Confessions of a Shopaholic

The Challenge: Read 12 books of 200 pages or more in 12 months. That's one book per month.

The Time frame: January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011

The Reason: Studies have shown that reading helps keep your mind healthy and active. The mind you save may be your own.

January

Sisterchicks Say Ooh La La! - Robin Jones Gunn

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

What I'm Currently Reading

Sisterchicks in Gondolas!

Robin Jones Gunn

It was another snowy day in Chicagoland yesterday, but fortunately, it was little more than a dusting - just enough to make the roads and walking slick, but it wasn't too terrible.  I managed to get around well enough, even without wearing my boots, but I'll get back to that.

Started the day yesterday with Al getting up and fixing breakfast for us - eggs and bacon with an optional side of grits.  I'm not really a big fan of grits, eat them once in a blue, blue moon, so normally he fixes them for himself.  True to form, yesterday I skipped the grits and just settled on one of his cheese omelettes with a couple of pieces of bacon.  It was enough for me to be able to take my meds, and my blood sugar stayed down two hours after eating.  It gave my body a break from rice cakes with peanut butter and jelly.  After breakfast, we got in the shower and got ready to start the day. 

I feel like I spent most of the day in the car, and in all honesty, it was only a few hours driving out of the day.  I drove Al to work, 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back, came home and had leftover pizza for lunch and had enough time to finish my diary entry for the day and even get in a little bit of a nap.  I knew if I didn't take one, I'd be a hurting unit by the time I had to pick him up again at the end of the day.

I left here around 4:15pm to make the drive back out to where Al works, after stopping at Dunkin Donuts to buy him a coffee, dropped that off with him at 5:15pm when he came out for lunch, then drove up the street to the rehab facility to pick up Corri and Katie at 5:30pm.

We decided to skip the thrift store, and opted for the Discovery store and TJ Maxx, where the ladies wanted to go, and while they were shopping in Discovery, I darted over to The Avenue to do some shopping of my own.  I will be so happy when I'm able to buy clothes at places like Discovery.  It sucks being a plus size woman sometimes.

Anyway, Corri has decided that Discovery is her new favorite store.  She found a lot of things she wanted, but with only $20 to her name, she settled on a cute black sweater dress and a belt to wear with it, a bottle of perfume and I know there was one other thing, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.  Seriously, she picked up all that for $20.

Katie is about ten years older than Corri, give or take a couple of years, and she joined me over at The Avenue for a little while before heading over to TJ Maxx.  She said the clothes in Discovery were cute, but were a little young for her.  Truthfully, if I could fit in those clothes, I'D shop there, but I didn't tell her that.  She didn't stay long in The Avenue, and went over to TJ Maxx where we'd meet her a few minutes later.

I bought a trench coat that was 60% off, and a really cute top that was on the clearance rack.  While I was checking out their jewelry selection, I found an adorable butterfly ring that I showed Corri when she joined me.  She wanted it, so I picked it up for her along with my two items.  Then the two of us walked over to TJ Maxx to join Katie.

Corri mostly looked around since she spent her money already, and Katie didn't find any clothes that really thrilled her, but she did find a cute little flower pot for a plant she started growing in the rehab center,  At TJ Maxx, I wasn't impressed with their clothes, but I did find a sweater organizer that hangs in the closet, so I bought that and figured I could get my sweaters folded and put in there to tidy up the bedroom a bit.

It was a productive shopping trip for all three of us, in the end, and then we drove across the street to Panera to have a bite to eat.  Katie settled on a bowl of chili and Corri and I each had a half a sandwich and bowl of soup, and we split an iced tea.  By the time we finished eating, it was a little after 7pm, so the three of us drove around the corner to Wal-Mart so Katie could run in and buy herself some candy to smuggle back in to rehab.  The women aren't allowed to keep food in their rooms, but they do anyway.  Corri stuffed my bag of potato chips into the inside pocket of her coat to smuggle in to her room.

I dropped Corri and Katie back at the rehab center at exactly 7:30pm, and they left me with hugs and kisses and lots of thanks for coming and taking them out to shop and get out for a little while.  It was fun for all three of us, and like I said yesterday, it was also a chance for me to spend some extra time with Corri outside of a visiting day, so it was worth it.  When they went inside after a final wave goodbye, I turned around and drove 45 minutes back home.

I got in at 8:15pm, give or take a few minutes, and didn't have to leave to pick up Al until 10:15pm.  I chatted a bit and played some trivia while talking to Amy.  10:15pm came all too soon, and back out the door I went, driving the 45 minutes back to Al's job.  It turned out that I could've waited a while longer to leave because he didn't walk out the door until 11:30pm.  By then, I was tired, so I let him drive home.

It was a long day for me, and like I said, I felt like I spent most of it driving, which is flat-out exhausting.  By the time we got home, I was so out of it, I walked into the house, immediately went and put on my pajamas, and crawled onto the couch with my blanket and went to sleep.  Al kept telling me to go to bed, but I stayed on the couch because I needed to be near the bathroom again.  I hate these potty problems I have.  I kept getting up and running to the john every hour.  I'll spare you another rant about how soft toilet paper isn't, but I really wish someone would make some that doesn't rip you to shreds.

Now, here it is, 4:30am, and I've been up for a couple of hours, showing no signs of sleep.  Al is in bed and the three cats have taken over my couch, so I figured I might as well put my awakeness to good use by doing my diary entry early for today.

On today's agenda, Al and I need to go grocery shopping.  We are out of a lot of things completely.  I also desperately need another manicure.  My nails need to be cut down and the polish from Christmas is worn off in spots so my nails are looking pretty tacky at the moment.

Of course, there's also football games on today, because it's the first day of the playoffs.  I'm very interested in the outcome of these games - two today and two tomorrow.  I'm going to have to DVR one of the games, however, because I want to go to Reconciliation and church tonight.  Yes, I still prefer to go to church on Saturdays so I don't have to get up early on Sundays.  Not that it matters these days, with as early as I've been getting up anyway, but Al likes to sleep in and I'd rather he come to church with me than me having to go alone.

So now you have my tale of glee and woe from yesterday.  We'll see what today has in store.

Point to Ponder:  Service is not optional.

Verse to Remember:  Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Question to Consider:  What is holding me back from accepting God's call to serve him?

I don't think I'm holding back from serving God.  You serve God when you serve others, and even though I have not been active in parish life and ministry for the past few years since Fr. Frank passed away, I believe I've still been serving God through the things I've done to help my sister, and like today, giving her and Katie a ride from rehab to spend some time shopping.  I don't think I'm doing enough in ministry at the moment, and therein lies my problem.

It's difficult to minister, first of all, when you only have one car.  It limits me from what I'm able to do, but I could still serve in the parish as a lector or Eucharistic Minister, as I used to do.  That is STILL one of my agenda items for this year, to get back into parish life.  I can start out with ministering at Mass, but until we get another car, I won't be able to get involved in other activities, like Liturgy Committee and Parish Council, but those are both things I would like to do again.

I think the most important thing is that anytime you are serving others in any capacity, you are fulfilling your ministerial role as a Christian, so as long as I'm doing SOMETHING, I'm not totally living for just myself.  We're meant to add to this earth, not just be a drain upon it by taking all the time.

Baby steps for me.  Meet one goal at a time, and eventually I will be back in a position where I can be even more active than what I am now.

Face it:  Dieting wouldn't be so hard if food didn't taste so good!  Like anything good, we want to get as much of it as we can.  It's easy to place a high value on the food we eat.  But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  God has given us many freedoms, but one we should not abuse is the freedom to consume as much food as we want.  No one can limit what we eat except ourselves.  We need to realize that our daily bread supplies what we need, not what we want.  Excessive eating is selfishness, and selfishness is sin.  When we feel the urge to overeat, let us turn to God and nourish ourselves on the true bread that comes from Him - His Word.

This is that bread which came down from heaven:

not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead:

he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 

(John 6:58)

Today;s thought:  God's bread of life is nonfattening!

I don't usually overeat.  Sometimes, sure, as everyone is prone to do.  My problem is that I don't always make healthy choices when I eat.  That's my biggest problem.  I need to remember that when I think I'm hungry, I might need to feed my soul and not always feed my body.