My Apologies

I have been very busy lately and can't seem to get it together to write. I am sorry, and I plan to have something eventually, probably next week.

Summing It Up

Well, add together not getting to sleep last night until about 4 a.m. plus getting up and biking to running practice at 7 a.m. plus going 18 miles and factor in being middle aged, and I am tired tonight. The weather was great, and I refueled with gummi bears instead of runner's goo. All in all, it was a happy day, and I was very happy with my time for the mileage, but I am beat.

I went to a great restaurant to celebrate our anniversary this evening with wonderful Mr. Sinta. We cannot believe that the years have passed so quickly. Mr. Sinta wondered if I would do anything differently if I had it to do over. I said that I would, but I could not think of anything at the time. Now I have had time to reflect on it, and I think I would be a better wife, and a nicer, less demanding mom, and I would hope that I would eat healthier and not be so fat. All things that I can still try to improve on while I am among the living.

Okay, My Big News

I was accepted at the School of Ministry at my church for the upcoming school year which means I will be attending classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and reading selected books on the same topics. Evidently there are monthly tests as well, and I will need to wear casual business attire and have good attendance, character and attitude.

Mr. Sinta will not be attending the classes with me because he is out of town frequently, and they do not accept auditors.

My friend, Jessie, who wrote my letter of recommendation, told me to keep an open mind and be teachable. This is amazing because she is not even charismatic, but I plan to listen to her.

I have no plans whatsoever of going into ministry. I look at this as kind of a bridge year from being a homemaker/home school mom to actually starting a new life when Abby goes off to college almost exactly a year from now.

I will not be doing BSF this year which is a little sad because they are studying the life of Moses, and I love Moses and the ladies at BSF. They were loving and caring and studied deeply and commented thoughtfully, called me every week and prayed for me everyday. I will love them forever.

That's my big news.

Also, I got new running shoes and went nine miles today without any big pains even though I had never even walked in these shoes before because I needed to get in some mileage and break in the shoes in a hurry because the half-marathon draweth nigh!

My shoes are basically the same model as before only I could only get them in red and black so now I have Spiderman running shoes. They don't have Spiderman on them or anything, but they are the right colors and look a little webby across the toes.

I also got a cool product called Glide which will keep my clothes from the very painful chafing and irritation that I have experienced of late. Unfortunately, I forgot to put it on today. Did you know that your skin can talk to you?

The Lakeland Revival and My Struggle for Control and Organization

I would suggest visiting Mark Connor's blog (see my blog list), for information on a recent turn of events concerning Lake land. I found the article by Charisma magazine to be surprisingly self-inditing. Without passing judgment on anything in Florida, I would like to give a comment on life. When I have stumbled over offensive things in the body of Christ, it has always been because there was a weakness in my own life that needed to be brought to light.

I wish I could say that I have in any way solved my book problem, but instead I cleaned out another kitchen cabinet and unfortunately ate a partial bag of the oldest and driest and stalest mini marshmallows that I have ever encountered. Why didn't I just throw them out? I do not have a good reason.

Here is a little secret: I am hiding things in the window seat. I keep accumulating more stuff that I don't want, and I hide it all in there until I have time to 'gift' it to some worthy organization. The only problem is that it is almost completely full.

Will I ever reorganize my books, or will I just keep cleaning out my other miscellaneous storage spaces? Stay tuned here folks...

This evening I messed around in the linen closet and asked myself why I am saving so many things that I am never going to use. I did not have an answer for myself, and then I changed the bed clothes on Aimee's old bed because the loud Hawaiian print is kind of disturbing to look at, especially with the Van Gogh framed print in there. I changed it all around, and I still don't like it, and now I see I need big changes in the linen closet.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I want a simple life. I want less stuff. Surprisingly I need wisdom to get there. I thought any one with at least half a brain could downsize. It is harder than it looks.

For those keeping track, I went 16 miles on Saturday with a very sore knee. I was running with my coach who was helping me try to change my form etc., so I could keep going. I found out that even people in great shape, like my coach, sometimes have to run in pain and tough it out. In a way that I can only explain as God's grace, I am fine today, not hobbling around or sore at all.

Also, my coach told me that I should not need my camel pack at the marathon because they have so many water stations. She said I will also run faster without it. She also said that she thinks I will do great at the half marathon because we are running much longer distances than that (13 miles) now. I am thinking that my coach is also a sign of God's grace, which I do not deserve and cannot fully explain, in my life.

I am sorry for anyone who feels misled by today's blog title. Feel free to leave suggestions for better titles today.

Tomorrow, I will share a piece of surprising personal news.

The Home Library Problem

Everyone has a dream; some people have many dreams. Lately, I dream of organizing and downsizing my life.

Mr. Sinta and I often talk about when all the offspring leave home, and we are left with a house that is way too big. This house has always been way too big, except when we had our business in our basement. The problem is not really the size of the house. The problem is that in the 15 or so years that we have been here, our possessions have grown to fill the house. This represents exponential growth because we have an amazing amount of storage space.

When I spent quite a bit of time boxing up Aimee's stuff and delivering it to her new house, it dawned on me that we have way too much stuff that stayed here. I am not referring to her stuff that we are storing, but to everyone else's stuff.

Lately, when I open up my favorite book cabinet(we are blessed with lots of built in cabinets), I say to myself that I have way too many books, and if I were really wise I would be able to discriminate between them and eliminate so many books that all of my favorite books would fit into one cabinet. Soon after that my will to eliminate any books at all crumbles, and I close the cabinet and move on to some other activity.

Purging. That is what I want to do. I want to begin purging the books with little value, beauty or usefulness. The only problem is that I feel like I am parting with dear friends.

Joanna B. is a real life good friend whom I respect a great deal. We no longer attend the same church, but we make sure that we get together for lunch at least once every summer. During that lunch, we typically talk for hours and catch up on the last year. She is awesome.

Some books are Joanna B. books. I mean that I may not refer to them every month, but life would be poorer without them. They lend a perspective that I need to have from time to time, just like I need Joanna B's perspective on my life. She makes the low places not so low and the high places seem more honorable. Her opinion strengthens my hands for the work I have ahead of me.

That is the door-closing dilemma. Books are my friends.

Feel free to comment and send me your list of ten favorite books that are like friends that you could not bear to part with, and also one book that you should toss and why.

What I Learned From Watching The Olympics

Yikes. Did anyone else see that women's gymnastic team last night in the pre-lims? Shockingly, they lost one of their top performers to an injury just moments before the round started, and had to go with an alternate gymnast. Because they already had one injured player, this meant that there was no buffer zone for big errors. (Usually they have the option of dropping a score.)

As I watched the alternate gymnast perform, forgive me because I have no idea of anyone's names, I said to myself that I should really do whatever I do as unto the Lord, and then when life's outrageous opportunities come along like that, I would be ready.

I am not a gymnast, so I am not exactly sure how it applies to my life which does not look chock full of opportunity at the moment, but I did clean my house today! Most likely, no one will notice, but me. Oh well. There is something really great about starting your week with a clean house. It is just that the networks were not here to cover it.

Ryan's twin friend, Richard, came over today and they were doing something on computers together in Ryan's room. Randy, our dog, walked in his room, looked at them, barfed on the floor, and walked out.

I am sorry for my dog not feeling well, but I think that is hysterical.

Did I mention that Ryan brought me a chocolate cigar? That is almost as good as a network contract and winning a medal. I have to share it with Abby, so I am eating my part first.

I am sure that I learned something else from the Olympics, but I do not know what. Okay, so now I remembered it.

I was watching the men's 150 mile bike race, and noticed that at the very end that the guy from France stood up on his bike and pedaled like mad with his bike kind of weaving from left to right. I learned that even world class Olympic bikers sometimes have to really kick it to win. The absolutely fascinating corollary is that I rode my bike (with a new basket on the back) to the grocery store today and brought home the goods.

Watch the late night recap with Bob Costas and me at 11. I will share my ice cream on network television.

Today

I went 14 miles today, and although I enjoyed it, I am bushed. Usually my legs cooperate totally and just tool along never saying ANYTHING! They are great legs for distance, but today they spoke up at about the 12 mile mark just letting me know that they exist, not complaining or anything.

Mr. Sinta has started a side business and offered me a special energy drink with extra b vitamins (when I got home), and I learned some new information from the team trainer about how and when to eat even on regular training days. Evidently there is a 30 minute window after you run in which your body is especially open on a cellular level to refuel itself, and I am supposed to have an energy bar, or even a pbj sandwich during this time, and she said that it should help with the fatigue that I have been experiencing. I was up at 3 or 4 in the morning again today which was not good since I had to be up at 6 to get to a 7 a.m. run, but oh well! She said that it would be very difficult to discern if the sleep disturbances were from menopause or from exercising outside the zone (65-80% of maximum heart rate).

There was only one bad moment today, and that was when I was biking home over a footbridge that was a little full with bikers and pedestrians, and suddenly one of my legs decided to consider having a charlie horse. The muscles just kind of suddenly painlessly seized up for a second or two, while I was trying to quickly go up the slope of the bridge so I slowed down and changed gears, and my legs were happy campers once again. You gotta be nice to your legs. Your legs are really nice to you!

Also, I asked our trainer what they meant on the schedule by strength training because I have never really done a push up in my life, and I was am a little reluctant to begin at 48. She said that it meant strength training for our core (that is a trainer word for your abdomen) and for your legs doing lunges and squats etc. That was a huge relief. I started doing sit ups this week, and I will not tell you how many because when I proudly revealed to Abby my number of sit ups, she laughed! Then we did some together for fun, and she was not able to double my number, but did more than 1.5 times as many as I did. I comfort myself that she is a 17 year old former gymnast and we are not supposed to compare ourselves to one another, the Bible says.

There was an additional reward to doing sit ups in that it forced me to look under the bed where I keep my exercise mat. (Weenies don't do sit ups without a mat.) I found a graduation present for a friend's daughter that I jettisoned there on the day that Aimee and Brent got married because we were in a hurry to get out of the house and I used the gift bag to hold my make up and miscellaneous stuff. So now, I have an extra gift in the gift box!

Also, on the mind front, I was so happy this week to discover two items which I thought I had permanently lost. I found 3 cloth grocery bags in the closet which I had been missing for months. I am sure I put them there at wedding time to clean out the car when I loaned it to the honeymooning couple, and Abby 'fessed up that she had taken my new bike water bottle to work and left it there. These sound like small things, but they were significant things to me, and I feel better knowing that my mind is functioning well enough to handle shopping and drinking water.

Speaking of water, I used up everything in my water back pack by the end of 14 miles, so I will need to re-fill it on Marathon day around mile 13. I am needing a shower in a serious way, so I am off. Sorry for errors and typos.

Also, I asked the trainer how to train so that I could eventually do a push-up. She very kindly, and without any condescension whatsoever (This is amazing because she is in perfect shape.) explained to me how to get your arms in shape in stages so that I could eventually do a push-up. I intend to do it, since I am doing my (mystery number) sit-ups each day.

Book notes: I am truly enjoying Lucy Beckett's book. It is a huge tome, but I intend to finish it. I also finished an interesting book yesterday entitled, The 33 Laws of Stewardship which was not exactly a late night page turner for most people, but I enjoyed it a great deal. It is not written by prosperity preachers but by associates of John Maxwell, the Christian leadership guru. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject or is involved in leadership of a local church or other Christian non-profit.

Great Book Meeting

It was a great book meeting, and Amy B. brought great pie. I did not know she was going whole hog, so to speak, so I brought bread and cookies. A little abundance lifts the spirit.

The final analysis of Heart of Darkness is that is was a dark, depressing book.

We are off to higher and better things, Meditations. I just have to get a copy, but while I was at Mandi's house, I found an awesome volume, by Lucy Beckett. Here is a quote from the back cover: "She masterfully guides us through Sophocles, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky and many others. With selections taken from poems, plays, essays, letters and diaries, she deftly demonstrates each author's worth as a bearer of truth." It looks interesting, anyway. However, I don't see anything Christian in Plato...

Other news, I applied for a job at the local university doing manual labor in the evenings about 30 hours a week. The hours sound as if they would work out well. I am waiting to hear about an interview.

Ryan comes home tonight!

White Chocolate

I have to report back that I made the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, and it is gone. It would have been easier to make brownies to go with lasagna, but I was afraid that would be too much temptation for Mr. Sinta's blood sugar. He does not really like cheesecake, but everyone else did. I sent the extra slices home with guests so that I did not get too tempted myself. Actually, I saved one slice for myself, but Abby found it and ate it before the guests even left. She gave me a bite of it.

Honestly, I could not even taste the white chocolate part of the cheesecake; it just tasted like cheesecake to me. We may get adventurous and try it with real chocolate chips or better yet, dark chocolate chips when Aunt Laura comes later this month. Of course, that might be too much cheesecake for a month.

I used the new spring form pan that I got for Christmas, and it worked great. Nonstick! The right size! I loved it! Cooking is so much easier with the right pans and utensils.

Ryan comes home Friday. The house has been really quiet, not that he is a mega noise generator, but we miss his funny comments and unsolicited advice. We've grown accustomed to his face.

Two Disappointments

On our way home from the dentist, Abby and I picked up some groceries for tonight's dinner. Specifically, I needed some white chocolate chips for a raspberry cheesecake. When we arrived home, Abby informed me that Rebecca S. said that white chocolate chips are just like chocolate chips without the chocolate. Instantly I checked the ingredient label. She seems to be correct. If only I had known, I would have bought the chocolate ones instead. That was the first disappointment, and admittedly, it is a ridiculously small disappointment. One of life's little blips. It will be forgotten by tomorrow.

Other disappointments are not so quickly forgotten.

This morning Abby and I were competing for shower time because I had come in from running, and she had just cut the grass, and we both needed to be presentable. Graciously, and because I am a very slow showerer, I let her go first, and made myself something to eat. The phone rang, and my long time friend, mentor and second mom was on the phone asking if I had found a job yet, and wondering how Mr. Sinta was doing. I asked her about the results of her MRI. She was so happy and chipper and unselfconscious as she told me that she has cancer again. This time it is the spleen, and she will be having treatments once a week.

"I'm 81," she said. "I don't want to live to be 90." She is selling her house, and dividing up her belongings among her daughters.

"Why are you so happy?" I queried.

"Because I will be going home, and that is a good thing," she returned.

No little blip on my life screen. This won't be forgotten by tomorrow.

So Sorry

I have not been posting much because I was really tired, I am rethinking about my blogging, and I have discovered Scrabulous on line. There is a really cool version where you get your own board and four minutes to play all the letters you can while playing against others for total points who have their own boards. I highly recommend it, especially since it was removed from Face Book. Also, I read a book and went out for yogurt tonight with my girls, and Ryan called home and he is back from his ten day trip. We should see him Friday night!!!