Thankful For Family, Friends and Traditions

We're back home from Thanksgiving vacation at my mom's home in Tennessee. In all, we spent two days on the road and three days at my mom's.

For my eating plan, the two days on the road weren't difficult at all. The three days at mom's, however, were challenging.

I'm on day fourteen of the 21 Day Sugar Detox. During the days at mom's, I stayed on course with the plan approximately 75% of the time. I did indulge in that chocolate pie of my mom's a couple of times, and I wasn't able to examine ingredient lists of some things or know how everything was prepared.

Last night, the last dinner we had there, I took over cooking duty. I made pork chops simmered in pinto beans and tomatoes, and mashed potatoes. I was able to control that meal a little better.

I haven't thought much about this in a while, but it's no wonder I'm usually such a carb junkie. Every single meal in my mom's house contains a large percentage of bread. Breakfast always includes biscuits and some kind of sweat sauce (jam, preserves, gravy, etc.). For dinner, some kind of biscuit or rolls are a staple, as well as something like breaded meat and/or dressing. Lunch, of course is some type of sandwich or leftovers. That's the way I grew up eating. Most of our meals were home-cooked, but we didn't realize how harmful the excessive amount of bread and sugar-loaded sides we consumed was.

While I was there, I was able to abstain from the bread at my meals and stick with the meat and vegetables, but the effort I had to put forth to be intentional with it really opened my eyes to how much processed grains and sugar my family consumes as part of their normal diet. I'm thankful I was knee-deep in the 21 Day Sugar Detox while I was there. Even though I didn't follow it perfectly, it served its purpose of keeping me from coming home miserable.

My mom and her husband own a Christmas tree farm on their property at their home. Our family tradition is for us to travel there for Thanksgiving and help with their opening weekend that week. It's a very active "vacation." Their tree farm has become a destination and family tradition for so many local families. It's heart-warming to be involved in all the positive, festive energy. And the weather was beautiful each day we were there.

It was really nice to be able to spend some time with my sister. She and her family live about a mile from my mom's house, and she's always a huge part of the farm's opening weekend. You may have read in an earlier post that she's battling breast cancer. She's been through 12 weeks of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and is currently receiving another 12 weeks of chemo, which will be followed by radiation. Thankfully, her treatment so far has been successful and hasn't run her down very much. She looks great and has her typical upbeat, always-smiling attitude. We all feel blessed for that and pray for continued success in her fight of this terrible disease.

I was also able to catch up with one of my lifelong friends. Beth and I were friends in high school in Kingsport, TN. She now lives in the Nashville area, and I live in Michigan. We usually meet up while we're both in town for Thanksgiving.

I truly am blessed with close family and friends who love and support each other. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend as well.

Relationships, Kindness and Grace

I took a little bit of a break in my online journaling over the past week or so. The last week of October was a doozie with the inclusion of emotional upheaval that led up to the single most challenging day of the year so far for me and my family. I was able to get in most of my planned workouts and wrote in my personal journal most days, and that helped with my stress level. It's good to be back to a somewhat normal mindset now.

We all have challenging days and weeks. I wrote here about stress, how our bodies are designed to handle it, and how we become stronger because of it. Last Sunday at church, my pastor, David McDonald, talked about the importance of having a strong root system in our relationships. I thank God every day for the strength of mine, because without it, weathering the storms would leave me feeling destroyed instead of stronger.

Another point in Dave's message last Sunday that was timely for me to hear is that kindness and grace play a vitally important role in growing and strengthening your root system. He likened this to a farmer spreading seed on his field. Some will take root and grow - others will not. But every seed has potential, and so every seed counts. The same goes for kindness and grace: every kind deed and act of grace you bestow on another will not reap reward in the form of a better relationship, but some will. Every act of kindness and grace counts.

"Not every seed grows, but every seed counts." ---Dr. David McDonald

I keep a personal journal in which I write almost every day. The first sentence each day is a statement of something I am grateful for. When is the last time you took a few minutes to just reflect on the things you're thankful for?

I Am Thankful For...

1. My children
2. My husband
3. My job, which provides...
4. My income which...
5. Provides my family and myself what we need and much of what we want
6. Football
7. The cool fall weather
8. My dogs
9. My comfortable home
10. My good health
11. My love of fitness
12. The energy my young stepchildren bring to our home
13. The inspiration from my sister's faith and strength
14. My close relationship with my daughter
15. My son's happy, positive attitude
16. The talent and resources of my church and pastors
17. My parents, who are still young and healthy
18. My mother- and father-in-law, who add laughter and fun to our family
19. My sister-in-law for her amazingly loving heart
20. My love of books
21. My love of writing
22. Our freedom to take care of ourselves...
23. Our responsibility to do so
24. My love of learning new things
25. Coffee and chocolate
26. God's grace

It's easy to get tangled up in the weeds of day to day life, sometimes feeling down about difficult times we may be going through.Take a few minutes to list 20 - 30, or hundreds of things you're thankful for. It's guaranteed to help put everything into proper perspective. God doesn't make mistakes.

Words... I love them!

Words are extremely powerful. Thousands of years of history are recorded with words. We share knowledge and ideas with words: written, spoken and sung. 

I mentioned in my September is Self-Improvement Month article that I like to listen to podcasts and read books and magazines to learn about new people and ideas in the subjects I'm interested in. A wealth of great material is available via any type of media we wish to consume it with.

When I'm at the gym, I usually listen to podcasts on Stitcher on my phone. (Yes, I'm a nerd that way - most people listen to music when they work out.) If you haven't found Stitcher yet, you should definitely check it out. You can find podcasts on just about any topic you can dream up - and they're free! I've found some really awesome quality talks given by people who are experts in their fields. Of course, there is also amazing material in the form of books, magazines, blogs, news articles and videos everywhere we turn.

Sometimes you can find great content right around the corner, in places you least expect it. I feel blessed beyond what I know how to express to have some of the most amazing content right in my home town at Westwinds, my church. Westwinds is a non-denominational contemporary church. It takes the entire talented staff to produce the uplifting, positive experience on Sunday mornings, led by pastors David McDonald and John Voelz. 

One of my long-term goals is to read and understand the Bible. David's sermons revolve around teaching us the way the Bible says we should live, delivered in series that last various amounts of weeks. Right now he is teaching us about the book of Mark. He and the staff have provided us with all sorts of material to help us take notes and follow along. David is an extremely skilled speaker, and he's passionate about teaching. During this series about the book of Mark, I look forward to learning what is written about: 

1. Who is Jesus?
2. Why did He come?
3. Why do we need Him?
4. What do we need to know (that He taught)?
5. What are we supposed to do?
6. What are the risks we take in following Jesus?

If you're interested in checking out some of David's sermons yourself, you can find them here: http://westwinds.org/video-archive/. The book of Mark series started on 9/8/13, in case you want to follow along. If you do, please feel free to let David, John and the staff know you're there and engage in the conversation.  

Words... I love them. I get to fill up on Sunday mornings listening to them being spoken and sung, and reading them from the greatest book of all: the Bible. 

I am so thankful for the enormous resources we have right here in my church. I spend a lot of time consuming knowledge from people all over the world. The fact that I have the same or better quality available through people I know and see throughout my week here in my community blows my mind. I just had to share this with you today. I hope you check out some of the links in this article and enjoy.

Breast Cancer Strikes Too Close For Comfort

I haven’t written in a couple of weeks. It’s been a doozie of a month so far.

I took a quick trip to Tennessee to visit three of my favorite women: my daughter, sister and mom. Last month, my sister, Kim, was diagnosed with breast cancer. It came at her out of the blue. She had a mammogram last November which was clear. These cancer cells are aggressive enough to have spread to her lymph nodes and clavicle before she even knew anything was wrong.

Kim is an inspiration for strength and positivity. As soon as she was diagnosed, the doctors moved swiftly to get treatment started, and Kim had to quickly get things in order to be able to take a leave of absence from work. She’s such a trooper. Her attitude is that of taking one day and one thing at a time, doing what needs to be done, and putting the rest in God’s hands. And thank God for the awesome support system of family and friends she has around her.

The treatment strategy is to do four rounds of chemotherapy and then surgery. After surgery I believe they’ll assess next steps. Last week she began her second round of chemotherapy. So far the treatments haven’t made her extremely sick like we feared. She has, however, lost most of her hair, and I had the privilege of going with her to an appointment at a wig shop. Kim looked so natural and beautiful trying on the different styles. The week before I visited, my daughter Shelby (who lives in the same city in TN as Kim) went with Kim to a Look Good Feel Better appointment. They taught her makeup tips and gave her name-brand make up to take with her. That first day I saw her after I arrived in TN, she had her makeup on and was wearing a ball cap. She looked beautiful, full of life, and happy.

Now that someone very dear to me is fighting cancer, I’ve noticed the tremendous amount of support based organizations that pour love onto cancer patients. And the more I read and research (which is my tendency when faced with an unexpected difficult situation), the more I find people who unselfishly step up to provide assistance, knowledge, encouragement and love when needed most.

Diesel, Shelby's dog, playing with the toy I bought her.

The days I spent in TN were wonderfully full of girl-time. I was able to reconnect with the three most important women in my life. I’m sort of a nomad, introvert type of person and admittedly sometimes let my family relationships take a back seat to other things. I vow to be more intentional from now on to keep those relationships active and close.

Clothes from Mom's closet that I brought home. :)

Thankful for My Children, 6/9/13

Someone once asked me, “What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of?” I answered without hesitation, “My children.” I have two, Shelby (19) and Jake (21). They are both the best things I’ve ever done, and with God’s grace, I must have done a few things right.

Today I am thankful for the pride and love I feel for Jake. He is a U.S. Marine, serving in the reserves from a base in Battle Creek. The company he is attached to is in the middle of their yearly two week drill, and today was family day at the base. The families of the Marines were able to visit the base and have a tour and demonstration of some of the training our Marines go through every month.

I can’t even come close to finding words that could do justice to the way I feel about the men and women who serve in our armed forces. Thankfulness is only the tip of the iceberg. The thought of my son being one of them is enough to bring tears to my eyes. I am proud of his service, and I am thankful for the experience he is gaining.

I feel a special connection to his service, because I can relate to the stories he tells and speak the language with him. I was a Marine myself, twenty-some-odd years ago. Many things have changed in our Marine Corps since the years I was in, but the core principles have not. Semper Fidelis!

Thankful for Saturday Things, 6/8/13

Today I am thankful for the sunshine, my comfortable home, the love of the best hubby ever, and getting my hair done. I have a standing date every 6-8 weeks with my hair stylist, Jessica Roberts at Hair 634. Jessica is a treasure and a natural fit for this salon, which is located at Art 634 in Jackson, itself a diamond in the rough.

Art 634 is Jackson's own mini-artsy-A2-ish creative community. This beautiful brick structure houses a truly unique coffee shop, Cuppa, owned by Evan and Koren Farmer. When you visit Cuppa, you're treated to pour-over
coffee - each cup made fresh while you wait - and a cozy, welcoming atmosphere you could easily spend all afternoon in. Surrounding Cuppa are several local artists' shops, Hair 634, a photography studio, a massage therapy salon, and a dance studio upstairs. Tomorrow is Art 634's monthly event, "2nd Sunday", a great time to check out the place.

Today was a day of relaxation, a little bit of house cleaning, reading, getting my hair done.... all great Saturday things.

Thankful For My Body, 6/7/13

Days like today make me thankful for the amazing ability of the human body to heal itself. Wednesday morning I had surgery on my left shoulder to fix some torn tissue and a mis-shappen bone. It was the first time I've ever had any type of surgery; the first time I'd been put under with anesthesia. That was a really weird experience for me - letting someone else have complete control over my body.

The entire procedure and recovery so far have gone exactly like the doctor said it would. After having someone rooting around under my skin, it's crazy to think of how quickly I'm healing. Other than having to deal with my restricted range of motion with my left arm, I'm feeling pretty much back to normal. I expect to see my shoulder getting stronger every day and look forward to the day I can get back in the weight room.

The photo here shows one of my protectors (Harley) helping Scott take care of me while I'm resting.

I Am Thankful, 6/6/13

Today I am thankful for having a day off work to recuperate after shoulder surgery and a wonderful husband to take care of me.