July 2013 was my first post about the weight loss program, Trim Healthy Mama. My intention was to read for a couple weeks and then begin implementing to new eating style in August. I did try out some of the recipes, mainly the drinks GGMS and Shrinker, but never really committed to the plan. I continued reading daily on the Facebook page which has a wealth of information not to mention a plethora of women that are great about answering questions and encouraging even the smallest victories.
The months ticked by and I found myself in December with my mom visiting for Christmas and beyond. Because we live a long way from my family no one had seen me and my "all-time high" weight and I was a little uncomfortable about how much weight I had gained but I knew if anyone would look past my appearance it would be my mom, she has always been the most encouraging and non-critical person in my life. Not long after she arrived I started telling her about THM and showed her my book. She was very interested in trying it and asked several times when we would start it. New Years day was the perfect time to start the plan and there was a THM 6 wk. challenge beginning that day so I joined it, I think that there is one week left in the challenge, I can't believe how fast it's gone!
My mom has been a huge help starting this diet. Every day she has helped prep for meals, cooked meals and bounced around ideas of what to have for each meal. I don't know if I would have had the motivation to start if it wasn't for her encouragement.
The first week of the plan I was still drinking diet soda but for the rest of the month I've been able to stop drinking it. I really don't crave it, I think the GGMS helps feel like I have something to drink that I enjoy and I know it's much better for me than soda. It consists of apple cider vinegar, fresh ginger, lemon and Truvia for sweetener. Most of my family thinks it's horrible but I really like it.
Another interesting thing is that the week I started THM I started my monthly cycle 2 days early which is unusual for me. Now this month my cycle is 3 days late as of today so I'm interested in seeing if it continues to be unpredictable or if it will settle into a pattern. There is a lot of information about how being overweight affects a woman's hormones, fertility and how losing weight releases hormones into your system and causes some changes to your cycle. Often women who are having fertility problems and are over weight are told to lose weight ASAP. I've read stories from women on the Facebook page that say their cycle started back up after being non-existent for years. Amazing stuff!
So, what physical changes have my mom and I experienced this month?
First, my mom. The first week of the diet she dropped weight like crazy! We were shocked how much weight she was losing! 10 days in she had lost 6 pounds! She has been on Weight Watchers most of her adult life and she was on Ideal Protein before I was and she didn't lose weight this quickly with either of those programs. After the first week or so she started going up and down some and has pretty much done that through out the month. We aren't sure why because she and I have eaten almost the exact same foods all month. I have a couple theories as to what it could be. 1. I think she has gluten issues. I have read that going off gluten will give you a large initial lose but will then balance out from there. 2. She has other health issues that could be affecting her weight including some of the medication she takes. 3. She doesn't drink enough water because of problems she has when she drinks a lot of water. At 75 yrs. old losing 6 pounds in a month is still a great accomplishment, she only needs to lose 20-30 pounds at the most. Plus, she has lost a total of 5 inches from just her waist and hips! Those are the only measurements she's taken so I'm sure it would have been more if she would have taken all of them.
As for me, I've lost about 12 pounds, I haven't been good about measuring so I don't know how many inches but I can tell in my clothes and how my stomach feels that I have lost inches. If I can average 10 pounds a month by my birthday in June I will weigh less than I have in... a long time, maybe high school. That would be the best gift I could give to myself let alone my family!
My plan is to add exercise this month, T-Tap alternating with kettle bells.
That's all for now, hopefully I'll update again March 1st!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Keratoconus Part 3
A year has come and gone since Todd had his first eye surgery. I wish I had good news to report but for the most part, that is not the case.
There is so much about Todd's eyes that I want to communicate that I'm not sure what is the most effective way to do that. My hope is that if someone is researching Keratoconus they might come across these posts and will help them in some of the decision making they might be faced with. If this happens to be you, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or suggestions concerning this condition.
On May 22nd Todd had cataract surgery on his left eye. The goal has been to get the vision in his left eye as good as possible before starting on the right eye surgeries. The left eye was the worst eye so that's how that decision was made.
Immediately after the surgery he could tell there was improvement in clarity and color. This was very encouraging since he noticed no change after the Intacts surgery. Once again, he wasn't able to wear a contact lens on that eye for 3 weeks. Dr. Falknor was willing to let Todd wear a lens on it sooner but by the time he got in to the ophthalmologist and they ordered his new lens it was about 3 weeks any way.
Now that he's had 2 surgeries on his left eye his depth perception is worse so judging the distance of an object while driving is very difficult. We are looking into ways to use public transportation to get him to and from work but because of where we live and where he works it doesn't seem to be an option. Last week I was making phone calls to see what was available and the best option would take him more than 2 hrs. to get to work. Right now he works 4 10 hour days so that would make it a 14+ hour day! He might as well just live down there!
One of the additional frustrations is his job. His manager has been less than understanding about Todd's vision. I think that because Todd doesn't wear glasses (they don't correct the shape of the cornea and that's the only thing that affects his vision) people can't imagine that he has such severe vision problems. I know that before I met Todd I would have thought that!
This has really been a difficult journey, Todd doesn't complain but occasionally he'll compare his vision to something (i.e. looking through shower glass) or like the other night when we went to watch our 13 yr. old son in his first football game he mentioned how hard it was to try to watch something like that and that it really take the joy out of the event. The other day when I got on the computer he had been researching "Careers the Blind", that's when I know he is really questioning what the late term results of his vision problems will be. We know it is all in God's hands.
There is so much about Todd's eyes that I want to communicate that I'm not sure what is the most effective way to do that. My hope is that if someone is researching Keratoconus they might come across these posts and will help them in some of the decision making they might be faced with. If this happens to be you, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or suggestions concerning this condition.
On May 22nd Todd had cataract surgery on his left eye. The goal has been to get the vision in his left eye as good as possible before starting on the right eye surgeries. The left eye was the worst eye so that's how that decision was made.
Immediately after the surgery he could tell there was improvement in clarity and color. This was very encouraging since he noticed no change after the Intacts surgery. Once again, he wasn't able to wear a contact lens on that eye for 3 weeks. Dr. Falknor was willing to let Todd wear a lens on it sooner but by the time he got in to the ophthalmologist and they ordered his new lens it was about 3 weeks any way.
Now that he's had 2 surgeries on his left eye his depth perception is worse so judging the distance of an object while driving is very difficult. We are looking into ways to use public transportation to get him to and from work but because of where we live and where he works it doesn't seem to be an option. Last week I was making phone calls to see what was available and the best option would take him more than 2 hrs. to get to work. Right now he works 4 10 hour days so that would make it a 14+ hour day! He might as well just live down there!
One of the additional frustrations is his job. His manager has been less than understanding about Todd's vision. I think that because Todd doesn't wear glasses (they don't correct the shape of the cornea and that's the only thing that affects his vision) people can't imagine that he has such severe vision problems. I know that before I met Todd I would have thought that!
This has really been a difficult journey, Todd doesn't complain but occasionally he'll compare his vision to something (i.e. looking through shower glass) or like the other night when we went to watch our 13 yr. old son in his first football game he mentioned how hard it was to try to watch something like that and that it really take the joy out of the event. The other day when I got on the computer he had been researching "Careers the Blind", that's when I know he is really questioning what the late term results of his vision problems will be. We know it is all in God's hands.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
"Trim, Healthy Mama" Journey-Forward
Last week I got my very own copy thanks to the generosity of a sweet friend of mine. I mentioned to her that I wanted to get this book but it would have to wait until the next payday and she ordered it for me then and there. Goodness, some people...
The week prior I had been reading as much as I could on the Facebook page, there is a wealth of information in the files and the wide variety of topics in the posts gave me plenty to try to wrap my brain around.
Why do I want this book? Why do I want to try another "diet"? I've tried quite a few over the years, just for the "fun" of it let's walk down diet memory lane.
High School- I don't remember what grade, I joined Weight Watchers. This sums it up...
Did I have some meat on me? Yep! I always will. Should I have joined Weight Watchers? Probably not. If I remember correctly I gained weight and prompt quit...
The next diet I remember was "The Weigh Down Workshop" with Gwen Shamblin. Good premise, stop eating when you're full. Sounds easy enough. In all fairness, Gwen taught a very true principal. If you are turning to food for your comfort you are replacing God with food. I knew I was an emotional eater but how do you change that? This post isn't about that, I'll save that for later in this journey.
Next I did a similar program called "Prism" and I don't remember the woman that started that. I lost the most on that program, I think around 40 pounds. It was the first low carb diet I tried.
The last diet I did was an expensive one called "Ideal Protein". It's mostly packaged foods, very low carb and it worked. I lost about 40 pounds in 3 months and maintained that for a few months after going off it. With this program you take quite a few supplements and when I went off the diet I went off the supplements and lost a lot of hair. That seems to be a pattern with me, I have thin hair and if there is any change in my health my hair falls out! I'm hoping that with "Trim, Healthy Mama (THM) my hair will improve again. If not, wigs may be in my future, and there are some cute ones out there now days so maybe that wouldn't be too bad!
Since going off Ideal Protein I've gained all the weight back I lost and probably more but I refuse to weigh myself because it will be the most I've ever weighed and I don't even want to see the huge numbers on the scale!
But, I do want to have a record of my progress of my weight loss so when I officially start I might have to weigh myself and take my measurements. For the rest of July I am going to gradually incorporate some of the foods as I read through the book and try to figure out how it all works and then at the beginning of August I will hit it full force.
I'm guessing I need to lose a minimum of 60 pounds and 80 pounds at the maximum. That would put me at less than I've weighed since high school! Hard to imagine...
My first step is to try some of the breakfast foods because I don't usually eat breakfast so I need to figure out what is the most practical/realistic option for me. Wish me luck!
The week prior I had been reading as much as I could on the Facebook page, there is a wealth of information in the files and the wide variety of topics in the posts gave me plenty to try to wrap my brain around.
Why do I want this book? Why do I want to try another "diet"? I've tried quite a few over the years, just for the "fun" of it let's walk down diet memory lane.
High School- I don't remember what grade, I joined Weight Watchers. This sums it up...
Did I have some meat on me? Yep! I always will. Should I have joined Weight Watchers? Probably not. If I remember correctly I gained weight and prompt quit...
The next diet I remember was "The Weigh Down Workshop" with Gwen Shamblin. Good premise, stop eating when you're full. Sounds easy enough. In all fairness, Gwen taught a very true principal. If you are turning to food for your comfort you are replacing God with food. I knew I was an emotional eater but how do you change that? This post isn't about that, I'll save that for later in this journey.
Next I did a similar program called "Prism" and I don't remember the woman that started that. I lost the most on that program, I think around 40 pounds. It was the first low carb diet I tried.
The last diet I did was an expensive one called "Ideal Protein". It's mostly packaged foods, very low carb and it worked. I lost about 40 pounds in 3 months and maintained that for a few months after going off it. With this program you take quite a few supplements and when I went off the diet I went off the supplements and lost a lot of hair. That seems to be a pattern with me, I have thin hair and if there is any change in my health my hair falls out! I'm hoping that with "Trim, Healthy Mama (THM) my hair will improve again. If not, wigs may be in my future, and there are some cute ones out there now days so maybe that wouldn't be too bad!
Since going off Ideal Protein I've gained all the weight back I lost and probably more but I refuse to weigh myself because it will be the most I've ever weighed and I don't even want to see the huge numbers on the scale!
But, I do want to have a record of my progress of my weight loss so when I officially start I might have to weigh myself and take my measurements. For the rest of July I am going to gradually incorporate some of the foods as I read through the book and try to figure out how it all works and then at the beginning of August I will hit it full force.
I'm guessing I need to lose a minimum of 60 pounds and 80 pounds at the maximum. That would put me at less than I've weighed since high school! Hard to imagine...
My first step is to try some of the breakfast foods because I don't usually eat breakfast so I need to figure out what is the most practical/realistic option for me. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
The Flu of 2013!
Friday, January 18th was my baby's 4th birthday! He asked to go to Chuck E Cheese, the only way he even knows about Chuck E Cheese is because the Salvation Army we frequent is right next door and we had been to Half Price Wednesday just 2 days earlier! If you don't have a Salvation Army near by I'm sorry, it's a wonderful place! But that's a different post...
So being the wonderful parents that we are we took him to Chuck E Cheese. He was so happy! Every time they sang "Happy Birthday" to someone he thought it was for him! It was so cute... I don't know if that's where we go the Flu from Hell but the next day my husband started not feeling well. Chills, fever, body aches... the typical flu symptoms. He stayed in bed most of the weekend and had Monday off for Martin Luther King day so he took it easy that day too.
We go to Classical Conversations on Mondays so we were gone all day and I could tell that morning that I was starting to come down with something. By the time I got home I was ready to lay down! Fortunately my mom was still here and she fixed dinner and took care of everything that evening.
From there the details are a blur but let's just say everyone in our family ended up getting sick and it's taken forever to recover from this! Last Friday, one week after his birthday, I took the baby to the doctor because he was throwing up and I was concerned about dehydration and asthma complications. They tested him for strep and influenza A, he had influenza A. The doctor prescribed Tamiflu and when I picked it up from the pharmacy got sticker shock from the price! Without insurance it's $170 and with insurance it was $65! Seriously! Then when I told one of my friends about it she sent me this article. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/07/recommended-tamiflu-has-flawed-results.aspx
So it isn't very effective in helping with flu symptoms but it is effective in causing other health problems that are worse than the flu! That's worth $65 to me! We gave him one dose before reading the article but then I couldn't bring myself to give him another one.
He is still not feeling well and running a low-grade fever! The doctor said this flu is lasting 7-10 days and that seems about right, which, when you're sick seems like an eternity!
Hopefully we won't have any more sickness like this and we'll be done for the year.
So being the wonderful parents that we are we took him to Chuck E Cheese. He was so happy! Every time they sang "Happy Birthday" to someone he thought it was for him! It was so cute... I don't know if that's where we go the Flu from Hell but the next day my husband started not feeling well. Chills, fever, body aches... the typical flu symptoms. He stayed in bed most of the weekend and had Monday off for Martin Luther King day so he took it easy that day too.
We go to Classical Conversations on Mondays so we were gone all day and I could tell that morning that I was starting to come down with something. By the time I got home I was ready to lay down! Fortunately my mom was still here and she fixed dinner and took care of everything that evening.
From there the details are a blur but let's just say everyone in our family ended up getting sick and it's taken forever to recover from this! Last Friday, one week after his birthday, I took the baby to the doctor because he was throwing up and I was concerned about dehydration and asthma complications. They tested him for strep and influenza A, he had influenza A. The doctor prescribed Tamiflu and when I picked it up from the pharmacy got sticker shock from the price! Without insurance it's $170 and with insurance it was $65! Seriously! Then when I told one of my friends about it she sent me this article. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/07/recommended-tamiflu-has-flawed-results.aspx
So it isn't very effective in helping with flu symptoms but it is effective in causing other health problems that are worse than the flu! That's worth $65 to me! We gave him one dose before reading the article but then I couldn't bring myself to give him another one.
He is still not feeling well and running a low-grade fever! The doctor said this flu is lasting 7-10 days and that seems about right, which, when you're sick seems like an eternity!
Hopefully we won't have any more sickness like this and we'll be done for the year.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Keratoconus-- Part 2
UPDATE: Yikes! I'm not so good at getting these posts out, sorry! This was about a month ago...
We are now 3 weeks and 3 days post op and Todd got the sutures out of his eye today.
In part 1 I said that I would update his progress 4 days after his surgery but at that point I really didn't have anything to add because he didn't have a noticable change in his vision. The surgeon did warn us that this would be the case but we were hoping he was just being cautious and that Todd would in fact notice a difference. Needless to say, Todd was disappointed and some what discouraged by what the next few weeks were going to be like for him. Because he couldn't wear a contact on that eye his vision was worse! His vision in his right eye with a contact lens is 20/80 which, I believe, is considered legally blind so safely driving was not an option. I had to drive him to work which meant a 2 hr. round trip twice a day leaving the house by 5:15 a.m. then leaving again at 3:30 to pick him up we knew this wasn't something we could keep up for very long.
His job requires him to work on a computer or read paperwork all day so having poor vision in one eye and horrible vision in the other brought to mind a humorous saying "blind in one eye and can't see out of the other". Not so funny when it actually applies! At a follow-up visit 10 days post op we explained what a hardship his vision was and that we weren't sure how he was going to be able to work for 4+ more weeks like this. We had considered applying for some type of disability benefits but had no clue how that all works. After thinking for a moment his doctor said that in Todd's situation that he would allow Todd to begin wearing a contact lens again but just to drive and for work. He warned Todd that the lens may not fit and that the correction would probably be wrong too but that it would at least allow him to drive and work. When we got home Todd put his old lens in and was relieved to join the land of the seeing once again! It wasn't perfect but it was better than blind!
So today he got the sutures out which was something that we were told could improve his vision because the suture was slightly pinching the eye to where it might possibly cause an astigmatism. After the surgeon removed the sutures Todd saw the optometrist to see what options Todd had from here.
She explained that Todd has 3 options for contact lenses.
1. A hybrid lens similar to the Synergeyes lenses that he tried with no success.
2. Piggyback lenses which is wearing first a soft lens and then on top of that lens his RGP lens.
3. A lens called Sclera (read more here)
In talking over these options it was decided that until Todd's eye has healed more that the piggyback lens would be the best option for him. I had never heard of piggyback lenses! First a soft lens is placed on the eye and then the RGP is worn over the soft lens. The soft lens allows a more comfortable fit while the hard lens brings the correction. Who knew?!
We are now 3 weeks and 3 days post op and Todd got the sutures out of his eye today.
In part 1 I said that I would update his progress 4 days after his surgery but at that point I really didn't have anything to add because he didn't have a noticable change in his vision. The surgeon did warn us that this would be the case but we were hoping he was just being cautious and that Todd would in fact notice a difference. Needless to say, Todd was disappointed and some what discouraged by what the next few weeks were going to be like for him. Because he couldn't wear a contact on that eye his vision was worse! His vision in his right eye with a contact lens is 20/80 which, I believe, is considered legally blind so safely driving was not an option. I had to drive him to work which meant a 2 hr. round trip twice a day leaving the house by 5:15 a.m. then leaving again at 3:30 to pick him up we knew this wasn't something we could keep up for very long.
His job requires him to work on a computer or read paperwork all day so having poor vision in one eye and horrible vision in the other brought to mind a humorous saying "blind in one eye and can't see out of the other". Not so funny when it actually applies! At a follow-up visit 10 days post op we explained what a hardship his vision was and that we weren't sure how he was going to be able to work for 4+ more weeks like this. We had considered applying for some type of disability benefits but had no clue how that all works. After thinking for a moment his doctor said that in Todd's situation that he would allow Todd to begin wearing a contact lens again but just to drive and for work. He warned Todd that the lens may not fit and that the correction would probably be wrong too but that it would at least allow him to drive and work. When we got home Todd put his old lens in and was relieved to join the land of the seeing once again! It wasn't perfect but it was better than blind!
So today he got the sutures out which was something that we were told could improve his vision because the suture was slightly pinching the eye to where it might possibly cause an astigmatism. After the surgeon removed the sutures Todd saw the optometrist to see what options Todd had from here.
She explained that Todd has 3 options for contact lenses.
1. A hybrid lens similar to the Synergeyes lenses that he tried with no success.
2. Piggyback lenses which is wearing first a soft lens and then on top of that lens his RGP lens.
3. A lens called Sclera (read more here)
In talking over these options it was decided that until Todd's eye has healed more that the piggyback lens would be the best option for him. I had never heard of piggyback lenses! First a soft lens is placed on the eye and then the RGP is worn over the soft lens. The soft lens allows a more comfortable fit while the hard lens brings the correction. Who knew?!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
My Husband's Eye Surgery- Keratoconus Pt. 1
I'm hoping our story will be helpful to Keratoconus patients who are considering the INTACS surgery so I'm going into more detail than I normally would, if this doesn't apply to you or isn't interesting to you, you might want to skip this post.
6 years ago my husband and I made a special trip from our home in North Austin to an eye doctor in San Antonio to see if he was a candidate for a new procedure called INTACS that would hopefully fix an eye condition he has called Keratoconus (KC). Long story short, they said he wasn't a candidate because of the thinning of his cornea. We left feeling disappointed but at least we had tried and now had an answer.
Before I get into the whole story you might want to know what this big "K" word means!
Keratoconus is a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve.
He was diagnosed with this condition at the age of 20 and was fitted with Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) contact lenses which were the only solution due to the fact that the hard lens reshapes the cornea of the eye and corrected his vision.
In 2008 Todd's eye doctor at the time told him about a hybrid contact lens that was supposed to be more comfortable for KC patients. Synergeyes were supposed to give the comfort of a soft lens with the correction of a RGP lens. This was not the case for Todd. They were very painful to get on and off and once he got them on he experienced double vision and constant discomfort. He went back to the doctor several times trying to get the proper fit but finally gave up on them and returned to his RGP lenses.
After the experience with the hybrid lenses Todd felt somewhat frustrated and hadn't gone back to that eye doctor for several years but in the past year he had noticed a decline in his vision and knew it was time to find a new doctor.
In July he returned to an eye doctor he had been to previously and during that exam she noticed some blood in Todd's eye (that's another post) that she wanted to have looked at by a surgeon in the office. During the appointment with the surgeon they discussed the blood but also Todd's KC. This surgeon asked Todd if he was familiar with a procedure called INTACS because he thought he would be a candidate for it! Of course Todd told him he had known of INTACS for years but had been told his cornea was too thin for this procedure. Apparently in the past 6 years the measuring of the eye has improved to where this surgeon felt these rings could be placed safely in the eye.
Todd was very encouraged and we began the process to get the surgery approved by our insurance.
Originally our insurance turned Todd down because they said that he had not tried other options available to KC patients such as the hybrid lenses so we had to have his medical records from the previous eye doctor sent to the surgeons office and then they had to send it to our insurance which caused us to have to wait another month to have the procedure done.
Monday, September 17th, 2012 Todd had INTACS placed in his left eye. He has a follow-up visit 10 days after the surgery and I will give an update after that appointment.
6 years ago my husband and I made a special trip from our home in North Austin to an eye doctor in San Antonio to see if he was a candidate for a new procedure called INTACS that would hopefully fix an eye condition he has called Keratoconus (KC). Long story short, they said he wasn't a candidate because of the thinning of his cornea. We left feeling disappointed but at least we had tried and now had an answer.
Before I get into the whole story you might want to know what this big "K" word means!
Keratoconus is a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve.
He was diagnosed with this condition at the age of 20 and was fitted with Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) contact lenses which were the only solution due to the fact that the hard lens reshapes the cornea of the eye and corrected his vision.
In 2008 Todd's eye doctor at the time told him about a hybrid contact lens that was supposed to be more comfortable for KC patients. Synergeyes were supposed to give the comfort of a soft lens with the correction of a RGP lens. This was not the case for Todd. They were very painful to get on and off and once he got them on he experienced double vision and constant discomfort. He went back to the doctor several times trying to get the proper fit but finally gave up on them and returned to his RGP lenses.
After the experience with the hybrid lenses Todd felt somewhat frustrated and hadn't gone back to that eye doctor for several years but in the past year he had noticed a decline in his vision and knew it was time to find a new doctor.
In July he returned to an eye doctor he had been to previously and during that exam she noticed some blood in Todd's eye (that's another post) that she wanted to have looked at by a surgeon in the office. During the appointment with the surgeon they discussed the blood but also Todd's KC. This surgeon asked Todd if he was familiar with a procedure called INTACS because he thought he would be a candidate for it! Of course Todd told him he had known of INTACS for years but had been told his cornea was too thin for this procedure. Apparently in the past 6 years the measuring of the eye has improved to where this surgeon felt these rings could be placed safely in the eye.
Todd was very encouraged and we began the process to get the surgery approved by our insurance.
Originally our insurance turned Todd down because they said that he had not tried other options available to KC patients such as the hybrid lenses so we had to have his medical records from the previous eye doctor sent to the surgeons office and then they had to send it to our insurance which caused us to have to wait another month to have the procedure done.
Monday, September 17th, 2012 Todd had INTACS placed in his left eye. He has a follow-up visit 10 days after the surgery and I will give an update after that appointment.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Oh the Pressure...my first post!
So many times I've thought "If I had a blog I would write about this!" I have attempted to blog in the past but the vision I have in my mind of how my blog will look never quite matches up with what appears on the screen. Then my patience with my own ineptitude comes to a quick end as I sit comparing my attempts with the lovely blogs I read on a daily basis and I resign myself to the audience of blogsphere once again.
Well here I am, trying out for the team one more time! Even if the pictures don't look right or I can't get the header the way I envision it I'm going to keep plugging along because at this point, no one knows I'm here anyway. I might as well practice.
Since this is my first post I want to talk about the name I chose for this blog.
Choosing a name for a blog is quite the mental chore, right next to naming a child! I wanted it to be unique but not weird, meaningful, thought provoking, understood by those who might stumble upon it. I will be blogging about life, about home. As a Christ-follower we are told this Earth is not our home, it's a temporary home. How many of us have lived in temporary homes? Dorm rooms, apartments, rental homes even a stay at a hotel is a very temporary home. Most of my adult life I've lived in temporary homes but now we own the house we live in. The difference between how I felt about those temporary homes and the home we now own is very different. There is a feeling of being able to live differently, put down roots, make it ours. In a rental the obvious difference is not having the ability to change things the way you would like it to look. Most landlords don't allow you to paint let alone take out the carpet and put in hardwood flooring or add on a room to the back! So if Earth is my temporary home does this mean I live my life differently than if I thought this time on Earth was it? That once I die I just cease to exist? No after-life? Think about that.
The Bible also talks about storing up treasure here on Earth and where our treasure is so will be our heart. But treasures here on Earth burn, decay, get lost, stolen, crash on the stock market...
God has blessed me here on Earth but my goal is to store up treasures in my true home, Heaven.
Here goes the beginning of my blogging journey, no pressure!
Well here I am, trying out for the team one more time! Even if the pictures don't look right or I can't get the header the way I envision it I'm going to keep plugging along because at this point, no one knows I'm here anyway. I might as well practice.
Since this is my first post I want to talk about the name I chose for this blog.
Choosing a name for a blog is quite the mental chore, right next to naming a child! I wanted it to be unique but not weird, meaningful, thought provoking, understood by those who might stumble upon it. I will be blogging about life, about home. As a Christ-follower we are told this Earth is not our home, it's a temporary home. How many of us have lived in temporary homes? Dorm rooms, apartments, rental homes even a stay at a hotel is a very temporary home. Most of my adult life I've lived in temporary homes but now we own the house we live in. The difference between how I felt about those temporary homes and the home we now own is very different. There is a feeling of being able to live differently, put down roots, make it ours. In a rental the obvious difference is not having the ability to change things the way you would like it to look. Most landlords don't allow you to paint let alone take out the carpet and put in hardwood flooring or add on a room to the back! So if Earth is my temporary home does this mean I live my life differently than if I thought this time on Earth was it? That once I die I just cease to exist? No after-life? Think about that.
The Bible also talks about storing up treasure here on Earth and where our treasure is so will be our heart. But treasures here on Earth burn, decay, get lost, stolen, crash on the stock market...
God has blessed me here on Earth but my goal is to store up treasures in my true home, Heaven.
Here goes the beginning of my blogging journey, no pressure!
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