Dancing with the Stars Week 2 Recap

Happy Wednesday! The week is halfway over! For me, it means I'm back to work.

I see show recap posts often and have never done one because I don't watch that many reality shows. However, I do enjoy watching people dance so Dancing with the Stars is a reality show I've stuck with through the years.

I'm no dancing expert, but I definitely don't mind sharing my thoughts on this show. The past few seasons, they've been trying to make some changes. Since it's still early in the season, I thought I'd share overall pros and cons so far this year as well as something I'd like to see on the show.

**All images via Dancing with the Stars' Facebook page.**

Pros:

 -I'm glad they switched the judges back to their original position. I didn't like them being on the other side last season. It just felt wrong.

-Erin Andrews is the new cohost. No offense to Brooke Burke, she seemed like a perfectly nice person, but she was a terrible cohost. She absolutely could not ad-lib and I found her so awkward. I'm SO HAPPY with this change. I'd been hoping for it for years. I personally think Erin has been doing a great job.

-Last season, they also switched the format to only one show a week. In the past, they'd have the competition night and then the results night. The results night always seemed so unnecessary. They'd fill an hour with random performances and commentary. Now, they've done away with all of that and just eliminate someone at the beginning or end of the competition night.

Cons:

-They keep advertising this new "switch" where viewers can vote to switch the partners. I don't feel like this has been fully explained for one thing. For another thing, I think it's unnecessary. Part of the fun of the show is the relationship that is built between the celebrity and dancer. So, I'm not sure how this is going to work.

-I feel like they're trying to create drama this season. They keep playing up some "rivalry" between Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar, Cody Simpson and James Maslow, and Charlie White and Meryl Davis. To me, this isn't the kind of show that needs drama. I just like to watch them dance.

-My biggest complaint with this show has always been that certain dancers always get certain types of celebrities. I know that certain dancers are more popular so they want them to stay on the show longer, but it's not fair.

My Favorite/Least Favorite Dancers:

-An early favorite of mine is Charlie White. Before DWTS, I had only heard his name, but I don't watch figure skating so knew nothing about him. In my opinion, he has a very natural talent for dancing. I have really enjoyed both of his dances so far. He also seems really sweet.

-I'm also rooting for Candace Cameron Bure. She also has a very natural talent for dancing. I also like that she is a Christian who is not afraid to speak out on her faith. Too often Christians are shown in a bad light on TV.

-I was very surprised that Billy Dee Williams was not eliminated. I understand that he is 77 and I applaud him for getting out there and remembering his dance at his age. However, he is painful to watch and will never be able to keep up with the younger competitors. I hope he goes next and doesn't take the spot of someone else who deserves to be there.

-I was a little upset that Diana Nyad was eliminated. I know she just didn't have the fan base since her claim to fame is swimming from Cuba to Florida and she's not necessarily what we'd consider a celebrity. However, she seemed to have a great personality. I would have liked her to stick around a little longer.

-On the other hand, it didn't bother me that Sean Avery was eliminated. He was very forgettable. For me, this show is about more than dancing ability. It's also about the personality and entertainment value and he had neither.

What I'd Like to See on the Show:

-As I mentioned, I don't think the pairing is always fair. I would love to see the stars paired randomly and live on TV. I wish they'd have all the celebrities and all the dancers there. Then, they'd let the celebrities randomly draw the name of their dance partner from a hat. I think that would make for interesting TV.

Do you watch Dancing with the Stars? What are your pros and cons of the season? Who are your favorites and least favorites? Let me know your thoughts.

Lately I've been...

Well, I've been tracked out for the past 2 weeks and I have been pretty lazy! I haven't had a track out in a while where I had absolutely nothing to do. I don't really know what to do with myself. So, of course, instead of being productive I've done a bunch of NOTHING.

Oh well...I guess we all need times like that. I've read a lot. Most of the books I haven't enjoyed too much. I hope to review a few of them soon. Two of them are movies also and I'd love to see the movies and do a book/movie review. Even though I haven't reviewed anything recently, I do keep my Goodreads page and my Bookshelf page updated. I'm currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon which is the first in a pretty long series. I've heard a lot of great things about it and I'm enjoying the first one so far.

I also bought Frozen on Friday. I hadn't seen it until I went home that afternoon and watched it. Even though I hadn't seen it until Friday, I feel like I already knew all the songs between playing Kids Radio at school for my students, viral videos, and other people playing the songs. It kind of took away some of the fun of it, but I still really enjoyed it. It's a great movie.

On a bad note, I hurt my back really bad on Saturday. Don't ask how it happened. It was kind of a freak thing and I'm not really sure how what I did caused my back to get hurt as bad as it did. I was in a lot of pain Saturday night. However, Sunday I gradually improved and I'm a lot better today. I'm still sore and there are certain things that still hurt (like getting up and bending over). This has been my home for the past 48 hours or so...

While stuck on the couch, I was watching something about the history of various fast foods and it made me have a craving for macaroni and cheese. So, I used this recipe for an easy mac and cheese in the crock pot. It is yummy!

There's one last thing I'm really excited to share with you. Satisfaction Through Christ is a blog that I really enjoyed reading. Recently, Christie announced she was turning her blog into a contributor blog. So, I am happy to share that I will be a contributor at Satisfaction Through Christ. There has been a lot of behind the scenes things going on this past month and the new site will officially launch on April 1! The posts will be on a wide variety of Christ related and family friendly topics. During the month of April, I will be contributing a DIY post and an adoption related post. I hope you'll go over there and look around a little bit and follow along. Also, we have a Facebook page, Instagram, and a Twitter.

I hope all of you had a great weekend and have a great week ahead. I'll be heading back to work for work days on Wednesday so maybe I'll get back in a normal routine.

Made to Crave: Introduction and Chapter 1-2

Back in December, I remember hearing about a book called Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, not Food by Lysa TerKeurst. This sounded like the type of book I needed to read. For Christmas, I was given a Barnes and Noble gift card, so I bought the book in January. I finally started reading it and I want to share my thoughts as I go since I'm trying to live healthier.

The chapters are really short (and there's 19 of them!), so I'm going to share my thoughts in chunks.

Introduction Finding Your "Want To":
The intro describes why Lysa decided to go on this journey. I completely related to her description of knowing how to lose weight and how to be healthy. That's not the problem especially in this day and age. We have information at our fingertips. The problem for most people, myself included, is finding the WANT TO to get healthy. I found this quote pretty funny because I feel the same way:

"I've even asked God if it would be such a terribly difficult thing to swap the molecular structure of Cheez-Its for carrot sticks. They're both already orange. And, really, how hard could that be for someone who's turned water into wine?"

Lysa goes on to describe how this journey is about more than losing weight. It's about not desiring anything more than God. It's about sacrificing and denying ourselves. I completely believe that food can be an idol in life. The battle against idolizing food is a spiritual, physical, and mental battle.

Chapter 1What's Really Going on Here?:
Chapter 1 goes into how we are made to crave. Crave means to long for, want greatly, desire eagerly, and beg for. However, we often crave things we don't need instead of craving God. Satan wants to replace our craving for God with a craving for something else. 1 John 2:15-16 states:

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has done- comes not from the Father but from the world." 

Lysa goes on to describe how Satan tempted both Eve and Jesus in similar ways. The difference was Eve gave into this temptation. She was saturated in the object of her desire. Jesus did not give in to the temptation. He was saturated in God's truth. This gives us a lesson in how to resist temptation. The more saturated we are in God's word and His truth, the more we'll be able to fight those earthly cravings.

Chapter 2 Replacing My Cravings:
I am one of those people who always says "I'll start on Monday" or "Oh well, I messed up today. So, what's more junk food?" There's always an excuse for why I'll start later. However, what it came down to was relying on food. Like Lysa points out in this chapter, food is a source of comfort, joy, and a reward. I turn to food when I'm bored, stressed, happy, etc. God should be who I turn to in those times, not food. Lysa has a suggestion for what to do when you have food cravings.

"Each time I craved something I knew wasn't part of my plan, I used that craving as a prompt to pray. I craved a lot. So, I found myself praying a lot."

She also points out that it's important to be thankful for what you do have instead of feeling sorry for yourself over what you don't have. I think that's an important lesson to apply to many things, not just food.

Have you read this book? Have you learned to battle food cravings?

March Literary Junkies

Happy Tuesday! The month is already halfway over and it's time for my favorite book related link up. Each month there are new questions to answer. If you love to read, you should join in!

1. What are you reading right now? Tell us about it!
At the time of me writing this, I'm not really reading anything. I am reading Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, not Food which basically talks about how we often substitute things like food (in this case) for our true craving for God. I hope by the time this is published, I will be reading Serena by Ron Rash. I'm in the queue for it at my library and when I just checked this weekend it said it was "in transit."

2.  What was your favorite series to read when you were a kid?
Like many girls, I really enjoyed reading The Babysitter's Club when I was younger. I always fantasized about starting my own babysitting club with my friends. Since I can never just give one answer, I also enjoyed the Sweet Valley High series, American Girl series, The Face on the Milk Carton series, Nancy Drew, and books by Lurlene McDaniel (All of her books were about young people with life threatening health conditions like heart transplants or cancer. I read her books until I starting becoming paranoid that I had cancer.)

Bonus* Two fun series that I didn't read as a kid, but love reading to my 4th grade class every year are the Wayside School series and the Fudge series. Even as an adult, I find these books hilarious.

3.  The world is ending:  What 3 books do you save from your collection in hopes to contribute to whatever new society forms?
Well, I would save my Bible, the Harry Potter series (it counts as ONE book!), and Wonder. I'd save the Bible because I believe that would be the foundation on which a new society would need to be built. I would save Harry Potter because it's my favorite series ever and I think there are so many important morals and lessons to be learned about love and friendship in this series. Then, I would save Wonder because I would hope that a new society could learn from it to treat all people with dignity and respect and that just because some looks or acts different, doesn't mean they're any less of a person.

4.  What is your favorite genre to read?  Why? 
If I had to pick a favorite genre, it would be historical fiction. I enjoy it because I feel like I'm learning things while reading. Even though the stories are made up, many facts, feelings, situation, etc. are historically accurate. I also enjoy historical fiction because it transports you to a new place and time.

5.  If you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? 
This Wasn't Part of the Plan by Megan Hall. I'm a big planner, but I feel like most things in my life don't go "according to plan." I'm learning to be okay with that.

6.  What is next on your "to-read" list?  Tell us about it!
Serena- which I hope to have soon.
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell- I simply know it's a love story and I enjoyed her other book (Fangirl) that I read, so I feel like I'll enjoy this one.
The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (from Glee)- It is about a set of twins who find themselves transported to a fairy tale world

Getting Fit With My Fitbit

Well.... getting healthy is always such a battle. My biggest struggle is that I don't want to just "diet" or "lose weight," I want to change my lifestyle. Last year, I actually was on the way to doing this. I was working towards more of a real food diet. I kept at those steps for a while, but slowly went back to many of my bad habits. One habit that we have kept is that I buy better meat (grass fed and no added hormones), but the rest of them I no longer do.

This year I set a goal to lose weight and change my lifestyle to be healthier. I actually started the year off really well. I worked out consistently and I counted my calories. I lost 5 pounds in about 2 weeks.

Then, life got CRAZY. We moved to a new apartment. Several of my coworkers were out for a week at a time with family emergencies or sickness. We had 8 snow days that threw off our routine. Plus, some other stuff that I'm not ready to share about yet. I got lazy with my health. I stopped working out and I started eating whatever I felt like. I gained back all my weight, but luckily no extra.

I'm tracked out for a few weeks and I'm DETERMINED to get back on track with healthier eating, counting calories, and working out. Of course, I want to lose weight, but more than that I want to be healthier. I want a healthier lifestyle.

{I'm ready for this to be the "before" picture in a before/after collage.}

I'm wanting to share more about this journey on my blog so that I'm more accountable to it. I'd love to do a weekly or bi-weekly healthy lifestyle update. Plus, I'm currently reading Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa TerKeurst. I plan to share more thoughts about that book this week and in the coming weeks until I finish it.

Getting healthy starts today. A few weeks ago, my husband got a Fitbit for himself and last week he got me one. It counts your steps, miles walked, calories burned, and active minutes. It will also track your sleep. You can use the app to set goals and you can put in the food you eat so that it can help you count calories. I'm going to use my Fitbit, the Fitbit app, and the My Fitness Pal app to help me with my goals.

  
How do you motivate yourself to be healthy? Do you use any gadgets, apps, etc. to help you with your goals?

May I Recommend...

I've seen a lot of bloggers who round up their favorite reads from the week and share them in a post. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about this. It seemed weird to read a post to find more posts to read. However, my mind has slowly changed as I've realized that I've found some great posts through their recommendations. I also have shared in the past how I love sharing great articles and blog posts on Facebook (it's about the only thing I use it for these days). Plus, it goes along with my philosophy that bloggers should do more sharing of things because they truly enjoy it, not only because someone's paying them to.

So, I thought I'd give this a try. It's a simple post, but I think it can be a powerful tool for sharing things that are important to me or I think are worthwhile as well as sharing things because I find them entertaining.

So, welcome to "May I Recommend...." where I will share great articles or blog posts I come across- some of them may be viral and you may have seen them already; some of them may be from very popular bloggers; and others may be from a blogger you've never heard of. I may also share something I found funny or entertaining-like a video, image, or a Buzzfeed list. I hope you enjoy!

A lot of women struggle with infertility-many of them struggle in silence. Before you ignore these posts because you're not one of those people, let me say that I think truths can be found in these articles for other situations as well. Also, I think it's important to know how others may be feeling. 

"But Why Does She Get Babies" by Natasha Metzler   

"Asking Why" by Finding Sunday

I'm a teacher and let me say-it's a tough job. We're being asked to empty the ocean with an eye dropper (i.e. we're being asked to do the impossible). The more I talk to parents and people who don't work in the school, the more I realize people don't fully know what we have to do (which I'm sure is true of any job, but teachers seem to constantly be under scrutiny). 

"Stop the Bashing" by Let My Thoughts Flow

I read a book a while back about how sometimes when we try to "help" people, we're actually hurting them. So, I found this to be an interesting read because it's along the same lines. 

"The Problem with Little White Girls (and Boys)" by Pippa Biddle

I recently found that I enjoy watching documentaries (thank you Netflix!) I enjoyed this list of other great ones to watch in the future. 

"Education and Entertainment: Documentary Recommendations" by Sweet Silver Lining

I don't have children yet, but Lee and I have talked a lot about what we value and how we want to raise children. I really liked this article about keeping your home low media and giving children toys that require them to use their imagination. 

"How to Raise a Low Media Child (Without Going Insane)" by Mindy Wood

Have you read anything you'd recommend lately? If so, I'd love to know about it.

Book Review: Rules (A Must Read)

Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules-from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

 Book description and image via Goodreads

My Review
Last year, I read a book called Wonder which I loved. I loved it so much I named it as one of my top 5 favorite books of the year. This book reminded me a lot of Wonder. Similarly, I think this is a book that everyone should read. Particularly if you have children over the age of 8- READ THIS BOOK TO THEM. I think you should read it to them because you can have some great discussion. I will probably read this aloud to my 4th grade class later in the year. I think it's so important for them to learn to have empathy for others. I also want to reiterate the point I've tried to make all year that people are people no matter how different they may seem. Kids need to hear this message. Kids can be so mean to one another and they need to be reminded that all people have feelings. All people just want to be treated with respect.

I sympathize with the main character, Catherine. When you're 12 years old, all that matters to you is what other people think of you. Her brother is embarrassing to her and her new friend, Jason, is embarrassing to her. Unfortunately, she learns that you can't have the best of both worlds. You can't be kind to those people who are embarrassing to you and keep it a secret. You have to make a choice.

I didn't mean for this review to turn into a preaching session. Basically, I don't have much to say other than read this book. Of course, it is a book geared towards tweens and teens, but I think adults can glean a valuable message from it as well.

I give it an A+

Context is KEY

I think something that's hard for many Christians is reading the Bible on a regular basis. Many of us use excuses such as "not having enough time." But I think a major reason many people don't read the Bible is it can be difficult to understand.

I used to feel very unsure of myself and my Bible knowledge. I can remember attending Bible study in college and feeling so intimated. These people could quote scripture or remember a specific passage that said something related to the discussion. They could read and understand things that were confusing to me. I grew up in church, why couldn't I do that?

Well, I figured out one thing...I didn't read my Bible enough on my own. College is when I got more serious about my own personal Bible study. I started off using books to guide me. I'd read about certain people from the Bible or through certain stories.

A few years ago, a book called By His Wounds You are Healed was recommended to me. I decided to use it and it changed the way I view my Bible reading. This book took me through Ephesians. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. It all came together and made sense. I experienced how much easier it is to understand the Bible when you read a book in its entirety. After using that book as a guide through Ephesians, I started reading through other books of the Bible on my own. I was reading through them and understanding them. Please don't think I'm saying I'm a Bible expert. I know I still have much to learn even from the books I've read. I also use a study Bible so there are notes for me to use. But overall...things were just making more sense. We also attend a church now where the pastors preach through entire books of the Bible. I love this model.

Through this, God has shown me that CONTEXT IS KEY. So often verses are taken out of context and used by people to serve their own purposes. Often times, this is done very innocently. I would guess that many times people don't mean to misquote the Bible or to mislead people. Unfortunately, there are even pastors who do this. Any time I see someone quote a verse, especially one I'm unfamiliar with, I always try to look it up and read around it to see what the verse is truly saying.

 This particularly irks me on Facebook. People share things all the time from certain famous pastors and speakers who promote what's known as the "prosperity gospel." People also love to share articles and blog posts that contain the words "Christian" or "Christlike." I read these articles sometimes and see where the authors use verses out of context. This bugs me because it makes me wonder how well people who claim to be Christians actually know God's word. I'm not writing these things to try and say I'm perfect and know everything and have massive amounts of Bible knowledge.

What I am saying is know God's word for yourself. Don't readily accept everything someone else tells you. Hold what pastors and teachers say against God's word. It's okay to disagree with what a pastor or teacher says if you've read God's word for yourself and prayed for understanding for yourself and that's not the way you understand something. Many of the most famous verses people quote aren't used in the correct way. Please note, though, there's a difference between disagreeing with something because it's your personal belief and disagreeing with something because it doesn't match up with God's word. We're not going to like everything we read in God's word. Some of the stuff in the Bible is hard to accept. Some of it we don't want to do.

This is something I've felt very strongly about for a while now and I have wanted to write a blog series on it. Maybe one day when I don't feel so overwhelmed and can put the time into it I will.

Book Review: The Chemical Garden Trilogy

Synopsis:
*I'm just going to include the synopsis for Wither so nothing will be spoiled if you want to read this series.*

Wither Synopsis:
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Book description and images via Goodreads

My Review:

Characters:
I liked the main character, Rhine, and how she was very determined and willing to sacrifice herself for those she loved. I also felt more attached to her husband, Linden, than to the boy she liked, Gabriel. I think that is due to the fact that Linden was in the books more than Gabriel was. So, I definitely would have liked the chance to get to know Gabriel better. I also thought the "villian," Housemaster Vaughn, was equal parts scary, sadistic, and mad scientist. I felt the frustration right along with Rhine when he continuously foiled her plans.

Plot:
My problem with a lot of trilogies is the story doesn't seem to flow. It seems like the author is stretching to try and fill pages with words to make the story into 3 books. That was why I loved Divergent and Matched, but the last two books in both of those series fell short for me. This trilogy was not like that. The author seemed to have a plan from the beginning and the whole story was told from beginning, middle, and end without useless, boring stuff in between. I'll admit that some of the things that happened seemed too convenient or unbelievable (like the amount of snow they are receiving in FLORIDA!). However, some of that stuff makes sense later in the trilogy. The concept overall does seem like a bit of a stretch and I had some trouble fully imagining this world, but it entertained me the whole time.

Resolution:
Some things seemed to come together way too conveniently in the end. It also felt a little rushed. I also feel like we were left kind of wondering how everything would turn out. There was still more I wanted to know about their parents as well. I would have liked an epilogue that gave us a glimpse into the characters' lives many years down the road. That way we would know if everything turns our alright for them or not.

My grade: I give it an A. I think if you typically like YA dystopian books, you'll like this trilogy.

Decluttering

Hello friends!

I have missed blogging. Although taking an unexpected break was very freeing. My life was just too busy and blogging was adding unneeded stress. Then, I reminded myself-this is not a job! You are not required to post! So, I didn't. I've still been reading blogs and commenting and I try to get on my social media a little bit. I have plenty of ideas of things I want to post about. However, I want to improve my blog by blogging quality over quantity; and lately I haven't had the time or energy for that.

So over the last few months, I've been trying to declutter my life. One way I've done that is by cleaning out my "friends" list on Facebook. I unfriended a lot of people even if they're people I know. I'm trying to get my "friends" down to people I'm truly friends with or that are my family. I no longer want to share my life with everyone I've ever met. I don't remember exactly, but I think I had close to 500 friends originally. I now have cut my list down to less than 250. My goal is to get under 200.

I am also currently in the process of unfollowing a lot of blogs. No offense if you're one of them. I followed too many blogs in the beginning for giveaways or because it appeared that they wrote about things I would be interested in. I unfollowed blogs that are not longer active or that don't write about things I'm interested in reading. I also unfollowed blogs that I don't feel a connection to the writer. It doesn't mean that I think their blog is "bad." It's just that there's no point in me following a blog that I don't actually read. It's also helping me get to the point I want to be at with my blogging. I want to get back to blogging for enjoyment. So, that means following blogs I enjoy reading not blogs I feel obligated to follow.

In the next few months, I also want to clean out my Twitter, Bloglovin', and Pinterest accounts.

I don't like clutter and disorganization in my home or personal life, so it makes perfect sense that I wouldn't want it in my online life either. 

 How do you determine if a blog is one you want to follow?