What I'm Up To These Days

This weekend officially commenced the START of my LAST semester before I graduate with my Masters of Intercultural Studies! I am not entirely sure what kind of frame of mind I was in when I decided to pursue a dual masters degree, work a full-time stressful job, and then travel to San Francisco in order to take those classes in the first place. There has been a lot of losses and gains in my graduate school and professional journey. So needless to say, graduating May 19th will be quite the victory! And I am getting excited for what God has dreamed up for me in my next season of life.

Recently, I took on a third job. I now facilitate a sex prevention program for middle school girls called Avenues in 5 different Middle Schools in Riverside with the YWCA. It is a new mission field for me and praying that I don't take these little impressionable lives for granite this semester.

So between working on weekends, teaching middle schoolers not to have sex, consulting for my home business, researching, reading, writing, and socializing I am trying to seek the Lord in the process... I am busy! I welcome any and all prayers this semester!

What I'm Reading These Days

If you are looking for a good read, I would recommend "Church Planter: The Man, the Message, The Mission." Currently my small group is reading this together weekly taking a few chapters at a time. As our hearts have been captured to reach the nations, through church planting, we are beginning to resource ourselves. This book has stripped away the fantasy and sexy appeal of a church plant and served us with some reality and also beginning to question our own qualifications and some areas to improve. For me personally it has been a time of evaluation and really giving me some tangible things to examine in my own life as I move forward in life. If you are even thinking or playing around with the idea of planting a church, I would HIGHLY recommend this book for you!

FYI...This book was specifically written to men. Sometimes when we are discussing I tease that this convicting passage wasn't written for me cause I am a female...kidding of course.

On another note, I will also be writing a 30 t0 35 page capstone paper to seal the deal on my master degree. So pretty much from this moment forward, I will be reading lots and lots for research purposes. So here's to being a book nerd this semester (oh and graduating...have I mentioned that)?

Paleo Thoughts

So one of the things I did this year to kick-off the new year was to start the Paleo Diet. My friends Jess and Mike have changed their lifestyle to Paleo and have inspired a large community of us to see what it's all about.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with Paleo basically you do a 30-day strict detox to kick-off a new lifestyle of eating. So as of January the only things that I have put in my body have been protein, vegetables, fruit, and some nuts. Yep, that means NO sugar, carbs, or dairy.

What was I thinking? I mean that means no Starbucks for 30 days?! Well here are some of my thoughts....

1. I used to be incredibly disciplines in the area of food, but in the last few years, I have been less disciplines. So it is in hopes of learning the discipline again.

2. I really need to lose the poundage. I am currently the largest I have been in my life. BOOO.

3. And this way of living is supposed to be all natural and cuts out all preservatives and see how my body reacts.

So I have made it 7 days and these are my thoughts:

1. It feels good to be disciplined in the area of food again! I already am feeling good!

2. I have noticed more energy despite having no caffeine in my body. The first few days were rough with some bad caffeine headaches!

3. I am kind of getting tired of eating some of the same things, but that is because I have been too lazy to recipe and meal plan.

4. Fruit is my new dessert.

5. So far so good!

That is all for now, it sounded a little more exciting in my head!