Disapproval At Short Distance - A Heart Like His

A slice of Oreo Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory has 869 calories or Weight Watchers points.  In order for me to lose weight I have to keep my points at 19 points or other.  Why then would I consume the other half of my slice of Oreo Cheesecake this morning?  The honest answer is that I was celebrating skipping school.

That’s right; this is the first year in about 15 years that I missed the first day of school.  As a lady of leisure, I lounged around in my pj’s and my robe while consuming cheesecake.  Unfortunately there is no truth to the belief that eating sweets on your birthday makes calories mute. 
Later today, hubby and I plan support Chick-fil-a to support them in light of the calls to boycott the restaurant from same-sex marriage activists. 

Dan Cathy, the president and COO of the family-owned company, told an interviewer from the Biblical Recorder that, “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Cathy’s stance is shared by billions of people the world over. By the way, this view held by approximately half of Americans.  

I suppose I should have the Chargrilled Chicken Garden Salad because it only has three Weight Watchers Points.  The sad truth is that I will probably wake up yet again to see 128.8 staring up at me from the scale again tomorrow.

As I said earlier, I called RHS and talked to Terri J. and Linda F.  Terri told me that she was looking for my smiling face yesterday and that she definitely missed me.  She teased that she told Mrs. F. she didn't get her plate of goodies because she was waiting for me to bring them around.

I told Linda about the job opportunity that I received by email and kind of felt she would say that I couldn't handle it.  Instead she told me that she felt that I would be great for the job as an administrator at a local Christian Academy.  Wow it was great to have her support.  I think I’ll send them my resume and see how that goes.  The salary there is from $45,000 - $55,000. 

Today’s Beth Moore Bible Study for David – 90 Days With A Heart Like His is called Disapproval at short Distance. 

David was the youngest.  The three oldest had followed Saul, but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock in Bethlehem. (1 Samuel 17:14-15)

Have you ever felt undervalued and unappreciated for what you do and who you are?  How have you felt this sting the sharpest?

The old nursery rhyme tells us that Man may work from sun to sun, But woman's work is never done. I think this is true whether you are a homemaker or a career woman. 

There were many times over my life and career when I felt undervalued and unappreciated.  I realize now that to an extent I accepted this because I had such poor self-esteem.  If my ex-husband felt I wasn’t good enough I castigated myself for failing to meet the standards he set for me.  In reality no matter what I would have done I would never make him happy and it was much more about him than it was about me.

When my ex-husband would abuse me I would often ask "What did I do wrong?" "How could someone do that to me?" "What makes me so gullible?”

The fact was that my ex-husband was blaming you for things outside of my control.  I see now that he was a self serving individual who had little care for the feelings and consequences of his actions on others

It is difficult to comprehend that some people abuse our trust or deliberately take advantage of our vulnerability or dependency take advantage of us.  What are the best ways you've found to counteract this tendency of others who inflate their own importance at your expense?

I used to work with a teacher who began many statements to me with the following words, “I have TWO MASTERS degrees…”  It never really mattered what the conversation was about it was simply her way of putting me in my place and setting herself up as the expert on a particular situation.

I felt the sting of her words to mean that she saw herself as smarter than me.  In fact this was really more about her self-esteem than it was about her feelings of self-importance. My mistake is making her statements about me when it really isn't.

I struggle with the habit of seeking validation from others.  Worse yet, I often assume that others are correct.  By doing this I mistakenly make experts out of those around me even if they are not qualified to do so. 

I need to learn to accept myself and allowed myself to LIVE my life as God wants with or without the validation and approval of others. 

A Father Unlike His Son - A Heart Like His

In a way dieting is a walk in faith.  Your heart may be willing but the flesh is weak.  I still weigh 128.8 but then again I'm not really eating in a way that is conducive to losing weight.  

For example, yesterday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  They had a special deal on cheesecake in honor of National Cheesecake.  No one has to tell me that eating cheesecake does NOT promote weight loss just in case you don't know.

To make matters worse I ordered their Jamalya pasta.  If you've never been to the Cheesecake Factory then you may not be aware that their entrees are HUGE.  I'm talking big enough for two  people. 

I justified the cheesecake by eating only a fourth of my entree.  I even ate a little less than half of the Oreo Cheesecake but still at the most rational level of my mind I knew I'd had too many calories.  I suppose I'm lucky I didn't gain anything after feasting on cheesecake.

Today's bible study from Beth Moore's David 90 Days With A Heart like his is about faith and making the choice to follow God's will and not your own.  It can be difficult walking with God not because he makes it so difficult but we make it difficult because we often demand our own way no matter what the cost.

Saul’s son Jonathan said to the attendant who carried his weapons, “Come on, let’s cross over to the Philistine garrisons on the other side.”  However, he did not tell his father.  (1 Samuel 14:1)

In what ways has God enabled you to build on the faith and godliness of those generations that have gone before you?
When I was a little girl we went to CCD which I looked upon as yet another day of school which included homework.  Then on Sundays we would often go to church, which for awhile was all done in Latin.  I felt like my whole world was structured and I longed for time off.  By the time I finished sixth grade, my parents had pretty much abandoned going to church every weekend.  They were angry at our local priest for a number of reasons.

For the next three years it was me who would wind up walking to a local Methodist church that I used to pass on the way to and from school.  My parents went there for a little while but they abandoned this church too.  I eventually abandoned that church and for a period of time I lived a life that was less than exemplary.

Periodically I would try to renew my faith and live the life of a believer but that didn’t seem to last too long as I’d always stumble, fall, and revert back to my wild ways.

God strengthened my resolve to become the person I was meant to be. He has helped me rediscover the faith I once had in the innocence of my childhood.  I desperately want to be a true child of GOD.

If you don’t come from a believing background, what have been (or continue to be) your great obstacles in adopting a consistent faith?

I can’t say that I did NOT come from a believing background.  We did go to religious training.  My family did go to church some times.  There were the trappings of religion in our household.  We had a cross on the wall and a Bible in our home. 

What I lacked was the actual example of what exactly did it mean to have a Godly life.  I grew up in an abusive home filled with chaos.  I had no examples of what it meant to be a Christian in my life.

“Knowing” and “doing” are surely distinct things and while I may feel I know what God wills me to do, often I still don’t do it.  I realize that I am personally the greatest obstacles to consistently living my faith. I need to learn submit to God’s will consistently.  

Good-bye GACTE Hello Home!

Note to self: You cannot drink even one glass of wine if you are taking medication.

I woke up today with 76 trombones leading the big parade in my head and while the pounding reminded me of the mistake I made by imbibing the night before, I wondered how in the world I was going to roll out of bed and head on over to the GACTE meeting.

Obviously I am not a big drinker and never have been but one would think that one small glass of wine would not have such serious ramifications.

I turned to look at the clock in my room which caused my head to swim and my stomach to turn.

I was barely able to dart to the bathroom quick enough to audition for a part in the Philip's colon health commercial with the crazy Colon lady who wants to let you know she'll help you with bouts of gas and diarrhea.

My trips back and forth between the bed and the bathroom finally subsided after I finally had a long hot shower, a Green Tea Frappuccino from Starbucks, and some aspirin. A quick trip down to the whirlpool helped too.

Thankfully most of my packing had been done the night before and the room had been prepaid. It made checking out so much easier.

I finally ran into my boss this morning as well as my new co-worker. We were all checking out and getting ready to head on over to the Waverly for the close of the GACTE Conference.

The Conference convened with a brunch that included election results, awards, and door prizes. I did not win any prizes by the way.

Before I hit the road I stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory and ordered a BBQ Chicken salad. It's made with avocado, tomato, grilled corn, black Beans, cucumber and Romaine all tossed with their Barbeque Ranch Dressing and topped with lots of Crispy Fried onion strings.

I had planned to take this home to my husband for the two of us to share along with a slice of cheesecake. This is my one disappointment because I had ordered one kind of cheesecake and I didn't check my order before I drove home.

I arrived home about fifteen minutes before Darryl. When he arrived home I surprised him with the meal from Cheesecake Factory and that's when I realized that they gave me the WRONG kind of cheesecake. They gave me a German Chocolate Cheesecake and although it was OK but I had craved the Oreo Cookie cheesecake I'd ordered all the way home. Since I live over an hour away it's not worth it to drive all the way back.

It's good to be home though. Atlas was so glad to see me. All he could do was jump up and down on me and not allow me out of his site.

Darryl was also glad to see me and let me know that even just three days apart was difficult.

We spent some time swimming in our pool which is finally clean. Thank goodness because this has been the longest it's ever taken us to open our pool.

I feel like clicking the heels of my ruby red slippers together and reciting "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

GACTE, BCS, & Passion Tea Oh My

Today was Division Programs Day at the 64th Annual GACTE and it couldn't have begun any better. I know it sounds crazy but they actually had my FAVORITE TAZO Tea, Passion Tea, as my students would say OMG! It made up for the fact that I had to hustle myself over to the Waverly this morning at 8AM on a summer day.

My first session was entitled, "Quick, Easy ways to Become A Standards-Based Classroom (MS &HS). To be honest, in the past my favorite thing about these workshops were finding new ideas to incorporate into my classroom which has always meant lugging home tons of paper. Not this time. It seems like every session I attended offered to email you the material or provided you a link for the material. Won't Al Gore be so very happy?

I was looking forward to the second session, "Engaging Pupils in the Classroom by Embedding Projects into the Curriculum (HS)" because it promised a project resource CD for all attendees! Obviously others felt the same way because the session was packed and I had heard people discussing that this was why they chose to attend that particular session.

While the instructor did not have those CD's available, she did have a very good reason and her presentation made up for leaving empty handed.

I was going to eat lunch with the people in my area, I changed my mind last minute. The reason for this was that while other instructors were filing out of their sessions they began heading over to the tables which were almost completely set. A few teachers headed over to various tables when a couple of women at the Dias that were part of GACTE asked them to just wait. Then a few more people began heading for the tables and the women had to repeat themselves. I just didn't feel like hugging the walls, staring at tables, like a vulture waiting for its turn at the carcass.

I decided to head on over to Cumberland Mall instead and pick a restaurant. While I was trying to decide between a couple of restaurants I'd never been too, I decided to visit the Cheesecake Factory because they last time I'd eaten there it was SO good.

I ordered the Santa Fe Salad from the lunch menu but trust me, even though they say it's smaller, it's still HUGE. I had to divide it in half and bring the other half back to the hotel for another meal. Thank goodness I didn't eat the bread because then I wouldn't have been able to eat my half serving of salad.

Of course, I couldn't very well have gone to the Cheesecake Factory and NOT had any cheesecake now could I? I guess I could, technically I did, but I did ask them to pack that up to go also. It was so very hard to decide but I decided to try the vanilla bean cheesecake which I will share with my husband on Wednesday when I go home.

I arrived back at the Waverly just in time to watch the hotel staff serve a steak to the other attendees. I did wonder if perhaps I'd made the wrong choice, but I don't think I'll be regretting my choice when I'm eating that cheesecake later.

I finally took the opportunity to head on over to the hotel pool and swim a little bit as well as take advantage of the whirlpool.

There is a GACTE Networking Reception but I probably won't be attending. I still feel a bit uncomfortable when I'm around others in a room where I hardly know anyone. I say this even though I did briefly attend the small mixer here at the hotel and I did take a seat at one of the tables in the Business Education luncheon even though I didn't eat anything.

I didn't wind up babbling or analyzing every word I said, berating myself for every perceived mistake. I spoke with a teacher from Thomasville City Schools who owns a coffee shop and he explained to me about why Starbucks has such a bitter taste. It was really very interesting.

As I write this post the sky has finally opened wide and there heavy pouring rain is providing a respite from today's heat despite warnings of dangerous lightning, and gusty winds.

Unfortunately, the Weather Service has issued another heat advisory for metro Atlanta for Wednesday for heat indices topping 105. Can you say HOT?