I am a terrible blogger I know, and yet people still come by everyday looking for something to read. Well here I am, if you have checked back today you will not be disappointed…or maybe you will be, it’s tough to say.
Being at college has been a tough adjustment on the health front. I’ve use busyness as an excuse to eat poorly and not exercise. I had done well just before coming to CFOT, but have since allowed myself to slip back into old habits. I have paid the price for this dearly.
Headaches
Insomnia
stomach pain
Increased psoriasis on my head
Those are just some of the things my body has experienced in response to the bad choices that I have made.
You would think those would be warning sign enough that I had fallen of track so badly, but they were not.
My warning sign has come with the symptoms of my PCOS. For the past couple months I have not been at all myself, I’ve recognized the problem but not acted which has allowed it to get worse. I have been irregular with my cycle, and there has been increased pain for longer periods. I have been, if you can believe it a bit more irritable and my ability to cope has taken turn for the worse. Although most of my symptoms have been physical, I have also experienced depression with my PMS. All in all it has not been a good few months on the PCOS front. Some might say that I need to go to the doctor, and I actually have. It might be necessary to make an extra visit, but I need to try to put the diet and exercise advice into practice before we try something new.
I’ve come to realize once again that I need to take action, and make some better choices. So this week I am on a detox to give myself the boost I need mentally to get back on track where my health is concerned. My diet over this week is very strict. Basically I am cutting out meat and dairy (except yogurt), wheat/gluten, refined sugars, salt, and caffeine.
It’s funny that I am cutting out caffeine with the hope of becoming healthier, and yet today I have had the worst headaches I have ever experienced in my life. I know this is just part of caffeine withdrawal, and it will pass….but it is killer. I will press on though, knowing that in the long run the benefits outweigh the costs.
Today was church day, so with my uniform I put on the shirt. Magically before I got there it transformed into a white shirt complete with a pin…but for today I thought I would share with you
Shirt a-la-uniform.
For school we have assigned vans, and I am in a van with three other people. We’ve become good friends and really enjoy our trips into school together. One of our members bought us a t-shirt to wear I think we will have it for a week at a time, kind of like the sisterhood of the travelling pants.
So I am the privileged one who gets the shirt first. So this week I will share a bit of the shirts journey.
Today the shirt and I took it easy, we just baked some late night muffins.
OK I know I said that I would not be doing a New Year’s resolution, but an idea has come into my head. It’s an idea that I have tried before and failed miserably at. I think I did not do so well because I did not really have a plan. I am going to try it again though.
Here is the idea, each month I want to try to do something for the entire month. For example I might (and actually will) make one of the months to take a photograph each day. The on Saturdays I will update on how it is going and publish the best ones for you to see…or something like that.
I don’t know exactly how it will work yet, I might set up a different blog for it we’ll see. I think it will be fun. They key to my doing it will be to have all 12 months planned before I start. That way I won’t get discouraged trying to think of new things for the next month and then quit. Another key is it has to be doable, so we’ll see.
I wonder what I can think up to do.
You’ll see that I have added a new page to my blog, Things to do in 2010.
The thing is that sometimes school gets in the way of being a human being. You get stressed to the max and don’t take time to unwind or relax, so I have started a list of things I want to do this coming year. I will keep adding to it until January first and then I will have the goal of trying to get some of the things on the list done this coming year. It’s not a list of new years resolutions. Some of the things on the list will happen and some will not. I see it as just a list of things to aim for, to remind me that there is more to life than just plain school.
Well I am at Starbucks using the free wireless here. I am still loving Regina, doing a lot of adopt-a-family and hamper stuff. Also kettles, which I actually have fun on.
Saturday and Sunday were my easiest days here. Saturday the band went mall carolling to help the kettles so I did that with them. Then I went to the college and careers secret santa party which was fun. It was good to meet some new people and connect with an old friend.
Sunday I taught Sunday school, which well lets just say is not my gift. The kids were pretty good though. I did the advent reading in church and the kids time. It was funny because I was like “who likes to party?” all the kids hands shot up, and then I was like “who likes to party alone?” and a lot of the adult hands shot up…it was funny. Then I also gave my testimony. Then in the afternoon I went to the Cameron’s for their open house, where I got to mingle and get to know people even more. I can’t believe how friendly the people here in Regina are. It’s like I have always been here and am a member of the family.
Today I counted kettles in the morning and went to the rotary lunch and then stood on kettles for four hours. It’s actually fun to do kettles, although it still would never be my first choice in a job.
Tomorrow I am helping with the Christmas hampers, now that adopt-a-family is done. Then I have a kettle shift from 5-8. Then on Wednesday more hampers and kettles and then I get my evaluation done. It is hard to believe that I will be heading home in 3 more sleeps to see my family for Christmas, and then back to school the week after. Time has flown and if I wasn’t excited to spend some time with the fam, I would not want to go home.
I really love it here.
I was supposed to post this yesterday but lost my connection so lets try this again
The past two days have been crazy. I’ve been learning a lot, and I am loving my time here.
Yesterday morning before we started the lady in charge of family services here shared a devotional with us all. She talked about the fact that it was going to be a busy and stressful week, but that we needed to leave it in God’s hands. She stressed that God certainly does not need us to do his work but that he allows us to participate. So we need to throw our expectations out the window. She said if we don’t meet the goals we had set, we need not see that as a failure, but instead we realize that God did all he had in store to do through us, and if we exceed, then God did more. God is the one who does the work.
That message was important for me today.
Today my officer and I were to do some visitation, and we did. The officer warned me that they had received word that a family in the corps had their little 3 year old foster boy pass away over night, and that we may need to go to the family at some point (I must stress at this point that the husband officer was already there, so pastoral care was being given).
So we went about the normal visitation that we were going to be doing. At first we stopped by this lady’s house. I expected to minister to her, but really she ministered to me. I could barely get a word in edgewise…it was the best pastoral visit I have ever been a part of…it was so laid back and easy. What really struck me was that this lady was a complete stranger and she said to me…I’ll be praying for you, you will do well because you have a heart for this, I really sense it in you. A stranger confirming my call?
We wound up needing to cut the visit short, because we got a call that we (well really the officer) was needed at the home of the family who had lost the child. I was really nervous about this, because I thought my being there would be awkward. It made me question for a minute but then I remembered the devotional from yesterday and was reminded that God will accomplish what he needs to through me and it is he that is working through me…not me doing it at all.
I wound up not doing much, I gave the grandmother a hug and she thanked me for coming. Then I left…as there were circumstances that prevented us from visiting at that time. So we went to the next visit, which was to an elderly lady who was quite lonely so we were all glad we were able to get there.
Tonight I did the devotional thought at the Nursing home, and it went well apparently. God had spoken to my heart about changing what I was going to say a couple days ago….so I had come up with some new thoughts. The officers had suggested that I do the thought based on a Christmas carol or something and I had originally done it on Silent night…but I changed my mind and did it on Joy to the world. Basically I talked about the fact that the carol reminds me that Christmas is a joyful time of year and we celebrate. I talked about joy and excitement, and then I also said that we also know that Christmas is not always a joyful time for some. Some grieve, some have lost jobs etc…but then I read from Matthew chapter one, and talked about the fact that whether we were joyful or not we could find strength and peace in the fact that God is with us.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
His name is called Emmanuel
God with us, revealed in us
His name is called, Emmanuel
Well I am in Regina and having fun so far. Today was my first day, since my flight getting in was delayed by 2 hours yesterday. My day had started at 5:30AM and I arrived here close to 5PM. My gracious supervisor took me to dinner and then brought me to the house where I am staying for the duration of my time in Regina. A whole house to myself…fantastic. The only downside is that there is no cable, phone or internet (yeah I am using an unsecured network right now and it’s unreliable so I don’t even know if I will get this post up)
I was not feeling 100% last night and was bored with nothing to do in the house so I went to bed around 7:30PM. I woke up a few times, because I was worried I would sleep in. When I finally got up this morning I was a little bit panicked because my eye was burning, completely red, and had lots of gooey stuff coming out of it. OH NO I thought to myself, not pink eye. I can’t get sick on my winter assignment, this is not good. I decided to get in the shower and just try to suffer through the day. I would go to a clinic and get drops if I needed too. After the shower my eye felt a little bit better and already began to lose some of the red and became more pink. By the end of the morning my eye was back to normal. So it must have been an irritation.
I spent my day at family services doing data entry, then went for lunch at Grace Haven/Gemma house, then back to family services and topped it all off with a 3 hour kettle shift. I played the cornet for much of the kettle shift and so my lips are still sore. While on the kettle, a man who was obviously intoxicated came and tried to steal a snowblower that was chained to the ground. It was quite funny to watch him try to open the padlock with his hands. Yet sad at the same time.
Oh yes. I forgot to bring my deodorant, and had no time to stop and get any today. So I hope I did not smell too bad for the people, I did take extra care washing…but you never know. I think I was ok, I did not sweat at all. Be not afraid though, I did manage to finally pick some up, after I went to starbucks to use the wireless there. (oh was that TMI?)
PCOS is annoying. It’s a crazy thing to have, and it makes me very angry on some days. My moods are inconsistent, and I am in ministry training, which is not really a good combination. It is very hard to manage your moods though, when you don’t really feel in control of them.
I’m headed to the doctor on Tuesday morning, because I need to get my last hepatitis vaccine, and I used that to actually get in to see him. I am going to mention though that I have been having increased mood swings, and some of the other symptoms as well. I am hoping that he will be able to help alleviate some of these for me, because to be honest there are days when I am simply unbearable as a human being.
Lifestyle change is definitely part of the equation, but anyone who has ever tried a complete lifestyle overhaul knows how incredibly hard that is. Through the hormones in there and it can make for a seemingly hopeless situation. Like a mountain that can’t be conquered.
However I keep on keeping on, and take it one day at a time.
I did come across this T-shirt and found it hilarious…
