I've Got a Dream

This is somewhat of an update to my post from June. Last night as I was crawling in my bed a little card fell out of my Bible and it had the following verse on it. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up on meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25 You see I have been praying for that last several months about a few things in my life and one of those things has been where God may be leading me in the years to come to serve Him. As I studied the Proverb 31 woman, I found that many sources thought this to be many women rolled into one description OR one women throughout different seasons in her life. This is what got me thinking about my next season and how I can begin preparing for it. I have always felt like God gave me certain passions in life and that He will use them for Kingdom purposes. One passion that I have (and others have noticed in me) is hospitality. I love people, I love getting people together, I love planning parties. It is just something I get excited about. Whenever someone gets engaged or pregnant my mind always goes to the shower, being able to bless this person and share my excitement with them. I think about other ways I can volunteer my time and gifts, such as helping with charity functions or planning church retreats. But last night as I looked over this verse my mind went somewhere new, what if this could become a career down the road. What if I could do what I love, get paid for it and most importantly do it for God? What if I could work for a Christian organization like Family Life and help plan marriage conferences or get on with the local Christian music station and organize concerts? What if my work helped change lives? Now that would be a dream wouldn't it? I don't know what God has in store for me in the days, months and years to come; I just pray that whatever it is, it is used to glorify God and further the His Kingdom.

To Weigh Or Not To Weigh???

That is the question!

Today Elliot officially turned one month old (time is going by way too quickly in my opinion!). As a "gift" to "celebrate", my mother-in-law brought me a scale. Now this wasn't to be mean. She wanted to see how much Elliot weighed yesterday and I didn't have a scale, so she brought me her extra one. The only thing is that we have not owned a scale since I was pregnant with Maddux. I decided when he was born that I would not be a slave to the numbers anymore and threw it in the Goodwill box. Fast forward three and a half years and here I am, face to face with my old arch enemy, and he is harder to ignore than ever. This past pregnancy I found myself at my highest weight EVER and by a landslide! There is something about your third pregnancy and inching closer to 30 (and eating cookies and cakes everyday) that really did me over. Now I am not saying that I am not blessed with my dads amazing metabolism or that nursing hasn't helped me get a great start on shedding some of the extra weight, because I am blessed and it has helped, but I know it will take a little bit of work on my part to get back to "normal". Finding out what normal is will be the hard part. Can I expect to be in the same (or better) shape as before I had babies? Is it about that number or how I feel about myself? How much time is a reasonable amount of time to set goals for myself? Should I dump my new "friend" or embrace him? In all honesty, this is the first time in my life that I truly feel like I need to work at losing weight, and it sucks! I did step on the scale tonight to weigh myself with and without Elliot to see how much weight she has gained in the last month (she is 10.6 lbs by the way), but I don't really have any clear cut goals set yet. I do want to track my journey and progress though, so it is with insanity courage that I post these (hopefully) "before" pictures.



4-weeks after delivery





147lbs (16 lbs down from 40 weeks pregnant).



I would like to be able to wear jeans without an elastic band by the end of September. ( I technically have one pair, but they were purchased for my first trimester so they don't count!). And I would LOVE to be able to wear my favorite pair of jeans by my birthday, I just don't know how I am going to get there. I am struggling a bit with training myself to reach for the good calories to keep my milk supply up but also help me lose weight. I also have a major sweet tooth that I give into on a daily basis. I need to find a solution for those problems. Do you have any tips for losing weight or recipes for eating right??