Goals and the Gym

Well I have joined a gym/fitness center. Since I will be off of work for 7 weeks I thought this would be a great kick start to making a goal.

Our devotions this morning was titled What Is Success? It focused on Obadiah 1:2-7 the Key verse being Obadiah 1:3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, "Who can bring me down on the ground?" The devotion suggested that we permit our energies to focus on the present and the future and not be hung up over the failures of the past. Freeing us to think positively on worthwhile goals. The Taking Action section gave points such as we could write a short statement regarding our purpose for life. Write down 2 goals for aspects of our life such as: Spiritual, professional, financial, family, home, leisure, & health. We discussed this and found that our goals are to take care of ourselves physically and also spiritually, to be good mentors to our adult children, encouraging them and being there whenever needed. Possibly starting a ministry in the future once we've conquered this hurdle ourselves.

As I said before I have joined a gym. My first day was very stressful. Not because of the gym itself or the people there. But because of my expectations of ME and how much I end up disappointing ME. For years I had been doing for others and taking care of these little people. Never really taking time out for myself. However for some odd reason I thought I was, when they would be in bed sleeping and I would collapse in front of the TV with a snack. I thought I was taking time for me when they would get on the bus for school and I would make another pot of coffee and have another muffin. Never taking into consideration that all this THEM time was taking a toll on my ME time. When ME time finally rolled around after all these years I realized that I was far behind and that a lot of work was needed to be able to enjoy life. I wouldn't trade all that THEM time for anything. I was so blessed and am still blessed to have them in my life. Nothing is more fulfilling then seeing my goals come to fruition from that half of my life. But now for the second half, what to do? I need new goals and realistic ones. I will never be a super model or be as strong as I was 30 years ago. But I can take care of myself and enjoy who I am.

The trainer reminded me that everyone working out at the gym are absorbed in their own me time. They are not focusing on anyone else but themselves. They are stingy of this time. This freed me tremendously and I am so ready for tomorrow's session.

Making A Date

Chris and I started going to Sunday school again at Church. The study is called "growing together in Christ". How hard could this be we thought? Well trying to get in the routine of actually sitting down together to pray and discuss this study is quit the challenge. We have so many distractions it isn't funny. And we are boo hooing because we are empty nesters and that we have no more planning to do. This should be the perfect time to find time together but life won't get out of our way. However we are glad we have this challenge and are being stretched again. We went on-line to find a devotional and a specific study on the Christian Empty Nest. We found the book "The Second Half of Marriage" by David & Claudia Arp and it looks good. We picked it up from Arrowhead last night and I perused it a bit this morning. I am excited to start it as our once a week study. We also purchased the devotional called "15 Minute Devotions for Couples" by Bob & Emilie Barnes. This also looks good and we hope to do this daily, we will see. Praying daily together again has been interesting and I know it will get better. Making a date for all of this is challenging and we are determined.

Too Big For The Nest

Below I found when looking for information on empty nesters. Thought it was interesting.

LEAVING THE NEST

Question - A pair of robins built a nest low in my family's pear tree. Four eggs hatched, but within a few days there were only three babies left. I looked at them each day for about a week and the 3 grew to the point they took up the whole nest. Then I missed two days. When I went to the nest this evening, only one "baby" was left. As I was looking at him, he became frightened and jumped out of the nest (only about 2 feet from the ground). I quickly moved off (as one of the parents flew close to me and made a lot of noise to try to scare me away) so I would not frighten it more. As I observed from a distance, he moved slowly, a hop or two at a time, away from the nest and into my neighbor's yard.

My questions are, "What is (are?) the typical way young robins leave the nest?" It occurred to me that the last baby was so large that the nest wouldn't have held three his size. As they get bigger, do they get crowded out of the nest by their siblings as space disappears? How likely is it that this young bird will survive, since it appeared to me he could not fly yet? Is it typical for the young birds to leave the nest before they can fly? Was its behavior normal (moving away from the nest rather than staying close by)? I would like to pass your answers on to my son, who is 9.

I live in northern Indiana, if this information is useful.

----------------------------------------

Answer - You have observed the typical behavior of not only robins but most passerine (small perching) birds. Yes, they get too big for the nest and jump or fall out. They usually will not move very far from the nest; parents will continue to feed them for another few days after they are able to fly, which is usually within a day or so of coming off the nest. Fledglings are very vulnerable at that stage, but enough survive to carry on the species.