Big Oct Event 3- Net loss of 30 lbs

For the last few months folks have been asking, "have you lost weight?" and I usually reply, "a little". Well, since I've hit -30 lbs no one will let me get by with that answer any more. Everyone keeps asking if I'm on a diet or if I've been sick or how exactly am I losing the weight. Here, finally, are the answers you've been looking for.
The story all begins last fall and winter when I kept getting sick with one thing after another. I missed so many family gatherings that my sister-in-law was wondering if I was mad at the family and avoiding them. By January I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had no energy and I couldn't seem to fight off the simplest cold. I didn't know what to do since I had tried everything I knew and nothing was working.
Now, for years our pastor has been teaching that everything has a spiritual root cause. I've had trouble with that, a lot. I mean, my headache is in my body and not some spiritual thing, right. Well, maybe not so much.
Pastor had been teaching a series on prayer on Sunday nights since the previous November and I had managed to catch some of them. The night of Jan 15 I was well enough to make it to church on Sun night and he was teaching on the importance of confessing our sins to the Lord so that our prayers could be heard. He taught that there were 4 different categories of sin and that most of us don't ususally deal with all four. Sin that is not dealt with continues to hang around and hinder our prayers, our spiritual growth and our relationship with God in general. Made sense.
I went home that night and took that list of categories and just prayed through them one by one, asking the Lord to show me my sin and forgive me. I would love to say that I had some amazing spiritual experience with lights and visions and tears and great life-changing emotion. Wouldn't we all like to have some great experience that we could point to and say- "Look! this is the day that God changed my life and I instantly became the wonderful person that I always knew I could be. From now on you may call me Saint (Insert name here)." Well, I didn't get that either.
What I did get was peace. And a sense of being set free. I didn't have tears and I didn't even know exactly what I had been set free from, but I knew I was free. I didn't have any more energy and wasn't any more well but I had this peace.
Three days later I was again crying out to God because I felt so lousy. I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to do SOMETHING because I couldn't function like I was. The Lord is so faithful. He sat me down and told me what my health situation was and that I needed to remove three things from my diet for the next six months. OK. Wow. I wasn't expecting that. Now, I still didn't have any visions and I wasn't hearing "voices", this was just something in my spirit that I heard in my heart but it was very specific and I knew that it was the Lord. I also knew that if God was going to take the time to communicate with me then I had better pay attention. So, I removed those things from my diet, immediately. And, you know, it wasn't hard. I didn't feel "deprived" and I didn't go hungry. I wasn't truly "dieting" I was just eating in obedience to the Lord, the weight began to just slowly and steadily go away. Way cool.

Six months passed and 20 lbs went with it. The Lord then directed me to go on a 30 day juice fast for my health. OK. I could do this. I would love to tell you that this was as easy as the previous six months but it wasn't. It was hard. I discovered that I don't care much for most vegetable juices and I really don't like apple juice. Not fresh, not bottled, not even organic. I was about half way through and counting the days when the Lord asked me to extend the fast by 10 days as a spiritual fast. OHHHH! I was already doing 30 days for my health and it was tough. But another 10 days? Well, I was on a roll and He had already done so much for me, how could I not do this? Besides, the only way I was going to successfully complete any of it was by His help. So, after 40 days of juice fasting I was 40 lbs lighter than when I began this journey in January.
Eating again has been a joy and has put back about 10 lbs but I'm ok with that since my goal was never to lose weight in the first place.
From the first day that I changed my eating habits I have had more energy and no sickness. It has been amazing to me the things that I have been able to do this year without getting sick and without having to take days to recouperate. I have been so blessed. The weight loss has been VERY nice (Beloved really likes it, too) but it has really just been the "icing on the cake" for me. Having peace, being free and having the energy to do what the Lord has assigned me to do- these are the best gifts I could ask for.

Big Oct Event 2- The "Baby" got her license

There are not many places today where 22 is considered "old". Apparently the DMV is one of them. Particularly if you are just getting your license and your learner's permit is only a year away from expiring.
When our youngest got her permit at 16 we commented on the 7 year expiration date, laughing that she should be able to get her license in that time frame. Little did we know what the years ahead would hold and how close she would come to using all that time that stretched before her "way back then". Finally, though, the milestone has been reached and overcome. The "baby" is driving.
I've decided that this is a good thing. I've passed most of the "go" errands off to her and retired my chauffeur's hat. Yes, this is a very good thing!

Big Oct Event 1- The House is Sold!

See the House
See the House that Beloved bought
Big House
Old, yucky, dirty house
Half burned out house
Mammoth first restoration job

See Beloved work
See Beloved work hard
See Beloved shake head
See Beloved spend money
See the calendar change months
See the calendar change years
Again

Poor Beloved

But wait!
Look, the house is almost finished!
Yeah!
See the realtor
Nice realtor
See the realtor market the house
See the contract
See the lovely contract
Again
And Again
And Again
See the contract go away
Sad realtor
Sad Beloved

See the same people with a new contract
Again
And Again
See the contract go away, again

See the realtor wait
See Beloved wait
See the money go away
Sad
Scary

See the new contract
See Beloved say "no negotiations"
See the contract stay
See the SAME people buy the house!
Yeah!!

See the lovely check!
See Beloved breathe relief!
See the happy banker!
See the happy creditors!

See Beloved and I praise God!
See our prayer army praise God!

God is Good and His mercy endures forever!
His plan is perfect and His timing is perfect and His love is overwhelming!


Our unending gratitude goes out to everyone who has been involved with this project ( I think that includes almost everyone we know in some way or another). We are so grateful for your help and support. We could not have done this without you!

Blogger Spotting

I'm here, I'm here!!! This month has been... I don't even have an adequate adjective to describe it at the moment. But it has finally ended and it is time to pick up the threads that remain and attempt to weave them back into something that resembles useful. I'll post some catch-up things in the next few days to get back up to speed. In the meantime- Happy November!