Our dog Leon.  We put her to sleep in June.  She was sick (and old).  I miss her a lot.  She always greeted me at the door with excitement, wagging her tail (except where someone had food, then it was just a quick peek around the corner and then back to begging).  I cried like a baby at the vet’s office.  She was a good friend.

Wes

 

 

 

 

 

Wes, my sister Amy, and I took a trip to Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota.    Wes and I walked across the Mississippi River together (the headwaters are at this park).  We hiked and rented bikes.  I peddled Wes in one of those carts behind my bike.  It was hard work going up a hill, but was worth it on the way down.  That was a great day!!!

I’ve decided my favorite tree is now the birch.  The pine still is a close second, right up there with the maple.  There’s a grove of birch trees along a path where I run.  For some reason, I feel really happy when I see this little group of trees.  I don’t know if it’s the shape of the tiny silvery leaves, the color of the bark, or just the time of day I run past and the lighting is perfect…I just like them.  They make me happy.

Initially I was anxious that working out 5 days a week would be too exhausting physically for me.  It was until I got used to it.  I realized the hardest thing about the triathlon was emotionally/mentally being committed to it – to actually get up and go to the gym.  It really took extra effort some days to squeeze in time to exercise – other days, I just didn’t want to get up and do it, but I knew if I missed a day I would 1) be off schedule and have to make it up somehow 2) I would feel I cheated myself out of something good.  It really ended up being a mental challenge more than a physical one.  I’m so glad I did it and hope to continue to workout 5 days a week.

    Yep, that’s right a triathlon…kind of.  I signed up for the YMCA’s Lazyman Triathlon 2008. (I was inspired by a conversation with my friend Greg.  For some reason I usually recommit myself to continue running/exercising after our conversations. I probably would have quit running awhile back if it wasn’t for him.)

I must swim 2.5 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles total within 5 weeks.  For me, I like things to be symetrical, organized and planed out ahead of time so my plan is swim .5 miles, bike 22.4 miles and run 5.24 miles per week.

The running will be easy since I already run way more than 5 miles a weekanyway.  Swimming shouldn’t be too hard either.  It’s the biking that will be challenging.

One of my goals for the summer was to exercise/do something active outside at least 5 days a week.  So this will help me achieve that goal (and maybe get a nice suntan).

Wish me luck!

I’ve been thinking lately about my life and what I want it to look like and what kind of person I want to be.  I have good ideas about what’s important, what’s worth investing my time and energy in, but have realized lately my ideals and reality are two different things.  I’ve caught myself living the lie that goes something like this…if I go out and buy an aerobics video, just by possessing it makes me physically fit.  Just because you think something and desire something, dose not make it a reality. 

For me this ”I think therefore I am” mentality covers topics such as watching less TV and investing that time into relationships, being more active and spending more time outside, eating more organic and whole foods, helping the poor, talking to my co-workers and neighbors about Jesus.  Sometimes I think and read so much about doing them, I really think I’m doing them when I’m not.

This has lead me to wonder what makes a good Christian?  When is enough Christian behavior enough and what constitutes good Christian behavior?  When I look at my daily life, will people really know that I’m a follower of Jesus? 

I’m not a bad person.  I live a moral life, but is that enough?  I try to read my Bible regularly, I pray a lot, I go to church, but does that make me a good christian?  Do I need to be attempting to save souls everyday?  Do I need to teach Sunday school?  Do I need to be a missionary in foreign land? 

I think I am not a good christian sometimes, because my beliefs don’t match my actions.  If I really believed people were going to hell, wouldn’t I be trying to save them?  If I really believed Jesus cares for the poor and mandates that we do too, wouldn’t I be involved in that some how?  (On the flip side, there are many people who are doing the activities of the church that don’t know Jesus, so activities in and of themselves don’t make us good Christians.)

Look at believers in the Bible, they weren’t consumed with “ministry” type things (except for a few such as Paul).  They were too busy living their lives – gathering food, making clothes, caring for children to be caught up in the question of “am I doing enough for God”.  I think the Bible points toward inviting God into all your daily, mundane tasks.  Where those people any less spiritual because they were busy just trying to feed and clothe their families?  Do those principals change because our culture has changed? (this is a topic, American Christianity, may be a topic for another post).

These are my questions.  I don’t have any answers really.  The thing I keep coming back to is this:  If I stay in relationship with Jesus, if I make it my goal to get to know him and really listen to what he’s telling me, make an effort to keep my heart open to him, he will tell me the when, the where and the how much.  

I guess I lot of these thoughts come from hearing Christians judge each others behavior.  Someone isn’t reading their Bible every day, someone else doesn’t have evangelism as their number one priority, etc.  It makes me mad when Christians feel they have a right to judge my actions and behavior and put a value on it (i’m not talking of out right sinfulness here like stealing, adultery, gossip).  Who gave them the right to say this is the standard of measurement, you better measure up.  When I hear this, it’s hard to stay at the feet of Jesus and keep listening to him.  This approach my seem subjective and kind of an easy way out, but I have to keep telling myself, if I’m honest with God and truly try to seek him things will be okay.

I’m one of those people who don’t like to take medications.  Medications are chemicals that alter the processes of the body…that can’t be good.  I do take meds when needed though (antibiotics, Advil for a headache that just won’t go away, etc.), but generally just try to stay away from them until absolutely necessary.  This got me thinking one day about artifical sweetners:  Splenda, Equal and the like.  I’m ingesting chemicals every day.  Why would I abstain from medication, but load myself up with chemicals added to my beverages. 

I’ve heard artificial sweetners make you crave more sweet things.  I’m a Scandivinian, so I already have trouble with a sweet tooth, so I decided to cut out all artificial sweetners in my diet for two reasons 1) just to see what would happen 2) because I felt like a hypocrite.

The result?  I craved pop like I never have before in my life!!  I obsessed about it all day long for weeks.  It was terrible.  About two months into my experiment, I decided to have a diet soda just to see if I noticed a change  1) it tasted awful 2) I got the worst headache ever (and no, I did not take any medication for it).  So I’ve decided not to go back to using artifical sweetners.  I also noticed I didn’t crave sweets as much either, which was good.  I still crave pop once in awhile, but I can live with that. 

This little experiment led me to further adventures in eating…I’ll write about those later.

I’m an aunt again!!  

Jack was born Tuesday morning to my younger sister Amy and her husband Kyle.  Jack is a big boy- 10 pounds 7 oz. and 23 inches long.  

However, this November 9th may be different.  In less than one year, Grandma has gone from living independently, to assisted living, to being hospitalized for pneumonia last month and now lives in a nursing home.  She has lost 15 pounds in less than 2 months (100 to 85) and is dependant on others for the majority of her needs.

 This year I’m holding my breath – tomorrow may come and go and grandma may still be with us, but what if she isn’t?  How bizarre would that be???

I’ll keep you posted…

Ball-point pen

Magazine

Bathroom hand towel

They are all lethal weapons in the hands of super secret agent Jason Bourne.

Better not leave those two in a room alone together…