Update on the family

Everyone is doing great....happy, healthy, growing (except Mama and Papa, we're shrinking!), learning so much....Yah is so GOOD to us!!! \o/

Jonathan and Jacob will no longer be in Boy/Cub Scouts because of their policy change, but they will still do something. Jayla just started dance again last week. Jack is doing well in speech and will start horse riding therapy again in a few weeks. Joe is talking like crazy and loves his baby sister so much! And Jessica is always wanting to eat and always wanting Mama. :)

They all (except Jessi) just entered some crafts in the county fair. Jonathan won 2nd place on his set of tzitziot. Jayla won 3 2nd place ribbons on art made from nature, decoupage and a felt house/yard. Jacob won 2nd on his Lego racecar and 3rd on his decoupage. Jack won 2nd on his decoupage. Joe won 2nd on his Lego racecar and 1st on his decoupage! The only ones competing against each other were Jack and Joe with their decoupage. The only items that did not place in the top 3 were Jonathan's drawing and 3 more crafts by Jayla; a Lego rescue boat, a bead bracelet and a quilt she made for my mom. Now, this quilt was entirely her own work, and she did an excellent job, but they never unfolded it to look at it!!!! In fact, it was folded to where you could only see the back side of it! So she was pretty upset about that, but Grandma still has a quilt from her that she will cherish, and I'm sure Jayla will get it back someday.

Weight loss update

I am 9 weeks into my weight loss journey. I haven't stayed perfectly on plan, so the weight has been coming off much slower, but this past week I resolved to do better, and it paid off. I lost 4 pounds this past week!!!! I am getting close to the 20 pound mark, finally, so with no more cheating, I am hoping to reach that by next week. Yay!!!!

I have to say, the idea that fat people eat too much is sooooo blown out of the water! I wasn't eating ENOUGH or often enough, so my metabolism was slow. Now I am eating every 3-4 hours, am hungry all the time, exercise very little and the fat is melting away. I can lose 2 pounds in one day some days, when I stick to the plan, and eating more often is key for me.

Here is a side by side comparison of my face before starting THM at my highest (non-pregnancy) weight ever, and again at 5 weeks. I had lost around 15 pounds at this point. It's not a drastic change, but I can see a difference!!!

Update on weight loss

Apparently that big, sudden drop in weight was not accurate. It jumped right back to where it was, then I have slowly been losing since then, so I guess the scale was having a bad day!

But I am HAPPY to report a total loss of 14.2 pounds for my first month!!! I was hoping for more, but with all the little cheats I've had here and there, I am good with that! And I am losing at a steady pace, regardless of the occasional cheats, so I feel really good about it!

I'm not sure if I'll take pictures or not. Maybe just for my own viewing, we'll see, but I will definitely post some more updated pictures in the near future.

Bike Riding!

Though we do live in the country now, we have reasons for not letting our precious lambs ride their bikes in the neighborhood. So I decided to take them some place where they will have plenty of room to ride, now that we can load up all the bikes onto our shuttle bus!

Our New Ride!

We outgrew our Honda Odyssey 6 months ago when baby #6 was born. That van has been good to us, but we have to move on. Now a friend has it, so hopefully they will be able to build some great family memories with it as we did.

We have a good, reliable truck that my mom recently gave us, since she moved to the city and no longer had need of it. We will probably give it to Jonathan when he turns 16 (shhh!), but we are so thankful to have it for Myles to drive to work.

We decided to "keep" the van but turned in our HHR, after they were BOTH totalled for hail damage!!! We were shocked, but it has been such a blessing. It has enabled us to pay cash for our new family vehicle as well as have plenty of vacation money for September! YHWH always provides, and sometimes He will just blow you away! \o/

So here is our new ride, with 15 seats! Plenty of room for the whole family, some friends and neighbors! Well, not our current neighbors, as they are all snobs and we are plannng to move away from them ASAP. We tried for years to figure out how to get out of the city, but as much as I hated living there, all of our neighbors were AWESOME! I don't know what it is about these people here, but I digress.....

The kids have already claimed seats, and Jonathan claimed one for Rocket (the dog) as well for when we take him with us on vacation. Yep, we're going to have an awesome trip on that bus, building more great family memories. I can't wait!!!

Kosher Jello!!!!

The photo and recipe are from my friend Audrey.

Kosher Jello:

Obviously start with kosher (probably beef) gelatin!

2 T gelatin
2 C of your favorite, no-sugar added organic juice

In a saucepan, heat 1 C of juice not quite to boiling. When it is steaming good, add 1 T of gelatin and stir with a whisk very briskly until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour this into another bowl and add the remaining 1 C of juice and 1 T of gelatin. Stir briskly until dissolved. From here you can transfer to a jello mold or something else if you'd like. If there is foam, I usually skim it off the top. Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.

Enjoy!

I don't get it. :/

Along the same train of thought as my last entry, I just don't get why people don't get it. Seriously, the things that YHWH has shown me in His Word over the last few years seem so clear when you read some key verses that I have always skipped over my whole life because I didn't understand them (and everyone I knew also skipped over them), but now all of the pieces seem to fit, and the ENTIRE bible just makes sense. It is amazing and exciting every single day!!!!

So why doesn't everyone see what I see when I show them these same verses?

I am learning to accept that I cannot remove the veil of blindness, only the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) can do that. And I have experienced that for myself, having learned some very important Truths without hearing the teachings of man until *after* the Ruach showed me these things.

But still, even though I KNOW that I am powerless to change others, I still just can't wrap my brain around it. I mean, it is right there in black and white, even in English it makes sense, in most versions. And there are many others (few in comparison, but still many) who have been shown the exact same things, yet most do not see it. I just don't get it. I do, but I don't.

One of my brothers replied to an email I had sent him this past week as a follow-up to our conversation back in June, discussing these Truths of Scripture. I didn't go into detail, partly because the email would have been a novel if I had, but also I wanted him to look these things up for himself. Well, his response was not even any words of his own, he just copy-pasted some articles about how the "law" is bondage and we are not supposed to be "under the law". Seriously?! I asked him if he even studied it for himself or if he just looked up these articles to support the false doctrines we've always been taught. He said (through the articles) that we are in a cult. Right. So, we are the ones reading the bible *for ourselves* and NOT following any one teacher or set of doctrines, but he is sitting and being spoon-fed by his pastor every week, and we're the ones who are in a cult? Hmmm......

I cried for a long while on that one. He just doesn't see it and isn't really trying, and I can't comprehend that.

Also this past week, I had a very lengthy "discussion" with a lady on FB. She accused me of all kinds of things (lovely Christian "love" going around), but ironically she is the one who was misinterpreting Scripture, not me. I used to believe as she did, but now I see the ENTIRE bible as one Truth! This is something I wrote on my status near the end of that several day discussion (on someone else's page).

YHWH's plan was never changed by Yeshua's life and death on earth. He didn't wake up one morning and say, "I'm sick and tired of my chosen people. I think I'll start a new religion and just let them do whatever the heck they want, that way I don't have to deal with this sin crap anymore." SMH

This was one of the Truths that the Ruach showed me. I asked myself, "If Jews and Christians serve the same God, then why do they worship Him in two completely different ways?" I sought out the answer and found the Truth, His Truth, and everything just started falling in place. No more confusing doctrines that contradict each other! Now I'm learning about things I never even thought about before, moving on to the real meat!

Even though some of these people (not all) really baffle me and even frustrate me at times, it is ironically teaching me how to love people more, regardless of their beliefs. The Ruach is showing me that He will reveal the Truth to some and not to others, so they just truly don't see it. I can't imagine that, but I know that it is true. I have no idea why He chose to reveal His Truths to little ol' imperfect ME, but I am so grateful and so humbled that He has.

So we will continue to learn new things every day (seriously, every day) and grow in our love and excitement to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and if others don't "get it", I will love them anyway and pray for them. I so wish that the Ruach would lift the veil from everyone's eyes, but the choice is His, and I don't have to understand it. I am learning to accept it. And someday when we go back to the Land (promised land), I will be ready to leave everyone behind. I'm getting the hurt out of the way now, so when the time comes for the 2nd / Greater Exodus, or before, if the Ruach has us leave before then, I will have no doubts that my family and friends are just still blinded, and there is absolutely nothing I can do. I just pray the veil is lifted from many more before that time comes.

It is feeling more and more like a wilderness all the time.

Just consider one thing......what if what YOU believe is wrong? Just what if? We have always been taught to accept what our leaders tell us, and not to question them. I have learned to question *everything*, and my life has been flipped upside down, for the better! Please open your eyes. Please wake up. Please seek the Truth of Scriptures, not from anyone else, but from the Ruach HaKodesh. He will lift the veil if you allow Him to.

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

I truly do love you all! <3