Thursday, March 29, 2012

time to beat my time! ... and some precious promises (52 in 52)

It's Spring Break for me now!! Yay!

That also means I run the Cooper River Bridge Run in 2 days! Woo!! :D I looked up my time from last year. I ran it in 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 38 seconds.

My goal is under an hour. Think I can do it? Yeah. I have my doubts too. lol

My cousin Cindy and I are going down together (with her roommate Britney) and staying at a hotel tomorrow night. It'll be a fun little getaway for the evening, and we'll have plenty of time to catch up on the juicy cousin news! Can't wait. :)

Have you watched the new show Touch that started last week? I'm hooked! Jake, the little boy in the show, is absolutely adorable. His hair just melts my heart! Maybe I'll have a little boy with curly hair like that one day. ...maybe.

I was also watching the other new show Awake, but I'm not sure I can watch it anymore. It's become a bit too scary for me. But I may just be a wimp.

My grandpa's birthday is on Saturday. I'm not sure I'll have time or enough energy on Saturday to work in my yard, but I'm planning on doing some planting next week to celebrate his birthday.

I miss his smile and his blue eyes. And his voice. Such a rich voice.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:3-4

I'm drawn to this verse for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on it though.

God's very great and precious promises. Promises that some day, we will be able to see our loved ones again. We'll be able to see our Savior face to face. Promises of a life without tears, sickness, pain, or sorrow. A life filled to overflowing with worship and praise to our Father. Promises of life with Him.

Maybe I just put my finger on it. Promises of seeing my Uncle Mike, Grandma, and Grandpa again. Thoughts of that day are certainly very great and precious in my mind. 

It's almost midnight. I better hop in the bed before I turn into a pumpkin! I'll let you know if I beat my time on Saturday! :)



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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

some randomness

For some reason, I feel like today should be Wednesday or Thursday. Maybe that's because I'm taking Friday off to drive to Charleston for Saturday's Cooper River Bridge Run.

Did I mention that I'm running the Cooper River Bridge Run on Saturday? Well, I am! I'm so excited!! I need to look up my time from last year so that I can try to beat it.

I saw The Hunger Games last night! It was an EXCELLENT movie!! My friend Bekah went with me, and we're both itching to see the second one now! She hasn't read the books, so she wasn't expecting the movie to just stop mid-story. Keeps you wanting to see more! (PS - Just in my I-don't-have-kids-yet opinion, if you're thinking about taking your young child - aka not in HS - to see it, I would rethink it. It is pretty rough in some spots with the "game" scenes. Just my $0.02 though!)

1. I got to hold little Mr. Toby during church on Sunday morning. (Having nursery does have it's perks, eh?) i. love. him. seriously.
2. I'm hooked on edamame! I found it in the frozen section of Aldi, where I do 90% of my grocery shopping, so I snagged several bags. I've now eaten about a bag and a half since Friday. Yum!
3. I did some more planting last week! I now have some of Grandpa's daffodils around my mailbox. I'm pretty certain that I did not inherit his green thumb. Sad times.
4. I locked us (a 9 year old, a 2 year old, and myself) out of the house while I was babysitting last week. It wasn't so terrible though. We had fun!

I was supposed to run 5.4 miles yesterday, but the movie plans definitely trumped those plans.

I was planning on running the 5.4 miles today since I didn't run them yesterday, however I have been sitting here on my couch like a bump on a log all evening. I can't seem to get going.

So, I'm watching The Biggest Loser (which I normally don't watch), and they mentioned Zumba. Think that's a sign? heh

Spring break is 2 days away (well, really 3...but again, I'm taking Friday off! Yay!). What are you planning for Spring Break with your kids, or if you don't have kids, what about Easter with your family?



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Sunday, March 25, 2012

52 in 52 ... There's an app for that!

Well, it isn't exactly an app specifically for my 52 in 52 challenge, however I have found an app that I LOVE to help me!


Flashcardlet is a great app that allows you to create your own flashcards or use flashcards they already have preset.

Before I used Flashcardlet, I used index cards to create a flashcard for each week's scripture. This was great, and I loved flipping through them as I blow dried my hair each morning. What I had trouble with was when I wasn't at home blow drying my hair, yet I still wanted to study the verses. So, I went on a hunt.

I downloaded another app that was basically the same thing, but I wasn't too keen on it for some reason. Now, thinking back on it, I'm not even sure what I didn't like about it. I had downloaded both Flashcardlet and this other app at the same time, hoping to find something I liked. And Flashcardlet was it!


Now, all of my 52 in 52 verses from the past 12 weeks are stored away in my 52 in 52 deck. You can specify what you want on the front and back of each card.


So when I want to study my 52 in 52 verses while I'm waiting in line at the grocery store, I can just pull out my iPhone and flip through the cards on Flashcardlet.


And it doesn't matter how long the passage is - Flashcardlet automatically adds however many lines you need to that flashcard to fit everything in.

There are also some additional features that I enjoy as well. If I've been studying the cards for awhile, and I want to mix the order up some because I've repeated it several times, you can choose a "shuffle" option that allows you to continue studying, it just (as it says...) shuffles the cards for you!

You can "star" a card by pressing the star in the lower right corner (seen in the picture above). Then, you can study only the cards that are stared, or you can study the cards that are not starred. i.e. If I'm positive that I have a particular scripture down and can completely quote it whenever, then I can star that card. That way, if I only want to study the tough cards, I can go with the unstarred cards for that study session.


Have you accepted the 52 in 52 challenge this year? You should give Flashcardlet a try! You'll like it, I'm sure. :)

(PS - I didn't get paid to say anything in this post. I just really enjoy this app, so I thought I'd share why!)






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Thursday, March 22, 2012

booming visits, my run, and an undivided heart ... in reverse order

Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your name forever. For great is Your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
Psalm 86:11-13

What do you feel your heart is divided between? Maybe it's between following God and continuing a habit you've developed. Maybe it's trusting God, but also feeling as if you can't fully trust Him. Maybe it's between wanting to be obedient to God, yet still have that "little sin" in your life. Whatever it is, having a divided heart is terribly hard, isn't it?

I want to be undividedly (I made up that word!) devoted to God!

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I went running tonight at 7:00 again. It's SO much nicer running in the evenings than in the afternoons! First off, and obviously so, it's much much cooler in the evenings. An added bonus is that I've been able to see more people while I'm out running. Although I feel disgustingly gross when I run, and I feel like I look like a dying cow at times, it's still nice to see people outside going for an evening walk! And something about knowing people are around and can see me running makes me run just a smidgen faster. lol

I did 3.8 miles tonight in 38 minutes and 22 seconds. Pretty good pace! I'm getting closer to my goal of running 10 minute miles again. Once I accomplish that, my goal will then be to run under 10 minute miles. I know I can do it! Just have to keep working...er, running.

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So, I like to track how many people are visiting my blog between posts. Usually, I'll have about 40 or 50 people visit my blog in a span of about 3 or 4 days. However, since my last post (which was Sunday), I've had almost 200 people visit my blog. That's crazy! I'm seriously wondering if I really have had almost 200 people visit my blog since then, or if there is some crazy internet machine or something that's kicking the count up.

I'd like to think I've had that many people in that short amount of time because that would mean they're reading Scripture, being encouraged to get out and run (do I encourage people to do this?), and that my thoughts are being heard (a bit of a scary thought sometimes lol).

I'll just let myself think there really are that many people reading. A nice confidence boost, right? :)




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Sunday, March 18, 2012

tis the season...

To run in the evenings!!!  It's hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!

Yesterday's 4.9 mile run was tough. I got up and had some breakfast at 9:00, then headed to my grandparents' house around 11:00 to dig up some daffodil plants that are still around from when Grandpa was doing his gardening years ago.

(The patch of daffodils I got them from)

Honestly, I was hoping to dig up all of these to transplant at my house. However, after digging for awhile, I realized there were TONS and TONS of daffodils here. I basically dug up one small portion of what you see, and this is what I ended up with...

(My daffodil babies)

Bekah came over when I was just about done, and we headed over to my house to plant them there. I did a row on each side of my storage shed in the backyard. Before I planted them, I counted how many I had gotten.

Are you ready for this?

I dug up about 105 daffodil plants! Crazy!! I could totally put them all over my yard and not have to worry about grass again because the pretty daffodils would take over. I think I'll refrain from doing that though.

So, I was finished with the gardening around 2:00, and then I decided to head out for my run.

About halfway through, I remembered that I hadn't eaten anything since my breakfast at 9:00 that morning. And then I also realized that it was much hotter than I expected!

I actually stopped at one point and asked a random guy for a glass of water. He was outside playing with his 2 year old son (he looked to be able 2). He went in and got me a bottle of water. Then, as I was walking so I could drink the water, a lady asked if I needed anymore water. (I must have looked pretty bad lol) She said to feel free to stop by her house for water anytime. Hopefully that won't be a need though!

I think I'm going to start running in the early evenings now. It's getting so much hotter these days, and I can't seem to run my best in the heat. I'm thinking 6 or 7PM would be much nicer!

For now, I'll have to be happy with my 4.9mile run that I did in about 54 minutes.



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Thursday, March 15, 2012

my security ... 52 in 52

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
Romans 8:38-39 

Ever feel like something you've done has totally taken you away from God and that there's nothing you can do to recover from that?

I've been there before too. But God isn't like that. He loves us, cares for us, and forgives us. Nothing we do, and nothing anyone or anything does, can ever take us away from His extreme love for us.

I can fully rest in this security.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I got my rear in gear!

Last Saturday was the best run I've had since I started back this year. It was also the third time I've run the Get Your Rear in Gear 5k race, which benefits colon cancer. It's always fun.

(Before the race, with my pink tutu!)

A parent at the school where I teach always gets a group together to run it. We're called The Wise Cracks (get it? Since it's for colon cancer!) We get shirts each year, and there's always this little dude on it with his bare bottom. It's cute, but I prefer not to run around with bare bottoms on my shirt, so I put a tutu on him. That's the pink thing on my shirt.

(After I finished, with major sun in my eyes.)

I ran the race in 31 minutes and 33 seconds. That's my best time since starting back this year.

This is one of my favorite runs because they end it with a complete downhill sprint, which I love! I always try to sprint the end, and the downhill definitely helps with that!!

Until next year!



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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

52 in 52 wk 10 -- my prayer

Show me Your ways, O Lord, and teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truths and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long. Remember, O Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to Your love remember me, for You are good, O Lord.
Psalm 25:4-7

In the back of my Bible, I've listed scriptures that meant something to me with a snid bit of what they said to the side. Sometimes I like to just go down the list and read the passages that God used to teach me during different points in my life.

This week's verse comes from this list in one of my Bibles. Beside it, I had written, "my prayer."

It is my prayer that God would reveal to me His ways, His will, and His path for my life. I don't always take this route, and that usually ends up with me once again realizing my humanly sinful nature. However, God's love is overwhelming and He welcomes me with open arms when I realize my stupidity, my rebellious ways.

My prayer is that God would teach me through these times and draw me ever closer to Him. And He has been. For that I am outrageously thankful.



So, a quick(ish) 52 in 52 story for you -- I've mentioned that I can't exactly rattle off every single verse that I've memorized so far without some sort of list of the references. However, it's amazing how God brings certain scripture to mind right when I need it!

I sometimes I feel overwhelmed at work with all of the new programs we've been implementing in our classrooms this year. I sometimes feel like I'm drowning as I try to master one program and at the same time start up a brand new one that I've never done before. They're great programs, but it takes me a bit to figure out how it fits into my classroom and what it will look like with my teaching style.

Well, today was one of those days. I was trying to figure out how to integrate this particular program into my math curriculum, and I was quickly sucked into this mind set that I can't do it, I'm not that great of a teacher, and there was no way I would be able to manage this program and have the students be successful at it. And at the same time, I was putting packets together for my students to take home to start the at-home portion...and I was thinking, "Why am I even putting these together?! We won't be able to do this!!"

And then God stilled me. He silenced me and brought one of my 52 in 52 scriptures to mind.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5

God has given me a passion for teaching for a reason. He has placed me in this classroom for a purpose. And in this moment, I had to remind myself that my insecurities were not from Truth. The source of my frustrations were not brought from the knowledge of God's hand in my life. They were from satan and his evil schemes to knock me on my rear so I feel like a failure.

As I sat there, I repeated this scripture in my mind several times, tried my hardest to capture these thoughts and feelings of being not good enough, and then I carried on with my day. My students were excited about the homework they were assigned as part of the program, and I sort of felt better about the program.

Although I can't recall each verse without a list of the verses I've memorized, God is definitely using them in my daily life, which really is the point after all. :) I want to hide His Word in my heart so that I can use it in my walk to be encouraged, lead, and reminded of His very real presence in my life.

That's what it's really all about.




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Monday, March 5, 2012

1.5 miles ... I'm okay with that!

Well, it's been over a week since I've had a good run. I couldn't stand it any longer today. I had to get out there for a run. 1) for my sanity and 2) for my waistline. grr.

But we won't go there.

So, I set my sights high again and was hoping for a 5k run today. ha. My calves aren't THAT much better right now, I reckon.

I went about a mile and a half and decided my calves were going from "uncomfortable" to "painful" at that point, so I decided to walk home. But then I looked at my phone and I had gone 1.46mile, so I made myself go the extra 0.04 to top it off at 1.5mile.

So glad I did! I feel much better about a 1.5mile run than a 1.46mile run. Wouldn't you?

I still have a 5k race on Saturday, so I'm hoping for at least a 2.5mile run before then.

Good thing is that while I was walking Izzy after my run, my calves completely stopped hurting. So, that's pretty exciting!!

On a random note, I'm in the process of planning a very real post soon. "Real" as in totally what my heart has been feeling lately about some things. I just haven't gotten around to fleshing it out into words yet.




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Thursday, March 1, 2012

52 in 52 Week 10, and my 10 week recap

Edit: So, apparently I can't count. Good thing [most] students come to first grade knowing how to count to 10, right? lol It's only been 9 weeks so far (I skipped 3), so this is now a 9 week recap, not 10. I'll keep everything else in the post the same though. I'm too lazy to go back and correct it. Enjoy!

I thought it'd be a good idea to have a 52 in 52 recap at each 10 week mark. So, here are the scriptures from the first 10 weeks (including this week). There will actually be 12 scriptures since I started early, but that's alright. You'll forgive me though, right?

I'd love to say that I could rattle off the scriptures week by week without needing a reference to remind me which scripture comes next. Or, I wish I could even just tell you all of the references without needing reminders of which scriptures I memorized. However, to do this recap, I brought in my flashcards that I've made over the weeks (these usually stay in my bathroom since I do most of my studying while I blow dry my hair each morning lol), and I just flipped through them to catch the scripture reference for each week. Everything else was done by memory though. :)

52 in 52 Recap:

Week -1 (sinceI started a couple weeks before New Years): Romans 12:1-2 - I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to present yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Week 0: Isaiah 9:6 - For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Week 1: 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 - So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall. No temptation has taken you but what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Week 2: Ecclesiastes 3:11 - He has made everything beautiful in its time, and He has also set eternity in the hearts of man, yet they cannot fathom what He has done from beginning to end.

Week 4: Proverbs 30:5-6 - Every word of God is flawless, He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Week 5: Romans 15:4 - Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

Week 6: Psalm 96:4-6 - For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols, [here's my favorite part!!!] but the Lord made the heavens! Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and glory are in His sanctuary.

Week 7: 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 - Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good but the good of others.

Week 8: Galatians 2:20 - For I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live [exist], but Christ lives [exists] in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Week 9: 2 Corinthians 10:5 - We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

And this week's verse:

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8-9

Do you sometimes struggle with the fact that God isn't tangible? Of course, many of His blessings are very tangible: a new job, new babies, a loving family... but sometimes I just want to give Him a hug. Be held in His arms. Smell His aftershave. Surely that's what He smells like, right? I remember being a little girl and smelling my daddy's aftershave (or was it his shaving cream? Whatever he smelled like, I liked it!). Such a sweet, comforting, and secure feeling.

Okay, so maybe God doesn't smell like aftershave. But He does smell of gorgeous sunrises, stars twinkling in the sky, and sweet little baby cries. His "scent" is everywhere. And although I can't touch Him now,  and I can't be held by Him, I do have this outrageous joy knowing that someday I will! His outstanding love for me gives me such hope in where my future lies. Knowing that He loves me even though I've sinned and done stupid things, this gives me a reason to smile and be happy.


So, it's been 10 weeks so far. I must say that I'm pretty proud that I've stuck with it this long. I've never been that great at keeping resolutions, but I've been determined with this one. 

I have 42 weeks left in my 52 in 52. You could totally start now and do 42 in 42. What do you say?




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