Feeling Good

Sorry I did not post over the weekend about the cleanse. Not to much to report. Pretty much the same stuff. I eat every hour or 2 depending on my schedule and it is going well. On Saturday I fixed chili and cornbread. I have got to say that the hamburger for the chili smelled so good and I wanted some. But I didn't have any. And I love cornbread. Especially the recipe that I make because it has honey in it and is sweet and dense. I haven't had any. Never touched it. I made it again on Sunday when the kids came over and we had leftover chili for dinner. I even had leftovers and still haven't had any. Normally I can't walk by the stuff with out having any.

Tommorrow I am able to add meat. Only twice a day but that is fine.

I woke up this morning and felt the best that I have since I started the cleanse. I felt good all day long.
I have no cravings for bread......which is a miracle to me.

I'll let you know how meat taste tommorrow.

More about the cleanse

Yesterday was day day 3 of the cleanse. As everyone said after day 3 you should feel better. It is true.Today is day 4 and I feel really good. No headache yesterday and my energy level was up. Hallelujah! Not having any energy was diffacult. Everything took more effort. I just kept telling myself that I was doing this to help myself and everything that I thought was so pressing could wait for just a couple of days. That in it's self was probably good for me.

I did notice yesterday that going every 2 hours eating was a little harder. When the 2 hours had gone I was really hungry. I never new that a salad with a little lemon and balsamic vinegar could taste so good. And the tomatoes wow......they were awesome.
What did I eat yesterday......steel cut oats, blueberries, nectarines, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, bannanas and carrots and cucumbers. I am not using salt and still no sugar just stevia.

Newsbreak.......I made my green tea again this morning. And today it was not so bad. I actually didn't notice the taste again like I have the last couple of days.
You know I started thinking about how I don't remember liking alot of things that I eat immediatly. Don't remember feeling that way about coffee and I do remember that when I was 18 and started smoking I didn't think that it was so great either. I am sure that I continued because I thought it made me cool and then continued because I was addicted to cigarretes.

This morning my energy level is even better. I do love the fact that I don't have the brain fog anymore. Not just the kind I have had since the cleanse. Even before the cleanse I felt foggy in the morning and still tired even when I had just slept.
I might contribute some of this to the fact that I have not been on the run for the last several days like I have for the last month or more it seems.

However projects are inching closer to the point where I need to tackle them now. Small bites are always better than big ones and feeling like your choking.

I had better go...It's time to eat again and I might just have another cup of green tea.

Day 2 of cleanse

Today is day 2 of the cleanse. I woke up this morning and I feel good. Different than I have before I started the cleanse. Different in that I don't feel so bloated. A more feminine way to say it would be that I don't feel so puffy. I can tell that my fingers and feet are also not as puffy. I really haven't had much salt for the last 3 days and I am drinking alot of water which I do anyway so I am sure that is a contributing factor. This morning I had my green tea again. Tried two bags instead of one thougth that might make a difference. And...not so much. Last night at church 3 of us who are doing the cleanse saw each other and asked how it was going. I mentioned that I was not loving the green tea thing and they all looked at me and said in unison "You don't like green tea" well now I can't believe that they all think it is so great. This morning I had made my tea and was letting it brew when one of our boys came over and said "Is that your green tea" I said yes. He leaned over and smelled it and said ughhhh.... it smells like fish. Yup!!! Like mother like son. I am probably not going to be contacted to be a spokesperson for the green tea industry. Ha! Ya think.
Last night at church they were making some coffee in the kitchen and I just left that room. It smelled good. However with all of this carrying on about the tea. I am considering not going back to coffee and letting it be an occasional treat. Still thinking about that one.

Let's talk about yesterday. I had my steelcut oats again yesterday. Once with blueberries and second with a bannana. They are delicious. I do like them and after just two days of eating no sugar I can say that the oatmeal is really delicious. A great nutty warm oaty treat. I actually made a batch and have been eating that for a couple of days and since I am not able to have dairy I make it less chunky with just some extra water. Had it again this morning and it's great.

Yesterday I did deal with the headache. Actually thought I might not have to go through that but alas I was wrong. It hit yesterday afternoon. Hit is a good word to describe what it felt like. My head was throbbing all afternoon and night . I didn't even take my usual ibuprofens since I figured no supplements no ibuprofen either. I was so glad to go to bed last night and hope that it would not be there when I woke up in the morning. And this morning it was gone-yaaaa

I actually was hungry when I woke up this morning to. I am hoping that is a sign that my metabolism is picking up. That is something that I had hoped would come out of this. Still so far not much trouble following the plan. Found myself craving salt last night. Also last night was the first time that I was going to be away from the house for more than 2 hours since I started so I had to plan my eating times better. I ate ate 5:30 P.M. so that meant that at 6:30 it was time to eat again which wouldn't work so I ate at 7:30 (I sing on our church's praise and worship team so I was warming up at 6:30. So when we got done I went to the kitchen and ate what I had brought) I packed a bannana and some carrots. Then ate again when I got home it was at 9:00 but that is the best I could do. Never thought about how long it would take to get home. I had some peas when I got home. I was hungry so they tasted delicious.

A cleanse about day 1

I am doing a 2 week cleanse. Today is actually day 2 but I will talk about day 1. Dr. Tyler Molstre told me about it several weeks ago and I thought about it alot since then. I was intrigued. As the time aproached I started thinking that this could be just what I was looking for. I was out of control with my carbs and sweets. It was nuts. Also, wanted something to give me a big boost in the start to weight loss. I am not going to lie. That was a big pull to the cleanse for me. So Monday night I went to the meeting about the cleanse. We took our weight....(yuk). Not fun and then Dr. Tyler went over the do's and don'ts of the cleanse. I was to start the next morning when I woke up.
One of the things that is not allowed is coffee. I am a morning coffee drinker so I looked at the list and saw that organic green tea is allowed and encouraged since it helps with the cleanse. No sweetner but Stevia or xylitol. So I went over to the store to the health section and purchased my organic green tea and some stevia. I had fresh fruits and vegetables enough to start me out.

Tuesday morning came day 1 of the 2 week cleanse and I had my first cup of organic green tea. If you would have asked me yesterday I would have said that I was not a fan. I mean compared to coffee with creamer and spenda it tasted like fish oil. Uhg.......
But this morning I thought it was alittle better. I mean from fish oil there is no where to go but up. Yesterday I tended to go towards the eating every 2 hours instead of every hour. It is hard to eat every hour. I liked the 2 hours and was suprised that I was not majorly hungry. A portion the size of your fist of veg and fruit is quite a bit especially if you know that you are going to be eating again in an hour or two.
Yesterday my menu consisted of the green beans, watermelon, steel cut oats, bannanas, carrots, tomatoes, apples and more green beans. Our family meal was green beans that I steamed, potatoes and chicken. I had the green beans and an apple.
I don't neccasarily feel deprived.

I was expecting a headache but never really had a full blown headache. I am tired and by last night at 9:00 P.M. I was dragging and fell asleep ont he couch. When I got up this morning I was down 3 lbs according to my scale.

Let's see how today goes.

Love

I just got a phone call from our 5 year old granddaughter saying that she was going to the dentist. She was crying and saying she didn't want to go. I told her a story about me when I was youner and wished that I could go to the dentist to have my teeth fixed and my parents couldn't afford it and how blessed she was that her parents wanted to make sure that she had healthy and pretty teeth.

Now the great part.........she asked me to pray for her. I can't describe the feeling that I had when she asked me. Such a privlidge to pray with her and encourage her in how much she can trust Jesus to be with her and how she can tell him that she is afraid and that he cares that she is afraid. I love that girl and hope I never forget how tender her voice was when she said "Nana, will you pray with me."

Realization

I just noticed that it has been close to a month since my last post. Great timing since it seems that during this last month I have had several great realizations come to me. I will list them and they are not in order of greatest to least. It is mornning and listing these items on order of importance seems like to much work and excercise for my mind at this time.

(I recently made a trip to Nevada, IA to look at a venue for a wedding that I am doing in August and stopped by the Library to see if there were any interesting books on tape to listen to on my journey. I was just in that kind of mood. I saw a reading by Nora Ephron called "I Hate my Neck" A group of short essays on a womens frustration with aging and lessons she had learned along the way. I had heard Nora on a show quite awhile ago about this book and enjoyed her dry sense of humor. So as I am writing this short essay of my own I am hearing her voice saying the words that are being typed on the screen. This will only matter to you if you have ever heard Nora Ephron speak.)

In this last month I have found these thoughts running around in my head.

1. An acreage in the country is alot of work in the summer. People say as did we that we would love to live in the country. I think that like Sara has said that people who say "I always wanted twins" say that because they have never had twins, so do people say that about living in the country. Now I will say right now that I am happy that I live in the country. I would not want at this point in my life to live any where else. When we were looking for property in the country our realtor who did live in the country asked us if we were prepared for the amount of time and work that it took to keep up an acreage. We said yes. We both had grown up in the country but not on a large acreage. It is alot of work. Especially this year with all of the rain. The grass continually grows. You might say "You have boys let them mow" I do but then there is the upkeep on a riding mower and the gas to run the mower. The grass is not real grass but a hay field that is impersonating grass so the seeds get in every flower garden that I have and with all the rain grow like crazy. And have to be cleaned out. Since we no longer have an outdoor dog the deer think that my trees and new shrubs and garden look very appetizing and graze on them while I sleep. I found a recipe for deer repelent that you spray on things and it works but that means that every time it rains or at least once a week you need to redo it. And again with all the rain we have gotten this year, needless to say I have made alot of batches of deer repelent.

2. Just within the last month I can say from the depths of my heart that I would not like to be young again. I wish my body didn't have to age and that I did not have to examine my face every morning looking for another hair that thinks my chin is my eyebrow and look at how my eyebrows are barely there now but I would not like to be young again. I am glad that I have learned the lessons that I learned and can have those experiences to draw on. It is peaceful way to live. Its true-knowledge is power.
Knowledge is gained by one of two ways. We can listen to counsel and do it the way that was suggested. We can reject counsel or never seek counsel and do things that way. Either way involves doing. I wish I would have done more seeking. I could have had less regret and shame to deal with. Because know matter what your age those to love to visit you in the night.

3. I am going to be 50 in January and I can honestly say in my mind and heart that I don't mind it. Just like I can honestly say that I love black and white. I have tried not being so taken with that comination. Tried to be someone else but I am ready now to embrace my likes and dislikes. I like other colors but my favorite color changes like the wind. What I like today probably will be different in two years. But.there is something about black and white. And just plain white. A crisp white bouse with a comfortable pair of jeans. Love it. An all black outfit with gold or silver accesories. Love it.
I love color to but when it comes to feeling confident, on top of my game and comfortable. I love black and white.
I have in the past stayed away from buying more of these colors all though I do have a drawer full of white casual shirts in my dresser at this time. Each a different style and again I like them all.
There is alot to be said for classic styling. I love it.

That is my ranting for now. Really the message should be love where you are at. And right now I enjoy the country. I am at peace with my age and actually enjoy the look at the future. And I will probably buy more white shirts because I like them. You can never have enough bright white shirts.

Weddings

I love weddings. Sunday was the McDaniel wedding. After getting there at 10:00a.m. and not sitting down till 7:00p.m. I still love weddings. The wedding started at 5:30 that afternoon and as the bridal party was walking outside to the wedding I heard it. The sound of the crisp fabric and the skirting rustling as they walked. And instantly I felt the feeling that I get at weddings. The ahhh moment. I looked up and saw all the color. Smelled the air of fresh flowers. Saw the excitment on the face of the bride and said to myself. I love weddings. I especially love being in the background and watching everything come together from start to finish. Oh it is the best feeling ever. To walk away that night while everyone is having fun and enjoying all of your hard work. Wow I love my job. This wedding was very colorful and fun. The wedding did get to be held outside whcih is what the bride really wanted. So it was a great wedding. I will post more about it on a new blog I am making for my website which is being consttucted as we speak. I will post a link when it is done. I am going to try to put up some pictures.

I haven't blogged in a long time. Don't know exactly why. Sometimes the things that I would write about are personal. Things that I am going through at the time and I think about that whole, this will be out there forever saying and think maybe that is not a good idea. And it is true that somethings are best left unsaid.

Last week was a crazy one. But I must say I enjoyed it all. However I am grateful for the peace and quiI can always have that if I choose to live in Gods peace. Have that all the time, but the quiet that is another story.
Last week the boys worked for Debby at her concessions trailer during the State Track Meet at Drake. Every night they came home smelling like fried food. Oh how pleasant. But I did find out if you wash the clothes with some Dawn dishwashing soap it will take the smell out. Ya! for Dawn. How many multi purpose uses does Dawn have. Someone should start a list.

On Thursday when I took them to work I stayed in town and walked at Grays Lake. That was great. So pretty. 2 miles around not bad. Then I came home and cleaned and did laundry. While I was doing my house wife things I realized why it is hard for women to work outside or in my case inside there home on top of everything else they do. It's hard because they don't have a WIFE.

On Friday I did stay in town again and did some fun errands and walked again around Grays Lake. I called Kim and she came and walked with me. That was fun. The time went fast. If I lived in town I would go there and walk alot. This week I am going to town on Thursday to pick up my fresh flowers for a wedding this weekend and I am going to take Brendon so he can roller blade around while I walk.
After walking I went to order the flowers for one of the landscaping jobs I am doing. I saw the other things that came in for one of the other jobs. They looked so pretty. Can't wait to see them all in so I can take the visual in my head out and put in the done job. It will be fun to see if the two match up.

I stayed in town all day because we had a graduation open house to go to that night so after we picked up the boys at Drake we went out to that. It was fun seeing people and being able to visit. It was my cousin Robins son who graduated. Now she has no more kids in school. Any way she and I had a crush on a guy that I went to school with. He was in the same 4-H club that I was in and showed steers like I did also. Rob and I would sit in the barn at the Polk county 4-H fair and snicker like girls do and talk about John. Well I moved out of the area that I grew up in and she moved into it. It's funny. And her kids are friends with Johns kids so he is always at her graduation open houses. Two years ago when her other son graduated Robin reintrouduced John and I (it had been 25 yeas since I had seen him) and told him we had crushes on him. He is really sweet and humble (which also worked in his favor in highschool) and was embarresed and blushed. We arrived at the open house this year after John and his wife had left and Robin told me she was going to have our picture taken with him. LOL. That would have been fun. Silly but still-fun.


The next morning we all went different directions. Larry to Kinzie's soccer game, the boys to Drake one more time and me taking them and finishing pick ups for the wedding. Larry and I did get to have lunch together. It was nice. We ate on the patio at Fridays. I like Fridays. The food is always good there and sitting outside was so nice that day. Perfect. Larry picked up the boys and they are done with that job until June. The NCAA track meet is at Drake and they will once again smell like Fried Tenderloins.

On Sunday we went to church and then after church we changed our clothes and went to lunch with Alex and Mariah at Subway. We visited with them for a while and went to see Narnia "Prince Caspian". Great movie. Even I enjoyed it. Made me want to read the story again and see what they changed. Brendon remembers alot of the book which surprised me since he read it a couple of years ago. As we were talking about it it made me want to read it again. They have to change some things or the movie would be 20 hours long. Those are such great books. There was a line at the end of the movie that Aslan says to Lucy that I thought was so good and wanted to remember and now I can't. Aww.....should have written it down.
When we got home Larry and I went to the church and got some of the hostas that we are removing to put new plants in the spot where they are. Then we had to come home and plant them. We put them around the big oaks that line the tree line behind our house. I have been planting and splitting hosta's to do that for about 3 years. Every year I just add a little more not we are down to the 6th tree. Larry has started transplanting the wild phlox that is in the timber around the base of the trees also. It looks great and he is removing the weeds so that the wild violets can spread. It is his special project.
By the time we were done it was 9:00. Brendon had gotten hungry for chicken alfredo so he fixed it. It was pretty good.

Here are a few things that I am growing in now. To rest in his peace. To only do what I see him doing in every area of my life. To listen closly for the voice of the Holy Spirit by making more times of quiet in my day. I usually have the t.v. going or the radio or a CD or something. But realized with all of that going on it is hard to hear sometime.
Everyday is packed to the limit it seems. Landscape designs to do, weddings to work on. advertising to get ready. outreach things to do(that list is huge). And I wake up thinking about all of the things that need to be accomplished that day. But if I listen closely I will hear the voice of the Lord saying come and see what I have for you today. So I am trying to put my list aside(if you know me you know that is not easy) and go to Him first. What good is this outreach if it goes from being the heart of God for the area that he has planted us in to my to do list to show my ideas and how well I can lead a project. Hmmmm I think that I know why I was supposed to blog today. Who knew that God could use a blog to speak. Good to know and remember. I guess a blog can be like a donkey.

Have a great day listening.