DAY 10/Update

Just getting ready to cross the finish line. I remember last year that as far as you come on this fast, the last day is a hard one to do. For some reason you feel like it's over and so you tend to not be as strict with yourself on the last day. I think we went to Carraba's last year and I ordered some veggies but then when it came could only pick at them. Since I'm working all day today it's making it easier. Sipping on my juice and will maybe eat an orange today. Definitely worth all the effort. I've lost over 10lbs. and feel soooo much better. Feel healthy,cleaned and ready to start this new year off going back to my vegetarian ways and being a part of the solution rather than the problem of what's happening to our food supply in this country. Saw the film Food,Inc. and it only confirmed what I was feeling.

So as we are inching into a new month, I feel invigorated and optimistic about new opportunities and adventures that are just around the corner. Answered prayer has been abundant in the past few weeks in our family. Thank you God that you say "ask and it will be given to you". You don't specify the length of time in between but that's OK, as I know that each day brings new revelations in the bigger picture.

The weather is beyond dreary and it is very hard to even try to think of something fun to do in this pea soup fog. Thinking about bowling....or the jazz concert tonight at the Meadowbrook. A new day of eating lies ahead but for some reason I am very hesitant to jump back to where I just came from. Need to be very cautious and not let my flesh call the shots. Very grateful that God is always cheering us on to grow in body,soul and spirit. That thirst for being all that He see's in me is what keeps me motivated.

THOUGHTS ON FASTING

Well I have started this intense ten day fast once more and I want to put down some thoughts that are racing through my head before I forget. It was maybe around this time last year that I did it and for me once a year is plenty. I started yesterday and I have to say it was not easy. Gabe and Katie are also taking on the challenge but as Gabe is mad at me at the moment, I'm not sure if I'll get much support from them.
Anyway.......first day feelings:
Hesitancy
Excitement
Dread
Hunger
Headache
Missing coffee

Trying to keep busy which is hard as I'm not real busy at the moment.
Going to the health food store to get the lemons, cayenne pepper was fun. Seeing all the healthy foods got my Spirit excited about getting back on track with my eating habits. I've gotten very slack the last few months and I really need to do this for myself.Once your mind gets in control of your body it's crazy how all you think about is healthy foods. I remember drooling over pictures of tomatoes and spinach and broccoli. You start craving what is good for you.

Constant voice of the flesh that this is going to be really hard. Quit,Quit,Quit
Realizing how much of my life is spent thinking about food,preparing food,eating food and planning food for the next day. Our whole social life with friends and each other involves food and drink.

Evening was difficult.
Watching Ira make a delicious dinner doesn't help but I'm grateful that he is willing to take care of himself so I don't even have to think about it.
Missing my glass of wine.
Bored and know that being busy is very important but what can I do in the evening to be busy?? Maybe work on the script.
Taking Max for a walk in the evening helped.We love walking around the neighborhood at night. It's so quiet and no cars to worry about.
Surprised at how tired I was by 9pm
Drank my poop tea....Yuck
One day down and I will now call it a day.

Woke up with my whole body buzzing
Slept very well. Strange dreams. Dreamed that I was watching a video of pieces of my life. One scene in particular was of me in a wedding dress,veil and all
and Ira in a tux, running down a hill. We started running but were bumping into each other laughing, falling down and getting up,toppling over grabbing each other and rolling over as we descended down, laughing all the way. My thoughts as I was looking at it were Awwww..how funny and sweet. When I woke up I thought a lot about how when we get to heaven I'm sure that we will be able to look at a high tech video of our whole life and how that little snippet really does represent our life. Running the race with so many crazy,funny and heart wrenching episodes all the way. I'm sure our life will be in the Comedy section.

The part we are in right now is the pause as the next scene is being set up so I'm expecting the last chapter to be hysterical.
It's funny that Ira and I have been writing a screen play of our life and the last chapter or at least an outline has already been written. I do hope it ends that way.

A new day has begun. It's 6am and I'm starting to get that overwhelming feeling of hunger and how I can't possibly do this fast. They say day 1,2 and 4 are the hardest. I have had a few symptoms of some problems that I am believing that this fast will knock out. It very well could. As something negative is trying to take hold,your determination of the positive for health and wholeness sheds light on it and it evaporates. I know this is a good thing and I also know that the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Help me Lord.

PIONEERS, OH PIONEERS!!!

I have uttered that phrase from Walt Whitman's inspiring poem so many times during my 30+ years living here in the mountains but thought those infant days of survival were neatly tucked into past memories and then.....the winter of 2010 came creeping in and I realized with a chuckle that not much has changed in our lives in 35 yrs. Christmas came to our little corner of the world with a blast. The sixteen inches of snow wasn't enough the week before and so on Christmas morning when I faintly heard the sound of ice hitting the glass doors in the living room, I decided I better make coffee,heat up the house and gather candles because the predicted ice storm was becoming a reality. Power was out by 9am and there I sat quickly forming a plan of survival. My daughter and her fiance were already on their way from Orlando. Our tiny tree was decorated and ready for the gifts to be placed and Benjamin was soundly sleeping and oblivious to the impending danger of falling limbs that were swaying in the wind just over his room. I had the unsettling thought that if the power doesn't go back on pretty quick, we just might have a problem. Well...it didn't and in fact did not go back on for three days and thus the "Oh Pioneer,Oh Pioneer" refrain came marching in and throughout the next three days and into the next week of temperatures in the below zero range, we were able to put into practice the persevering mentality of our life here in the mountains of North Carolina.

When we moved to this little town from Michigan we really thought we were moving South. We believed all the stories of "Oh, if it snows, it melts by the afternoon", "mild winters, real mild winters". We might have gotten a clue when that first winter of 76 the public schools were closed for 8 weeks straight, or maybe the next year when we had to walk through the woods with three small children to even get into our house because the driveway was a sheet of ice or the many winters of riding a sled down to our car and then pulling groceries back up on that sled later in the day. Not to mention the hundreds of broken pipes...yes Ira could become a plumber by now if need be. Winters are tough, no doubt about it, but I thought those days were behind us when we moved to Florida for the winters. Little did I know that "life is what happens while we are making other plans". We have found our life taking a 180 degree turn and sometimes I wonder if we're going forward or backwards but throughout it all we have never let go of the Lord's hand and so we trudge on, knowing that perseverance is a quality of the Spirit that is developed.

Christmas 2009 was surely a different one. We call it the Christmas that wasn't as we all were in limbo for the entire day. The day after Christmas became our day of celebration. Bethany and Brian arrived safely and we packed up all the food and gifts and caravaned over to Gabe and Katie's cabin in the woods where a brightly lit Christmas tree and a roaring fire awaited us. The boys were jamming on piano and guitars and the smell of a turkey in the oven painted a picture of a "little house on the prairie Christmas". Bethany who is our "glass half full girl", happily sang out, "Now this is Christmas!!



A few days later as we began to make preparations for the big New Years Eve celebration, a knock on the door ushered in my Christmas gift from our absent family, Jill and Eli. A baby... in a car seat stared up at me and I quickly realized it was... My Baby!!! My baby Isiah and his giggly parents peeking from behind the bushes!! Oh my....this was turning out to be one big turn of events that I never saw coming.


Christmas was fun, New Years Eve even more fun and I'm learning through trial and error to go with the flow. If I had known what was coming down the pike this holiday season, I'm sure I would have spent countless hours worrying, fretting and trying to twist and turn situations that were out of my control. I was surrounded with love and happiness this Christmas and am very thankful for my unconventional family and my Father in heaven that continually allows life to be anything but boring.


I hope and pray that 2010 will deliver a bucket full of new situations and circumstances that will provide the opportunities for me to grow and to keep in mind the ending of the poem:

"Has the night descended?
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding
on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the daybreak call--hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,
Swift! to the head of the army!--swift! spring to your places,
Pioneers! O Pioneers!"

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!