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

Don't Go Away

Note: This is not going to be a post about my views of homosexuality or of the American homosexual movement (which are not one and the same, by the way). This is neither an appropriate or wise platform for such a discussion. If you want to know my views, let's discuss it in person, preferably over coffee. :)

Why is it that it seems like people come out and then leave?

I've been noticing a trend: a friend comes out, and then I never/rarely hear from them again.

Not that we were necessarily close in the first place, but if this is supposed to be so natural a lifestyle, why does it interfere with something so natural as friendship?

Maybe they think I hate them now. I wouldn't want to chat with someone who hates me. But I've only ever been called hateful once (and the really awkward part is that she doesn't know me). No one whom I consider among my circle of friends - or even acquaintances - has ever called me hateful. So I don't think that's it.

Is this just the way things are? Am I going to have to watch friends come out one by one and wave goodbye?

Sure, they have a different lifestyle now, a different ideology. But friends don't have to agree on everything. I can understand that this would create some distance, or at least a different dynamic than before. But is it really necessary to disappear?

Sure, they probably have some new friends from the homosexual community. But I got new friends went I went to college and I still managed to keep my friends back home.

You know, there is so much pain surrounding the choice to come out: life before the decision, factors that prompt the decision, the fall-out after following through on the decision, or all three. My heart hurts with them.

So why add the pain of leaving?

A Man Called Daniel

A few weeks back, I happened upon the book of Daniel and started reading through Daniel 6, the story of Daniel in the lions' den. Now, I doubt that anyone who spent any time in Sunday school could have escaped the experience without becoming terribly familiar with the story. Yet, (surprise, surprise) the child's version of the story leaves out a lot, a lot of good stuff, a lot of stuff that I was reminded of as I read through it.

So, in case you haven't revisited the story in a while, I thought I would share the experience with you. Below, you will find Daniel 6 from the ESV, with my thoughts thrown in in blue. Enjoy!


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It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; Darius had just taken over the kingdom at the end of the last chapter. Being a decently smart chap, he seems to keep some of the same officials, the guys who know what's going on and how things work. If you read the story in chapter 5, you'll see how Daniel had been newly promoted to third in command and so was perfectly poised to be in leadership under Darius. What a coincidence! Almost like someone planned it!

 ² and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. The whole point of these three was to make sure the king got his due. 120 satraps are a lot to keep track of, but 3 presidents are more manageable.  

³ Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. I would like an excellent spirit. Wouldn't you? 

And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. ⁴ Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Wow! No complaint, no fault, no error. He was faithful. That should be every Christian in the workforce. 

⁵ Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.” I find this so neat, that these guys had seen enough of Daniel and that Daniel was transparent enough that they knew that they weren't going to get this guy unless they could make up something that would go against his faith. His faith wasn't inherently bad for them, they just knew that he would choose his God over any other rule. But he wasn't belligerent or antagonistic about it; no one could complain about anything about him. Now that's a testimony.

⁶ Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement - the footnote here says they "came thronging." Talk about the pressure of the group on the individual.

to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! ⁷ All "all?" 

the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. ⁸ Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” ⁹ Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. Ok, I thought Darius was a decently smart chap. Did he not see Daniel was missing? Or did he assume these guys spoke for Daniel too? Or did he just completely forget about his favorite amid the overwhelming flattery of all these people standing before him?

¹⁰ When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, I am so excited the Bible includes that phrase! Daniel knew the document had been signed. He was a politician. He understand exactly what was on the line. I can imagine that if that phrase wasn't included, we would be able to excuse the heroism that comes next. After all, if he wasn't informed, maybe he responded differently than he would have if he knew the danger. Don't we love to diminish others' faithful actions? 

he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. No change. Just as he had done previously. He didn't even keep the windows shut for his own safety. Wow. 

¹¹ Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. ¹² Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” ¹³ Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, Notice they don't bother to say "who is one of the three presidents, your favorite one, in fact." Oh, no. He's just one of those pesky exiles from Judah. 

pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

¹⁴ Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. ¹⁵ Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”

¹⁶ Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Even the king knew enough about Daniel's relationship with his God that he could have some sort of hopeful glimmer before sending him to his certain death. Certain, that is, by human reckoning. 

¹⁷ And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. ¹⁸ Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

¹⁹ Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. ²⁰ As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” "Is He able?" Don't we all ask that question when things get rough? "Oh, God, I know you're big, but maybe you're not this big! Are you big enough to handle this problem of mine?" Silly child. How God must smile and shake His head at us. "Don't you remember what I did for David and for Daniel and for Ruth and for Moses and . . ."  

²¹ Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! He's not bitter. He's still not belligerent. He's still faithful to the king.  

²² My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” Is Daniel reminding the king that he has only ever done good for the king and the kingdom? Is he simply stating why he was saved? Either way, he was right.  

²³ Then the king was exceedingly glad, I bet. 

and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, Whoa, "no kind of harm"? Do you know how many years of therapy would be expected to be needed in our day and age? "No kind of harm." Not only did he not have a scratch on him, he was mentally whole, not a nervous wreck from a night with the nasty, hungry lions. How is that even possible? Read on: 

because he had trusted in his God. Can you please take a minute to let that sink in? He didn't have so much as a nervous twitch from the whole experience. Why? "Because he had trusted in His God." May your God be the God of Daniel, the one who protects body and mind from lions. May you see your personal lions through the eyes of trust. 

²⁴ And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

²⁵ Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. ²⁶ I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,

for he is the living God,
    enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
    and his dominion shall be to the end.
²⁷ He delivers and rescues;
    he works signs and wonders
    in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
    from the power of the lions.” How beautiful is that? What a fitting ending. Even better than "happily ever after." But we have that too if you really need it:

²⁸ So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.