Pearls

Good Morning, my webbies!! It's another Monday, here in paradise!! Everyone knows I love Mondays!! I'm peculiar, I know....but,I prefer to think of it as being original. I love the feeling of beginning again, with a whole new week and another week means another week closer to being reunited with the ultimate joy of my life, my fourteen year old daughter Mariah!! She isn't mine by flesh....she's Mark's, but Leeza Gibbons once said; "Not flesh of my flesh, not bone of my bone, but desire of my heart" and she is.....We are very close and I love her as if I had carried her, myself. She'll be here on the evening of June 5th and Mark and I are beside ourselves with joy!!

I am sorry that I haven't been around much....I have no viable excuse for not writing, because laziness and being uninspired are not excuses!! The enemy has been working double time on me, the past couple of weeks and I've been trying to claw my way out of my pit!! It's not been easy and it's not been fun. It has though, been a time of learning and hopefully growing.....I am not an easy person to get through to....I'm hardheaded and stubborn. Sometimes, God really has to knock me down, to be able to stand me up and get me going again!! I am thankful for every one of you, who keeps me in your prayers.....I really need those. Lemme tell you all, what's been going on. Firstly.....I have stopped going to the gym.....I stopped three weeks ago. It was starting to become and obsession and all obsessions are strongholds......The last thing I need in my life is another stronghold!! We all need exercise, everyday but I was spending as much as three hours a day in the gym and that's not so good!! I am going to try and go back to the gym, today and do a single 30 minute workout and that's all.....No more and no less. Secondly: I've had to seriously look at my eating habits. (Yes, again.....Don't give me that look and seriously, stop rolling your eyes......) They've gotten way out of control....I've been flip flopping from starvation to excessive eating.....from low carbing to not and everything else, in between!! I've seen it all....and I don't like it....I don't feel good and I don't like it!! So, I'm going to try Weight Watchers again!! Please pray for me, my friends.....I need to get this weight off, but I need a plan that's sensible and flexible. Atkins wasn't.....though it was good for my diabetes, it was really difficult to work it into my life. So this morning, I had half a french toast bagel (Glor, it was really very good...not too sweet) toasted with some low fat margarine and I'm working on my second cup of decaf.....and I'm feeling quite satisfied. I'll have a bowl of soup for lunch and maybe a salad or half a peanut butter sandwich. Thankfully, I have much soup in my cupboard. I need to make some SF Jello and put it in the fridge.....I just cannot let myself "go".....I've seen what that will do and I'm not ready to give up my life for food. I'm not ready to give up my servant's heart for a Snickers bar!! I'm not ready to die!!

It doesn't look like there's going to be any more unemployment extensions for the already 101,000 people living in California who have run out of benefits.....Yours truly being one of those people. I am thankful for the extensions we got, though....It saw us through some hard times!! Now, though, we will have to buckle down and really economize our lives!! I will probably start doing a little more selling on eBay....Just to have some pocket money and a few niceties, while Mariah is here. We usually do our grocery shopping at Walmart Super Center, down in Stockton, once a month, but this time, we went to Smart and Final...I spent less and got more of what I needed and less of those impulse buys, that I am sooooo known for. We did really well. I still need a few things from Walmart, but I'll make Mark a list today and he'll stop tomorrow, on his way home from work and pick up what I need. That way, we're not wasting gas on an extra trip and Mark is less apt to impulse spend.....So we managed to cut our monthly grocery spending from over $300.00 a month to right around $200.00......That's just $50.00 a week in groceries, for the two of us. Not too shabby!! I did get a great bargain on eggs, yesterday!! Smart and Final had the biggest brown eggs I've ever seen in my life....20 count flats for $2.55. We are now set on eggs!!

I need to get going, though....I have much to do today and I need to get started!! Everybody have a happy Monday and if you would, keep my mother in your prayers, when I called her yesterday, she couldn't move her legs to walk. She was very upset at this and seemed very scared!! Love each other as He loves and we'll talk again, soon!!
In Him,
Lisa