South Beach

So, Ive been reading labels very closely lately. How many carbohydrates... Mostly I want Ron to diet because he REALLY needs to take off a few pounds. It's so surprising how I don't really think about what I'm eating. What fats, cholesterol, carbs, sugars etc are in each bite. How big is a serving size? But we are doing the cross between Atkins/ and South Beach: eliminate carbs for a couple of weeks then, add them back in in the form of fruits and some pastas. I miss the fruit. I used to eat an apple at lunch. Now I'm eating carrots, cauliflower, some almonds, and green peppers and 1 hard boiled egg. It does fill me up, but I have such a craving for...I'm not sure what, but I think it's an apple! Ron, I have to nag every day and tell him what he may eat and remind him of what he needs to avoid--Taco Johns, Pizza Ranch, Hardees, Chinese, Pizza Hut. etc. Then I have to quiz him every night on what he had for lunch. So far so good. 1 week down and ??? to go!

Dull day at work

This is my kind of day! It's cold outside, so being in is not a chore. I didn't have to be to work until 10:30 so I could linger over my coffee with a friend. Exercise was later than normal (6:30). I didn't have to fix supper because I was working late. Even after getting to work I did some fun things, i.e. work in the children's area; put in a few book orders; do some cataloging; work on the website! These are a delight. What a blessing. To have a job that I look forward to every morning, that gives me energy and a sense of belonging. Now if I just had time to read the list of books I have. There are so many!

Horse and pony tricks

Back in the day, as they say, I was fearless on top of a horse. My horse, Lady, was tall, probably 16 hands high. She could be, and often was mean if you wandered by her on the ground, but once I was on top of her...well, I was the boss. I loved that feeling, too! She did what I told her to. I loved to ride her, fast. I could never beat my friend on her Arabian, but that didn't ever stop us from trying. We would race down the road or through the fields as fast as we could make the horses run. You've seen old westerns where the cowboys are running away from the posse? That was us. Flat out galloping with my face in the horse's mane urging her on.

One of the things that I loved to do was put the saddle on and barrel race in the pasture. Too bad I didn't officially compete because then I might have proof of how good (or really bad) I was. As it is, you have to take my word for it! On summer evenings I would saddle up and wait until our one rooster went off to roost then I would sneak around behind the chicken coop and with a large stick I would beat on the roof knowing that in just a few seconds that chicken would be out. Sure enough, he would come flying out the door with his wings spread wide and head straight for me. I would kick the horse into a run and we would fly down the pasture with that dumb chicken chasing us for all he was worth. I would do that over and over until he figured out that that was exactly what I wanted him to do, he couldn't catch me and he wouldn't play my game anymore. Not quite as good as having a posse chaing me, but close! Of course that rooster had his own way of getting even. He would chase my sister when she got off the bus at night. That was pretty funny, too. Watching her run screaming into the house with the chicken chasing after her! Don't ask her, though what she thought!

War on the home front

I am reading these days from "Searching for God knows What" by Donald Miller. I have to read with pen in hand anymore. There is so much I don't want to forget, and I am so prone to forgetting. I want to wrap my life around a God who is more than some sort of genie who will grant wishes if I can only figure out how to rub the bottle correctly. He is so much bigger than anything I can possibly imagine and I have only begun to scratch the surface of who He is! I want to have a faith that absolutely makes a difference instead of just moving through days. Miller describes a child born after the Chernobyl accident. He describes his grotesqueness and his constant pain. Then he compares us to this child, disfigured and in pain. Though we were not meant to be this way, He says we are incomplete creatures outside the companionship of God and our souls have been distorted and ravaged. We are the wreckage of a war, a kind of Hiroshima, a kind of Chernobyl with souls distorted like the children of Chernobyl. It was the fall that drew us into the war and because of that we miss understanding the love of God and his voice and his presence and the freedom that that brings to love other people. I am so struck by the truth of this that I have to look around me and wonder at what I think is important these days...things.. instead of people. Oh my.

Family Easter

Other than being too cold we had a wonderful long Easter weekend! We had 3 dogs who got along fairly well (see new Buster picture) A game of Risk that was calm and reasonable (we are too competitive!) Shopping, cookie baking (Isaiah's first. He is allergic to wheat, eggs, peanuts...careful is a big deal) 3 allergic reactions, several nebulizer treatments, dogs running in and out, lots and lots of food, An Easter egg hunt...INDOORS; many pictures and time to celebrate a Risen Lord! We enjoyed a Good Friday service in Omaha and Sunday morning service in Lincoln. The thing with the digital camera is that I don't have to be careful about the pictures that I take. I tend not to set up or do any framing anymore. I erase a lot, but I also seem to lose the moment for myself since I'm so busy taking the pictures so I won't forget. It's a bit crazy. Maybe the film camera was really better after all.