03/18/11: Will You Humor Me?

I have no food to report since I last wrote.

I have a favor to ask anyone who may be reading this blog: Even if you think it's the suckiest, most boring blog you've ever read and have no intention of coming back, or if you read it just once in a while, or if you read it and champion what I'm trying to do, would you please "follow" me? Following the blog doesn't commit you to anything. You won't get the blog delivered to your e-mail address, and you won't get spammed with anything. It would just be nice to have some visual representation of who lands on my page, like birds on my little "wire." I'd be even more tickled if some of you who "followed" me came from other counties. Please, just humor me and let me know you've looking at/read this blog, even just once :-) And now, onto blogging . . .

Ugh. I am such a slob about keeping this commitment to abstain from white sugar and white flour and blog about the results every day in 2011. Just had to remind myself what I committed to do late last year. Sigh. I easily get revved up to do something, and then I find it hard, if not impossible, to follow through. In my defense, I will say that I've had an abnormally difficult time concentrating on my work, so I have felt pressured to catch up, and I've in general been running slow, with difficulty sleeping, putting me behind the 8-ball in almost all areas of my life, at which point the tracking and blogging go right out the window, with the baby and the bath water! God, that was an awkward run-on sentence, wasn't it?

So what was distracting me from my work? My makeup collection. Yes, I have a girly, shallow hobby: I collect cosmetics, mainly eyeshadow. My favorite cosmetics company, Aromaleigh, is liquidating their stock, and there is much swapping going on over at the Aromaleigh Anonymous Facebook page. It's a totally un-Godly pursuit and so much out of proportion that it completely fails to honor God in any way, so I guess it's my sinful little guilty pleasure. And if that's the main sin I carry, I think I'm doing pretty well for a human being. I committed much more heinous sins when I was younger (I may tell you about them, or I may not). I've confessed them, and made appropriate amends, in my Ninth Step, so they don't really haunt me anymore. But I need to remember them so I don't forget that I could easily fall back into them if I don't keep up my close contact with my Higher Power. I have been careful to maintain my God time and Bible reading while I wasn't tracking and blogging, so I feel good about that.

Sending everyone a virtual (((hug)))!

03/10/11: Primacy of "God Time"

Yesterday's food:

03/09/11 Bed at 10:30 pm/up at 10:00 am

God time? No

[P] Salami

[P] Chicken

[V] Brussels sprouts

[V] X

[V] X

[F] Apple

[F] X

[F] X

[St] Brown rice

[St] Sweet potatoes

[D] Skim milk

[D] X

[Sn] SF/GF home-made muffins (x 2)

[Sn] SF/GF home-made muffins (x 2)

[Sn] Nightfood bar

[Nightfood bar] Yes

[W] Four cups (including tea w/ creamer)

Good morning, everyone! It's 11:56 am EST right now, so I'm doing the limbo again with posting, LOL. Hope you all had a good night's sleep. I did, despite having insomnia until 3:00 am this morning. Blech. But I'm getting better at recovering from that instead of falling into a stupor all day. I've eaten most of my breakfast, showered and dressed, had my God time, finished half of my daily physical therapy exercises, and am now posting to the blog. Normally I wouldn't do half of that at all and wouldn't do the other half until about 3:00 or 4:00 pm. A spiritual mentor once told me that I have good bounce-back-ability. 'Bout time I used it, eh?

The same mentor taught me that the longest 18 inches I will ever travel is from the head to the heart. I would add that it's even a bit longer to the gut, where most of my transformation takes place. I was thinking about that this morning as I was reflecting on what I've learned about the Sabbath in the context of the actions I've taken so far with my household to start observing it beginning this Sunday.

As I prepare to give the Sabbath primacy in my week, I've been thinking more about my struggle with giving my God time primacy in my day. I know that when I seek time in God's presence early in the day, my entire day, and my attitude, are better. Yet, I do not do what I know is best for me to do. I get caught up in thinking that spending time with God in the morning will take time away from getting my work done, from being able to do this or that, etc. I forget that ALL things in my life stem from God and the quality of our relationship. Just as I would try to build a friendship with another human being, I must seek time with God, talk with him, and listen for his guidance, even when I don't "feel" like it, for this is the essence of loving oneself as well as another: doing what is best, what is most growthful, even when I don't want to do it.

To have a good day with God, try seeking His Good Orderly Direction in the morning!

03/09/11: Blanca Update -- She's Out!

First, yesterday's food:

03/08/11 Bed at 10:30 pm/up at 8:00 am

God time? Yes

[P] Egg white

[P] Salami

[V] Half raw pepper

[V] Half raw pepper

[V] Stewed zucchini, tomatoes, and black olives

[F] Apple

[F] X

[F] X

[St] Kashi

[St] Rice

[D] Skim milk

[D] Feta cheese

[D] Skim milk

[Sn] Two SF/GF cookies

[Sn] Three SF/GF cookies

[Sn] SF/GF home-made muffins (x 2)

[Sn] SF/GF home-made muffins (x 2)

[Sn] Nightfood bar

[Nightfood bar] Yes

[W] Four cups (including tea w/ creamer [x 2])

I swear I'm gonna slap myself upside the head with a large pepperoni stick if I don't at least start my blog posts in the morning our if not finish them before noon! It's now 11:55 am EST here in Springfield, PA, so I'm squeaking in under the wire.

I had a huge snackfest yesterday for Fat Tuesday, but I still managed to stay away from white flour and sugar, yay! I also had a pretty well balanced and productive day that included a little bit of house tidying (I'm not big on housecleaning), exercising, Bible reading (for our Bible study at church; we're in the book of Romans now), and a decent amount of editing work. Those are the days I like best (remember the ducks post?)

And now to the Blanca update: We cautiously let her out of the kitty condo on Monday. Surprisingly, it didn't take her long to come out, whereupon Buster promptly went in; she followed; and they proceeded to have a boxing match (see photo in upper right of the blog). No growling or hissing was involved, however, so we decided to consider it a weird form of cat greeting.

Blanca spent most of Monday exploring the basement, which does have a lot of cool nooks and crannies for investigating. She spent most of the evening under the rafters. Then she came upstairs, ran right past us in the living room, and went back toward the condo. We figured she wanted to be tucked in, so we let her back in and closed the latched door. Good night, Blahnky!

Yesterday, Blanca spent most of the day on the couch sleeping next to Buster in his kitty cup. She wouldn't let either of us get too close without running away, but I think it showed progress that she didn't stay cooped up too long in the basement, don't you?

Last night she mistakenly got looked in my roommate's bedroom and knocked a lot of stuff over before she got let out. And this morning she was waiting with Buster in the kitchen for breakfast. I think she's going to make a fine house kitty and is coming along splendidly for a young feral cat, don't you?