A Party at the Library...

Ms. Dot, with Jordan and Noelle

I have gotten behind again on my posting, so this will be a little bit of catch-up. This past Tuesday, the lady who has been the head librarian at our local library for 20+ years had her retirement party. It was a pretty big deal, lots of people, lots of food, and probably the loudest the library has been for quite a while! Ms. Dot has been the head librarian ever since I can remember and it's sad for me that she is retiring now. She has always been so precious to my kids, just like she always was to me. My kids absolutely love to go to the library and spend time. We have a great summer reading program there, and they just like to go in the kids' room and pick books, do puzzles, play with dinosaurs, etc. It's just a great place for them. These next pictures were of the kids and me standing in front of the mural in the kids' room at the library. I think the animals on the wall are so precious!

We'll miss you, Ms. Dot!


Letting the panda bear hug on us, and apparently the zebra is grazing on my hair...


This is a better shot of the entire mural in the library's kids' room.

Father's Day Weekend

We had a good Father's Day weekend. Mitch's kids, Leslie and Alan, came over on Friday night to see him and brought him a present. We had a really good visit and I know he was so glad they got to come.

Then Saturday, Dad got some time to himself while I took Jordan and Noelle to the movies - FUN! We hardly ever, ever, ever get to go see a movie, and the kids were so pumped about it!

On Sunday, the kids gave Dad cards they had made for him and a present, then we headed off to church, where they made two more cards for him complete with candy attached! YUM! After church we went to see Mitch's Dad and had a nice visit with him. When we got there Mitch's sister and her family were in from out of town so we got to visit with them for a little bit too, so that was fun too. After we left his house, we went to meet my parents for a late lunch at Los Portales (more YUM!). I took my husband to Dairy Queen for a blizzard for a treat, my kids were riding with my parents and we were going to meet up with them at our house. Instead, my hubby wanted to go to Cypress Park which has a really great walking trail and thought that would be a good idea after our lunch. On the way to the park he gave me a little less than half of his Blizzard. He knew I was trying to be good and not eat anything like that, but he wanted me to have it, and well - let's just say he didn't have to twist my arm out of socket to get me to eat it! We all met up at the park and walked and looked at the animals, took a few pics, and went home. It was almost 5:00 when we got here and we were worn out! We sat around for the rest of the evening watching nature shows until bedtime, after Mitch had seen the baseball highlights that is! It was a really good weekend, hope ya'll enjoy the pics!


Mitch, Noelle & Jordan


My honey and me
Love you Sweetie!

Papaw, Noelle and Jordan

Me and my dad
Love you Dad!

Ahoy Me Mateys, Another Birthday Be A-Comin'...

Well, another birthday is almost here. My little Jordan is turning eight years old on Monday! We went on and had his birthday party today at the park and it was just beautiful. It was not really a "party" per se, just really a nice get-together with two of Jordan's friends and their siblings, and his cousin. His grandma came and she brought his cousin, which was really nice! He was so excited he could hardly sleep. I'm talking about in the wee hours of the morning when it is still dark outside he was tossing and turning and could not sleep. His stomach was turning flip-flops just in anticipation of everyone singing the birthday song to him! It was such a fun time and a really perfect day! Thank you Lord for the beautiful weather today!

As the kids are getting older we have decided to stop having the "parties". We have always had the whole family there and lots of friends, but we feel like they're getting big enough now just to do something fun with their close friends (instead of mom and dad's friends) and that be enough. This is the first year we have done our parties like this and it's gone really well. Having the big parties are also not very reasonable for us anymore because of the considerable cost of having them! Anyway, it was a fun time, and he still has his real birthday on Monday to look forward to, the day he turns EIGHT, the day he becomes... well, he just becomes a year older! LOL!

I love my son and I"m so thankful for him and that we have been blessed with him. Hope ya'll enjoy these pics!

Birthday Boy Jordan!

Pirates Cake

Jordan, Brent, Christian, and Jacob

Great memories!

Changes...

I have decided to change the name of my blog from my weight loss journal to the title you see above, "Clay in the Hands of the Potter". In the past few months, it seems there have been so many changes in my life that it is hardly recognizable as the same life! Of course, this is ridiculous, it is very much the same life, but there are some very big differences. I truly feel like clay in the hands of THE Potter, continually being molded and shaped, changed and improved (I hope), and I must remain pliable in His hands so that I can become exactly what He wants me to be.

I have been thinking for days and days, not sure how long, of what the name of this should be. I felt like with the old name there was just too much focus on my weight. I will still talk about what I am doing and my progress, and will include pics, but many times I just want to talk or share pictures, and I feel like it's not right because I'm supposed to be talking about my weight. My weight is only one part of me, and I don't want it to be the most important part. The most important parts of my life are Jesus, my family, my ministry, and my friends. My body, my self-image, my weight, are way, way down the list, or at least they should be! I have had times since I have had this blog that my body has been my main focus, and I would think constantly about what I would eat next, what exercise was next, etc. Then, if I didn't have an update or if I hadn't eaten right or had not exercised, I felt like a failure. This is not the way I need to be! I want to be healthy because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, I want to be healthy for me and for my family, and I want to live as long as possible to fulfil what purpose God has for my life.

So please, keep reading, keep commenting (I love to get your comments!). I will keep you all updated, but I just need you to know that my weight is not - and cannot be - my focus. Thanks so much to you all for your encouragement!

Natural Beauty...

I have posted a picture of my beautiful little ballerina girl all made-up, and now here is my beautiful little girl in all of her natural beauty! The first pic is of Noelle wearing a staple of my wardrobe - my ballcap. LOL!She doesn't need a spot of make-up does she?

I Hope You Dance...

My daughter's dance recital is this Saturday, and today we had the dress rehearsal. I think she is just absolutely beautiful, my little ballerina. Every time she dances it makes me cry, it is soooo precious! How did she get so beautiful, you might ask? God made her that way! How did I get blessed with such a wonderful daughter as this? God blessed me mightily!

Counting My Gains But Losses...

Hello everybody! I'm still here! I apologize for the month off! I have missed blogging, but have just felt too overwhelmed to even bother with it. So, today I just had to sit down and do it. I had to make the decision to sit down and type. As my friend, Michelle, would say...I had to do it on purpose.

I feel as though my life has been in upheaval for a few weeks now, and as I sit here typing, wondering how much is okay to share, how much is okay to say, and what is too personal, I wonder "God, what comes next? What is the next step?". The hardest thing about change is the not knowing. Maybe it is easier to follow when we are blindfolded. Maybe it causes us to hold tighter to Christ when our eyes are covered so that we are unable to see the next step, causes us to not want to let go of His hand because as long as we hold on we know He will never, EVER lead us astray. Perhaps if my eyes were opened to see everything that would happen, I wouldn't have to trust Him as much and might depend too much on me.

For instance, yesterday my glasses finally broke. I have had them for a few years. I have contacts, but my allergies have been at their worst ever for the past three weeks. Now, I am forced to wear my contacts with the nice, gritty, sandpaper, itchy feeling in my eyes caused by allergies. Nice. Really nice. No, not really. I am frustrated and aggravated. I cannot afford new glasses right now. None of the eye doctors I know do payment plans. I have been told that one eye doctor does in special cases, but I would feel weird about that since he does not like to do it. I have no vision insurance currently. I miss my glasses.

I don't know what will happen next for my eyes. I don't know when I will be able to get glasses. But they are a need, a NEED, and my heavenly father will meet all of my needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. So, I wait, and now I have to trust, because I don't know what to do. I just don't know.

The glasses story is of course the least of my concerns at this time.

Another major concern is that I am now unemployed. I have been able to work from my home doing medical transcription since 2001. It has been important that I worked because we needed that income really badly. Now, it is gone. And, I am a homeschool mom, so my options are really limited. I have to say it has been hard to work at home, teach at home, be a wife and mom, be on staff at church, and still find time to take care of myself and my home. So, in that aspect I am glad I don't have the job anymore, and my husband is glad too. Now, we have to see if we can make it. Lord, we need Your help!

This major change in our income has also caused us to have to tighten up the belt in every area of the budget. One of the main ways I continued to lose weight was through eating different food than my family. And now, I can't afford to buy much of anything extra. So, that has been incredibly frustrating for me and my weight loss efforts.

Not being able to control what I buy for myself to eat has really affected my mindset. I have to fight consistently, daily, against the old eating disorder. After all, if I can't afford to eat right, it stands to reason that I would be better off not eating, right? WRONG! I find myself laying in bed at night poring over ways to keep from eating and making it okay, or eating as little as possible so that I will still be eating and be okay that way. I am battling myself, and no worries friends, I am absolutely not allowing that mindset to win. I will keep fighting.

There is more that I cannot share right now, but will probably share at a later date. I also do believe that all of this is going to aid me in writing my book. I only have one chapter completed at this point, and I can already see where some of this whole upheaval process is going to factor into my fiction.

As I close for now I just have to say that I know this has not been particularly encouraging, I just want to say honestly what I am going through. I just hope that it helps someone who reads it to know that even when we don't know, God does. We have to hold tighter to His hand and trust His guidance. He will lead us along the right path and right where we need to be.

Phillipians 3:7 NKJV
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.