1 Peter 2:9

Today's verse 1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I just realized that I am on day 23 of a 31 day devotion for Fathers and Mothers and that has me a little bummed.  I have learned so much from this devotion that I hate to see it end.  I know I will learn just as much on the next devotion series, but man this one has been outstanding!

I am on day 30 of reading the Bible in one year (I read 2 days by accident once, oops!).  YAY!  I wasn't sure I would even get through the first month, but here I am, moving on into February in a couple of days, wow!



I might be starting a debt series soon.  My hubby and I read the Dave Ramsey book a few years ago, as well as listened to him on the radio, and watched him on tv.  Well, we got out of debt except the house.  Then, I was turning 40, shhh!  So, I "thought" I needed a new car.  New car = car payment.  Then, we went to Disney (paid cash for the whole trip!  But, on the way back, we decided we needed to trade in our PAID FOR 5th wheel on a beautiful motorcoach.  New motorcoach = motorcoach payment.........

Well, I am pleased to say that we bought my car (drove it out of the showroom with 7 miles on it) in December 2010.  We paid it off in May of 2012.  So, we paid of a brand new car in about a year and a half.  Our next goal is to pay off the motorcoach, unless my hubby talks me into selling it (I don't want to sell it! AT ALL!)  We purchased it in August of 2011.  It may take us 2 more years to do that, but I would like to do it sooner than that. 

After that, I want to get our house on the market and sell it so we can move to the country on a LARGE piece of heaven and grow LOTS of our own fruits and veggies, as well as have lots of animals.

Today's smoothie is a little different. I love experimenting. My family doesn't like me experimenting, unless it turns out good. Well, I think this one turned out real good, but that is me. My hubby hasn't tried this and if I tell him what is in it, he probably won't touch it. I left the house before my daughter tried it, so I'm not sure she had it or not. On the bright side, if she didn't then I have a smoothie for tomorrow and most of one for Thursday. LOL!

Lets start with the star of the show, my NINJA!  If I haven't said it before, I LOVE MY NINJA!

As you can see I have 2 cups of juice in my NINJA!  I used orange juice.  Next we will move on to the cast of characters:

Since it is winter, I do use a lot of frozen fruits.  Otherwise, we would have the same smoothie every day because there just aren't a lot of fresh fruits available right now.  I also go to the veggie market and buy their almost bad bananas and chop them up and freeze them.  This saves you time and money, and who doesn't want to save money???

Now, let me show you all these things mixed together.  (Don't worry, I will give you the full recipe at the bottom)

Does that not look delicious?  Oh my!  My mouth is watering again just looking at the pic.

And this made 2 and 3/4 Cups (red solo cups) of smoothies.  See?

YUMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, here is the full recipe:

2 Cups Orange Juice
1 3/4 Cups frozen strawberries
1/2 Cup frozen bananas (you can use 2 fresh bananas also)
6 dates
1 1/2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds (my SSIL will be posting something on her blog about chia seeds, when she does, I will share it with you as well)

The dates are like little surprise pieces of sugar in the smoothie!  LOVE IT!

The only thing I am missing is a handful of spinach in there.  My store was out of spinach this week, so I am having to do without.....

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

Til Tomorrow!
Sherie

I have a very sad heart this morning

Last week, just north of my office a body was found behind another business.  Later that night, I learned it was a female body.  I do not know why, but this homeless lady that I have seen numerous times face flashed through my mind and I thought, I sure hope it is not her.  Well, today the news announced that it was indeed her.  As soon as I saw her picture, I called out Oh my Lord, NOOOOO!  I did not know this lady, I had just seen her walking down the street or standing on the corner holding a "will work for food" sign.  And I don't know why she stuck out in my mind, since my city is the capital of homeless people, well besides New York City.  She just had a look on her face of lost.  She never smiled, she looked dirty always, but she stuck out to me.  She just looked like she didn't belong on the streets, but then she also had, I can't describe the look in her eyes.  It wasn't like a glazed over look, it was more like she never really looked "at" anything, always around it.

What happened in this woman's life to cause her to be homeless?  I will never know.  Why didn't I stop and give her some food?  Because I have heard so many stories about people trying to help and its a ploy to get your money and kill you, so I was scared.  Jesus wasn't scared.  He healed to sick, He taught the homeless, He was not scared.

Now, I am not saying that my calling is to feed the homeless.  I will continue to tithe so my church can help feed the homeless.  My calling is spreading God's word in my office, to my clients, on Facebook, and here on my blog.  I know God works through these posts and through my actions.  I have friends tell me all the time, to keep posting because what I post is speaking to them.  I will never grow rich from it.  That is not what I am after.  But, My God will provide for me what he wants me to have.

Today's verse is Psalms 105:1  Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon hes name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

Today, I pray for all of the homeless people of the world.  I pray that, if they don't know Jesus as their personal saviour, that they will come to know him soon.  I pray that something will change in their lives and they will come off the streets and start living their lives for God.

Amen

Why the Title?

Well, I started in my previous post to tell you why and how the Title came about.  But, I got distracted by telling you about my diet progress.

So, I have been wanting to blog again for some time.  But, I didn't know what I wanted to call it.  I knew I wanted it to be about my new lifestyle changes.  I have LOTS of ideas in my head to share with you, but one at a time.

My daughter came to me after Christmas and shared with me her New Years Resolutions.  I never make New Years resolutions, but it got me to thinking about how I can better myself.  So, I started making a list of all of the things I wanted to do.  Here's my list:

1.  Lose the rest of the weight I need to lose

2.  Exercise at least  5 days per week (this will start after April 15th)

3.  Read the Bible everyday

4.  Cook Healthy meals

5.  Learn photography (my hubby got me a fancy shmancy camera for Christmas, YAY!)

6.  Start a new blog(done)

7.  Be happy with my life

8.  Scrapbook every weekend (this will probably start after April 15th, but I would like for it to start now!)

9.  Get caught up with my business work (this is a goal every year, HA!)

10.  Tithe

11.  Get Hubby and the boys in church on Wednesday nights

12.  Pay off the motorhome (hubby wants to sell it, so we will see about this)

13.  Buy property (I want a farm!)

14.  Finish painting the house

15.  Get new furniture (we have boys, need I say more?)

16.  Decorate the house

17.  Put the house on the market

18.  Plant a garden

19.  Build a greenhouse

20.  Plant a fig tree

21.  Plant more blueberry bushes

22.  Sell stuff on ebay (got a lot of junk to sell, hehe!)


WOW!  That was a lot of things that I came up with in just 1 hour of sitting there thinking about my life. 

(just a little background) Back in December, I had decided to go completely vegetarian.

So, January 1st came around and I started my Bible resolution.  Low and behold, the first thing I read was Genesis 1.  the 29th verse goes like this:

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seek; to you it shall be for meat."

And that is why this year, my theme will be Genesis 1:29.

Now, the trailblazers part.  I am currently reading a book called 200 Pomegranates And An Audience of One:  Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence.  I am about 60% done with it and it is a GREAT read!  If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. 

Well, in it the author mentions that there are several different types of people.  Those that tag along for the ride, those who are just on a ride, then you have the trailblazers that is usually a small group if not just one person and they say to themselves, why not now? 

and this spoke VOLUMES to me.  That is me!  Why not now take my life into my own hands and make this change and hopefully I can encourage others to make the change as well.

And there you have it, Genesis129Trailblazers was born!

We are Trailblazers!

Good Morning everybody!

Its been a long time since I blogged.  I hope I remember how.  LOL! 

This blog will have many aspects.  I plan on doing some scrapbooking, diet and recipe posts, daily Bible verses, garden updates (right now there are none) and anything else I can think of.

Why the Title to this blog?  Well, I know I am not the first, but it is a first for me.  I started my "diet" journey, I actually call it a lifestyle change, back in October.  But, I didn't find the Bible verse until this year when I vowed to read my Bible all the way through.  God spoke to me the very first day of my Bible challenge, Thank you Lord!

Anyway, I started out my journey at 167.8.  No, I'm not afraid to say it.  Because I plan on never going there again.  Well, I forgot to take any pics of me when I started.  But, then I lost 5 pounds and actually DID take a pic.

Then, I lost another 5 pounds. 

Now, I have lost 10 more pounds.  I forgot to take a pic at 15 pounds down..... 

I have lost a total of 20 pounds in 3 months and that was even through out the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year holidays.  I have another 20 to go.  But, I know I can do this!

So, now you ask how I did this?  Well, it was simpl really.  You HAVE to change the way you think about food.  Everything you have grown up eating, STOP!  Fast food is BAAAAADDDDD!  Soft Drinks, even diet are BAAAAAADDDDD! 

Breakfast:
The first thing I did was start drinking smoothies for breakfast.  Not the mixes you buy in the freezer section of the grocery store.   I mean, go out to your local farmers market and buy some fresh fruit.  Your favorite kind, because if you buy stuff you don't like, you won't do it.  So, we bought strawberries, blueberries, bananas, apples, etc.  Then go to your grocery store and buy your favorite juices.  Make sure they are NOT from concentrate, and it MUST be 100% juice.  We bought Florida's Finest OJ, Apple juice, Grape juice, and my hubby's favorite Cranberry juice. And also buy some organic Spinach.  Yep, spinach.  I promise you will never taste it.

I cannot tell you how much I love my Ninja blender.  (Pic goes here)

Ok, I make smoothies for 3 people, so if you need to make a smoothie for 1 or 2, cut this recipe in thirds.

Strawberry smoothie:
Wash one handful of spinach.  Pour 3 cups of juice (your favorite) into the blender.  Now, place the washed spinach into the blender. Peel and core an apple, and chop it up.  Put 1 Cup Strawberries, 1 cup Blueberries, and 1 Cup chopped up bananas into the blender.  Blend until smooth.  Then, add 2 Cups crushed ice.  If your icemaker does not make crushed ice, put it in a ziploc and hit is with a hammer or rolling pin. (you want to save your blender some energy so it doesn't burn out on you).

Now, pour it up into your glass and enjoy!

Tomorrow, I will go over lunch.