Blessed Reminders

So the day is over. The big event for our high school students is complete. I certainly got my exercise today. I must say, I was able to get all the work I needed to get done today in good time. I actually had 30 minutes to spare! I was surprised. Quite different from my dream! I can still feel my "emotional glutens," but I am doing much better over-all. It helps that I enjoy what I do and look forward to Wednesdays :)

I have a few observations from the past few days that I would like to share:

1. It is good to not think about work just before going to bed.
2. Check lists are indispensable.
3. There is nothing like a good masseuse, especially when you carry your stress in your shoulders. In fact, I could use one right now-this is the worst my neck has felt in a while!!
4. When I need to unwind, I know there's someone willing to listen to all my crap who happens to be one of the most soothing presences in my life (AND I am tremendously grateful for you:)
5. Volunteers are indispensable.
6. When a game is complicated, it's important to alert your leaders of the rules beforehand! (Sorry, guys!)
7. I am not a motivator - if I do any speaking in the future, it probably won't be motivational speaking.
8. No matter what I do, I will always have Vasomotor Rhinitis *sigh* or should I say *sniff*
9. No matter how stressful things get, there are always people who care about me - even when I go nuclear - and I'm working on that.

I am extraordinarily blessed,
in more ways than one.

Tomorrow is Thursday. I love Thursdays.

Emotional Glutens

My doctor told me that there are "emotional glutens" that will affect the way I digest and cause possible discomfort in my gut. In other words, "Try not to get too stressed out, Carey."

Easy for him to say!

I woke up this morning with one realisation: "It's TUESDAY," and I was happy about it for one reason and one reason only: I had just been dreaming that it was 6 p.m. on Wednesday, and I wasn't ready for our big event that begins at 6:30 Wednesday.

Needless to say, I haven't felt too well this morning, but I am improving as I check items off of my "to-do" list that I created after I got up.

I just thought I'd share that... BACK TO WORK!!!

List of Fifty (one)

I had the privilege to speak to the high schoolers at my church yesterday morning. The topic was simple enough for me to speak on because it was the story of my life with Christ. In the midst of my talk, I spoke of the times of life when we are pushing through confusion - when the stack of unanswered questions is dauntingly high - and suddenly we pop out the other end and some things finally make sense. We are able to breath once more because 5 of the items on our list are answered or clearer. We still have this list of 50 things, but it doesn't seem as daunting any more.

Yesterday a few friends of mine added one more item to my "List of 50" - the things in my life that need prayer saturation. After my talk, one of my friends told me I should go into public speaking, and my boyfriend seconded her opinion. I must confess myself quite taken aback! The fact that the Lord was moving through my words that morning was made clearer and clearer as I spoke to more people - praise Him with me!

I must confess that I do enjoy speaking - telling people all that the Lord is teaching me and sharing with them all that I have learned in hopes that the Lord will use my words as one way to touch their lives as He has mine. I forget, in the months and years that span between the times I have taught, how much I enjoy it. The thought of actually trying my hand at it more than once a decade had never occurred to me, though. Being a lawyer has occurred to me; being a teacher has occurred to me; I am a secretary, and I am a writer. But me? a speaker??

Apart from the Lord I can do nothing, and so the "List of 50" is in constant flux as I turn to Him and as He answers me. It's interesting, as I think and pray, a number of things that I have been told over the years suddenly take on a whole new meaning....

A Day in the Life...

As my diet (a word which here means "the foods eaten, as by a particular person") completely changes from what it has been my entire life, I would like to share with you A Typical Day in the Life of Carey's Stomach (i.e. today - which is a little off because I get to sleep in a bit on Thursdays)

Breakfast: (8 a.m.) a bowl of cereal and then a walk (9 a.m.) 2 eggs w/ turkey and spinach, a turkey sausage patty, and 1 buckwheat blueberry pancake.

Snack: (2 hours after brkfst if I remember to eat it on time) an apple

Lunch: (should be around 2 hours after that, but usually it's 1 or 2 by the time I get myself away from my desk) black beans, rice, salsa, and avacado dip with rice tortilla chips (yum)

Snack: (2 or 3 hours after lunch) more fruit or a veggie

Snack: (about 5 minutes before dinner because my metabolism is going nuts!) a bowl of cereal or a handful of almonds

Dinner: (6:30) Last night I had a chicken dish over rice that Mom made, tonight it's burgers

Snack: (9:30) fruit if I haven't had too much, veggie if I have, cereal if I want something crunchy that isn't vegetable-based, almonds if I'm lazy

Late Night Snack: (midnight) - for those nights I'm up too late ;) - whatever I can find that I'm allowed to eat if I remember to grab something, otherwise, I don't have anything and go to bed rather hungry.

I think I'm turning into a Hobbit...only I have 64 oz of water a day, not ale :)

"diet." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 16 Aug. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diet>.

Multiple Personalities

I woke up this morning at 8:30. I woke up 1 hour and 30 minutes late.

I got to work at 10 a.m. I got to work 30 minutes late.

When I got to work I became 5 people.

10-10:30 I was person 1
10:30-11:30 I was myself - as a volunteer in Reclamation discussing it with K.
11:30-12:15 I was person 1 again
12:15-1:00 I was person 2
1:00-2:00 I was person 3 - at 1:15 I was person 3 and myself (as a secretary) at the SAME TIME - at 1:30 I was myself for a few minutes and then I was person 1 and then person 2 for a little while before I became person 3 again
2-2:30 I was myself
2:30 I had lunch with myself aaaand 3 minutes to just sit....
3:30-5:30 I was person 3 again and myself - it was all mixed up, including a trip to the post office.

Wow. I need a nap. Praise the Lord for days off :)

The English Language

It is fascinating to me how languages evolve. Words such as "limousine" and "videotape" did not exist a century ago. Even "peanut butter" and "vitamin" are relatively new words when compared with the historical expanse of the English language. "Blog" is a word that claims even more infantile status.

It is a shortened form of "Weblog" which is an online diary or a personal "log" on the web. I wonder if James T. Kirk's Captain's Logs were called clogs. Ooh, interesting fact: "Joe Bloggs" is not a complete sentence, it is the slang term for "any hypothetical person" in the UK.

Well, all of this to say that I am now blogging. Don't be surprised if it doesn't happen often, but I thought it could be fun. After all, I am a writer.

Oh, and may I just say that it is quite easy to source something from dictionary.com because they give you the info in three formats!

"blog." Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 13 Aug. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blog>.
"blog." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 13 Aug. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blog>.