There you have it…. eight months of hard work paying off!  I’m down 65 pounds since April 2011.  It took me a LONG time to come to terms with my before picture, but I have.  I’m ready to share with the world.  I still have 35 pounds to go, but I’m not heading back to the neglected state of health on the left, thankyouverymuch.

I got a facebook message from my jr. high choir director from church (talk about a blast from the past!) who told me that she is a health coach and asked me to spread the word for her.  I said no.  I only spread the word for programs/products/people that I’ve tried and had great success with.  She asked if I wanted to try her program.  Just look at that BEFORE picture!  Does it look like I want to lose weight? (Well, I do look happy, but that’s beside the point.)  Yes!  I’ll try another weight loss program…. why not?  I’ve tried ALL the other ones.

My journey began with aching knees, a sore back and general lethargy due to carrying around 100 pounds that I didn’t need.  (I can’t even lift 100 lbs!)  I began eating five of the meals from the company each day and one meal I prepared (or ate out.)  This is the easiest plan I’ve ever seen.  And the meals are a variety of types of food, all nutritionally equal, so I could eat five of their brownies a day if I wanted to.  Some days I wanted to. But I don’t think I ever ate five brownies in one day.  But I was allowed to and that made me happy.

As with any self discipline issue, it was HARD!  And I didn’t want to follow the program when everyone around me was eating movie popcorn.  I WANTED pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.  But I realized that eating what I wanted got me into the horrific shape I was in.  (That shape would be a round ball.)  I changed the input to change the outlook.

I’m still on this journey of feeling empowered with the knowledge I’ve gained.  I can go to a potluck and not freak out and fall off the wagon.  I don’t feel deprived, I feel empowered.  It’s a great feeling.  So great that I decided to be a health coach myself and guide others to optimal health and a feeling of empowerment!  Now if I had only taught jr. high choir, I could send them all a message on facebook!  Paying it forward!

This puppy is lucky he is cute…. and cuddly… and adorable.  This is the Christmas puppy, Ringo, that is so adored and cherished by many people each day.  To say he is spoiled is the understatement of the century.  BUT… here is the list of what he has chewed SO FAR.  (And it’s not like we are leaving stuff lying around… he goes searching for things to chew… while his chewy toys are scattered on the floor and all over the backyard.) 

The camoflage New Testament that Connor gave Keeve. (I was surprised he could see that one.)

Most of the drip lines that run to my potted plants.  I do remember Trixie doing this too, but we lived in a rental for a short period of time when she did this.  I am now hand watering my plants….  

Johnny Tremain, the book that is.  Not only does Johnny get a crippled hand, but now he has been chewed up by a six-inch tall doggy and thrown away. 

The picture of our nephew Mason.  Seems it fell from the display board in the laundry room and Ringo found it.  I couldn’t very well throw away a relative, so Mason is back up on the board…. chewed.

A wooden zoo puzzle that we have had in the family for 18 years…. mostly just the monkey who was riding the unicycle got his head chewed off… but that sort of made the puzzle not pleasing to look at.

The last roll of TP on the TP stand in the bathroom.  There are five or six rolls on there… waiting to be used.  I think we may just leave the bottom one on there for a while…. all chewed up and mangled.

I don’t recall how long the chewing phase lasts, but I pray it is short lived.  Thankfully, Ringo is so cute.

I assumed re-adoption in Arizona would be easier than an international adoption.  It is slightly. Of course we had to get our fingerprints done for the ninth time.  Since our eldest daughter turned 18 in the process, she also got to join in fingerprinting fun.  More financial statements.  More home visits.  More paperwork.  You may recall a blog about the need to prove that our dog had the rabies vaccine too.  (Do they really think the type of people who go trough this whole rigmarole to adopt a child would not get their dog protected against rabies?) Seriously.

We are so close to getting our final court date here in AZ, but come to find out, we didn’t have an English translation of the Sentencia, the final Colombian Adoption Decree.  Ironically, I could not get a straight answer out of anyone at the County Attorney’s Office as to whether this translation had to be certified and/or notarized.  Our social worker was eventually able to pull some strings and get some answers for us.  We sent the Spanish version off to our friend in Colombia for translation, and we received an email back that said there is a mistake on the original, official, final, Colombian Sentencia.  This is almost comical.  Thankfully, our friend could go to the court and get it changed, so we don’t have challenges later.  OF COURSE this includes more time, more money, more paperwork.  Really?

If you are adopting from Colombia, make sure you get a translated copy of the Sentencia BEFORE you leave Bogota!!!

One translating step forward and two adoption process steps backwards.  Some day we will be done.  Some day.

A half hour later, we had come to a T in the path and turned west, having never gone that way previously.  My husband suggested that we take a picture of the trail map (from the trail head) when we get back so we could figure out where we had hiked.  I remarked that the trails are probably on a state website and we could just look them up on the computer.  Luke chimed in stating the obvious that I had obviously missed, “Auntie Linda, there aren’t any computers out here!”  As if to say DUH!

Last year when Luke was in kindergarten, every time I saw him I would ask him if he went to school that day (even on holidays and weekends.)  Did his teacher show up?  Did she teach him anything he didn’t already know?  And I tried with great effort to get him to raise his hand in class and ask, “When are you going to teach me something I don’t already know.”  I coached him.  I prodded.  I modeled. But he never asked.  Smart kid.

“Bring one-tenth of your income into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the LORD. “See if I won’t open the windows of heaven for you and flood you with blessings.” Malachi 3:10.

Both of these Bible verses bring excitement inside my chest.  Not because of a BIG prize at the end, but because we cannot out give God.  When my tithe goes into the offering bag at church it fills me with anticipation to see how God will provide and allow us to bless others because of obedience.  Blessing always follows obedience… I’ve told my kids that for 18 years.  It’s true.  We’ve seen it and lived it over and over.

The most recent occurrence was YESTERDAY!  I was with a group of people who were all paying for a book.  As I pulled out the checkbook (yes, I’m old school!) I felt the Lord whisper that I should pay for the person next to me.  No big deal.  It wasn’t a gob of money, but it freed my heart to be able to bless someone who needed to know God has their back through crisis.   

Out of the blue, which could also be written ”as it happened” (which means God is moving on our behalf) several hours later our family was blessed with a gift more than five times what I gave.  That’s how God works.  It brought tears to my eyes, not only because of the generosity of a friend, but because it reminded me that God has our back even without a crisis.  I sent a thank you email and our friend’s response read, “Some day I’ll tell you the rest of the story!”  See!? 

We need to be like the children of Israel and tell of God’s goodness and faithfulness over and over so we won’t forget and our children won’t forget.  A week ago, I was telling a friend several of the miracles that surrounded our adoption.  It brought me to tears then too, because it could only be God who could orchestrate all that happened… confirmations, relationships, donations, connections, etc.  There were no coincidences.  It was straight up miracles of the living God.

I love the verse in Malachi where God says, “Test me in this!“  It has challenged me beyond belief to release the little in my hands for the immeasurable blessing to come.

There is a night coming this month… only one night.. but still, I look forward to it with my hubby.  The first of March there are four glorious days marked on the calendar for Scrapping in the Pines with my girlfriends.  It is supposedly a scrapbooking retreat… but less and less scrapbooking is accomplished as the years go by.  It should probably be renamed Being Lazy in the Pines….   THAT is a true holiday….. no kids, no cooking, no bedtime, no cleaning, no agenda (other than posted mealtimes)… no wonder it calls my name every six months!  Last September we watched 8 or 9 movies!  Couch Potatoes unite!  It was sublime.

Rick and I endured one of those time-share sales pitches to “win” a free cruise… with some strings attached, of course.  But the strings are cheap cheap cheap for the eight-day trip.  I like bunk beds!  We are awaiting to see if it will be the Western Caribbean in March or Alaska in June.  I’m REALLY hoping for white beaches and not white whales…. but alas, it is also my husband’s 25th wedding anniversary… so I was the nice wife (not the crabby wife) and let him choose one destination.  He’s a true Canadian with ice in his veins.

Our annual trip to Lake Tahoe has moved to August this year…. which is fantastic for us living in Phoenix, right next door to hell in the summer.  And our son, who is cycling again after the broken arm the week before Christmas, has a couple of races that may require over-night stays… can you see how high my hand is raised to volunteer to escort him???  I feel some mother-son bonding around the corner.  I’ll wear whatever t-shirt they want me to!

So, school drudgery is laid to rest each time I peer at the highlighted days in my purse daytimer.  By the end of February the kids will be wondering why I keep taking the daytimer into the bathroom so often.  It’s my own version of Calgon.

Today I spent my Berean Bucks on devotional books to do with my kids.  Focus:  OTHERS.  BAM!  (BAM is my new word, in case you haven’t noticed.) Psalms, Romans and Parables.  I’m looking forward to learning together about God around the big kitchen table.  Makes my mama-heart glad.

1.  My 15-year-old son has been growing out his hair for a long time.  Yesterday he asked me a question I NEVER thought I’d hear… “Mom, do you know how to cut my hair in a mullet?”  What in the world?  It’s been 25 years since I’ve done a mullet, but I believe I remember how.  And then it happened… I was transported back to college in 1985… mullets everywhere.  The mullet went down a little rustier than planned (in fact I need to do some repair work tonight) but it made us all laugh until we cried.

2.  My 15-year-old son got some running TOE shoes.  What in the world?  They are red with black rubber on the bottom…. with a little strap just like Mary Jane’s to hold them on his hairy feet.  He’s been wearing them around the house all day “breaking them in”… for what, I’m not sure.  Maybe running.  But he’s a cyclist.

3.  Ringo the wiener dog is brain-dead when it comes to house/potty training.  Seriously… brain DEAD.  This will take a LOT of diligent work.  He also tried to chew the back of the Ethan Allen rocking chair.  Not good.  We initiated the use of the spray bottle today.  All I have to add is he’s lucky he’s so cute.

4.  Buying SparkNotes from Barnes & Noble online is cheaper and quicker than running down to the store to buy them.  Don’t tell my American History students, please.  A few clicks…. 44 printed pages… and BAM… I’m smarter than a 5th grader.

That is all for now.  Peace out!

I’m a planner by nature, so making the high school plan was right up my alley.  The lovely state we reside in has the high school requirements right there online for us to copy and paste.  I simply spread out the course requirements over four years and BAM… it was done.  Fast forward to the request for the transcript.  WHAT?  You want grades from the last three years?  Of course I kept diligent track of all of them… including electives and P.E. and driver’s education…. somewhere.  Being somewhat organized, I had thrown them all into a file folder AND I knew where it was.  Whew!

Through the first three years of high school teaching, I had also been collecting transcript templates.  They were thrown in a file folder that I knew the location of!  See?  Why was I freaking out?  I guess I had heard of other moms losing it at this point, so I jumped on the band wagon.

Truly, it was no big deal.  One balmy August afternoon when it was WAY too hot to go outdoors in Phoenix, AZ, I sat down at the computer and made my own template for an OFFICIAL HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT.  Yes, I wrote that right at the top in bold letters.  Looks really official.  I resurrected the high school plan for my daughter… the one with two cute pictures on the top… (one from 1994 when she had a waterfall hairdo and was sitting in her high chair.. and one glamor shot taken by her talented cousin, Whitney) and I filled in the classes as they actually happened.  Bam!

Why do homeschool moms freak out about this??  I’m not sure.  The Lord fills in the gaps for us EVERY time.  The credits added up to more than enough.  The required classes were accomplished.  He supplied teachers for the subjects where I know nothing.  Homeschooling is really about leaving the details up to the Lord.  We wake up every day and pray for wisdom… and then march down the stairs, feeling as unqualified as ever, and rely on the Lord to aid this sometimes weary soul.  I wouldn’t trade one day of our homeschooling adventure…. (I can think of about 10 days I would trade!) … but each day with its trials, joys and triumphs was worth every ounce of my ever-loving-sold-out devotion to God and our kids.

Tonight I copied and pasted Official High School Transcript #1 and filled in the blanks for #2.  And it’s only half way through his freshman year!  Sweet Jesus, I’m on top of this thang now!

Remember back in April when I spent all my birthday money at Goodwill on 50% off day with visions of a shabby chic backyard?  Well, it is slowly materializing!  Finally!  I found this top from a girl’s bedroom set… maybe from the bed or a desk hutch… and I could envision a garden shelf dealie to stack my pots and hang my tools.

Then I looked for MONTHS for a bottom piece to store my dirt and fertilizer and turtle kneeling pad.  I think it was in August or September that I happened on this gem at Goodwill… on another 50% off day!  Sweet mother of baby Jesus!  It was perfect.  The guy at the store told me that it came in from a monastery full of religious books all in Chinese.  So half of the finished product was in the ministry.  :o) 

After much painting and sanding and hammering 1×4′s on the back so it doesn’t fall and kill a small child or dog… it is finished!  My husband took one look at the finished product and asked, “So you had all that junk?”  Nice, eh?  Yes, I did… and one man’s junk is his wife’s treasure.  I actually will use the junk, well, most of it.  The ceramic butterfly in the center was handmade by my six-year-old self in Renton, Washington in a ceramics class at a neighbor’s house.  The rest is truly junk.  Not the butterfly.

We did have a near catastrophe whilst waiting for the 1×4′s to be nailed on the back.  I had it set up in the middle of our back porch… clearly capable of falling and killing a small child or dog.  The wind whipped up a gale to behold and knocked the top right off.  It fell backwards, hit the NEW, glass patio table, got a big bash-in on the back piece and fell to the ground.  Shoot.  I put the big tin plate on the top shelf in front of the bash-in evidence.  All is well now.  Why would anyone need this in their yard, you ask?  Because now my gardening gloves won’t get chewed and buried by the dogs.  That’s really what this was all about…. me having to repeatedly replace my flimsy gardening gloves from the dollar store.  See, all is well now. (I have since planted those violas in those six pots in the little green stand on the right.  They are darling.)