Bible – Round 2

January 1, 2020 I started my second trip through the Bible. Whole thing. I used a planned devotional, The Bible Recap with Tara-Leigh Cobble, which pairs with the podcast of the same title presented by D-Group. http://www.thebiblerecap.com

This devotional goes through the Bible chronologically. I honestly have no idea how that’s any different from reading from front cover to back cover, but I guess I’ll find out. My guess would be that when we get to the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John we will read parts of each of them at the same time as I don’t believe they came one after the other, rather they were part of the “in group” with Jesus.

Upon starting, I’m excited because they’ve also partnered with The Bible Project guys, and they’re video explanations are pretty cool. https://bibleproject.com

NOTES:
– Job come in the middle of the Torah (the Torah is the first 5 books of the Bible), actually in the middle of Genesis – after Genesis 11 it goes to Job and then upon completion of the book of Job, you are returned to Genesis to pick up at chapter 12. I’m not clear as why this is placed here. Job doesn’t actually have any hint as to historical timeline…
– Job : possibly the first time we are told to turn to God with our problems, praise, struggle, questions, etc
– I still don’t understand why God was mad at Balaam when he was going to Moab to speak with King Balak. (Numbers 22)
– For a long time I didn’t understand what Moses had done to be kept from the promise land, but now I see that he dishonored God by 1. Not following God’s instruction and 2. Suggesting that he would be providing water from the rock (rather than God)
– I had a couple of thoughts about Ezekiel 37 – in this chapter it talks about bones scattered all over the ground and God speaking and breathing life into the bones. Thought 1 – I think I better understand the song “Rattle” by Elevation Worship; 2 – I might also better understand why some people/religions believe it’s important to be buried with all your parts.

I had a revelation in reading Revelation, but can’t think of it at the time of writing this. So here it is, some random notes and observations through round 2. I would say that some of the commentary seems to be a little off from things I’ve learned in the past and when I remembered to look it up, I couldn’t find support, but I value the fact that it made me think and consider the meaning/intent.

I’ve started round 3. I’m listening this time. I’m using the Bible App and the devotional series put together by the Bible Project. Stay tuned next year for anymore insights!.

The BibleThe Bible Chronologically
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation		Gen.1-11 > Job > Gen.12-50 > Exo. >
Lev. > Num.1-15 > Ps.90 > Num.16-36 >
Deut.1-34 > Ps.91 > Josh. > Judg. >
Ruth > 1Sam.1-20 > Ps.11, 59 >
1Sam.21-24 >
Ps.7, 27, 31, 34, 52, 56, 120, 140-142 >
1Sam.25-27 > Ps.17, 35, 54, 63 >
1Sam.28-31 >
Ps.18, 121, 123-125, 128-130 >
2Sam.1-4 > Ps.6, 8-10, 14, 16, 19, 21 >
1Chron.1-2 > Ps.43-45, 49, 84-85, 87 >
1Chron.3-5 > Ps.73, 77-78 > 1Chron.6 >
Ps.81, 88, 92-93 > 1Chron.7-10 >
Ps.102-104 > 2Sam.5 > 1Chron.11-12 >
Ps.133, 106-107 > 1Chron.13-16 >
Ps.1-2, 15, 22-24, 47, 68, 89, 96 >
Ps.100-101, 105, 132 > 2Sam.6-7 >
1Chron.17 > Ps.25, 29, 33, 36, 39 >
2Sam.8-9 > 1Chron.18 >
Ps.50, 53, 60, 75 > 2Sam.10 >
1Chron.19 > Ps.20, 65-67, 69-70 >
2Sam.11-12 > 1Chron.20 >
Ps.32, 51, 86, 122 > 2Sam.13-15 >
Ps.3-4, 12-13, 28, 55 > 2Sam.16-18 >
Ps.26, 40, 58, 61-62, 64 > 2Sam.19-21 >
Ps.5, 38, 41-42 > 2Sam.22-23 >
Ps.57, 95, 97-99 > 2Sam.24 >
1Chron.21-22 > Ps.30, 108-110 >
1Chron.23-25 >
Ps.131, 138-139, 143-145 >
1Chron.26-29 > Ps.127, 111-118 >
1Kgs.1-2 > Ps.37, 71, 94, 119 >
1Kgs.3-4 > 2Chron.1 > Ps.72 > Songs1-8 >
Prov.1-24 > 1Kgs.5-6 > 2Chron.2-3 >
1Kgs.7 > 2Chron.4 > 1Kgs.8 >
2Chron.5-7 > Ps.136, 134, 146-150 >
1Kgs.9 > 2Chron.8 > Prov.25-29 >
Eccles. > 1Kgs.10-11 > 2Chron.9 >
Prov.30-31 > 1Kgs.12-14 >
2Chron.10-12 > 1Kgs.15 > 2Chron.13-16>
1Kgs.16 > 2Chron.17 > 1Kgs.17-22 >
2Chron.18-23 > Obadiah >
Ps.82-83 > 2Kgs.1-13 > 2Chron.24 >
2Kgs.14 > 2Chron.25 > Jonah >
2Kgs.15 > 2Chron.26 > Isa.1-8 > Amos >
2Chron.27 > Isa.9-12 > Micah >
2Chron.28 > 2Kgs.16-17 > Isa.13-27 >
2Kgs.18 > 2Chron.29-31 > Ps.48 > Hosea >
Isa.28-3 > Ps.76 > Isa.40-48 > 2Kgs.19 >
Ps.46, 80, 135 > Isa.49-66 > 2Kgs.20-21 >
2Chron.32-33 > Nahum > 2Kgs.22-23 >
2Chron.34-35 > Zeph. > Jer.1-40 >
Ps.74, 79 > 2Kgs.24-25 > 2Chron.36 >
Hab. > Jer.41-52 > Lament. > Ezek. >
Joel > Dan. > Ezra1-6 > Ps.137 >
Haggai > Zech. > Esther > Ezra7-10 >
Neh. > Ps.126 > Malachi > Lk.1 > Jn.1 >
Matt.1 > Lk.2 > Matt.2-3 > Mk.1 > Lk.3 >
Matt.4 > Lk.4-5 > Jn.2-4 > Matt.8 >
Mk.2 > Jn.5 > Matt.12 > Mk. > Lk.6 >
Matt.5-7, 9 > Lk.7 > Matt.11> Lk.11 >
Matt.13 > Lk.8 > Mk.4-5 > Matt.10, 14 >
Mk.6 > Lk.9 > Jn.6 > Matt.15 > Mk.7 >
Matt.16 > Mk.8 > Matt.17 > Mk.9 >
Matt.18 > Jn.7-10 > Lk.10, 12-17 >
Jn.11 > Lk.18 > Matt.19 > Mk.10 >
Matt.20-21 > Lk.19 > Mk.11 > Jn.12 >
Matt.22 > Mk.12 > Matt.23 > Lk.20-21 >
Mk.13 > Matt.24-26 > Mk.14 > Lk.22 >
Jn.13-17 > Matt.27 > Mk.15 > Lk.23 >
Jn.18-19 > Matt.28 > Mk.16 > Lk.24 >
Jn.20-21 > Acts1-14 > James >
Acts15-16 > 1Cor. > 2Cor. > Romans >
Acts20-28 > Col. > Philem. > Eph. > Phil. >
1Tim. > Titus > 1Peter > Heb. > 2Tim. >
2Peter > Jude > 1Jn. > 2Jn. > 3Jn. > Rev.
Chronological order provided by The Bible Recap

Leg Day

Too many people work their legs in one plane – the sagittal plane – meaning forward and backward. The thing is, you have muscles that need to work rotationally (the horizontal plane), and laterally (the frontal plane).

I recently read an article specifically about your adductors. These muscles can be found on the inside of your legs – where your thigh gap may or may not be! Just to put this out there – the presence of a thigh gap or lack of one is not an indicator of your fitness level.

The article was a review of 3 studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the “Copenhagen Adductor” exercise. Overall, they found it to be effective in improving strength and preventing injury in athletes – specifically football players (they’re English so soccer for us Americans).
You don’t play football/soccer so what do you care? Well, do you have hip pain? Knee pain? Ankle pain? I could keep going but you get the point. I would argue that these exercises might help alleviate or prevent some issues that I see all the time.

The exercise:
– In a side-lying position using your forearm as support on the floor, the other arm is placed along the body, the upper leg is held by a partner*, approximately at the height of your hip, placing their hand on your ankle and the other one on on the knee. Then you raise your body from the floor, around a 3 second concentric hip adduction (3 seconds up), until your body is in a straight line, so your feet are touching each other. Then you lower your body half way to the ground, around a 3 second eccentric adduction (3 seconds down), until you’re touching the floor without using it for support.
– *Don’t have a partner? Use a step stool, a chair, a couch, an ottoman, a step, something to set your top leg on. It’s not the end of the world if you go a little higher than your hip.
– The article reviews the frequency of prescription from each study and I’ve included a rough average below:

LevelTimes per weekSetsReps
Beginner1-32-43-5
Intermediate2-31-27-10
Advanced2-32-36-15

I always suggest you put at least one day before doing the exercise again, so if you do this on Monday, wait until Wednesday to do it again. When dividing your sets, depending on your level of expertise and goals with your work out you can do a couple of different things. I would suggest either you alternate sides between your sets or taking at least a 30 second break before starting your next set.

It’s worth a shot if you’re looking for new exercises or trying to improve your overall fitness. Like I said earlier, it may help with some pain and/or discomfort in your legs, BUT you should talk to your doctor (or a doctor of physical therapy) before hand to be sure it’s appropriate for you!

See article: Copenhagen Adduction Exercises to Increase Eccentric Strength: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Hello!

Hi. Some of you have been reading my blogs for awhile now, ever since I started traveling to other countries. While those are still my favorite things to write about, I don’t get to do it all the time (regardless of a pandemic). So, I’m going to introduce you to another part of my life: Physical Therapy.

I started working as a physical therapist almost three years ago. What I knew then, and what I know even better now, is that I will never feel like I know EXACTLY what is going on and EXACTLY how to fix it. But at this point, I know I won’t hurt anyone, and that most of the people I see in the outpatient arena, simply fall a little short in their training – obviously some more than others. If I had to boil it down I see: 1. people who have been not been physically active in awhile and overestimate the tasks of daily living; 2. people who consistently train in one specific way and underestimate the power of cross training.

I want to use this platform to occasionally give you some insight into how you can improve in the areas you want to improve, and if necessary, encourage you to find something you want to improve, none of us is perfect. So, from time to time I plan to highlight a study I’ve read and give you my thoughts, give you some easy exercises to help with general problems (however this should NEVER replace a visit to be evaluated because none of us is the same either), or to give you an update on general recommendations (did you know the recommendation for physical activity from the CDC changed within the last six months?).

If you post questions or comments, I’ll do my best to answer, either directly or with a different post. So feel free to let me know anything you’d like to know more about even if it doesn’t pertain to the post you’ve just read.

Working with Sara in TZ

Camping – Shenandoah

The tales of date night continue. September was my turn again, and the date night was scheduled for Friday, September 4. I took Mike camping.

Sunrise. Shenandoah National Park

Friday: We kicked things off by closing on a townhouse! Yay! Then we drove 2.5 hours to Shenandoah National Park…distance wise, it shouldn’t be that long but…traffic. Unfortunately, we got there after the park “closed” but we were still able to get in. I might feel bad because we didn’t pay, but we have a national park pass, so we didn’t miss out on paying. The campground itself was at capacity, and I didn’t reserve a spot anyway. We don’t have much luck reserving campsites. I planned on us backcountry camping. I applied for a permit online, got an e-mail back of my application…maybe that was our permit. Anywho…it was 2000 and too dark to try to hike to a spot to camp. We found a spot to pull over that had a flat, grassy spot next to the parking lot. Perfect for pitching a tent. We set up our tent and went to bed. Around 0230, we got neighbors. At first all I heard was some light music, and then they honked. I think it was an accident. I also had to go to the bathroom. Fortunately, the honk woke Mike up, so we went for a short walk into the wilderness and went to the bathroom. Yay for husbands. Worried we might not fall back asleep we chatted a bit….and then zzzzz

The moon at 0230

Saturday: Real wake up was around 0600. We packed up our tent, made some cold oatmeal, and drove back to Matthew’s Arm Campground and trailhead. On the way we stopped at some overlooks to see a gorgeous sunrise. We then hiked Tracer’s Trail to Overall Run to see Overall Run Falls. The falls were pretty, we hiked around trying to find the beginning of the falls but couldn’t find it. We decided to head back to the car and got lost. We took a wrong turn and wound up on Beecher Ridge Trail. We had seen a post that said Matthew’s Arm Campground 0.9mi and I was pretty sure we had gone further than that so Mike pulled up the Shenandoah National Park app, despite horrible service, and found our blue dot…we weren’t on the right trail. We backtracked and got back on the right trail. When we got back to the car I made us some PB&Js and Mike went to see if we would be able to get a campsite. They were full. Which was ok with me because I wanted to backcountry camp. We packed up our packs and started hiking towards the Appalachian trail. I can’t tell you how far we went because I didn’t track it but it was about 3.5 hours from the trail head. We made it to Gravel Springs and then hiked back about 15 minutes to set up camp.

Overall Run Falls

We got our tent set up around 1700 and then started scavenging for twigs for fire. It was a little rough getting the fire started, but it turns out Tostitos are nicely flammable. Once the fire was started we warmed up some Amy’s soup – lentils and vegetables and made s’mores. Yum. We spent the evening just staring at the fire and listening to nature.

I had a really good night sleep, temperature was perfect, and I was exhausted. I think Mike slept well too…he said he did. Since our legs were fresh the hike back to the car was only 2.5 hours. Wearing new hiking boots for the first time wasn’t the brightest idea…20 miles later… Then our hiking/camping adventure was over. It was awesome.

Mike’s Grand Canyon

  1. If you haven’t been to the Grand Canyon yet, GO!
  2. Bring sturdy shoes.
  3. Go into the canyon.  The rim is awesome, but the canyon changes when you go down only 100 feet

Eight years ago Kandace and I reserved a camp site at the Grand Canyon; to this day it is the only National Park confirmed camp site we’ve ever had!  The worst part is, we did not even make the trip! To this day, we’ve struggled getting confirmed camp sites at national parks! But we avoided that fiasco by enjoying their on-park hotel.

Like I said, it took us eight years to get to the Grand Canyon and I feel like I let us down by waiting so long!

When you make your trip you want to enjoy all the views and everything the canyon has to offer so make sure you wear sturdy shoes so you can enjoy the canyon. The South Rim trail is super easy the walk and the majority of it is handicap accessible, but if you want to get the full experience wear sturdy shoes so you can hike into the canyon and see all it has to offer.

Lastly when you make it to the canyon go past the rim and down into the canyon. As soon as you think you think you’ve seen the canyon changing your view changes everything. We hiked a few hours in and the canyon looked different every 30 minutes. If you don’t have a lot of time go down Angelbright trail.

Here are a few pics!

Grand Canyon

Mike and I have been planning to visit the Grand Canyon for a very long time. In the first or second year of dating, we went so far as to book a camp ground (and pay for it) but not go. When we lived in Colorado we talked about going…a lot…but didn’t. Since moving here to DC we have planned the trip 3 times! Memorial Day, Fourth of July (both cancelled due to ‘Rona), and then a random weekend in August. August was the answer, we finally made it! And my mom got to come too! Yay!

FLIGHTS
We flew out of DCA through Detroit and then to Phoenix. This was our first time flying since the lock down and we weren’t sure what to expect. DCA was an early morning flight – 0500 – so it was dead and hard to tell if it was because of the time or COVID-19. We wore our masks throughout the airport and for duration of our flights. No one got mad or yelled at anyone regarding the wearing of the masks. It was really unremarkable.
Detroit was also dead. We went to the lounge and there was no one there. It’s pretty surreal seeing the airports so empty. It kind of feels like something really bad happened and destroyed the world and somehow we are the only people left.
Landing in Phoenix, again unremarkable. Barely any people, very few stores/restaurants open. Really quite barren.

We flew Delta. The middle seat was left open…except when Mike decided he needed to sit closer to me. They handed out “goodie bags” with water, hand sanitizer wipes, Cheezits, and Biscoff cookies.

Returning home was Phoenix to Atlanta to DCA. Really nothing any different than the flight out. We had 30 minutes to transfer in Atlanta, which typically is a little nerve racking – in any airport, but especially Atlanta – but in this instance, it was a breeze. So bizarre.

Grand Canyon
We drove to the Grand Canyon from Phoenix after grabbing lunch.
One hiccup was that we reserved a Jeep Wrangler for our rental but they were out. We initially settled on a BMW convertible but soon realized that wasn’t going to be very enjoyable for longer drives. We returned the convertible and got a VW Atlas. It was big and comfy, and a very smooth ride.
We got to see the sunset on the first night. The canyon just takes your breath away. I’m sharing my photos with you, but don’t let that be your solution to seeing the canyon, they don’t do it justice. The colors are amazing, they change with the sun and each layer is very unique.

Sunset at Grand Canyon


Our first full day, I made everyone get up at 0400, at first I think they thought I was crazy, but by the end they were grateful. We stepped on to the trail at 0521, it was still dark. Mom was in charge of the flashlight, she did a good job, but she would accidentally shine it right at our faces which was…blinding. The first stop was “ooh aah” point. You can see, it was aptly named.

We turned around at “Skeleton Point”, which as a great idea. The hike up was steeper than it feels on the way down! We made it to the top around noon.

On the way up, we saw the donkeys hard at work. They were headed back to the top, presumably for more materials for the village at the bottom.

We were pretty worn out at the end of the hike. We drove to town and got some less than mediocre pasta and pizza. Once we replenished our energy, we drove the rim to see all the sights. I managed to capture a lightning strike at one of the overlooks. And we saw some elk wandering around.

The last day at the canyon, Mike and I decided to go sky diving! It was our second time jumping out of a plane and it went pretty well! The first time we jumped out of a plane was in Iowa, and I puked after…motion sickness will get ya! This time, I just felt hungover all day. Really not sure which is better, but it was really cool seeing the Grand Canyon from a parachute!

On our drive back to Phoenix, we stopped in Flagstaff to see Jay and Chloe! A great surprise, as I had forgotten they lived there. Refer to Unexpected Blessings for more on that!
At the end of the trip, Mike serenaded us…

A fun, quick trip with lots of memories! It’s crazy how different the vegetation is throughout our country. Being in places like Arizona remind me how much I like lush greenery! Mike and I want to go back though, and hike rim to rim, so…maybe next year!