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.