My New Hangout

I never thought I would be one to say this, but, I am loving going to the gym. One of my friends successfully recruited me to join a local gym and I am hooked. After just 2 days of working out on machines that make me feel like I am frolicking through clouds or trekking up a mountain side, and working my arms through a series of lifting exercises, I now understand the power that comes from a single work out. With my ear buds in, my rockin' playlists, and my head free to ponder and let things go, I am amazed at how I am able to focus on my body, my workout and my spirit and not think about school and teaching and how I am going to cover all the Common Core Standards this school year.

Granted, I am only lifting 5 and 10 pound weights, and using light resistance on the elliptical machines,  but every moment I have spent in the gym has empowered me and made me realize that I am stronger than I let myself believe. Having been born with a congenital heart defect, and always last to finish the mile run in gym class, always bringing up the rear when hiking and feeling afraid to enter a gym, I never felt that I would fit it in at fitness center. However thanks to the encouragement and help of a friend and the gym that is Flathead Health and Fitness, I now feel brave, inspired and excited to see how transformative this will be for every aspect of my health and well being.

On another note, my parents came to visit me this past weekend and.....I got to eat out at a restaurant!!! When we walked into the North Bay Grille in Kalispell I felt like a child on Christmas morning filled with excitement, joy and pure happiness. Alongside excellent service, a soothing ambience and even some good old Frank Sinatra playing above the din of conversations, my meal was fabulous. Honey citrus shrimp, grilled veggies and a baked potato lightly salted to perfection. It may sound simple but to me the meal was exquisite. I hadn't been to restaurant for nearly 2 months and when I was able to enjoy a dinner with my parents, that I didn't have to cook or shop for.....sigh. It was a little slice of paradise.

 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 "But he said to me,."My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Swinging Into Fall

I am not sure how it came to be the end of September already, or why I am writing a blog post at 10:16 on a Friday night when I should be in bed after a week of teaching my 13 second graders. However, the itch to write has returned and even though this post has nothing to do with food, it sure feels good to be writing right now.

After nearly a month of teaching school, and days filled with sheer joy and utter frustration, I have to remind myself to take it one day at a time. If I don't complete a lesson there is always tomorrow, and if just one student has a fabulous day and writes a sentence with correct punctuation and spelling, then that is a small success I will gladly take.

However, even though I love my job and feel I have made great progress in the classroom, the external transition to the Flathead Valley has still been a work in progress. While I feel so at home and in the perfect place for me at this time in my life,  I certainly have a long way to go. Building friendships and relationships takes time and I must remind myself that for everything there is a time and season. Just as the leaves of Autumn are transforming into brilliant reds, oranges, and golds that fall to the ground and crinkle under my feet, so will my life continue to transform and every stumble and celebration shall too come to pass.

I do want to say how great it was to have one of my best friends visit me a few weeks ago :) We ate delicious, simple meals together composed of hummus, fresh veggies, egg rolls and my assortment of breakfast granolas. She even brought me fresh veggies from a garden....sigh. Doesn't get any better than sweet garden cucumbers, zesty tomatoes and crispy snap peas dipped in a bowl of creamy hummus, all shared with the company of a friend.

Our time together was topped off with a night of swing dancing on a cruise ship around Flathead Lake and at the a beautiful ballroom in Kalispell. I have continued my swing dancing and I have definitely acquired quite a taste for it now. I forgot how alive dancing makes me feel, so it's no surprise that I have now started to put on my music and dance to my heart's content on my awesomely perfect for dancing hardwood floors whenever the day just seems too much.

What can I say, I may be nearing my 27th birthday but I am still very much a child at heart that might never really grow up ;)

As Ecclesiastes 3 states:

      "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:... 

       a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,  a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend..."