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| Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I'll keep you in mine, too.
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| Lyntoral, when I read a message like yours, my heart breaks and I begin to realize how selfish I am some times. I am going through withdrawel of a narcotic prescribed by a Dr. and now coming off of through another Dr. I am going to be off by the end of this week. 5 weeks it took me. And I feel sorry for me and the anxiety I will experience (I am hardly down to anything now anyway - at this point it is psychological. Anyway, you are going through a lot. And yes, you can wake up and say, "this will be a good day", etc. You know it will be a hard day. I really feel for you without being in same position. Just stay on your path of exercise and taking care of yourself because you need the strength to get through your not-asked-for problems whether you like it or not. And in time, you'll feel more confident and will see that you can withstand more than you ever thought possible. It is hard for me to take my own advice now. But the Lord clearly doesn't want me up there just yet, I guess I have mcuh to do. As do we all. I'll pray for you.
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SLUSHERFA
12/26/06 2:35 P
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Sometimes I find that if I stop and think of the things that I can be thankful for it really helps cheer me up. Even when it seems that no one could have it as bad as me, I can still find things to be thankful for and it sort of gets my perspective on a different track.
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LYNTORAL
12/26/06 12:31 P
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| This year has been a real downer for me. My 91 year-old aunt who lives with me has pacreatic cancer and is only supposed to live a few more weeks. Add to that my 52 year-old sister who is bedridden (because of obesity), and my mom who is in stage 4 colon cancer. Then to add insult to injury, I had to put my 11 year old cat down because of kidney failure the day before Christmas. I'm just trying to remember that someone out there has to be having it worse than me. My exercise time has been my haven. In the past I would have eaten to console myself. Maybe I've learned at least that.
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SLUSHERFA
12/18/06 2:04 P
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I am glad about the week you had, Mary. It really does help, when we are blue, to get our eyes off of ourselves and give or help someone else.
Blessings,
Faith
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ABBASGAL
12/18/06 12:12 P
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| Hi Mary, May you be blessed with your Christmas Spirit of giving. That is the true way for Christmas to be celebrated. May your own Christmas be blessed by others. ABBASGAL
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| You are soooo welcome mbuckley458. Happy Holidays to you for you are blessed. Stay Safe my friend,Audra
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MBUCKLEY458
12/18/06 9:39 A
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Audra - Thank you so much for this thread -- I was feeling the same way last week - no holiday spirit. However, I've spent the past week doing "extraordinary" things to celebrate Christmas and have received the blessings of the season:
- I attended our bible study group last night and found that there's a family in our midst who are needy so we're helping them out
- On Thursday, I helped deliver gifts to children of state prison inmates; we drove 50+ miles to deliver the gifts and received unspeakable joy!
- I took my granddaughter to see a house in our neighborhood that has hundreds of decorations on display and opens their yard/home for everyone to tour!
- I slowly decorated my own home for the holidays (no stress!)
- NOW, I'm ready to buy/wrap gifts and looking forward to the celebration of the TRUE meaning of Christmas.
Mary
PS - Faith, thanks for the list - it gives me more food for thought!
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Hi Carolmarieroe, I loved your joke. I am Jewish and boy, could I relate! Some of those sermons can be real "sleepers". Some can be good. But I am used to a Rabbi from my old congregation in NY who was very well-known and very erudite. He knew about world politics, he met with the Pope. He really made the Conservative movement in Judaism happen which is in the middle of orthodox and reformed. And he also strove for a warm understanding of each religion because we are called Judeo-Christian. We all have the same Holy Father, the same Almighty. Some just are still in that part and others followed the son, who was a Jew and had no idea he had created a new religion and would probably have been very honored and surprised. In any case. Forget the religion part. I see you started at a low weight of 135 and got down to 125. I started at 140 with the idea of getting down to 130. However, I injured myself overrunning and had to take medication and between everything, put on 5 more pounds. It was more, but I think it was and still is some water weight. I ran everyday methodically for 15 miles. I began to hate it. I did and do strength training too. That I like. I cut down to 90 minutes or 11-12 miles per day and then on tues. I had my hair Japanese straightened. Which meant, not a drop of water for 72 hours straight could touch my hair. I am at 71 now but I'll wait till tomorrow to start working out. I plan to cut back the exercise even further to 75 minutes and just keep the caloris down as I have been for the past 3 days. I like the exercise if it's for a shorter amount of time than 2 hours. I was beginning to dread it. And I plan to alternate with other machines. The funny part was, I went to my diet lady, coach or whatever today to get weighed and I had gone from 146 1/4 to 144. I was really surprised. But instead of making gradual changes, I just made them, I cut out my morning cremora (100 cal). I still use it in the afternoon. I only eat two cereals, Kashi go lean (It's great - 1
110 calories for 3/4 cup, 11 mg. protein, 8 grams fiber, 7 of them insoluble and tastes really good. I also have 1/2 c. of that fiber cereal which has 9 grams of fiber and 8 are insoluble and is 60 caloris for 1/2 cup. Both are very dense and filling. I add them to my diet jello at night with a little sugar free, fat free cocoa and 1 sugar free fudgcicle that I melt a little in the microwave and it tastes really good. I make a lot of weird foods to try and get something that satisfies me like the real thing and I will have the real thing sometimes. But now I am in serious mode until I get down to 130 or so. After that, 1900 (with exercise), is like heaven. Anyway, how did you do it because starting at a low weight to get to a lower weight I find very difficult, do you exercise a lot and eat on the higher end or vice versa; or, do you alternate. I am finding it hard because I got so used to maintaining 138-140 for 2 years on 2000 calories (I should've eaten more with the exercise I was doing according to my trainer. He said that is responsible for my weight gain. Metabolism. It's always been slow anyway. So, please keep the jokes coming, I love reading the ones on e-mail and if you feel like answering (no obligation!), maybe you could give me a few tips on your success. Thanks and have a great holiday season! Debi
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| I took a drive with my mom while I was at home visiting...we went all around the neighborhood and looked at Christmas lights. I then did the same thing with a good friend when I came home. We took a long walk and looked at all the beautiful lights in town. It definitely helped us to feel the Christmas spirit!
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CAROLMARIEROE
12/15/06 11:06 A
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Thought you might like a little hummer today
A visiting minister was very long-winded. Worse, every time he would make a good point during his sermon and a member of the congregation responded with "Amen" or "That's right, preacher" he would get wound up even more and launch into another lengthy discourse. Finally, the host pastor started responding to every few sentences with "Amen, Pharaoh!" The guest minister wasn't sure what that meant, but after several more "Amen, Pharaohs" he finally concluded his very lengthy sermon.
After the service concluded and the congregation had left, the visiting minister turned to his host and asked, "What exactly did you mean when you said "Amen, Pharaoh?"
His host replied, "I was telling you to let my people go!"
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NARNIA9334
12/14/06 10:21 P
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Thanks for sharing Slusher that was nice.
In the midst of all the hustle and bustle I just like to stop and pray and have God show me what is of true importance.
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HEIDIHUTCHINSON
12/13/06 7:20 A
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My family, husband and 3 kids, host a dinner in the center of town for 60 homeless people. We serve a Christmas dinner and then sing christmas caro;s and the nativity story with them. Our dinner this year is on 18th December
HH
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DEBISTKA
12/12/06 10:55 P
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| I may be Jewish but that is beautiful and can apply to any religion or spiritual beliefs. Have a very merry and happy too! Debi
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| Thank you for the holiday cheer!
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SLUSHERFA
12/12/06 7:34 P
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| Slusherfa, that is beautiful! May I have your permission to pass it on? It's so much better than most of the forwarded e-mails I recieve from friends.
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RITABUFFET
12/12/06 7:18 P
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One way I boost my feelings is to wear my pedometer to the mall when I go shopping. I get excited after my exhausting shopping trip to see the steps I took, and know that I burned some calories.
Also, I make sure that if I eat at the mall...it is Subway!! What a lifesaver in the mall's food court.
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SLUSHERFA
12/12/06 6:57 P
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I just worked on my devotional for our Women's Christmas party at church and thought I would go ahead and share part of it on this post. It seemed sort of appropriate.
By the way, Joy means "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying, keen pleasure, elation, a source of keen pleasure or delight, the expression or display of glad feeling, a state of happiness".
10 Tips for a Joyous Christmas
1.Forgive anyone that you are holding something against.
2.Be Thankful! Start the day thanking God for anything and everything.
3.Give! Not only to those you “have to give to.” Drop your change in the Salvation Army bucket. Give an anonymous gift to someone. Leave Goodies on someone’s desk.
4.Sing! Put music on in your home, car, office and sing. Sing with the Christmas music that you hear in the stores, in your car, in the elevator!
5.Be Expectant! Look forward to … the Children’s Christmas program, the family gatherings, the yummy family meals, the New Year’s Eve party at church.
6.Sow into relationships. Invest time with your loved ones and friends. Have fun. Do those things that you enjoy doing together.
7.Spend time pondering on the “reason for the season.” Read the Christmas story and ask the Holy Spirit to bring some new revelation and insight to you on this.
8.Share traditions and stories of special memories from past Christmases. Build new memories with your family and friends. Have fun!
9.Spend some time outside. Play with your kids, take a walk, ride a bike, take a drive to the beach or mountains. Drive around and look at the Christmas decorations.
10.Greet acquaintances and strangers alike with a friendly “Hello” or “Merry Christmas and a big smile, and mean it. Don’t be routine about it but appreciate that person. Let them know that you care!
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| I'm from a really big family, and sometimes can get a little ignored (I'm 24) at family parties. What I try to do is spend as much time with the little kids as possible. It makes me feel good, I stay away from alcohol and snacking before dinner, and even get a little exercise in by running around after them. You'll have fun, and the kids'll think you're the coolest aunt/uncle/mom/dad in the place.
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HALALGLORY
12/12/06 5:52 P
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| I do a donation of money, supplies, food and whatever I can scrounge up from people at work, family, etc. in December to the local humane animal shelter.
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ESTHERUTH
12/12/06 4:38 P
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People who have no one to care about them this time of year really do get depressed and the suicide rate climbs. As an RN practicing with other RN's, we all noted that the hospitals became full of those who were lonely and hurting between Thanksgiving and Christmas so that they would be cared for and pampered some of this season. So, those of you who are taking gifts and food, don't just drop off your gifts and leave. Take time to visit with the people that you befriend -- ask someone to dinner Christmas Day, share your day with them. This may stretch you a little bit, but how great you will feel afterward when you extend your borders. I know that a plain old chicken with potatoes and green beans would be a treasure for some -- or even soup. It's the real caring that counts, not only at this time of year, but all year long. Blessings.
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SHERI1049
12/12/06 2:40 P
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| It's hard NOT to get disgusted about the holidays - when the stores and TV start before Halloween now, it's truly gotten out of hand! Being with family, donating to charities, and revisiting memories of great holidays, these are some of the things that really keep Christmas in your heart.
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When I start to get the blues. I remember What "the true meaning" of this time of year is about. Go to
church and becone part of the spirt.
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CAROLMARIEROE
12/12/06 12:15 P
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Audra
I have seen very bad times years ago. But that is some of my best memories of the holly days.
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ABBASGAL
12/12/06 11:59 A
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Hi AUDRA1958, My whole life is based on Jesus. Knowing that Christmas is made to remember Him it keeps a warm glow in my heart. I pray that the blues you are feeling goes away and the Light shines for you. Making the Light of the meaning of Christmas outshine any feeling of blues go away. Jesus is the Reason for the Season. All of this is said in the love of Christ, Bye, ABBASGAL
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Hi Sarajay, Thank you for responding. I too am Catholic and we do help with charities. I feel blessed each & every day although they won't get what "the other kids get" I know they will be happy for they know I have done my best. If you read my spark page, you will find I am on disability. But I am thankful every day for what I have and whom I am.
Stay safe,Audra
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| Audra, I understand your feelings completely. I feel like everything is so commercialized. I do enjoy Christmas because my children are 7 and 12 and are still fun. But, I have to do what I feel is right in order for the holiday to have meaning for me. I am fortunate in that my kids go to Catholic school so they hear every day about the "reason for the season." In addition to that, I make it a point to help those less fortunate each year and make sure my kids are involved in it. In years past we have taken "Angels" from the Salvation Army tree and I have let my kids choose gifts to buy and wrap. I explain to them that not everyone has the life we do. (this is hard to explain when they believe in Santa and just think Santa brings whatever you want.) This year I involved a large group of my friends in the cause and "adopted" a mother and two daughters who are going through a divorce and have no money for groceries, let alone Christmas. About 15 of us have donated money, gift cards, food, clothing and will give all of this to the mother next week. It is such a good feeling to be able to help. I encourage you to do something meaningful with your kids. It doesn't matter that they are older. You will be helping those less fortunate and your kids will also gain an appreciation of what they have and how their life could be. There is a movie that is coming out about now, if it hasn't already, starring Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness. It is about a homeless man and his son and how they literally go from rags to riches (a true story). Make a date to take your kids to that movie and then go buy a few things and drop them off at a local charity location, homeless shelter or something of that nature. The holiday can be what you make of it. I know my kids will grow up and follow suit after doing what we do each year. Good luck and have a wonderful holiday!
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SONFLOWER_TX
11/28/06 3:50 P
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That does not sound mean to me. I commend you for taking the time to do that.
Ruthie
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| Hi Thank you for understanding where I am coming from when it comes to the holidays. My daughters are now 16 & 18 and every Christmas eve weather they like or not and I don't mean it to sound mean but "we" I talk about what Christmas is suppose to be about. How beautiful life is and what such a gift it is, all because of ONE man-ONE goal. Stay Safe, Audra
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I know exactly what you are saying and you are right. I hope that I am able to raise my children to remember what it's really all about and not get lost in the marketing of it all.
Be well,
Kelly
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SONFLOWER_TX
11/28/06 1:57 P
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Hi Audra
I sure do understand. 2 of our grandkids on 2 different Christmas' have said "Is that all?!" when we gave them their Christmas gifts. Not good.
Ruthie
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