Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Why I Could Never Have A Personal Trainer

Today, I went and ran at the gym. Now, in my gym, there are treadmills with personal tv screens, and they are placed against the wall, so you can see the weight machines, exercise rooms, everything. It's not uncommon to see a person working with their personal trainer, and usually they're doing stuff like lunges across the gym. That is enough to not want a personal trainer. I don't want to parade my workout in front of others. Now, I know some people would say, "No one is watching you. Everyone works out because they are all in the same boat. Blah, blah, blah." However, these "people" clearly have never seen into my mind as I watch the lungers go down, two, up, two, down, two, up, two. (I think all sorts of things!) Today, I saw something that really settled the fact that I will never put my workout on display by getting a trainer. A chunky woman was going all over the gym, multiple times, sweating and huffing and puffing and struggling to pull her trainer behind her. The trainer was squatting in an almost sitting position on a cart with wheels. Yep, no trainer for this girl!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Recap of My Week

The following things occurred this week:

1. Got to spend Monday with George and Apple. We decided it was nice enough to take a walk, but where should we go? We decided on New Towne. We had never gone. I thought it was kind of creepy! It reminded me too much of Stepford or Pleasantville. And why is it in the middle of nothing? George was pleased with the ice cream shop though, and Apple liked the giraffes.

2. Ordered all the decorations and invitations to Apple's first birthday party.

3. Had to convince myself that Apple was indeed old enough for a first birthday party. Yep, she is.

4. Cleaned up after the boy that I watch peed on the carpet.

5. Changed Apple's clothes at least once a day, for several days.

6. Discovered that Apple is NOT ready for fast-flow nipples. (Wish I would have discovered that before number 5.)

7. Discovered that while babies are often still, they are never still when you are changing a poopy diaper.

8. Cleaned up poop.

9. Ran out of milk, cereal, and chicken.

10. Decided after a week with no caffeine (I was detoxing) that I was ready for a coffee.

11. Realized that I do NOT like caramel syrup in my coffee when I make said coffee at home.

12. Started a blog. Also decided that since certain family members have unique names, I would have to give them code names. Then laughed at George when he couldn't figure out the code names.

13. Finally only have 10 lbs left to go before I make it to my pre-pregnancy weight! Halleluia!

Isn't the life of a stay-at-home mom exciting?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Recently, I've been studying in Genesis. I'm amazed at how something different always jumps out at me. This time, I got taken by God telling Noah that he won't destroy the earth with a flood again. In my mind, this is his way of saying, "I realize that mankind is evil. Instead of giving mankind what they deserve, I will work with them, despite their evil." I wonder if Noah understood the can of worms that opened! Or if he thought, "Great! Cause I don't know if I could survive another cruise like that!"

The first major problem after the flood was at the Tower of Babel. Most people think that they wanted to put an idol on the top of the tower. And suddenly, God is faced with a large quantity of evil, again. I get frustrated with how many times I clean up the same thing. As soon as I do, it's dirty again. I can't even imagine how God feels with such a larger scale mess! If I were God, I would think, "I just took care of this! I should wipe them out again. Oh, wait. There's a rainbow. And I promised I wouldn't." But then again, it's a good thing for all of us that I'm not God! So, God confuses them by giving them separate languages. (This is why I now have problems speaking with my in-laws. Thanks a lot, early offspring of Noah!!!) Now, picture yourself a wife of one of the men who was building the tower. That day, when he came home, "Hey! Didn't I tell you I didn't want you involved in building this tower??!!! I knew it was wrong, and you told me that it would be great. I begged. I pleaded. But did you listen? NO. Now I can't talk to the neighbor, our distant relatives, or my best friend. Well, I hope you enjoy the sound of me talking, because now you're the only one I've got to speak to. And I have a lot of things to talk about." All mankind suffered because the people building the tower didn't get what they deserved. (And now we also know why God didn't chose to put me in bible times!)

The hard truth is that God's mercy is why bad things happen. Mercy. Not getting what we deserve. During the last year, I read The Shack. (I'm not recommending this book, just commenting on something I remember) At one time, the man questions why God allowed his daughter to be killed, when he could have stopped it. He could have prevented the murderer from ever being alive. I think we do this a lot. We question, "Why didn't you stop this?" And sometimes the "this" is unthinkable. But it's still his mercy. If he stopped one person, how would he choose? We would want to say, "Okay. Take out all the people who kill or rape or torture." (just some examples) and God could counter with, "Alright, it sounds like you want me to stop anyone who is unnecessarily cruel." "Yeah, unnecessarily cruel." "Sounds good. What about the time you were talking about Susie behind her back with your girlfriends?" "Well, that's not really cruel." "She heard you guys and left in tears. Have you noticed that she hasn't returned since?" "Well, if I would have known I would have called and apologized." "For what?" "Being rude and inconsiderate." "Or maybe, being unecessarily cruel?"

See, we want to look around and say, "I may not be doing what's EXACTLY right, but I'm way better than this person." But even a murderer can say, "I may kill, but at least I don't torture them first." We want to rate sin, but the truth is, there will always be someone that you perceive to be better, and someone you perceive to be worse than you. Sin is in the eye of the beholder. And if the beholder is God, then we're all in deep trouble. Because he has no sin. So, we're all WAY worse than him. But thankfully, he's merciful. No one gets what we deserve here on earth. Even if bad things happen to us, it's still not what we deserve. God's mercy. How amazing.

Disclaimer:
1. I'm not a theologian, and I realize that several of my arguments are probaby unfounded anywhere except my head.
2. This speaks nothing of the times that God does stop bad things from happening to us, and there are plenty of those!
3. Knowing something is not always comforting. Please don't throw this back in my face the next time some catastrophe comes my way. Maybe when I'm already in the recovery process, but not when I'm in the mourning process.

WOW! My first blog!

I don't have anything life changing, inspiring, or really interesting to say in this first blog entry. But, since I have two kids sleeping at the moment, and probably just for the moment! I figured I should try to blog now.

In order to take some pressure off of my husband, I watch a 4 month old boy 3 days a week. This is a fantastic set-up! 3 days a week mean that I get some extra money, but I can still do stuff during the week. Such as grocery shop. Plus, he's a friend's son, so it helps them out too. However, this week, I am watching him four days in a row. It is day 3. Everything is going fine, except I am out of chicken and milk. And Apple is out of multi-grain cereal. I couldn't take care of the problem on Tuesday, because I had book club. When it was done, it was already past Apple's bedtime and George wasn't home yet. Wednesday was church, so another late night for Apple. Tonight, I need to go to the gym in order to continue the quest to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. So, when do I get chicken and milk? Where's a neighbor with a farm when you need one?