Tis’ the season to love free stuff – fa, la, la, la, la…la, la, la, la!
The Shack book winner is….EVERYONE! 
Congratulations to:
Jersey Girl TARA,
Gal in my hood KATHY,
Texan PAULA, and
Right down the road JEN!
Your book is in route! CONGRATULATIONS and ENJOY!
I really enjoyed the second round of The Shack book discussion last night! The wild women that we were, we closed Panera down (pretty nutty, huh!?) – heck, that’s practically my bedtime!
Very few things in life rate more enjoyable to me than lively, honest discussions with intelligent and fun women! And since they lost the thumb war, I get to post their pretty faces, for your viewing pleasure, right here on my blog! 
(From left to right) Front row: Levinia and Kathy, the back row: me, Kathy and Lynn
(the gal who’s responsible for getting me into The Shack to begin with!)
The next book discussion will be posted here at a later date – after my niece, Winter, is born (who does not appear to be complaining about her current home!)!
It would mean so much to me if you’d say a prayer for my sister, Mary, and niece, Winter, that they have the labor and birth they desire! I hope to be in the delivery room with them on the big day, so after the big day, I’ll post the next discussion date.
Have I mentioned lately how much I dig this book?!?
My weekly weigh-in revealed a six ounce gain. It appears that the, “visions of sugar-plums that danced in my head” are jumping out of my head and right into my mouth! I’m not trying to make light of sugar-anything as this is no way funny to me. Just as one drink can get an alcoholic back on a binge it appears so can just one sugar cookie for me. I’m alert and on guard again.
My sugar consumption’s been up. Well, so has my workout intensity, thanks to my next door workout buddy, Jess.
Jess asked if we might “up” our walks to a run. I’m glad she’s a veteran teacher cause she used her “skills” to handle my whining!
(So if any of you are thinking about getting a workout partner, consider asking a teacher, they are skilled at dealing with whiners and lame excuses!) Jess mapped out a 3 mile run route. Monday morning at 5:30am, we ran two miles in 28 degree weather and most surprisingly, I didn’t die.
(Don’t tell Jess, but I actually looked forward to our run this morning, though I couldn’t possibly tell her or she might get the wrong idea and add a mile or two!)
My nugget this week, also includes running. It is that I’m on “Heartbreak Hill”.
I first heard about “Heartbreak Hill” in Alice Gray’s book, Treasures for Women Who Hope. I’d never heard of Heartbreak Hill before because I’ve never been a long distance runner and don’t speak “marathoner-ese”.
Intrigued, I investigated further with my trusted Google. “Heartbreak Hill” is the final hill in the Boston Marathon, inconveniently located at mile 20.5 of 26. From my research, it is absolutely grueling. But, after you make it to the summit, you are rewarded with a beautiful view and a .5 mile downhill relief.
I realized, that I too, am on my own Heartbreak Hill. I am struggling up my last, most difficult (and apparently quite long) hill in my weight loss – get healthy lifestyle. It is grueling. I’ve needed to adjust my running style and adapt to a different breathing pattern. I have contemplated quitting many times. But I just can’t quit.
You may think, as I have, “why don’t you just be content with your current weight loss, you’ve come so far?”
And now I get it. I could not possibly fathom running 20.5 of 26 miles and stop and
say, “that was good enough, where’s the buffet line and my bed?”
NO WAY!
God set this course out for me and told me what my marathon finish line was, which is now, 5 more pounds. I feel a kinship to the Israelites. They were whiners and didn’t get to enter the Promised Land. Their kids did, but they didn’t. In this spiritual journey for physical weight loss, I want to hit the summit of my Heartbreak Hill to see the skyline of my promised land.
I want to see it so bad that I’m gonna keep on running, crawling, moon walking, biking, learning, jogging, praying, and writing until I get to the summit. And once I reach my summit, I’m going for the finish line. But first things first – Heartbreak Hill is first.
The realist in me thinks, you most likely will not see my Jersey-hiney running in the Boston
marathon. I’m learning to never say, “never”…but I’m pretty sure ya won’t! But make no mistake, I am a marathon runner for the Lord. And I’m gonna keep on running this race until I touch the finish line tape.
It’s a marathoners mindset and I’m going for it!
On p. 52, Gray placed a poem by Corrie Ten Boom:
Look outward and
be distressed,
Look inward and be
depressed,
Look upward and be
at rest.
So, I will continue to run up Heartbreak Hill. I will choose to keep looking up at Him. I thought I saw the finish line tape and I was wrong. I believe it’s there, but I just can’t see it right now because Heartbreak Hill is in my way. So, l choose, for one more day, to keep running until I hit the summit, where I believe I’ll see the tape and even more of Him.
The whole, “seeing is believing” thing just isn’t faith. “Seeing” may seal the deal on something pertaining
to faith, it’s not the essence of it. Faith is when you can’t see it and still believe it. (Hebrews 11:1)
I naively thought things would be easier in the end. I’m wrong again. I’m cramped and spasm-ed as any distance runner might be on the last leg of the race. This is difficult and I’m tired, and in NO WAY am I’m quitting.
I don’t see the finish line yet but I trust it is there. Heartbreak Hill, you will see my backside sometime, prayerfully soon.
What about you? Are you on Heartbreak Hill, how will you choose to run it?
