this powerful 3 Minute Theology video, I have a devotional on Taming the Tongue.  Talk about CONVICTION!  I tend to be pretty nice and polite with my words, but I also have a viper’s tongue.  I can be cruel and judgmental, harsh and demanding, demeaning and proud, and a braggart and a betrayer of trusts.  It has been a desire of mine to get this out of control tongue under control.  I’ve been adding it to my morning prayers, to place a heavenly guard at my mouth.  It is a Fruit of the Spirit to have self-control, which means I can’t do it on my own.  I know I will still fail from time to time.  And that’s where this amazing thing called GRACE comes into play.  How amazing it is to have a God that is willing to forgive us over and over, even when we keep doing the same stupid things.  Remember those chosen people of the Old Testament, the “stiff-necked people,” we can all just include ourselves in there.  Stiff-necked is such an accurate description of the human spirit and pride.  May our stiff-necks be made more flexible by practicing bowing our head to pray to the Lord of the Universe.  Please watch the 3 Minute Theology video, I am positive it will open your eyes to the importance of words (even far beyond that of appreciation of lexicology and extravagant words).

Yoga and Breath

I have been trying many things for my dry mouth for years.  I recently got TheraBreath to try.  It seems to help with my dry mouth, especially over night.  I feel like it could be better. Having a family history of sinus problems tends to lend itself to mouth breathing at night.  I drink water like it’s going out of style, I’ve tried oil pulling in the past (and loved it, however, I do it in the morning and my mouth tends to feel dry afterward).  I need to work swishing into my nightly and morning schedules a little better.  I’m also going to try and make oil pulling tablets (maybe make a few with turmeric) and try that.  I will report on that as soon as actually get around to doing that.  My dry mouth doesn't bother me throughout the day.  It's mostly that I wake up with the driest mouth and worst morning death breath.  My mouth has that dry, crust covered feeling.  I'm almost desperate for a drink of water as soon as I wake up.  I just know that the dry mouth can cause lots of problems for my teeth.  That, and my propensity to clench and/or grind my teeth when I am highly stressed.  I am wondering if combining tongue scraping and oil pulling prior to brushing and rinsing with TheraBreath after would help. I should probably also investigate if a Breath Right strip might help reduce my mouth breathing at night; therefore, eliminating the need to go through all of these steps.

This last week, I helped a friend move.  She was going to get rid of a wine rack (“I never keep enough wine around to fill this or make it useful, I always drink it right away!”).  I like wine, but I don’t typically collect it and keep it around.  I usually buy it with the intention to drink it soon.  I took it anyways.  When I was bringing it into the house, I was struck by my muse.  It was a little rickety, so I used our hex screw set to find the right fit and tighten up the screws.  It needs a rubber foot added to the bottom of one leg and maybe a paint job.  Those things might have to wait until summer. I might be able to do it this week since it’s been in the 50s and 60s recently.  I found a board in our scrap collection in the garage.  I set the board across the bottom rungs that hold the two opposing sides together.  On top of that, I placed my blocks, strap, towel, mat spray.  Across the rungs at the top, I set my yoga mat.  This keeps my fancy cork mat from I Love Gurus from sitting on the floor and being an open target for a dog to randomly pee on.  I placed this along the one free wall I have in my room.  The plus side is, once I take my mat off, I can easily move the rack out of the way and use the wall space for playing with handstands and other  poses with a wall prop modification.

*Funny side story: I let my Toby boy in and as I was in the bathroom, he peed on the un-cleaned up wine rack.  Figures, I want to use it so I can avoid accidents happening on my mat and he pees on it straight after coming in from peeing.  Since I’ve had it all fixed up, none of the dogs have expressed an interest in it (which is fantastic).

Split

I haven’t been watching a lot of movies recently, but I did manage to watch Split.  I was wanting to watch that movie since I first saw the trailer last summer.   It was an interesting movie.  I really wish there had been more development of the characters.  The main character/focus is Kevin.  He has multiple personalities, 23 to be exact.  One of these personalities kidnaps a set of girls.  The movie then focuses on both the girls trying to escape their confines and the progression of Kevin’s  more shady personalities.  I wish there had been more development of the other personalities.  There’s the weird twist ending, typical of M. Night Shaymalan.  It would also be very interesting if they opened it up for a sequel.  I don’t know how well it would do, but they did leave a cliff-hanger ending that could be developed into a further story. I'm not usually a scary movie person, and I wouldn't exactly say this scared me.  It was more intense action and drama based fear than actually scary (like monsters or make you jump out of your skin scary); definitely not Sixth Sense scary.  I would, however, recommend you watch it at least once.

Jame McAvoy does an amazing job in this movie.  End of story.