Tuesday Challenge #39 | Black Out

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is your challenge this week is to figure out when you will complete this challenge. You have up to a year. The bad news is that you might not like it. -at first.

You see, I've been waiting for the right time of year to cut off the power. Yes, you read that correctly. I wanted to do it earlier in the year but I thought it might be better in October. Not too hot, not too cold, etc...  I mentioned it to Colin this morning. He looked a little bug-eyed and said "What's the matter with you woman? Don't you know that's a summer time thing?!" haha.  His point was that it was better to do it when the kids aren't in school.  OK...well, maybe.   

Of course as I am typing this, I realize that I have no idea how I would charge my cell phone, which isn't only used for work. It is also my alarm.  Hmmm. Maybe there will also be a little prep for this challenge.

The point of it is to scale back on all the luxuries that we take for granted; fasting from comfort and gaining a little different perspective. You can take off the week from work, plan a stay-cation and figure out fun things to do during the day which won't really be that much different from the norm. You might however, appreciate suggestions at night. You have some time. Start here, here and well, Google it...

Here are some of my favorites:

1. Roast marsh mellows
2. Catch lightening bugs
3. Dye/Paint shirts with glow in the dark paint.
4. Paint or make anything with glow in the dark paint.
5. Shadow Puppets
6. Reading or games by candlelight
7. Finally assemble your photo albums. (Hijacked from here.)
8. Watch the stars (plan it for a week that there might be an event, like Venus visibility or a meteorite shower.)
9. Science Experiment(s)
10. Swim at night...

You get the idea...


Scripture for the week:  Romans 12:2 is what really comes to mind here. I've obviously given more ideas about spending time with family than I have spending time with God but I think you know how to work that best into your family. Sometimes disconnecting from the main stream and reconnecting with living might just be another way to appreciate what he has created and what he has given.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do you have a testimony about this challenge or a suggestion for another one? I'd love to hear it! Comment here!

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Picture Credit [then modified]: http://www.superbwallpapers.com/nature/sunrise-over-the-mountains-14501/

Tuesday Challenge #38 - Home

This week's challenge: This challenge comes from Courtney Joseph at Women Living Well. It's actually a challenge that is running through the month of October with several ideas on how to make your home a haven.

The first week, she suggested lighting a candle in your home every day and placing it where you can see it. Whenever you pass by it, say a prayer for peace in your home.

Another idea was to play soft music in your home. This might be a challenge to hear with a t.v. blaring and squabbling siblings BUT- I recently got a blue tooth speaker and an introduction to Spotify. They have a few Christian Coffeehouse play lists that I LOVE. They are much more my speed than the local K-Love station and they are definitely mellow!  (You can sign up for Spotify's free trial and it will stay free as long as you want to listen to others stations. You will pay for options that allow you to customize your own play lists.)

Anyway, I loved both of those ideas and I bet I am not the only one who can use them!  If you'd like to read more, check out Courtney's other ideas here. 

Enjoy!



Scripture for the week: The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. ~ Proverbs 14:1

Do you have a testimony about this challenge or a suggestion for another one? I'd love to hear it! Comment here!

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Picture Credit [then modified]: http://www.superbwallpapers.com/nature/sunrise-over-the-mountains-14501/

Tuesday Challenge #37 | Smallest thing

This week's challenge: I wrote my first poem as an assignment in English class when I was in the fourth grade. I knew instantly that I was a writer. Throughout school if I was given the choice between a project or an essay, it was a no brainer for me. Essay please! 

Year book staff was a highlight for me during my senior year, as I contributed to many of the pages within that edition. Even in my spare time, I hung with my best friend, late into the night at diners with papers and pens; dreaming and writing. 

I always thought that it would be awesome to write for a living but truthfully, I never knew what to write about... Then there came a blog and it was kind of by accident... But it satisfied in a way that was completely unexpected. 

Earlier this month I went to a conference and I teased a friend about creating a greeting card line. Once the words left my mouth, they seemed to hang in the air. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Oddly enough one of the speakers mentioned something about cards too and it seemed to highlight the very thing in front of me.

On the way home, I recorded about 30 cards in my voice recorder. The irony struck me that I've just always imagined something "bigger" in my words than a few one liners.  This was so much smaller and more doable and more me...

Even more so, my word for this year is "smallness". This is definitely smaller.

Switching to another area of my life; I desire to spend more time in the Bible myself. I sometimes think that I could all of my days, all day in Bible Study. I also want to do devotions more with the kids, pray more with my husband and then do all of the above more as a family. I have accumulated books and books and more books, hoping to do a little here and there but there are not enough hours in the day for all of my ideas. 

Then I came across this blog about a study on the Book of Acts. (Watch the video, the author Courtney Joseph, even mentions doing it with your kids. Even if the younger ones only do it as a doodle on a page with one scripture.) If you get the gist of it, you won't even need the book. If I sat down and did this one thing more often and as a family then it would accomplish all of the little things that I have been trying to figure out how to work in. Even if it wasn't every day. This seemed more doable and again, smaller... but packed with so much more purpose and meaning. 

My challenge to you this week is to consider whatever that dream or plan is that you have and then ask yourself. What is the smallest thing that you can do with it, right now?  Is there a way to do less and accomplish more??  And/or consider if there a way that you can glorify God in the process?


Scripture for the week: The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff." - Exodus 4:2

That verse is so small but pretty simple, isn't it? Just as we might pass over scripture that doesn't say "more" we also pass over opportunities and methods that are equally simple. But doesn't God use the most what we already have, no matter how little? If you want to see more examples of that, check out this link!

Oh and have fun dreaming!

Do you have a testimony about this challenge or a suggestion for another one? I'd love to hear it! Comment here!

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Picture Credit [then modified]: http://www.superbwallpapers.com/nature/sunrise-over-the-mountains-14501/

Tuesday Challenge #36 | Doodle

Updated with tip @ bottom - 10/9/15

Are you a doodler? If so, you will love this challenge!  I came across stonesoupforfive.com recently and the author, Kari, doodles in her Bible as she goes through it. She has even made some companion books to go along with your bible for more doodling space! 

Doodling is noted with helping you concentrate, and think deeper about a subject. It's also an outlet for your creativity!  In fact, Milton Glaser, author of a 2008 monograph titled Drawing Is Thinking says that “When you draw an object, the mind becomes deeply, intensely attentive,”

Well, couldn't we all benefit from a little more of that when we read our Bibles?!


This week's challenge: As you read your bible this week, doodle some of the concepts or main points in the in the margin. Challenge yourself to doodle three things for each chapter. Unless your talent happens to be drawing, then you can get elaborate as you'd like. For the rest of us, three small simple doodles ought to do it! :)


Scripture for the week: I thought it might be fun to share some drawings of verses to get your wheels turning. These 3 verses are not from Kari but instead from an artist named Linda Robb who specializes in pet portraits and scripture art. -I didn't want to give away all of Kari's doodle ideas on the first page.  -These were cute and totally worth the share.

**TIP**

The Angel of the Lord appearing under the oak while Gideon was threshing wheat. - Judges 6:11

After trying this myself, I thought it might be easier to draw with a highlighter on actual scripture. I like this better than trying to find a blank space but the highlighter that I had, bled through the pages. These Accu-gel highlighters come recommended from Women Living Well and they do not bleed through the paper. But they do have a wide tip. If you'd like a finer point, try the Pigma Micron brand. I'll be checking them out myself! :)

Do you have a testimony about this challenge or a suggestion for another one? I'd love to hear it! Comment here!

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Picture Credit [then modified]: http://www.superbwallpapers.com/nature/sunrise-over-the-mountains-14501/

In A Dream

I stand in the kitchen and thumb your things

with my eyes.

Mental notes about your preferences.

-about you.

Like folding corners in a book-

A page

worth remembering

and finding again.

Your love for hidden things...

An invitation to more

Yet held carefully, 
closed

-The length of your torso holding mine.

An assurance in your words,

while the tone condenses

and haunts me.

A cigarette in the air

And a laugh as if it were back

at you.

And a hole in my heart, so big

it is worth filling.

     Being full 

          and leaving empty

in order to number
your gift(s)

I dreamt I touched you last night.

It was just as real as if you were in the kitchen with me

I pick up my pen and try to remember.

~~~

For Michael