Watch Out for Number 3!

Originally at heartlight

At a youth basketball game, I found joy as a mother when I heard an opposing coach yell to his players, "Watch out for number 3! Watch out for number 3!" Since her first team as a 6 year old, my daughter has always requested to be number 3.

At age 12, God has blessed her with height and talent. She has become a force to be reckoned with on the court. To hear the other coach acknowledge it and warn his team about her made my heart swell.

Shortly after that game my daughter chose to claim Jesus as her savior and be buried with Christ in baptism. There are no words to describe that particular joy as a parent! Watching my daughter become my sister in Christ, I thought back to the coach's warning to his team: "Watch out for number 3!"

I pray that I have trained her to be a force to be reckoned with in His kingdom. I hope that Satan acknowledges her as a strong opponent to his evil. Above all, I pray that I model that for her: keeping my sword sharpened and ready for battle, ever kneeling at the throne to hear His word, knowing my "play book" better than my opponent does, and walking in the faith that will extinguish the enemy's flaming arrows. The Holy Spirit breathing fresh life into her has given her a tangible passion and fire for the Lord and His work.

As I send her off to school today, I know in my heart Satan is warning his team, "Watch out for number 3!" Wonder what Satan tells his team about me?

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints (Ephesians 6:10-18 NIV).

Where Does the Time Go?

Y'all, I miss one day blogging, then I miss almost a week! Wow.

Tonight is finally FINALLY the first basketball game for Ashley. We are all so excited. We even picked up a mouth-guard so that the million-dollar orthodontia stays in place.

I don't remind you often about my A Better View gig, but I would encourage you to catch up if you haven't been listening. We have the best time over there. This weekend would be a good time to download to your iPod or onto CD's and listen while you travel for Thanksgiving. Our most recent show has a special guest that was a joy to be with. Stop over here and check us out. We are on iTunes, also (which is the best way to download to your ipod, etc.)

This song has really haunted me lately. I'll try to post lyrics underneath. Very beautiful:

Lyrics | Leeland lyrics - Follow You lyrics

Yes, he has taken care of all of my needs -- how could I not give it away so freely. Truly, may I follow Him into the homes that are broken and meet the needs of the poor and needy.

Have a great Thursday.

Fitness Friday: Push it to the Limit...

First an announcement: my precious doodlebug gal made the 'A' basketball team out of about 55 girls trying out. Woo-hoo! Remember the scene in Forrest Gump (man, I'm tearing up just thinking about it) when Forrest meets little Forrest and asks Jenny, "Is he smart... or... is he like me?" And he weeps when Jenny tells him, "Oh, he's very smart Forrest..." That's how I feel about having a child who can dribble a basketball and move in a forward motion at the same time. I weep. She is not like me, bless her sweet soul.

So, Fitness Friday. If you live anywhere close to me and are enjoying this AMAZING weather, I do hope you are being active and enjoying it. Walk, bike, roller blade, hopscotch, you name it, GET OUT IN IT!! If, of course, you live north of here where they got a few feet of snow yesterday -- find a treadmill! :-) I wouldn't survive snowy runs too well!

If you are already a regular exerciser, go you! However, don't fall into a rut. It's VERY easy to let your walks turn into strolls, your bike ride turn into a cruise, and your swim can become a sweet little float. Your body quickly adapts to an exercise routine making your muscles more efficient. This means that you are getting stronger, but it also means you will burn fewer calories per workout.

There are several ways to challenge yourself. I think I've said it before, but I think a heart rate monitor is the best tool you can use to be aware of the intensity you are maintaining. Do you know of anyone who has been walking the same route, the same distance for years, and can't figure out why they are gaining weight? It's because the body has adjusted. That is no longer a workout, just a thing your body does.

To make it a challenge, try to improve your time. Even varying your route can keep you from falling into the same speed routine. I had a doctor encourage me to get my mile (WALKING) to 12 minutes. That's why I started running -- I would rather run a mile than try to walk one as fast as I possibly can. Improve your time. Challenge your heart rate. Change your route.

To keep from hitting a wall, one technique I've learned about is the 3/1 method: spend 3 weeks REALLY pushing your intensity in your workouts. Challenge how much weight you're lifting, how fast you can walk or run or bike a mile, push yourself with each workout. On the fourth week, take a break. Don't stop exercising, but lower your intensity. Leave the watch and/ or heart-rate monitor at home. Walk the dog, play with the kids, whatever. Make it an 'active recovery' week.

Besides constantly challenging your workout intensity, vary your 'exercise of choice' every once in a while. Maybe on your 'easy week' switch your runs to swims or your bike rides to walks. Change things around. Find a fun way to move. Just keep moving!

Monday, Monday

Oh, my. What a day. Just checking in. I have many, many blogs pinging around my cranium, but this simple 'Ola!' will have to suffice. We have been in Louisiana visiting my family for a few days. We left this morning at 8:30 a.m. in the pouring rain. Y'all, it was GREAT to go to bed listening to it rain last night. But to wake up to it and try to drive in it? Not so much. And Troy didn't feel well. Coming home always seems to take longer than going, and it was simply an eternal trip. We left early trying to get home for Ashley's 6:30 basketball game.

We rolled into the driveway at 5:15. Perfect -- 30 minutes to start a load of laundry, unpack, and get Ashley to the gym for the game. I had given the kids a list of things to start working on when we got home. As Troy and I are unpacking the car, Riley walks through the garage: "Ew!!! There is some AWFUL smell in here!" Ashley heads into the garage, "Oh, MAN! Something must have died in here." Troy follows into the garage. He doesn't exclaim, but it is quite evident that he affirms that there is, indeed, a funk. I, being a not-too-slow learner, marched myself to the front door and rang the doorbell waiting for someone who had already gone through the green cloud-o-funk to open the door so that I could get in. Troy finally figured it out -- and it was quite obvious that the funk wasn't contained to the garage but was concentrated there -- that our outside refrigerator/freezer quit working. In August. In Texas. While we were gone. Need I say more? Oh, yes, I should say more: deer meat. whole chickens. Are you getting the imagery? More importantly, are you imagining the odor?

My precious Troy, who never could identify a dirty diaper, even on his lap, knew my olfactory would never allow me that clean up. I offered to help, but that wonderful man did battle with the 'fridge alone. I don't know all of the details, and he says he hopes he can sleep tonight for some of the horrible images in his brain. Some things are better left to bear alone.

I left Troy hosing out the 'fridge while I got Ashley to the game. He showed up not too much later, freshly showered. Ashley had a wonderful game, and I got to sit in the stands listening to the other team's parents complaining that there was no way she was in the 11/12 age group. (We love that). The game was awesome, we stopped by Subway on the way home. Where I stepped in gum. At least today is over.

Fitness, Schmitness

Okay, if I get some major spurt of inspiration later today I will try to post a Fitness Friday. If I miss this week will anyone notice? Will anyone be heartbroken if Fitness Friday goes away? I'm not getting much feedback on it, other than how much Karene hates it (no, I don't take that personally, at all -- I get what she means). And it's becoming such a struggle to come up with info that would actually BE info that I don't know how much it's worth the effort. I will tell you MY fitness tip for the week: DO NOT assume that Sonic's "low-fat yogurt fruit smoothies" are healthy. I should have known when it tasted EXACTLY like a Dairy Queen blizzard -- I could have had an entire Happy Meal or an order of fried cheesesticks, or TWO lean cuisine meals for how many calories are in the regular!

********************************************
Insight into why I haven't (and shouldn't have) been blogging this week:

I was out and called Troy at home: "Are you standing in... that room where you could check ingredients for me?"
"Do you mean the kitchen?"
"That's the word!"

I returned someone's phone call and left this message: "Yes, I'm going to be at... whatever it is you asked me if I'm going to be at (awards ceremony is THAT difficult phrase I was searching for) and I can help you with whatever you asked me to do."

Words fail me. Frequently.
********************************************
We finished up basketball season last night. We had a great season with a wonderful coach. We had a difficult game Tuesday night with some unfortunate coaching from the other team. He made an illegal substitution for that game (your roster as to who is your 'A' team and who is your 'B' team is supposed to be set for the season back in December). Things didn't go well, and, yes, I'm more irritated because we lost -- but not just because we lost but because 21 girls in the 9 and 10 year-old division witnessed that bending the rules to suit you causes your team to prevail.

I can't say much more because I'm still so ticked about it, but the funniest part to me was all of the mommies I was sitting with -- from our team -- are all fair-skinned, including myself. As the game continued to tank and the other team's fans continued to be hateful, I turned to my friend, Marion and asked, "I can feel that my face is flushed -- are my cheeks red?"
"Yes," she replied, "is my neck splotchy?"
Indeed it was. We checked out red-head, freckled Debra, wearing a scoop-neck top, who pointed at her neck and chest -- it looked like she had been in the sun for 12 hours. Red-head, freckled Angie, sitting next to her, was of the splotchy-neck camp. Fair-skinned people can learn to keep their mouths shut, but their skin will give them away every time.

But we finished with a fun game last night and I'm so proud of all of our girls for not only hanging in with a tough game, but realizing it's not okay to stoop just because other folks will.
********************************************
I have a full day today, one of my glorious days off. I am headed to my gym for my love/hate relationship with my RPM class. This afternoon my Ashley gets an award for some writing she did, then this evening is Ladies Retreat. I am NEVER in the mood to go to that -- I am very much a homebody and am always exhausted by Friday night, as well -- but I am always glad I went. It's about "Telling Our Story" and Judy Thomas is our speaker --it should be great!