Who Am I?

In a recent devotional, available via YouVersion, the below message (really, the entire passage) spoke to me like nothing has before.

Your answer will affect the way you look at life, tackle your troubles, and frame your circumstances. The answer to that question can give you the confidence to accomplish your calling or take away your courage to even begin. If you don’t answer that question with the truth of God, the devil will answer it for you with his bag of lies.
Take Hold of the Faith You Long For

The passage continues with these questions:

Who am I that I should write a book?

Who am I that I should start a business?

Who am I that I should be a teacher?

Who am I that I should help orphans overseas?

I had to sit with my awe because how could one paragraph encapsulate every single desire I’ve ever had? Yes, all of them. It went on to reference the Bible verse of Exodus 3 which is most commonly known as Moses and the Burning Bush; more importantly, this is when God uses the words “I AM”, as in “the great I AM”. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized this is the answer to every question beginning with Who Am I…? I AM!

hope they also learnt how to spell learned

Many times we flippantly reply ‘well, who am I’ when commenting on a situation or asking a question that often seems so obvious to us. But what if we believed our words when we said, loudly and proudly, I AM!

I AM a writer…a business owner…a teacher…a helper to orphans. And the greatest I AM says so.

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I ask you –

Do you read a daily devotional?

How often do you find yourself thinking (or saying) “who am I…?”

Tell me who you are using the statement “I AM!”

When You Get Excited to Run!

I knew it! Check out this article here!

There you have it, folks! Notwithstanding it was written in a trail runner magazine, doubles really are beneficial! Now…I have to forewarn. Doubles in the article and doubles I was originally thinking of are not the same. According to the writer, doubles are what you do when you run twice in one day (separated by a few hours, of course). According to me, doubles are when you run same pace/same distance multiple days in a row when planning to run back-to-back half marathon or marathon distances. Details. Ehhh.

I’ve not yet registered for the BMW Dallas Half Marathon on 12 December. I’m procrastinating because that’s what I typically do when I want to pay last minute fees and freak out about the cost. What can I say? I’m a smart person in an idiot’s body. Maybe I have that backwards? Anyway, I’m how many weeks deep into training and still haven’t registered. There’s just so much commitment when you take that final step! Alas, I am excited to race again; my goal is within reach and my fancy Garmin says the confidence I can reach my goal is very high. Even if it does occasionally say my training is unproductive. I still don’t get that part. Unproductive is doing nothing, like literally staring at my watch whilst daydreaming about running. That’s unproductive. If I’m outside running – or even inside running – I’m being productive! You’re not the boss of me! Which reminds me…I really need to find out if my running buddy is traveling to TX.

Update: Morgan from Oregon is traveling to Texas. Whoohoo!!!

Have I mentioned my tendency toward meditation lately? I finally downloaded an app – Smiling Mind – because it felt like I was more frustrated with trying to learn how to meditate than actually meditating. The app has helped a lot. It even includes meditation practice for children and families. Mini and I have done a few together; personally I like her lessons better than mine. Smiling Starfish. Look it up! I was able to use what I had learned during a long run recently – what a difference! I felt like I was in the right headspace, I was light on my feet, and the miles melted away. Nothing prompted my lean towards meditation except for a friend mentioning she was trying to embrace it and I wanted to be supportive. On my own wasn’t working, so here we are!

Back to doubles – I’d like to complete the Texas Triple, but it just seems too risky to try to race in May. The final weekend in May. A holiday weekend in May. In the summer. Do I trust my body and train and hope for the best? Or do I err on the side of caution remembering what heat illness feels like and cut my losses? Running doesn’t matter to anyone but me, yet I still want to be smart about it. There’s time.

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I ask you –

Thoughts on doubles, double runs or double races?

Have you tried meditation? What app, if so?

Stay tuned for an upcoming list of future race options! Share yours with me!

Day in Photos, pt 75

This is more like a week in photos. Work with me.

My cherry tomato plant is still thriving, even into November! Perhaps bucket planting is the way to go next year.

Tooth fairy time, round 2. In an unexpected turn of events, she let it be pulled out by her Papa. Shocking. I was no part of any of these festivities. Teeth – when they’re not in a mouth – gross me out. $2 later, we have a winner.

There was also a week of drug-free activities, aka Red Ribbon Week. I’m still a little confused by this and I believe many memes already exist but I’m going to say it anyway…no one (I repeat, no one) has ever offered me drugs. I was offered cigarettes a lot, but not like real, illegal drugs. Maybe cocaine was too rich then. Anyway, just say no.

I digress. One of the week’s dress up days consisted of pajama day! My workplace really needs to get it together. Since I got to take my mini to school that day, we stopped for coffee first. Because no pajama day is complete without a huge coffee.

Edit: I heard, errr read, about National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, a nonprofit that challenges writers to complete 50,000 words in the month of November (roughly 1667 words daily). So it’s like a running streak, but writing instead. If you’re reading this, then you may/may not know today is November 1st. The organization encourages writers to participate in the daily goal in order to complete a novel, but many use it to brainstorm blog posts, etc. Always up for a good writing task. Let’s see how this goes!

Thank you to https://brianlageose.blog/2021/10/30/friday-night-clam-bake-35-its-almost-the-time-of-year-when-i-do-that-questionable-thing-that-confuses-most-people/ for the idea!

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I ask you –

Are any of your vegetables still alive?

What’s the going rate for a tooth nowadays? I think I’m getting scammed.

Tell me something funny about your week!

Things: Likes/Don’t Likes

-the food edition–

Corn. I like corn. Especially the sweet, buttery, salty corn I remember growing in my parent’s garden. But not corn on the cob. I’m that girl who cuts it off the cob. I don’t know why.

Anyone else eat pea salad? Only my mother and sister. And me! Not mini. She’ll eat plain sweet peas, but once you add additional ingredients, she abandons ship. More for me! I like to experiment with pea salad. In the photo below, I subbed pico for the traditional onion only. It was superb, in my opinion. And since I’m the only one eating it, here we are.

Keto is as restrictive as you make it. So when I’m on that proverbial wagon, I don’t eat much fruit. But I love fruit!! This is why…training season can be so much fun. I eat all the fruit I want. Besides kiwi, there’s not a fruit I don’t like. Some I don’t necessarily love – that’s ok, too. Peaches, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, bring it! In fact, I recently bought so many peaches I had to slice and freeze them because they would have rotted before I ate them all. Since I’m on a smoothie kick, I thought it was a great idea aka cost effective to buy several pounds worth of peaches. In my defense, several pounds of peaches really isn’t that many whole peaches. And I saved money. Take that.

Recently I tried cheese curds. Ugh. The word “curds” grosses me out. Which is probably why I’d never tried them. I remember living in Pensacola with my Navy friends and some would order cheese curds at Buffalo Wild Wings. They’d rave about how great they were; I would refuse to try them.

Fast forward a lot of years later and they were on the menu at a local restaurant near me. HOLY CRAP! Why didn’t I try these before?! They were amazing! It was like cheese wrapped in funnel cake batter. Heavenly! I’m a cheese curd convert.

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I ask you –

What’s a family food you grew up with? Was it yay or nay?

How much fruit do you eat daily?

Name fruit you do/don’t like. I forgot about pomegranates. I don’t like those at all.

Things I Want to Do

My co-worker who hails from the great state of Oregon (according to her it’s a dumpster fire, but I’m trying to be positive) told me about the Multnomah Falls which is conveniently located less than 2 hours from Portland which is conveniently where my childhood best friend (you remember, Morgan from Oregon) lives. Anyway, she said it was gorgeous and I should visit. After perusing the photos online, I agree. Time to travel!

Also, there’s a diamond-mining quarry in Arkansas called the Crater of Diamonds State Park which is conveniently located less than an hour from where we usually do the great parent switcharoo. I know nothing about mining but think it could be fun! Especially if I discovered a huge gem! This isn’t really….well, not at all…a summertime activity. Maybe mid-winter instead.

Forgot to mention before these amazing cookies I found at Walmart of all places. I’ve never had good luck when purchasing cookies. My streak has ended!

They were so good I forgot to take photos until after I’d eaten 3 in about 2 minutes. If that. The coconut with the oats and pecans and chocolate chips, oh my gosh. And they were soft – I was very surprised because usually pre-packaged cookies are crunchy and I don’t love it.

Funny story: when I worked in Oklahoma at Anytime Fitness, my members knew my love for cookies and would bring them to me when they came to workout. I’d go through boxes a day. It’s all I ate. Surely it wasn’t the best image of a gym manager, but the joke was if I continued to politely offer them to members, then it was job security.

My self-discipline is the only real dumpster fire here.

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I ask you –

What other amazing places should be added to my travel list?

Have you been to either of the two I mentioned here?

Preference: chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies?

Cake, Cake, Cake!

My new phone screen! Sometimes we just need a reminder. And a little smile. Amazing what one small change can do to perk us up in this rather dismal world. Not always dismal. Just don’t watch the news.

I read a great quote: don’t mistake my free time for being available. Or something like that. You get the point, right? As a mom, human, type-A personality, it’s easy for me to fall into the trap of fully completing my calendar then dreading all the things I now have to do. Really, I think this is the norm. There lies an expectation to constantly be doing, going, succeeding, moving forward lest we be considered lazy, inconsiderate, sloth-like.

As I mentioned before in this POST, prioritizing what we want and need sometimes means saying no. Haha easier said than done.

Credit via Instagram

Cake reminded me of a few things. Specifically how the Navy has cake for literally every event. Change of command – let’s have cake. Promotion ceremony – the CS’s bake a cake. Suicide awareness month – we’re having cake. Cake makes everything better. Even suicide? Come on. (I am absolutely not making light of very real issues; I am making light of the preponderance of cake available at events dealing with personal trauma.)

As for priorities, sometimes balance is the goal. Other times, we eat cake until we’re stuffed and regret the decision dearly. I can’t be talking only to myself.

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I ask you-

When was the last time you changed your phone background?

If you had to choose only one, would you pick cookies, cake, or ice cream? This is hard for me because I adore ice cream, but I think I would have to pick cookies haha

Tell me what balance looks like for you! A cookie in each hand!

Observations

I get a small, evil thrill out of watching drivers run a red light or pass me then catching them at the next light or stop sign. You dumdum.

my nice face

Radio story: a man was reported missing 12 hours after he was last seen getting drunk in a bar and walking into the woods. Several hours into a search party looking for him, he notices people walking around the woods and decides to help search. He doesn’t realize they’re looking for him until they began to call his name. Then he says “It’s me!” More time passes before someone in the search party can accurately identify him.

Moral of the story: if something terrible happens to me, please include several people in each search party who can identify me before I’ve spent hours searching for myself! P.S. this happened in Sweden or Denmark or somewhere nowhere near me.

Texas is still very confused about its climate. Typical. We went from solid upper 80 daytime temps to low 50 nighttime temps. Beautiful! AND THEN… someone opened up the sun to full blast again and we nearly had a new record 100° day. At the time of this writing, I don’t know if we broke a record or not. Nonetheless, it was so hot and miserable and I was dreaming of cooler days.

Impatiently waiting. Still.

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I ask you –

What’s your evil thrill point?

Have you ever been missing?

Humor me: tell me the average daytime highs where you are right now!

Gen Y’ers

Bear Grylls writes, ‘People tend to think that they have to be funny, witty or incisive on stage. You don’t. You just have to be honest. If you can be intimate and give the inside story – emotions, doubts, struggles, fears, the lot – then people will respond.’

I encounter all kinds of people in my daily tasks. Occasionally, I’m mildly surprised at the level of WTF. Specifically, I question the abilities of some who, in their position, make important decisions. Yet their crayon box is missing all the primary colors which pretty much results in weird staring contests and mumbled four-letter words.

“We don’t really consider our strengths as places where we can fall short and miss the mark.” Commonly referred to as unguarded strengths, when left to our own devices, strengths can become a double-edged sword. It’s like being in our own way. Can you imagine how much we’d get done if only we stepped out of the way of ourselves! Our overthinking, anxiety-ridden, messy selves. Just me? Never!

My circle of ministering has expanded rapidly; I’ve been extremely blessed. Many of my conversations revolve around the phrase “Get out of His way.” His work in my life is both tangible and spiritual and I wonder if it was me getting in the way of the plans for me that thwarted bigger steps along the way. Fairly positive. But those Gen Y traits rear their ugly heads at the most inopportune times, then I’m off to the races of dismissal again. Although not listed in the first photo on this blog post, Gen Y might possibly have been the years of a marked increase in institutionalism. I should research this. Just something to consider… However, our strengths – the double-edged sword they are – could be in response to the 80% doing 20% of the work. I sure don’t see the 20% doing 80% of the work over here with extra time telling me about MY crayon box.

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I ask you –

Are you a 12, 24, or 48 box of crayons?

What generation do you identify with if not the Gen Y’ers?

Tell me if you’re the 20% or the 80%! Be honest with yourself!

For Real?

Like… really? Title in progress.

I love blogging. Really, I do. And I love reading other blogs. Yeppers! But the ones who spend 6 paragraphs detailing the “best holiday desserts” and have the outright gall – that’s French for cajones – to include a recipe for Poached Pears is out of their mind. WHO eats poached pears? Nevermind…what is a poached pear? And for the holidays? No!

Fall is finally upon us. Admittedly I cried when I woke up the first day, remembered it was a Wednesday, and realized I don’t run on Wednesdays. Not all Wednesdays, just currently. I should have changed my training schedule, but I had a doctor’s appointment that day. At least it seems the 50s are here to stay through the overnight hours.

Speaking of doctors, the nurse quietly asked me if I was still breastfeeding. Mind you, we’d already discussed I had a 5 yr old. Way to go! – to the women still nursing five years later. However, I’m not one of them. Are you for real? – to the timid nurse at the VA. Glad she took my blood pressure before the interrogation.

My how time flies when you’re getting old and don’t remember when you graduated.

The last time I saw this stage was 2011 when I graduated from Wayland Baptist University with a Master’s degree. P.S. my phone changed “graduated” to some weird combination of those letters that made no sense and I considered leaving it like that.

For real? Yes, it sounds about right.

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I ask you –

Is the phrase ‘for real’ too casual for professional conversation?

How often a day do you use this phrase?

Tell me your best ARE YOU FOR REAL? story!

Forward, March!

Remember my Tipping Point post some time ago? Well, there’s even more tipping to share!

After an interview process (yes, seriously), I was accepted as a My Favorite Run brand ambassador. There are some exciting things happening soon with My Favorite Run so standby for big reveals. Whoohoo!! I’ve been keeping up with the happenings at My Favorite Run for awhile, so when opportunity knocked…you know the rest.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Today is a shorter post because what I originally had planned to post had some hiccups and I was left scrambling on a Sunday afternoon nearing 3pm with no backup plan for Monday. Beyond irritating, it’s concerning because I feel like it might be a precursor to a bigger issue. More things outside of my control. I shall let go. There’s no photos to include in this brief post either. Hope you all can read!

In keeping with the title, I was privy to an awkward silence when, in front of a group of children playing Simon Says, they were instructed to “come to attention” which I seamlessly executed while all the children began to salute. Some were more Hitler-style than others, but that’s a different conversation. They thought I was in the wrong. Little did they know…

Lastly, my terrible funeral and death humor history made an appearance, when my supervisor shared his upcoming career plans. He recently buried his father in law and the grief was still very fresh. Upon his professional sharing, I asked, “So that’s the drop dead date?” Oh, Kel, why. As I painfully laughed and stammered my apologies at being incredibly insensitive, he laughed and stated he knew what I meant, it was ok. If only he knew how often this happens to me.

I give up.

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I ask you –

Do you remember Simon Says? What was your favorite childhood game?

Any advice for a change in leadership?

Describe a time you put your foot in your mouth!