Urime!

URIME to me (that means congratulations!) because I got a new ironing board and it matches my decor.  This also gives you a rough idea of what it will look like when I finally get around to finishing my curtains.

URIME to me because my niece will be born within the next hour or two.

URIME to me because (and this is the secret I was keeping) my husband was called to be the Branch President of the 2nd Branch of the Tirana, Albania District of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Okay not so URIME to me, but I'm trying to be excited about it.  My husband and I love to serve the Lord.  We would both do anything that was asked of us.  However, I know it will be a great sacrifice.  So many people said Urime to me today.  I was kind of thinking (hate to be negative, but it is just the truth), "Yes, congratulations that your husband will be home even less and that you get to sit alone with 4 small children at church."  I felt more like people should be saying Ngushillim, which means "my condolences - or may you be comforted".  I have to admit that when I got home after church and I was juggling 4 kids and dinner preparations, I cried twice.  I know it seems crazy, but I really miss my husband when he's gone.  I guess normally I would just have let dinner go, but I knew Andi hadn't eaten breakfast and I knew he was STARVIING.  By the way, I made White Chicken Chili and my husband and my FIL really liked it. 

Normally, we go to my in-law's house for dinner, but you might recall that my MIL is in Greece.  When my FIL came over he brought me a Snickers bar for Albanian Mother's Day.  Also, since my two Primary Counselors didn't show up to church and we didn't go to my MIL's for dinner I needed to make something sugary because today is their sugar day.  So I made Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I tell you what, today it has been really hard to resist them.  However, in the book I'm reading.



I just read about neuropathways and how we can change our wiring by changing our thinking and our actions.  I just kept telling myself that I didn't need to eat those cookies.  I kept telling myself that they actually wouldn't make me feel good. (I've also learned a lot about hormones and how they respond to sugar and I'm convinced it just isn't good to eat it).  I really want my neuropathways to change so I resisted.  I think I can feel some new grooves in my brain as I write :-D

There was one other thing that was helping me resist the sugar today.  My neighbor is taking the missionary discussions to learn more about our church.  Yesterday, he learned that we don't drink alcohol, coffee, or tea and that we don't smoke or take drugs.  He was fine with the coffee, tea, smoking and drugs, but not the alcohol.  There is a LOT of social pressure to drink here.  He only drinks socially. I explained to him that I stopped eating sugar partly because I wanted to see how difficult it was to stop something that is a source of comfort and enjoyment to me.  He knew all about my non-sugaric lifestyle.  He asked me if I didn't just take a LITTLE sugar - just a bit.  I confessed that I had slipped one day and eaten sugar, but that I've made up my mind that I wasn't going to eat it.  I explained that after I slipped I recommitted myself to abstain.  Wanting to be strong for my neighbor, Toni, really helped me today.  If I can do it, he can do it.  I put the cookies in a box so I didn't have to look at them.  My old neuropathways tell me that when I see cookies I must eat them, lots of them.  I'm retraining them to think otherwise.