Try On

     So every now and then, you gotta have a "try on".  Now, for women who have to dress up to get out every day, I guess it comes around more often.  I've been putting it off for a long, long time.  But when I weighed and had lost a couple more pounds, I had confidence to "just do it".  By the way, obedience will do that for you - give you confidence! 
     It started with bathing suits; we're supposed to go on vacation to Panama City soon.  We haven't been to the ocean in 7 years.  We haven't had anything more than a weekend stint here or there since.  I tried on the suit I wore the last time we went, when Macklynn was 1 year old.  Oh my, that was 30 pounds ago!  I won't be able to pull that one off.  I'll not be discouraged though, because there's still our 24th anniversary, July 1.  There's my 42nd birthday at the end of July.  Actually, there's whenever God wills it for me.  Why is it we think we can put God's timing on a calender?
     I wear white pants in the summer.  Along with holey jeans, they're my version of shorts.  I put on my white Polo chinos and couldn't even touch the button to the button hole.   Problem is I wore them to the NRA Convention in Charlotte 2 summers ago!  Wait a minute, I only weigh 8 more pounds.  I have a theory: since I don't have a baby to nourish, my estrogen levels have swung.  Then, there's the fact that I am in my 40s, but my cycle hasn't changed enough to excuse myself with it.  THEN, I can't dismiss that I stopped excercising altogether last year after I had 4 injuries.  My muscle has deterioted and fat has taken its place.  And not just regular fat but the lumpy kind.  I still attribute some of that to the blood thinners I was on with both of the last pregnancies.  Cellulite just "appeared" on the front of my legs then. 
     Speaking of cellulite, I found some old bottles of a "smoothing" agent to use between now and the beach, but you and I know it's just a quick fix.  Our next door neighbor brought over all kinds of homeopathic cream samples from her employer.  I'll use those because a woman can use all the help there is.  I battle acne continually.  I have so many stretch marks and wild hairs that I could easily become disheartened.  My hair is turning white in the temples.  I don't wear make-up or fix my hair for the same reasons I did when I was a young woman.  I'm just trying to be presentable, to not scare anybody off ;)
     But being fit is different - this is my LIFE we're talking about.  Then again, it's not my life nor my body.  It's Christ's, then my husband's.  Yes ladies, it is:   "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife," ~ 1 Corinthians 7:4.  I have failed miserably at this.  And whoever draws out the verse, "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," ~ 1 Timothy 4:8, isn't validating much.  Of course, doing God's work trumps exercising (and everything, for that matter), but who "works" at all anymore?
     Our work will be in the yard for several days.  I'm spending this weekend camping on the front porch with the kids.  I'm basking by the pond because we all know tan fat is nicer than white fat.  I intend to bathe and blog and concentrate on "feeling pretty".  Women know what I'm talking about.  If we don't "feel" pretty, pretty doesn't mean anything.  Michael's waiting for me right now to trim a tree to my liking.
     He's been advised to gain weight for the upcoming football season.  We weighed the same a month ago!  He and I made a pact: a trade off of minds and bodies.  I give him all I have in math.  He gives me all he has in fitness.  I love it, the comradery of my son.  I hope you'll pray that we have success.  We Harpers have decided we need to step it up, more kindness and more discipline.  We can all always give more, so get out there and "just do it".