Retreat!

What a great week! Glenn and I had our own little mini-retreat on Tuesday and the week just got better from there. The day was warm enough to sit out in our yard comfortably and there was a nice breeze blowing to keep us cool.


Who took this picture while we were praying?

We spent several hours just being quiet before the Lord and talking to one another. (I did wonder what the neighbors were thinking about us with our heads bowed for so long.) I had been feeling we needed some time before the Lord, just the two of us, for several reasons.

For me, it was a time of confession and repentance, asking forgiveness of both Glenn and the Lord, for my sins. Ah, the cleansing that comes is indescribable! It was also a time for refocusing on the work that Lord has called us to do, asking for His wisdom in working with our co-workers. We prayed specifically, name by name, for the families with whom we've recently been in contact.

We also asked for His leading and guidance for a seminar we are supposed to be leading at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June. The topic is on developing personal relationships, and Glenn wants to call it Why Can't We Be Friends? I am waaayyy out of my comfort zone here. Public speaking is not one of my strengths so it is not one of my favorite things to do.

When you think of Glenn and me, would you pray for us? Pray that we will find great information that will be very helpful to our families and that our presentation will be clear and concise. Pray also that when we are standing up at the podium folks don't see us, but instead, that they hear God's words on how to have healthy relationships.

I'm really counting on your prayers!


A gallon of cabbage soup

With all this traveling that we do, I am really struggling with my weight. We usually stay in homes instead of hotels, and most families like to fix us big meals. Three big meals a day do terrible things to my pants!

So... I talked Glenn into doing the Cabbage Soup diet with me for a week. One week. This is a diet that is used in hospitals for obese people who need to lose a lot of weight rapidly before having surgery. According to the instructions, if you make the soup following the recipe and stuff yourself with all the soup (which has almost no calories) you can possibly eat along with certain nutritious foods on certain days, you will lose 10-15 pounds after 7 days.

We have done the diet faithfully, no cheating at all, and at the end of the 6th day, I have lost a whopping 5 pounds. Tomorrow morning I will step on the scales for the final weigh-in, and then we leave for a week again!

This is not the healthiest way to lose weight, but a drastic weight gain calls for desperate measures. Hopefully, this will jump start me to being more careful about what I eat in the future. If nothing else, the fear of needing to do the diet again might stop me from putting that cookie in my mouth.


Spicing up my life

In an effort to make our food more nutrious, we are going back to less processed foods, and using herbs and spices to add flavor instead of butter and oil. I've got parsley, rosemary, basil and chives growing on the steps into the house, conveniently located near the kitchen! Now all I need is dill, don't I?


Cherry trees in bloom

Of course, we are increasing our exercise level, which is already pretty high. We've been taking hour long walks most every day, either to church, the mall, or into downtown Budafok to catch the tram into town. We've enjoyed looking at all the trees and flowers in bloom at this time of year. Our own trees and flowers are doing quite well, too!



Shoes for pick-up on the curb

While we were out walking, we came across these two pairs of shoes on the curb next to the recycling bins. Here in Hungary if you have clothes or shoes that are still in good condition that you no longer want, you are supposed to put them in a bag and place it near the recycling bins for others to go through and get what they want. I've seen this before by the recycling bins near our house, but this was the first time I had my camera with me. By the way, they removed our recycling bins! Now we have to walk down the street about 2 blocks away to recycle our paper, plastic, aluminum and metal cans and glass. And clothes that are too small.

Well, we are off again. This time to Geneva, Switzerland to attend a conference on Crisis Intervention. Sometimes I wish I had something exciting to share with you via this blog, like...we just got accepted into a graduate level program like our son, or something humorous or insightful and well-written like our daughter's blog rather than it being our travel itinerary. Don't get me wrong. I love the traveling we do, and I personally think traveling is exciting, but for you, unless you are living vicariously through us, this blog must be pretty boring. (I tried to get my daughter to ghost write for me all the time, but she said no.)

We'll be back on Friday night, late. Guess you know what pictures will be on next weeks' blog! Hey, while we're at the conference, would you mind praying that they will serve nutritious, non-fattening meals? I'd appreciate it!