Why I Have Anxiety During Communion

So I had an experience worth telling yesterday. Worth blogging about. Communion. The Lord's Supper. One of my favorite times during corporate worship. Also one that produces great anxiety. 

Here's some setup. First of all, it was the 5th Sunday so there was no Route 52 (children's church) for Bryce. He wasn't in the greatest of moods yesterday, which either means tired or hungry. On this morning, he must have been extremely tired because he fell asleep in my lap during the sermon. 

I was totally ok because I never get to hold him like this anymore. 

Anyway, the time came for the Lord's Supper. Like I said, this always produces some anxiety for me. I am inherently clumsy. And communion can be a clumsy person's nightmare! Ever since I was saved at the age of ten and began to take part I had visions of dropping the tray with the juice. Later, once Shaun and I married, I was grateful that due to his worship leader position that put us on the front row. Which means during communion you usually don't have to pass the tray. The deacon just offers it to you. Which was the case yesterday. I was extra grateful for that since I had a 5 year old sleeping on me. 

Also, usually there are two trays. One for the little wafers, and one for the grader juice. We use one tray. We put a wafer in a juice cup (if you're baptist you know what kind of cup I'm talking about). Then we put the juice cup filled with grape juice stacked on top of the wafer cup. Then you just have to get one cup. Make sense?

Ok, so I've gotten my cups with no problem. Pastor Bart is doing his thing, I'm prayed up ready to go. I go to take the juice cup out of the wafer cup AND IT'S STUCK. I couldn't move it at all. I tried one more time, using a little more force. CRACK! My juice cup cracked, leaking grape juice into my wafer cup. And of course the crack made a loud noise. 

Shaun looked over at me, I think to hush me. I showed him my cracked cup. I made him take his wafer out of his cup and give me the empty cup. I poured all the juice into the empty cup. Crisis averted! Until I go to eat my wafer. It was stuck. As I'm trying to get it out, Bryce chose that moment to toss and turn in his sleep! So there I am, wafer cup in one hand, juice cup in the other, and Bryce is wiggling! Finally, he settled down and I was able to semi-calmly partake of the elements. 

Hopefully this little incident is the only one I'll ever have during communion...but somehow I doubt it! 

Limu and All-Stars

Yesterday was part lazy, part busy. My in-laws spent the night with us Friday night. They needed to get back home fairly early in the day so we all woke up early. I fixed sausage and biscuits for breakfast. (Have you ever tried the honey butter pillsbury frozen biscuits? They are awesome!) I also took my Limu original, and gave some to my kids. This was day 1 for them. 

We visited for a bit and then said our goodbyes. I then let my boys play Xbox while I played Candy Crush on my phone. That game is crazy addictive!!!

For lunch I made a shake with Limu Lean. I used the vanilla this time. I had tried it earlier this week as a sample. I've gotta admit, it's not the best flavor on its own. But today I was prepared. Here's my recipe I used:

2 scoops Limu lean vanilla

6 oz 2% milk or almond milk

1 cup frozen fruit (I used great value mix of peaches, pineapple, and mango)

1/4 tsp stevia 

1/4 tsp vanilla

5 ice cubes

This was delicious!!! My daughter loved it too. Ha. I also ate a whole tomato, sliced with salt. Mainly because my parents had brought me some Bradley County, Arkansas tomatoes. And they are the best. No joke. 

After lunch I took a slight nap and then we rushed to get ready for the All-Star game. I had to drink a Limu Blufrog because my energy was very low. But it took no time at all to get going again! i love, love my Blufrog! 

Can I say, I think I was born to be a sports mom. I love cheering my boys on! We won our first game, 22-4. But we lost our second game, sending us to the loser's bracket. We play again tomorrow. 

Tomorrow will be busy but fun. Church and tee ball! 

Living the Limu Life

Ok, I haven't been a faithful blogger. But I'm starting a new journey I wanted to blog about. Shaun and I have decided to get on the Limu train. Our friends have been after us for a while to try it. After much research and hearing some incredible testimonies, we jumped on board. 

We received our products on Thursday. However, we have family visiting for Cayson's all-star games this weekend. So I didn't really start taking my Limu until Friday. Here's my thoughts so far!

I started out Friday with my limu lean meal replacement shake. I chose Dutch Chocolate. I added 2% milk and some extra cocoa powder and a little vanilla. It was pretty good. 

I then left with my mom and aunt to get pedicures. 

When we finished at 1, I still was not hungry at all. We went to Logan's Roadhouse for lunch. I was only able to eat half of my burger and fries. 

We did a Walmart trip after that. By the time we got back to the house, it was almost time to leave for the game. I was dragging, so I drank a Limu Blufrog energy drink. It did the deed! I had plenty of energy for the game. (Which we won 21-0, by the way!)

When we got home I drank a 2 oz shot of Limu original. Which tastes pretty good. It does have a little different texture, but the serving size is so small, you hardly notice it. I think the benefits will be worth it!

So there's my day. Obviously no results yet, but I'm hoping to see some soon! Keep following my journey to see where the Limu life takes me! And if you're interested in joining me, send me an email at brittany dot m dot martin @ gmail dot com. (Replace the dots and spaces with periods!)

First World Problems

Ok, so I hope anybody who tries to keep up with me through this blog also follows me on Facebook.  Because I've been pretty absent from here lately.  I'm not even gonna try to recap the last couple of months.  Church, tee ball, and birthdays pretty much sums it up! I did want to write about something that God revealed to me the other day, however.


It starts with this meme I saw on Pinterest a few months ago.

First World Problems

It really made me laugh at first, then hit me that it's so true. We think we have big problems over here in the US, (and we do), but most of our "problems" are just little inconveniences.  

Which leads me to an incident that happened the other day.  We were having people over and I was cleaning the kitchen.  I am the mother of a 1 year old.  Which means my floors are perpetually dirty.  I sweep all the time, but I hadn't been able to mop like I wanted to yet.  I have a Swiffer which I had been using, and a steam mop, which I hadn't yet found from the move.  The Swiffer works pretty well, but you have to really use some elbow grease sometimes.  My steam mop does all the work for me! This particular day, I had decided I was going to conquer the garage and find my steam mop. And I did! I was terribly excited about it, too.  So I fill it up with water, plug it in, pull the trigger, and...nada. Nothing happened. Something was wrong with my steam mop!!!!!!! I called Shaun, I guess just to let him know I was extremely frustrated.  He offered to try to fix it at lunch, but it really wasn't the time to tear it apart, not with guests coming over that night.  So I got off the phone, and, huffing and puffing, pulled out the ole Swiffer. As I started mopping, digging deep trying to get some of the stains up, I was not happy that instead of using my steam mop, I was forced to use my Swiffer.  Then it hit me. How spoiled am I? A few years ago when the Swiffer came out I rejoiced at the easy-ness of it. It made mopping so much easier! And now I'm complaining because I get to use it instead of an old fashioned mop and bucket.  How spoiled and ungrateful am I?! I immediately thanked the Lord for my Swiffer and continued to mop with gladness. I begged Him to let me remember this incident so that I'd be reminded to be thankful. 

So here's my addition to the First World Problems:

My steam mop is broken so I have to use the Swiffer.

3 weeks worth of updates!

Well I don't know what happened, but ever since we moved we have been on the go! Both kids started tee ball, Shaun joined Titanic, we had loads of company, our van broke again, Shaun dropped out of Titanic, and we started revival at church.

Ok, so like 3 weekends ago, we took a trip to Lafayette with Steve and Lizzie, our youth pastor and his wife.  And the kids.  It was so much fun!  We went to Gatti Town, which is like Chuck E. Cheese, or Playtime Pizza, really.  On top of the arcade games, they have go carts, bumper cars, mini golf, mini bowling, and a great buffet! Bryce and Shaun played a price is right style wheel and won 1,000 tickets! Bryce shared them with Cayson and they were able to get a set of cars.

The boys at Gatti Town

We then traveled a little outside of Lafayette to Jennings and visited a park that had some rescue alligators.  The kids each held a baby gator!  (Except for the babies!)  Let me back up...Steve and Lizzie have 2 girls, Laura Beth who just turned 4, and Julie Ann, who is exactly 1 month older than Natalie. We did let Natalie pet one, though.

That night we ate at Randol's, a cajun restaurant complete with a zydeco band and dance floor!  The kids had a blast dancing! The next day we went to the children's museum, the mall and a kids' consignment shop that is great! I got some great deals for the kids!  Then we headed home.  It was such a fun trip and we had a great time getting to know our new friends!

Bryce and Laura Beth dancing at Randol's

The dads put the babies to sleep at the mall!

2 weekends ago, our Heber Springs Mamas (as we introduced them to our new church members) Pat and Carol came and visited.  They were bringing our van to us that had been in the shop in Heber Springs.  However, it broke down on them in Ruston. We let them come visit, anyway! ;) It was so good to see them! We had a great weekend! I really hated to see them go. They better come back soon!

This past week, my parents came and spent the night on Monday night.  My mom had a doctor's appointment in New Orleans the next day.  Also, my in-laws came Thursday night to visit, but had to leave Friday morning when my hubby's grandmother was admitted to the hospital with heart problems. Friday night, my cousin Meagan and her husband Jayson came for a visit.  They had planned on going on a cruise this week and were leaving out of New Orleans, so they split their trip in half and stayed the weekend with us.  We were kind of touristy with them! They love going to pawn shops and garage sales so we took them to Silver Dollar Pawn shop, home of Cajun Pawn Stars! It's a neat store.  There's all kinds of stuff in there! I'm sure that will be a regular stop when they come to town! We also did a lot of shopping while they were here.

In the middle of this 3 week period the boys started tee ball and Shaun joined Titanic! Theatre Louisiana College is doing Titanic for their spring show.  They needed some more male voices so Shaun joined the chorus.  The only problem was all the practices seemed to interfere with tee ball practices.  Or company visiting. Or something with church, like revival this week.  And we only have one vehicle right now.  So Shaun had to drop out. I hated it, because he loves being on stage and he hasn't had a chance to be in a show since college. But, I guess there will be other opportunities, hopefully!

Speaking of tee ball, Cayson has a practice tonight at 7 and we have revival at 6. I guess I'm going to have to leave early and take him.  He's already missed one practice because it was scheduled for last Wednesday during church.  I will be so ready for my van to get fixed!!!

Well, there you have it!  An update on the last 3 weeks in the life of the Martins!

Elliptical Update

Here's a quick update on the status of my new workout routine. (Not really a routine, just 30 minutes on the elliptical, but routine sounds better!)

I've had the elliptical for a little over a week now. I exercised 3 days last week then my parents came in. I jumped back on yesterday and I just finished today's. I've learned that in the past, for me, the 3rd day of my workout is the hardest. It's hard to be motivated that 3rd day. It was hard this time, too, because my parents were here. But I made myself do it. We were really busy the other 2 days they were here so I missed it then. But the biggest test was starting back up yesterday. And I did it.

I have no idea if I've lost any weight yet. I've yet to find my scales. That's a project for today! I did take my measurements before I started so I'll have something to compare.

I also started my fitness pal, an app on my iPhone. It keeps track of calories burned and taken in. Like one of my favorite worship songs says "I'm determined, I've got a made up mind...".

And even though it has nothing to do with this post, I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite girl this morning.

What a week

This past week was a busy one. I didn't get much done on the house because my parents came down. But I'll take that trade any time! They came down Wednesday night just as we got out of church and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

On Thursday we took it fairly easy. Stayed at home during the day and we took them to the mall that night. When we got home, we watched Breaking Dawn and Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. Friday, Shaun was off and we still didn't do much. We went to Ryan's for dinner ( we had some serious coupons) and walked around Walmart. We watched Moneyball and The Help. On Saturday, mom kept Natalie and we took the boys and my dad to see Star Wars episode 1 in 3D. They loved it! Although Bryce fell asleep at the end. Then we stopped by old navy. That night we met my aunt and uncle at their house and we all went to a restaurant. It was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but really good. I got a 20 oz "petite" sirloin for $12.99! We were stuffed! Sunday brought church day, as the kids call it. It was a really good service, I thought. Pastor Bart is preaching a sermon series on giving. But it's a fresh look at it. We are to give sacrificially because Christ gave all of himself for us.

It was a great week with my parents and I'm looking forward to the next visit! Here's some pics from the week: