Things are Looking Up

Here are just a few of the things that happened over the past couple of days that are putting a little pep in my step...

• I got to have a spa day with girlfriends which included a massage, mineral pools and 4 hours poolside.  I'll spare you the photos of me in a robe or a swimsuit :-)  It was glorious!!  
• My boys had a fun-filled day while I was at the spa compliments of more amazing friends.  It's the longest I've ever been away from them and it was great being able to relax and not worry.  They were in GREAT hands...including this amazing dog :-)

• My yard got a complete clean-up compliments of a wonderful friend while I was at the spa--everything is trimmed and a HUGE weight has been lifted off my shoulders!

• We got have some really yummy food and fellowship at a friend's Father's Fay celebration.
• We all got LOTS of sleep.
• We all had LOTS of fun in the sun...the boys are starting to love swimming again, thank goodness!

• Wake-up times and FaceTime chats didn't coordinate well with church times so I watched the church service I missed last week from my church's website while the boys played and I lifted weights.  It's nice to have a back-up plan when getting out the door just doesn't work out on Sunday morning.
• I finished this fun, easy read...it was entertaining.

• I am still going strong on my Whole30 experiment.  I'm on day 21 now and feeling great!!  I've been having lots of eggs, fresh salads, avocados and berries.  Today's salad was a new one...spicy olives mix, tuna, avocado, a fresh tomato, and sundried tomatoes in olive oil all on top of romaine--DELISH!!!!!  I had some lovely apricots today as well.  

• We had a relaxing start to our morning before heading to the gym.  I split my hour between the stepmill, elliptical, and treadmill--all cardio since I had done full-body weights yesterday.  It felt good to sweat and get started on my book club book, And the Mountains Echoed,  which has a very interesting start...

• My biopsies both came back benign so I can rest easy again.  Darn moles!!!
• Oh...and our pool timer is FINALLY fixed compliments of yet another wonderful friend.  I don't have to remember to go out there and flip the switch twice a day...yay!

I seriously feel like I'm myself again and I definitely didn't feel remotely like myself last week.  I am so grateful for all of the amazing people in my life who have been my support system these past months.  What would I do without you???  It takes a village and I think I've got the best village in the world.  Hopefully I don't slide down that slippery slope I got caught on last week ever again, but if I do, it sure feels good to know I have friends I can count on if I do.  God is good!!!!!!!

Perfect Timing

Take a look at today's Bible study from my Bible app today...

God Isn't Glorified Through Our Suffering

Many Christians live under the false idea that God wants them to suffer. This creates a nonstop victim mentality.
Suffering is inevitable, but God is not glorified through our suffering. He is glorified when we have a good attitude during our suffering - and He wants us to be victorious!
So why would we choose to remain bitter, angry and wounded or depressed?
There's one surefire way to overcome suffering with the right attitude: Set your mind, and keep it set, on things above, not on things of the earth. You must be armed with right thinking, or you will give up during hard times.
Set your mind and be fully aware that moving from being a victim to being a victor will not be a quick process. It will take time, but your experience will make you stronger and enable you to help others who are facing similar battles.
Get excited about your future and realize that going through something with God means that you will come out on the other side with a victory that cannot be taken away from you.

Prayer Starter: God, I need Your help to overcome a victim mentality. I choose to set my mind on things above so that I can have the right attitude. With Your thoughts and truth inside me, I know I can overcome.

...talk about perfect timing after the last couple of days I've had.  Since I'm doing my other Bible study, I haven't really been checking the app that much but today I decided to see what it had to say.  I'd say it's impossible not to believe in God when things like that happen.  Bring on my better attitude!!!!

An invite to spend the evening with some of our favorite people couldn't have come at a more perfect time either.  We had a fantastic time last night!  I got to feast on delicious Sea Bass and the boys got to go on their first golf cart ride (we're ready to check out Oma's now :-) )...

...we also enjoyed a much-needed relaxing evening amongst friends that might as well be family.  I returned home feeling incredibly blessed and sporting a much better attitude.  God is good!  

This morning I could have slept til noon.  It's the first time in a while that the boys woke me up.  Yesterday did me in!  Thank goodness for coffee and a yummy breakfast to jumpstart my day...

To kick off day 16 of my Whole30 experiment, I enjoyed fried eggs, sauteed kale, and a small avocado with a healthy dose of hot sauce.

We finally got ourselves out the door in time to make it to story time at the library at 10:30.  I gotta say it was a little crazy there today.  The monday class is more our speed but the boys had a good time regardless of what I thought.  

Their favorite part about the library...

...the steps!!!  I'm sure they'll be running down 'em in no time.  They carefully carried the snails they made at story time all the way down the steps...

...only one made it all the way home.  The other one lost his head on the way home.  Woops!!  Monsters Inc, the movie, also made it home with us.  The boys have been asking to watch it after they learned about their monsters last weekend at Lowe's Build and Grow.  We're SO ready for movie night tonight.  

We had time for a quick stop by the gym after we were done at the library.  I spent longer than usual on the elliptical cause I got caught up in the book I'm reading...

It's totally cheesy and mindless but entertaining me in my current frazzled state and I'm ok with that.  Gotta get it done so I can get into my book club book...

After about 45 minutes on the elliptical, I hopped off for a quick legs workout...I really wasn't feeling it with the weights today so I just did 50 reps of each of the following exercises and called it a day...

• squats
• deadlifts
• side-to-side lunges
• lunges
• hip thrusters on stability ball
• reverse planks

We came home ready to dig into lunch...

Mixed greens topped with sprouts, tomato, half an avocado, some salad shrimp, olives and a mustard vinaigrette.  I was still hungry once I finished it so I ate a small peach AND a small mango too and my hunger was finally satisfied.  I'm an eating machine these days.

The boys are finally napping and it's time for me to tackle some to-do list items and hopefully still have time to do a little reading before the boys wake up.  

Tonight we're trying out a little bedtime stories story time.  I'm anxious to see how it goes...thankfully I feel like I've gotten pretty good at bumping and rolling in the story time department.