The Accidental Pastor's Wife

I just ate 5 cookies worth of frozen peanut butter homemade cookie dough.

We made some of these a few years ago because we didn't care for the ones you can buy (and I knew I could make a set for each kid in my Sunday School class for the price of one set from Family Life). I'll just give you the link to the website I used to make them.


http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html

Have fun!!

*reposted from March 22, 2007

I've still got a ways to go, but I've found some tricks that help me get to the Recreation Center where I work out:

My husband has a flexible schedule, but doesn't like to be bound by much of a routine. So I get up in the morning and I ask, "So when can I work out today?" Sometimes it's the morning, or late afternoon, or after dinner. I have just learned to be flexible because beggars can't be choosers!

Once he tells me when it would work for him, as it gets to be closer to that time I think of all the stuff I can get done that will enable me to get there. I get in my workout clothes with my running shoes! I begin some dinner preparations just in case I'm going in the late afternoon. If I get to go in the morning, then I wait to take my shower until I get home. I just immediately get in my workout clothes. If I go after dinner, I again get in my clothes and shoes before I serve everyone. Then I let my dinner settle as I wash all the dishes, and by then I'm ready to go. Have you noticed a pattern here? Right now, I get to go this afternoon sometime. I've taken a shower, but went ahead and put on my clothes. Oh, and make sure my iPod is ready to go, along with my water bottle and any reading material.

Go for at least 45 minutes. What's 15 more minutes when you're already there and sweating?

I tell myself, if I get tired, "I can do anything for ____ minutes!" "It's only ____ more minutes!" "I never regret working out when it's all done!"

Mix it up. Don't do the same thing all the time. I added the stair killer and it IS hard, but good. As soon as I'm not challenged at something, I up the pace, the incline, the level. I've worked up to the 12th level on the elliptical trainer. I can run at 5.0 now on the treadmill. I did NOT start that way. In fact, when I began I did something terrible to my knee because I went too fast.

Get some great shoes. The gal over at Finish the Race suggested going to a running store and getting a gait analysis. I did that over Thanksgiving and discovered that I overpronate, which was contributing to my knee problems. I got a shoe that gives me better support and the problem is solved!

As I think of more things that have helped me, I'll post about it.

I found the coolest blog, via Average Girl that has a whole team of cool people who are in the fight against fat together: One Weigh Or Another

I've found all kinds of great ideas, especially the Real Age Test Be sure to check it out! By the way, my real is 24.3 :)

I'm hosting this month's Recipe Round Up. I don't know about you, but sometimes I have trouble coming up with creative, healthy (or not so healthy!) side dishes for my meals. How many different ways can I make green beans? Is there anything else I can do with brown rice? I need a new pasta sauce. Broccoli and cauliflower-must it always have cheese sauce?

I've decided to stretch you all a bit and make side dishes the March Recipe Round-Up.

Give us some super-healthy stuff you'd serve your family on a busy weeknight, but don't forget those decadent holiday-only sides. I'm excited to see what we can come up, ladies!

Let's shoot for Tuesday, March 18th as the day of the Round Up. Post the recipe on your blog, then send me the link and on that day I'll post everyone's links. It will be just in time for Easter dinner menu planning.

If you want more details, be sure to check out Rebecca Writes.

Seems the blogs are lit up again with all this discussion. Some of it is great. And if you haven't noticed, I do lean somewhat to the right on many of these issues.

I'm just not sure that the Bible teaches as a direct command that ALL women are to marry, have as many children as possible, and homeschool them, while raising goats and grinding their own grain for homemade bread. I think it's fantastic that there are women who choose this kind of lifestyle. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and in some ways, I live kinda like that (no goats...) But to turn a lifestyle choice into a command is a huge jump to me, and when it's implied that you're living in sin if you don't do these things, well, I just have to remember all the man-made laws the Pharisees enforced. There are basic Biblical principles that are non-negotiable: Raise your children in the fear of the Lord, teach them the Bible, train them in the way they should go. I truly think that each family has to earnestly pray about HOW this looks in their family. God will do the convicting if something needs to change.

As the pastor's family, we can only encourage families to seek God's glory in their homes. Sure, I'd love to have another family in our church who homeschools and does family worship at home. But I shouldn't expect that everyone else has the same convictions about those things as I do. And I can't condemn the mom who works part time while her kids are in school all day but is in their classrooms weekly, volunteering at extra curricular activities and still faithful to bring her entire family to church. Is this woman in grave sin against God? There are some authors out there who would say "YES!" But I don't think I buy that...all the scriptures that deal with the home and women's roles are so broad that you cannot fit every single woman and family into this cookie cutter of homeschooling mom of 10.

We have a family who is considering homeschooling next year. I talk freely about it with her, but I always qualify what I'm saying with, "I'm praying that you and your husband agree on whatever outcome you decide. That's the most important thing." I'm not trying to push my views about homeschooling on her, but I do refer books to her, share honestly about the struggles, and pray for her. I'm not interested in guilting her into it. She has to want it for her own family, not because she feels pressured.

Do you know what time it is? It's 2:58 a.m. on my computer. An hour ago I had actually fallen asleep. only to be rudely awakened by my dog barking at a bunch of deer in my front yard. It seems my heart hasn't stopped racing since.

Tomorrow is a full day--I sure hope I can fit a nap in there somewhere...

Good grief. Good night already!

Crummy Church Signs: Yeah! What?!?

Oh my. The crumminess is UNREAL! I particularly like the Presbyterian church sign...enjoy!

Though originally written for children and published in 1807, this book retells twenty of Shakespeare's plays. I will admit a certain ignorance of most of them, though I had a fantastic English teacher in ninth grade who made Julius Caesar come alive for me ("Beware the Ides of March!!"). I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and have found myself drawn to it instead of my chores. I've been taking it with me to work out, too, which says a lot. Each play, written in prose form, is relatively short so it's a good one to pick up off and on. I just finished A Winter's Tale, which is a play I had never even heard of before. I found myself captivated and surprised by the ending!

If you're looking for something that's a classic, but not so cumbersome to read (when you have young children that's important!), I'd recommend this. You could probably find it at any library, but I got mine from www.paperbackswap.com (By the way, have you checked that out yet, book lovers? I've mailed over 20 books!).