Craft It Forward,Prayer, Soreness and Thankfulness

I'm all over the board today... bear with me. My mind is a jumbled, rambling mess at the moment and I'm going to try to get it all out to see if it'll help me sleep better tonight!

First: Craft It Forward

My friend Marci at All Things Wonderful has *started* a great giveway.

Here's what it's all about:

If you want to win a handmade ♥GIFT♥ from me. Be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which entitles you to a handmade item from me. Winners must post this giveaway on your blog, meaning that you will {Craft it Forward} too, creating a handmade gift for the first three bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway! The gift that you send can be any price range and you have 30 days to make and ship your item(s).Now do you see why I thought this idea was genius? How fun is this gonna be? Remember, it’s the spirit and the thought that count! When you receive your gift, please blog about it! If you are not one of the Top Three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Please start your own {Craft it Forward} chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same.

I must admit, I'm not the most crafty person....but, I think I've come up with a neat idea that even I can do!

So, go ahead and leave me a comment. You know you want to!

Second: Prayer Request
Can I ask all my praying friends and family to pray for Cynthia. I stumbled upon her blog and learned that she lost her unborn baby at 38 weeks (just 2 weeks away from her due date) due to umbilical cord strangulation. I know she will appreciate your prayers.

Third: Soreness
Boy am I sore. It pains me to sit here and type! And I'm sitting in my bed on my laptop. How sad is that! I missed 2 weeks of working out. Week 1 Gracie had mono. We only left the house to go to the dr and back a couple times. Week 2 the "ice storm of the century" hit and we were homebound for DAYS. The boys were out of school and the day care at the gym was closed.

I was there bright and early Monday. I developed a new plan to see if I could get off the plateau that I've hit and start moving in the losing direction again. Instead of trying to cram in cardio and toning in the same day 3 days a week- maybe I'll go 4-5 days a week and do all cardio one day, toning the next, etc. I can't keep it up forever, but maybe if I do this for a few weeks, I'll start seeing the scales go down again.

So far, I can tell a huge difference. Monday I did 1/2 mile on the treadmill to warm up and then I did upper and lower body toning with dumbbells for 1 hour straight. I am so sore. I can't even tell you. It hurts to go to the bathroom- I can't hardly sit and stand from the sitting position. I'm hoping I don't end up with a bladder or kidney infection because I'm holding it as long as I can to minimize the pain. I am such a wienie! You'd never guess I gave birth to 2 children with no drugs! (I did chicken out on #3- she was my epidural baby!) ANYWAY... even though I can hardly move, I went to the gym and power walked 2 miles on the treadmill today. I got loosened up after the first few minutes and then I kept a pretty good pace. I thought I'd never make it down the stairs of the gym after I was done. Oh, my word... I'm so sore. So, I know I'm doing the right thing because obviously, I'm working my muscles again! Still the same on the weight. 15 pounds lost total. I have 20 more to go... seems like they will never go away at this point! I'm going to keep at it. Have you ever known a person to work out at least 3 days a week and watch what they eat and NOT lose weight? I'm thinking that endurance is going to win this race! And I'm in it to win it, baby!

Fourth: Thankfulness
I try to keep a thankful heart at all times. It's not easy sometimes....but I have SO much to be thankful for every day and I don't ever want to forget that. Here's a few big ones just from this week.

1. Our computer "crashed" the other day. After envisioning the worst, I took it to the Geek Squad today and turns out, it was only "bad ram". I needed more memory. It's already fixed! I am so thankful I didn't lose everything on my computer. That would have been a
D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R! Note to self: get a back-up system in place stat!

2. We have had a couple calls on our BV house this week! One showing over the weekend and another person who might be scheduling a showing soon. After going months with out a single phone call on it, this little bit of activity is enough to restore my faith. This situation with the house not selling is my #1 biggest worry/frustration right now. And has been for 6 months!!! I know God is in control. I say it with my mouth and I know it in my head, but sometimes it's hard for that truth to sink in to your heart. Sometimes (more often than I'd like to admit, actually) I forget it and get all flustered. And emotional. And crazy. But, I just have to sit down with the word of God and pray and I remember the truth.
Dear Jesus, I pray that this will all be behind us SOON. But if your idea of soon isn't the same as my idea of soon, please help me to have peace and comfort and just DEAL with it one day at a time!

3. As most of you probably know, we are self employed and as of right now, work exclusively for 1 major utility company. We rely solely on them for our income. We send in an invoice every week for the work we did that week. We are supposed to receive a check every week. Sometimes we don't. They got 3 weeks behind in December. We got a little bit paid to us the first week in January and then we went another 3 weeks without getting paid. This is extremely difficult to deal with because the world does not stop when we don't get paid. We have 5 employees who count on us to give them their paycheck every Friday. The government wants their payroll taxes paid on the 15th of every month and they could care less if we didn't get paid the money we were owed. The list goes on and on and on. So, despite the fact that we make a good living in this field, we're always playing catch-up because we don't have a guaranteed paycheck that will come just because we worked hard and did our job... part of the life God has chosen for us at this point and we're ok with that. Doesn't make it any easier to deal with though!

I know, I know, get to the point, Sister... I told you I was a jumbled up mess in this head of mine...

So, the point is that I am THANKFUL that they finally paid us for 2 weeks worth of the late invoices yesterday and today. I'm praying that they've got whatever has caused all this trouble in their system figured out and we'll get back on track.

Like I say to Jason all the time, "I'm not asking for a million dollars. I'm not asking for a hand out. I'm just asking that we be paid on time for what we're owed for the work that we've done. Period. Is that too much to ask?!" Apparently much of the time it is... that's just not the way it works when you're self employed.
This is not a journey for the faint-hearted--- I can tell you that much!