Random

It's been two weeks of P90x, and lets just say my little (and when I say little, I mean puny) muscles sure feel it, every day! Sometimes, it's hard to hold my toothbrush up...now that's sad. But it has been good and I'm enjoying being able to get my blood flowing, and feel more energetic throughout the day because I'm exercising more regularly. I have seem to be able to keep it up more consistently. I guess I've been a little bit of a weakling with the weather. I was finding I was making all sorts of excuses not to go running. Well, with this there really isn't much of an excuse. And I've been able to find the time...so obviously, I'd been more "idle" or wasting time before.

On another note, my mom is here visiting for the weekend. Has been a good weekend to rest and get some random errands ran, etc. We also went to an Estate Sale...My mom and I are always game for a good deal! So I knew she'd enjoy going and seeing what treasures we might find. You never know what you're gonna get. For example, I found: 1) A blue pot (for all those plants I can't seem to keep alive). 2) A random collection of thread so I actually have some when I sew. 3) A Piccaso Replica Drawing, so I actually have some art on the walls. 4) The best find a hand-made wooden zoo train with removable wooden cages and wooden animals. I picked it up and this guy behind me says, "Ah, are you going to get that? That's definitely the coolest thing I've seen in here yet." So I had to get it, and it will be the perfect gift for my 2 yr old nephew Porter's Birthday! Anyways, fun things to be found. I try to be selective. Going to Estate Sales can be good therapy to avoid collecting too much stuff! My mom said, "I have no idea how they fit all that stuff in the house. My Dad (meaning my Grandpa) never had THAT much stuff (p.s. and he likes to "SAVE" stuff, if you know what I mean)!"

The last, but not least, random thing is: I still can't cook. This is a realization that I continually seem to come upon. And then I try not to let it get me down, decide to try a new recipe, and then some disaster hits again. If you had come by my house Saturday evening, you might have called 911 to get the fire department here. No joke! I had tried to roast a chicken in the oven. All the grease decided to spatter and spurt EVERYWHERE in the oven, thus creating billowing smoke everywhere! Then the chicken looked done, I even cut it open and the meat looked ok. So Mr Carver (my husband) came over and started cutting into it, and the meat wasn't done! So in Smokey Chicken back to the cooker. More and more smoke! We ate the rest of our dinner while the chicken finished cooking. I bemoaned that I should NEVER COOK AGAIN, because of how horrid I am! But we managed to laugh a bit about it (I think I'm doing more of that now than I was then), and enjoyed the chicken once it was finally done. Now you've learned a lesson...don't come over to my house when Christy is cooking. I'll keep trying though!

Committing to eliminate idleness...

For the past few days, I found out Lent was coming up. Now I'm not Catholic, and don't believe that as a born again Christian you have to eliminate anything prior to celebrating Christ's death and resurrection. However, the idea of periodically giving something up to remind you of Christ's sacrifice, I think is a good practice. I really didn't come up with anything good, but I did venture a new goal, which in essence is giving up idleness. I don't particularly consider myself "idle." But in the last month, I really haven't been caring for myself as well as I should and I feel I have be idle (i.e. eating poorly, not exercising, not "feeding" myself through the Word, spending too much time on FB, etc). I could make excuses (Tobin was gone, I was tired, I've been worried about my niece, etc. etc.), but I've decided to take action. I'm writing this on here only to get some thoughts out and try to be accountable. Basically, I am committed to a new workout program, that I've started before, but never fully finished, nor done it consistently. You may or may not have heard about it, but it's called P90X. Don't know what the P stands for, but I like to say "Pain for 90 days to the Xtreme." That's basically what I've started. Currently I am on Day 3, and I feel the pain. I barely can make it up and down the stairs in our house. And I'm waiting for a patient to ask me why I'm wincing when I sit down to talk with them. So I'm Day 3 of 90. I want to be consistent, may not be able to be perfect, but want to see it through to the end. It just so happens I'm during this through Lent. So I thought, well, then I'm doing it for a better goal as well to improve the health of this weary vessel. I pray through these efforts, I'll have more energy and strength to do what God wants me to do. So please keep me accountable, oh great Blogger internet abyss and faithful blogger readers, I should be done June 4th. Here we go! Bring it!

Snow Fun

A couple snippets of our winter fun!

Took one of the other residents snowmobiling for the first time!

Snowboarding at Timberline. We got fresh powder and a view of the top!

View near Bend, OR, cross country skiing.

And this is what I hope to see soon!

Writer Block

Sorry for the absence. I think after I spilled my heart out, it took me a while to collect it again, and drum up the energy to write again. For those of you that don't know, my niece Magnolia is doing amazing! She is a great, normal, little newborn. Growing, eating, sleeping! Praise the Lord.

I also have been encouraged in the last few days as the sun has peep out from the grey, dreary layer of clouds that covered the valley since November. I'm also excited that when I get home from work, there is still a bit of daylight yet! Bring on spring! We have had some fun snow days though, and for some reason, blogger is giving me fits to up load photos. So it might be another couple months. Anyways, spring is coming, and I'm excited!