My Georgia Life

1. I spent today in Atlanta at a certification course for a Pilates and yoga blend fitness class. 2. This reminded me of two things from my past that I seem to have lost passion for... A Reminder The first thing I was reminded of today was that I really LOVE Pilates as a form of exercise.  I started doing Pilates shortly after King was born in 2004.  I bought some DVDs I saw advertised on TV by Daisy Fuentes.  (They're still here on Amazon if anyone is interested.  They're basically the same quality workouts I learned today...good, old, stuff.)  However, I haven't practiced Pilates regularly in quite a while since I've been teaching HIIT (high intensity interval training) at the YMCA and running a lot on my own.  Therefore, I was happy to reconnect with it today.  It makes me feel tall and strong, and teaches muscle control and postural alignment like nothing else.  I like to teach it too.  That leads t...

#1 I got to teach at the youth girls' retreat this past weekend. #2 Teaching is always a learning experience. Keep Coming Back We studied from Annie Downs' book Looking for Lovely : The key verse was Romans 5:3-5: 3  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4  perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (We had to push fast through the book since it was only a weekend retreat but Casey, Jennifer, and I tag-teamed the teaching and got it done in style. :) Here's what I took away from the study: She talked a lot about persevering through hard times by looking for good moment's of God's blessings in those times, and not giving up, but holding on to hope through it all. Most of us have fairly easy lives...we're fed and...

“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.”  ― Herman Melville , Moby-Dick #1 Somedays are just harder than others. #2 Sometimes there's no apparent reason for the change. #3 Today was one of those days. Look for it! Iv and I have been looking on and off for a house to buy for the past 6 years or so. We put in another offer today. I doubt they'll accept our offer. That's okay. Usually, I would have already started praying that we would be able to get the house. I didn't want to pray this time. "What's the use? We'll either be able to get it or we won't...whatever the Lord wants to do, He's going to do anyway. Right?  Why pray?" Like the quote at the top - Joke's on me. ...

#1 This past weekend was unbelievably fantastic...I had the most humbling privilege to share and teach the Word of God to an awesome group of college girls at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. #2 Being at the beach was just icing on the cake. I wanted to share just a snippet of what I taught...It seems fairly applicable to the present troubles.  Though really I wish I could somehow pass to you the joy, love, peace, and fun we all shared. The Holy Spirit A few months ago, when Wendy asked me to speak, I immediately started to search for a topic or Scripture. At my Wednesday night Bible Study, the Lord gave me the idea to study up on the Holy Spirit... Specifically, how we, as Christians, often ignore the God who lives inside us. That's where the adventure began! At first, I thought, "The reason we ignore the Spirit is because we dilute it with outside distractions." I was thinking the bombardment of social media, media in general, TV, music, etc. was jus...

#1 Writing about youth camp this year has seemed a lot more daunting then last year. #2 All that has come to mind when trying to describe the experience are a lot of different clichés. #3 I've decided to just go with it...this should be fun. Youth Camp in Clichés Youth Camp... ...is like opening a can of worms.  Once you pop that top...they're all going to come squirming out. Even though I had one year of youth camp recently under my belt I still had no idea what was going to come up and out of these kids this week.  Once we all headed off in our new (to us) short buses there was no going back! It's like putting all your eggs in one basket.  You have to be all in, all the way. One thing I knew upon pulling out of the parking lot was that spending the week with these kids would cost me every ounce of mental, physical, and spiritual energy I had.  Those were my eggs, camp was my basket. The writing was on the wall.  Anticipation....

#1 I have officially broken my new year's resolution to write every week. #2 I do have a good excuse though... If there is such a thing. My friend Wendy asked me to teach the main sessions of the upcoming retreat with her group of college girls from church. I was immediately excited, and nervous, at the opportunity. Since then a couple of people have asked me about what I'm going teach on and about how it's coming together. My answer is that it's coming together a lot like my blog posts do...One piece at a time. Like the pieces of a puzzle . Right now, I have about half the picture...an idea spurred by a discussion in Bible study, a lesson I taught to my highschool life group, a mixture of scriptures and passages, and one big conviction. I'm heading to camp this week with the youth group from our church and I'm hoping and praying for a more complete picture. The conviction I'm facing is going to require a change of heart that only the Lord...

#1 Since becoming a mother I've had a love/hate relationship with Mother's Day....there have been some BAD ones. #2 This year it was all love for me, but in a most unexpected way! The Best Mother's Day On March 21, 2016 I officially began business with my daughter as K&L Floral Design.  We've been learning, buying flowers, planting plants, and making bouquets almost daily since then.  This past week we received almost a dozen orders for Mother's Day weekend.  I was very excited!  We kicked things off on Friday afternoon, rested up Friday night, and then hit the ground running Saturday morning...(We did have to take a break for a soccer game but I stopped at Home Depot on the way there, and after the game we foraged some filler flowers from around the fields, so it turned into a work trip. :) )  The flower-filled work carried over into Sunday morning, and I made my last delivery that afternoon after church.  Phew!!! ...

#1 Satan hits us when we're weak. (Check it out, Matthew 4 ) #2 For women, well at least for me, we're a lot weaker at certain times of the month. Fight or Wallow I can feel it coming.  It's not a physical feeling for me...it's an emotional one.  All of a sudden, everyone is a little bit annoying, and everything is a little bit personal. I'm bombarded by negative thoughts..."my life is a failure, I'm no good, everyone else is succeeding, I'm the loser, it's somebody else's fault, and the whole world is bad, bad, bad."  Of course, nothing externally has really changed.  I'm just weakened, tired, and vulnerable. I've been trying to find a good strategy to fight this monthly downward spiral.  I've really been praying about it, and this month the Lord has provided the answer. As it usually goes, this answer was right in front of my face...I just needed to focus on it.   FOCUS... ~ Like winning (or just finishing)...

#1 It's a good feeling to go to bed after a long day of work. #2 It's also a good feeling to wake up to a new day and feel rested and ready to go. Satisfied To go to bed satisfied with your days work, and to wake up satisfied with the life you get to live that day. Those seem like two worthy goals to me.  Being satisfied is not something we have to strive after...It's more like something we rest in...even while we're working. Proverbs 19:23 - "The fear of the L ORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm."

#1 Sometimes it's easy to judge between right and wrong...I like it when things are black or white. #2 Sometimes it's a little more difficult, and it takes a little more time to think things through...Ya know - "the gray areas."     Sometimes I get lost in the gray. It's like driving on a foggy road.  You're driving slow, squinting your eyes, trying to stay in your lane, and your view is so limited that you can't relax, and you definitely can't enjoy the ride!  You feel tense, worried, and unsure about what's up ahead. This is how I feel when I'm bombarded by decisions or judgments about things that are not clearly defined or things of which I'm unsure.  If I don't clearly know both sides of an argument, or if my views differ from what someone else is telling me, or if I've simply come to "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," I sometimes have to let my foot off the gas and navigate the path very carefully.  ...