The past two days

So far, the month of March has felt like the longest month ever, but also the most amazing. The past two days are examples of what joys God brings into my life.

On Friday, Alex got up really early to spend some personal time with Jesus, so I slept in an extra hour. I was very excited when he came back by the house before work. Then I spent my own Bible time and got ready for the day.

My  mom arrived around 9am and we had fun with Pinterest, catching up, and grocery shopping. She got me cute treble clef earrings and a really cute over-sized bag for my birthday. She also brought tamales for lunch! Yum!

Then we went to Sweet Cece's to celebrate my birthday with a group of girls who are both family and friends. It was delightful and delicious.  So my mom, mother-in-law, mom of a friend, sisters-in-law, and a few other friends all came! Super exciting. I only wish I had taken a picture while we were there. Also, chocolate rocks taste more like rocks than chocolate.

While we were celebrating with frozen yogurt, my wonderful husband suggested we go see The Hunger Games this afternoon. Let me explain. Our original plan was to see it on Monday when there wouldn't be so many people. But when it came out, we decided we didn't want to wait that long. It has been one of our most anticipated movie releases to date. Throughout the entire movie I was watching for the next event, thinking "This is what happens next, and if it doesn't happen in the movie I will be very upset because it is SO important to the overall story line." I was not disappointed. Not once.

THEN we went to Chick-fil-a and used the gift card my sister-in-law Julia gave to me for my birthday. We returned home, watched Burn Notice, and waited for Steven and his girlfriend Callie to show up. They showed up with an old fashioned popcorn maker and a birthday present of chocolate! We had so much fun with them! We watched multiple movies and made a late night taco-bell run. Steven slept on our couch and Callie slept in out guest bedroom/office since we kept them over so late. We loved having them over! I didn't fall asleep until 2am, and then got up at 10am! I don't remember the last time I went to sleep that late/slept that late.


Alex was a dear and made breakfast for everyone. Callie was kind and took a picture of Alex and me before we parted ways.

Then we drove to Nashville and saw Mary Poppins at TPAC! It was very different from the movie, but it was fantastic. My favorite part (in both movie and play) is when the chimney sweeps sing and dance to "Step in Time."

After the musical, Alex took me to Olive Garden to finish out the birthday celebration. It was so delicious!

I am feeling so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such loving people in my life.

Another Dream Come True:)

 

Waking up from the dream.

Transitioning to real life today. We slept in, as we didn't get back to our house until around 1am. We enjoyed our breakfast of what was left in the fridge and freezer (eggs, sausage, and pancakes), did our together Bible study, and then started on our jobs: Alex did his school stuff and is working on the Sunday school lesson for tomorrow, and I have just completed our meal plan and grocery list for the day.

Our wonderful pastor has blessed us with some venison meat and some healthy ground beef, and for that we are incredibly grateful. This helps us tremendously with eating healthier meats, and staying within our food budget. After checking our bank account today, we definitely  need to stay within our budget. Vacation was fun, but we didn't have a set budget, and spent more than we should have. Next time we go on vacation we plan to have a planned budget ahead of time for everything.

Also, I can say with certainty that I weigh more now than I ever have in my whole life. When in Disney, I bought my first ever size large shirt. Actually, I bought three of them. It was a relief to wear a shirt that actually fit. While packing for the trip, I pretty much packed any shorts that still fit. I'm still not sure what to think about it. I know that I need to start eating healthier, but I don't think I've been making the worst decisions up to this point. I don't want "losing weight" to be my obsession, as this has been something I've struggled with in the past. 

So for right now, we are avoiding dairy, for the most part, because we know that it makes us feel sick. Sugar also makes us feel pretty bad, so we're not going to eat much. However, when I tell myself I can't have sugar, I end up eating lots of something else. What I am doing is buying plenty of fruit, so that we can have it instead of the processed desserts. We're still going to eat rice, bread, and noodles, but I'm going to  make sure that we also have plenty of vegetables with what we eat. Time will tell if we will ever find something that consistently works well.

Place where dreams come true

My wonderful husband and I went on another trip to Disney this past week. It was a little less spur of the moment than our last one, as it was planned about a week in advance, instead a couple of days.

We had an absolute blast. We ate whatever and whenever we wanted, rode rides, saw shows, walked and walked all over the park, and enjoyed the impressive fireworks shows. It was completely stress-free and relaxing. 

I'm going to make two posts. Our resolutions and plans are kind of a "wake-up call" of sorts, and I don't wants them to be in the same post about our terrific vacation.

Valentine :)

Yesterday I made steak with mushrooms and onions, broccoli, boxed rice for Valentines. I also made red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a cherry on top.

The Bible and Food

Another food post. I started reading Genesis for my personal Bible study time. I was taking notes on what I was reading, and so I'm going to turn some of those notes into this blog:


Genesis 1: 28-30: “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This food will be for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

A couple of things I get from this:

• God said to be fruitful and multiply.
• God gave man stewardship of the earth.
• Does that mean to avoid mass amounts of plastic waste? How far are we as Christians supposed to take this command in terms of “green living”? (topic to be discussed at a later date?)
• God gave “every seed-bearing plant...and every tree whose fruit contains seed....[as] food for you...everything having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food.
• It says every  living creature....so did lions only eat plants? Did that mean that Adam and Eve only ate plants? Does that mean that God’s original plan was for people to only eat plants? Did He mean for us to grow massive amounts of them like grains or orchards?

I did a little research, and in Genesis 9: 3-4 it says “Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.”

The commentary on the passage says that after the flood, the earth may not have been as nutritious as before, so God integrated eating animal meat. However, humans should still not eat animals with blood in it. For me, that at least means that I should be rinsing out my meat to make sure there isn’t blood still in it.

Then, I read another commentary stating that God further defines food laws in Leviticus. I knew this, but I didn’t think about it so much in the context of both creation and the flood. So now I’ll go to Google about what specifications the Law said and perhaps why:
I’m just going to link to this article : http://www.askelm.com/doctrine/d040402.htm

The author talks his way through both the Old and New Testament. It’s interesting enough.

Here’s another interesting article, and it is pretty easy to understand: http://www.planetpace.com/?bible-meat-diet,20

Next I also wondered about Daniel. I’ve always heard that he didn’t eat the meat because it was offered to idols. Still, I want to look up the verses.
Here is a commentary on Food with Daniel included:
http://www.retakingamerica.com/health_bible_says.html

It basically says that we would live healthier lives if we followed the guidelines of the Bible.


I do not believe that we must follow any of the laws for Salvation. I wholeheartedly believe that Salvation is by grace alone through faith, and that it is God at work, not us.

However, I do think that if a good idea will help us serve God better, than it may be worth studying further. Like food, for example. If I’m going to feel sick eating things that God has said will make me feel sick, then maybe I should look at what He says to eat to feel better.

I came across a powerpoint: http://www.adafirstpres.org/body%20and%20food%20final.pdf
I wish I could have actually heard the presentation. It seems really interesting.

Also, I received an email from Heavently Homemakers while writing this, which was also on healthy eating. I Like it because it puts a lot of life into perspective in terms of healthy eating. http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/what-does-%E2%80%9Ceating-healthy%E2%80%9D-even-mean

I like this quote I found from another source


“Nothing you put in your mouth can establish or destroy your relationship with Yahweh. Only the condition of your heart—your love, faith, and trust in Him—has any bearing on this relationship.” Found from this place:http://theownersmanual.net/The_Owners_Manual_05_The_Dietary_Laws.Torah

This is a REALLY long article. I haven’t finished it. I plan to, but it’s Monday and that means it’s cleaning up from the weekend day. I LOVE BEING A FULL TIME HOUSE WIFE! It means I can go to sleep on Sunday night not stressing about a messy house because I can clean it the next day. All day. Which is what I’m going to go do now. I’ll read the rest of the article when I don’t have to worry about tripping over the piles of dishes and dirty clothes.

Thoughts on Magic

I grew up on fairy tales/Disney/Cinderella stuff, and so when I read Harry Potter, I converted it in my mind to an older fairy tale. I think that's how I started thinking about the Twilight movies too. When I first read the article, it reminded me to two things: First, that it was a lot like how Alex talked about growing up and not being allowed to watch anything with magic in it. I thought it was kind of extreme, but I'm not so passionate about the movies that it was a big enough deal for me to passionately argue about it. I learned through these conversations that I am emotionally attached to some movies because of my childhood memories.

Second, it reminded me of when my brother and I used to play with pogs and watch the Pokemon and Digimon shows, and my friends' parents said that they were demon shows and integrated eastern religion. I'm not saying they were wrong, but again I thought it was rather extreme for a cartoon TV show.

I saw these both as extreme, because my parents were extreme in my mind, compared to many of my friends. My dad screened everything we watched for most of my childhood, and explained why he let us watch what we did. He explained the themes in some of the movies and shows, and even pointed out the Biblical truths in some of them. The reason why I stopped reading Harry Potter was because my mom told me that there are better things to read out there. Not that the books were absolutely terrible, but that there are so many better things to read.

This is true.

I realize that we are in spiritual warfare, and I should be reading and watching things that will make me more like my Savior, rather than closer to the enemy. While reading “Crazy Love” I read a section where a woman said “I’m just not sure this is what I want to be doing when Jesus comes back.” Putting it in that perspective, I’m not sure I want to be reading something that does not point towards Jesus when He comes back. But also, the Holy Spirit is with me now, guiding me. Realizing His ever-presence helps me think carefully about the media I chose.

There are much better, God glorifying things that I could be doing with the time He’s given me.