Monday Menu Planning...

 

Monday - Spaghetti and Turkey meatballs with veggies

Tuesday - Crockpot Enchiladas (from my friend Kj) with side salad

Wednesday - Mac and Cheese and Sausage with veggies

Thursday - Green Chili and Corn Chowder

Friday - Veggie Lasagna, salad and French bread (homemade)

Saturday - Leftover cleanout

Sunday - Dinner at Wanda's???  or Roasted Chicken and sides at home

For fun...

I made a button!  I am so techie challenged but Stephanie's Mommy Brain shared this with me and so I have been playing a little.  Those are my daisies in the background.  :)  Take it and link to me with it if you like.  I will put it in the sidebar, too.  Just something fun!  :)

I am going to play with a few more and then might put another one up late but I will put it here if I do.

Blue and Gold...

Monday will be the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in America.  We celebrated that last night with our Cub Scouts in our annual Blue and Gold banquet.  Just thought I would post a bit of the fun for you to enjoy...

 

  

 

My precious team!  Hardest working moms on the planet!!!

 

  

  

Cub Master of the Year doing what he does best.... leading boys!!!

Waiting for his cue...

My new advanced Webelo1 pinning mom and then he gets his NEW TAN SHIRT next...

Getting out the shirt... his quote, "This was the best day of my whole life"  He is so proud of that new shirt!!!

Thyroid Thursday...

You know the past year has been a struggle and we are still fighting the FDA on keeping our medications on the market.  There has been a battle raging between natural dessicated hormone and synthetics.  I know women who take both (not at the same time but women who either take one or the other).  LOL  Some do very well on synthetics and some of us do not.

The basic difference in the two is the hormone that is in them.  After reading and studying all of this I realized that synthetic hormone supplements contain just the T4.  The natural dessicated has both T4 AND T3. 

There is a controversy and honestly I think the whole issue is just stupid.  I think that each person needing to take thyroid hormone replacement should be treated as an individual in their diagnosis and treatment.  My friend Pattie says her synthetic works great for her and so... the conclusion is that she should stay on that. 

It did not work for me.  We gave it a full 6 months and the only thing that changed was my number.  I went from 6.6 TSH to 2.4 or so with my TSH.  My hair started falling out and I immediately started gaining weight.  I still felt just as exhausted and could barely get off the couch or get up in the mornings.  I began to think something else was totally wrong with me.  It was at that 6 month mark that I asked for something else. 

I went to an endocrinologist that believed natural hormone was the devil or something.  She kept telling me I did not know what I was talking about and that I read too much.... can you imagine being told you read TOO MUCH???  LOL  I did not go back.  I went back to my GP and she started me on Armour.... my TSH went back up to 5 and so we altered the dosage.  I am currently still on that dosage and my TSH is at a .8 (note that normal is between .3 and 3.3 or so)  I am FABULOUSLY IN THE PERFECT RANGE!!! 

Once we found my dosage I began to immediately feel better and am still building energy every single day.  I have lost 10 pounds since I started on it and my hair is great again and my skin is better than it has been in YEARS!!!  I feel good and am glad I made the switch.

The problem is the government  (what else is new, right?  lol)  because they want to pull it off the market and change it and regulate it more.  Many patients that have gone on the new formula are experiencing negative results again.  I have been fortunate enough at this point to still be on the old formula but that change is coming and I know it.  There is an advocate out there for us, though.  Her name is Mary Shomon (you can also check here for her info)  and I have read several of her books.  They are very informative and I really love her approach to all of this.  She believes that each diagnosis and treatment should be individual, too.  She has started a group online called SAVE NATURAL THYROID HORMONE. 

This is where we are.... I hope every month that my pharmacist can get my prescription and I have changed pharmacies a few times in the process.  I am currently working with a pharmacist that is really adamant about helping me and I love that! 

If you are a thyroid patient it really is your responsibility to find out all you can to feel your best.  Mary Shomon has helped the cause a great deal.  The saddest thing is that some doctors really just don't care enough to stay current and help their patients.  We have to be our own advocate.  If you have questions I would start with Mary's book... Living Well with Hypothyroidism.  It helped me more than anything else out there. 

My next step, btw, is heading to a new endocrinologist once the medication needs to be changed again.  In the meantime, I love my nurse practitioner and she has done her very best for me.  I thank her for that.  :)

True Meditation...

 I had a conversation yesterday about meditation.  The idea the world has about meditation is very different from the way God tells us to meditate.  It is NOT about sitting with your legs crossed and chanting some mantra to clear your head.  It is not practicing ideas and rituals from a religion outside of Jesus Christ.  If you are doing that it is a dangerous practice that invites the enemy right on in to make his home there.

There is a passage that tells us what happens when we do not replace sin with God and scripture.  You can clean your house and get rid of the evil but if you leave it empty here is what happens from Matthew 12...

43  Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.
44 “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.  
45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Now, does this happen to a non-believer or a believer.... it would be more applicable to a non-believer...  BUT when we as Christians begin to dabble in the things that are not of God we open ourselves up for trouble.  When we meditate by emptying our mind and chant mantras we are not pleasing God.  Remember how God felt when the Israelites turned to other religions?  It was not pretty.  He feels the same when we... His children.... do this, too.

Scripture is very clear that we are not to worship other gods.  He does not want any other gods in His presence... ANYWHERE... including in our lives.  Am I a legalist here?  Nope... I take God seriously when He says not to play with that stuff.  That is why  I choose the books I do and the music I do and the things I allow in my home.  Am I perfect?  Nope... not in the least... but when God tells me no, don't do that, I really try to obey.  Is He still purging the stuff in my life that is sin?  Yes, you better believe it.  It is called being purified by fire... the impurities are being burned off as I am in the process daily.  He has told me no on these things that I feel strong conviction for in my own life.

I am also very concerned with the direction of most modern churches in this regard, too.  Trying to fit in with the world is NEVER a good idea.  We are commanded to remain separate in our behavior and choices.  That does not mean we move to an Amish community and never talk to the world again.  It does not mean that I don't talk to non-believers.  It might mean that I love someone who is lost and tell them about Jesus and then they refuse to accept Him, too.  It breaks our hearts but we cannot make people love God.  I, however, don't dive right into their sin to make them feel better that I am joining them and it does mean we take some flack for our decisions because the world might think we are nuts.... I am fine with that.  Jesus Christ was not accepted either so I can live with that.  It is not always comfortable but what is the focus here?  The true focus is eternity.  We are preparing for a life that is beyond now... beyond the world.... for eternity with God

So, how does God tell us to meditate? 

Joshua 1:8 tells us...

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  
7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.  
8 “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

Psalm 119:15 says...


13 With my lips I have told of
All the ordinances of Your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts
And regard Your ways.
16 I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.

Psalm 77...


11 I shall remember the deeds of the LORD;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate on all Your work
And muse on Your deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy;
What god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
15 You have by Your power redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph.

Psalm 119:48



41 May Your lovingkindnesses also come to me, O LORD,
Your salvation according to Your word;
42 So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me,
For I trust in Your word.
43 And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
For I wait for Your ordinances.
44 So I will keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
45 And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
46 I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings
And shall not be ashamed.
47 I shall delight in Your commandments,
Which I love.
48 And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments,
Which I love;
And I will meditate on Your statutes. 

Psalm 143

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD,
Give ear to my supplications!
Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!
2 And do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no man living is righteous.
3 For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.
4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
My heart is appalled within me.
5 I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your doings;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
6 I stretch out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You, as a parched land.

Wow... God talks about this a lot and if you were to go to a Bible website and search you would find much more than I have put here.

The bottom line is that meditation... according to God's Word... is FILLING your mind and your mouth with His Word, His great deeds and love and worship of the Father.  We are meditating ON HIM and not on nothing or self (which is never productive, btw).  This is what God calls us to.  I hope that you take these words in the spirit in which they are intended.  I am not judging you.  I am merely informing from God's Word.  I am teaching me as much as anyone when I share these things.

I hope you will add meditating on God and His Word to your day.  It literally changes who we are when we focus on Him.  He changes our hearts, our minds and our world view to be eternally focused.

That is just what is on my mind today... :)  Thanks for stopping by! 

All verses are from the NASB.

Suggested viewing....

Do you have to watch this?  No... but it would do us all some good to see where our world has been to know there is a strong connection to where our country is headed if we do not do something now to change it.  Here is the first segment and you can catch the rest of this at YouTube by clicking on the "watch this on YouTube" button int he bottom right hand corner.  Please consider watching this...

A financial update.... Money Makeover Monday!!!

Ok, new month and we are moving into the practical aspect of all that I posted in January.  We are making things happen. We are starting with what I did first thing this morning. 

We sold the BIG GRAY ELEPHANT YESTERDAY!!!  Yes, that old troublesome money pit no longer lives in my front yard.  The suburban is GONE GONE GONE... *small tear in corner of eye*.  She served us well and we are grateful to have known her. 

We sold it to a guy that knows how to do most of the work himself and we got a great price... just what we needed as a matter of fact.  You see, we are doing the Dave Ramsey plan and we needed to meet the goal for step one before we could move forward.  So, we sold a vehicle and I got up this morning and met the banker at the door as she was unlocking the building this morning.  We now have our emergency fund in place and I made a DOUBLE payment on our first loan we are knocking out. 

I just think Dave Ramsey would be so proud of me today!!!  I know I am proud of me because..... hold onto your seats..... I am NOT the nerd in this relationship.... I am the free spirit!!!  LOL  Once I was on board this whole thing could happen because my husband the precious nerd has been trying to pay things off and get us out of debt for years.  That is not to say that he NEVER made bad purchases but I can guarantee that he has not been the one coming home with extra books and dishes and fabric and yarn....  So, we are both on the same page now and we are on our way to debt free.... stay tuned for the grand adventure!  :)