Real and Determined Reviz

I said I was going to lose twenty-six lbs by April.

Well, April is almost over, so I figure I owe you all an update.

I didn't lose twenty-six lbs by April.

I switched goals midway - since we don't own a scale it was hard to keep track of my progress - I decided to lose four inches around my waist.

I didn't lose four inches around my waist.

It was weird. The first few pounds came off easily. Then they stopped. I oscillate between one and almost-two inches lost.

The good news is that the weight gain at least stopped.

The bad news is that I can't seem to kick this plateau.

And I was sort of stressing a little bit about it, until I heard a speaker this weekend. She was talking about her tussle with an eating disorder and the search for control in her life, and she read Matthew 6:25: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

Lightbulb!

Stop being so anxious, I seemed to hear the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart. I gave you food. I meant for it to be yummy. I meant for you to enjoy eating.

Wait, if food is supposed to be enjoyable, then maybe it isn't the enemy I thought it was. If I am supposed to relish a good meal or an afternoon treat, maybe I should just do so and stop feeling guilty.

Life is more than food.

My dear husband has a gentle way of reminding me of this. When I reach for seconds or pull out a snack or a dessert, he just asks me, "Are you hungry?" It gives me a moment to pause and actually think about my hand-to-mouth motions. If I am hungry, I eat more. If I'm not, I stop.

You see, this isn't just a battle to control what I eat for a while, just so I can get back to eating whatever I want later. This is a lifestyle of eating and moving and living and praising God for all He is and does and says. This is a giving over of myself to God, not to a diet plan or an exercise regime.

It is so much easier to swing to an extreme of super-healthy eating or of convenient junk foods. But the fact is, God made carrots and He made sugar. (And He made all those plants that are naturally poisonous. And He gave us the sense to know the difference.)

So I enjoy my carrots fully, and I eat my sugar without guilt (most of the time!).

Getting Crafty

One of the perks of being at home right now in my life is that I am having the opportunity to explore my crafty side (as in arts and crafts, not duplicity). I thought it would be fun to record one of my attempts and post it here. What follows is taken from a variety of sources as far as ideas and methods, so if you want to copy them, have at it!

I made a board for hanging jackets and such by my mom's back door. I knew she liked this saying, so I found a way to incorporate it, too!

I started with a piece of reclaimed wood, just a pretty board I found. It had kind of a pink hue and a nice grain, so I decided to make that the color of the text, rather than using another color. (If I had wanted, say, white words, I would have painted the board white before proceeding with the next steps.)

Similarly, four old-fashioned glass door knobs volunteered to be part of the project (actually, it was stumbling across them that made me want to do the project in the first place). I marked out spacing for the knobs while making sure to leave room for the text above.

 

I then set to work picking a font. I usually like to mix complementary fonts to emphasize important words. Seeing the whole sentence in each font, the plainer and the more decorative, gives me a good indication of how the different fonts present themselves (i.e., how many curlicues, if the font is narrow or wide on different letters, etc.). For a project like this, it's important to pick a font that isn't too narrow. Sometimes making it bold will help, sometimes not.

Once I have the font picked, it's time to size the phrase. Again, I use size for emphasis. Usually, I end up printing off a test run, going back to the computer to make it a lot bigger, printing it again, and then using some words from each printing.

 

 Eventually, though, you'll figure out what you like.

 Once you've come up with a satisfactory arrangement, glue the text to the clear side of self-adhesive plastic book covering. You know the stuff; the library always covers their soft-cover books with it.

Give the glue lots of time to dry. The more it adheres, the easier your next step will be.

Cut out the words or letters along the black and white. I use a combination of scissors and scalpel to accomplish this. The paper may want to pull away from the plastic. Just hold it together long enough to get the words cut out. After that, it doesn't really matter anymore.

Peel the backing from the sticky plastic and carefully arrange your words. If you're the type of person who likes to make guiding lines to get everything straight and centered, now would be the time to do so. I have found it to be helpful (when dealing with whole words strung together with a cursive font) to just peel and stick part of the word at first and then peel the rest, smoothing it as I go.

Once I got the words stuck satisfactorily, I coated them with a layer of paint that blended in with the hue of the board. You see, some of the paint will seep around the edges of the letters, so I wanted that seepage to be as unnoticeable as possible. (Again, if I were doing white lettering, I would have coated them with another layer of white paint to minimize seepage of a contrasting color.)

Of course, once that's dry, slather on whatever top coat color you like!

 Next comes the really hard part. Wait. For several days. Seriously, you want this to be good and dry.

The next thing is to discover your lovely sign! Armed with a scalpel or other sharp object, gently outline the lettering and peel back the plastic.

I finished it off with a textured daubing of the same color I used for the letters around the edge of the board and with a top coat of matte finish (or use glossy, your preference).

 A bow, and it was ready to go!

A Butter-Lover's Dream

Do you know what this is?

This, my friends, is a fresh muffin with baby butter.

What is baby butter, you ask?

It is butter that hasn't quite gotten past the cream stage yet.

We recently found a source for raw milk. 4% milk fat. Mmmm.

So today, I ventured into the realm of home-made butter. I used a recipe I found online and gave it a go! From two gallons of raw milk, I skimmed off enough cream to make about 1/2 cup of butter (one stick). But it was easy! I think I skimmed too much milk or thin cream in with my thick cream, so it took a long time to beat into submission, but I just let it do its thing while I worked on the muffins.

Let me tell you, it is going to be hard to go back after this!

While There is Breath

A family friend passed away today. As I watch the out-pouring of loving comments on her Facebook wall, I am glad that people remember the good about others.

I am also pensive.

Find the good in others while they're still living; don't wait for them to be beyond this world before you stop criticizing and start complimenting.

Tell people that you're grateful for them while they're living. Appreciate them and thank them for their contribution to your life while they are around to be encouraged by your words.

Be kind in your speech to and about others while they're living. If something isn't good enough to say about them once they're dead, it's not good enough to say about them before they're dead.

It is the living who need your encouragement: it is for the benefit of the surviving that we pour out love for those who have gone before us.

Yes, remember the deceased fondly; but remember that nothing you say or do can help or hurt them.

Do you want to make a difference? Don't forget the living to your left and to your right.

Things I'm Old Enough to Remember

Okay, I'm not that old. But lately, working with our youth group or volunteering for summer camp, I've noticed that I'll reference something that I at least thought was well known and receive blank stares in place of recognition. Do you know why? There's a generation gap. I am not old, but I have finally crossed that invisible bridge from the youngest generation. So, in honor of that achievement, this post is all about

Things I'm Old Enough to Remember.

1. When gas was 98 cents per gallon
2. When Saturday morning cartoons included Winnie the Pooh
3. When there was nothing after the credits - or even, when the credits were in the beginning and there weren't even credits after the story
4. The sticker, "Be Kind, Rewind!"
5. Steve Green
6. Stirrup pants
7. When blue M&M's began to be produced
8. The Pipestone library with Mrs. Griebel in the children's room and Mrs. Wahl behind the front desk
9. The gel pen craze
10. Beanie babies
11. Going places without a cell phone in case of emergencies
12. Pen pals
13. Tightening cassette tapes with a pencil
14. Pong
15. Pushing a lawn mower
16. When owning a refrigerator box made you richer than ever before as a child
17. When a sheet + chairs = a tent
18. Oregon Trail II
19. The Saturday morning tv jingle, "After these messages we'll be right back!"
20. Sandi Patty
21. Purple sweat pants and white Reeboks
22. Coloring with crayons
23. Homemade play dough
24. Paper doll cutting parties
25. Radio dramas
26. Airports pre-NSA
27. Strawberry kiwi Lip Smackers