Time To Change Things Up A Bit!

Well, hello!  It's been a while since I've written a new blog.  I've been dealing with some pretty low moods lately, and when I get that way, I have no interest in doing much of anything.  That all seems to have changed with the change in the weather, and as I sit here on St. Patrick's Day in shorts with the windows open, listening to the birds sing outside, I am having a hard time believing it's still winter!  But I'll take it, if it means getting me out of my funk and in a better mood (I'm sure hubby will, too).  I'm hoping this beautiful weather is here for a while, but I don't believe that the cold weather is gone for good just yet.

Thanks also to the weather, my thoughts over the past week have turned to gardening.  Hard-core.  I am eager to begin a new garden for the year, and be able to enjoy delicious fresh veggies from my backyard.  On the plan this year will be corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, and of course, asparagus.  I had hoped to see an asparagus shoot poking its little head out of the ground when I went out to look yesterday, but alas, nothing yet.  I'm sure I'll see something soon, though.  Hubby and I went to the home of a coworker/friend this afternoon who was offering to give us some lilies that she had split from her garden, and she also gave us some black-eyed Susans to replant, too.  They are sitting on our back patio right now, but hopefully they will be in the ground by tomorrow.  I'll take pictures once they start growing and blooming.

Ingredients for Candy Bar Cake--NOT on the WW plan.

My thoughts have also turned to losing this extra weight (I'd call it winter weight, but honestly, it's about three winters' worth of weight, so it would be a bit of a misnomer).  Hubby and I broke down, after not having much success or motivation trying to manage our diets on our own, and purchased a Weight Watchers membership.  So far, it's working well, especially for hubby, and it's only been a week.  It's not a bad plan, but I think I'd rather go back to counting calories.  Once the membership expires (in May), I may go back to doing that, since I should be back to within my normal weight range by then.  Not down to my goal, but at least back to acceptable.  So, I went online and printed out a bunch of recipes from the website, and I plan to begin trying them over the course of the next several weeks.  I will also review them on here, and if they are good, I'll post them for you to try as well.  I figure, even if you are not trying to lose weight, why not eat healthier anyway?  I went on Pinterest and did a search for Weight Watchers recipes, and found quite a few that sounded good.  You can also just do a Google search and find them.

Since we've started the Weight Watchers plan, I admit that I feel like I'm not eating enough.  According to them, though, I am.  I just feel hungry all of the time!  I know that it's for the best, though, if I want to be healthy.  It's nothing compared to what Jesus experienced in the desert--He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights!  If that's not hunger, I don't know what is.  Just the fact that He was able to go without food for over a month shows that He was more than human.  When the devil came to tempt Jesus to turn stones to bread to eat, and prove that He was God, Jesus replied, "“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" (Matthew 4:1-5).  Jesus could have done it, but it wasn't the reason that He was fasting to begin with.  Maybe when I'm hungry, I should turn to the "soul food" that God offers each one of us every day through His word in the Bible.  Hmm.  Food for thought.

Where Did January Go?

Valentine's Day
Wow, I can't believe that Monday is the last day of January already.  Where did the month go?  It seems as though I blinked and now we're approaching the new month.  I remember my dad saying that as you get older, the years go by much faster.  At this rate, by this time next year I'll be close to 60 years old!  (I'm nowhere near that right now :) ).

Oh well.  I know I've been busy, but I guess it's nothing to write home about.  I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day.  Last year, I surprised my husband with decorations, a gift, and a huge home-cooked meal served on our good china.  I even made pink, heart-shaped Rice Krispie treats, which looked great but were hard as a rock (I don't know what happened!).  It was really fun, and I was able to do it because 1) the holiday fell on a weekend day, and 2) I wasn't working, so I had plenty of time to plan and prepare.  I don't see this year being nearly so extravagant, unfortunately.  It was fun, though, and he liked it and was very surprised.  This year, I'm not sure what to do yet, but I ordered this t-shirt online (which hubby knows about) and I plan to wear it on said holiday.  I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Okay, Time For Spring
I'm very much looking forward to spring now.  It seems like every other day it's snowing!  Be careful what you wish for, I guess.  I still like snow, and I think that it's beautiful outside, but this year seems overly snowy and harsh.  More than once I've had to take the truck to work while hubby takes the car, because I have to drive through the country to get to work, and drifting snow is a common problem on the highways out there.  There is a pretty significant snowstorm forecasted to his us around mid-week here too, and possibly bring us over a foot of new snow!  If it happens as they are forecasting, it will be a slow drive to work, if I make it at all.  Is it wrong that I wish we could retire young, travel around and enjoy life, instead of the daily grind of the rat race?  I would like to be on some private island out in the Caribbean right now...I've never been there, but I'm sure it's nice this time of year.

I Need To Vent

I was listening to the radio one morning last week as I got ready for the day, as I always do.  I usually listen to the local conservative talk station here, and one of the topics this morning was a show on MTV that, while not a reality show, portrays teens that do nothing but have sex and do drugs.  Apparently, many conservative/family organizations have rallied and managed to get the paid advertisers to pull their support from this show.  I say good for them!  I am absolutely appalled at the television shows and movies that exist anymore.  I can't say that television and movies were pristine when I was young, and I admit that I watched shows that I was too young to understand.  I greatly expanded my vocabulary through the television shows and movies I was allowed to watch, including "Cheers", "The Golden Girls", "Back to the Future", and so on, and I tried to impress my parents a few times by repeating four-letter words that I heard on said shows but knew not the meanings.  While shocked that I would pick up the language, they also found it funny.  Oh well.  I probably sound like a prudish old woman, but when I watch old movies on TCM or AMC and compare them to the movies of today, I am terribly discouraged.  Even the Disney Channel is no longer a safe alternative, especially after ABC took over several years ago.  Not a single show on there is actually family-friendly!  No teen has any respect for their parents and they treat their peers with utter hatred.  Most shows on any given network has strong, independent female leads and sad, emasculated male leads.  (There is a book out right now titled "In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks...", and while I haven't and won't ever read it, I believe it's true).  One show out there is all about the supposed life of the average American teenager, and apparently all that American teenagers do anymore is sleep around and get pregnant in high school.  While I know that this is a serious problem among teens, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would make a television series about teen pregnancy that makes it look like a good predicament to be in!  It's unbelievable that in our society, these things are not only accepted, but are accepted as the norm today.  Anyone who disagrees with it is considered intolerant and are ridiculed and mocked  for seeing these themes as wrong.  Where have the morals gone in our society??  What are we teaching children?  Wow.  Sadly, it will only ever get worse, and for that reason, I have to say that I would have no problem at all with completely getting rid of cable and only seeing very few movies.  Hollywood is the worst influence of all on our families and children, and yet we happily allow them to entertain us for hours each day, every day of the week.  I can't help but believe that our ancestors would be very disappointed in us and what we have allowed our lives and families to become.  If you have children in this day and age, you have a very difficult job of raising them.  Most of you already know this.  It will be an uphill fight all the way to make sure that they know and understand the morals and standards to which you, as Christians, must hold them.  I do not envy you, but I do pray for you.

Well there.  That concludes this week's episode of "My Soapbox".  Thank you.

At the church we attend, we have just finished a three-part sermon on the sanctity of marriage, based on the teachings in Matthew 7:24-27.  I won't go into specifics here, but basically this passage says that marriage should be built on faith in Christ (the rock) instead of the standards of the world (sand).  (These are great sermons available online, and if you want to hear them, send me a message and I'll send you the link.) This is just as applicable to children, and what they are learning from the world today.  We, as adults, are responsible for everything that we teach them, whether we have children or not.  They learn from what they see and hear.  Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even he is old, he will not depart from it".  Build your marriage on the Rock of Salvation, not the sand of the world, and your children will learn this as correct.  Teach them to respect and listen to you, because God commands it (Eph. 6:1-3).  It is important because with this knowledge, they will hopefully be able to face a destructive world of sin armed with the power of God's Holy Word, and withstand the temptations to follow the easy, but deadly, paths that will certainly and inevitably be set before them by the enemy.