Guileless in Goalessness

How do you like that title?  :)

So, May's 30 day challenges to wake up early, go to bed early and pray for my leaders daily was a massive failure. Maybe my previous 30 day goals I really wanted to do, and these I only felt I should do? Maybe life took a few unexpected, major turns this past month, and I found myself a bit distracted from focusing on the challenges? Maybe I attempted too much for this month and should have chosen one or the other but not both? Maybe I just became fried of focusing on the same thing for 30 days in a row? Whatever the reason, I took a nose dive with May's challenges.

And, while June's 30 day challenge seems more attainable, work on improving the outside of my home 15 minutes daily, I am guiltlessly making a choice to set aside this 30 day challenge for now.

Our family is undergoing some changes, and I need to focus my energies on prayer, preparation and "rolling with the punches."

I hope to still write here on the blog, but I must admit that I am lacking motivation to articulate much at all via pen or otherwise. Having recently experienced a flare with my back, I find it difficult to concentrate and be as productive as I would like with the residual, gnawing pain I am still withstanding. Some days are better than others. Today is not one of them, but I haven't been to my chiropractor in almost 2 weeks. I am hoping to see him tomorrow.

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
Psalm 40:11

April and May's 30 day challenges

April is a week past, and I am just now posting how I did with its 30 day challenge. Enjoying a week away from our normal routine with my hubby home from work, I unplugged most of last week. It was one of our best "stay-cations" yet as a family, but I'll write more about that in another post. For now, I'm sure all my 3 readers are on pins and needles to hear how I did with April's challenge and what May's 30 day challenge is going to be.

My challenge for April was to write 15 minutes a day. Most days I did write, but not all. Some days I wrote much longer than 15 minutes, and I certainly didn't publish everything here on the blog. Nevertheless, it was highly enjoyable to exercise my brain in a way I haven't for a while. A dear friend was kind enough to dialogue with me via email about some of my writing and provide input and encouragement. I am very grateful to have avid readers and accomplished writers for friends who are kind enough to take me and my writing seriously even though it doesn't deserve such attention.

My friend, Danielle, suggested I purchase a book called, "Writer Mama" to practice and strengthen my writing. I ordered it last night and am excited to have an external motivator to keep my writing muscles from going limp.  My pastor once said that if one doesn't pursue one's passion, it will soon not be her passion. I have long remembered that in regards to many things I have been passionate about in life (and if you know me closely, you know that encompasses quite a lot. I am one of those passionate-about-everything people who wishes for even a moment of apathy to know what it feels like. :) )  Writing is one of those things I love but know I need to practice.

So, I'm glad I did it. As I'm finding with many of the 30 day challenges I've done so far, it has been so helpful to articulate passions and give them life by way of setting attainable, measurable goals.

For May, my goals are as follows:

• Pray for my leaders daily. I think I'm going to narrow this to my husband, my pastors and the President of our country. I know there are many others in leadership over me, but I am choosing to focus on these few with fervor rather than gloss over many in quick prayers for all in authority over me.
• Go upstairs to my bedroom by 9:30 pm and be in bed (maybe asleep) by 10:30. 
  This is huge for me because I have made a habit of staying up late at night after the kids go to bed, sometimes for good reasons like cleaning my kitchen and folding laundry, sometimes for selfish reasons like having "me" time to catch up on facebook and my gazillion blog posts I've bookmarked over the course of the day. I am hoping this will jump start afresh a daily habit that will serve my family better.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to post some pictures and some words about how to do stay-cations well. We've done a number of them now, and I think we're finally finding our "groove". I'd love to pass along some of what I've learned over the last couple of years on how to "do" stay-cations successfully. Tune in! :)

How did I do? Update on March's 30 day challenge

March's challenge was to memorize a verse of scripture each day. For that I planned on memorizing Psalm 145 and Psalm 146.

I only memorized Psalm 145. When I reached the last verse in that Psalm, I petered out, not because I wasn't enjoying storing up scripture in my mind and heart. I was. I found this challenge to be so beneficial to my soul. I think I just grew lazy of the mental challenge, in all honesty. Nevertheless, at the end of this post, I would like to write as much from memory as I can from Psalm 145.

The 2nd challenge for March was not to drink soda which I am happy to say I successfully accomplished. It was most difficult the first 2-3 weeks. It then became much easier, and I only really wanted it when we'd be eating pizza on family night or out to eat at a restaurant. My ongoing plan with diet soda is to limit it to eating out or at special events. I let my hubby know today that I will only be buying it for the house when it's $2.00/case or if we are having folks over who we know will appreciate having it. Otherwise, I'd rather not pick the habit up again of having a diet soda every afternoon (or more often as some days I did).

Psalm 145--

I will extol you, my God and my King. I will bless you forever and ever.

Everyday I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your might acts.

On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate.

They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds and I will declare your greatness.

They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that He has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion shall endure throughout all generations.

The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and You give them their food in due season.

You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works.

The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord preserves those who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

True confession: At best I need to re-memorize the last 3 verses and was needing some word prompts throughout. So, I will continue to work on Psalm 145.

In the meantime, my 30 day challenge for April is to write at least 15 minutes a day. It could be for the blog or not. I have always dreamed of writing a book but have never really invested time into the work of it. While I don't think I will write a book by giving my attention to it only 15 minutes a day, I will nevertheless sharpen up my skills for that potential. One can't eat an elephant all at once, but only one bite at a time.

March's 30 day challenges

I'm sure many have been waiting on pins and needles to hear about the 30 day challenges I chose for March. ;)

I am aiming to drink no soda and memorize a Bible verse a day for 30 days. Good thing March has 31 days because I forgot about the no soda thing on March 1st and drank my usual diet caffeine free coke that afternoon.

I developed the soda habit when I did the South Beach diet several years ago. For those unfamiliar with SB, it restricts you from eating any sugar for the first phase of the diet which lasts 2 weeks or until your sugar cravings subside, which for me could have taken forever. I really don't know I can kick my sugar cravings, but that's for another post. Wanting to satiate that desire for sugar while "keeping the rules" of South Beach, I started drinking diet sodas. I have since read and learned that "fake" sugars send the same signals to one's brain as sugar does which makes clear why I can't kick my sugar cravings.

Nevertheless, I decided to do the 30 day challenge of no soda to seek to make no one and no thing my master but God alone. I want to make a tangible demonstration of that by taking a bit of a break from that daily ritual of downing a diet soda.

In addition, I want to memorize one Bible verse a day. I went back and forth on my approach for this. I considered selecting a variety of scriptures from an excellent series of CD's composed by Mark Altrogge that put scripture to music. You can find and purchase CD's from the "Hide the Word" series here: http://forevergratefulmusic.com/. I also considered choosing scriptures that pertain to an area of weakness for me in which I'd like to grow, for example passages from James that talk about taming the tongue.

But, where I landed as I was prayerfully paging through my Bible is where I think my heart will be most encouraged. Psalm 145 and 146 contain 31 verses and is a praise to the Lord. The best I can do for my soul is to spend extended time contemplating and giving thanks for the goodness and greatness of God. So, with that I'm jumping in with an effort to memorize these 31 God exalting verses.

30 day challenge check in

So, apparently February is over and March has begun. I'm having a hard time keeping track of the time of year given the weather we've been enjoying this winter. It was in the 60's today.

My 30 day challenges for February were not to criticize but encourage my hubby daily and to read leisurely for 15 minutes daily.

I chose not to pick up one specific book for the reading challenge but instead continue to plod on in the books and magazines I have on my nightstand along with the various blogs I read online. The goal was leisure. So, even though I typically read non-fiction for information or inspiration, I decided that IS leisure for me.

I picked up a new magazine this month that I am hoping to subscribe to sometime in the future. It's called, "Mother Earth News", and a friend of mine gave me her copy to read. It's choc full of inspiration and information for this tree huggin, crunchy girl. :)

In regards to encouraging my hubby, I figured he would be the best judge on how I did. Half way through the month, without soliciting for this, he said I was "rocking it" with the encouragement. Then, my stinking hormones decided to get the best of me and I turned into a beast. ick.

Nevertheless, I was grateful for the resource a friend pointed me to from Revive Our Hearts, a 30 day challenge on encouraging one's husband. So, I signed up for that and received an email each day with a scripture and a specific area on which to focus my encouragement to my husband. I found these emails very helpful and archived them. I am planning to go through them again in March. You can find that resource along with other 30 day challenges Revive Our Heart sponsors here: http://www.reviveourhearts.com/resource-library/30-day-challenges/

February's 30 day challenge

My next two 30 day challenges are 1. to withhold criticism from my hubby, and I am adding to this to give daily encouragement and 2. to read leisurely for at least 15 minutes.

I would actually like to poll anyone who might read this for suggestions for both of these challenges. Tell me to eat salad all day, I got it. Tell me to not be critical but encourage my hubby, I'm stuck. I.am.a.wretch.

YES, and a TROPHY OF GOD'S MERCY!!! That I am. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for even a sinner like me.

Can you help me?

I'm looking for creative ways to encourage my hubby, scriptures that may spur me on in this feat or anything else you think may help me with this challenge.

I'm also taking book recommendations. Admittedly, I don't really read for pleasure. It's one of those things that doesn't compute for me. I read for information or inspiration, but not just for pleasure. I know. I need to get a life. SO, I need help with this as well. For those who do this well, will you help a girl out? Suggest some titles. Much thanks. ;)

Gone Raw

Today marks the end of my first 30 day challenge, that of making 50% of what I ate raw, and not spending any extra money as subjective as that may sound.

I'm pleased with how the first 30 day challenge went. For the most part, I enjoyed eating this way. It does seem to suit me.

Some of the benefits I experienced from eating this way were that I lost the couple pounds I put on over Christmas and have been maintaining what is a comfortable weight for me without having to count calories. I just eat and my weight is holding. I'm happy about that. I have begun new habits that I believe will stick such as eating a piece of fruit or a smoothie in the morning when I'd usually grab a handful of chocolate chips.

Unlike the South Beach diet which I did several years ago and initially benefited from, I was able to still eat chocolate. This is pretty important to me. That said, I couldn't really go overboard with the chocolate (though my accountability partner might disagree with me on this point) because I always had to balance it out with eating something raw.

Eating 50% raw forced me to be thoughtful about my food choices which is good and for me, necessary, because otherwise, I really would eat chocolate chips, coffee and diet soda all day.

I enjoyed having a piece of fresh fruit with my breakfast, learning new smoothie recipes and watching my children eat more fruit and veggies as a result of mommy grabbing for that rather than chocolate chips. :)

The two aspects I found/find a challenge are the cost and the time. It really doesn't take THAT much more time to fix raw food, but I still found it to be more timely. And, we definitely are spending more money on fresh fruits and veggies. Worth it? I think so. I'm planning to keep this new way of eating long term.

The other 30 day challenge of not spending extra money was a great exercise in self denial, especially with eating out or grabbing "snacks" while we were out at places like BJ's or Target. Target is especially a challenge for me; those darn orange clearance stickers get me every time. :) But, not this time.

We were able to stay within our food/grocery and entertainment budgets this month which has always been a challenge for us. So, again, I'm hoping I can adopt this as a mindset ongoing.