Weekend in Review

We had an exceptionally fun weekend this past weekend.  It started off great on Friday night with a spontaneous date night.  Nana was in town watching Noah and Liam for a few days, and she and Wes offered to watch Gemma Friday night so Cy and I could go out to eat.  I don't think we've had an opportunity to go out alone since our babysitter (Nana) moved a couple months ago.  (We have an overnight getaway planned for our 5th anniversary in a couple of weeks that we are very excited about.) We went to Outback and had a really great time getting to chat and actually focus on each other without having to give Gemma our full attention the whole time.  Then we stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a couple of their delicious Cheesecake Factory-made desserts to take home.

On Saturday, we had more deliciousness in the form of Bojangles breakfast and homemade pizza for lunch (Greek pizza with spinach, feta, red pepper, and black olives on my half; pepperoni on Cy's half)...did I mention that I really need to get back on the wagon with my low-carb diet this week?  We took an early morning trip to the pool to play with Gemma, and enjoyed having the entire pool to ourselves.  Nana picked up Chick-Fil-A for her and the boys and they came over around lunch time to play for a bit.  Gemma and Liam and Cy all had a fabulous time tackling each other in the living room.  We continued our Harry Potter movie marathon with Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and part of Half-Blood Prince.  We ate some delicious fresh watermelon that was given to us:

Cy enjoyed playing Halo in his official new XBox pants (a surprise gift from me):

On Sunday, we were running late but still managed to make it to church.  And wow, I was glad that we did.  The sermon was definitely one I needed to hear.  The title was "Women We Should Esteem" and the scripture was from 1 Timothy 5:3-10.  Buster talked about the things that our culture tells us we should esteem in women: expensive fashion, and looking young, thin, and beautiful, etc. and how wrong this is.  He then outlined 7 things that the passage showed we should esteem in women:
1 - Women who put their hope in God
2 - Women who have been faithful to their husbands - and he talked about how this didn't just mean morally, but that it also meant respecting and building up your husband
3 - Women who bring up children in the Lord - and not just their own children
4 - Women who show hospitality
5 - Women who wash the feet of the saints or bless other believers through service
6 - Women who help those in trouble or relieve the afflicted
7 - Women who devote themselves to doing all kinds of good deeds
This sermon spoke to me because (as I've written about before) my biggest personal struggle is with obsessing over my weight, and hating and refusing to accept my body and the way I look.  I have tried all sorts of diets and forms of exercise but I am at a point where it is extremely difficult for me to lose weight.  And I hate myself for it.  But this is not a new problem for me - at my smallest, I wore a size 2 or a size 0, and even then, I hated myself and thought I needed to lose weight.  It is something I have struggled with for years, and I just can't seem to keep my head on straight about it, and if I am not careful, I let my constant obsession with it completely overtake my life.  Buster's words on Sunday and the words straight from Scripture were a reality check for me (once again) that I am spending way too much time focusing on something completely superficial and that is pulling me farther and farther away from Christ.  Some days, worrying over my weight is literally all I can think about.  And I don't want to be that person.  I want to be the type of woman Buster described in his sermon.  I want to be expending my energy ministering to others instead of being completely wrapped up in myself the way I have been lately.  And I'm not saying that just by boldly declaring this, I'll never fall back into my old patterns again.  It's something I have to take day by day, minute by minute even.  But hopefully I can keep this sermon in the front of my mind and fall back on its reassurances when I am tempted to indulge in my self-centered ways.

Anyway...I didn't intend for this blog post to turn into a sermon of its own, but that was a very important part of our weekend and it was on my heart to share.

On a lighter note, we took a fun trip downtown on Sunday afternoon to check out the fairly new Forever21 store that opened in the old Saks Fifth Avenue building.  I really really liked this store, but found it a bit overwhelming because there were SOOOOO many things to look at in there!  I ended up getting a dress and two shirts after about an hour of just roaming around with a glazed look on my face.  This may be my new go-to store now though.  They have such cute, trendy clothes and so inexpensive!  I paid around $50 for the dress and 2 shirts:

We finished up our downtown trip with a quick stop at Robot Candy Co., where I scored some strawberry puff candy that I loved as a kid but haven't seen anywhere in ages.

Our family loves our weekends together, but it really makes Monday that much more of a bummer when Cy has to go back to work and I have to start on the week's chores!