Speaking of our load, we are moving forward in all things and seeing progress. The downstairs apartment for my parents has plumbing and next week will have electricity. The ranch is emptying as people close on houses and take their horses to live with them, but is also filling back up as God brings new boarders in to take their places. It is quite a bit of work to make these transitions but I am trusting God that He is bringing in the right people for us.
With school still going, soccer season in full swing and youth group gearing up for a summer without our college help, it has been a busy season! So naturally we decided this was the time to start really working out again. We have started P90X 3 - the thirty minute version of the original. It is nice to get it done so quickly but for the first time we are trying to do the eating program as well. It is not a diet as we are not cutting anything out (except soda), but trying to make healthier choices with healthier options...we shall see but so far it is going well. We like the food, that is not a problem, the thing I question is time. It requires a lot more planning ahead and I wonder if when things fall apart, as they always do, I will be able to stick with it.
Ironic, isn't it? The one thing that should not slide when life is even more stressful is the one thing that does slide. And then, at the very moment we need more energy, we fuel our bodies with junk and end up with even less energy. Kind of like our spiritual lives - when we get stressed and life explodes, we "do not have the time for devotions or prayer" and then we can't figure out why we are short and angry or using foul language or worried about what others think of us...or any of the other things that show us we are not spending time with our Lord.
If there is one thing God is hammering home to me these days, it is to prioritize correctly - I must do the things that help me do the things that must get done. This is counter-intuitive to me as I think the most important ought to happen first (like fixing the roof of the barn, instead of cooking dinner). Let me see if I can explain this properly. Take working out: though exhausting in the first couple weeks, once I am in shape, it gives me vast amounts of energy for the rest of the day. If I don't do it, I find myself more tired, spending more time on the couch and I am less motivated to do anything. The more I prioritize working out, the more energy I have and the more I get done. Eating right also gives me energy and keeps me from crashing, so I can keep going all day long. Having my quiet time keeps me calm and at peace and even when the storms rage around me, I can step back and look at them through God's eyes; and I can do it quickly as I am well practiced.
These three things help me deal with life and work through everything else that HAS to happen. So to get more done and feel better about it, I must ADD into my schedule time for working out, eating right and having my quiet time. By adding the right things into my life, I lose time yet gain time all at the same time. :-) I add more to get more. Adding God and health INTO my life lets teaching, ranching, youth work, homemaking, mothering, wife-ing, friend-ing and all the other -ing things required of me, flow OUT of me.
SO, though I have been tempted to grab a pizza instead of cook so that I have time to fix the tile that fell off the roof of the barn and almost took out my worker, I don't do it, because I know I will lose more than the half hour of cooking that pizza will buy me when I eat it. I know I will lose the four hours afterward while my body fights back against the ingredients it hates. Instead, I grab a healthy snack, down it, head down to the barn, fix the problem, and come back up to cook a healthy meal.
I am still learning, (wish I was perfect already), and it seems that each day poses new challenges to my priorities. Each day feels like a new battle but really it is just the same old battle - how will I use my time today? Some days I win, some days I lose. I only hope that the days I win steadily increase over time. Praise God for grace! It is just like the Mercy Me song: "Every day I keep wrestling with the voices that keep telling me I'm not right. But that's all right. Cause I hear a voice and it calls me redeemed. When others say I'll never be enough. But greater is He living inside of me than he that is living in the world. There are days that I lose the battle. Grace says that it doesn't matter. Cause the cross already won the war. He's greater. He's greater. I am learning to run freely, understanding just how He sees me and it makes me love Him more and more." Praise God we know who will win the war and that gives us freedom to fight each battle with confidence, even when we fail.
Well, enough of that. That is my lesson right now and seems it has been for a while. Let's see some pictures!
The girls' forts are getting steadily more elaborate..
And Emily is finally starting to attempt writing! Yipee! She is actually very smart but she won't put herself out there because she is a bit of a perfectionist and it really bothers her if it is not right. She may have inherited Daddy's mild temper as well. :-) That sign says, "sister's fort".
Back when it rained, we got some snow. That is all gone now...we have been sooooo hot it is unreal. This drought is genuinely starting to scare me.
We managed to make it to open gym last week.
K introduced Em to the term BFF and gave her a sticker with it printed on there - they are soo cute!
This is our oldest in a nutshell. In her soccer outfit, waiting to leave for a soccer game, nose in book. She is reading all sorts of chapter books. I can no longer keep up.
And yes, the upside of a drought is the colossal amount of sunshine. We started to let them swim back at the beginning of April. Now it is a daily occurrence. They spend an hour or two oscillating between the water and the sun. Mom has been in once, after a workout. It is genuinely cold but for whatever reason, it does not bother them.
I have started working with K on the computer. Crazy that my six year old needs to know how to type, but this is the way we are headed. She wrote a persuasive letter to her Dad as to why she should have a black lab puppy. Dad wrote her a persuasive letter back and she agreed to wait as his letter was a bit more persuasive. :-)
Well, that is more than enough for now. Have a wonderful day and God bless!! Lots of pics of cars and rodeos coming soon!
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