Round Robin Photo Challenge

I haven't done a Round Robin Photo Challenge in a very long time!

This time around the challenge will be "BY THE WATER."  Sound good?  Any interpretation is fine, as are archived photos, but you know, I love seeing you grab new shots.  So, go out there and find some bottled WATER. A WATERing Hole. A Glass of WATER. WATER on the beach. It's all good.



 
 
 
 

The fountain where I work

Cane Creek Wilderness Preserve Waterfall

Opryland Hotel (before the flood)

Cane Creek

Mount Dora, Florida

 
 

>>See other great Round Robin "By the Water" photos here!<<

The End of the Beginning

It's the end of Deb’s Freedom Challenge, which joined for the month of July.    June had gone so well for me that I figured I was on a roll and could do this!

My goals were:

1.   Memorize Bible Verses

2.   Walking

3.   Gym

4.   Healthier choices and no gorging in restaurants

5.   Stop shoveling it in!

Every week, I got more and more lax until this week…which has been completely off.   I hate that I wasted a whole month.   Not only will I have not lost any weight, I am afraid that I will be up a few pounds.    I will now have to analyze what must be done, because I am not going to continue to go backwards. 

And how I know is because God is for me not against me.   And His grace is sufficient for me.   If I didn’t have hope in Him, I don’t know what I’d do…other than continue down the wrong road.

Ok…let’s analyze what I lacked this month:

·         A plan.

·         Consistency.

·         Not following the goals that I made for myself.    The most important one is memorizing scripture.   Haven’t put much time into this at all.

Loretta did an entry about consistency, and I kinda read over it, but didn’t let it sink in.   I didn’t want it to sink in because consistency means I have to commit.   A plan means I have to commit.    Following goals calls for commitment.   I obviously haven’t committed, and while I still believe in complete freedom for people like me, I need to get a plan, some consistency and follow the goals that I make for myself.   If I don’t, I find myself at the end of a perfectly good month with a gain.  

August is my do-over month.    I'll commit to these goals, and I will put my trust in the One who can help me, instead of trusting in myself.   I’ll remember that I only have to deal with each day for as long as that day is.   When the next day rolls around, I will then deal with that day.  

(An added note:  I just walked across campus, and I could see a noticeable difference in my breathing.   I only walked (as exercise) one time this week, but this is my first off week for walking since May 24.   Definitely encouraging to see that I'm not nearly as breathless and worn out...and all the more reason to shake it off and get back on track!)

Idea Number 18: The Irony of the Name

The Irony of the Name of This Blog

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been afraid of spiders.   To this day, I check my bed every night before getting in; thankfully, there aren’t spiders in my bed!  I kinda freak out when I see one in my house, and yell for Ole Boy to kill it, while I keep an eye on the intruder.    If he’s not there, I’ve got a pretty good aim with a phone book.  I can toss one half-way across the room to land on top of a spider.

Once, several years ago before I married Ole Boy, my ten year old daughter and I had a little apartment that was on a concrete slab, near a pasture, and spiders were plentiful in the summertime.   I always kept a can of Raid handy, and sprayed the apartment every six weeks or so.    One morning after I sprayed, my daughter and I left for the day, (ballgames and cookouts and what-not), and we didn’t get home until around 11:30 p.m.   When I walked in, I saw a very lethargic (but large) black spider near my couch.   Knowing that it was half dead, I felt brave enough to finish killing it.   But as I tried to swat it, it moved under the couch.    When I moved the couch to get to it, there was a movement under the couch akin to a small…elephant (in my mind, anyway)… waddling up under the couch when I moved it.  

I quickly took care of the half-dead black spider and turned my very frightened attention to the one under the couch.   I slid the couch out a little more from the wall, and again the thing waddled along with the move.    Not having Ole Boy there, I called my mom, who lived about a mile away, and asked her to come help me kill it (translated “come kill it for me!”).    Considering that it was around midnight by this time, my mom said something to the effect of killing me if I called her back that night about a spider…

So, there we were…me teaching my daughter how to be as afraid of spiders as my mom taught me to be…at midnight, and no one to do the deed but me.

Daughter said, “Maybe it’s a frog!”   It was about that size, and we’d had both a frog and a lizard in there at other times.   At the thought of a frog, I got really brave, and whipped that couch clear across the living room.   And there…the offender…a curled up oak leaf that had blown in and under my couch.

My daughter is now grown and has Angels of her own, and she has discussions with them when she freaks out about a spider, hoping that they will not grow up to be as afraid as I am (and she is, if she would admit it).    I’m thinking she has some pretty funny spider stories of her own….

Idea Number 6: How To Sabotage a Diet

Nine Ways to Sabotage a Perfectly Good Diet With a Binge

(And I should know because I’ve lived it)

1. Start off a hot Thursday morning with a Jack’s bacon and cheese biscuit.   That in itself it not so bad, now is it?    (After all, I left off fried potatoes and sweet tea, and I did do my walk before I ate.)
2. Have a big slice of pizza from Sam’s for lunch.   Eat all of it, even though it isn’t the best pizza.   (I can’t really say I’ve ever had “bad” pizza.)
3. Eat Texas Roadhouse for dinner…complete with rolls and butter and all the peanuts you can eat.    Three meals…not necessarily square, but only three.
4. On Friday, get up and eat a decent breakfast, but don’t walk.
5. Eat Chinese buffet for lunch with friends.  Whine about how stuffed you are.
6. Eat a decent Subway sandwich for dinner, but also eat Funyuns and red velvet cake.
7. On Saturday, admit that you are on a binge and eat thusly, and forget about walking.   If you don’t have to, don’t walk anywhere.   Drive.   Better yet, talk someone else into going for you.
8. On Sunday, skip breakfast.   Think about getting back on your diet.  Go to church and hear the preacher talk about addictions, and give the frightening statistics of Americans with addictions.   Try to act nonchalant as he mentions food addition for the third time.  Hope no one is casting sly glances your way.
9. After church (early service), go eat pancakes with butter and full-leaded (sugar, that is) syrup.  

I started a diet on May 24.   I have walked most every day since then.   I have lost 24 pounds….well, up until this weekend, now I am sure I am at a pound or two less than 24.   There is no explanation why I take steps back, but I do.   Had I not taken so many steps back since I started I would have lost probably 30 pounds.  I sometimes put my name in Bible verses when I am praying….Oh foolish Margaret, who hath bewitched you?   (Gal 3)  (Usually, I put my name in the blessing verses!)   Unfortunately, I have no answers for the questions, but this I know, I won’t give up.   My first goal is 60 pounds by October 17.  After my latest binge and three steps back, I have made a very doable goal a difficult one.

I write this blog in a lighthearted way, but there is nothing lighthearted about the heartbreak of obesity and the years of trying to overcome.   I believe that there is freedom for people like me…and I will plug along day by day, believing and hoping, and knowing that God’s grace is sufficient for me.

I had started a “secret” weight loss blog.   If, by chance, you ever landed on that blog, there is no hint of who the author is, because I was hiding like losing weight is something shameful.   But that’s a silly approach to what I want to do and who I am.   For sure, those who know me know I’m overweight, and my friends (most of them, anyway) are rooting for me to lose the baggage.

I’d need to open a big ol’ can of inclination to keep up with two blogs; therefore, I am going to share my journey here on my regular blog.    Besides, I couldn’t find a can of inclination anywhere, and they don’t sell it at Wal*Mart. 

Because I started this weekend off bad I’m going to end it bad, too.   (translated:  I tripped on the top step, so now I’m throwing myself down the whole flight.)  Tomorrow morning, I will get up and start again.    Next Sunday, I will weigh and hopefully I will have lost more than 24 pounds.

Things to Blog About

27 Things I Could Blog About
But I’m Too Lazy Tired Busy

1. How to manage 14 years without an oven.
2. Surviving 3 teenagers under my roof at one time (without killing one...or all...of them).
3. Does the southern accent promote poor grammar?
4. Profanity is not pretty.
5. Is Mexican food addictive?
6. 9 ways to sabotage a perfectly good diet with a binge, (one of which is Mexican food).
7. The pros and cons of bifocals...does it admit to middle age?
8. Silly (un-enforced) laws still “on the books” (In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.)
9. How to take a good digital photograph in 20 shots or more
10. Dealing with an insane boss without punching him in the face.
11. Avoiding jail when you punch your ex-boss in the face.
12. The damage a 15x magnification mirror can cause to your face
13. Breathing hot water (July and August in the humid deep south)
14. How many times my husband (aka “Ole Boy”) can watch Andy Griffith reruns  (think infinity)  Ok, that’s not really a blog idea, it would be on the list of “Questions That Can’t Be Answered.”
15. Questions that can’t be answered
16. Things my mother told me that turned out to be very true
17. I’m turning into my mother!
18. The irony in the name of this blog, The Brown Recluse, considering I am dreadfully afraid of spiders!
19. 101 things about me (nah, I’m too AADD for that)
20. My self diagnosis of AADD and OCD (and why I always have an urge to add another C to OCD to make it more even as OCDC)
21. Avoiding housework
22. Excuses for not having a party at my house (when the real reason is because I avoided housework)
23. Scrambling to get the house clean before the party guests arrive
24. Middle age ain’t all it’s cracked up to be...I now need bifocals 
25. The Empty Nest doesn’t hurt at all!
26. Ways to trick a diabetic dog into getting a shot of insulin
27. Twenty-seven ways to fill up a blog page.   J

You know…maybe I really will blog about some of these one day.

It's What I Know....

I have decided…

·    That I must be getting old growing up because I don’t have to buy something every time my little heart desires it.

·    That I have very good taste in purses because every one I liked at TJ Maxx’s today was over $100.00, except the one on sale for $99.

·    That a single pack of pink lemonade drink mix is too much for a small cup of water from Taco Bell.

I have noticed…

·    That the people hostilely yelling about being disrespected are the ones who’ve done very little to earn respect, and respect others even less. 

·    That many of these folks are people who must, often times, make appearances in the criminal court system.

·    That the older I get, the more I realize how unimportant things I let annoy me are, like some lawbreaker yelling that they have been disrespected. 

I believe…

·    That there is a very merciful God in Heaven; and whether or not you believe that does not negate His existence. 

·    That America’s Christians need to open their eyes, pray and seek divine guidance, and vote accordingly in the next election, and the next presidential election, as well.

·    That it’s time for true believers to step up and speak God’s truth, and not back down and apologize when “the world” disagrees.

I Admit…

·    That I continue to (periodically) read a particular blogger because she’s a train wreck.

·    I don’t like to be touched by others unless I have emotional or family ties, and sometimes not even then.   I cringe when the preacher says “shake hands” and I cringe even more when he says “hug your neighbor.”   I’m perfectly OK with a smile and a wave.

·    I can be pretty judgmental.   I find, though, that it’s usually those things that I don’t like about myself that I detest in others.    (Yeah, I know.   I’m working on it.)

My Beloved Shoals

(Deibert Park)

There once was a youthful day

(Natchez Trace)

When I couldn’t wait to leave The Shoals

(Deibert Park)

To see the beautiful sights of the world

(Deibert Park)

To find myself

(Deibert Park)

Ah, but what I didn’t know then

(Deibert Park)

I surely now know…

(Cane Creek Canyon)

It’s as much a part of me

(Cane Creek Canyon)

As I am a part of it

(Wilson Dam Rockpile)

My Beloved Shoals…

(UNA)

May I be so blessed, as I am now,

(UNA)

To always be a part of you.