Strip the weights

I think my theme for the autumn season is "vulnerable". I'm not perfect, I don't claim to be. Whether it be in my faith, my diet, my workout, my work, as a mom, whatever, we all have faults. The important thing is to grow from these and recognize where they lie. The point of my posts are not to brag about my journey, how much weight I've lost or my walk with Jesus. They are to help motivate you to find something your passion.

I never ever thought I would become passionate about something like being a beachbody coach. I am not the epitome of a personal trainer. I don't have that kind of motivation. I am still lazy and would much rather sit on the couch watching tv during nap time than think about how painful it is to walk back upstairs after my workout. Leg day is still brutal, especially when the only working toilet you have is on a different floor and you drink a gallon a day! But I have found that in this journey, I feel better about myself, my clothes fit better. I get complements about how much weight I've loss.
Because of my coach, I have been challenged to also find time to spend with God daily. Something that I have struggled with because of being a busy working mom. I used to use nap time to clean the house or catch up on gossip, but now I work out, take a quick shower and spend a few minutes in my Bible, when all the thoughts come rushing out you get a blog. :)

I have been amazed at the power God has. Prior to being challenged by Crystal, I bought a devotional called "Everyday Faith." by Katie Orr. It was discussed on one of the 'mom' podcasts I listen to. It's a 15 minute daily devotion for those who don't have a lot of time, (insert me). Over the last few lessons I've done my eyes have been opened at how perfect this was for me at the time.
Yesterday's lesson focused on Hebrews 12:1-2.  I'm sure you've heard it. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." 

'Let us strip the extra weight that slows us down.'

Now, this isn't necessarily talking about physical weight or pounds, however it could still be relevant. Today, I set aside my heavier weights during one exercise because I was tired. I thought about how I previously hadn't been able to do so because that much weight used to be a part of me. I have lost the amount of dumbbells I sat on the floor today. I feel so much better about that.
Yet, this passage talks about dropping what is robbing us from our time with God, even if they are good things.  Things that we don't realize may be holding us back from our faith journey. This hit home for me on another reason which I can't talk about publicly yet, however my attitude, my personality and my well being were at odds with how I wanted to live my life, so I jumped out of my comfort zone again and took a risk. Whether or not that risk will pay off is yet to come. But I felt pulled to do something and I know now that where I am, is holding me back. As a Christian, we must fight to remove what gets in the way in our journey, even if its a good thing.

What's holding you back? Where do you want to be next year or even next week? Does something in your life need a change? I encourage you to do a personal inventory and lay it all out to God about what's on your mind. He will most definitely walk this race with you and show you exactly where you need to be. What's your passion? Are you doing something truly meaningful in your life or just going through the motions?

~H

35 Life goals.

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Well I'm beginning my quarter of a century crisis... January 12 I will turn the big 2-5. It got me thinking, I've got 5 years till I turn 30. Some of the goals I started coming up with I didn't know if 5 years was enough time. So I put it to 35 to give me that extra kick to get things accomplished.  Just a few goals I've come up with. I know I have accomplished a lot of things in my 25 years on this earth and in the next 10 I hope to have many many more things done. I know some of these will be done this year too, which wasn't purposely done to get more checked off but to see that push towards excellence in all areas and to show that they really are big accomplishments.

In no particular order :)

1. Start a family- As a women gets older, having children gets more difficult and more risky. At this time, I'm thinking I want to have 2 biological children and adopt one. 
2. Graduate from nursing school- Registered Nurse- One of the givens, it will happen this year :) (April 25, 2014)  
3. Graduate from the BSN program- Again, will happen. I plan to start this summer and then I will graduate with my BSN next April (2015). 
4. Work as an RN in an Emergency Department- I have a passion for Emergency medicine and hope to eventually work in this department, or critical care but I haven't had as much exposure to those departments. 
5. Free read at least 4 books a year (hopefully more)- I enjoy reading but with school it is hard to make time for it. 4 books a year gives me 3 months to finish one, hopefully plenty of time! I'm assuming when I get school done I will be reading more so this may be able to be adjusted later!  
6. Finish remodeling our house! This is a big goal, and I know a home is never really finished because once we finish something we'll want to start on another project. Right now it just seems like we have so much to do yet! 
7. Finish Candy Crush. - Okay, maybe not a real important goal but still, are they really going to keep making levels so it's never finishable? I hope by 35 I'm not still playing it all the time but it's possible I guess. 
8. Go back to Europe! I LOVE Europe and love traveling. Currently, Randy and I were in Europe 5 years ago and then we went again this December so maybe it's a q 5 year thing. 
9. Ride Ragbrai- I have always kind of wanted to do this, with a real desire this past year after watching the riders go through Pella and Bussey. I think I would like to start doing one day and then go up from there but Randy wants to jump right in to do the whole week! I have a road bike and started some little training last year but it'll be basically starting from scratch when it warms enough to ride again! 
10. Run a 5k. Yes I know, one of my first rules of this blog was that it wasn't going to turn into a fitness blog and I wasn't going to be running to work out. Well, I have found some socks that greatly help the way my foot feels. They're called "Feetures" and they give a lot of support for my arches. Seriously, I put one on and my foot felt better instantly. I started doing a couch to 5k program, but developed a nasty cold so it's on hold till I feel a little better. 



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11. Become a flight nurse- I have recently developed this huge goal of becoming a flight nurse. I think it is something I'll really enjoy, but mostly I just want to wear the BA flight suit ;) Just kidding. I love EMS and all that comes with it.  
12.  Quilt - I already love sewing. I think it would be fun to learn to quilt and make many quilts in the future.
13. Finish my Civil war gown This is something I've started but nursing school got in the way again.  I actually hope I'll get it done sooner rather than later...
14. Each year, go to a place I've never been before. This is directly from a pin I've pinned but I think it's a good goal, especially since I love traveling. The destinations don't have to be far away either. There's a lot of places in Iowa I haven't been yet. 
15. Camp in the mountains- This could likely be done this summer when we visit Colorado but if not I still would like to. We have all the equipment for backwoods camping just have to get out there and do it
16. Kayak down the river- We didn't have enough water last summer to be able to do this but it's defiantly something we want to do. Camping along the banks if needed. 
17. Go on a medical missions trip. I love missions and have heard great things about certain medical mission trips. I have plenty of connections to do it, just need to get the time to go! 
18. Go for a hot air balloon ride. I love flying and heights so just one of those things I want to do! 
19. Add some more states to be checked off of the 50.  I eventually want to check off all 50 states but that likely won't happen in the next 10 years. I'd love to say we'll be at least half way though. 
20. Have a "Big Bang Theory" and "FRIENDS" marathon- Probably my absolute favorite shows, (besides 2 Broke Girls). I laugh at every episode no matter how many times I've seen it. 
21. Go to a drive in movie- We have a theater close, and I've been before but lately it just hasn't worked out or there hasn't been two movies that we wanted to see well enough. 
22. Keep going to musicals or plays- I love theater and love seeing plays and musicals. Luckily Randy doesn't mind going either. :) 
23. Keep my "new Year's resolution"- I put it in quotes because it's not a really a resolution but it's something that needs to be done.  I'd like to loose about 15 pounds. I'm hoping that my training for the runs will help but I'm also going to try to eat better. :) 
24. Work out at least 3 times a week, every week. This goes along with #23 and being healthier, plus it's just a good rule of thumb for everyone. 
25. Keep falling in love my my husband every single day. There isn't a day that he doesn't amaze me and make me love him. I hope this continues for the next 10 years at least! 
26. Have a celebration for our 10th year anniversary. 
27. Be able to speak adequately in another language. (I'll add besides Spanish, since I already  know that!) Not sure what yet, but it's always good to keep learning. 
28. Try to give homemade gifts to everyone instead of all store bought- I love to give homemade gifts and have been successful to an extent for this but would like to try to give everyone I have to gift at least one thing that's homemade. 
29. Read my Bible more. Ugh, I'm so bad at this and it's amazing how much God can speak through it. Something needs to change and I need to read more! 
30. Live each day as it's the last day, with no regrets and fully. 
31. Learn to drive a stick shift. This is especially important if we're on the Amazing Race. Plus, just good knowledge. 
32. Learn to play my guitar. Whoops, another thing that nursing school got in the way of...
33. Change someone's life. I think this can be an on going, daily goal. Especially in my professions, but I'd love for someone's life to be different because of me. 
34. Continue to learn. I hope I never loose the passion for learning new things. Educational or fun facts. 



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35. Really work towards becoming the person I want to be. 

By the way, I'll have a post coming on my Christmas gift crafts that I made for this year. :) I'm pretty excited about them. They'll be hard to top next year though! 

~Enjoy life! ~

~~H~~

My love...

 

My Kitchen aid mixer! 

Product review: Glidden porch/step paint

Recently we painted our basement steps. I really had no idea what color to paint them and could really care less about what color they were. I've been buying our paint from Walmart, purely out of convenience. If you know anything about our Walmart it's pretty ridiculous and doesn't carry much. So I browsed the aisle for exterior paint and found Glidden's porch/step paint in "battleship gray". It's interior/exterior so I was able to use it for both the basement steps and the porch, which is good because it only comes in gallon size and the steps didn't take much even doing 2 coats. 

This paint has tiny sand like particles in it to make it "slip resistant". I had a good friend tell me to get 'painter's sand' (not exactly sure one what the official name is) to put in the paint. He said that he did it for his basement steps and can walk down them with oily/greasy shoes and not slip at all. So I would recommend doing that if you want to have a different color paint rather than battleship gray. The Glidden paint that I used already had this stuff in it. I was worried about walking on it barefoot but you really don't notice it. 


Overall I was happily pleased with the results. I didn't have to tint the paint because our house is gray and the steps and porch were previously gray and I was fine with that color. I actually bought the gray because I thought that it would look best for the porch and decided that since it was interior/exterior I just as well use it for the steps too.  I think that it does come in white or tint-able, also. 


The down fall is that it only comes in gallon size so if you have a smaller project you might have a lot left over. Like I would have if I had only chosen to do the steps. I'm happy that I found this paint and didn't have to mess with adding the sand my self.

Glidden Website

Off to paint the rest of the porch!

**This is purely my own opinion**

Home, Sweet Home.

Randy and I found out yesterday that the bank has accepted our offer! We are officially home owners!

Our closing date will be towards the end of November. So while we may not be in by Thanksgiving we are so thankful that this place worked out and we will have a place to call 'ours'! It has a 2 car garage AND a wood shop, so we will have lots of space! 

Because it was  foreclosure there is a little bit of work to do but the main floor is livable for the time being..  Nothing a little paint won't help ;)

We will be close to down town which means close to the fire station and the ambulance shop which means we will be able to make a lot more calls quicker! 

All in all we couldn't be happier and are soo excited.