Good Rainy Day

I loved being in God's Word today while waiting at the doctor's office two different times today! This made it a great day in spite of not being able to plan my day like I wanted to. There were some sweet spirited people at the doctor's office (and this is also true of the guy who put air in my tires this morning).

It's been a rainy day today. It was dark and overcast and I got a little wet walking to my car after my doctor's appointment. It's been raining pretty often lately but sometimes I wish we got more rain when it does rain. I can't believe winter is going by so fast. We usually have plenty of cold weather in February but see some spring weather late in February often with blossoming azaleas, which are one of the first sweet harbingers of spring, and so beautiful. I love the seasons. I'm thrilled with different things about each season and praise God's majestic handiwork.

I just started on a 1,500 calorie diet and I'm excited about it. This is phenomenal because in the past I've always wanted a heartier diet than 1,500 calories. Now I welcome petite portions and the awareness of a low level of hunger because I'm anxious for the demise of my excess fat. I planned a diet based on things I really like. I can manage to get some variety but basically eat a lot ot the same things each day --which eliminates meal planning which can be stressful when you're on a diet. I heard that if you have a starting and ending point for doing something it makes it easier to be disciplined. So every two weeks I'm going to take a couple of days off and maybe go out to eat or cook a great meal that I don't usually eat because of the diet. Preparing a light dessert is also going to be a part of my break from my diet every two weeks. I'll just eat one portion and give the rest away. I want to do a Youtube video about starting my diet and to keep up with my progress but I need to get someone to film me because I don't have a video camera.

I was reading Job 39 today where God is asking Job if by Job's wisdom certain animals get their characteristics, some of which are stunning. Job had asked God a lot of questions about why his circumstances turned out the way they did and about God's dealings with him. Job 39 puts light on why God lets things happen that we don't understand, because we don't know significant things about God's creation, illustrating how much more God knows than we know. We can be secure in the fact that God lets things happen because of the divine plan of our loving creator.

Snow

It snowed yesterday! This morning my mom called me at eight a.m. to tell me to go look at the park across the street. I went to look and the park looked so pretty covered in snow! I was bringing groceries to my car yesterday when I first noticed snow flakes falling. Last night I made some minestrone to help celebrate the snowy weather. It turned out pretty good but I just added a can of tomato paste to it because I wanted it more tomatoey. I wonder if I have some Italian blood in me as much as I love tomatoes.

I just read my ten chapters of the Bible according to Dr. Horner's Bible reading system. I'm on my thirty-first day of reading but I notice I keep missing days. Now I'm trying to give myself incentive to read my ten chapters everyday by keeping track of it on my wall calendar. Here is a link to Prof. Horner's Bible-Reading Sysem.

It seems that I'm more inspired to achieve good use of my time. It occured to me that I really like self discipline. When I'm being careful to not waste time, to work toward doing something important to me, it reminds me of when I'm happily and busily getting ready for a family or social event. Practicing good self discipline is an important achievement and rewarding whether or not it's related to events.

Sometimes to help me get going I think about smaller goals I'd like to attain, which gives me enthusiasm. I've always been enthusiastic about beauty products, and I want to be as enthusiastic about cleaning something in my apartment as I am about reading beauty product reviews!

Beautiful Sunshine

I went swimming at 6:30 this morning. I'm so glad I decided to go swimming instead of sleeping late which I've been overly prone to lately. Early morinings are so refreshing and something about a bright sunny morning makes me feel like I'm little kid. I swim at an indoor pool-- the sun streaming through the windows was very bright dancing on the surface of the pool. I saw rainbow colors rippling in the water. I love bright sunlight; it's such an impressive part of summer memories for me. To me it's one of the best things about summer. My swimming workout left me with limberness and a feeling of well being.

I was praying through the alphabet as I swam. God showed me some things during my prayer swimming time that I want to remember. Actions always define; I should focus on areas where improvement is needed related to this. Something is excellent because of excelling. This sounds basic, but excelling can help me to attain worthy goals in areas where I'm weak. If you do good things God is leading you to do, it brings glory to God.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (KJV)

I Love Exercise & I Love Studying Ephesians!

I just got home from walking on the track at the gym. Outdoor walks are my favorite but my back needs the kindness of the padded walking track right now, especially since it'll be a at least a few days until I can swim. Swimming is great for my back. Yesterday while I was in the whirlpool at the gym, the whirlpool jet ripped my swimsuit. My swimsuit was old and faded so I needed a new swimsuit anyway. I had to order a swimsuit online and I should have it Friday. I got twenty-five dollars off the price of the swimsuit. While I was walking at the gym today I observed what looked like a Tae Bo class. It looked really fun and like it would be an excellent core work out. I think I want to do this when I get in better shape. They were skipping sideways too! I used to love to do this when I was a kid. I remember I used to say "I could do this forever!" I would need to lose weight before I could do it easily now. I'm trying to eat as sensibly as I can. When I'm able to do a lot of cardio exercise, such as swimming laps and walking, I lose weight. In the past few days my fitness level seems to have improved. It's nice to notice how my breathing gets deeper after a few minutes of aerobic exercise. This happened twice while I was walking today. Staying on track with my exercise is an important priority, which I notice more the older I get.

I've noticed that it really helps, when planning my day, to decide on and really focus on doing the things that matter the most. For example, if there is something I really need to do-- instead of allowing failure in making progress, to cause me to get depressed, I make it my business to make sure I've planned time in my day that will give me a good opportunity to make progress toward attaining that goal. For me this is often related to some kind of housework. Focused work toward attaining important goals is rewarding and the more you practice this the more success it brings.

I've got some catching up to do on my Ephesians Precept Bible study. I've completed one week since last Thursday, but I need to do one more week. I'm behind a week because I started it a week late. Studying Ephesians is a delight! A method used in Precept is distinctly marking different types of keywords in the Bible text. This is fun too. This makes it easy to compile a lot of facts from the Bible text you've marked.

Health and Homemaking

This week I've begun exercising consistently again, which has such a remarkable positive effect on how I feel. I was in some kind of a mood yesterday though. When I was talking to my sister on the phone, she prayed for me without me even having to ask her to, and I really appreciated it. The mood comes and goes and I do struggle because of it, but I seem to be happier when I'm deliberately taking positive action that brings me closer to achieving goals. Right now I especially want to get my small apartment nice and clean and to be good at upkeep of apartment cleanliness.