CAUTION: Woman In Progress

After the past several years of feeling bleak, dark, hopeless, and depressed, I think 2018 is going to go down in the books as my personal best year in forever. Sure, the world is still a mad place to live in and 2018 was jam packed with terrible events and depressing news BUT, on a personal level, 2018 was somewhat kind to me. I got to travel to places I'd never been before... New Orleans, Jan. 2018 Waco, TX, April 2018 Austin, TX 2018 I finally got my shit together and lost nearly 40 pounds. I don't even care that it took  prediabetes to scare me  into action. I feel stronger, healthier, and more  hopeful than I have in my entire life.  The "after" pic is about 10 pounds ago but you get the idea. I got to witness "my" kids do awesome things. Ethan took a few Karate trophies home this year. The younger two participated in the Easter play at church. Emmy attended Junior Prom with her sweet boyfriend of over a year. ...

I don't say it enough, but God is good all the time and ALL the time, God is GOOD. He's been working on me a lot lately. I have felt really under the fire in recent weeks/months. Nothing extraordinary, but just a lot of life stuff piling on to the point where I was getting a little more neurotic than normal. What I'm starting to figure out is that He is working with me on my obedience. If you don't have a relationship with Christ, that may sound terrible. The word "obedience" often has some major negative connotations to most humans. But having a relationship with Christ means that you desire to live under the will of God and follow the path He has set for you. Obedience. God knows better than I do what I need in my life and what I don't need. He knows which paths will lead me to "destruction" and which ones will lead me to peace. I, in my infinite human know-it-allness, struggle a LOT with listening to and following God's will for my l...