tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34540818152320164362024-03-14T02:11:49.167-05:00Liz's WorldLizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.comBlogger1508125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-79095807863098922272021-07-19T21:28:00.004-05:002021-07-19T21:43:29.988-05:00Mammaw<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JKbksM2RzOM/YPY0rwv2WDI/AAAAAAAAXLw/1kcai-tmwEgmp3Sh3URc-L3yBiO3EgNgACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2015" data-original-width="1265" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JKbksM2RzOM/YPY0rwv2WDI/AAAAAAAAXLw/1kcai-tmwEgmp3Sh3URc-L3yBiO3EgNgACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="151" /></a></div><br />In 1992, I met my husband. He moved to my town to go to junior college and went to work at the pizza place where I was working. It was clear from our second date forward that we were "the one" for each other. Early in our dating relationship, he took me home to meet his parents & grandmother.<p></p><p>His family lived right across the highway from his grandparents, so he grew up with his grandparents serving as sort of a second set of parents. His 'village' was tight knit and precious to one another. Just down the road, his great-grandparents lived, and his childhood was full of wonderful family times with all of them.</p><p>His grandmother, Mammaw, was the one I got to meet in the Fall of 1992. By that time, his great-grandparents were gone, but Mammaw & his Daddy Jack (his grandfather) still lived in that little house across the road from his parents.</p><p>From the day I met Mammaw, she felt like family. She exuded hospitality, warmth, and grace. She was friendly and kind, and she listened intently to learn about me and my family. She wanted to know where I was from, what my people were like, what I was interested in, what things brought me joy, and whether or not I'd like a glass of tea while we visited. I was told, from day one, that I should call her Mammaw, because that's what everyone called her. And this was before I was even a member of the family!</p><p>In 1994, I married her grandson and she officially became my Mammaw. And in the years since, she has been every bit a grandmother to me as one related by blood. In 2000 and 2001, my only living grandparents died. I have wonderful, fond memories of them from my childhood. And I was touched and so honored to see Mammaw file passed my family at the funerals. She had never met my grandparents other than the day of my wedding, but she was so kind to make the drive to the little town where they were buried because she loved me.</p><p>Mammaw was there for every milestone in life --- the births of my children, every birthday party of theirs, the day we moved two extra children into our home, and the day when they moved out & I felt like the rug got ripped from under my feet. She helped us move several times, driving her husband's big truck to wherever we were living at the time and lugging boxes into our new places. And in the past few months, looking at pictures & keepsakes in her home, I've realized she kept every single snapshot, every birthday card, every Christmas card, every handmade drawing the kids sent her. She has always been the kind of person who makes everyone feel like the most important person in the room, sharing smiles and tenderness and understanding.</p><p>Mammaw was born to farmers in rural east Texas, "poor country people" as she often referred to herself. She told us stories of days working in the fields and making lunch for the workers & delivering it to them. She loved to share the story of the day her baby cousin Pat was born. Her uncle came and loaded up her family in the back of a covered wagon, covered them with quilts and blankets, and took them for the ride over icy roads to go meet the brand new baby a few miles away. She has told us stories of her childhood, her brother's time in the military, and how proud the family was of his service. Due to his service, she was always deeply patriotic, going to the cemetery every year on Memorial Day to put flags on the graves of the lost soldiers. And even into her elder years, she volunteered at the hospital and often talked of going to visit the "little elderly people" in the nursing homes. This always gave us a chuckle as she was in her early 80s before she gave up volunteer work.</p><p>Mammaw raised two children with her husband, Jack. Her daughter Sandy grew up to be a successful educator and had three children of her own with her husband. Her son Jim grew up to be a hardworking oil company lease operator and had two children with his wife. Mammaw could not have been more proud of those five grandchildren -- that is until all those grandchildren (including my husband) grew up, married, and had children of their own. Between the five grandkids, she was blessed with 12 great-grandchildren. And every one of those 12 great-grandbabies adored Mammaw!</p><p>When Mammaw's husband passed away in 2000, a piece of her heart broke. But she soldiered on. In 2006, she lost her daughter to cancer. In 2014, she lost her son as well. Mothers aren't meant to outlive their children. But Mammaw continued to push ahead in life despite her deep grief and sadness. Occasionally, she would shed tears and speak in somber tones of the family she dearly missed, but she was generally one of the most happy and positive people in the world.</p><p>Mammaw's love for family and friends was evident to everyone who met her. Every person she ever encountered had nothing but glowing words to say about her, and that's a lot of people because you couldn't travel anywhere in Texas where she didn't run into someone she knew!</p><p>A couple of years ago, we noticed Mammaw was having some trouble with her memory. Occasionally she'd re-tell a story or call two days in a row with the same questions, only to seem completely surprised by the answer you gave (even though you'd given her the same answer 24 hours before.) And in the past couple of years, the steady decline became clear to all of us as we waited to know when it was the right time to get her some help. On Halloween morning 2020, she was taken to the hospital by ambulance and we all determined that the time had come for her to move out of her home because it wasn't safe for her to be there alone anymore. She spent the next 8 months being lovingly cared for by a local nursing home.</p><p>Yesterday morning, 7/18/21, our beloved precious Mammaw left the nursing home for good. She reunited at the gates of Heaven with her husband and so many other loved ones who have gone before. We are all so sad that she's gone, but we are blessed and comforted to know that we will see her again when we arrive to spend eternity in the presence of God.</p><p>Larry and I were talking tonight about how it was some weird twisted comfort to know that this is the natural order of things, that it's okay for our 89 year old grandmother to pass away. That she lived a wonderful life, created terrific memories, blessed so many people, and then went to sleep and just never woke up. What a treasure to know she had a peaceful transition to Heaven, no matter how much we'd like to selfishly keep her here with us forever.<br /><br />Mammaw told us for years that her goal was to live to be 100. We all hoped that would happen. But tonight I know she's got something far more valuable than a milestone birthday. She's got a legacy of a life well-lived, a host of people who remember her for the grace she extended to them, the meals she served them, the kindness she doled out, the way she cared for everyone she met.<br /><br />Rest well, sweet love. Your work is done here. Your influence and impact will be felt for generations to come. The way you spoke, the actions you lived every day, the compassion and grace you gave, will forever have me asking "What would Mammaw do?" and I will always try to emulate the way you would've handled things.<br /><br /><a href="https://youtu.be/2pDvte047AQ">Rest in Peace by Aron Wright, beautiful song (click to listen!)</a><br /></p>Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-49597336878369386282019-05-15T21:07:00.002-05:002019-05-15T21:07:33.883-05:00So I guess I'm done parenting.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />That title was a joke. There is no such thing as being "done" with parenting. But I'm in a season now that sort of feels like it.<br />
<br />
Last weekend, my oldest child graduated from college. She's actively seeking a job (career!) now.<br /><br />
My middle child has recently begun a full time job in his chosen career field. And he LOVES it.<br /><br />
My youngest is graduating high school at the end of the month and then getting married a couple weeks later before beginning college in the fall.<br />
<br />
In every practical sense, this Mom gig of mine is done. I mean, I've gotten them from my uterus to adulthood successfully. (Of course, my husband was here, too, so I wasn't doing this alone.) But the thing is, from the outside looking in, by the world's standards, when a kid reaches 18, our parenting job is done. <i>Side note: I laugh hysterically every time I hear that information presented because I think I've done more 'parenting' since my kids have reached adulthood than I ever did before. </i>But put that aside for a minute and allow me a few moments to tell you a little something about parenting. And please don't shoot me if you're a mama of little ones who feels like you'll die before you make it to bedtime tonight. (I promise, you'll make it.)<br />
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These grown-up children of mine were infants about 5 minutes ago. I sincerely don't even know how this happened. I still think of myself as a young mom of three babies. I have such in-depth, vivid, fond memories of those years when they were little. I was a stay at home mom so I was there for literally everything 24 hours a day. I mean, a lot of that is scattered with exhaustion and crying (theirs and mine), giggles, messes and tantrums, and yet more exhaustion. But gosh those memories are strong.<br />
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However, everything since then has FLOWN by at rocket speed. It's like once they hit school age and I went back to work, the monotony of every day life took over and the years passed so quickly. I forget that I'm in my forties until I look at my auto insurance bill or check out the effects of gravity and aging in a mirror. I know that we've all heard old grandmas say it for years, but it's so true: Don't blink... it is over so fast! Our kids' childhoods are fleeting.<br />
<br />Savannah, I remember:<br />
Tiny clothes on hangers. Picture books in the bedroom floor. Drowsy viewings (over and over) of The Lion King ("the kitty movie"). Eye muscle surgeries. Defiance and obstinance. Adorable, tiny, thick, pink glasses. Winnie the Pooh, Arthur, Rugrats.<br />
<br />Samuel, I remember: Tiny blue outfits. Toy trucks and strewn tissues from full boxes of Kleenex.<br />
Easy naptimes. Early morning cartoons and workout videos. Ear tubes. Laughter and jokes. Lucky Luke, Rescue Heroes, Bob the Builder.<br />
<br />And Sarah, with you I remember: Teeny pink dresses and blankets. Hand me down books and toys. Big hair bows. Ear tubes and allergies. Sneaking Easter baskets into closets and whole packages of gum under the kitchen table. Dora the Explorer, Clifford, Rolie Polie Olie.<br />
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And then it happened....<br />
Band instruments, braces, puberty, "the talk", driver's ed, first jobs, first cars, boyfriends and girlfriends, formal dances, football games, bonfires, pep rallies, UIL competitions, power lifting meets, school clubs, college applications, scholarship applications, college visits, college registration.<br />
<br />
And somehow, here we are. Nearly 23 years since this mama gig began, the biggest part of my job is done. It's been a good run. I feel like I've done okay. In fact, I think I've done a pretty damn good job.<br />
<br />I did the math. There are 936 weeks from the time your child is born until they turn 18.<br />
That means I've had 936 Sundays to take the kids to church, 936 Mondays to launch them into new weeks and attempt to push them to face it with a positive light. 936 Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays to love them and encourage them. 936 Fridays to celebrate surviving another week. 936 Saturdays to rest and relax and do something fun with them.<br />
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I'm sure I haven't always been so positive, encouraging and uplifting, but I pray that the good outweighs all the screwing up, yelling, arguing, occasionally over-parenting and fussing. I pray they walk into adulthood with more good memories than bad. I'm fairly sure they will.<br />
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I hope they remember snuggling in mom and dad's bed any night they needed us.<br />Designing, cutting & painting Pinewood Derby cars.<br />Camping trips, campfire building lessons, archery and target shooting.<br />Dance classes & recitals.<br />Gymnastics classes.<br />Swim classes.<br />Watching mom doze off at the theater while watching "Up" (and a hundred other movies & TV shows at home.)<br />Summer reading programs---at the library and at home.<br />Summer chore lists.<br />Attending Awana, Missionettes, Royal Rangers, and VBS.<br />A trip to Disneyland and our friend's Bar Mitzvah.<br />Road trips.<br />The summer we had a Stay-cation and visited lots of cool local places.<br />All the times we watched Jumanji in hotel rooms.<br />The year that their cousins lived with us.<br />Christmas mornings.<br />Thanksgiving dinners.<br />Resurrection eggs.<br />Band concerts.<br />
Shopping for Samaritan's purse Christmas box children.<br />
Making summer bucket lists.<br />
Reading books & saying prayers together at bedtime.<br />
Slumber parties in one bedroom or another.<br />The first time we all watched Friends together from season 1 through 10.<br />
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I could list a thousand things that I hope my kids remember as they stretch their wings and fly, but it would take a thousand years to list them all.<br /><br />Above all else, I hope they know just these 2 things. To my kids:<br />
1. I love you and will always, always be here for you. My heart wants to explode with pride as I watch you bloom & grow. You are amazing human beings and I'm honored to be your mom.<br />2. God loves you so much more than your dad & I do. You were always just on loan to us from Him. We've tried to out-love Him for years but the truth is, we just can't. He will always love you a million times bigger than we do. As long as you trust in Him, lean on Him for every decision and always treat other people with the kind of mercy and grace and love God gives to you, you'll be okay. If you trust Him and know how faithful He is and do your best to honor Him all your life, then my job means nothing because that knowledge and understanding is far more important than literally anything I could teach you.<br /><br />Maybe we are nearing the finish line of this childhood thing. I feel like I'm on the last leg of this first long relay run and I'm sprinting for the end at this point, just clinging to the baton and looking for the runner ahead of me to hand it off. But it turns out, there is no runner up ahead. Just my kids & Jesus. So I'm stretching out my arm and passing the baton to them.<br /><br />Press on, kiddos. You've got this! And if you look to the sidelines, Dad and I will be there, cheering.<br />
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Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.<br />
<br />
<br />Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-54304316655493832152019-01-29T19:17:00.002-06:002019-01-29T19:17:36.762-06:00Redemption<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Tonight a prayer reminder buzzed on my phone. One glance was all it took to bring to mind a million heartbreaks that led to the need for these prayers.<br />
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Bad decisions, sins, mental health, immorality. Stuff that has wrecked a family & left behind a path of unfathomable consequences. So much hurt, so much destroyed. Lives changed, pain & sadness. It feels like a mass of horrible wrapped up in a layer of ugly intertwined with a whole lot of sorrow.<br />
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As I talked to God about it, I asked Him what to pray. I mean, sometimes situations leave us questioning what on earth we can possibly request of Him to fix the situation. Where to begin healing? Who most needs hope? Is there any way possible to remedy the destruction? Is there a way to repair what's broken?<br />
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As I prayed, I told Him of my heartache and it was in those moments He reminded me of a book I read years ago that completely wrecked me and changed the way I view my faith. I recently bought a copy for a friend so I guess it's been in my head lately.<br />
<br />
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers was *THE* book that made me start reading fiction again. After years of reading ONLY the stuff necessary for information in parenting or pregnancy, I had lost the desire to read for pleasure. A group of moms in my MOPS group (and about a dozen other random ladies I knew) all began talking about this one particular book all at around the same time. They kept nudging me to read it and while I couldn't imagine ever having time for something leisurely like reading a 300+ page book, I finally caved.<br />
<br />
Oh.<br />
My.<br />Soul.<br />
<br />
Guys, this book is the book of Hosea (from the Old Testament) re-told in a modern language. It's set in the California gold rush time period, which is entirely off my normal reading radar. I usually hate historic fiction. But this book... I can't explain it. As you read the story of the main character, a girl sold into prostitution at a young age, your heart breaks for her. And then when her husband arrives in her life and falls in love with her & then buys her out of sex trade, you cheer with excitement for her. And then she runs away from him, again and again. And she turns from his love for her because she can't imagine how anyone could possibly want her. She flees his home and his arms again and again. She wants all he has to offer her-- love, comfort, companionship, security, marriage -- but she can't bring herself to believe anyone would ever actually want her, all of her, with all her baggage and the ugly past. Michael Hosea (her husband) continually pursues her, continually brings her back home and forgives her lovingly, wiping her tears, bandaging her wounds, holding her close. <br />
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I'll spare you the whole story, but as you read the book, you can see a reflection of our relationships with God in the story. We have an ugly story, a nasty history, a painful past....and then God chases us down, wipes away our old life & covers our scars and pains with His compassion. And as believers, we know what we should do, we know how much we relish His presence. We feel fulfilled, comforted and so refreshed when we let Him be the Lord of our lives. But we still run away, we retreat into our old lives of garbage now & then. We see that old sin nature rising up from time to time. But God's grace chases us down, dusts us off and pulls us back in again & again, keeping us right where we belong. <br />
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His redemptive mercy is so profound, so beyond my comprehension!<br />
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As I prayed tonight for this painful situation, as I asked God what I could pray, He whispered to me. "Redemption." He reminded me of how He loves us, how He'll always pull us back, how nothing we can confess to Him will *ever* shock Him or make Him love us less. How there is always, always a path back to holiness. There is always a way to His arms. There will never be a situation that is too far gone for Him to redeem. Somehow, someway. I smiled as He reminded me not to worry about the end result, but to let Him cover it.<br />
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Oh Father, how quickly we try to solve problems or find ways for you to work. What a beautiful reminder to trust you to take care of things.<br />
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And like Hagar, I will run back to your arms again & again.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-25708054699650831442018-03-31T11:29:00.000-05:002018-03-31T11:29:42.967-05:00How the Reeves family celebrates Easter 2018In years past, our Easters have looked quite different. How we've chosen to celebrate is a little bit of a mish-mash of lots of things. I'll explain.<br />
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When the kids were very young, we made a conscious decision to not really do any of the Easter bunny/Easter basket stuff. We wanted to make sure they were clear that this was a day about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We bought new children's books every year about the day and what it's all about. We found little Easter trinkets & novelties at the Christian bookstore and online. We made Resurrection Rolls (more about that later) and created empty tombs from Play-doh. We bought a box of Resurrection Eggs and began including those in our special day. We went to church and talked about the stories the kids heard and learned. So they never lacked in having a holiday celebration, it just maybe didn't look like what happened at the homes of their peers. And we were fine with that. They were too little to care anyway.<br />
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When they started school, they began doing egg hunts there when they'd have the class party. We explained that there were a lot of things that people do for Easter and that some people chose to include egg hunts, bunnies and candy. They never seemed to be disappointed that we'd skipped that part of the festivities in the past. But to make sure that they didn't miss out when their friends talked about having tons of candy & stuff, we started buying some candy each year just for fun. In a household where we don't buy or eat tons of candy, it was a special treat!<br />
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When my kiddos were 9, 5 and 4, their cousins came to live with us. We wanted to integrate them into the family and make them feel at home, so we decided to include a little of the stuff they'd been doing each year into what we were doing. We kind of blended the worldly stuff & the spiritual stuff, so both sets of kids got a whole new appreciation for Easter that year. Our kids were introduced to baskets and bunnies and egg hunts while my niece and nephew learned more about the resurrection and Jesus. It was one of the sweetest Easters ever and I was sold on continuing our Easters that way -- with a little bit of each type of celebration.<br />
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The kids' cousins only lived with us a little over a year, so by the time the next Easter rolled around it was back to just my children. But they'd really enjoyed all the silly fun stuff the year before, so we continued it. Ever since, our annual Easter celebrations look like this---<br />
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About a month before Easter when all the candy hits the shelves, I buy a bag of jelly beans. For myself. ha ha! I never liked jelly beans until all the cool varieties came out. Starburst, Jolly Rancher, Sweet Tart and Laffy Taffy all make great jelly beans. The regular old fashioned ones are just gross. But I buy the bag of yummy ones & munch on them over the course of a few weeks leading up to the holiday. [Yes, I realize this has NOTHING to do with how the rest of the family celebrates, but I figured we were going for full disclosure here...]<br />
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On Good Friday, we attend our church's worship service. Some years we've had to miss it due to work schedules and such, but we try to make it every year.<br />
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On the Saturday before Easter, we dye eggs and make Resurrection Rolls. I figure the eggs are pretty self-explanatory, so I won't elaborate there. But the rolls are fantastic. You take a big marshmallow, which represents the body of Jesus, dip it in melted butter (which represents the oils they annointed his body with for burial.) Then you dip that into a mixture of cinnamon & sugar, which represents the spices they prepared his body with. Then you take it & wrap a crescent roll around it. This represents the burial cloth that they wrapped his body with. Then cook them according to the cresent roll package. When done, the marshmallow (his body) is gone...and that represents the empty tomb. He is no longer there--but we can still smell him, taste him. Not only are they yummy, but they're a great visual lesson for little ones.<br /><br />When the kids were younger, we'd hide a few eggs around the yard for them to go hunt at some point on Saturday afternoon or on Easter itself, but they outgrew that by their adolescent years & we just hand them a hollow chocolate bunny instead. They don't seem to mind these days! :)<br /><br />On Easter morning, we go to church. I realize this isn't unusual--we always go on Sunday morning--but I just wanted to note this is part of our holiday.<br />
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On Easter afternoon, we come home and, even though our kids are basically grown now, we all sit down together & open the resurrection eggs and remember what each one represents and the story it tells.<br />
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Our kids were never told as little ones that a bunny brings a basket to their house. The one or two random years that we did a basket at all, they knew it was from us. I'm not sure why but even when I was a child, I never thought the Easter bunny was an actual, real thing. I'm not even sure if my parents ever introduced the idea of the Easter bunny to me. Anyway, they've never believed in a bunny.<br />
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No matter how the celebrations have varied over the years, our kids have always known that for our family, Easter is about worship and focusing on the resurrection of Christ. No matter what the rest of the world does or how they celebrate, for us it's never been about bunnies and eggs and candy. That's just a fun thing people do on the side, but the real focus has always been Jesus.<br />
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We've researched and we know that the original holiday has pagan roots and that early Christians really just sort of latched onto a holiday that was crudely celebrating a fertility goddess and attached it to a Biblical day we want to remember and celebrate. I understand that some Christians choose to ignore the day altogether because it has such an ugly history & the roots are anything but Christian in nature. I can respect that. But for me and my house, we choose to take the bad and flip it on its ear and turn it into something good. Maybe that's bad or wrong. Maybe not. I don't know. What I DO know is that regardless of what anyone else is doing, *I* am celebrating what my Savior did for me.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-1224790133335437032017-07-24T09:44:00.001-05:002017-07-24T09:53:00.620-05:00I am SO selfish.I think we all know that deep down we are selfish, ugly creatures who want everyone to be at our beck & call every minute of the day. We try to cover that, but I think, at heart, deep down, we all just really want the world to revolve around us. I try my best and really make an effort to be joyful & patient & grateful in all things. And while I often succeed, there is definitely a deficit in my life, usually connected to my family and especially when I am inconvenienced or made to run late. How dare they! How quickly my gratefulness goes right out the window when my husband or kids make me have to go out of my way to serve them, wait on them or they make me more than 10 seconds late to something. (Don't I sound like a delight to be around?) This morning, God used my husband to remind me of my less-than-patient, self-focused nature. Here's how our morning went.<br />
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Yesterday, Larry preached at a church in a neighboring town. We planned for me to hold off on grocery shopping for the week 'til after we cashed the paycheck from that. Last night, we discussed that the bank might or might not allow me to cash the check since it was written to him. Rather than risking them not letting me get the money, we decided that I'd follow him to the bank this morning and he could cash it and then hand off the cash to me & he'd head on to work. (You need to know this info to follow the rest of the story.)<br />
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So at about 8:15, we left the house. I was in my PJs in my van and Larry was dressed to the nines in his crisp, starched shirt & ironed pants. He was just ahead of me on the drive, in his truck. We didn't reach the end of our neighborhood before my low tire warning light came on. I grabbed my cell phone from the console & called Larry to ask him to follow me to the gas station so we could put some air in my tires. But he didn't answer. Grrrr. We got to the next stop sign and I honked at him & held up my phone and gestured to it, waving perhaps a little more urgently than was required. I was frustrated that he didn't immediately answer my call! I mean, isn't that why we have cell phones? ANSWER IT when I call you, dude! After my honk & point moment, I re-dialed his number and he picked it up. I told him my light had come on and he had me drive around him so he could look at the tires & see which one looked low. He noted that one seemed a tiny bit lower than the others & told me which gas station to drive to. He followed behind me making sure I was safe, didn't have a blow out or anything like that. As I drove, I thought how sweet it was, how gentlemanly to follow slowly behind me and make sure I was okay.<br />
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When we got to the gas station, he grabbed the (greasy) air hose & drug it around my van, adding air to the appropriate tire. When that didn't turn off my warning light, he checked the other 3 tires & added a little air to all of them, just in case. That still didn't shut off my light so we came to the conclusion that the (slight) drop in temperature overnight must've triggered it. Sigh. Technology. My sweet husband now needed to wash his hands & wipe the sweat from his brow (good grief, the humidity!!) and he wanted to buy a drink before he could leave. I told him I'd go ahead and leave and head to the bank & wait for him there, to which he nodded his approval.<br />
<br />
When I pulled into my parking spot to wait for him, I pulled out my phone & turned on my data. I tapped my Facebook app icon and opened a status update screen to type out a brag on my sweet husband. I wanted my friends & family to know how kind and caring he was, willing to get dirty & wait on his wife, handling a menial task I could've done myself later in the day. I wanted to point out how thankful I am to have him and how blessed I feel to be his wife. His tender generous care for me had touched me and I wanted to pay him a public compliment.<br />
<br />
In the middle of typing that, my phone rang. Now, some of you may not know it but I'm more of a texter, so when my phone rings at all, I sort of dread it. I'm an introvert in the worst way. If I can come up with any reason at all to not answer & just let it go to voice mail I will. LOL I know, it's bad. I realize that's why I have a phone--so people can reach me--but if I'm in the middle of typing a status on facebook, a phone call is just an irritation. I mean, come on folks....don't cut into my facebook time by calling me. (Insert heavy eye roll & major sarcasm here.) But I sighed & answered the phone. <br />
<br />
It was my dear, sweet, caring husband. He stated that his "hey dummy light" had come on. (that's what we call the low-gas light on our cars) He was going to have to stay at the gas station a few more minutes to gas up his truck. I rolled my eyes, irritated that he'd let his gas tank get so low. I tell him all the time to stop & get gas. I tend to believe that once you hit the half-tank mark, you need to start looking for a station to fill up. After all, that second half of the tank seems to disappear rapidly and I am fearful of being stranded somewhere without gas, so that's how I handle it. A quarter-tank makes me borderline frantic. MUST GET GAS NOW!!! But he's sort of a daredevil and likes to see how low he can get before he HAS TO get gas. So right then & there, I was frustrated that I'd have to wait on him longer because he hadn't followed my suggestions and gotten gas sooner. Ugh. Men!<br />
<br />
Then he told me that he realized when he'd switched his holster from one belt to another this morning, he'd left his badge on our dresser. And he was going to need that today! He asked if I could run back to the house and get it. He would finish gassing up the truck, go cash the check & then meet me somewhere with the cash. I lovingly (outwardly) agreed but inside I was mad. I mean, this guy is the worst about forgetting things and I have driven hundreds and hundreds of miles over the years bringing him things he left at home. This was like the 5-millionth time I've done this for him. I can't tell you how many phone calls & texts I've gotten to bring him stuff that he needed at work. Or the million frantic shouts to come help him find this or that item because he's forgotten where he put it. I mean, geez. Put it up in the same place every time and you won't have to hunt for your keys, phone, glasses, etc. Sigh. And this was his BADGE he'd left at home. What on earth? Why can't he remember such a big thing that is crucial for his job!!?? I mean, come on. It's not like he left a pen at home. He's a plain clothes detective. Cops need their badges!! Grrrrrr.<br />
<br />
When I hung up with him, the status update screen for Facebook was still on the phone screen. You know, the one where I was typing out a brag about how wonderful & sweet my husband is? The same screen I'd pulled up 3 minutes before to compliment my husband was now the screen that was taunting me & reminding me of my deeply, profoundly selfish ways. It reminded me how rapidly I can cycle from feeling blissful & happy & joyful to being ticked off, irritated and wanting to punch someone.<br />
<br />
Ouch. Conviction is like that. <br />
<br />
I shut off the facebook app and made the 2-3 minute drive to my house, walked inside and grabbed the badge and started back to the van before Larry called to tell me he was already done and almost back to our house. I don't even know how he finished that quickly, but he did. And about 2 minutes later, we met on the parking lot of a nearby school for me to get the cash and give him his badge. I wished him well as he left for work. (by the way, he was now late for work but never seemed to be upset that he was in that predicament because of me!) Before he left, I made sure to tell him how much I love him, how God had used him as an instrument this morning to remind me to settle the heck down & stop being so darn selfish, how grateful I was for him--even if he is a forgetful goofball sometimes.<br />
<br />
Thank you, Lord, for using my husband to remind me today how richly I am blessed, how much I need to work on my selfishness. Show me a way to be a blessing to him in return today!<br />
<br />
So I need to ask you this: <br />
Do you struggle with this too? Do you have the utmost patience for
everyone else in your life but you find yourself becoming very quickly
aggravated by those closest to you? Do you find yourself so
self-focused that you miss blessings and kindnesses extended to you?
Can I suggest that we all stop today and really pay attention to our
responses to our families and those we hold dear? Can we reset our
sights and consider others and be thankful? This is a hard lesson for me to learn. Maybe it is for you, too?<br />
<br />Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-1105803574093125162017-06-29T22:56:00.001-05:002017-06-29T22:56:33.489-05:00Here we go again!You may remember that last spring (2016) I had a bit of a cancer scare after a mammogram. (You can read that story <a href="http://liz-ourblessedfamily.blogspot.com/2016/04/i-dont-have-cancer.html">HERE</a>.) When that was all over, the doctor told me in person, then again on the phone, and again in a letter that I was fine for a year. No sooner follow up was needed. Of course, this spring came and went and I lost track of time & dates and didn't get my annual mammogram scheduled until June. Oops!<br />
<br />
Once you have had a "suspicious finding" you have to get a diagnostic mammogram & ultrasound for a few years until the doctor declares you able to go back to just a regular mammogram. (The difference is the number of images they take & awkward positions you must get into to take them. ha ha!) So last Monday (June 19) I went in for my tests.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, my tumor that they found last year had not changed or grown. It was still right where we left it with its little metal clip/marker attached. So that was good. But then they found a new issue. The doctor said that it could be one of two things....and after a biopsy last Thursday (June 22) it was declared to be an intraductal papilloma. While IPs are not typically cancerous, they do tend to turn into cancer if you leave them in there....so the standard treatment is to have surgery & remove them. {You know...unless you're a daredevil & like to live life on the edge & take a wait and see approach.....but I'm not comfortable with waiting to see if this thing will be cancerous in another 6 months. NO thanks!}<br />
<br />
So today, we went to the surgeon's office & scheduled surgery. It's a fairly simple outpatient day surgery procedure and from those I have spoken to in the last week, the recovery is not too bad. I've been told that recovery is only about a week and most of that is just because you have stitches and are sore---not really because you're in horrible pain or anything.<br />
<br />
Surgery has been scheduled for Tuesday July 11. I'm recording this info here so that in years to come I can look back & remember the timeline for all this.<br />
<br />
I'm just hoping that this can be my last year to have to do any poking & jabbing & cutting in this area. I'm kind of all done with that stuff. Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-27334889273010099992017-04-08T00:49:00.005-05:002017-04-08T07:54:27.843-05:00My statement about mental health:I've thought through this post numerous times but haven't been able to figure out quite the right words or timing to post it. Tonight I'm just going to dive in & say what I'm thinking and I pray it comes out right. I pray that you read this and understand my heart. I pray that you can really LISTEN and soak it in and absorb what I'm trying to say because it is so heavily, deeply, powerfully engraved on my heart. This is something I am passionate about.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for Here goes" class="irc_mi" height="400" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/51/8c/c9/518cc91fbd9d1275de8f8be69543d012.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="350" /><br />
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For years now, 4 out of the 5 members of my household have struggled, in one way or another, with a mental health issue. I won't go into detail about which family member deals with which thing. That's personal & I will always strive to protect my family's dignity and safety. If you know our family personally, you may know the details. (And if so, please do not comment here with any specifics. Join me in protecting our family!) Or you may know us & have NO IDEA that we've been dealing with anything at all. (If so, surprise!)<br />
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For years, I've watched people's reactions when they find out the facts about my family. Learning that this person sees a psychiatrist....or that this one sees a counselor... or this one takes meds every day...or that one has been hospitalized... Some nod and smile, hug and encourage, understanding full well the depth of what it's like to live with or support someone who deals with a brain chemistry imbalance. (Those people make me want to hug them & invite them into my inner circle for s'mores and late night talks.) Others ask rude questions or insinuate it's "all in your head". Others have pointed fingers & asked which side of the family has these issues---were they passed down through genetics? Others have made a point to talk about how those with faith in their lives shouldn't be dealing with these things, that if we prayed enough or believed strongly enough, we wouldn't have these issues. And still others turn up their nose, gasp in shock or otherwise cut us from their lives because they believe that somehow having a mental health illness/disorder/issue is something to be ashamed of. <br />
<br />
As I type this tonight, I am looking back on the past 20 years of having one psychiatric drug or another in my medicine cabinet. Sometimes I've had a combination of several drugs in my medicine cabinet. I have heard people compare mental health to other chronic illnesses-- diabetes or asthma, for example-- and they have talked about the similarities. Both require long-term medications, continual care by a doctor, potentially a hospitalization now & then to get back on track when things go awry, and taking care of oneself to prevent those "flare ups". There is so much truth in all of that and I can appreciate the comparisons.<br />
<br />
But here's the kicker: no one looks at you funny if you have diabetes. No one judges you if you have asthma. No one thinks a person with Crohn's disease is a monster or somehow dangerous. No one assumes that a person with Cystic Fibrosis is apt to 'snap' and hurt someone. There is no stigma attached to most chronic illnesses. But there IS to persons who deal with mental illness.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for mental health stigma" class="irc_mi" src="http://rosieclaverton.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/crime-stigma-wordle.png" height="258" style="margin-top: 8px;" width="400" /><br />
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Why is that?<br />
<br />
We all understand when a person has a heart problem that their heart is 'sick'. We all understand that diabetes means a person has a 'sick' pancreas. We know that having asthma means having 'sick' lungs. So why can't we accept that mentally ill people have a 'sick' brain? Why can we understand that those conditions are medical in nature but we look at mental illness as some other sort of thing altogether. Why can't we as a society see that mental illness is just as much an illness, too? <br />
<br />
The definition of mental illness I most often relate to people is a condition where the chemistry of the brain gets out of whack. I know it is much more complicated than that, including all sorts of genetic, environmental, and biological factors. And the conditions that fit the mental illness category are as diverse as can be, but most are classified by how they affect a person's mood, behavior and thinking. With all of them, you see a doctor, do testing before a diagnosis, take meds to help with the problem and go on about your life. None of these conditions were ones the person asked for. None of them are the person's fault or were somehow 'caused' by a bad choice. None of them were planned for or desired. Most of the people affected have zero desire to spend their life in doctor's offices or taking a handful of medication every day.... <br />
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You know, JUST LIKE those who have diabetes, asthma, cystic fibrosis, crohn's and all the other chronic illnesses you can think of....
<img alt="Image result for mental health stigma" class="irc_mi" src="http://www.psychology.net.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/mental-health-stigma.jpg" height="300" style="margin-top: 110px;" width="450" /> <br />
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It's time for us to do SOMETHING about this overwhelming, seemingly never-ending thing that people have stuck in their heads about children and adults who have a mental illness. STOP IT. These conditions are very real, very hard to manage sometimes, very hard to 'own' (because of the stigma!), very hard for caregivers and family to support. These conditions are no less medical in nature than all the other chronic illnesses I mentioned here.<br />
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I'm not sure I ever REALLY grasped all this before I was faced with it myself. But, being face to face with individuals who are fighting daily to stay on top of their illness, I can tell you one thing for sure:<br />
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These persons are fully capable of living normal lives, looking just like you, going to school or work, carrying on a regular lifestyle, having successful relationships, embracing physical activities, becoming parents, caring for others, being members of the PTA, serving on the neighborhood watch team, teaching Sunday School and so much more. I doubt you have any idea just how many people you interact with every single day who are dealing with things like anxiety, depression, PTSD, Bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, ADD/ADHD, eating disorders, PPD, SAD, Disassociative Disorders, phobias and on & on & on.<br />
<br />
Seriously, let's put this 'second class citizen' treatment to rest. A person with mental illness is no less human, no less capable of emotion than anyone else. So dig up your compassion glasses & put them on. It's time to stop the ignorance and the awful stigma. After all, can you tell which of these people suffers from a mental health condition & which do not?<br />
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<br />Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-83184012829203606042016-12-27T19:52:00.002-06:002016-12-27T19:52:35.519-06:00The Sosh Meeds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been sucked into the abyss that is social media.<br />
<br />
I seem to live and breathe Facebook and Instagram. Every funny, serious, interesting, thought-provoking, deep, light & humorous thing that comes my direction in life appears in some form or fashion in the "sosh meeds." {which is my silly, cheesy, faux-teenager word for social media when I'm talking to my teen daughter}<br />
<br />
I have neglected this blog.<br />
I have neglected time spent face to face with other actual human people.<br />
and worst... I have neglected prayer time. And Bible reading.<br />
<br />
I'm a mess, folks.<br />
<br />
I know, I know. Most of us are. And most of us are re-evaluating things in life this week. It's almost time for a brand new year so everything is suspect and we all feel inclined to wipe out anything that might remotely take away from the beauty of the life we've been given. Maybe that's what this is.<br />
<br />
Sure. I could throw out my smart phone and disable all my social media accounts. Perhaps I could move my family into a cabin in the wilderness. That would do the job. But I have found that there are GREAT opportunities to connect, to minister, to love, to find (and give) compassion, to laugh, to share, to grieve alongside long-distance friends...all via social media. So it's not all bad. But I think, like most of us, I have to find a way to rein that in. I'm not sure how I'll pull it off, but I'm open to suggestions.<br /><br />How do you handle it?Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-12772499220085822252016-06-08T23:22:00.004-05:002016-06-08T23:22:39.022-05:00Mother of the Year AwardLast weekend, I had a whole discussion on facebook with a number of friends about people being judgemental and nasty to moms. (Mostly by other moms online, but in public as well.) I wrote my weekly newspaper column about it and quoted several friends from the Facebook discussion. We had chatted about all our own perceived 'failures' as a mother, what people say about us, how we all are doing the best we can and need to be able to parent our kids without worrying about anyone else's opinions. I believed every word of what I said about how rude, mean & catty moms can be to one another. The ultimate "end" to the discussion was the decision among all of us to be kinder and extend grace to other moms, to be careful about being quick to judge and remember how we all feel when others look down their noses at us for whatever they perceive as bad mothering.<br />
<br />
And then today, I got a reminder of the whole thing. Only this time, *I* was the judgey mom. And it took several hours before it hit me square between the eyes. Here's what happened.<br />
<br />
This afternoon, my daughter had a counseling appointment. While waiting in the small waiting room, a mom and her two young children came in. There is a small table with 2 little chairs, one of those wire frames with beads on the wires and a couple of old children's books & magazines. (In other words there is hardly anything for a kid to do while they wait.) The little boy, probably about 7 yr old, walked in, spotted the wire/bead toy and asked the mom if he could play. She growled "NO!" at him. That's when I looked up. I hadn't really paid much attention when they came in, but upon hearing her growl at him, I noticed several things. Mom's pants said "Wild Love" down the side and were paired with a too small tank top that was splattered with paint as if she'd just stepped down from the ladder where she was painting the bathroom. Little boy was wearing a sweatshirt & jeans. Little girl (about 5 yr old) was wearing a spaghetti-strapped sundress. (It was in the upper 80s outside today.) Mom checked him in at the window, then walked over & plopped down in a chair with her phone & started playing on it, taking selfies, watching videos, etc. And that's where she remained for the rest of her time in the waiting room. She never looked up. Not when her son was HURDLING chairs (I'm not kidding), not when he was using her lanyard and keys like a whip and swinging at his sister with them, not when he broke one of the small chairs, not when he said some mean things to his sister, not when little girl told the boy she'd slap him if he sat in the red chair. (of course he immediately went & sat in it and she walked over to slap him, but he slapped back. Mom shouted "Stop hitting." from across the room & never looked up.)<br />
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After brother was called back to talk to his counselor, the little girl, mom & I were the only ones left in the waiting room. (Sarah had also been called back.) In an effort to NOT talk to the mom and girl, I was playing a game on my phone. Mom of course had been on her phone the whole time. The little girl was in the floor, talking to herself & playing with the wire/bead frame. She got bored, looked up and eyed her mom, then me, and asked "Why is it so quiet in here?" I responded that her mom and I are phone addicts. The mom giggled a bit, but never looked up. So I put my phone down and talked to the little girl. Her mom had earlier eyed my shirt & asked if I lived in the town mentioned on my shirt (I do) so I asked the little girl if that's where she lives, and which school she goes to. She briefly talked to me, then said "I don't want to tell you that." so I affirmed that it was a smart choice because I'm a stranger and she probably shouldn't tell me any information. So instead of talking to me, she began running laps around the waiting room. (I'm totally serious. Laps. Like, dozens & dozens of laps.) Mom didn't look up. I was watching the little girl and thinking how she was just acting like a little kid and no one else was in the room and she wasn't really bothering me. The only thing that bothered me was that mom didn't seem to care, wasn't talking to her and just generally wasn't paying attention. I guess in my head, if she were my little girl I would've stopped her from running & gotten her engaged in one of the books, or I'd sit on the floor & play with the wire/bead thing with her or get her to do something on my phone, pull out some paper and a pen from my purse. Anything but running laps around the room & potentially bugging others. Then little girl began saying "Hi" every time she passed me and her mom as she made her laps. Mom still never looked up at her so I started making funny faces as she approached me on her rounds and tried to beat her at saying "HI" in a funny voice. She began giggling and clearly enjoying the attention. She then added a tap to my knee and to her mom's knee as she passed us each time.... then it became a pat to both of my knees, a pat to both of mom's knees and the HI as she passed us each time. She was running off some energy, getting a little adult attention (even if not from her mom) and having fun being a kid. Had we been in a different environment (say....church, a funeral, a waiting room with a bunch of elderly people...) it would've been horribly inappropriate but she didn't really bother me.<br />
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After about a 45 min visit with his counselor, brother showed back up at the door with his counselor. Mom heard the door open & looked up, announced to the little girl to put her shoes back on (yes, she took off her shoes at some point in all this) and fussed at the boy who walked in & immediately said or did something (I can't remember what) to bug his sister. After getting little girl's shoes on, they got up to leave and then mom spotted the counselor, still standing at the door waiting on her. She looked at the counselor & said "WHAT?" in a pretty harsh tone. Then added "Do you want to talk to me?" The counselor kindly nodded yes & gestured for them to all come into the hallway (outside the waiting room, so out of earshot to me.)<br />
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As they left, I sighed with relief and was giggling to myself about how I wouldn't have to worry about losing my "Mother of the Year" title to that woman! I mean, I have bad days now and then. My kids probably heard their share of harshly spoken words when they were younger. But on my bad days, at least I do better than THAT. I came home & relayed the story to Larry later tonight. He laughed along with me and we sort of had a high five/yay for being good parents moment.<br />
<br />
And then it hit me between the eyes.<br />
<br />
Yes, the kids were pretty awfully behaved. Yes, they argued and fought when they were both in the room and mom should've intervened. Yes, the little girl was talking pretty openly with a stranger and running around the room like a crazy person, swatting the knees of a stranger. Nothing about the circumstances change. Mom should have done something differently. Mom should've put her phone down & paid attention to the children. I'm not saying any of that was "okay" in the least. So please don't read into this that I'm saying "I understand their poor behavior & mom's disconnected style."<br />
<br />
But my response and my judgemental, catty attitude is something I can control. I learned from a wise lady years ago that in all sorts of relationships we can't control the behavior of the other person but we can control our response. And I responded wrong. The truth is, I don't know that mom's circumstances. I don't know if these were foster kids who came to her with huge issues to tackle or biological ones with special needs or delays. I don't know if she struggles with substance abuse or alcohol. I don't know if she grew up in a horrible home and has never really learned good parenting skills. I don't know if she was recently released from prison and has never had a relationship with the kids and today's behavior was a drastic improvement over what it was a month ago. I don't know if she was sick, in pain or battling her own demons. I don't know if she's mentally ill or was abused moments before leaving home today. I don't know if she had another child who died recently and she was not really equipped to handle the being out in public alone with the kids just yet. Or maybe her spouse died yesterday and she was tied to her phone watching old videos of him, reading things he wrote to her. I don't know her socioeconomic situation or if she's homeless.<br />
<br />
There are just too many factors involved for me to make a judgement of her. I don't know whether she gets the Mother of the Year Award or not. But I do know that I am certainly not a perfect mother myself. I've had my share of horrible days. I've done my share of screwing up and probably looking about as equally disengaged with my kids in public places a few times. I have made horrible parenting errors that I looked back on later & thanked God for protection and provision. And maybe that was the case with this mom today.<br />
<br />
So before I decide that she was such a terrible mom and her kids were horribly behaved, maybe I should consider that she was in a good place to deal with those things--- a counselor's office! Maybe I should consider that she's trying to get help. Perhaps today was her son's appointment and hers is tomorrow.<br /><br />Whatever the case may be, I hope she will be willing to share the podium at the Mother of the Year Awards ceremony. It seems like we might be receiving our awards on the same day.<br /><br />Grace, y'all. Give it freely. You just don't know what's happening with other people.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-11742155970587974712016-05-26T20:42:00.003-05:002016-05-26T20:42:59.449-05:00Product Review: Baby Foot Original Exfoliant Foot PeelWarning: If pictures of feet gross you out, you don't want to read this. <br />
If pictures of gross feet transforming by means of a chemical peel would freak you out, you REALLY don't want to read this. <br />
But if you're curious about how Baby Foot works or you're looking for a product that will REALLY do what it claims to help soften your feet, read on!<br />
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<br />
A few weeks ago a friend of mine posted on Facebook about a product she'd bought online to help with her dry feet. I am always on the look out for products like this, but have found that most of them fall into the same category. That is, they are all creams/lotions/body butter type products & if you use them regularly (EVERY NIGHT) they will work. That's where I lack in product success. I have good intentions, but I forget to use them after the first few days. And bam....crusty hooves.<br />
<br />
That's not just a funny name I just came up with. It's what my husband has called my feet for the last couple decades. Isn't that sweet? Thank God he loves the rest of me! <grin><br /></grin><br />
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Here's the thing. I grew up in the country. I live in the south. I'm a barefoot girl. I pretty much go barefoot 24/7 in the summertime. I only put on shoes if I'm going somewhere. And during the school year, I wear shoes all day but take them off the second I get home. To this day, if anyone in my house has on shoes, they get asked where they're going. It's like putting on shoes equates dressing up. ha ha! So years & years & years of barefoot walking means my entire foot is basically one big callous on top of an older callous. Layer upon layer of hardened skin. I know....lovely mental image, right? {Hang in there....I'll show you the actual thing in a second. Scary....}<br />
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So when my friend posted about Baby Foot I had to look into it. Anything that I've been told about personally by someone I know & trust is worth a look. I googled it and was SHOCKED and WOWED by the pictures.<br />
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Pause reading this for a second. Take a minute and open another window. I'm serious. It'll blow your mind. Do a quick google search for baby foot before and after photos. It's really shocking. And disgusting. In the most satisfying way.<br />
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Before I continue, I should scare you to death, errr...I mean, show you my "before" pictures. I should apologize ahead of time. It's frightening. Make sure the kiddies aren't around. They might cry.<br />
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See what I mean? I NEEDED this stuff!!<br />
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So this is Baby Foot. You can buy it from their own website for $25 plus shipping. I found this one on amazon for about $23 including shipping. It comes in a box like this.<br />
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To use Baby Foot, you first have to soak your feet in warm, soapy water for 15-20 minutes. Then dry thoroughly and get ready for the process!<br />
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You slip on these lovely little plastic bag booties. They're about the size of a gallon ziploc bag. They come with little tape strips to fold over & tape down. This will hold them in place on your feet. They are filled with a lotion/gel stuff. That's the magic stuff!!<br />
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And here's the fun part. Sit or lie down. For an HOUR. You really have to sit still & let the gel/lotion/goo inside the booties to work.<br />
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After an hour, wash the remaining gel off your feet thoroughly & go back to life as normal. For a few days, you'll feel like the stuff did not work, but then the wild part begins. I read online that some people had a lag of as much as 5 days after use before the peeling began. But for me, it started on about day 3.<br />
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First it was just a little peel.<br />
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Every day for the next 4-5 days, I peeled a little more.<br />
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I know.<br />
GROSS. Shudder! Good grief!<br />
But...wow!!!!!<br />
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By about 8-9 days after the initial treatment, I was pretty well done peeling. Every place that peeled left SOFT pink, fresh new skin. While it looks red/pink in the after pics below, it was NOT inflamed or painful AT ALL. That's just what healthy, fresh skin looks like! Plus the lighting in my house is not the greatest so it probably looks a little pinker than it really is.<br />
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But LOOK! <br />
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The cracks were SO deep that you can still see them, but they're smooth to the touch. I will probably do this again soon but the process is so ugly & gross (all that peeling skin!!) that I hate to do it during the summer when people will see my feet in flip flops & sandals. The box says to wait about 5-10 days at least between the end of peeling & doing a 2nd treatment. I still need to keep up the softness with regular lotion/cream/pedicures, too!!<br />
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If you're considering using Baby Foot, I highly recommend it. It truly does work exactly like it says it will!! And it is painless!!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-22867359477349876262016-05-02T00:03:00.001-05:002016-05-02T00:03:18.370-05:00Sermon NotesNearly 2 years ago I got a new journal notebook for sermon notes. It has 200 pages in it and it is nearly full now. As I flipped through the pages during church this morning I realized how much of a treasure this notebook is and how many things from it I want to share. So much truth, beauty. So, enjoy a brief scroll through some of the high points from the past 2 years of sermons in my life. The sermons have come from various preachers at various churches as well as some speakers at conferences. This is in no way a compilation of everything written down, but just a sampling of some of the powerful things that have affected my soul.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><u><b>from sermons/lessons given by Robert Burkett & Tom Terry @ Grace Fellowship Church, Flint TX:</b></u></span><br />*We should live as champions, but we may not always see victories. {Luke 9:58, There is no EARTHLY security. If you count on it, you will be disappointed.}<br />
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*Faith sometimes requires waiting.<br />
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*God always goes before us. He knows what you're facing. There is no where in the Bible where God retreated.<br />
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*When God's at work, we often have to move out of our comfort zone. You will never experience victory in Christ until you step out.<br />
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*When you walk in faith, do you expect something from God? He will never ask you to do something that you can't do WITH HIM.<br />
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*How often do we not see our Jericho walls fall because we quit trying on the 6th lap?<br />
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*We cannot be defeated by Satan unless we throw up our hands in surrender.<br />
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*Death is just a sign that there was LIFE.<br />
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*Don't be in bondage to the past.<br />
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*Faith will lead to works -- not the other way around.<br />
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*You can't draw water from a dry well. Fill it with the Word.<br />
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*Let the mind of the Master master your mind. Then you'll know the mind does matter.<br />
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*I find that doing the will of God leaves no time to dispute His plan.<br />
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*Joy busters: unsatisfied expectations, unresolved conflict, unconfessed sin<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><u><b>From Larry, when he filled the pulpit at a few different churches:</b></u></span><br />
*Weak faith is better than no faith. God can work with weak faith.<br />
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*How God deals with another person & their sins is none of your business.<br />
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*God's heart has always been in tune with those who are outsiders, less than, ones who can never repay grace extended.<br />
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*If you want to be closer to God, go where the poor are. They can never repay.<br />
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*God can handle things -- He does not need our help!<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><u><b>From Kim Beckham & Dan Sala, Central Baptist Church, Tyler TX:</b></u></span><br />*You influence your children more by the way you live than the words you use to teach them.<br />
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*What you teach your children to love is more powerful than anything they learn in systemic education.<br />
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*God has compassion for us in our frailty.<br />
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*Forgiven people should be forgiving people.<br />
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*Discontentment: We will never run out of things to see that we want!<br />
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*Society constantly changes what it values.<br />
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*When hearts get hardened, doubts come. You can ALWAYS go back to God.<br />
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*When you see someone struggling:<br />1. pray--discernment & wisdom<br />2. talk to them about your own experience if you are done dealing with it emotionally, spiritually, etc. Speak truth in LOVE.<br />3. physically walk the journey with them.<br /><br />*Make relationships when things are good so that you have an avenue & a voice to speak to people when things get rough.<br /><br />*Ministry means being willing to be interrupted.<br />
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*1 John 4:20: If you claim to love God but hate a fellow man, you are a liar. You can't love God & hate sinners. We can't choose who to extend grace & God's love to.<br /><br />*Submission: love/service/honor given out of respect for another person, even when they don't deserve it.<br /><br />*It is hard to share the joy of Christ when you are in a hurry to grab everything the world has to offer you.<br /><br />*You guard what is of great value or importance.<br /><br />*To determine the status of your heart, examine what's coming out of your mouth.<br />
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*No matter what we, Christians, are going through in the world, it sure beats Hell. -Mark Lowry<br />
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*If we could hear the screams of the damned in Hell, we'd become more missionary-minded.<br />
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*If you want to make an impact on someone, you must be willing to serve them.<br />
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*Sincerity is not the magic ingredient that makes something true.<br />
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*Genuine love is not a sugary sentiment that denies truth.<br />
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*Why does God allow interruptions in our lives?<br />1. Sometimes He needs to redirect our focus.<br />2. Sometimes He needs to realign our priorities.<br />3. Sometimes He needs to reclaim our attention.<br />
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MOSES: grew up in the palace, God interrupted to lead him to the the wilderness w/ the Israelites<br />JOB: God took a man who loved Him completely & interrupted his safe, happy life -- but Job's allegiance never faltered<br />JONAH: swallowed by a whale as a result of disobedience to God<br />MARY: her whole life was interrupted to carry Jesus<br /><br />God sometimes uses an interruption to perform the miraculous.<br />
<br />*What we believe about God impacts our view of the world:<br />1. I am not the same.<br />2. I don't see things the same way.<br />3. I am not seen in the same way.<br /><br />*When we grow impatient with God, Satan is always quick to answer us.<br /><br />*Out of your deepest misery flows your most powerful ministry.<br />
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<br />*Sin & shame are powerless at the Cross.<br />
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*You cement your right to lead by learning how to follow.<br />
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*There is no healing in your spiritual life until you come to terms with what you've done. The Lord delights in showing us where real power comes from. The greatest victories come with the fewest resources. When did we stop trusting in God's provision?<br />
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*When the Spirit is leading your life, the fruits of the Spirit are evident.<br />
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*We all approach Scripture through the lens of our own life experiences & biases.<br />
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*We can't base our salvation on the memory of the day we got saved, but on the daily experience with Christ.<br />
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*True faith is transforming faith. When you meet Christ, it's revolutionary.<br />
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*Becoming a Christian doesn't do away with your past -- it buys you a new future!<br />
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*God uses common people & asks them to abandon everything & find their hope, security & identity in Him alone.<br />
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*He uses our sin & struggles to reach others.<br />
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*The nature of forgiveness is recognizing someone has done something wrong, then surrendering your right to hold it against them & retaliate.<br />
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*Forgiveness is the 1st step toward reconciliation.<br />
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*If your gospel is not touching others, it hasn't touched you. -Curry Blake<br />
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*Don't waste time getting caught up in theological arguments. Spend that time loving others & reaching people for God.<br />
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*The same way that a physically dead person doesn't respond to physical stimuli, a spiritually dead person won't respond to spiritual stimuli.<br />
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*How much of God's power would be unleashed in the Church if we let Him cleanse the parts of us that we keep from Him?<br />
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*When life is so full that we are scheduled to the max, we leave no time to be a blessing to others.<br />
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*What would the world look like if we acted out an accurate depiction of the Church?<br /><br />*Prayer means being vulnerable in the presence of God; being deeply honest with ourselves & with God -- kind of silly since He already knows; letting down our guard is powerful & intimate.<br />
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*Salvation is not a matter of God's law, but God's love.<br />
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*We don't celebrate enough when Christ sets someone free of sin.<br />
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*We spend so much time climbing the ladder of success only to reach the top & discover it was leaning against the wrong wall.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><u><b>From Jake Murphy, Central Baptist Church Tyler, TX:</b></u></span><br />*During consistent sin struggles:<br />1. pray every day<br />2. get into the Word<br />3. worship<br />If you're doing #1-3 when you fall, you're that much closer to Him when you get back up.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><u><b>From Christine Caine @ a ladies event, July 2015:</b></u></span><br />*Where there is absence of light, darkness prevails.<br />
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*Some of us have rationalized God out of His church.<br />
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*Don't stop trusting God because He didn't do it in your timeframe.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-19476955561238730202016-04-30T18:00:00.001-05:002016-07-07T00:15:51.034-05:00Foundation Comparison & Review: Avon, Maybelline and Younique<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This morning I was feeling ambitious and decided to do a little comparison of 3 varieties of foundation I had on hand. I compared these three.<br />
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First we have Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in classic ivory. It comes in a small glass jar & you apply it with your fingertips. It's a mousse/cream foundation. This is the foundation I've been wearing most recently. I get it at my local CVS for about $7-9 depending on sales. {Note: there is also a Maybelline Dream Smooth compact/sponge version of this product that I actually liked much better for the coverage but it appears to have been discontinued, so I switched to this mousse version last fall.}<br />
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Next we have Younique's Mineral Touch liquid foundation in Organza. This color has been out of stock for months & months, so it's been a long time coming. When it's in stock, it sells out rapidly so you have to know someone who sells to get the heads-up when it'll be available and buy quickly or you'll miss it. Several friends of mine sell Younique and I've seen dozens of videos online that made me want to try it. But more about those videos in a minute. It is $39 (plus shipping, which makes it $48 total.) You must use a foundation brush to apply this. Younique sells one ($32) but I found one that I like at CVS for $15. So the foundation itself is nearly $50 (with shipping) & the brush is around $15 (if you get a drug store version).<br />
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And last we have Avon's Anew Age-Transforming 2-in-1 compact foundation. It's got a wrinkle cream component built into the foundation so that's where the 'Age-Transforming 2 in 1' part comes in. This one is in the Ivory shade. It's in a compact and you apply it with a small sponge. I paid about $8 for this one, but like the Maybelline one, the price varies slightly depending on sales.<br />
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I need to make a couple disclaimers here.<br />
1. I sell Avon, so I clearly went into this with the hopes of proving Avon to be the best product. They have a good reputation. They're affordable. Plus anyone who buys their products earn me money! Local ladies: let me know if you need an Avon lady! Or visit my website: <a href="https://elizabethreeves.avonrepresentative.com/">https://youravon.com/elizabethreeves</a><br />
2. I have tons of friends who sell Younique and I've seen a million videos like these that made me want to try their foundation. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HaVWSJ1fHo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HaVWSJ1fHo</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z4HFUegRzE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z4HFUegRzE</a> I really figured it was a "too good to be true" sort of deal, so I bought it out of a cross between skepticism and curiosity. After all, this girl is getting older every minute and my pores are widening. Younique claims to fix my pores and make me look 21 with their magic foundation.<br />
3. Maybelline/Cover Girl/Loreal & other drug store brands are generally my go-to foundations because they are most readily available and I can look at them in the store to make sure they are the right shade for me without worries about having to return something if it's NOT the right shade. So while I order a lot of Avon products from myself, foundation & powder are items that I typically buy in person for the color matching issue. Plus, I suppose, if I get one that doesn't quite cut it for me, I don't feel bad about tossing a product that I spent under $10 on.<br />
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And a little info about my needs for a foundation:<br />
I am generally a Classic Ivory shade in all foundations. Pretty much a
glowing white girl, but not quite pasty porcelain doll white. I have pink/blue undertones (not yellow). I burn easily, peel and go back to glowing white. I have combination skin. I'm mostly dry but have times when I get oily, so I can't buy a product solely based on whether it's good for dry or oily skin because I kind of need both. I don't have any major wrinkles just yet, but I am beginning to see a few small ones. My pores are pretty big on my nose & across my cheeks near my nose. I have some redness in the same areas that has to be covered. And while I don't typically have trouble with blemishes (thank you genetics!), I still have a wacky mid-life acne crisis now and then with a big honkin' zit that takes 2 weeks to break the surface, then turns into a giant red scab before it completely goes away. At the moment I have one those trying to surface on my chin. You'll see it in the pics below. I need medium to full coverage on a day to day basis to even out my skin tone and cover the redness, pores & occasional zits.<br />
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Now....on with the review & comparisons.<br />
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I started the day with a clean face, but to sure, I used my cleanser and washed it anyway. I re-washed my face in between each type of make-up and took a new clean face pic, so the clean face pics below are not just repeats of the 1st shot. I wanted to be sure to show you that I started fresh each time. I did not apply any primer, moisturizer or anything else before applying the foundations. In normal daily use I would apply my Avon Nurtura cream (moisturizer) first but today I wanted it to be foundation ONLY so I could get a good comparison of the products.<br />
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FIRST<br />
I took a picture of my bare face (eeek!) and then applied the Younique foundation. As per the million videos I've seen I put 5 drops of foundation on my brush, dotted it around my face, then began spreading it around or painting my face as I like to think of it. ha ha! I ended up having to add 2 more drops to get the results below. The coverage is good and while it dries to a powdery finish, I still would use powder over it to set it. This is the side by side comparison of before/after with that one. You can click the pic & blow it up bigger to see the redness and imperfections it covered. I'd say the coverage is medium to full. While I didn't see quite as dramatic a difference as all the videos I've seen online where this foundation is called "Photoshop in a bottle", it did cover well and the color was a good match for me. Application was really fast.<br />
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SECOND<br />
I washed off the Younique foundation and took a new clean face pic and then applied the Avon foundation. Again, you can click the picture to blow it up bigger. I noticed that it took several dips into the compact to get it to the right thickness on my face to cover the zit on my chin but then again, you don't typically only swipe the sponge once when applying cream foundations so no shocker there. However, it bugged me that I had to add more a couple times to get it to the level of coverage I wanted. Once I did, the coverage was about the same as the Younique foundation and the color was good. However, in looking at these pics, it appears a tad lighter in color than the Younique foundation pic above. I think that's just the lighting in my bathroom. Coverage was medium to full, but took several "layers" to get to that point. It took a tad longer to put on than the first one.<br />
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THIRD<br />
I washed off the Avon foundation, took a new picture and applied the Maybelline foundation. It is what I'm most used to so application was fast. You swipe your fingers across the top of the jar, dot it on your cheeks, forehead, chin, nose and then use your fingers to spread it around. The coverage is light to medium with this one. Because of the way it dries (quickly) to a matte finish, adding another layer for better coverage would be difficult, because you'd sort of wipe off the first layer to add more. Recently, I've noticed that by 1-2 PM it appears that all of my make up has disappeared. I don't know if my skin soaks it all in or what but that's why I ordered the Younique and Avon products to compare. This is my side by side pic of the Maybelline foundation.<br />
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So, what's my take on these three products?<br />
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Pros/Cons of each:<br />
I like the Younique foundation for coverage & the fact that it would last forever since you use so little with each use. However I don't like that the Younique product is very expensive. It is WAY more expensive than
anything else in my make up collection and it would be cost prohibitive
for me to buy it regularly. However, since you use so little of it, I feel like the bottle would last about 6 months at least, which helps ease the ouch factor of the cost. Since it is so often out of stock, it might be hard to acquire if I run out & need it right away. Their shipping was very fast, though. I ordered it Monday online & it was in my hands Thursday afternoon.<br />
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I like the Avon foundation because it's the one I sell and let's be honest, I wanted to prove the Younique product to be false/exaggerated advertising. ha ha! I got the same sort of coverage as with the Younique foundation, however, it took a bit more of the product to achieve the same level of coverage. Given the cost, I might be able to afford buying more of it and feel just as happy with the use/coverage. It is affordable and I can get my hands on it fairly quickly since I sell it. (But do I want to buy 2-3 of them to match the cost of the other product for the same sort of results?)<br />
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I like the Maybelline product because it's cheap & so readily available. The coverage is not so great and it absorbs (or disappears?) from my face mid-day. Irritating. But it's cheap and I can get it in my hands within 10 minutes. (I live near a CVS.) If I was 21 and didn't need much coverage, it probably wouldn't bother me as much to use this one, but I think I've probably aged out of the use of this one.<br />
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So what will I put on my face & wear to church tomorrow? Which one will I continue to wear regularly?<br />
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I am torn. It's definitely between the Younique product & the Avon product. Both offer good coverage and benefit someone individually rather than the big chain stores. {I like to buy from an individual when I can if there is a good product I need/want/enjoy.} While the Avon product is MUCH cheaper & benefits ME when I sell it, it does require heavier use to get the same coverage as the Younique product. The cost to coverage ratio is where my dilemma comes in. Since budgetary concerns are an issue for me, I did some math.<br />
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Assuming the Younique product & brush last me 6 months, it costs me about .33 a day to use it. (Of course, the brush may need to be replaced sooner--or might last fast longer than 6 months-- so there might be some variance in price where that's concerned.) And assuming that the Avon product lasts about 2 months (so I'd have to buy 3 to make an equivalent use to the Younique product), it would cost me about .13 a day to use it. But the coverage not being equivalent with just one "layer" of the Avon product I'd have to use more of it to get the same results, thus increasing my overall cost for the Avon product.<br />
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So does it even out in the end cost-wise? Maybe. The Younique foundation is still a little pricier than the Avon product, but I really like the way it covers so I won't have an issue buying it again. {Plus I get to support my girlfriends who sell it. Check out the sweet friend I bought it from this time here: <a href="https://www.youniqueproducts.com/kathyfergueson">https://www.youniqueproducts.com/kathyfergueson</a>} But there are times, like when I travel, that liquid foundation is kind of a pain in the neck so in those instances, I'll carry the Avon product with me instead.<br />
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Are the Avon product & the Younique product equivalent? In some ways, yes. In others, no. I think the Avon compact is a more travel-friendly & convenient product. But the Younique one offers really good coverage with very little product and it takes a minimal amount of time to apply.<br />
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So.... I will continue to buy both products! I'll use the Younique one on a regular daily basis and the Avon one as a touch-up or for travel. But I'm gonna go toss the Maybelline one in the garbage. Or give it to my young beautiful daughters who don't yet need much help in the beautiful skin department!<br />
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Have you tried these same products? Which one did you like best?<br /><br /><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><b>UPDATE July 6, 2016:</b></u></span></span><br />Alright...when I wrote this blog on April 30, I felt a lot of things about the Younique Liquid Touch foundation. You could say I had all the feels as the kids are saying now days. LOL It was new & fresh & different. It covered well & stayed on pretty much all day. I was impressed, even though it was pricey. But I have to update this post for honesty & fairness. If someone were to google & find this blog I feel like it's only fair for them to get the whole story.<br /><br />1. I'm already out of it. Like, I just poured the TEENY amount that is left into this container. There is enough in there for MAYBEEEEE 1-2 more uses. But I couldn't get it out of the bottle anymore because the little dropper thing doesn't reach deep enough down to get the last little bit out.<br />
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Folks, I had high hopes that it would last me upwards of 6 months. I was thinking that, if I only used 4-5 DROPS a day, it would last a longggg time. But here's the kicker. The bottle is only .68 ounces. An average bottle of foundation from the drugstore or Avon or whatever other company you might buy from is usually in the neighborhood of 1-1.3 ounces. So the bottle is teeny. (Actually, the bottle itself isn't teeny, but its contents are less than the average bottle of liquid foundation. It is not full when you buy it.) And after use, I discovered that 4-5 drops is really about all I'd ever use of any other type of liquid foundation, so the marketing tool of proclaiming how little you use is really just that....a good marketing tool.<br /><br />In barely over 2 months, the entire bottle is gone y'all. Which leads me to point #2.<br />
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2. Cost is a huge factor for many of us. When I bought the Younique foundation, I was a little shocked at the initial cost. Between the foundation itself plus shipping plus the cost of the brush I used, I spent about $60. When I was thinking that it would last me 6 months, I had figured the daily cost at 33 cents. However, now that I know it really only lasted a smidge over 2 months, the daily cost sky rockets to 92 cents a day. Ouch. I realize that if I continued to buy it, I would not have to buy a new brush with every new bottle, so that does lessen the overall cost some. But still, it's very pricey. So if budget is an issue for you, you might want to consider another type of make up.<br />
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3. With daily use I discovered a few things about the Younique foundation that I would like to mention.<br />
a) It is not very forgiving of skin texture. If you have rough spots or dry patches, it sort of clings to those. And if you don't have time to apply moisturizer, then a primer, then concealer before use every single day, you may not look the way the foundation looks on you. (Honestly, most days I put on moisturizer & then the foundation. I don't use a primer 95% of the time. I have some, but it's not in my usual routine and I kind of hate it when I'm forced to use 2-3 other products in conjunction with a new product just to make it work. Ya know? I know...wahhhh....whine, whine....but really, I don't want to have to add more products into my routine & onto my face if I don't have to.)<br />
b) It is not quite the photoshop in a bottle that all the videos I saw online claim it to be. I'm not sure WHAT those women did who made it look like it covered sharpie & lipstick & eyeliner and whatever else they put on their faces, but I tried it. I actually drew on my face with a sharpie. The foundation did NOT cover it. In fact, it didn't even fully cover zits & freckles. Now, I don't have to have full coverage...I can own my imperfections. But when it's advertised that way & it didn't do that for me, I was a little disappointed. I was kind of hoping for some super voodoo magic that would make me look 25 again. LOL<br />
c) While the foundation had pretty good staying power in May, once late May/early June hit and the Texas heat was hitting the mid-upper 90s daily, I found that by mid-afternoon, my make up was not looking so great. I kind of despise having to touch up make up, but really this would've been the case with any type of foundation. I just had high hopes that it would last longer in the heat as it had done when it was a little cooler.<br />
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So, my overall impression and feelings about the Younique foundation changed a bit with use. I really did like the product (even if it wasn't quite as magical as I hoped) and would probably continue buying it regularly if it was cheaper. I simply don't have the funds to keep up with a $40+ bottle of foundation on a regular basis. Given how quickly the bottle emptied & the high cost, I can't recommend as highly as I did before. But if cost is no issue for you, then go for it! You'd probably really like the product!<br /><br />As for me, I have a new Avon foundation coming in a shipment tomorrow. I'm making the switch to Extra Long Lasting liquid foundation.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-35237902527320312972016-04-01T22:34:00.002-05:002016-04-01T22:34:40.124-05:00I don't have cancer!<i>I have walked through a breast cancer scare these past couple weeks. All my friends and family already know this story, but I am hoping that, by documenting it here someone else will find it when they are frantically googling like I was a couple weeks ago. My hope is that they'll find a bit of comfort in knowing someone else has "been there, done that" before. If you are that person, feel free to email me privately if you have questions beyond what I answer here. My email address is at the top right of this page.</i><br />
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My husband's mom and grandmother both had breast cancer years ago. When I was about 25, he started asking me to get a mammogram to set his mind at ease. I had to explain that they don't do mammograms on 25 year olds unless there is a problem suspected. So for the past 15 years, he's anxiously awaited a time when I was old enough to get it done. I, on the other hand, was a little less enthusiastic about the test. But I went anyway because I'm a rule follower and you're supposed to start doing these lovely tests when you're 40. I turned 40 back in November. So on March 8, I went in for my first mammogram ever.<br />
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I had been told ahead of time that it's not uncommon for first timers to be called back for additional images. Since the doctor who looks at your mammogram Xrays doesn't have a previous year's records to compare to, they have a tough time determining what's normal for you. So I went in knowing that was a possibility. While doing the test, the tech showed me on the screen where one breast had an area of dense tissue -- a very common thing where you have spots in your tissue that are simply thicker than the rest. It doesn't "mean" anything, but sometimes the radiologist will ask for more magnified pictures of that area to be sure there's nothing hidden in that thicker tissue. The tech told me not to panic if they called for more pictures in a few days. She made sure to tell me that she didn't think there was anything wrong, but she wanted to give me a heads-up so I wouldn't be concerned. But she said "If you get a letter, it's even better!" So in my mind, that meant a phone call in a few days meant there was reason for concern (or more pictures) and a letter meant everything was okay.<br />
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Almost a week passed without any word from them, so I assumed everything was fine. But then I got a letter in the mail. I almost threw it away, thinking that a letter meant everything was normal. I almost threw it away because I felt like it was just going to say things were fine, but I went ahead and opened it. I scanned down the page looking for the words "normal" or "everything is okay" but instead found that there was "reason for further evaluation" of my right breast. It instructed me to call ASAP to schedule a diagnostic mammogram. I immediately called & scheduled it for Good Friday because I was off work that day. It was about a week and a half out, but it was a convenient time. While scheduling, the lady on the phone slipped & mentioned the "suspicious finding" on my chart. It worried me briefly but I convinced myself that's probably just what they call any need for more images. But in the days leading up to the diagnostic appointment, I couldn't help but get nervous that there was something more going on.<br />
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Good Friday came and I went in for the tests. I had been told my husband could be there to hear the news with me, so he sat in the waiting room for 2 1/2 hours while I paraded around the back of the office among other half-dressed women, all wringing our hands and praying nothing was wrong. I had the mammogram first. I was positioned in several odd poses, compressed in all sorts of crazy ways while the tech circled me & adjusted the machine over and over. When she swung a screen around to see where to position the machine, I saw it. On the screen, there was a little red circle around a strange little white rectangle with a bumpy top. It looked like a Lego block inside my breast. I pointed & asked what that was. The tech said "That's why you're here. That's the spot he was concerned about due to the irregular shape, so we're getting some magnified images of that particular spot."<br />
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That's when I knew that it wasn't just dense tissue they were looking at. I had an actual THING in there. A lump. A mass. Some thing was growing inside me when it shouldn't be there at all. The panic set in and I had to work hard to keep from crying and hyperventilating. The tech sat me down in a chair after she was done & said to hang out for a minute. She was going to show the doc my pictures and see if she'd gotten everything he needed. When she returned, I had talked myself off the cliff. She said the doctor felt like he needed to see it under ultrasound as well, so they moved me to that room.<br />
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The ultrasound tech came in, did her measurements of this thing in me and then called in the doctor. He looked at it, did a quick exam and then said to meet him in the room next door after I got dressed so we could discuss it. They called Larry from the waiting room to be there, too. He explained that I have a tumor in my right breast but he believes it's a benign tumor called a Fibroadenoma. Of course he couldn't guarantee that's what it was, but he offered us two options. (1) Wait six months & then look at it again to see if it had changed/grown, etc. or (2) Biopsy it to confirm the diagnosis. Larry and I took about 5 seconds to decide we wanted a biopsy! The idea of leaving it there without knowing for sure what it was for six months put my stomach in knots. No thank you. Let's figure this out! I'm a bit of an information hog, so getting answers and info is vital to me.<br />
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My biopsy was the following Wednesday. Leading up to it I was a nervous wreck. I didn't think I was, but as the test approached, I realized how worried I really was. I just wanted to get it over with & have some answers!<br />
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The procedure itself wasn't so bad, aside from baring myself to yet more people I don't know. By the time it was over, I realized that 6 people had seen or touched me. Eeeeek! For the biopsy, I was laid on a bed and they gave me several shots of lidocaine to numb the area. They used a needle biopsy gun tool to do it. Basically it's a long, thick needle that they feed other needles through. They are attached to the handle with a trigger that sort of shoots them out when they get it positioned right. Those needles have a grabber thing on the end which snip off little pieces of tissue and pull it back out. They also inserted a small metal clip into the tumor so that they could find it later on future mammograms. Or if it turned out to be malignant they could use the marker to measure the tumor and locate it during Xrays. Fortunately, the lidocaine shots numbed the surface, the underlying tissue and the tumor itself so once I got those shots, I was completely numb for the entire thing and watched it all on the ultrasound screen. It was really sort of interesting to watch. When it was over they put steri-strips over the tiny incision (about 1/4" long) and a bigger bandage over that, then taped an icepack on top of it all. Of course, this is all before I got moved to the mammogram room for a "gentle" mammogram to check and make sure the clip they inserted was placed well and had not migrated to a less optimal spot.<br />
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They told me that the samples they took would have to soak in some sort of solution for 24 hours before they were looked at, so I would not hear anything for at least 24 hours. But since it was late in the day on Wednesday, they suspected it would be Friday morning before the doctor called with results. The nurse, the ultrasound tech who assisted during the biopsy and the doctor himself all confirmed my phone number and assured me over & over that he'd call Friday morning.<br />
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On Thursday I was at work (I work at a school) when my phone rang in class. All the teachers knew what was going on, so when I grabbed my phone and ran out of class the teachers who were in the room knew exactly what was going on. I was a couple doors away from the school cafeteria so I went there to be able to sit in a quiet room and hear the doctor and talk. He told me that my biopsy had shown NO cancer cells, that the tumor was indeed benign and was absolutely a fibroadenoma like he'd originally suspected. He told me I didn't have to be looked at again for 12 months and I could just go back to a normal mammogram routine at that time. When I hung up, I cried. Tears of happiness, tears of relief, tears of anxiety releasing from my tense shoulders. I texted my family and a couple close friends, then got up to return to the classroom but I couldn't stop crying. When I reached the classroom door where I had been the teachers in the room were looking out and spotted me and gave me the "WELL????" look. I was crying and wiping tears but I was able to mouth the words "It's not cancer" and give them a thumbs up. They cheered, they yelled, they ran into the hall to hug me and cry with me....which made me laugh & cry some more. The kids in the room were stunned, not sure what was happening at the door way. When they asked what was happening I said "I don't have cancer!" and they were shocked---of course they had no idea there had been an issue before. Some of them stood in shock while others ran over to join the cheering and hugging party. It was a really sweet time!<br />
<br />
It took a few hours for the high to wear off and life to sort of resume some normalcy. 600+ friends on facebook cheered along with me at the "It's NOT cancer!!" post I made. For a few hours, I felt more loved and a little like a rockstar, than I ever have before. When you're wrapped up in that much love and joy, you can't help but feel like the queen of the world.<br />
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24 hours later, I'm still elated to have received such good news. Who knew I would ever be praying for a diagnosis ending in -oma, but in this case a fibroadenoma is the absolutely best case scenario. Unless it grows or starts hurting, I don't have to have it removed or do anything about it. It is literally marked for life (with the little metal clip from the biopsy) so we can always keep an eye on it. It does not increase my chances of having cancer. No one really knows what causes these tumors, but they are 100% benign.<br />
<br />
And so, it's with great happiness I can say I DON'T HAVE CANCER!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-35387626448865283802016-03-12T21:49:00.000-06:002016-03-12T21:49:52.992-06:00Spring Break 2016<div data-contents="true">
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<span data-offset-key="6jl32-0-0"><span data-text="true">Last weekend I made myself an extremely ambitious spring break to-do list. I always do better when I have a list to check off.<br /><br />There were 12 items on the list. There were cleaning items. There were organizing items. There were lying around & resting & reading items. As it turns out, I crossed off 6 items & part of 2 others. Of the things that I <i><b><u>DIDN'T</u></b></i> do:</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="79lb2-0-0"><span data-text="true">1. Bathrooms: organize inside the cabinets. {Who really looks inside those cabinets anyway? I'll deal with the mess this summer when I have more time to clean!}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ekcqo-0-0"><span data-text="true">2. Clean off the kitchen table & sweep under it. {Really, it's never used for food these days...it's a storage unit. Perpetual problem for us!}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ei27f-0-0"><span data-text="true">3. Mopping {I'm going to try to do this one tomorrow, actually.}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="81l4d-0-0"><span data-text="true">4. Finish season 1 of Gilmore Girls {I watched and enjoyed the pilot episode, but haven't made it past that yet.}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4s07b-0-0"><span data-text="true">5. Read all of The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. {I'm about 1/2 done. I've been too busy to read much this week. But I am enjoying it, so it will be finished!}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="72sco-0-0"><span data-text="true">6. Fold & put away all the laundry. {Umm...yeah. Nope. Hasn't happened. But there is plenty of it to do if anyone wants to come do it for me.}</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">BUT I have accomplished some other things. For example:</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">1. Sam got in some behind the wheel driving time for his driver's ed course.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">2. We fed a friend's dogs every day while they traveled. (Blogger says traveled only has 1 L in it, but it looks weird to me like that. Seems like it should have 2 Ls.)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">3. We watched several episodes of Friends.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">4. Sarah slept at a friend's house 5 of the last 8 nights. That means a lot of getting her to or from someone's house.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">5. I had a lunch date with Sam, who ran some errands with me one day.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">6. I had a lunch date with Sarah, who ran errands with me another day.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">7. Sarah and I both got haircuts.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">8. I washed & dried about 10 loads of clothes. (But alas.... #6 from the first list.)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">9. We cleaned both bathrooms. Ya know...from the baseboards up anyway. (Just don't look inside the cabinets.)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">10. Cleaned & re-seasoned 3 cast iron skillets.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">11. Changed all the sheets in the house.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">12. Visited the new Goodwill store in town.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">13. Did the dishes daily.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">14. Handed out several Avon books to new people.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">15. And last but not least, I slept a little later than usual EVERY day. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">I could keep going, but you get the idea. I may not have accomplished all the cleaning & organizing that I'd hoped to, but by golly, I got some stuff done. It might not have included a beach or sunshine. (Heck, I'm in Texas...the land of a thousand floods this week!) But it included a bit of rest, time with my kids and some downtime.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ftgk1-0-0"><span data-text="true">Back to the grind Monday!</span></span></div>
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Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-64106295372973925002016-02-27T17:14:00.000-06:002016-02-27T17:17:17.814-06:00IF:Gathering 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A movement began a few years ago, led by a sweet lady named Jennie Allen in the Austin area. I don't really have the whole history & background on what made them choose the name "IF" but it is basically a smaller version of Women of Faith. It's a Christian women's ministry. While there is an IF:Gathering every year in Austin, the ministry stretches beyond that.<br />
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Local groups around the globe (called IF:Local) meet and watch the live stream version of IF:Gathering. There is also IF:Equip which is a year-round, day to day Bible study you can sign up for via their website. There are also IF:Tables where you have mini IF:Local get togethers with your local church group or ladies in your community where you eat dinner together & use the IF questions provided to you to create a Christ-centered conversation. It's a whole big thing, basically.<br />
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Last year a local church hosted an IF:Local event on the day of the IF:Gathering in Austin. I planned to go but then came down with the flu, so I watched the live stream at home. Fortunately my family wanted to stay far away from me that weekend so they left me alone to listen, pray, worship & digest all the speakers' messages and to sing (quietly, with a croaky voice) in the privacy of my bedroom. So this year when that same local church began talking about hosting another IF:Local event, I quickly bought my ticket. That event was last night & today. I took lots of notes and wanted to share a few tidbits from different speakers throughout the weekend, but decided it was a little too much for a Facebook post. Although I suppose it wouldn't shock any of my FB friends to see a 400-mile long post. Let's just be honest. I talk. A lot. So this blog post was born. If you missed attending the conference or just don't know what IF is like, this are some of the high points that I took away from each of the speakers I heard.<br />
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<b><u>Jo Saxton</u></b><br />
Here is her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/1josaxton/?fref=ts<br />
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If you're looking for someone who can take a world of chaos & bring it into order, look at Jesus.<br />
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He is the redeemer of your life. When you think about the cross, take it personally.<br />
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The word redemption means to buy back what was lost.<br />
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He is the one who restores your purpose.<br />
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<u><b>Jennie Allen</b></u><br />
IF Founder<br />
Here is her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jenniesallen/?fref=ts<br />
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You have to put your dirt out for Jesus to wash you.<br />
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<u><b>Eugene Cho</b></u><br />
Here is his page: https://www.facebook.com/eugenecho/?fref=ts<br />
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The tomb is still empty!<br />
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Are you more in love with talking about & singing about Jesus than actually following and living for Him?<br />
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5 fears in every human being: success, power, $$, popularity, beauty<br />
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There are so many voices seeking to twist & distort the words of God -- you must regularly hear the voice of God (prayer, reading the Bible) to overcome all the other voices.<br />
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The grass might be greener on the other side, but use that revelation as a sign to water the grass you're standing on more!<br />
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<u><b>Shelley Giglio</b></u><br />
Here's her twitter page: https://twitter.com/shelleygiglio<br />
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It's interesting that Mary Magdalene didn't immediately recognize Jesus when she first saw Him after the resurrection. How often does God do something in our lives and we don't even see Him?<br />
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Your words and testimony are powerful because of what you have seen & experienced. People don't seek help, encouragement, friendship in people who are just speaking from words in a book or platitudes.<br />
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<u><b>Jen Hatmaker</b></u><br />
It's probably wrong to say, but she's my favorite. I seriously feel like she & I could be sisters or best friends or separated at birth. I want to go hang out on her porch and just talk. Every day.<br />
Here's her website: http://jenhatmaker.com/<br />
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Love God. Love people. That pretty much sums up the Kingdom of God.<br />
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Love & live so that the world looks at you and have to draw no other conclusion but that you've been changed by God.<br />
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Love people with dignity -- no condescension, no pity, no shame. Love them as friends, not as a project, not a charity case, not a "goal" to reach.<br />
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Power & superiority are fueled by fear.<br />
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If you love people the way you should, the way Jesus loves, you should expect obstacles, tension & trouble. Often FROM OTHER CHRISTIANS. Who will you stand by when you're not afraid?<br />
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Jesus was scandalous from the day He was born. He didn't pander to the popular -- He came to SAVE.<br />
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Jesus is not afraid to recklessly love you. He is not ashamed of you. He doesn't wish He chose someone less messy.<br />
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<u><b>Lauren Chandler</b></u><br />
Here's her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/laurenchandlermusic/?fref=ts<br />
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(looking at the story of the woman at the well) The woman's jar was empty & needed to be filled over and over and over. The jar was fragile and breakable. What is the jar in your life? Leave it at the well with Jesus and accept His living water --- no more jar to heft around.<br />
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<u><b>Bianca Olthoff</b></u><br />
Here's her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BiancaOlthoffSpeaks/?fref=ts<br />
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God is not a genie in a lamp to be rubbed to get what we want.<br />
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Faith consists of believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. (quote from Voltaire)<br />
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<u><b>Angie Smith</b></u><br />
Angie is right up there with Jen. I love her so very much. I feel like I actually KNOW her. But of course I don't. She lives in Tennessee. She's a little farther of a drive but if she has a porch, maybe Jen and I can come hang out on it with her. Here's her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angiesmithministries/?fref=ts<br />
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Her talk was brief, but brave. She spoke about the story of Abraham & Isaac's trip up the mountain when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. One quote stood out: "You may not be sure of the ram, but you can be certain of the Lamb."<br />
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<u><b>David Platt</b></u><br />
His facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/plattdavid/?fref=ts<br />
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1. Recognize the unique place God has put you.<br />
2. Realize what's at stake in the lives around you.<br />
3. Remember the purpose He has given you.<br />
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What will it take for all the unreached people of the world to become totally intolerable to the Church?<br />
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Share the gospel even if it makes you look for feel strange. Love makes you do strange things.<br />
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<u><b>From Jennie Allen's closing:</b></u><br />
People want God. They don't want our hate & condemnation & judgement. Why would they want to come to God unless they've seen a compelling life with Christ in you?<br />
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So there we go. Obviously there was MUCH MUCH more & there was tons of Scripture referenced, but these were my big high point notes that I wrote down. I hope they bless you!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-71424698506647478782016-02-08T17:28:00.001-06:002016-02-08T17:28:36.652-06:00Book Review: Hunger Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I started reading this book a few weeks ago at school. I had a sick child at home today and we were only a couple chapters from the end in class, so while he rested, I finished the book.<br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow;">****Spoiler alert: There will be some details about the book in this review, so if you haven't previously read this book, be aware that you will learn some details of the story if you proceed.***</span><br />
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<u>Disclaimer #1</u>: I am not typically a fan of sci-fi, fantasy or dystopian style books/movies, so my keep that in mind. That means I am not the biggest fan of movies/books like The Princess Bride, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Twilight...and so on. I have friends who have almost
disowned me for this (ha ha), but it's just not my cup of tea. Since discussing this with a few friends recently, I have really been introspective, trying to determine why these styles don't do anything for me and I think I have come to a conclusion about it.<i> {Note: this has nothing to do with the book, but I am explaining so you have an understanding of where I'm coming from.}</i><br />
<i><br /></i>When I was a little girl, there was plenty of pretend play. I dressed up. I played house. I built forts from sheets and blankets. I mothered baby dolls. I built elaborate doll houses from cardboard boxes. I wrote stories. I drew and colored. I took dishes and toys outside for tea parties. I wandered in the woods, floating Barbie dolls on boats (styrofoam meat trays) in the creek. I played school with my sisters. But the thing is, all of that was based on mimicking behaviors I had seen in real life. All of my pretending and imaginative situations of my entire childhood were based in reality. Having taught preschool for five years myself, I realize now that is very common for young children. Many children base their pretend play off things they have seen in the world around them. I had no context for princesses or dragons or fairies or monsters or other things of that nature. I never played pretend with situations I couldn't see replicated in real life. It's just not how I was wired I guess. Or maybe my parents were never interested in stories or movies like that, so I never saw it in their entertainment choices? I don't know but that's how things were when I was little. <br />
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So as an adult, it seems that has rolled over into my entertainment choices. I don't mind fictional books and movies, but if it's so far-fetched that I know it'll never happen in real life, I have a <u><b>VERY HARD TIME</b></u> staying focused on it. The second it goes into something that isn't potentially possible in life, I find my mind wandering, I get drowsy. I have to constantly pinch myself to come back to the story. It's like there is such a disconnect for me that I have to force myself to stick it out. And sometimes I do. Other times I walk away. There is nothing WRONG with these stories, they just don't hold my attention or entertain me. When my family wanted to see the new Star Wars movie on Christmas Day, I went. It wasn't awful, but I would've been just as satisfied sleeping through it. I would never have bothered to see it if it weren't for my family. I hate to use the words "dumb" or "stupid" or "weird" because that sounds so judgmental and I know lots of perfectly wonderful, highly intelligent people who loved the movie. But for me, it was really umm.... dumb, stupid, weird. I left listening to my family cheer and laugh and talk about particular scenes. I left thinking "Eh. Whatever. Now, can we talk about something real?"<br />
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So, with
that in mind, I just could not imagine enjoying anything about the Hunger Games
book. I'm a big reader and have plenty of other books to keep up with,
so it never even crossed my radar to care about this book. If you aren't a fan of those styles either, this book probably won't drastically change your feelings but it's entertaining, and maybe that's what you're looking for. <br />
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<i><u>Disclaimer #2</u>: With disclaimer #1 in mind, I should say however that I DO love musicals and most Christmas movies, which might have some smidgen of reality in them, but they are largely based on fantasy. I also have several cartoons I've watched with my kids over the years that are hugely entertaining to me but clearly they are very far-fetched. Do you know of any high school in the real world where students routinely break into song & the entire school knows all the moves to the dance that happens with the song? (Grease, High School Musical, West Side Story, etc...) Have you really ever seen an elf, Santa, etc? How many talking sponges do you know? I can't reconcile these things, but feel like I need to confess and clear the air and share this truth since I don't tend to like anything else fiction that COULD NEVER HAPPEN. I'm weird. I know. I can't explain it. Sorry. Please love me anyway.</i><br />
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So.... about that Hunger Games book.<i> </i><br />
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This is the first book in a trio. The second book is Catching Fire and the third is titled Mockingjay. I watched the first movie a couple years ago and kind of hated it. I was incredibly underwhelmed, so I had zero desire to read the book version. While I know that the book version is <u>always</u> far better than the movie, I didn't pursue finding a copy and reading it. So when the classroom teacher told the class that we would be reading this book as a group, I put on a happy face and played along for the sake of the kids. I didn't want to give them a reason to turn up their nose at the book or not participate in discussions as we read along. I think one or two of the kids eventually got the picture that it wasn't necessarily my favorite book ever, but for the most part, my lack of enthusiasm didn't cause any issues in class. I would never want to discourage a child from reading anything. But this particular teacher and another english teacher on campus were REALLY anxious to see me read the book and fall in love with it. (Or at least give it a try and make an attempt to enjoy it.)<br />
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(Are you ready, Morgan and Tiffany?)<br />
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I didn't hate it. But I really didn't love it either. I wanted to. It's hard being one of the few people on the continent who really doesn't care for this style of book. But try as I might, I couldn't convince myself to adore it. There were some really great parts. Then there were parts that I thought were completely ridiculous. I guess 'indifferent' would be the best way to describe my feelings. Or maybe confused? I still really don't know how I feel about it. Let me explain the two sides to that coin.<br />
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The book was not entirely different from the movie, but there was way more to the story in the book than viewers saw in the movie. The book begins by explaining that the Hunger Games were established by the government of Panem, a country divided into districts. The games are sort of a punishment to the country, a reminder that the government controls everything after a time of rebellion against the government years earlier. The games are an annual tradition where 2 children (age 12-18) from each district (1 male, 1 female) are trained and then put into an 'arena' where cameras watch them for however long it takes to hunt and kill each other. Citizens of the country are forced to watch as their young ones fight for survival and attempt to be the last remaining participant. Parents literally see the brutal, graphic, bloody deaths of their children. Sounds delightful, huh?<br />
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Hearing the history and background story before the actual games began was engaging. At the time, I felt like those chapters were a little dry and boring, but when the rest of the story began to take on an accelerated pace a few chapters in, I realized that I actually enjoyed much more so the dry & boring parts of the book than any of the rest. {which was completely backward from every student in the classroom!} The main character, Katniss, is a girl in her mid-teens whose father was killed years before in a mining accident. She, her mother and little sister Prim remain. Katniss is a skilled hunter and she spends most of her time in the woods hunting for food to feed the family. Her district is known for extreme poverty. People frequently starve to death there. Hearing about Katniss's family and the place where she lives was relatable. While I've never lived in a place like District 12, I could visualize that being a real place. Poverty is very real today and there have certainly been times when my own family struggled to figure out where we'd get the next meal. Serving the extremely poor has been the core of several mission trips I've been on. Meeting physical needs of children I have worked with over the years is such a part of my soul that all of this part of the book just 'made sense' to me.<br />
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Hearing the stories of her relationship with her friend Gale made sense to me. Gale is a boy who also hunts regularly to feed his family in District 12. Katniss and Gale have a special friendship and they look out for one another. Their friendship feels tender and sweet. So when they both go to the Reaping (the day when participants for the games are chosen), you can really FEEL the pain in Gale's heart when he sees Katniss volunteering to be a participant. {She volunteers so that her very young sister will not have to go.} He is scared he will never see her again.<br />
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Learning of her history with her Hunger Games partner, Peeta, was sweet. Peeta's father is the local baker and there was a time when Katniss's family was on the verge of starvation and Peeta intentionally burned a loaf of bread so that he'd have to throw it out. He knew he could give it to her to help her family survive. Katniss feels like she forever owes Peeta a debt of gratitude for his gift. <br />
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BUT...<br />
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Pretty much from the moment the selection process began (to choose contestants for the games,) the book lost its thunder to me. Everything went from feeling realistic and familiar, full of potential and tugging at the heart to being ridiculously fiction-y. Cartoonish sounding names of characters, items and situations in the book totally distracted me from the story & felt laughable and silly. Characters with names like Effie Trinket, Glimmer; items like trackerjackers, silver discs that lifted the contestants through a glass tube "elevator" into the arena, magic potions; strange situations like images projected onto the night sky for all to see, etc. While the storyline was engaging enough to keep me curious about what would happen next from day to day, it just felt well... silly. It was just so far-fetched. <br />
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From the moment the games begin, each of the tributes must make decisions about life or death survival tactics constantly. They are given the very bare minimum in supplies. They must live with these provisions, unless a sponsor chooses to send them a gift along the way. If they do send something, it arrives on a magical silver parachute that drops from the sky into their exact location. Remember, everything is televised back home so rich people in the Capitol are able to see when they need something & may (or may not) choose to buy it for them. As the games progress, anytime one of the tributes is killed, a cannon shot is fired for all contestants to hear, giving them a way to keep a death count. And in the evening, as it gets dark, some sort of mystical film projector puts an image in the sky of whichever tributes died that day.<br />
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Katniss is an archer who spends her days mostly hunting for food and evading being found by the other tributes. She has a few close calls along the way. I hate to give away too many specific details, though. She is friended by a young girl who reminds her of her little sister, so she feels obligated to protect her. They become allies and she ultimately kills the person who kills the little girl. Katniss's fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta, is injured pretty badly in the story and we find out later it's because he was protecting Katniss because he loves her. In the midst of the games, the government decides that it would be exciting to see Katniss and Peeta pair up, so they announce a change in the rules that will allow for two tributes from the same district to win. Katniss locates Peeta in the woods and they remain together, doctoring each others' wounds and working together for the remainder of the games, ultimately winning together. (But not without a last minute twist in the story that I'll let you find yourself if you choose to read it.)<br />
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There were brief moments in the story while Katniss was participating in the actual games that made me feel connected to her again. When she talked of survival techniques and trapping food, hiding herself in the trees. When she nurtured her young friend as she died, when she cared for her District 12 partner's wounds... all that made sense to me. I have a family of hunters. We all enjoy watching survival shows on television. I'm fond of quite a few close friends who are doctors or nurses, and Katniss's care for Rue and Peeta's health felt maternal to me. Those things make sense and seem real to me.<br />
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But when she got a magical silver parachute delivered to a treetop where she was hiding and it held magical burn cream that transformed her horribly burned hands to baby-pink-new skin by morning, it was a big eye-roller for me. It's like I'd reach a point where I was almost drawn back into enjoying the story and then BAM, another completely outlandish and goofy thing would happen to make me feel like I was reading a Looney Tunes comic book. I sort of expected an anvil to drop from the sky and hit her, followed by a silver parachute bearing some magic potion that would make her pop back up & keep running. Ha ha!<br />
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While most people would never be bugged by these little details, these are the kinds of things that turn me off to this genre of story. It feels corny to me. I mean really.... the day I allow my child to leave & go participate in a "fight to the death" game to entertain my horrific government is the day you'll see me shot in the head for grabbing them & running. They might still be forced into the arena to participate but it would literally be over my dead body. Everything about the story line of the Hunger Games feels so insane to me that I couldn't really focus because I was seeing a steady stream of holes in the craziness of the plot. When a story's concept is so far-fetched from the first page on, I have a hard time enjoying it and not looking at every detail through cynical, critical glasses.<br />
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Don't get me wrong. There were certainly parts of the story that even an realist like me enjoyed. I didn't hate the book. The story just felt well... fiction.... to me. And that's not necessarily a bad thing if that's what you're looking for. <br />
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So can you see my confusion & alternating feelings about the book? ha ha!<br />
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As far as my recommendation (or not?) of the book: If you like this genre of book, I think you'll enjoy it. So grab a copy & get to reading! But for the cynics & realists like me, let's meet in the Biography section of Barnes and Noble. I'll point you toward some of my very favorite ever books!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-47660220315576346082015-12-04T23:02:00.002-06:002015-12-05T15:47:28.393-06:00Mid-life crisis, anyone?People who know me are still giggling. I shocked their socks off a few weeks ago when I posted a picture on Facebook of my new tattoo. Most of them would never peg me as being the owner of inked skin. I guess I just don't look the type. But on November 14, a few days after my 40th birthday, I jumped into my "over the hill" years with my first (and likely only, ever) tattoo. <br />
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If you've never had a tattoo done and you're curious about the process, or if you're interested in possibly having one, this post is for you. I wanted to journal the entire tattoo experience, so come along and join me! <br />
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About 3 or 4 years ago, I started thinking about getting a tattoo. I mentioned it on Facebook and all those same people who were shocked I did it all laughed. They swore that I'd never go through with it. My mom crossed her fingers that I'd change my mind, I think. But once the hoopla died down, they started showering me with info and advice.<br />
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I can't remember exactly where the desire started or what the impetus was, but once I got the tattoo itch, there was no turning back. I started thinking about what sort of design I'd want and where I'd put it on my body. I wanted somewhere that a) didn't hurt TOO much and b) would be a spot that would be covered by clothing 95% of the time, so that I could hide it at work or when I am around someone who might not be entirely comfortable with tattoos. BUT I also wanted it in a place where I COULD show someone the tattoo if I wanted to -- without having to take off clothes or reveal too much skin. AND, if I was going to do it, I wanted it to be meaningful and special -- not just some random image chosen from a wall of designs at some random hole in the wall tattoo shop. That's a hefty burden for one little tattoo. So for the next several years, I put it off, saying that I'd get the tattoo for my 40th birthday.<br />
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I created a Pinterest board of possible tattoo ideas. I looked at tattoo pain charts. (and wondered WHY anyone would put one THERE!!) I researched local tattoo shops. I talked to people who had tattoos and looked at a million tattoo pictures online searching for inspiration. It didn't take long for me to narrow down my search of designs to these three. I knew I wanted this basic design, but with "Larry" in place of "Love".<br />
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I loved the idea of the heart made with the curvy, swirly cursive L. I loved that it was still girlie and dainty looking. And I liked the idea of paying tribute to my 20+ year marriage by putting Larry's name in the heart. The last picture (above) ended up being my final choice inspiration picture.<br />
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Earlier this year, it dawned on me that THIS was the year I'd turn 40. That meant I had to get serious about this if it was really going to happen. I located an email address for the particular shop I planned to use and emailed a pic of the design to them, asking how pricey it would be, how long it would take to do the tattoo, etc. I sat on that information for about six months. In early October I mentioned the tattoo to Larry (for the millionth time) and he surprised me by saying he wanted to get a tattoo as well. I think my reaction was "What??????????" Until that time, he had never seemed overly interested in having one himself, so it was a surprise! Plus, he is not a big fan of pain. At all. So I wondered how he'd handle things. We decided we'd do it together! As the day drew near, it got a little scary & nerve-wracking that this was really happening. But I was also very excited!<br />
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Saturday, November 14 was the big day. When we arrived at the tattoo shop, Larry and I were pleasantly surprised by how clean and nice the building was. It looked more like a doctor's office in the waiting area. When we moved back into the actual tattoo rooms, they were still very sterile looking, but they took on a more edgy look with their decor. My tattoo artist, John, was into pirates and renaissance fairs, so his room was decorated with things of that nature. This is his room, below. Still very clean and tidy, but a little more like what you'd expect from a tattoo shop. But even so, both of our artists were very clean, normal-looking guys. There were no creepy biker gang types hanging around and both of our artists were ex-military guys! Sam had come with us, so he loved getting to talk to them and hearing about their time in the service. (He wants to go into the Army when he graduates from high school.) It felt safe and comfortable and the guys were men who didn't leave us cringing when they spoke to our son.<br />
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John, my tattoo guy, was very attentive, super nice and made the experience ALL ABOUT ME. He took the picture I gave him and created an outline that I got to look at before he ever set up the chair I'd sit in. He drew it on the lighted desk you can see on the right in the picture above, made sure I approved it, shrunk it down to size on a copier, then ran it through a machine that printed it out on transfer paper. That paper was then applied to my cleaned, shaven, bare skin where the tattoo would be done and I had one last chance to confirm it was in the right place, turned the right way, looked like I wanted....or back out if I was going to! LOL! Then it was time to get started!<br />
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John set up the chair in the right position, put sterile paper on the part where I'd sit and lean my head back. The part where my foot/lower leg would be touching got covered in plastic (several layers of it) and then a sterile paper drape covered where my foot actually touched. He also wrapped my foot in sterile paper too so that really only the area I was having done was showing.<br />
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He showed me each piece of equipment and each bottle of ink/cleanser/etc as he opened it -- to prove it was brand new, still sealed, clean and sterile. I was impressed with how much time he spent making sure I knew I was safe. (I never questioned that but it was nice to know it was all "safe" after reading horror stories on the internet.) As he began the tattoo, he explained each step, described what he was doing and made me very comfortable. Well, you know, as comfortable as you can be when someone you don't know is piercing you with needles --- over and over! <br />
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When he began the tattoo, I took a picture, then handed Sam my phone to snap pictures of what he was seeing. This was my view as he worked.<br />
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And Sam's view:<br />
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To the right of where Sam was sitting, you could see into the room where Larry was having his tattoo done:</div>
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He went back and forth between the two rooms snapping pictures and recording videos for us to each see how the other was doing.</div>
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Here, you can see my outline getting done.</div>
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And Larry's.</div>
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As my tattoo progressed:<br />
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Almost done!<br />
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And as Larry's progressed: <br />
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His final product:<br />
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And mine, after we got home that night:<br />
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The next few days, it oozed plasma, a little blood and some ink. According to the tattoo artists & all the internet, that is totally normal. We put A&D ointment on it for the first 3 days. (as prescribed by the artists)<br />
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We were told to switch to a product called Tat Wax after those first few days, which I promptly broke out from use of. The internet (and my tattoo artist) said it was likely due to using too much of the product, but I used it exactly as they suggested & as the product's container said. So I really felt like I was allergic to it. Of course, I also have pretty sensitive skin, so I think the combination of the skin irritation in general (from getting a tattoo) and then the use of products my skin is not accustomed to just threw it into a tailspin. And I got THIS.<br />
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These little red bumps popped up a couple per day. They itched & bugged me. They made the whole area sensitive and tender. One evening the whole tattoo area was inflamed and red, like it was the night I got it done. That scared me a little, but it was short-lived and went away on its own. But the bumps remained. After a couple days, I went to our school nurse and asked her if I should be concerned about a staph infection or some other sort of tattoo-related horror story that would mean I should go to the doctor for heavy duty antibiotics. She said she believed it was just skin irritation & allergic reactions to the products I was using. She suggested I put Hydrocortisone cream on the bumps themselves (not ON the tattoo) to dry them up. I did that and began taking Benadryl at night as well. (And a non-drowsy antihistamine during the day.) I quit using the Tat Wax altogether to see if it would help get rid of the bumps and began alternating between Vitamin E oil and coconut oil instead.<br />
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And now, about 2 weeks after the rash began, it's just about all dried up and my healing tattoo is getting back on track with what everyone else experiences in the first week or two after the tattoo is done.<br />
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It's peeling like crazy and looks pretty kind of scaly. According to the 673 pictures I've found online of healing tattoos, it's pretty standard. But now I have to get the skin better moisturized so that it can finish healing. This is what it looked like tonight, just before I began typing this post. Don't laugh at the stubble. I can't shave on the tattoo for 8 weeks, so the closely surrounding area & on the tattoo itself are beginning to look a little Big Foot-ish. <br />
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Now that I am just about 3 weeks post-tattoo, my feelings about the whole experience are as follows.<br />
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1. I would do it all over again. (Although at least for now, I don't have any particular plans to get a 2nd tattoo. But then again, 10 years ago I didn't plan to get this one, so you never know!)<br />
2. I love my tattoo. I love what it stands for. I love that it is a physical, visual reminder of my permanent, forever commitment to my husband.<br />
3. Did I mention that I would do it all over again? Seriously, it's been a great experience. Even with the skin irritation! <br />
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If you think you might want a tattoo, do your research, spend some time figuring out what you want/where you want to put it. Find a reputable place to get it done and perhaps even visit the shop to check out the environment and artists. If you feel creeped out, find a different place to go. These days, there are plenty of them.<br />
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To young people considering a tattoo, my advice is to wait until you're married. And preferably over 30. By then you will have a decent head on your shoulders (I hope) and you can make a reasonable decision. You're less likely to get a funny Gummi Bear tattoo on your butt or a rose growing out of a skull on your forehead. And since your body becomes 'shared property' with your spouse, make sure it's something they are comfortable with as well. After all, they'll be the one walking next to you on the street if someone stops to stare at your super cool inked arm. While it is certainly more commonplace these days, there is still plenty of judgement and uncomfortable feelings by many where tattoos are concerned. So if your having a tattoo makes them uncomfortable, you need to deal with that prior to sitting down in a tattoo artist's chair.<br />
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If you have any questions about the tattoo experience, feel free to email me! (See the top right of this page where my email address is posted.)<br />
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In a few weeks when the tattoo is completely done healing, I'll post an updated picture below.<br />
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UPDATE: Someone pointed out to me that I didn't cover the ever popular question "Does it hurt to get a tattoo?" so here goes.<br />
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YES it hurts. But everyone's pain tolerance is different. What feels excruciating to me might just be a minor irritation to someone else, and some parts of the body are more painful than others. So here's what I have told everyone and the way Larry has described his experience.<br />
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When the tattoo first began, I recognized that it was an strange sort of feeling. Not particularly HORRIBLE but sort of like "Hmm....it would be nice if you'd stop that." It felt sort of like a scratch--but a thorn or a cat scratch. Not the worst thing ever, but tolerable. Definitely something I could put up with if I knew it wouldn't last forever. But occasionally he'd hit a spot about an inch or so long that really HURT. Like a "Why are you using a hot scalpel & cutting into my leg?" sort of hurt. But then just as soon as I felt that way & tensed up, it would be over. Larry's artist explained that there are little bundles of nerves here and there and when you hit those, it's like every pain sensor in the body goes off & it just hurts. But most of the tattoo was not like that. I noticed I had more of those sorts of spots on one side of the tattoo. My artist said "Most people say that one side has more of a bite to it than the other." Also, on my tattoo, when the artist went from doing the outline to filling in the solid black parts, it hurt less. I'm not sure if my leg just sort of went numb because the needle is truly piercing over and over, 1 millimeter at a time or if it was just an entirely different sensation and that didn't hurt as much to me. Whatever the case, Larry and I had a similar response to the pain level on both of our tattoos. However, Larry's took much longer to do than mine.<br />
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And that leads to a 2nd question that people have asked me a lot, so I'll answer that here as well.<br />
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How long does it take?<br />WELL.... my tattoo is about the size of the palm of my hand. So maybe 3"x3". From the moment I walked into the front doors of the shop until I stood up out of the chair and was completely done was approximately an hour and ten minutes. I think. Some of that was signing papers, paying, getting the tattoo drawn on the light board, making sure it looked right, setting up the chair & equipment, talking.... so really it was only about 40 minutes of actual needle work. Larry's tattoo, however, is quite a bit larger and has a lot of filled in black space, so his took quite a bit longer to do. I'd say his is about 5"x4". Perhaps slightly larger. He was in the chair being worked on for nearly three and a half hours.<br />
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So, keep your pain level and size of the tattoo in mind when you plan yours!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-8556040689968559192015-10-07T19:21:00.001-05:002015-10-07T19:34:29.683-05:00A whole new world<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kl4hJ4j48s" width="420"></iframe> <br />
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Alright. So this post is not about a Disney movie, but the song certainly fits. <br />
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After years of recognizing that he has hearing issues, Larry finally admitted to his doctor at his last check up that he thought maybe he needed a hearing test. As a little boy, he had lots of ear infections and there was some damage done to his hearing. Over the years, it's been clear that he has some problems, but he's accommodated for it by turning his head to the "good side" or positioning himself on the right side of persons he's talking to. But it's gotten gradually worse in the last few years. In his job, he spends about 80% of his days interviewing people, talking on the phone, needing to hear people....so he knew it was time to look into it.<br />
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Yesterday, he went to the ENT who did Sam's ear surgeries when he was little and had a hearing test. We teased that he'd go into the same little pediatric hearing test booth & get to watch the robotic monkey that squeals & claps its cymbals together when you prove that you've heard a sound for the audiologist. I think his test was a little more mature in nature, but wouldn't it be fun if they did that for adults, too?<br />
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When he left the appointment, he called me and stated that the doctor said he needs hearing aids. Plural. Both ears. Today I went with him for the appointment where they fitted him for the aids. (Can I just call them aids? Is that politically correct? I guess it's my husband so I can call them whatever I want! It's a lot to type out if I have to write "hearing aids" every time. Perhaps I'll just call them HA. Or not. It might look like I'm making light of things if I say he's getting his HAs.)<br />
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When we arrived today, we were seated near 3 other couples. All of them were in their 70s. The receptionist who was calling to make appointments (likely for other 70 year olds) was having to speak REALLY loudly into the phone and we had fun giggling about that. It's kind of a scary when you have to deal with something serious like hearing loss, but our warped senses of humor helped us.<br />
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The first office we went to was a man who was sort of an educator about the different types of aids. He explained how the cheaper end ones are mostly for "hermits"---people who are at home the vast majority of the time, have little social interaction, really only need to be able to hear the TV or maybe an occasional phone call. They also work well for people with a very mild hearing loss. Larry's hearing loss and lifestyle, however, don't fit that category. His loss is in the moderate to severe level in his left ear & moderate in his right. The educator explained a lot of things about hearing loss that I never knew. Did you know the brain eventually quits trying to hear certain sounds/pitches if you have a loss that goes untreated for years? So even if you get hearing aids at that point, you'll never be able to hear those pitches/tones. There was a lot of interesting info! Oh, and he mentioned the cost, too. Ouch.<br />
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Then we moved into the next room where he was actually fitted for his aids. It was fun to watch him try on the aids for the first time. The audiologist was talking and his eyes got big and he smiled, saying how surprising it was to hear everyone so clearly. He said it was 100% different right away. He was shocked that things sounded so much better immediately. When she took them out to adjust something he said "Give it back!!" ha ha! He said once they were out, he felt like he went from hearing clearly to having cotton balls shoved in both ears. <br />
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While we were talking to the audiologist, his cell phone vibrated beside him. He jumped & grabbed his phone and said that he'd never heard it vibrate before. He had felt it when he was holding it, but he never heard the buzzing sound before. He stared at his phone for a minute, shocked at the fact that he'd never heard that. I got choked up seeing how surprised he was. I sometimes use the vibration only as my alarm clock with my phone. Just the buzzing sound is enough to wake me up! It blew my mind that he's never heard that sound at all!<br />
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It's so cool to see how much these hearing aids will open up a whole new world for Larry. I'm proud of him for facing this and dealing with it. I've teased him for years about being deaf....and now I have proof that he almost is! He will pick up his hearing aids Friday. He is really excited about it, so am I!Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-30746567989121027932015-10-03T23:39:00.000-05:002015-10-03T23:39:15.491-05:00Dear ex-foster child:I saw you today.<br />
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We talked a bit. It was awkward and a little strained. We both wanted to talk, but words didn't come easily. We talked about the day, about school, about whatever we could. I longed to squeeze your frame and tell you how much it hurt to let you go. But I tried to be the adult and continue the conversation light-heartedly and smile. I hope my eyes told you that I love you.<br />
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I loved you then. I love you now.<br />
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It's been 8 years since you moved out and I guess I'm still not completely healed. I mean, I think I am. But I'm not. My heart still aches. I suppose it always will. I still see you curled in my lap, tears running down your cheeks as we tried to distract ourselves with a Scooby-Doo movie. Neither of us were really watching it, but we needed the background noise. I sniffled & kissed the top of your head a hundred times and whispered "I love you. I love you. I love you." over and over. I wasn't sure if I'd ever see you again and I wanted to make sure you knew. And wouldn't ever forget. It was as if I said it over and over it would somehow soak into your pores and stay locked inside you forever.<br />
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When you and your brother left, I didn't think I'd ever stop hurting. I guess I haven't. It's like a death, really. You don't ever forget. You just learn how to move on with your life. I have. I don't dwell on it all the time. But now and then, it hurts just as fresh as it did then. I know it hurt you far more to move again. Being uprooted, switching schools, learning a new place, making new friends, getting comfortable in a new home.<br />
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It makes me so happy to know that you're nearly grown and you're doing so well. I know it should make me happy that you barely remember us. You were so little when you left. I get it. You've grown so much since then and you're really home now. That's as it should be. They've raised you and done a beautiful job of it. You're healthy, smart, happy. That makes me so richly, abundantly joyful.<br />
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There are still drawings hanging in my kitchen, right where you hung them 8 years ago. I have never had the heart to take them down. Maybe removing the magnets and putting them away means you weren't ever mine, even if for a little while. And I don't want to give you up completely. For a little while, you were my child. One of your pictures made in preschool while you were here still hangs in a frame. I'm proud of who you are and what you've become. Preschool was ages ago and high school is your home now. Hours away from here. With your family and your friends.<br />
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I hope you know that you'll always be a part of my life, even if I'm not in yours. And I hope, as you fall asleep tonight, you can still hear me whispering "I love you. I love you. I love you."Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-83633571668939343112015-09-19T18:29:00.002-05:002015-09-19T18:29:53.135-05:00Some random thoughts and time to catch up!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Once upon a time, I loved blogging. Writing was therapy to me. It still is, but I don't attend my sessions much anymore.<br />
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I wrote this blog and read about 100 others. Literally nearly a hundred. Check the list of blogs on the right side of this page that I read. Maybe it's not 100, but it's a LONG list. But look at that list & see if you notice anything similar. See the date marked under each of those blog names? It tells how long it's been since their last post. Apparently those once avid bloggers have fallen into the same trap I have. Social media. It takes blogging & smashes it into short, much quicker little bites. You get blurbs about their lives there, snapshots of their kids, but not much depth. (Usually anyway.)<br />
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While I love social media & use it EVERY SINGLE DAY I wonder if like so many other things in life these days, we're all living too fast. We need smart phones so we can be connected ALL THE TIME. We take pictures & post them of everything we do. We need drive-thru restaurants to be FAST. We need the microwave because we don't have the patience to cook anything that takes more than 2 minutes. Everything, every day, all day long, has to go fast fast fast fast. In fact, I wonder how many of you opened this post, saw a lot of words & sighed because it would take more than 30 seconds to read. Or how many clicked out of the page altogether & missed reading this?<br />
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So I'm going to make a step toward trying to do better on this myself. I am going to set a reminder in my phone (yeah, I see the irony!) to post here at least once a week. {And yes, I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to set that on my phone, which led to me reading a couple of texts, googling something and checking facebook. Yikes. Have to start right here at home for sure!} So here's the latest on us! <br />
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School resumed about 4 weeks ago. The kids are getting settled into their new classes & routines. I'm getting set in mine. Time for an update on us. I'll start at the top of our family & work down the ranks. </div>
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Larry and I are doing great! Not much changes day to day for Larry since his schedule and routine don't alter with the change of the school year or the start/end of the summer. So for now, he is just plugging along as usual. His job keeps him busy. Today we went on our September date, which is where the picture above was taken. He got to choose a movie and a place to eat for his birthday month, so we went to the local Studio Movie Grill. It's a little pricey, but it's a fun experience.<br />
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My school year began August 17th. After a REALLY FUN week of in-service with an incredible staff at my school, we began our year and it's been a great one so far. Of course there are always bumps along the way when you work with junior high kids, but all in all, it's been great. We are all gearing up for October. Lots of fun things coming up! And October always seems to pass so quickly. When it's over, we'll be knocking on the door of November and December and all the holidays...and before you know it, half the school year is over already. I know...maybe I'm rushing things a bit, but time passes so quickly! I've read a couple of books since school began that were really good and have enjoyed my Saturday mornings to sleep late.<br />
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Savannah began her 2nd year of college in August. She is enjoying her classes and working at a local vet's office. She really is suited to work with kids or animals or things that involve some combination of the two, so this job has been lots of fun for her. She doesn't anticipate a change of heart as far as her major and career goals (which don't include animals) but it's been a fun place for her to work and nurture the pets that come in for care, grooming or boarding. She is an art major, planning to get a degree in animation. She has researched heavily and has narrowed down her vision for the future to 3 particular schools. When she finishes up at the local junior college in the spring of 2016, she will move on to one of the other schools. None of them are close enough for her to continue living at home to attend. I am so grateful to have her home for now, but I'm already grieving her moving away next year. I know it's inevitable and it's what we raise our kids to do---become independent adults that is--- but it's so hard to think of her being far from home. Can I go ahead & ask for prayers for that now? It's gonna be HARD for his mama. She is also collecting movie posters for things that she enjoys the technical
or animation side of. (See picture above.) She's pretty much
determined that she will collect them until her entire wall is covered.
She's doing great so far.<br />
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The week before school started, Sam was at football practice and injured his quadricep. (That's spelled right, isn't it? Blogger is saying it's not, but I could've sworn that's how you spell quadricep.) He had to go to the team trainers daily for a while for treatment and had to sit out of practices and games for 2 weeks. He had just made it back to full gear when he went for practice on the morning of Labor Day and ended up getting a concussion. After a scary first few days of ER and doctor visits and dizziness and headaches, he was looking pretty much back to normal but had to wait it out for two full weeks before he was allowed to do anything at all in sports. He was just released by his doctor yesterday to return to full activities. He is excited about that & ready to get back on the field. Fortunately, being out of the game only meant missing 1 game because this past week was our school's bye week. (Or is it bi-week? Or buy-week? ha ha! Whatever it is, we didn't have a game this week.) Outside of his sports-ing, school is pretty normal for him. He's not a big fan of his geometry or chemistry classes, but otherwise he's doing great. He was able to begin Construction and Welding classes this year, so he's having fun in those. {He plans to go into the Army and then to be a welder professionally, so he's happy as can be in those classes because they really suit him!}<br />
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Sarah has begun high school and is having a ball. She is my socialite, fashionista, chillin-with-her-friends one of the kids. She is in the band, which is massive in size and is really enjoying the friends and football games and texting and all that side of high school. Fortunately, she's also a really good student and a good kid all around. (But don't tell her I used the 1st pic above. She hates it.) She is taking American Sign Language in school so she is often found practicing words (finger spelling or signing them.) She enjoys shopping with me and asks for new jeans or clothes or shoes or something almost weekly. I hope she marries a rich man one day who can keep up with her shopping habit.<br />
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All in all, life is good. Larry's brother in getting married in a couple of weeks, so we're all excited about that. Pumpkin scented candles and harvest-print hand towels are popping up in Walmart, so I'm happy. Tomorrow we are walking down the aisle to officially join the church we've been visiting for the past 5 months. The weather is beginning to cool off ever so slightly, so that means appropriate football game weather is coming soon. See? (Yeah, I know...but it's cooler for us!)</div>
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There are times in life when I look at my little world with such happiness I can hardly contain myself. This is one of those times. I have an amazing God, a wonderful husband, 3 healthy kids, awesome friends, a fantastic job and coworkers, a home with a roof over my head, plenty of food to eat (actually more than plenty!), clothes on my back, a little bit of money in the bank, a car to drive. There is music and laughter and wonder and good conversations and so much else to be thankful for. I can't help but smile. <br />
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Thank you, Jesus, for this rich, satisfying life.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-75778701693938838772015-08-14T23:36:00.002-05:002015-08-14T23:36:46.679-05:00Summer 2015 in ReviewFor years now, I have ended every summer feeling frazzled and irritated, unrested and not ready to give up the break from work & school. I've perpetually over-scheduled myself for years during the summer which means when the summer ends, I don't feel like I've had a summer at all. <br />
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So this year, when summer began I made a specific point to NOT SCHEDULE ANYTHING for the entire summer. I didn't want to plan on any day trips or museum visits or well...anything. I wanted to finally find out what summer looks like when you don't have something written on every single day of the calendar.<br />
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Don't worry. We didn't just sit in the house every day all summer long and never did ANYTHING. We went swimming. And ran errands. And shopped a little. And ate at restaurants. And visited friends. And watched movies. But it was all done spontaneously whenever we felt like doing it. And THAT, my friends, made all the difference in the world! I couldn't do this year-round because I really thrive on having a schedule and a routine with structure. But from now on this is what my summers will look like if I can pull it off!<br />
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The summer of 2015 looked like this for us:<br />
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The kids and I have watched 8 seasons of Friends. (Season 9 is in the mail on its way now. Yes I know it's on Netflix but I prefer to watch it on DVD because I have been collecting the seasons for years & want to be able to go back & re-watch or loan them to friends occasionally.)<br />
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Larry and I took a weekend trip away for our anniversary.<br />
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Sarah spent the night with friends several times and went on a weekend trip with a friend's family.<br />
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Sam has fished more times than I can count and has been to my parents' house to help kill and slaughter hogs several times. {Yes, we're THAT country.}<br />
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I went to Dallas one weekend to see Kari Jobe and Christine Caine. <br />
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I've been to lunch with a couple girlfriends just because we could.<br />
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I did three days of in-service at my school in late July.<br />
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I've slept late and taken naps. (Well, not LATE really, but later than I sleep during the school year.)<br />
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Sam went to athletic training camp 4 days a week for most of June & July, then began 2-a-day football practices last week.<br />
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Sarah started band 2-a-days the first week of August.<br />
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Savannah got a new job at a veterinarian clinic in June and loves it. She has also done lots of sitting: baby, dog and house. She is working on applications for NEXT Fall's college choices.<br />
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Larry filled in for a pastor at a church in his hometown several times.<br />
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I subbed at the preschool where I used to work twice.<br />
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I got a new (to me) mini-van that I love. In fact, I'm going to pick up the license plates for it tomorrow.<br />
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I've read several books.<br />
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It's been a lazy, fabulous, wonderful summer. I will miss the leisure of sleeping later and having a lot of down time, but this summer of fabulousness is drawing to a close. It's been a great one! Until next year.......... Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-30632675306941385742015-08-02T16:04:00.003-05:002015-08-02T16:04:26.520-05:00Stag Leap Country Inn -- Deer Haven cabinLast year for our 20th anniversary, Larry and I went back to our first home: Nacogdoches, TX. That is the small college town in east Texas where we lived when we got married. You can read about that trip <a href="http://liz-ourblessedfamily.blogspot.com/2014/07/early-20th-anniversary-weekend-get-away.html"><span style="color: red;"><u><b>HERE</b></u></span></a>. We try to make an effort to take a short overnight or weekend trip every year for our anniversary, but after twenty years of the same basic trip over & over, we wanted to do something different. {Usually, we go somewhere, stay in a hotel--almost always a Holiday Inn Express, visit 1-2 local sights & then come home.} So this year, I asked around on Facebook to see if anyone could suggest a semi-local place to go that was a little different. After lots of suggestions, I settled on a place that looked really neat. Ironically, it was back in Nacogdoches, but the place we stayed couldn't have been more different than a Holiday Inn Express.<br />
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Friday, we left home about lunchtime and after a short stop for lunch on the way, arrived at Stag Leap in Nacogdoches. It's about five miles out of town. This sweet little sign greets you at the main house driveway.<br />
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The owners met us at the door of the main house to welcome us and gave us directions to our cabin, which was about 2 1/2 miles down the road, totally secluded from the rest of the world. Seriously, friends, my troubles melted away when we turned down this driveway...<br />
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....and pulled up in front of this sweet little cabin.<br />
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This front porch. Oh my soul. That rocking chair was just about my favorite place to be all weekend, right beside my sweet husband who was fond of that swing.<br />
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On the side of the cabin, there was this little patio area with a grill, table and chairs, and a wonderful, deep jacuzzi. Oh the time spent there, staring at the stars, relaxing!</div>
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The front yard area was spacious, tree lined and SO quiet.<br />
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The side and back yards were equally wide-open & peaceful.<br />
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The driveway leading to the property (which was closed by a gate at the end) is wayyyy over there.</div>
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Backyard views:</div>
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And later in the evening, the front yard & front of the cabin:</div>
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The interior did not fail to wow us, either! The owners had come over a few hours prior & turned on the ceiling fans and A/C, which was so very welcome since it was 100+ degrees outside. Everything inside looked just like (or even better!) than what we saw on the website.<br />
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The living room area:<br />
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This little book was by the phone. It included brochures for all sorts of tourist attractions in town, maps to restaurants, schools, churches and just about anything else you could imagine needing during your stay.<br />
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There was a full-sized pull-out Murphy bed in this pretty cabinet. (We didn't use it, but it was neat to see that it was available for guests if they had children with them.)<br />
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The TV came equipped with satellite TV, which was charmingly set to an easy-listening station when we arrived. There was a loveseat, recliner and gas fireplace as well.<br />
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Also in the living room area, there was a chest full of board games.</div>
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And the TV cabinet was full of movies and books to enjoy during your stay.<br />
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The kitchen was awesome! A fridge full of breakfast foods, cabinets full of dishes, towels, utensils, a sweet little dining set. You could almost get away with never leaving the cabin all weekend!<br />
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As you can see in the pic above, the bathroom was right off the main living area. Let's just pretend that the seat to the toilet is down. :)<br />
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The bedroom was also right off the main living area, through a door to the right of the bathroom. (There was also a door that connected the bedroom & bathroom.) The chest at the foot of the bed held more blankets & sheets for the Murphy bed in the living room. The armoire (see picture below) held pillows for the Murphy bed.<br />
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After a hot day out in town both days we were there, we enjoyed quiet evenings in the jacuzzi tub, playing games from the living room chest, swinging/rocking on the porch or just propped up in the living room watching TV and resting.<br />
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And the mornings were easy as there were canned cinnamon rolls ready to make provided in the fridge! (I was reading the comments from previous guests in the cabin's guest book, and then wrote my own, while I enjoyed breakfast Saturday morning.)<br />
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This morning when it came time to pack up the suitcase and head home, we had a hard time saying good-bye to this quiet little retreat. So peaceful, so relaxing, so perfect for a get away! If you are thinking of travelling in east Texas and need a quiet haven, a private, secluded little peace of paradise, I strongly recommend that you take a look at Stag Leap, specifically the Deer Haven cabin where we stayed. (They have several other cabins as well!) You can find more info about them on their website. You can find it here: http://stagleap.com/<br />
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I told the owners I would be writing a blog review of our stay at their cabin when I got home & shared the URL for this blog site in my comment in the guest book. I hope they find it and can share it with future guests! If you came to this post due to that comment in the guest book or through the Stag Leap family, please comment or email me and let me know. (Email address is at the top right of this page.)Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-71509428026029932412015-07-07T12:53:00.001-05:002015-07-07T12:53:28.945-05:00How ProBio5 has helped my IBS<u><b>NOTE 1</b></u>: This post contains the word poop quite a few times. It is necessary for the explanation of the product I am talking about & is handled in a mature, medical sort of fashion. If that makes you squeamish or grosses you out, you may want to skip this post.<br />
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<u><b>NOTE 2</b></u>: I am NOT selling this product. I am not affiliated with Plexus in any way other than being a buyer of their products. This review is simply because I have been very impressed with the way Probio5 has worked for me and I wanted to share my experience. I know a lot of people who deal with tummy issues that it might help as well!<br />
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Those of us who battle tummy troubles often don't want to discuss it because quite honestly, it makes people uncomfortable and therefore makes us feel more so like we have a dread disease. It's embarrassing enough to have to deal with issues that give us gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, etc. without having to talk about it & watch people squirm. So most of us DON'T talk about it. It's weird so we avoid it at all costs. Sometimes, even with our doctors. Tests & procedures relating to intestinal problems are not pleasant so we suffer in silence to avoid it all.<br />
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Or at least that's the case for me! So, here we go: the first time I've talked publicly about a very private, not-so-nice topic. But I'm putting myself on the line in hopes that other people who suffer will eventually find this blog post and get help from their doctors or the right supplements & products. For me, that magic product is ProBio5 from Plexus. It has changed so much for me!<br />
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For most of my adult life, I have battled IBS. I know I had symptoms and issues off an on as a child & into my teen years but it became a bigger problem in my 20s and 30s. From what I've read, that's pretty common among IBS patients. I remember my dad talking about his "nervous stomach" when I was a kid and I guess I just assumed I inherited that from him. IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is the umbrella term that GI doctors give to a wide variety of symptoms that affect sufferers in different ways. Generally, once they rule out big, major, life-threatening stuff, they call the rest of us with GI issues IBS patients. IBS means that your GI tract is very sensitive and will respond to diet and stress in a yucky way. It could mean constipation, gas, bloating, explosive diarrhea, frequent potty trips or a host of other symptoms.<br />
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For me, IBS means that I poop at least 10-12 times a day. (Yes, I'm totally serious about that number.) Some of those times are the very urgent, goosebumps raising on my arms, sweating & running to the potty NOW type of poops. That usually happens if I'm under a lot of stress or have eaten a food that has flared up my gut. But even without these "no-no" foods or major stress, going to the bathroom a million times a day is just part of my life. <br />
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I have a list of foods that I know I CANNOT eat at all because I will be in the bathroom before I finish what's on my plate. Other foods also cause trouble, but not quite as violently. Stress can cause symptoms. Medicines can cause trouble for some people. For me, ANY food/drink with fake sweeteners cause symptoms. In general, IBS makes me go to the potty a LOT & can be triggered by a number of things.<br />
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For most people, pooping happens once in the morning upon waking and maybe once more later in the day. Their poops are typically consistent both in frequency and umm...firmness. For me, pooping is a part of my day all day long, every day. I usually tend toward looser stools, nearly to the point of diarrhea. That isn't such a major issue as long as I'm in a place where there are bathrooms available or I am not involved in an activity (work, church, school, etc) that makes going to the bathroom a million times impossible.<br />
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Here's where the ProBio5 comes in.<br />
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Over the years, I've been told that I should take a probiotic. I have bought over the counter drug store probiotics for a long time. I've tried Phillips Colon Health, Align, Culturelle and many others from health food stores and other places. A month's worth of any of them is around $30. But here's the thing. While taking all of those products, I could never tell if it was actually doing anything or not. There was no change at all in my IBS symptoms. I just felt like I was taking them "because I should." I never knew if they were really doing me any good. I guess you could say I took them out of some sort of obligation rather than because they gave me some great benefit or relief from IBS.<br />
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Last fall, I began using a Plexus product that ended up being a dud for me. I drank their Slim drink for 7 months with almost zero results. After many hundreds of dollars were spent on it, I finally gave it up. (I wrote a whole review about that product as well. You can read it <span style="color: red;"><b><a href="http://liz-ourblessedfamily.blogspot.com/2015/03/product-review-plexus-slim-drink.html">**HERE**</a></b></span>.) Even though the drink didn't work out for me, I began trying their probiotic in January of this year. At the time, I really just did it to help the girl who was selling. I figured I would spend the same as what I was spending at the drugstore to buy the Plexus probiotic & it would help her sales. I figured it would be the same as every other probiotic I've taken. Boy was I surprised.<br />
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The first day I took the ProBio5, I pooped a million times early in the day. I worried that I'd really messed up by starting the product that day because I was due to see my gynecologist that morning. But fortunately Poopageddeon 2015 ended early enough that I could shower & make it to the doctor on time. After that morning, I was a little scared to continue taking it at all. But I decided to give it a few more days and see if I had the same issue every day. Thank goodness I did not. It took about a week of taking ProBio5 for me to start seeing results. But once I did...WOW! On the days when I forgot to take it, I could TOTALLY see a difference.<br />
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I began noticing that I'd wake up in the morning, poop once like a regular person and then I wouldn't have to "go" again until late in the day. And neither one was "explosive" or urgent in nature. Both times I would have a firm, normal sort of poop. It was shocking to see how quickly my GI tract "leveled out" and began functioning like a normal person's! I don't feel like I'm controlled by how many times a day I have to find a bathroom. I don't feel like I must constantly eyeball my food & determine if I will have time to deal with trips to the bathroom or if I should skip eating it altogether. Of course, there are still foods that I try to avoid because I don't
want to risk it. I still know that some foods just really don't jive with my tummy. But in general, my symptoms of IBS are sooooooooooooo
much better!!<br />
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When I miss a dose, or worse, if I miss taking it for a few days in a row, I see all those old IBS issues flaring up & coming right back! No product will ever CURE my IBS, but this one *definitely* has made my life so much easier. ProBio5 has decreased by symptoms dramatically and keeps my GI system working like it should. I am so thankful that I found it!!<br />
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And FYI: if you decide to get it on the company's auto-ship program it's $31/mo. If you're going to spend that much monthly on probiotics, buy one that actually works & does something!! Otherwise you're just throwing money down the toilet. Literally.Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-1680634813171815432015-05-29T21:11:00.000-05:002015-05-29T21:23:37.087-05:00What's Going on in Liz's World?Today was the kids' last day of school, so I wanted to do a quick update on what their lives look like these days.<br />
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SAVANNAH's last day of her first year of college was actually a couple of weeks ago. She is at our local junior college on a full ride academic scholarship. She has done very well this year. She ended the year with a 4.0 GPA. She thought she had her eye set on the school she would transfer to a year from now when she's done with junior college but her sights have changed a bit. She would still love to go to that school (in Ohio) but she's opened her options up a little bit. She is looking into some other schools that offer similar programs but are perhaps a little closer to home or cheaper. Right now, she's got about 5 or 6 schools all over the country with strong animation programs that she's considering. Unfortunately, none of them are in Texas and this mama is already struggling with that separation. Sigh.<br />
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A few days before school got out, she found out that her incredible, flexible, well-paying, wonderful part time doctor's office job is ending on June 5th. She was devastated. {I should note: She was not fired. They just need to hire someone full-time to do her job, so they're laying her off.} Since that time, she's been looking for another part-time job. She can work full-time this summer and would really love doing so, but needs a place that understands she will have to drop back on hours in the fall when school starts back up. But she needs this place to also understand that she will still need enough hours to pay her bills (car, insurance, cell phone.) At this point, she's a week away from unemployment and has not found a new job. She is actually considering living off her savings (she has plenty, really) for the summer and just doing a lot of babysitting to fill in the gaps. Then in the fall, she plans to go back to the work-study office on campus and will try to get a campus job. The joys of adulthood & responsibility!<br />
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SAMUEL finished 9th grade today. This year he was in Pre-AP (honors) English. I think he took the class to prove to himself that he could do it. And while it was hard sometimes, he made it through the year with passing grades! Of course, he decided by this spring that while it was nice, he didn't think he wanted to do that again next year. ha ha! He also did a bit of clawing his way to the finish line with Algebra, but again, finished the year with passing grades, so we'll take it!<br />
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Sam has had a fun year. He played football in the fall, ran track in the spring and then did spring football after track season was over. Last summer, he went to a training camp with the athletics department 4 days a week all summer & he plans to do the same this summer as well. When he was in between sports at school, he stayed after school 2-3 days/week to work out in the weight room. He has LOVED the year. Larry & I, however, can't figure out where this fitness-crazed kid came from. Heaven knows neither of us are gym rats. (But maybe we could take some lessons from him!)<br />
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SARAH finished 8th grade today. Yikes. This fall I'll have my BABY going to high school. Her 8th grade year has been good. She's stretched her wings and made a lot of new friends this year that she is really close to. I'll give her about two weeks of summer relaxing before she starts telling me how bored she is & how much she misses her friends. ha ha! She is definitely my most social kid of the three. She is always asking me about going to a movie or the mall or spending the night with a friend.<br />
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As far as school things go, Sarah was in band the past 3 years so this fall she will begin high school band. I am SO proud of our district's band program. Between the 6th grade beginner band, the (7th & 8th) junior high band and the (9th-12th) HS bands, there are about 700 kids involved in band. And they all LOVE it. I can't wait to see another Reeves kid on the field, marching & playing. Very exciting! And this year, we'll have a JV football game one night (where we'll watch Sam play) and then a Varsity football game on Fri night (where we'll watch Sarah march.) While fall is constant & steady & busy, busy, busy for us, it's a fun season of life & I'm already excited about it!<br />
<br />Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3454081815232016436.post-84286472640768040252015-04-18T16:38:00.001-05:002015-04-18T16:39:39.520-05:00Longing.Blaise Pascal once said "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart
of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by
God, the Creator, made known through Jesus."<br />
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As hokey as it may sound, I am finding that more and more true lately.<br />
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Don't get me wrong. I've always known I need Jesus. I've never given in to the idea that anything else in life -- money, jobs, relationships, etc -- can fill that thirst. At least not intellectually anyway. I can recognize the need for Christ and my deficiency without His presence daily in my mind. I can see how <u>only He</u> can fill the gaps & satisfy my soul. But having been adrift without a steady church home for the last 3/4 of a year, I see it more & more every day. <br />
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Don't be mistaken. I am not saying that finding a church would fill the God-sized hole in my heart. I am not mixing up the two. Church does not equal God. Going to a place where I hang out with people who believe similarly to myself, being taught, singing songs....that is not the same thing as my personal relationship with God. It does not equate to personal study of Scripture or daily prayer or filling my mind with music that uplifts me and points me toward Him.<br />
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But it sure does help.<br />
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Long ago, a wise friend told me "We are not meant to live a Lone Ranger life as Christians." meaning that we are not meant to do things alone. We need community. We need relationships. We need counsel and accountability. While I am totally an introvert, I can't agree more that we DO need Godly people in our lives. We need people who love us and care about us in the good stuff and the hard, yucky parts of life. We need to belong and feel like we're a part of something.<br />
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But lately, I am not feeling like I'm a part of much. I have felt a big, gaping, painful hole where I feel lost and tossed by the wind. And I suppose on some level I've recognized that and have begun filling that part of me with other stuff. With events. With people. With social issues, social media, books, movies, TV shows. I see people living their lives with all this "stuff" crammed into their lives all the time and they seem happy enough. Some are Christians, some are not. But I'm realizing more and more that I simply can't live this way. And it's my own fault that I've packed my heart full of other stuff. This is not who I am. I miss being in Bible study and having talks with friends about faith and how it impacts daily life. I miss ministry and serving. I miss feeling like I am surrounded by family every Sunday while I close my eyes & feel the presence of the Holy Spirit envelop me. I miss worship on such a deep level I can't even put it into words. I am aching for His closeness every day. And while the lack of a church home has certainly impacted all of this, my own depravity and tendency to wander has not helped my case.<br />
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I was listening to Hillsong today on youtube (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcnfT4arZtI&list=PLWvahZRxLnLPV5ECCHvmLuus6Tjmv4Oir">THIS</a> video to be specific) and I was overcome with His presence in my bedroom while I was folding laundry. Click the link...read the lyrics in the video's description. Desperate for you...drench my soul....I hunger and thirst....Like a rushing wind, Jesus breathe within...Like a mighty storm, stir my soul. Oh sweet Jesus, I needed these words today. I need them every day.<br />
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Oh Father, help me to see when I am filling up this God-sized hole with anything else. Help me to seek your face more fervently. Help me to fill my free time with worship and praise and gratitude. Help me focus. Help me search for YOU in every minute. Let my life bring you glory and honor. I love you.<br />
<br />Lizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01606570803094936934noreply@blogger.com0