Shark cake

This is the cake I made for Keenan's 9th birthday. The water cake was a regular cake for all the party guest. The shark was lopro for Keenan.

Call your momma!!

We all love our momma, and our daddy, and our immediate family, well we are supposed to anyway. I truly do love my family. No one makes me laugh like they do! After a few days together I am always overwhelmed with how well we all get along, and how much fun we have together.  Yeah, we all have annoying quirks and habits that we have to work around.  But there is NOTHING that they can do that is a deal breaker for me. I don’t like some small thing they may say or do, or the stand they may take on some issue, but I don’t feel like any of that is worth losing the relationship I have with them. I am sure in some families, there would be deal breakers, and in some cases there would HAVE TO BE deal breakers. I am just glad that in our case there haven’t been.

We haven’t ever had the pleasure of living in the same town with any member of my immediate family. This would be a dream of mine. One day to live in the same town with my parents or one or….dare I even dream it….ALL  my sisters at once and their kids, that would be the best ever!! To get to go to every football game Zion cheers at,  see every play Adara or Marla are in, to go get Tina from work so we can have lunch, to meet Jeni’s crazy lady at the bank, to see Austin and his date at their valentine banquet in person instead of on facebook, to get to watch ToriBeth perform in church instead of on video, to run errands and go shopping with mom, to actually hear Abigail say funny things instead of read them on status updates, to watch Elisha and Aaron play basketball, to buy shoes from Lyndsey, to get to drive Josiah  and Keenan to Marine Biology Camp together, and to hear dad preach every week that would be an amazing wonderful perfect life!!! But that isn’t our lot in life. God has us all on different paths and we just get to see each other 2-4 times a year.  I guess that is what makes our weeks together even more fun. We know that they are few and far between.

God HAS blessed us every placed we have lived with a great church family. That have treated us like we were part of their family. We have always felt like we fit in quickly and loved unconditionally. I couldn’t begin to name all the wonderful people that God has put in our lives from when we first started our journey as a married couple in Whitehouse Texas, then moving to Owasso Ok, then God calling us to Bossier City LA, then moving us on to where we are now in Morganton NC. God has been so faithful in placing us with great people that love us and are so good to us. Family is impossible to replace. And a family like mine even more so. But God has given us amazing friends that I know without a doubt I could call on in time of trouble and they would do whatever they could to help us.  I know this because not to long ago, I needed prayer and I called on a few of them, and within days my situation was 180 degrees better.  Now that is a real friend.

So call your mom, if she is still around, tell her you love her. Call your dad too. Make sure those that God has placed in your life know that you love them. You may feel that way, but if they never know it, they never hear it, it doesn’t matter to them.  In this situation, it isn’t the thought that counts it is the ACTION that counts. Write a note, make a phone call, send an email, somehow let the ones you love know it before it’s to late. They may know it already but it never hurts to heart it again.

With that being said, I’d like to say this:

Daniel Smith, I love you with all my heart.

Breannna Michelle, I love you and I am super proud of you.

Serena Raquel, I love you , you make me smile.

Keenan David, momma loves my man, I am glad you are my son, you are one tough dude.

Mom, I love you, I am so glad God gave made you my momma, I am thrilled to be just like you.

Dad, I love you, you have been and continue to be an amazing example of faithfulness to God to me and my family thank you for that

Durwin, I love you big brother, you are a strong man of God

Tina, I love you thanks for being a wise wonderful big sister

Austin, I love you, you are a mature and responsible strong man, super proud of u

Abigail, I love you, you are the long awaited promise and worth every minute of what we waited for

David, I love you, you are a rock and stabilizer, thanks for all you do

Marla, I love you, thanks for being wise and witty and wonderful

Lyndsey I love you, just keep swimming

Toribeth I love you, you are strong and level headed wise and mature

Adara I love you, you make us all laugh and keep us entertained

Adam, I love you, thanks for taking us on and bringing jeni back

Jeni I love you, eye would die 4 u, darlin if u want me 2

Aaron, I love you, you did great around all of us at Christmas, proud of you for that

Elisha I love you, you are a great leader, use the skills God gave you and He will show you what to do

Josiah, I love you, you are amazing and wonderful, strong and wise

Zion, I love you, your energy and funny attitude is great to be around

Aiden, I love you you are so sweet and precious

Eliminate Stinkin Thinkin

This week our weight watchers meeting topic is on thinking positive.  I will be going to lead my 1^st meeting on the subject here in a few hours, so I thought I would blog about it before I go to get “reved up” on the idea. 

I am, for the most part a pretty positive person. Like a lady that shared in our Women’s group said, sometimes I am positively wrong, but still positive. I believe with all my heart I can do anything I set my mind to do. I believe, if I so determined, I could fly from here to China, it may take some time, some creative resources and quite a bit of money, but I’ll get it done. Having said that, there are the days, although few and far between, I do think “I can’t do anything right”, and “I’ll always be a failure” and those kind of self –loathing thoughts.  I really don’t stay in that place long, I don’t see how it does anyone any good. I like me, I like me a lot, probably more than anyone else likes me, maybe even more than I should.  But I gotta spend a lot of time around me, so I better like me, cause I can’t get away from myself, ya know!!

So back to positive thoughts, Proverbs 23:7 says “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” What do you want to become? You have to begin to change your thoughts to who you really want to be. God really began to deal with me on my thoughts (AGAIN!!!) not to long ago. And He led me to write a 4 paragraph “mantra” (at least that is what I have been calling it). I read it every morning before I get out of bed, most nights before I go to sleep and sometimes a few times during the day. It is 2 paragraphs helping me refocus on what matters most, and then 2 paragraphs on how to make changes in those areas. I won’t share what my mantra is because it is a me and Jesus thing. I will tell you one line that I felt very impressed to write, to give myself permission to be human- it says “I know the ruts are deep and the change will come slower than I want but I am DETERMINED to change the way I think, talk and act for the betterment of my family”.  Like I said, I am a positive person, but I had let little thoughts creep into my head throughout the day of  “I don’t want to do that” “I am too tired to do that” “I’ll do that later”. Not what I would usually think of negative things, but things that were dragging me down none the less.

Now how can this help you in a weight loss journey? NEVER let yourself think, “I can’t do this”. I hate it when members come in and say “well I’m gonna try it for a little while but I’m probably gonna quit”. I wanna smack them. You don’t HAVE to fail, you can succeed!! The science of weight loss is very simple, eat less calories in a day than you burn. That creates a calorie deficit that creates a weight loss. That ain’t hard!!! But we get the defeated mentality if I screw up a little might as well screw up a lot and eat the whole cake!! NO!! You don’t have to; you can mess up a little, and then be done with it. Buy a ladder at Lowe’s and put it in the kitchen, every time you “mess up” climb the ladder, get over it and keep going. If you quit your marriage every time you messed you-you wouldn’t have stayed married a week. If you gave your kids up the 1^st time you messed up with them none of us would have left the hospital with them. If we quit Jesus every time we messed up with Him we would be so lost and screwed up we couldn’t find our backside with both hands!! If Jesus can forgive us, we can forgive us!! So forgive yourself, love yourself, talk sweet to yourself, be nice to you, cause you can’t ever get away from you!!

Below are some bullet points from the As a Man Thinketh is a literary essay of James Allen, published in 1902. I think they are worth reading and thinking about.

• Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.
• A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
• Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built.
• The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.
• Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.
• Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.
• Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.
• Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.
• You cannot travel within and stand still without.
• As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts, can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
• Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err

Create your own mantra, include lots of positive self talk, encouraging things that you know God thinks about you, use scriputres that lift you up. You can do anything you set your mind to do. Lose weight, kick an addiction, get out of an unhealthy relationship, approach your boss about a promotion, anything that you and God determine is best for you!! You can do it!! Think Happy Thoughts!!

Weight Watchers and God

I guess every 1^st blog post needs to have some explanation of why I felt the need to start a blog.   I thought that most everything I could think to post about could fit under 1 of the 4 categories of Faith, facts, food or feelings. I would like to help people, the bored readers that decide to stop by and read this blog, find some hope in their weight loss journey, faith journey, journey to discover facts (of which I know little) or get in touch with their feelings.  Or maybe it will just be my journey to all of the above, either way, I thought this might be fun. 

For my 1^st post, I thought I would compare my 2 jobs, (a pastor and a weight watchers leader) I have thought a lot lately about how they have so much in common. A weight loss journey and a spiritual journey have many similarities. To list a few:

·        Takes DAILY discipline of following specific rules and guidelines

·        Changes come slower than you want

·        You don’t have to be perfect to see results

·        Sometimes you do the work but you don’t see the results you think you should

·        Some people come to the meetings, invest their money, but don’t do the work during the week and are upset with me because things aren’t going like they think it should

·        Some people start off with a great passion and then fall off the wagon, and then have to come back, because they know sticking with the program is the only thing that REALLY works

·        People that come to the meetings, do the work during the week, stay accountable, keep themselves motivated, and want to be different see the most change

·        When people begin to change, the others around them want to know what they have been doing to get such great results and they want to be changed too.

·        A couple that comes together can change the destiny of their entire family and many generations to come

·        If you get out of the habits you will slip back into old and bad behaviors quickly

·        Instant gratification of momentary temptation can set you back and undo weeks of hard work and it takes weeks more to get back what that moment took from you

·        Every group has at least 1 person per 10 you can’t make happy no matter what you do and they ain't gonna quit coming

 I seriously could go on and on.  Before I lost weight with Weight watchers I had never really tried to lose weight. I don’t have a story like MOST everyone that comes in the door.  Many of the leaders and members weight loss story begins with “I have joined weight watchers _____ times” that blank ranges from 2-52. I, on the other hand joined WW in 2006, having never joined before and made my goal weight 2 yrs later. I had looked into a few other programs and WW was the only one that I thought I could live with, because you could eat whatever you wanted, to someone with serious control issues, this is great news. As sat in my meetings, listening to person after person say how they had gained their weight back after they got to their goal because they thought they could do it on their own I thought “I don’t want to be like that”. So I made the decision then that I was going to do whatever it took to not go back to where I started. I listened to my leader who said “if you want to stay at goal weight you have to weigh in EVERY MONTH without fail, and stay for the meeting” and I did just that. I also got a job with WW because they make you weigh in once a month to keep your job, you have to stay at your goal weight.

I say all of that not to brag on my weight loss journey, but to say that your spiritual journey has the SAME concepts!! You have to come to the meetings, you can’t go at it alone, you have to be accountable to someone or you are gonna slip back into old patterns and be back where you were 5 years ago or worse.  I know by experience in my spiritual journey that there have been times, that I have chosen not to follow “the program” and instead think “ I can do my own thing” or “I got this, I know how this works, I don’t need the book” and fell flat on my face, more times than I can count. So I am determined this time to stick to the program, attend the meetings, invest my money, stay accountable (to the point of embarrassment) because I want the end results more than I want the temporary gratification of the temptation set before me. No matter how many times we have walked into the door of the church to say “I’m here to join, I’ve join _______ times before”, God is always there to welcome you back with open arms, and say, “I’m so glad you have decided to come back and join us!! We will get you to goal this time, and you will stick to it this time I just know it”.