How's that for a blog title? I'm talking the type of water bottle that you put on your bike. I can now consider myself in the class of people who can remove the water bottle from its holder while riding the bike, drink from it (and actually get fluid in your mouth, no chin dribbling allowed), and put it back, all without falling over, dropping the bottle, riding into a parked car, etc.
Baby steps I'm tellin' ya....
This probably could be called Hospitality #4, since Claire had #3 while Pam was in Costa Rica and I was in Russia, but, I made a command decision (it is my blog after all ;-) ) and I am calling it #3. Honey Baked ham, green beans, macaroni salad, fabulous desserts (thanks to Claire and Mike and Molly!) and lots of laughs...good day.
It's been awhile since I have picked up one of my favorite books, The Valley of Vision, compiled by Arthur Bennett. It's a collection of Puritan prayers...I love it because 1) wow could they pray! :) 2) it voices stuff that I have trouble putting into words. I hadn't used it in a couple of months until a recent blog by Tim Challies reminded me to pull it from the shelves again. Here's one I read the other day that I hadn't before. It shouldn't amaze me, but it does, that people hundreds of years ago faced the same flesh/spirit struggles...the world vs God...we know who should win...but if you're like me, who can drag my feet, make every excuse imaginable, or stick my fingers in my ears to try to ignore the fact that it must also be acted out...its a blessing to have reminders. Thank God for His willingness to gently teach (yeah with me, I think its more like clobber over the head or drag me kicking and screaming, but hey, we'll call that semantics ;-) ) the truths we so desperately need to know. The language in this is old (we are talking Puritans here :) ))...but its sooo beautiful.
Fullness
Heavenly Father,
Thou has revealed to me myself as a mass of sin, and thyself as the fullness of goodness,
with strength enough to succor me,
wisdom enough to guide me,
mercy enough to quicken me,
love enough to satisfy me.
Though has shown me that because thou are mine I can live by thy life
be strong in thy strength,
be guided by thy wisdom;
so I can pitch my thoughts and heart in thee.
This is the exchange of the wonderful love-
for me to have thee for myself,
and for thee to have me, and to give me thyself.
There is in thee all fullness of the good I need,
and the fullness of all grace to draw me to thyself,
who else could never have come.
But having come, I must cleave to thee,
be knit to thee,
always seek thee.
There is none all good as thou are:
With thee I can live without other things,
for thou art God all-sufficient,
and the glory, peace, rest, joy of the world is a creaturely, perishing thing in comparison with thee
Help me to know that he who hopes for nothing but thee, and for all things only for thee, hopes truly,
and that I must place all my happiness in holiness, if I hope to be filled with all grace
Convince me that I can have no peace at death, nor hope that I should go to Christ,
unless I intend to do his will
and have his fullness while I live.
So, I have a sprint triathlon coming up in two weeks and with my trip to Russia and then vacation, my training hasn't been all that great...getting some runs in is easy (yes, I did run on vacation)...but I haven't been on a bike since my last triathlon back in August...and you all remember how those practices went :)
So I re-borrowed my friend Jeff's bike (there's this whole saga to me actually buying a bike which I won't bore you with) and I took it out early this morning to see if I could still get on and off the bike without accidentally amputating my leg or arm or ear (with me, you never know what could happen). Success! I didn't fall off the bike! Or over or under the bike (I did however, somehow manage to gouge my inner ankle wheeling the bike OUT of the garage...go figure).
So after church today I took it on a 6 mile ride. Not bad...I forgot how much wind resistance changes things, but I definitely feel more comfortable on it now than I did in August. After my ride, I added a short run. Doing two events from a tri back-to-back is called a brick workout. My run ended up being only 0.5 miles, because well, let's just say I had some wicked jelly legs...I know I will be able to complete the tri, but it won't be a great performance due to the lack of training...just more impetus to do another in June ;-)...however, I am SOOOO thankful that my leg has healed. God definitely taught me patience throughout that experience...and to lean on Him harder to sustain me throughout the day and not just rely on the endorphin/stress release high that exercise provides. I'm so glad God wants His children to know him better and better and that He patiently and diligently teaches us these lessons that sound so easy but are oh so difficult to act out.
So I am just going to post some pictures here. I will eventually get around to getting a whole album up...
First off, yay for landing in Houston before this huge thunderstorm hit. Boo for our flight from Honolulu being delayed until 2am...yay for good sushi restaurants within walking distance of the airport, boo for super cold airplanes, yay for bringing jeans to change into and sticking my feet into my purse to keep them warm :) (yes I really stuck my feet into my purse and it really did help...I slept the whole rest of the flight!)
After delaying my flight to Oahu by a day, the girls (Lydia and Emily (they are sisters and I went to school with Lydia...we've known each other for 17 years!!!) picked me up and we headed out to the Likelike (pronounced 'leaky leaky") Highway, a really pretty drive on Oahu). We stopped at Chinaman's Hat for some pictures, drove around to see some of the pretty beaches and overlooks (and saw some humpback whales spouting off the shore!!!), saw Haunama Bay, and the sunset.
I just found out that we (my brother, my friend Jana and her husband Scott) got our tickets for World Cup 2010. It is in South Africa!!! And the best news is, its during a beta cutout so no silly Shuttle launches can get in the way! (beta cutout means that the sun angle is too high (Shuttle will get too hot) during a particular timeframe...this one just so happens to extend over the world Cup timeframe). ::happy dance, happy dance::
So we signed up for this tour that takes you kayaking around the island and then you snorkel from your kayak. Cool right? Yeaaaaah....
So holy-choppy-water-Batman. And guess who didn't even think to take her Dramamine. And when you get out of the kayak to snorkel you still bob up and down and side to side cause of the stupid lifevest. I did get to see sea turtles! And a ton of colorful fish...
I also fed the fish...twice...hope they liked my breakfast.
