Adventures of the Nolan Family

6. Lose 10 pounds this year.

I’m sticking with the 5 down 5 to go story.

7.  Memorize the Westminster Confession of Faith – Shorter Catechism

All glory to God, I’ve successfully memorized Q & A 1 – 40.

As of this morning I’m proceeding with Q & A 41 – 45 which are all pretty short and somewhat familiar.  This will give me some extra time for cumulative review.

Q. 41. Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.

Q. 42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?
A. The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Q. 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?
A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Q. 44. What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?
A. The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

Q. 45. Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Well, that’s about it for this update – seven weeks down and forty-five to go.

I hope your eight week in 2012 is filled with God’s love, peace, grace, hope and joy!

I’m struggling to keep current with all my 2012 goals.  I’m still feeling a bit under the weather. I’m starting to wonder if I have a kidney stone…

1. Bake on Mondays 

I have to say, I like this baking on Mondays routine.  It makes the house smell so good and it gives everyone something to look forward to on Mondays.

Baking Mondays - Honey Whole Wheat Bread 2-13-12

2. Sweets on weekends ONLY.

I stuck to this goal and didn’t even have a piece of Caleb’s birthday cake on Tuesday.

Over the weekend I enjoyed Yonanas with banana, cherries and dark chocolate–YUM!

3. Daily read one chapter from the book of Proverbs.

I’m still loving this.  We’re going to get Daniel & Josh up and running with this routine.

4. Listen to the whole Bible on my iPod.

So far I’ve completed Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans (x’s 2), 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.

5. Exercise 3 times per week – NO excuses!

I only exercised once last week.  I’m just not feeling well.

I invested in some new liquid vitamins, hoping it will help. I’m also going to drink TONS of water and green tea to see if that will help, should it actually be a kidney stone troubling me.

I’d hate to go to the doctor for expensive tests when there’s isn’t anything they could do to help with a kidney stone anyway.

Hopefully I’ll do better next week!

I haven’t actually weighed myself since before going to Atlanta.  I’ll weigh-in next Saturday.

7.  Memorize the Westminster Confession of Faith – Shorter Catechism

All glory to God, I’m up to Q & A 1 – 35. I’m glad I spent an extra week on 30 – 35; it also gave me some extra time for cumulative review. I can say that I know 1-35 rock solid!

As of this morning I’m proceeding with Q & A 36 – 40.

Q. 36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

Q. 39. What is the duty which God requireth of man?
A. The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.

Q. 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

Well, that’s about it for this update – six weeks down and forty-six to go.

I hope your seventh week in 2012 is filled with God’s love, peace, grace, hope and joy!

Last week I struggled to keep current with all my 2012 goals.  I was feeling a bit under the weather, but not full blown sick.

1. Bake on Mondays 

Today’s baking was a challenge for sure.

Over the weekend we were in Atlanta, GA (4 1/2 hours away) checking out the Atlanta Aquarium with the boys’ grandparents and celebrating birthdays. This morning I was pretty tired and behind the 8 ball with chores and errands — BUT a goal is a goal.

I needed to whip up something based on what I already had in the house –so I made pretzles.

Before the first stop in the oven...

I should have read the recipe more carefully before starting on the pretzel project.  I somehow missed the part about the boiling water and all of that.  I guess I was thinking it would be as easy as whipping up a batch of garlic knots.

It was worth the extra work even though I’m really tired from the trip.  The house smells great and the pretzels are delicious!

P.S.  Tomorrow is Caleb’s birthday and once AGAIN I was sorely tempted to put off my Monday Baking goal to Tuesday. I’m glad I didn’t.

2. Sweets on weekends ONLY.

I stuck to this goal, but I really, truly did indulge in sweet treats (even non-vegan ones!) this past weekend.  That’s not good. I need to not consume cholesterol or refined sugar & flour.

3. Daily read one chapter from the book of Proverbs.

I fell a few days behind with going away this past weekend, but I caught-up this morning.

4. Listen to the whole Bible on my iPod.

So far I’ve completed Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts & Romans (x’s 2!).

I LOVE the book of Romans so much that I just couldn’t blow past it, so I went back to Romans chapter 1 to take it from the top.

I found that I needed to do some research and surfing to find an audio recording of the NKJV version of the Bible for my iPod.

Until recently, while at the gym, I would be reading the NKJV on my eReader and listening to a dramatized NLT  (at the same time) on my iPod Nano.

It hadn’t been a problem…until Romans. WOW! It was not remotely close enough to follow along.

I was able to find this NKJV on Audible.com. It is a good recording with no distracting background music.  Can’t beat the price! I just had to do a bit of work to identify/index the books of the Bible once it was in my iTunes Library.  It wasn’t a hard job and it was fun–sort of like playing Name That Tune (TV show from the late 70′s).

I would have preferred the ESV for both, but I can’t get the ESV for my Sony eReader.

5. Exercise at least 3 times a week–no excuses!

I’m sad and sorry to report that I only exercised once last week. I just couldn’t do it.  I wasn’t feeling well and there were so many things to do to get ready for our trip to Atlanta. We also had a lot of appointments and running around last week.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

One of the many appointments was taking Josh to an Ear, Nose & Throat, doctor.  Looks like we’ll schedule to have his tonsils and adenoids removed in early June.
6. Lose 10 pounds this year.

Five down, five to go.

7.  Memorize the Westminster Confession of Faith – Shorter Catechism

All glory to God I’m up to Q & A 1 – 35.

But, I need to stay on 30 -35 for another full week. Although I’ve worked really hard on my SC questions this week, the effectual calling, justification, adoption and sanctification answers all have similar words and phrases and I’m getting them confused.

There’s work of God’s Spirit, act of God’s free grace and work of God’s free grace, wherein, whereby…

I have them all down and memorized individually, but put them in a group and I sink like a ship with a big hole in it!

I’ve decided I need a little grace this week and to pause right here until I’m ready to go forward.

I’m trying to not feel discouraged about this fact.

This week I’ll continue to work on 30 – 35 (see below).

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Q. 31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.

Q. 33. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Q. 34. What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.

Q. 35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Well, that’s about it for this update – five weeks down and forty-seven to go.  I hope your sixth week in 2012 is filled with God’s love, peace, grace, hope and joy!

2012 goals are still going strong; so far so good!

1. Bake on Mondays 

Today was Joshua’s turn to make a request; he wanted banana walnut muffins.

Tomorrow is Josh’s 14th birthday and I was considering deferring my Baking Monday goal to Tuesday considering the birthday cake and all.  BUT, I decided to be true to my goal and just get to baking.

Baking Mondays - 1/23/12 ~ bananna nut muffins

2. Sweets on weekends ONLY.

To help with this goal I bought a new gadget.  It’s called a Yonana machine.  Basically you drop in a frozen banana, and out of the chute comes banana “ice cream”–nutritious and delicious!

Someone left a Brookstone catalog on the back of the stationary bicycle at the gym and that’s where I read about the Yonana machine.  I bought mine at Bed, Bath & Beyond ($30 less!) plus I had a 20% off coupon. Sweet!

Even Steve thought the banana “ice cream” was delicious.

All that to say, I stuck to this goal this week.  No forbidden mid-week sweets or treats.

Once the weekend finally arrived, I not only put a frozen banana in my Yonana machine, but I also added a frozen dark chocolate bar sent lovingly from my sister (in Christ) Edie! Now we’re talking!  Banana Yonana is good.  Dark Chocolate Banana Yonana is GREAT!

3. Read one chapter from the book of Proverbs each day. 

Proverbs refresher is going great.  I’m loving it!  I’ve dedicated a small (index card sized) note book for jotting down little tidbits that might prove handy if committed to memory.

4. Listen to the whole Bible on my iPod.

So far I’ve completed Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!

5. Exercise at least 3 times a week–no excuses!

Three times last week even though it was one INSANELY busy week!  Steve was in Minnesota, we had a car in the shop, Caleb had an exam north of Charlotte, the boys had some commitments, choir, youth and piano lessons are back in full swing.  It was tough to pull it off, but I did it!

6. Lose 10 pounds this year.

Three down, seven to go!

There’s nothing really mysterious about losing weight.  It’s all a numbers game.

I like to keep the electronic counters on the gym machines (bike & elliptical) on calories burned instead of time spent or time until you’re done.

I like to think of a calorie as if it’s a penny and there’s 3,500 ‘pennies’ in a pound.  If I want to withdraw ten pounds from my Bank of Fat, that would require 35,000 pennies that I either need to eat fewer of or burn through exercise.

When I go to the gym, I admit that I’m not really killing myself.  I’m just looking to burn 250 to 300 calories (pennies) each time I go.

If all things remained the same, if I only go to the gym three times a week (900 calories burned) that’s 46,800 calories over the course of a year.  That would be 13 pounds lost.

I feel great about the 3 pounds I’ve lost so far! I know it might not seem like very much considering how many crazy diets there are promising to help people lose 20 pounds over night, but I’m not in a rush and I want to make changes that will last.

7. Memorize the Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism 

All credit and glory to God, I’ve memorized up to Q & A 1 – 25! This week is 26 – 30 (see below).

Q. 26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Q. 27. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
A. Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Q. 28. Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation?
A. Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Q. 29. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Well, that’s about it for this update. Three weeks down, forty-nine to go!

I hope your fourth week in 2012 is filled with God’s love, peace, grace, hope and joy!

Today was Steve’s turn to make a request; he wanted blueberry scones and I have to say they came out delicious!

January 16, 2012 ~ Baking Mondays ~ Blueberry Scones