Desires Of Your Heart

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Do you know the verse? What do you think it means? What has it come to mean to you? I would love to share the insight the Lord gave me this morning on my daily run in the park. I have said many times that running has never been my thing. Whenever anyone mentioned running my automatic response has always been "I can't run". I honestly believed I couldn't. I was terrible at it in school and never realized that I could take it slowly and get better at it or even want to run.

Here is where this verse comes in. The Lord has created in me a desire to run. He has shown me that it is something I want to do and can get better at. Eleven weeks ago, God placed a new desire in my heart. It started as a little glimmer of an idea from a friend who said she was going to run in a 5K in February. All of a sudden, it sounded like an awesome idea. I wanted to do that. I looked up the Couch to 5K and found a treadmill version. I spend the next 9 weeks running on that treadmill at the pace they set forth for each of the three days a week. I even added a day or two each week from time to time. I didn't JUST run the three days a week that I had to on the plan but I even chose to run MORE than required. ME. Running. WOW! 

I have to say that running outside has really changed things in another way. I don't just want to run because it is what I am supposed to do because I signed up for the 5K already. It is something I get up extra early to do and even WANT to do. I have even added to the amount of time and distance that I am running. I use a new app that helps me keep up with it and I push myself because I know I can do it and feel wonderful afterwards. I have been running outside for two weeks now. 

Can I picture myself running a 10K? Before today, I couldn't. But since I ran 4 miles today, who says I can't up that and actually run 6 miles at some point? I CAN do it! I know if I keep running each week and increase my time little by little I can also add to my distance in the hour that I have to run. It has become a desire of my heart. 

As I was running this morning, a joy filled my heart as I listened to my worship music (I spend my run time worshiping the Lord every step of the way). I realized that HE put the joy in my heart to run, the desire. And I realized that when I decide ahead of time what I am going to do, I do it. On Wednesday, I decided before my run that I would run the whole 3 miles without stopping. Today, I decided before my run that I could run the extra two laps and run the 4 miles. I didn't let myself quit because I made the choice before I got out there. I even got up five minutes earlier so I would have extra time to run if I ran at a slower pace. I actually ran at a faster pace than the other times so I was able to complete the 4 miles in under an hour. 

It is my desire to become stronger and healthier so I can live a longer and better life with my family. I have changed the way I eat and changed the way I move. I am making small but long term changes in the way I live and how my body looks. I can't wait to get to the weight I am going to stay at. But that will not be the end of the road on this running journey. It will only be the beginning. Thanks for coming along on the ride with me and cheering me on. It means a lot. 

Changing my life, one day at a time. 

A Movie, Time Outside and Money Saving Adventures

Our weekends are always full of activity. Sometimes it is together as a family and other times we are in all different directions. This weekend, we were able to be together because we didn't have things pulling us elsewhere. 

John started off the day going to the men's prayer breakfast at a local doughnut shop. He only gets to go when work doesn't demand his presence. After that he picked us up and we headed to the mall to see a wonderful Christian movie that just came out on Friday. Courageous, The Movie! I knew it would be good because we have loved the other three movies that Sherwood Pictures has made. But I had no idea just how much better this movie was going to be than the others. I didn't realize how much I would laugh and how much I would cry. I didn't realize how much it would touch my heart in so many ways. I am praying that it will touch the hearts of the men in our lives in an even bigger way than it touches us women. This is about them. But it is also about us, his wife and kids. We are to support him as he strives to live the life God has called him to live. There is website to the many resources for you and your family. I am so grateful for these men who allow the Lord to give them a story to tell and for the church that they belong to that works together to bring it to the big screen to share with the world. May God bless them greatly!

After the movie we stopped at Braum's for a small lunch, since we were FULL of popcorn and soda from the movies. We went to Veteran's Park and walked around the trails. Jonathan rode his skateboard and Jennifer her scooter. Both had MAJOR crashes! But they are both fine and managed to keep having fun. We sat and talked after our walk around the park while the kids played. We have some things we are working on to downsize our lives, not just our stuff, and we rarely get the chance to talk face to face about them. The air was cool and even though there were people at the park it did not seem crowded and crazy. Everyone was having fun and enjoying a day outside in the cool temps after a long hot summer. 

As we downsize, we must fix up the house. We have many small, medium and large repairs that we MUST do in the shortest amount of time possible. I am working on a list and will do my best to set aside time each day to do something towards getting that list of things done. I am also committing to doing as much of it myself as I can or finding someone to help me to take some of the load off of my husband.  Another thing on my list is to get my scrapbooking and sewing projects done and out of the way. I have my photo's divided into different containers according to season or type of picture. I HAVE to get those containers empty. I also MUST go through everything and figure out what we are keeping and what we are not. THEN sell what we are NOT, figure out what I don't NEED for a long period of time and pack that away to reduce the amount of STUFF around the house. That will help with the home repairs and how the house looks. We need the house to "show" well.

We are also working on downsizing our monthly expenses. The thing I am working on right now is the grocery bill. I have found some great sites to help me with that. I have put their links on my sidebar link page if you are interested. One of the sites talked about saving money by planning your menus based on your weekly grocery purchases. Whatever you find on sale for the week, plan your meals around that. I am very excited about it. We have two more weeks before we get paid again so I am going to have to be VERY creative with our meals and what I can purchase. I am not going to be able to purchase non-food items until we get paid. Everything will have to go towards our meals. I will try to post at least one new recipe and/or meal idea each week. One of my big things is crockpot meals because of the time I spend each day teaching my children. I love to put a meal on to cook and then get back to what I am doing instead of spending hours in the kitchen and making a huge mess to clean up. 

Until next time...Blessings to you!

School Pictures 2009

I took the kids to our favorite park, Creative Playground, to take our school pictures this year. It was such a beautiful day! They wanted to play so I was trying to get the pictures as quickly as I could. I was so "fast" that I forgot to get some of them together, which they reminded me when we got home later. I guess I will just have to "dress them up" again and go back! They really didn't get to play as much as they wanted because their dad called from work to say he was done and we met him for lunch.

JC: age 10 1/2, 5th grade

Jenni: age 8, 3rd grade

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

Field Trip to the Park

Last week we had a day where we knew we wouldn't have any daycare kids until late afternoon. So I told the kids if they got up and got school done early we would spend the morning at the park. It was going to be a lovely day so we were very excited!

Our homeschool is relaxed in one way. The kids have their books in in a crate in the cabinet. Each morning they get them out and put them on the table. When they have completed a subject they put those books back into the crate. In the picture above they are working on their book study together. They had to look up some vocabulary words in the dictionary.

The park we went to was our favorite park from when my older two kids were little! It is called Creative Playground and it is on Fielder and Green Oaks. It is the best! We had many a birthday party there.

They loved running around all over the place and doing the rock climbing wall. They played for an hour and then JC rode his skateboard for a little while.

We took our drawing pads to the park so that after an hour of play they could get some art in. Nick drew the tire swing but wouldn't let me keep it or take a picture of it. He did a good job.

JC decided to draw a tree. He was very serious about his drawing. He really has a gift when it comes to drawing because it is something he loves to do. He wants to get all sorts of drawing materials so he can try lots of new styles.

I think he did a great job! He put all the little limbs on it and he loves to sign and date it. I wish he would learn to do it smaller so it takes up less attention from his drawing but I suppose that will come with time.

Jenni went around finding different leaves that she liked and she traced them and then taped them to the other page. That is a style in her nature book she learned from her last school.

This is her finished product. She didn't put them in the book exactly like she drew them. I had thought she would color the other ones or draw the lines on them but I think she was too tired from our day out. We had such a wonderful day. 

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.