Finding My Motivation

My health really took a big hit this summer. It was 100% completely my fault. Between traveling (Nevada City, San Diego, Texas, Thailand) and making the final push to get everything in order for the mission trip, I had very little time to myself. I had little time at home, little time to rest and little time to make an effort to take care of me. One of the goals I set for myself was that once I was back from Thailand I would start saying no to more things and become diligent in taking care of me once more. This includes: exercise, healthy diet, adequate rest, doing things I enjoy and taking care of my house. Honestly, after we got back from Thailand, I slept for about four days straight. I am still not completely back on PST,  but I am close. But, this week (1.5 weeks removed) has been wonderful in terms of taking back my life.

One thing I am using to help me do this is Twitter. Twitter? I know, it sounds weird. However, I got the idea from my "Health" magazine. It recommended following certain sites/people like "Harvard Health" to find daily motivation. I made an account, followed their recommended people and also followed my two favorite health magazines: "Health" and "Shape." It has been so great. I just jump onto Twitter and it is loaded with quotes, tips, workouts, MOTIVATION. Love it!

It sounds stupid, but Twitter really got me excited for my workout this morning. Between Babe Ruth quotes and workout ideas... I was pumped up!

Usually I walk hills in the mornings for about 45 minutes. This summer, I rarely did this and it was very apparent. :) This week I started walking again and it felt great. I had bought a watch to use in Thailand and now that I am back I have been using it to time myself and motivate myself to go faster on my walks. I felt really fabulous after today's workout and so I wanted to blog about it because a) I want to remember how accomplished and great I feel today and b) maybe it will inspire you to get up off the couch and start working out too.

Friday is usually what my walking partner and I call "the short walk." She has limited time on Fridays to walk so we cut our walk by about 15 minutes. Today we were really moving and after I dropped her off at her house only 14 minutes had passed. Usually it is another 10 minutes to my house. For some reason (probably Twitter) I felt so motivated to start running home instead of walking. Well, there are some pretty big hills so run/walk. Anyway, I got home in 7 minutes instead of 10! Woot woot!

This put me at just over a 20 minute workout and I wanted to keep it going so I logged on to my Twitter and pulled up this post from Shape magazine. If you check it out, I went with the jump roping. I did 10 reps which took five minutes. A five minute workout? Sign me up! It was great because it kept my heart rate up, allowed for a rest period and didn't take a long time to complete. It was the perfect thing to tack on to the end of my walk. Plus, I had the added bonus of being able to watch "The Amazing Race" while I was doing it.

Then, because I really want to focus on building arm strength, I decided to end my workout with a little yoga. I pulled this article out of my "Health" magazine and it is so awesome. However, I will never post a picture on here of me doing it because.... well I don't look anything like the picture. I look more like a whale trying to do ballet. Anyway, check out the photo below to get the full workout. Basically, you just do each pose for five breaths and then repeat 5-8 times. I'm working up to it. :D

So there it is. My 30 minute, Friday workout. What motivates you to workout?

Next week is Salad Week on my blog! I am partnering with a couple of other bloggers to bring you delicious, easy salads all week long. I'll have fresh easy ideas all week long starting on Monday!

Luke 5:5-6

Sometimes God is silent. There are times when I pray that I look around the room and wonder why it feels like my prayers are hitting the walls and bouncing back towards me. I wonder how long it will take for God to work, move or speak.

Sometimes when God speaks it is so soft that it is easy to miss. In those times, I have found that what it takes on my part is to simply trust that God is moving and take the next step...I put one foot in front of the other holding on to the fact that in the deepest of my heart I know I am doing all that I am doing because it is my aim to please God.

Sometimes when God speaks it is so loud it shocks me. I have yet to hear the audible voice of God (although my Grandfather has had this privilege), but I have had very specific times in my life when  I was extremely certain I heard God's voice and it was life changing.

1. When I was called into missions. 
2. When God told me to stop being afraid and to follow him. 
3. When God  told me that it was okay to live in the United States and that I would be doing different types of ministry throughout my life for him. 
4. When God told me to be a pastor. 

Then, there are times when God speaks to me about my every day life and situations. For me, He often provides a Scripture passage or a devotional passage on the exact day/time/prayer that I ask or need it. There are times I open up my devotional and the subject is on the very topic that was burdening my heart. There are times when I pray, wait for a verse reference to come into my mind, turn to it and it speaks immensely to the situation I happen to be going through at that exact time. There are times in my daily Bible reading when I am simply reading along and sometime will jump off the page and my spirit will prompt me to stop reading, sit and meditate on those words and God will often speak to me through them.

Last week was one of those times.
Planning the mission trip has been very challenging and very intense. There are moments when I want to sit down on the floor and cry and ask for the adult to come and take over now. There have been some unique challenges with my situation because the people I have been working with to plan the trip have changed three times in the last year. Since two of those people were brand new to their jobs and I am brand new to planning a trip there have been things that have been miss-communicated and in some cases missed.

A couple of weeks ago there were still things for our trip that were not settled that very much needed to be settled. I was a hot mess on Monday. I met with my prayer partner Monday afternoon and she prayed a lot and I cried a lot we prayed. (BTW, quick side note. I love having a prayer partner. I have found that I see more answered prayers out of my time with her than any other time. I would encourage everybody to get one!) On Tuesday night, I got into bed and read my daily Bible reading. I came to Luke 5:5-6 and it was as though God took a giant stamp and stamped the word "Thailand" right across the page. This is what the verse says...

"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again." And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!

Jesus is asking Simon (Peter) in this verse to go out and fish even though Simon has already been out fishing and caught nothing. As I read this, I felt exactly like Simon. I had worked so hard (not all night, but for a year) on the mission trip and was at a point of feeling like I had caught nothing. Yet, God was saying to me, go back out there, get up tomorrow and work on this again, I am going to do something amazing, your nets are going to be so full they tear. I was so certain that God had spoken to me through this verse. 

I love when I feel like God is promising something good to me! :D 

The next morning, I received a call from the head of the mission department for our entire denomination. She had spent her morning reading every single e-mail I had written (70 pages in a word document) and she realized that there were unresolved issues with my trip. BOOM. She spent the next half hour going over all my questions, giving me advice, providing me with resources and helping me work on the unresolved issues I was facing on Monday. It turns out that the lady I had been working with was out of town, her boss (probably because the lady I was working with was new) was checking her e-mails while she was gone. This boss saw one of my e-mails and called me. Apparently, after our conversation this boss contacted the big boss and sent a copy of all my e-mails and whammo it all worked out. The relief that came from this phone conversation left me with a joy that lasted all day. 

I imagine Simon Peter running around yelling, "We got fish! We got fish!" I spent my day running around yelling, "God answered my prayer! God answered my prayer!" I was/am so thankful that God had been with me every step of the way on this mission trip. I was reminded again that it is not my trip, but that God is truly the one in charge. For that, I am so glad! 

Happy face! 

Grocery Outlet!

One of my very favorite places to shop is Grocery Outlet. I had trouble seeing the beauty of this store when I first moved here because truth be told... it smells like a cow farm inside. If you are looking for an upscale, put together, one stop grocery shopping experience then GO is not for you. If you are looking for the best prices and best quality food you need to check this place out. Once I stopped caring about the smell I realized how much I love this store.

First of all, their prices beat pretty much everybody else including Walmart and Food Maxx. When you can beat Walmart with your prices you are doing a good job. Basically, it is like a TJ Max or Marshalls for food. When other stores order too much it gets sent to GO. Hence, GO can sell for lower prices. The one downside to this is that they may not always have what you bought before.

Here are the bonuses to shopping at this store. 

1. They sell LOTS of organic and all natural foods. I have been so impressed by how high quality (and low cost) a lot of their products are. One day I found organic chicken broth which was also naturally low sodium for only .50 cents a can! I bought an entire box of them. At that point in time I was on a chicken noodle soup kick and used chicken broth a lot for that. Now I am on a Spanish rice kick and I turn my brown rice into Spanish rice by adding some spices, tomato sauce and chicken broth! It's perfect.

Sometimes they have organic eggs (that beat Costco prices) and occasionally they will have organic milk. 

2. They have a million different kinds of cheese. We have bought habenero jack, garlic jack, pesto jack, chipolte cheddar and more. Plus they have all the fancy types too that cost $7 + at a regular grocery store. 

3. Price Price Price 

4. Last but not least... my very favorite part of shopping at GO is their monthly drawing. Each cashier is required to tell you how much you saved by shopping there. They list it on your receipt so you can see that their store is better price wise compared to other stores. Then, if you wish, you can write your name and phone number at the bottom of your receipt, tear it off and put it in the box on the wall to be entered in to their monthly drawing. BOOM. I do it every single time. If you are one of the two winners that month, they call you and give you a gift card for the amount of money you saved. 

Let me tell you a little story. About a month ago I was having trouble getting up and out of bed and the phone rang. I looked over to my nightstand and the caller id said, "Grocery Outlet." I let out a scream and then yelled, "KRIS WAKE UP."  I jumped out of bed, snatched the phone and answered as fast as possible. Yes, all my dreams had just come true. I won a $49.10 gift card! The truly awesome part is that I had three different entries in the drawing and my largest one won! 

Seriously, go shop. Right now. 

Colorado or Bust!

This week I am in Colorado for a youth conference. I am so honored and excited to be here. I have lots of great stuff to share, but typing it all out on my phone prevents me from doing it now.

Here is one thought for the road. I have found that right before God does something great in my life I am often tested and stretched to my absolute capacity. It would appear that the enemy wants to do everything in his power to make sure I don't get to the place, reward, blessing God wants me to be/have. He tempts me with fear, with anxiety and beckons me to turn back. Friends, if you ever face this too, hold on. Take that next step forward. Trust God whole heartedly. Cling to him through the storm as you would a life preserver...because when the storm ceases, you will be surrounded by God's blessing and beauty and wonder.

xoxo
have a great day.

Books!

Some of you may have wondered what happened to me during my little hiatus from the blog last week. Some of you may have wondered if I was going to quit my blog again. Some of you may have wondered if I was eaten my a mad group of hippos. Nope and nope.

Alas, here is what I was doing.

The Vow, The Atonement Child, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika, Sustainable Youth Ministry, Reality Bites Back 

I was gettin my read on! The first three books (shown in the picture) were ones I managed to snag at the yard sale. The fourth book is one I found on Amazon and the last book, on my Kindle, is one I have been reading for about a month now.

My favorite type of books are autobiographies. It's probably because I am just a nosy person, but nothing beats hearing a good/interesting/incredible/unbelievable/convicting/hilarious/tragic/insert other adjective here story from real life. This is why I blog stalk people. It's like mini-autobios every single day!
This picture really covers the range of stuff I usually read. It has two autobiographies (The Vow, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika), one fiction (The Atonement Child), and two non-fiction (Reality Bites Back and Sustainable Youth Ministry).

In case you are interested in any of them below are some short reviews.

The Vow
I picked up this book because a few months ago I saw the movie and was intrigued by the premise of the story. In my opinion, the movie and the book are two completely different stories. The true story is that this man and woman were married for about 10 weeks when they got into a terrible car accident. The wife should have died, but lived. When she woke up she could remember everything except the last year and a half of her life. The problem? In that year and a half she had met her husband, dated her husband and married her husband. She woke up remembering everything except for the fact that she was married. Both the book and the movie center on this story line. The movie (in my opinion) really ruined the book and missed the entire point of the story. The couple were strong Christians (had no clue from the movie) and the book focuses on their faith in God through this challenging time. The movie focuses on fictional plot lines of multiple love interests, affairs, divorce - none of which really happened. So, I guess if you want to hear what Hollywood thinks would happen after the initial plot line, go watch the movie. If you want to hear what really happened and how God worked miracle after miracle in this couple's lives- read the book.


The Atonement Child
Francine Rivers is an amazing story teller and has a way of incorporating the Christian faith with page turning stories. This book centers on a girl who was raped and became pregnant. Not sure what to do and having a host of people telling her what she should do, the story follows her as she grapples with her faith, her family and her future. I flew through this book in about two days. It was definitely captivating and thought provoking. It is a little cheesy at times and there are 14 pages in particular which is supposed to be a group of characters having conversation and truly it is just all the arguments that people use against abortion. I wish she would have left this section out of the story and included it as an appendage at the end of the book. While I am against abortion, the way she talked about it completely made the story stop. It was like she said, "And now, we are going to take a short break to hear from our sponsors." Right after that conversation was over, the book picked right back up. So, for the sake of the story line I felt like it didn't fit. I get where she was coming from but wished she would have included it elsewhere.

The Girl Who Loved the Swastika
Obviously by the title you can deduce this story was written by a girl who had ties to the Nazi party. This book is her life story and it is pretty fascinating. She talked about her life before Hitler, her life during Hitler's reign (and her love for him), her life after WWII (she was in East Germany and forced into a labor camp by the Russians) and her life after she came to the United States. The end of the book got a little dry for me, but I'm definitely still glad I read this one.

Sustainable Youth Ministry
I'm not actually done with this book yet and I am guessing the majority of you don't care how to run a sustainable youth ministry. So, no book review! You're welcome. :D However, if you do care  definitely read this book. It is really good.

Reality Bites Back
Wow. This book was a HUGE eye opener for me. I would deem this book the best book I have read so far this year. Let me first offer a warning for those of you who are about to skip my review and run straight to the bookstore to pick up your copy. This is not a Christian book nor is it written by a Christian (to my knowledge). The author is extremely liberal and at times can be crude and uses vulgar language. So, if you read it and are offended, I told you so.

Okay, so now do you really want to know why I loved this book? The author hits the nail right on the head and brings up an issue that is plaguing our culture. Reality T.V. I was the biggest fan of reality t.v. I loved pretty much any show that focused on the real life of people- no matter the situation. I was what you would call an unaware viewer. Pozner takes the reader through the number of problems that reality t.v. has brought upon our culture. It has been a set-back for women and women's right issues, race and racism issues, healthy body image issues. Pozner takes the reader behind the scenes and introduces the reader to the people who are producing these types of shows. Let me tell you, it is frightening. The producers cast people on their shows who are prone to violence, alcoholism, emotional breakdowns and then send the message to the viewers that this is real life. Shows like America's Top Model pretend to care about young women and exist to give them a chance, but in reality when girls have been on the show who struggled with eating disorders the producers (instead of helping them) called them fat and weak. Girls who were intellectual on this show were told they were arrogant and needed to be taken down a peg. Besides all of that, these shows are basically being run by advertising companies. These big companies have realized that they can pay big bucks to incorporate their stuff, not just in commercials, but throughout the hour/two hour show. Think "The Apprentice" (Burger King, Tanning Companies) "Dancing with the Stars" (Macy's) "The Bachelor" (Honda) "American Idol" (Ford). Why are there so many reality shows? It is not because of the ratings. It is because advertising companies have found a better way and more air time to sell their products. It is because reality shows cost $500,000 per episode while a scripted t.v. show can cost $9 million. The producers can stuff their pockets while paying people virtually nothing, or most of the time actually nothing all the while the characters of the show are doing all the work and advertising under the guise of a promise of "maybe you'll find love", "maybe you'll become the next pop star", "maybe you will have a career in modeling"... etc.
WOW. Stop me now. I'm about to start a rant. Anyway, I think most of us just find reality t.v. as an innocent way to pass the time. It is an entertaining way to escape after a long day of work. If you love reality t.v. - like I did- I encourage you to read this book. You don't have to buy into everything the author is saying - I didn't - but I promise it will open your eyes to something our culture needs to be aware of.

There ya go! Something for everybody. What do you guys like to read?

Christian Onion?

I about died when I read this article on Lark News.
Seriously, I could not stop laughing.

One of my Facebook friends posted it because they thought it was a real article. There were a number of people who were so upset by it. My thoughts? Hey, if you want to abstain for three years after marriage and eat raw potatoes... to each his own! You totally want to go read that article  now, don't you?

Come to find out Lark News was a website started by a guy who happens to think that God has a great sense of humor. Apparently this guy started a Christian website similar to The Onion. A hilarious twist on real or not so real news stories. I have seriously laughed out loud numerous times as I have spent wayyyy too much time perusing through all the different links.

I am toying with the idea of buying a shirt from this website. They have numerous shirts with funny sayings like, "Jesus loves you...then again, he loves everybody." "I'll pray about it." And my personal favorite (but you had to grow up in the church community to get this) "I'm with the puppet team."

I love laughing!

FOR THE LOVE!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That's how I feel right now.

Thank you for understanding.