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Snow and brownies.

Today I woke up to snow. It sounds idyllic, but when I went outside to walk to get the shuttle to church it wasn’t as pleasant as it sounds, as snow was accompanied by an icy wind. It was cold, and I wished I’d dressed warmer. However, what is good about it being cold and windy outside is that it is very cosy to be inside. At the moment I am sat on my very comfy sofa. I just baked a brownie and had a nice cup of Earl Grey tea with a piece of it. It was very nice if I can say so myself! Although the brownie was a tad sweet even if I did make it from scratch. Maybe it was the milk chocolate chocolate-chips I put in it. Oh well, I suppose it’s meant to be sweet.

It is so nice to sit inside a nicely warmed house with my woolly slippers on and candles lit. In Norway we do advent candles and so have a candlestick-holder with four candles, and we light one candle each Sunday leading up to Christmas. And today is the first Sunday of advent. But I didn’t have a candlestick-holder, so I took a white plate, put some coffee-beans on it and then put four candles in between. It turned out really nice!

Next week we have a weeklong GBF. Here at IHOP-KC we do something we call the “Global Bridegroom Fast” the first Monday through Wednesday of every month. Basically we shut down as much activity as we can and spend focused time in prayer and fasting. In December, however, we do Monday through Sunday. This makes it a total of 40 days in a year. We fast and pray to seek God’s heart with a greater focus, and also to give the first-fruits of our time acknowledging that we are totally dependant on God for everything and believing that giving Him this time, He will enable us to get done everything we need to do in the remaining days of the month. It is such a great time to join with the rest of the staff in this and it works. I find that my heart gets closer to God.

Last week I went to the “Y” (YMCA- the fitness centre I’m a member of) for my fitness evaluation. I didn’t come out too bad- I think “average” was my overall score. I did above average on some things and below on others. So now I have a bunch of goals to work towards. The strange thing was that I wasn’t given any tools or tips as to how to reach them, but I suppose I know what I need to do (weights to increase strength, stretching to increase flexibility, and general stuff to burn fat-calories). I suppose healthy eating is good to reduce fat-intake, but I really do eat very healthy (having just described the joy of eating a freshly made brownie…but I eat cake maybe once or twice a week and not too much of it at once). Still, as my dad states, it’s all about “calories in and calories out”. The challenge is to get into a little routine of doing a bit of exercise each day. Even if going outside to face the icy winds isn’t very tempting, I can do stretching and some sit-ups and push-ups at home. In fact, sat here writing I do realise I could just take a break and do something, but I think I won’t. Tomorrow is another day. (Still, I would like to find I’ve improved my fitness at my 3-month assessment).

So, that’s a few things that I’ve been up to recently. Now it’s late so I’d better get some sleep.

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