I weighed in last Friday morning and had lost 1 pound (puts me at the lowest official Weight Watchers weight). I splurged and bought (not the season pass) the 12 week Blue Cross discounted pass ($119 for 12 weeks). I also bought the new "eating out" guide and the new "every food out there" guide.

• It will probably still cost me $10 a pound to lose weight (hopefully I'll get into a groove again but for right now I'm hoping for a pound a week average). The support of the meeting that I go to - sharing highs and lows, recipes, planning, etc. is what I like. I can get (and have and appreciate) accountability - it's the face to face support that I missed the couple of weeks that I didn't go.
• The "Eating Out" guide is great. I bought a make up pouch that will hold all of my weight watchers stuff and the size is good. There are new restaurants, but my favorite coffee shop (Beaners) is still not in there. Also, there are some REALLY high points foods that are not included in some restaurants and if you want to use off of you flex points in one day, you'll have to research for yourself
• The (every food out there) Food List is ok but I think in the long run it will be easier for me to research foods as I go along and put them on index cards to keep handy. Kashi cereal is in there, but no Kashi bars, which is what I eat.
• Official update (resolutions and weight) will be coming up on Saturday.

On the home school front:

The federal government, in its "wisdom" has decided for me that once Amanda turned 18, she had to be enrolled full time in a "government approved" school - that doesn't include home school. She has not officially graduated so the college won't let her go full time. So, for the time being, she's enrolled in the high school in our "attendance area". I'm not happy about it, but she's okay with it (she gets to go to prom). They will take all of her college classes and give her credit for them and part of her homeschooling into consideration, but not all. She will be 1 semester class short (1/2 of a credit) of being "able" to graduate". One option is to let her finish the year at the public school and officially graduate her as a home schooler. Sending her back to school is my least favorite option, but I can't afford to turn my back on the money from my widow's annuity.

On the "products" front:

These are really (REALLY) good. Four sticks equal one point and they are so dark and rich, one stick at a time is plenty!

I've backed way off of blogging, both writing and reading. There are a variety of reasons, some of which are good, others not so good.
I'm having a bit of difficulty settling into this semester's routine - the online class is too easy to put off doing. The fitness class (combined with my diet plan and being determined to break this plateau) is consuming a lot of time. I've walked over 12,000 steps two days in a row (which is time consuming), including 5 or 6 miles worth of Walk Away the Pounds.

After work stuff - doctor's appointment, class work, kid work.

• Amanda is going to have to be enrolled in a public school this semester (or the government cuts off my widow's benefits) so we've been dealing with that. I'm not happy, but that's the way it has to be for right now. There are other options, but not many.
• Doctor stuff - more upcoming. I'm getting to the point where my doctor used the "h" word (hysterectomy). I don't want that and I'm not at the point where having one is better than not having one. But we're doing a bone density test, ultrasound, etc.
• Playing around too much. Tonight I need to get to business and I have a lot of after school running around to do.

On hold for next week - posting the last of "When a Baby Dies" - comparing and contrasting Arminian thinking and Reformed thinking.

I'm weighing in tomorrow morning...I think this will be a good week!

It's been a fairly good week.  (slight change - I'm starting my week on Saturday, not Sunday, so that I have an accurate, full week at my meeting on Saturday mornings - so this is the second day of my week)
I wimped out on doing Weight Watchers on my own - most of it is that I want to be able to use their resources and get their stuff.  It had been 2 weeks since I officially weighed and I lost a 1/2 pound (net) in that time.  Since I bumped up a pound last week, this is a net 1 1/2 pound loss (my scale at home is matched as perfectly as it can get with the weight watchers scale - what I weigh at home is exactly what the weight watchers scale says 10  minutes later)
So far:

• 52383 steps counted on my pedometer this week.  (gives me 125706 for the month/year) - this DOES put me on track for my goal of 2,000,000 steps this year.
• 19.5 miles WATP (37 for the month/year) - this does NOT put me on track for my goal of 500 miles of WATP for the year. I may drop the WATP to 400 and up my steps to 2,500,000 so that I can make my goal (which is still lofty) and include more outdoor walking
• I ate my AP's this week and used about 20 of my Flex points.

The "official" update will be in two weeks (the first Saturday of the month)

This week's goals -

• The "DO's"

• Do log EVERYTHING I eat (even the o points stuff like splenda packets, coffee and diet soda
• Do drink 4 cups of green tea daily (goal this week: 75% of the time)
• Do take ALL of my vitamins (goal this week: 75% of the time)
• Do walk an average of 7,500 steps per day (I'm traveling this weekend so I need to do an average)
• Do drink 6 (8 oz) glasses of water every day

The "DON'T's"

• Don't drink more than 4 diet sodas for the week (sometimes I hit that in a day)
• Don't drink more than 2 cups of coffee per day (that's down some - yes, I am a caffeine junkie)

I've probably already blown the vitamin part...but the rest is good to go!

My weight is still stalled, even though I've been sticking closer to the weight watchers plan than I was when I was losing weight really well...

but...(drumroll)

Today I walked my 100,000th step for the year. (yes, I am rather fanatical about wearing a pedometer)

Tomorrow, I'm going to start going through itunes and picking out some good workout music (because I'm a student at the college, I have full access to all of the fitness areas). Tomorrow I'm going to try the elliptical trainer...

Access.  Nuff said.

Dreamweaver.  Also nuff said.  (this is an online course so maybe I can finish early)
Wellness.  WE 166.  the "independent studies" of health and fitness.  I go in next Monday for the baseline test (put me on an exercise bike and take my pulse) and then go off and do my aerobics thing.  Go back every three weeks for another test and after four of them my grade is based on how much my heart (stamina wise) has improved since the baseline.

Because of my PCOS, my heart rate is high to start with and if they stop the test because it goes higher than my target rate (a given) I'm messed up.  If they don't stop the test until I reach my maximum rate, I'm good to go because it doesn't go that high.

So I have my little chart to keep track of heart rates and minutes and such things.

"The Young Spurgeon" by Peter Jeffery.

This is a good biography, focusing on the early years of Charles H. Spurgeon.  There's a lot of good stuff in here, but it's written in somewhat of a dry language.  If you're a Spurgeon fan, I really suggest you read this book to get an insight on how his early life may have formed his later life.

One of the things that struck me is that he came from a Reformed background, but some of the things that his family did seemed very Arminian.  One example, when Spurgeon was very young, he was staying with his grandfather (a preacher).  He would be in the same room while his grandfather was preparing his sermons and would (pretty much) be threatened with, "if you don't be quiet, I might not do a good job preaching and what if (what if?) I don't do a good job preaching and there are some people who might not be saved - so be quiet".

I wondered how much of Spurgeon's emphasis (although not his theology) was formed as a reaction.

A committed Calvinist, Spurgeon took a lot of heat in the town where he preached.  The pain of the attacks is evident in his writings, and yet he remained committed to that which he believed was right.

One of the things that I look to Spurgeon for - he never, ever lost his sense of wonder that God saved him - the understanding of how amazing is God's grace for his elect.

Another thing that strikes me is how unusual it would be - how unlikely! that a young man would be allowed to preach and even be the pastor of a church at the age of 16.   So few churches would allow a man who had not been through seminary to take the pulpit.  Yet Spurgeon's passion for God, for reaching the lost and hurting, for preaching the Gospel - he belonged in the pulpit.

There is more - I invite you all to read more about this great man of the faith.

We had a very nice family time - we didn't do much (we played Life and Apples to Apples and Phase 10).  We had a wonderful dinner and gave (and opened) the last of our Christmas gifts (yes, it's odd but it works for us).

Yesterday I set off on a little walk (how difficult can it be to walk around the block).  There are no blocks, just twisty-turny streets that go off in odd directions.  I was on the phone while I walked (the weather was turning cold at this point) and when I reached Dundee Street (or Ave) I asked Phil to please google map the home address so I could figure out how to get back...

He said, "uh...you have well over a mile to get back"  So I walked back (the whole walk was over 6,000 steps, or estimate around 3 miles).  I earned the wedding cake cookie.

And the dinner...when my in-laws were alive and still in ministry, they enjoyed this restaurant.  They serve a one-pound pork chop and Judy has the recipe; it's wonderful. (the chops are cut to 2" thick - click on "history" and you can download it)

We expected nasty weather so we left early in the day and the roads were clear and dry - all in all, we were very blessed.

a quick trip to Chicago (complete with absolutely blowing the diet - I'm planning on it)

We're getting together with my husband's sisters - who are very, very good to us.  I cannot tell you all how much I appreciate the love and acceptance that flows from these two women.

This is a repost of a "page" that I'm making into a "post"

I ended up reading it a couple of times, front to back. It would have been easy to simply look for the time period that I needed and stick the book on a shelf - but it's a better book than that.

The book begins:

Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.

Shelly truly does start at the beginning - before the birth of Christ, describing Palestine in that time period, and then covering Christ's ministry on earth.

My class spent a lot of time on the "Holy Roman Empire" and I did learn a lot - both from the class, supported by this book. Especially interesting to me was the time spent on the "Age of the Reformation". Shelley doesn't shy away from writing about both the good points, the bad points or the excesses of all of the "major players".

The list of chapters:

1. The Age of Jesus and the Apostles
2. The Age of Catholic Christianity
3. The Age of the Christian Roman Empire
4. The Christian Middle Ages
5. The Age of the Reformation
6. The Age of Reason and Revival
7. The Age of Progess
8. The Age of Ideologies

From the back of the book:

In this new edition of the classic text, Shelley explores contemporary phenomena such as the Religious Right, mega-churches, and user-friendly worship services as well as some of the leading personalities behind these movements...

"Wherever you are spiritually
whatever you have been through emotionally,
you are already wrapped in the Lord's embrace.
Held close by nail-scarred hands."
~ Liz Curtis Higgs~

There was a time in my life when I felt battered by the world, abused by life. My father-in-law had heart problems, we knew, but was very stable. My mother-in-law had breast cancer, but with chemo and radiation was in remission. I was younger than my husband and we anticipated that in three years he (and I) would retire.

Within the space of a year, my husband was diagnosed with cancer, his father passed away in his sleep, his mother's cancer returned with a vengeance and killed her within two weeks. In the six months that follows that terrible year, my dad had a close call and major open heart surgery and only six weeks after that, my husband's own cancer took him away. All of that between November of 1990 and June of 2001.

And yet it was during that time that I felt more like a wife - a helpmeet - than I ever had before. I was wrapped in the arms of my Savior and my church family. My brother returned to the church after many years. My husband, for the first time, truly embraced God.

And even in that comfort, there was more. It was later that I grew to understand that God is truly in control. All of these things happened for a reason. Art was ready to die and there was a purpose in that. His mother always said that her prayer was that her husband die first, because she didn't really trust anybody else to take care of him. That prayer was answered. My grandmother once said that a parent should not have to watch their adult child die before they do. God granted that to my in-laws.

I said yesterday that I belong to a God who is in control of the universe. There is a purpose in everything He does, everythign that happens. Sometimes we don't or can't see that until long afterward. Sometimes we never see it. But the purpose is there.

What I know is: my savior holds my future, my life. I am held close.