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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Coming back...

This past Monday, I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting since my previous session ended in October of 2009. I will admit that I was a little worried. Between my last meeting in October and Monday, I had been on a cruise, celebrated Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and New Year’s, not to mention getting engaged. So with all the food related holidays and trips in there, I knew I had gained back some of what I had previously lost. But it turned out to be a bad news/good news situation.

Bad news: My suspicions were confirmed...I had, in fact, gained several pounds since my last weigh-in BUT...

Good news: I lost close to 20 pounds during my last Weight Watchers (WW) session and only gained back 7 of those! I kept off over half of what I’d lost!

So now the battle begins. With the wedding only 220 days away and my dress shopping trip only one month away, I want to look my best. I almost reached the goal of losing 10% of my starting weight last time and that will be my goal again this time (though based on Monday’s starting weight, not last year’s). Thankfully, I was able to find a meeting with the same group leader we had here at work so it’s nice to see a familiar face. She’s very encouraging and excited about what she does.

In some ways, restarting Weight Watchers has felt like coming back to something long forgotten. It was like I had put it on the shelf and walked away, forgetting it was up there, waiting to be taken down again. And now I’ve dusted it off and put it back into circulation, only with more fervor this time. Having an upcoming wedding will do that to you. ;)

Maybe there’s something you have put on the shelf, dear reader. Maybe it’s a hobby, maybe a pastime that took a backseat when other things came up, or maybe it’s something that should have never been shelved, like a friendship. I encourage you to take it up again. We’re less than a month into the new year...it’s never too late for resolutions. ;)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Friday, January 22, 2010

Factual Friday: Words, words, words

Fact: “Typewriter” is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

I took a typing class my junior year of high school. I needed the extra credits, it was an easy class and my mom convinced me that it would be a useful skill for later in life. Of course, it helped that the teacher was willing to allow me to leave early and skip class once a week to go to my concurrent enrollment class down at the college as well.

I’m really glad I took my mom’s advice about taking that class. It’s pretty cool now to be able to hammer something out on the computer as quickly and smoothly as I can (sometimes). I didn’t always take my mom’s advice as a teenager. Sometimes things still turned out okay, sometimes the same result was reached even if it took longer, but other times my life would’ve been a heck of a lot easier and less painful if I had taken her advice.

So thank you, Mom, for all the advice you’ve given, whether I’ve taken it or not. I know as I go into the world that I am better prepared for it because of what you taught me.

“Mama, you taught me to do the right things.
So, now you have to let your baby fly.
You've given me everything that I will need.
To make it through this crazy thing called life.”

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Friday, January 15, 2010

Factual Friday: Measuring up

Fact: “The distance between your elbow and wrist is the same length as your foot!”

At least according to the back of my oatmeal packet this morning it is. The first thing I did was look at my arm and think to myself, “My foot can’t possibly be that long!” I have yet to actually pull out a ruler or tape measure and verify the veracity of this “fact” but I thought it was intriguing nonetheless. I’ve heard a couple of other things like this over the years. The one that sticks with me is that your arm span is the same as your height, which from my experience is pretty close.

It’s amazing how God knit us together. I have several friends who have recently experienced the birth of new life. For several the baby is their firstborn and for some a second or third child. I love seeing pictures of these precious souls that God has entrusted to my friends. Even though I’ve been around children my whole life in my mom’s daycare, I still never get over the amazement at how tiny these brand new people are or how wonderful they are.

God, our Creator, knows us so intimately that He has all the hairs on our head numbered. Doctors may be able to take measurements when we’re born and when we go in for physicals, but even they can’t know us like the One who made us. You are uniquely fashioned and known completely. Take comfort in the fact that wherever you go, there He is. God loves you and wants you to know Him in the same way that He knows you, a way in which no one else will ever know you.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” ~Psalm 139:7-10

Soli Deo Gloria!
Meghan

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Factual Friday...on Tuesday!

Fact: It is possible for February to have five Sundays.

If I haven’t introduced you already, welcome to the randomness that is my mind. You know how occasionally we have five Sundays in a month? Well, I got to thinking about whether or not February, with its fewer days, could ever have five Sundays. Turns out, under special circumstances, it can! If the first day of February falls on a Sunday during a leap year, then the 29th will also fall on Sunday, making it the fifth Sunday that month.

And...I have absolutely no clue where that came from. I think I was still half-asleep when I figure that one out. Like I said, my mind likes to be random occasionally, though it’s usually random music associations, not philosophical questions about calendar arrangements.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” ~Psalm 139:13-17

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Reception Blues & God’s Grace

I will be the first to admit that I got a bit discouraged Tuesday. Ever since getting engaged, Dan and I have been taking care of putting plans in motion for the wedding date in September. I’ve really enjoyed getting to plan our future with the man I love and it’s been a mostly enjoyable process...

Then I hit a wall. I had e-mailed over half a dozen potential reception locations and I kept getting back responses that either put them outside our budget (sometimes enormously so) or said they weren’t available the day of our wedding. So I e-mailed another half dozen, wondering if the responses would be the same.

Since then, I’ve had some better “luck” with the responses I’ve been getting. A couple of the locations are even available on that day AND in our price range! But one of the most wonderful things to come out of this discouragement was an e-mail that Dan sent me, saying that he was praying for the right place. That really put things in perspective for me and reminded me that God is the one that leads our steps, even when it comes to picking out something like a reception hall.

Not that I didn’t trust that God would work it out, but I was taking what I thought to be the solution into my own hands. With that wonderful reminder from my husband-to-be, the discouragement fled as I released the issue. My mom has been astonished at how unfazed I’ve been and I realized yesterday that it’s only by God’s grace that I can feel this way.

So I will forge on with the wedding planning, knowing that God is really the one in charge and is taking care of all the details that I can’t even begin to imagine long before I’ve thought of them.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Meghan