Uncle Bruce

I am thinking of you tonight and the place in the Bible that says 'he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.' A wise one once said 'redemption costs little for the wise spender who has not amounted great credit bills and debts. It costs a good deal more for those who have. But one whose work is redemption counts not the cost but the gain. So nothing is lost if all is redeemed. Only the fearful see loss in a lost soul. One whose work is redemption sees only a soul."

None of this

I have had none of this for 10 days:

Two Week Diet Challenge

I am doing a two week diet (began Feb 18) with my mother, father, and sister. We each came up with 3 changes we want to make to our eating habits, but we only have to commit to doing them for 2 weeks. This is longer than I normally can stick to any one change, so it is supposed to help me believe more in my ability to change my habits and also so that the benefit for my body can be longer lasting. We were each able to choose our own three goals to do and we email each other each day to report our triumphs with our diet. So far my main triumph has been that I have not had any ice cream since starting the diet. My other two goals are to take a snack with me when I go out so I will be less likely to buy and eat impulse food like chips, candy bars, doughnuts, etc. Although I must tell you that the prospect of eating peanuts or a tangelo is not the same as the prospect of eating a Butterfinger.

I thought it might be easier for everyone to post their triumphs here on my blog than sending email, but either that you want to do is fine (and feel free to join the diet with us if you haven't yet). I hope to either see a lot of emails over the remaining week of the diet, or comments on this blog post. Good luck and Happy Healthy Eating to you!

New Love

My new love are the designs of Alessandra Adelaide. She designs needlework and her designs are so fanciful and elegant. I'm in love. Unfortunately, her designs are kind of pricy, and most of the ones I love are $15 to $21 for one design. Here's just a taste of her work:

You can go to her website by clicking on the title of this post. Also, her designs are sold in stores or through several online venues, such as yarntree.com. If you have stitched one of her designs or own one or just want to gush about how amazing they are, post away!

Exercise Week 4

Sep 6-12

Yoga - 9/8, 9/9, 9/10
Veggies at lunch - 9/8
Limit junk drinks - 9/6, 9/7, 9/8

Exercise Guild - Week 3

I should probably just title this "Exercise" from now on, since so far I am the only one tracking my exercise this way. If you would like to start, just comment with your personal goal for the week and then let me know how you do over the course of the week and I will post your results in the main post on this subject.

Here are my goals:

Yoga 2x/1hr 8/30, 9/1 and 20 min. on 9/4
Walk 5x/20 min.
Eat veggies at lunch 8/31, 9/1
Limit junk drinks 8/30, 8/31, 9/1

The Beach

I like the idea of setting a goal to go to the beach and swim in the ocean. This relates to a lot of goals I have for my life, including physical health, saving money for a long-term goal, and planning to do something fun with people. So, what is the best beach to set this goal for? Give me a few options, but keep them as inexpensive as possible. Just affording a trip period will be about what I'll be able to manage. Imagining that I had the perfect everything for the trip, including enough money, I think I would really love to go the south of France, Italy, Spain, somewhere like that. But I think that requires an awful lot more planning and money and it's harder to get other people to do the same to go on a trip like that with you. But if you say, I'm going to California, wanna come? I think it's easier to find people to go with you. So let me hear your suggestions of where I should plan to go.