Day 172 of 175

I'm nearing the end of my "no sweets" ...thing... Here, I don't even know what to call it.

A while back I had talked about giving up sweets for 6 months. I had a couple of people say they didn't think I could do it, or I was crazy, or I shouldn't give it up cold turkey. Well, I did do it and I did give sweets up cold turkey and I've been doing it now for 172 days.
Saturday is Bryan's birthday. The day I said would be the end of my anti-sweet diet. And I've got to say, I'm a little nervous. It has become easy for me to pass on dessert. Even at my mom-in-law's, who makes incredible desserts every time.
But now that it's getting closer, I find myself thinking about sweets a little more than I have been. And each time I do, I become a little more nervous to taste a sweet once again especially come this Saturday.
In fact, Bryan has already had one birthday party, and I passed on dessert there, then this weekend we'll have another, but I may pass again until next week when I try my hand at some cookie ice cream sandwiches.
The whole point in me doing the 6 months of being sweet free was to "reprogram" myself when it comes to sweets. I feel like it's my drug and my go-to. And, so, I will just have to watch everything until I can get a handle on eating sweets again.
During my 172 days there have been times when something will come my way for me to taste. Someone would point out that it has sugar in it and to not eat it, but I'd have to remind them that this wasn't a sugar-free fast, it was a craving fast. Some things I could have like my caramel frappachino from Starbucks while others, say the chocolate cherry mocha sinful goodness coffee at Starbucks, I'd have to pass on. And it was okay. I would just say, "Welp, can't have that again." and I wouldn't.
So maybe I just have to take those kind of lessons and apply them generously at day 175 and on. Maybe now I can just have a little and not over eat every delicious thing in front of me. Okay, so it wasn't that bad. But I do need to have better self control. And that was the whole point. And truthfully, I'm giving all props to God. Because, without prayer, I wouldn't have made it past the first week, let alone these 6 months.
So, now, after reading this, y'all probably think I'm crazy, or making a big deal out of nothing. I can assure you, though, it wasn't nothing to me. I don't want to turn to a giant warm cookie topped with delicious ice cream instead of taking my stresses to the Lord.

And that is the point.

It has been far too long.

Recently I've been busy working on a painting for our church.

Since May of 2009 we have been without a pastor. For a year we've had a committee dedicated to prayer and allowing God to lead us to the new Pastor that he had in mind for our church. During the prayer process, the committee came to a verse that we have adopted as the church's reminder~

Behold! I am doing a new thing... Isaiah 43:19

Around last December, there was talk to find a vinyl lettering to place at the back of the sanctuary, on the balcony wall, so you'd see it as you left the service. After finding that there wouldn't be one large enough, they were going to have a member in the church make one with a Cricut machine. But that wouldn't be able to make one large enough either. So then they came to me, told me what they were thinking, and asked if I'd be willing to paint it. I was. I really, really was.
Well, having a year and a halfer running around made getting to it very difficult. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Until finally I decided to just get it done. I found a font I liked, printed it off, got a transparency of it, ran it past the Wonderful lady in charge of the whole thing, and after she loved it from the first moment I was determined to get 'er done, as in the words of my beloved dad-in-law.
So I got started.
My plan was to have the larger black lettering done in the first week and the smaller blue lettering done in the second. Yeah, well, that didn't happen. I did get the larger lettering done in two days, 8 hrs for that first week. {Praise the Lord for nap time and a hubby that works from home.}




So after I got the "Behold" finished, I was going to wait to start the blue. But I couldn't. I just wanted to keep working. So I went out and got a blue paint and got to work. I finished "I am doing a" in 2 days, 6 more hours. That's when I had to call it a week.



Come Saturday, A got sick, then Sunday I was down with her. I was disappointed to not get to see everyone's reactions that day to the big black lettering on the wall behind them. But I was informed by my friend, who's also the Youth Pastor of the church, that everyone was thrilled at what was being done and gave an applause. Not to be boastful but I am proud of myself.

The next week I really wanted to continue on. Once I get on a project, I really want to finish. It's hard for me to take a break. Even when I am sick. So by Thursday, I got back to the church. I got "new" done in 2 hours. Progress.


That next Sunday, my family and I went down for the weekend to visit my family. So, again, I didn't get to see everyone's faces. Oh, well. As long as everyone was liking it, I was excited. So last week I finished "thing..." because that's all I had time for. But this week I finally finished it.

All in all, it took me approximately 24 hours to finish since the blue needed three coats to cover. But I'm happy and proud of myself for what I've accomplished.

So that's about what I've been up to this last month. Hope y'all are having a great weekend.