I never thought my brain could be so fried without having a full time job. It amazes me how much stress you can incur in a day of being mommy, piddling in side jobs like tutoring, venturing out into new things, and waiting for a doctor phone call. I think hormones may be getting the best of me, because I seem to get overwhelmed and upset by things a lot easier recently.

Today began well enough with a good workout. I simply did some light cardio at the gym mixed between the stepmill, elliptical, and treadmill. My James Patterson book accompanied me and I was even able to finish it during my workout. If only the rest of my day could have gone as smoothly.

When I got home, I was getting Makenzie situated for her snack when she decided she wanted to push buttons instead and try to stand in her highchair. After many times of telling her no, her giving me a mischievous smile, and then ignoring me, I decided if she is old enough for those games then she is old enough for time out. We experienced our first pout session. Poor girl had to suffer 2 minutes an eternity sitting in one place and staring at the wall. She looks like she is suffering greatly, huh?

Then, I got brain fried throughout the day with too much computer time. Surprisingly, very little of it was spent blogging. I had to take a good chunk of time to come up with tutoring lessons to help the students I tutor prepare for the final exam. There is a lot of grammar and vocabulary to review. The remainder of my computer time was spent fine-tuning and adding to a little something special I am working on. I have been getting some quality writing practice and support the past couple of weeks and I won’t say more.

Amidst all that, I got the phone call from my doctor. The blood test I had Friday confirmed the pregnancy, but my hormone levels were low. They want me to come in again tomorrow to take another blood sample and check for the hormone levels to be increasing adequately. So good news, but not completely in the clear yet. Although nothing is ever really in the clear in pregnancy. But I trust God is doing good things here and it will be okay.

I have now just inhaled the perfect dinner for such a day. When I arrived home from the mammoth tutoring session, the hubs had just what I was craving. Comfort food in the form of breakfast for dinner.

Fried eggs, potatoes with ketchup, and some strawberries for sweetness and color. Now my tummy is happy and I can relax with some trash TV. Desperate Housewives season finale = pure trash but just the mindlessness I need right now. I guess I didn’t really fake it til I made it, huh? How did you do?

• What is a dinner that can always help calm your nerves?
• What is something that can set you off in a frazzled frenzy easily? For me it is suddenly having more on my plate than I expected. Totally had things sneak up on me today. I had NO CLUE their final exam was for the entire year instead of this semester. So I was only half prepared for tutoring and had to cram cram cram preparation in.

The last six weeks our church has been involved in a series of group studies, sermons, and daily readings all focused on how to recognize our commitment to our faith and how to grow that commitment. It was a really motivational and inspiring six weeks. I found that the things discussed that show our commitment in faith and ways we can further our devotion can also apply across the realm to our commitment in any of our passions. For myself, I hope my devotion to God is evident in everything and is the #1 commitment I have, but it is interesting to see how the life lessons from our sermons can be related to many other areas of interest as well. What ways do we know we are committed to something and how do they help continue fostering that commitment? Read on to find out.

1. Regularly Be Involved. We discussed the value of presence – showing up and regularly taking action.

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It makes sense. If you are committed to something, it is part of your life and you will make a point to not go too long without it. In relationships, you thrive when you are committed to spending a lot of time together. In fitness, you reach your goals when you have regularly scheduled workouts and training. While working towards a goal, you should be taking active steps almost daily to continue progress in them. With God, you are fulfilled through worshipping and recognizing his blessings more often than just Easter and Christmas. It is difficult to achieve anything if you aren’t involving yourself in it frequently.

2. Make connections. One way to help ensure we are developing our commitments and to keep our drive going is to have others we know are supporting us.

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If you have someone to share a passion with and that you can depend on, it is harder for the flame to die out. In faith that means building relationships with other Christians, but more importantly strengthening your relationship with God. Prayer is a vital part of this. We have to know God in order to be more like Him and live in the example of Jesus Christ. The only way we can know Him is to be connected to Him. That connection is prayer. While prayer is, in my mind, vital to all things, the necessity for connections reaches beyond faith lessons. Imagine the strength you can get from training for a race with others cheering you on. Or the feeling of success at work when you are in a helpful environment. Or how you don’t feel silly for a particular goal and want to give up when you have friends encouraging you that it is possible.

3. Share the love. When you are passionate about something, you can’t stop the love of the sport, hobby, person, beliefs, etc from pouring out of you. You want so tell others about it. You want to help others achieve the same things. You want to see people grow in new ways. You want to watch others open their eyes to new possibilities and share that excitement with them.

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As bloggers, I believe we can all readily understand this. We have a strong desire about a number of topics and we openly share those on our blogs. I think many of us want to help others and be able to encourage someone the same way someone else may have helped us. The same goes for any passion we have. As a Christian, you are committed to giving back because you are so thankful for the blessings God has poured out on you that you have to share out of pure joy and love. As advocates for healthy living, we can know how much more enjoyable our lives are with the energy and strength we get through our lifestyles that we want everyone to feel the same way. As friends or lovers, we want the significant people in our lives to know just how much they mean to us by showing them love and kindness. You can’t lock a passion for something up in a box. It thrives on being shared openly with others. The cool thing is, when you share with others, it also reaffirms your devotion and starts the cycle all over again. You will want to share more, be more involved, and make more connections. It is a never-ending process that continues to thrive because of these aspects of our commitment.

• What things are you committed to? Do you recognize these 3 areas in them?
• Is there something you would like to be more committed to that you think these actions could help?