God is working...

I keep trying to write a blog about how God has been working in my life, but I keep going off on tangents and end up deleting the whole thing.  So I guess I'll just say that God is working and teaching me so much right now and I'm so grateful for it!  He may make me a patient and obedient person yet! (Not my strong suit!)
Also I'd like to share a blog with you that I started reading.  It's about a girl who started a ministry in Uganda doing feeding programs and sponsorship and has ended up adopting 13 girls in the process.  She's not even 25!  I feel like a slouch sometimes realizing how much I haven't done with my life yet and also by how great her faith is!  I highly recommend checking it out!  http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/  I'm hoping to get her book today while I'm out.  It's called "Kisses From Katie." 

This video is good too!

Project Patricia

I wanted to help some friends spread the word about a ministry that they are involved with.  It was something that I had never considered before hearing about it from them.  I'm talking about period protection for women in Africa.  We are so spoiled here in the states.  Women here have so many options for what to use and we're picky too!  I'll only use this kind, not that kind.  I can't stand that brand or that style.  And heaven forbid we find ourselves without something, we run to the store and quickly get the products we need.  Imagine that when your period comes you have nothing to use.  Literally nothing other than maybe some rags or nothing at all.  You're confined to your bed because of this. In Africa, girls have to miss classes every month because of this and end up getting so far behind that they end up having to drop out of school.  I don't know about you, but this sounds like a pretty awful to me.  My friends have started a ministry to help girls and women out with this problem. They are making washable, reusable, cloth sanitary napkins for women in Africa.  They send them with missionaries so that Jesus can be shared with these women as well.  According to their Facebook page each kit includes, "5 cloth, regular-strength, maxi pads, a travel waterproof bag, and a bookmark with the Plan of Salvation. When possible, we include the bookmark in their language, otherwise, it is in English."

I don't always get excited about ministries and causes, but this one just intrigues me.  I love ministries that meet the personal, practical needs of people while they're sharing the Gospel at the same time!  I think too often as Christians we forget that these needs are important.  We focus so much on the spiritual side of a person without taking care of their physical needs.  This is a very specific need that Project Patricia is taking care of, but it's one that is so important for so many women!  I highly recommend that you check out this ministry and look for ways that you could possibly help. 


www.projectpatricia.org

Day 8 of No Sugar

It's Day 8.  We've done pretty well going without sugar.  I think we've probably eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables this past week than we have all year!  That probably says more for how little we were eating before this than how much we're eating now.  Oh well....We're on the right track!  I'm so thankful for the produce market down the street!  We are able to get a lot of stuff from there and it's pretty good quality too!  We both feel so much better.  Chad was always so skeptical about going on this diet because he thought he wouldn't be able to eat any good food this way, but I've been able to show him that he's still getting to eat some awesome food, but it's way healthier!  I've lost about 3 lbs. so far on this diet and I think Chad has lost a little more than that.  The weight hasn't been falling off of me like it did last time and I was feeling discouraged about that, but I've realized that I was about 4 years younger and I was working as a nanny and chasing toddlers and walking around the city.  I walk quite a bit around here, but it's never as much or as often as I did in Chicago.  Thank goodness for the Wii Fit!  I'm able to work out and keep track of my progress on there!  One difference that I've seen between the last time I did this and now is that people don't look at me like I have a second head when I talk about trying to get off sugar and be healthier.  People are much more open to the idea and are realizing just how bad processed food is for you!  One thing that's happened which wasn't intentional was that we ate a lot less meat than we have in the past.  That also helps our grocery bill too!  We still like meat, but it's not something we have to have in every meal. 

Funny story...last week I went to the produce market to pick up some stuff.  When I asked to have my stuff double bagged since I forgot my canvas bags, the lady behind me in line offered to give me a ride.  It struck me as so odd!  In Chicago, no one would think anything of walking to the grocery store.  I worked at Walgreens for a while and people would always ask to have their stuff double or triple bagged because they were walking and or taking public transportation.  Even if we did have a car, I'm not sure I'd drive to the stores just down the street.  It seems like such a waste of gas to me.  We are really blessed to have lots of options when it comes to going to the store around here.  We have several chain stores and a privately owned grocery store/produce market/deli that has all sorts of specialty items!  People may think I'm insane for walking everywhere, but I'm getting exercise and helping the environment all at once!  It's a win-win to me! 

One of my husband's coworkers lost a 16 year old niece last night in the tornado that hit north of Birmingham during the night.  They were asleep when the tornado hit.  Her parents are in the hospital and I think are stable.  I talked to my husband on his lunch break today.  I guess the guy is trying to figure out how to get down to Birmingham.  I imagine his wife is anxious to see her sister and family.  I can't imagine how they must all be feeling.  Apparently their house was completely flattened but the houses on either side weren't touched!  It's so incredibly sad!  Please keep this family in your prayers! 

I talked to my dad today.  It sounds like my grandma's Alzheimer's is getting worse.  She was very agitated last week and kept calling my dad because grandpa wouldn't cooperate and take her home.  She is home, but she's very confused about the whole thing.  It's gotten so bad that my grandpa is willing to look into nursing homes because she's getting to be too much for him to handle.  His mind is all there, but his body is failing pretty badly.  I hate Alzheimer's so much!  My other grandma died from it and it was hard to watch her slowly lose all her memory!

Day 1 of no sugar

Today is our first official day of no sugar.  I almost broke down at CVS today.  I know they aren't good, but I absolutely love the conversation hearts.  Not the Necco ones.  They changed them and they aren't as good.  CVS sells the Brach's ones though and they are still the same.  I could eat a whole bag of them in one day.  Sadly Valentines day candy just gives way to Easter candy.  Jelly Beans!  I have eaten whole bags of those in one day too.  I think I just made it obvious that I am a sugar addict and need to get it out of my diet.  I just had a banana with some peanut butter and honey.  It was pretty good and helped the cravings go away for a little while. Now we're just snacking on a pomegranate. 

I started exercising again on the Wii.  When I was in Chicago last weekend, I realized just how out of shape I've gotten.  As a Chicagoan, I was ashamed of it too!  I only worked out for 30 minutes today and didn't do anything too strenuous.  I usually do too much too soon and then I'm so sore I can't work out and never get the habit going.  Hopefully going slowly will help me to stick with it.  Last time I went off sugar, I didn't exercise and still lost 15 lbs.  I need to lose more this time so I'm hoping that exercising will kick it up a notch. 

It's so nice to have Chad doing this with me!  He's always been skeptical about it and didn't really want to do it, but now that he's getting paid to lose weight he's all about it.  Hey, whatever works!  They say misery loves company!  LOL! 

Christmas trees, Cleaning and No Sugar? Oh my!

Blogging two days in a row?  Yes, I am feeling okay.  I've just been reading blogs and it is motivating me to do it more!

I finally took the Christmas tree down today.  My family always left it up until the new year so I figured I'd do the same.  Especially since we weren't home for Christmas.  But then I went out of town on the 5th for 5 days.  And then I needed to recover from my 5 day trip.  Plus, I really wasn't looking forward to untangling the lights and garlands from the tree.  And all those trips up and down the stairs wore me out, but it needed to be done!  I need to vacuum that spot out, but that will have to happen tomorrow.  Maybe I could have left the tree up longer....It was decorated in red and silver.  We could have started the trend of having a Valentines Day tree!  As exhausting as putting it away was, it is nice to have that corner free for other things.  I want to put the coat rack back over there so I can move the couch back.  Chad keeps sitting on two cushions on the couch because he can't see the tv very well from the end of the couch.  It drives me crazy because all the remotes slide down and he ends up sitting on them.  I really couldn't take much more of it! 

The past week I was feeling really unmotivated to do much of anything after my trip to Chicago.  And then I found Pinterest.  I found all sorts of wonderful recipes and charts and plans for cleaning and getting organized, but did I do any of it?  I made a mac and cheese recipe and I did one sink full of dishes.  My goal for this week is to get back on a better sleeping schedule and to actually get the house straightened up.  It's been a disaster for far too long and it's practically begging to be cleaned!

We'll see how much energy I have this week!  Chad and I are giving up sugar and white food.  By white food I mean sugar, white flour, white rice, potatoes and corn.  Chad's job is doing a weight loss program.  He gets paid for every 1% of weight he loses.  We could use the extra money and we both want to lose weight and get healthy.  We had some sugary things in the house that needed to be gotten rid of or they would have gone bad so we finished the pop and the brownies.  It was a sacrifice, but somebody had to do it!  We couldn't waste brownies!  That would just be wrong!  Now starts 2 weeks of no sugar except for fruit and honey and then only having it once a week.  It will be difficult, but it will be so good for us.  Last time I did this diet successfully I lost 15 lbs.  I probably need to lose about 25 lbs. this time but I would be happy with 15.  Chad would like to lose about the same amount.  It will probably be a lot easier for him to lose the weight.  Men can lose weight a lot more easily and it's really not fair.  He'll probably have the lbs. just drop off even if he's cheating on the diet and I'll have to be the sugar nazi to have a prayer of losing weight.  It's a good thing he's such a wonderful husband and I love him so much!

I stink at blogging....

Wow, I really stink at keeping this updated!  I think the last time I posted we had just moved into the house our church owns.  We're still here and we really love being in a house.  Especially since someone donated a washer and dryer to us!  We were having to load up our dirty clothes into rolling suitcases and walk it to the REALLY NASTY landromat in the neighborhood.  Oh my word, that place was gross and during the summer it was miserable since there is no AC.  It was probably 120 degrees by the dryers.  Yuck! 

We still don't have a car and it's really starting to become an issue for us, but we're just now really starting to be able to save money for one.  In the beginning, we hadn't been able to save much money since we had spent so much money on hotels and rental cars for our trip to Chicago and the weekend we moved.  And then we were getting things we needed in our house since everything had been in storage for almost 3 months and some things we realized were missing in the move.  There are still lots of things that we need, but I think that we will be able to put some Christmas money towards that stuff.  It really does help that Chad got a good bonus at work.  It's allowing us to finally feel like we can get ahead with our finances and even start saving for the car we really need. 

This fall I started working with the Awana program at my church.  They really needed the help this year and I was wanting to get involved with working with kids anyway.  I'm in charge of the Sparks which is the kindergarten through 2nd grade group.  I also lead game time and music time for the whole group.  We have a pretty small group of kids and time limitations on some of the space we use so we have to do game time together.  It's hard to find games that work for kids in kindergarten to 6th grade.  We aren't able to do some of the classic Awana games for this reason.  The little kids just get trampled.  Every week, I'm so glad I get to work with the younger kids during handbook time. I can still tell them what to do and they do it without much attitude.  I have a couple kids who are probably going to finish their books this year.  In 3 years of the Awana program at this chruch , that is the first time they have even considered this happening.  I use the cd's in the back of the book that goes with the lessons connected with their verses and the music cd which puts their Bible verses to music.  They really love music and for the non-readers it really helps them to memorize their verses if they have a song to go with it.  I also made charts for the kids so every time they get a signature for a section in their book, they also get to put a smiley face sticker up on the chart.  They love being able to see their progress on the chart and it's brought out some friendly competition with some of the kids. 

Awana as a whole though doesn't always go very smooth.  To be honest, it's a miracle some of the kids come back every week.  We must be doing something right!  At least that's what I tell myself.  Sometimes I think they just come back to make us crazy and torture us with their bad attitudes and awful behavior!  We had to come to terms with the fact that most of these kids don't come to church except on Wednesday nights for Awana.  Their parents aren't Christians and we may be the only Christian influence in their lives.  Too often I feel like people in the church (who don't work with them and some who do) just look at these kids as being loud and disrespectful and never try to get to know them beyond that.  These kids need love and support just like anyone else and probably more than the average person!  We are working on the behavior issues.  I just wish that more people would take an interest in these kids and invest in their lives, even if they don't help with Awana.  I would love to see church members inviting kids to sit with them for dinner before Awana and get to know them.  Even the kids who drive me crazy and make me want to cry and scream in frustration nearly every week, have moments that remind me we are making an impact on their lives and they need to be loved on.  Seeing those kids in the neighborhood and have them run up to me squealing "Miss Melodie!!!!!!" and give me a big hug reminds me of why I do this. 

I kind of forgot about this....

Hello!
It's been ages since I've blogged!  I just looked and saw the last time I wrote anything we didn't even know when we were moving!  Crazy!  We've been in Cincinnati for the past 3 months!  Chad started working shortly after we got here.  We went back and forth between his mom's and hotels for the first couple of months due to things just not working out with the apartment we wanted to get into.  It ended up working out though!  We ended up moving into the house the church owns.  It wasn't available when we moved here, but it became available later.  We originally thought we didn't want to live here for various reasons, but we ended up deciding that it would be a good idea.  I love being in a house and not having to worry about neighbors living above or below us!  Now we are working on saving up some money for a car.  Having a car would make things a lot easier in a lot of ways, but then we would have to pay a car payment, insurance and gas.  I think that we're finally getting to the point where we can save up and actually have some money to put down on a car be able to afford something. 
Living in Cincinnati is very different than living in Chicago.  Slowly but surely, I'm adjusting to living here, but there are still moments when I miss the big city!  The public transportation system here leaves something to be desired.  For the last 10 years, I've always lived close to several buses and for most of that time we always had at least one train close by as well.  We do live right off of a bus line, but it doesn't take us to a lot of the places we'd like to go.  Right now we are dependent on people to get us where we need to go unless we're doing something in our neighborhood.  Thankfully we do have a lot of stuff in walking distance.  Unfortunately, Chad's job isn't close by or off a bus line so he has to get rides to work.  We did figure out that he can take the bus fairly close to his job and he could probably get a ride from there to work. 
I need to get a job as well.  That would help us be able to get a car quicker, but I may need a car to get a job.  It would be nice if I could get into teaching piano and voice lessons and maybe even some beginner flute lessons.  I really enjoy teaching lessons.  I'll just have to figure out how to find students.  It would be nice to be able to work at home so that when we start having kids, I don't have to quit my job.  Chad could teach trombone lessons as well to make a little extra cash. 
My parents are coming this week to visit.  I'm looking forward to seeing them and showing them around Cincinnati.  I know we're going to Jungle Jims.  We've also discussed going to the Creation Museum, but it's pretty expensive.  There is plenty to do around here in just a couple days.  I'm sure we'll figure stuff out.