Day Thirty-six – Silver Beaded Flip Flops

Today was grocery day.  I hate grocery shopping. I mean, do you realize how many times you handle that can of black beans, when you grocery shop? Take it off the shelf, put it in your cart. Take it out of your cart, put it on the belt. Take it off the belt, put it in your bag. Take it out of the bag at home, put it in your cupboard. Take it out of the cupboard, and open it! Grocery shopping just exhausts me. I didn’t have a lot to shop for, so I was only there for 40 minutes. I’ve been keeping track of my caloric intake, keeping a food journal, and also my exercise, with an app on my iTouch and I found out I burned 144 calories just grocery shopping! That’s more than a 20 minute brisk walk! No wonder I’m tired. I certainly earned that Skinny Cow ice cream treat I had when I got home!

So, if I’m gonna grocery shop, my least favorite of all the household chores I have do to in a given week, at least I can wear a cute pair of shoes to cheer me up:

Besides the “bedazzled” flip flops, I’m totally digging my plum colored toenails this week too. Even Nathan noticed and liked them! Now that’s what I call success!

Day Thirty-five – Beaded Flip Flops

Today I wore a pretty basic pair of flips, but they are super comfy and go with pretty much everything.

I like that I can wear these for a low-key walk.  Today the kids and I walked down to “the Dredge.”  We are lucky enough to live a block from Mission Creek and a spur of the Superior Hiking Trail.  So, we frequently head down to end of 131st Ave W., then down the gravel road to the creek and sometimes up the trails. Most days though, we just walk to the creek and the Dredge where when it really rains, the Dredge catches all the junk, trees and whatnot, that washes downstream. There’s a great, deep hole that when it’s really hot, we like to swim in. It’s almost Mayberry-ish. As I sat on a rock and watched Laura and Daniel hop around on the rocks in the creek, I enjoyed the bubbling water, the wind through the pines and just thanked God I was so blessed to live in such a beautiful area.  Not a bad destination for a pair humble flip flops.

Day Thirty-four – Denim Gingham Sandals

Gingham: The name originates from an adjective in the Malay language, ging-gang, meaning striped.^[2] Some sources say that the name came into English via Dutch.^[3][4] When originally imported into Europe in the 17th century it was a striped fabric, though now it is distinguished by its checkered pattern. From the mid 18th century, when it was being produced in the mills of Manchester, England, it started to be woven into checked or plaid patterns (often blue and white). Checked gingham became more common over time, though striped gingham was still available in the late Victorian period.^[5]

Gingham is made of carded or combed, medium or fine yarns, where the coloring is on the warp yarns and always along the grain. Gingham has no right or wrong side with respect to color. (source Wikipedia)

I think at some point every girl has had SOMETHING made of gingham. Think Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Gingham conjures up summer, innocence and our carefree girlhood days. When I was a little girl my favorite coloring books were the Gingham Girls. Did anyone else have those? They were four girls with different colored gingham dresses. I loved coloring all the little squares on their dresses.

Now, gingham is more popular than ever. Even if you are in your 30’s and 40’s you can still get away with gingham if you don’t get carried away, but instead wear it sparingly; like on your shoes!

Training

“No pain, no gain.”

This seems like such a silly, trite sentence. At least it did until this morning when I attempted to get out of bed. Key word here: attempted.  You see, at nearly 37 years old I decided it would be a good idea for me to take up running.  More specifically I wanted a goal, so I decided to train for a 5K in October.  I thought maybe that was doable.  This morning I’m not so sure.  But as I’m aging (what a depressing word!), I’m finding staying in shape is not so easy. Oh I’m still fitting into my size 6 and 8 jeans, but they’re a little tight now and everything isn’t quite as hard as it used to be.  More marshmallowy, I’d say.  Plus, there’s a whole host of icky health problems that happen when you don’t work out consistently, so I’m trying very hard to be disciplined. It’s pretty great when you have a built-in work-out partner in your teen-aged daughter, but also not so great when you your work-out partner is your teen-aged daughter who’s very fit and in shape.  However she’s encouraging and keeps pushing me on.

I’m hardly the first one to find analogies in running and fitness. God and the Apostle Paul said it all best, but I’m finding these verses very applicable all of a sudden.  Things like this:

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  Hebrews 12:10 (NIV)

I know there are people who enjoy exercise and running, but I am not one of them. I do it, because it’s good for me. It’ simply feels painful, not pleasant at the time. Probably this has a lot to do with my fibromyalgia. Literally at times, exercise is physically painful to me, and certainly the day after a hard workout, your body physically hurts!  But we all know the benefits training yields. A healthy, fit body!  The same is true in our spiritual lives.  The discipline of the Lord is never pleasant when it comes, it always hurts badly! But, when we grow closer to Him through the experience and it produces Christ-likeness, it is a joyful thing.

My mom used to always quote this verse to me before she would discipline me.  It used to make me mad as a little kid! I mean, c’mon, I was the one getting the spanking, and somehow this was going to produce a harvest of righteousness?! Give me a break! All I was thinking about was the pain!  As a parent now though, I realize how difficult it is to parent according to God’s plan.  God tells us in His Word that we are to lovingly chastise and discipline our children, not in anger, but in gentleness.  I hate doing it! But, as one who has experienced that harvest of righteousness from a godly parent being obedient, I know and understand I too, must obey God and bring painful discipline into the lives of my children for them to experience the same harvest of righteousness.  What a joy it is to seem them growing in righteousness and peace!

There is another passage that I think about when I run:

Hebrews 12:1-3

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also ^lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us ^run with ^endurance the race that is set before us, ^fixing our eyes on Jesus, the ^author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him ^endured the cross, ^despising the shame, and has ^sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For ^consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary ^and lose heart.”

Yesterday when I ran, I fixed my eyes on a certain point, “OK, I can make it to that driveway.” Then I’d do that and go, “Maybe I can go a little further, to that speed limit sign, across the bridge.” Each time I ran, I’d fix my eyes on a point and that would be my goal. I can’t run very far yet. We went 3 miles by walking/running/walking/running, but each time I ran, I set my eyes on a goal and made it there.  I’m not worrying about how good someone else is, just setting out to run MY race. How foolish would it be when I get to the 5K in October and decided, “I’m going to keep up with the fastest person here!”  I would never be able to do it and probably kill myself!  I can only run my race to the best of my ability.

The same is true in my Christian life.  I set my eyes on Jesus. And He sets my pace.  He has a race marked out for Me. I love this one conversation that Jesus and Peter have in John 21. Jesus is asking Peter to follow him and Peter does what so many of us do. He basically goes, “Hey, what about John?” And Jesus says this: “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You ^follow Me!”  I love this! In other words, don’t worry about that other guy or that other girl, you just do what Jesus has set out for YOU to do. Follow Me!  My spiritual mentor, Bonnie Thomas says, “Ministry is the wake you leave behind as you are running after Christ.”  I want to run after Christ wholeheartedly, with Him as my only goal, my only prize.

Day Thirty-three – Grey Suede Peep Toe Platform Stilettos

“Marilla,” she demanded presently, “do you think that I shall ever have a bosom friend in Avonlea?”

“A-a what kind of friend?”

“A bosom friend – an intimate friend, you know – a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul.  I’ve dreamed of meeting her all my life. . . .Do you think it’s possible?”

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

An online dictionary defined kindred spirit as “someone who thinks and feels as you do.”

For many years I wondered the same thing as Anne. Do you think it’s possible that I could find a kindred spirit? Today, I realize, like Anne, that kindred spirits are not as scarce as I once thought.  I can think of several special gals that each are kindred spirits and fill a unique role in my life.

One such friend is, Lindsay. Currently she is deployed with the US Navy overseas. We are so similar she often calls us “sisters from different misters.”  That’s where these shoes come in:

Lindsay and I are both girly-girls who love to shop and goof around together. Last fall I was shopping at Charlotte Russe and saw these shoes and instantly knew I. Had. To. Have. Them. In fact, I bought the shoes first and THEN bought the dress for my sister’s wedding based on these shoes, not the other way around.

I said something to Lindsay on the phone about the most amazing shoes I’d gotten at Charlotte Russe and she instantly knew what I had bought. She exclaimed, “You bought those grey, ruffled peep-toe 4-inch shoes, didn’t you!?”

I was like, “Yes! How did you know?”

“Because,” she replied. “I was in Charlotte Russe last week and saw the exact same shoe and instantly knew I needed those shoes, but knew I was about to be deployed and had quite an argument with myself before I decided not to buy them. But, I had a feeling you’d find them and buy them for yourself.”

I had to laugh. Please note, Lindsay lives in Virginia Beach and I am up here in Duluth, MN.  So, I posted the picture of the shoe on Facebook, so she could at least enjoy the shoe vicariously.  And I think of her every time I wear them.  I can’t wait til she gets home from her deployment. I’m planning to go visit her and we’ll shop til we drop and laugh til the wee hours of the morning.

"Friendship is one mind in two bodies."
~ Mencius

Day Thirty-two – Sequined Satin-tie Wedges

Yesterday Nathan said I looked like a cute granola girl. “A granola girl with sequins?” Yes, he thought a granola girl with sequins. 

My friend, Jyl, said my shoes reminded her of Dorothy’s magic shoes in the Wizard of Oz.

Regardless, shoes like this are not for shrinking violets:

Shoes like this will get you noticed in a hurry.  But they are also awfully fun to wear!

Day Thirty-one – Cranberry flats

I love these shoes alot! My friend, Kristin Holmes first had these shoes and as soon as I saw them I knew I needed a pair too. I found out where she got them and went out and bought them:

I always feel kinda bad wearing them around Kristin, though, because right after I got a pair, her puppy chewed hers up and by then, she couldn’t find them at the store anymore! Big time bummer!

In fact, I love the color of these shoes so much, that when I wanted to paint the front door red, I knew just what color I wanted; the exact cranberry shade of these shoes.  I even took the shoes with me to the paint department at Home Depot and told the guy, “Match the color of these shoes exactly. I don’t care how weird this looks.” He told me it wasn’t weird at all. Apparently, there are lots of women like me in love with their shoes, because he said he gets requests to match paint colors to shoe colors all the time. I think he did a very good job, because I have a fabulous, cranberry red front door now, too.