Author: Laurie

Birthday Cake!

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Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10 So, I turned 28 last week. What? It’s believable! Ok Ok Ok, I’m in my 40s. My birthday week blew me away with the realization of the quality of my friends and family. I was given TWO surprise parties and my husband whisked me away like a princess in a castle, to the Broadmoor Hotel, with a giant, glorious moat between me and my kids, otherwise known as Interstate 25. Is it bad that I waved goodbye and never looked back? No early wakeup squeals, no meals to cook, no late night dance party rocking my floor from below, no laundry, enough for a small nation, and no school driving in which I burn a deep groove into the Powers Corridor. Of course, I LOVE being a mom but this was a much needed break. I was completely pampered this year and it made me think….I’ve never had so many people in my life who meaningfully care about me. One major factor is that I …

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

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Healthy Apple Turnover You know, it’s the weirdest thing; I came home the other day and noticed one of our Golden Retrievers was sitting in the outdoor kennel with the door shut. The kids informed me that Coco (short for Coconut) always does that, locks herself in a cage when she has acreage to run free. It really made me think- do I ever do that? Three years ago, let’s say, I would have honestly said that I didn’t feel bound up. But, in the same way that Coco doesn’t see that she’s unnecessarily locking herself in a cage, I now look back and see areas like that in my life. Sobering but SO GOOD to realize there’s a door and wide open glorious field! Some changes in me this year have been… I stopped just saying all the things I wanted to do and started doing them. In a new way, I started expecting to be treated with respect and mutuality. I started believing, that one step at a time and with God’s help, I could …

Boy Worthy BBQ

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“What are little boys made of, made of? Snips and snails and puppy-dog tails… What are young men made of? Sighs and leers and crocodile tears… What are all folks made of? Fighting a spot and loving a lot.” -Southey Daniel and I have 7 children. You read that right- 7! Yes, we know how they are made, for those of you who have asked that cheeky question, thinking we’ve somehow blundered into this, like a whale in a plastic blow up pool in the front garden. No, we didn’t calculate what it would cost to raise them. No, we had no clue about the amount of laundry or the driving I would have to do. And, yes, it is a glorious disaster most of the time, with a schedule that a military general would struggle to maintain, details and needs roughly 3.5 times the average American family, crazy conflicts and messes, that can happen faster than you can say Spicey Molasses BBQ Sauce, BUT a whole lot of love, meaning, and joy too! This week, I want …

Soul Food

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I love to laugh. If someone asked about my hobbies, I would say law, laughing, politics, laughing, reading, laughing, interior design, laughing, etc. It makes my list more than once! But, honestly, friends, today I am having trouble writing with my usual spunk and cheer. Why? Life can just be hard sometimes, even when there isn’t some huge reason. Some of the best wisdom I was given years ago was – “When life is hard, get up, light candles and make tea.” This was from an older woman and what was her point? When life is tough, get up, keep going, do the things that comfort you and take life beyond function to beauty and enjoyment, even when you don’t feel like it. My version would read more like go out to dinner and have a glass of excellent Argentinian Malbec with my husband and friends. As I think about one of my recent bouts of laughter, which often involves nerdy historical jokes that nobody gets but me, I think of the look of perplexed amusement on my …

Love is in the Air and a Pink Smoothy

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“Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” -Shakespeare This warm February in Colorado is making me dream of Maui. And, Maui is where Daniel and I finally took our honeymoon after 18 years of marriage! Shall I tell you my love stories? It’s rather scandalous but I met three of the greatest loves of my life at the same time! I mean, bear with the sap a little bit, it IS Valentine’s week after all! In December 1991, Daniel and I saw each other across the ham and cream cheese rolls at a New Year’s party. We didn’t talk until two years later but had that  pause in time where we noticed each other. Not a primal “he’s hot” moment, although I’m sure that was present in my single, 22 year old self somewhere… But, just noticed. It was Hollywood all the way, folks. The air stopped moving, the music became a low jazzy din in the background …

How I continue to choose fitness every day

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  “There is pleasure in the pathless woods.” -Byron The smaller pictures are me putting together my very first rifle last week, from springs, screws and pieces into a full gun. In the last few years, I’ve had a growing desire to become an excellent distance marksman. You know the Biathlon event in the winter Olympics? It involves cross country skiing and rifle shooting. Perhaps, it’s some latent nordic bloodline in me or something left over from when I lived in Rykkinn, Norway as a young girl and cross country skied everywhere, but that sport rocks! Biathletes, here I come! 😉 Fitness was like this for me a year ago; it was a far off dream. Life is full of function. If we aren’t careful, our dreams can become like a distant, Italian love song that is vaguely familiar in an alley somewhere outside our window. For various reasons, some of them wonderful ones like raising my seven beautiful children, I realized last year that I had stopped dreaming. And, that’s when I decided… It is time, …

And Then There’s This Guy… Counting Calories 101

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So, that hulk in the picture above is my eldest, football playing son, Joab. Boy, was he aptly named! His goal is just a wee bit different than ours. How? He aims to eat 4,500 calories a day to bulk up for football. 4,500! That is a male concept that I will never understand. 1. I have never in my life eaten like an absolute hog (I mean, don’t get me wrong, I can down pizza like nobody’s business but I mean eating when you feel like you’re going to puke already) and 2. I would never ever be willing to gain weight for a sport. But, our family has always been comprised of very masculine men and exceptionally feminine women. There are many days where the girls and boys almost face off, giving each other that quizical, deer in the headlights look that says, “What planet are you from again?!” I gently (because I am always a total lamb), sat my boys and husband down this week and told them God made the female gender too …

How I Ate to Lose 50 Pounds

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The temptation for all of us is to put on a veneer, to present ourselves like everything is always perfect and we are shiny and flawless. However, this blog isn’t just about physical health. To get to the gritty issues that are involved in the health of the human heart, honesty is required. While I hope you will find my blog very encouraging to your personal fitness, it will also tell of my journey to be healthy before God in all areas. It’s a lifelong journey, isn’t it? “Sanctified” could really be defined as “made fully healthy by God.” On that note, 2014 was a hard year. Very. Did I add the word “very” yet? During one run this week, I heard God say, “You have been running away from pain. Now it’s time to run towards me.” It’s not that God wasn’t in my line of sight but that my focus has been heavily on the pain, which I believe is ok for a season but not a great place to camp out for a long …

Where it begins, December 2013…

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“…but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” IS 40:31 A year ago, I found myself overweight, often feeling like, “the way I look and feel is not who I really am,” feeling like life strain and stress was ubiquitous and with seven beautiful kids and the body to show for it (Ok, so, some days I feel like we are remaking The Hunger Games but when I tuck them in at night, they are, after all, beautiful kids who haven’t killed each other). I would mentally hearken back to my fit, cheerleading days like Uncle Rico sadly reliving his football stardom on Napoleon Dynamite. Some people are advocates for the idea that if we eat properly (fresh, “Paleo” or close to nature type food) that we will go down to our proper size naturally. However, I can tell you, after eating that way for 7 years and not getting rid …