July 31- Last Day of Month 6

Well I wish I could say I did perfect this month, but that would NOT be truthful.  Fact is, it was a harder month than I thought it would be for me, especially since I don't consider myself a big spender and I have changed as I've matured and I really don't enjoy shopping as much as I once used to.  For a few reasons though, I didn't do as well as I hoped.  One of the first instances in which I failed was when I took my girl shopping for a bday gift for her friend from school.  Not even thinking, I took her to Kohls, which was not on my 7 list, the crazy thing was, I didn't even realize until the next day sitting in church, it just dawned on me all of a sudden that I totally cheated without even thinking.  Then the next night my honey and I had a chance for a date night and we took it! Dinner and Batman movie and this time I willfully cheated, and Chipotle was worth it, Yum!!  I didn't count Batman as cheating since I listed the movie theatre in my seven.  So then a couple of days go by and  yep cheat again, this time for dinner  with a friend, Pei Wei, de-lish!!!  The food and company both were worth cheating for and since I never ate at Panera or went to Knott's, both places listed under 7 then I should've been ok......BUT we went out of town for a beach weekend trip so I failed some more.   Oh and I ordered Anne of Green Gables movies on DVD off of Amazon, another not thinking instance.  Wow, I guess I'm a bigger  spender than I thought I was!!! Learning so much about myself through this experiment. I highly recommend it to anyone!  I also joined Pinterest this month, what a fun online window shopping experience! Only been on for a couple of weeks and already have re-pinned 95 things!  I can see how beneficial the website can be, but I also see how it can harm too.  The verse that comes to mind...
1 John 2:16-17 KJV

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. "
I need to be careful I don't become addicted or excessive with Pinterest, just like with anything I must practice self control.

So August 1st starts the mutiny against excessive stress month. I'm loving this month already!! And i might blog more to keep me accountable....so here it goes... :)

Day 13- CHALLENGED

So its "Experimental Mutiny Against Excessive Spending Month" and as I sit in the eye doctor waiting room I realize already I'm going to cheat on my 7 places of spending this month. I NEED eye wear though, I'm blind without it! Thank God for contacts, I'd be miserable without them.   I won't cheat too bad though, I am determined to do my best! I don't see needing too many other things that I can't get at one of the 7 approved places I listed for this month.
So the Dominican Republic/Haiti mission trip was even more wonderful than I expected it to be. God was in every little detail of it. He always amazes me and I love it!  We had the best group of servants on this trip ever! God definitely put the team together and everyone of us put God's glory ahead of our own.  It was so awesome to see the team work and the new friendships for life that evolved in the process.  Yes of course there were times when some could have chosen to be offended and let mis-communication and hurt take over, but they didn't. Instead they chose the higher road, God's road, and extended grace, compassion and humility realizing that God's way is the best way and that we were there to please Him.   The week was fabulous, seeing and learning even more of what G.O. Ministries is doing to help those in need on the Island of Hispaniola to the glory of God, was so humbling and inspiring. 
CHALLENGED... the word that keeps coming to mind and with it a song that God laid on my heart the night we returned back to the D.R. from Haiti, Josh Wilson's - "I Refuse" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbH0IWZL05s (hope the link works)  Really a great challenging song that I listened to over and over and over again that night. I know what God is calling my family to do and it's time we act on it.  I'll say it publicly soon, but for now only those I actually speak to face to face with will know the details.
The trip was amazing. I just wish my family could have been with me,if  they were I would have wanted to stay longer.  I look forward to the day we can all go together.  Haiti has my heart for sure. I NEED to learn Creole and Spanish!!!! Need to make it a priority.   Still so mind boggling to think about how they survive day to day, but realizing even more how great their need for Jesus is.  The Haitian kids... I still can't get over how utterly insane they get over cute little smiley face and heart stickers...simply mind blowing and how I would love to be able to give them something even much more valuable than that...Jesus, He is the greatest treasure of all, nothing is more valuable than having a relationship with Him.  I've learned so much from the little village in Phaeton, so much more than I ever thought possible. I'm Challenged and I'm called to act on it and I will.    

Month 6- Spending:July 1st?! How did that happen?

Wow, the first month of summer is gone...just like that!  It was mostly a good month I didn't do as well as I could've on certain things, but I will be carrying on the good habits I was able to change for the rest of my life.  Such as having a separate recycle container and a trash container in my kitchen, it really does work good that way and as a family we've definitely cut down on the amount of trash we have and that's a good thing. Every little good thing we do when combined with every little good thing done by others, turn out to be great big things that we all did together! :)

So this month is focusing on spending.  I am to spend money in ONLY 7 different places this month.  This month of July could quite possibly be the best month for this, but I'm going to allow grace for myself the first 10 days as I will be traveling with my church on a mission trip to Dominican Republic and Haiti with G.O. Ministries.  When I return however, it will be back to only the 7 places.  So my 7 places are...

1. Food 4 Less ( never thought I would be a shopper there, but it's really close to home and they have an awesome fundraiser opportunity for G.O. Ministries when I use my Kroger re-loadable gift card, 4% of everything I spend goes directly to the Christian missionaries in D.R. so it's worth it!)
2. Gas Station
3. Movie Theatre ($1 family movies on Tuesday and Wednesday, it's air conditioned fun in this heat!)
4. Jason's Deli (A fast kid friendly restaurant for those times when we just need to eat out!)
5. Knott's Berry Farm (Just in case we go again! :)
6. Wal-mart ( I wish I could put down the Mall! ;)
7. Panera Bread (Latte Ladies Bookclub is at Panera and they have really good oatmeal now! :)

So even as I list these places I realize just how spoiled I am... Who wants to meet me at Jason's Deli when I return from my mission trip?!  I'm sure I'll have great stories to share.  Reallly looking foward to all that lies ahead for our team.  The medical team is going to be such a blessing to the Dominican people and I'm sure the construction team will be working extra hard to leave an impact and make some progress on various projects.   Praying God will use each one of us going in the exact way that He desires to and that above all those we serve will tangibly feel and see the love of Jesus,  May God be glorified.





 

Day 12 of Month 5 Already?!

Wow this month is flying by, slow down time, slow down!  Blogging after my piano lesson as I sit here listening to my girl have her lesson. 

Recycling is going well, I can not believe how little trash we have now. I found a recycling center in town that recycles practically everything! Why did I ever put this off for so long, it's really not hard and makes me feel good that our family is doing a small part to help our earth.

Doing good using reusable bags at the stores, I thought the store clerks would hate me, but they have all been so obliging and kind, yay!

Haven't been able to cut driving down as much as I wanted to, might have to scrap that one from my list...it's impossible! My girl is attending a cooking camp at church, which she is loving, so now I'm driving her back and forth to that this week, it's farther then her school...oh well, I'm looking forward to her making our family dinner afterwards! :)

I've bought nothing but groceries and gifts lately so I haven't made it to any second hand stores yet...and right now I'm window shopping online for great deals on toys and sports equipment for our mission trip team to take to Haiti in a few weeks...it's coming fast! So much for only shopping locally ;)

I am being more conscience of turning off lights and using less water by taking shorter showers so that's good.

This seven month experiment has been good for me, it's making me appreciate everything we've been blessed with so much more. I really desire to be a blessing to others...it takes time, and I'm sure I'll never feel like I've arrived.  One thing for sure there are numerous people in my life that have been a blessing to me, and I'm truly grateful to God for all of them!

Month 5, Day 1- 7 Habits for a Less Wasteful Life

Starting month 5 focusing on the area of "waste" this entire month.  I'm positive I'm one of the most wasteful people on this planet. How do I know? I can remember even as an adult with my kids still toddlers,  while cleaning the house in a hurry and "accidentally" throwing away a penny or even a nickel, mostly I was too lazy to fish it out of my own trash can after it had fallen in somehow.  How wasteful is that?  Thankfully I've matured some since then, and now I truly appreciate all God has blessed me with.  I've learned I need to be a good steward, and literally throwing money away is not being a good steward, so I don't literally throw money away anymore, but I still have a long way to go before I will call myself a good steward. 
So this month I will focus on 7 habits for a less wasteful life.  I need to think "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". I wanted to garden this month, but that just never happened, previous posts explain why, but basically it was going to be too expensive for what I wanted to do... So this month I will shop Farmer's Markets instead, which I never do, so I'm actually excited about it, and since the kids will be on summer break, they will be coming along to shop with me on those days.

I will not overbuy! I do this so much!! I think, oh we'll eat that before it goes bad, and then we wind up throwing it away! Right now I have to throw away 2 bunches of bananas that we never ate! I also forgot to throw them in the freezer this time and I never got around to baking banana bread with them.  It's not "literally" throwing money away, but it is throwing money away and not being a good steward! What a waster I am!!

I have a couple of reusable grocery bags, but I've NEVER used them to buy groceries with, so this month I'm going to be using reusable grocery bags. 

We will be conserving energy and water more, I'm the worst at turning lights off that I'm not using.  I love to have lights on all over the place, I've done a poor job at teaching my kids to conserve energy, because well I can't tell them to do something that I never do! So this month, they are going to learn, and so will I.  I'm going to set up a timer with a buzzer by our showers to help limit our shower time. My kids take too long in the shower sometimes, and I'm sure I could cut some time off of mine as well.  Confession time, last summer on my mission trip to DR/Haiti, we took showers out of big buckets of cold water by using a cup to wet ourselves and rinse with, so one of the things I said I was going to do when I got back home, was to continue taking showers that way by turning the water on only when I rinsed, instead of having it run the entire shower time.  Um....yeah I failed miserably at that, it lasted for about a week when I got back and I tried to do it occasionally after that.  The only good thing that came out of that failure, is that every time I am in the shower I think about the Dominicans and the Haitians and all those in this world who need fresh water, and I pray.

We will be recycling EVERYTHING this month.  I have the 3 little red, white, and blue recycle bins still,  somehow living in a gated community has kept us off of the new city wide recycling program and we have never received the huge new recycle bins where you don't have to sort any of it.  So as of now, we still have to sort and our bins are usually overflowing, especially because we always miss recycle curb pick up days, so overflowing bins make me not want to add anymore recycables to it and I wind up throwing stuff away that I shouldnt. I just haven't made it a priority, but I need to, so this month, I will!

This month I will be shopping garage sales, thrift and second-hand stores for any items we need.  This will not include gift items though, unless they are practically brand new!  I will not be shopping online this month, I will only be buying locally.  This does not include Itunes for music, I just love music!

Driving will be cut down considerably this month, one good thing is I won't have to drive back and forth to school this month since school will be over for the summer in just 4 1/2 days. I will try as much as possible to stay in my little area of town too.

So that's it 7 areas to work on cutting down on waste this month.  Looking forward to new wonderful habits being established in our family.  We all need to do our part in taking care of Earth, it's God's amazing, spectacular, beautiful creation,  that we all call home.

1. Shop Farmer's Markets
2. Do Not Over Buy
3. Use Re-usable Grocery Bags
4. Conserve Energy and Water
5. Recycle Everything
6. Shop Local
7. Reduce Driving Frequency and Distances

Day 31 Month 4- Last day of "7" Media Fast

Tomorrow the kids get their TV back! Not sure I want that to happen, I mean just look at my son before school these days. Instead of eating a bowl of cereal while watching TV, he's now eating it while READING!

We will be limiting how much TV they watch though, especially with only one more week left of school, they absolutely will NOT be watching TV entire summer days.  There is so much more to life than television!  I'm glad this month proved to them that they can survive without Disney and Nick TV shows, those are really the only shows they watch, and they are funny, but I admit they were watching them too much!

Am I happy this month is over?  Yes and no...always mixed feelings for me.  I'm happy I'll have the radio back in my truck while driving, it really is weird how the drives can feel so much longer when there is no music to sing along to while driving.  My daughter and I tried singing on our own and that worked fine, until we couldn't remember the words and just kept singing the same parts over and over again.  I'm so thankful for God's gift of music to us!!!

Twitter, I still can care less about. Fun phone apps, I can live without, but of course will be fun again. Fun websites, there have been a couple of times I wanted to play on one with my kids so that will be nice to have back. Texting, will be nice to have full access to again, it was hard to limit, but I think I did ok. Phone conversations, those don't happen to often these days anyway, texting takes their place, I would much rather have a face to face or walking conversations over both of those though.  Youtube, that's where I failed the most, it was just too much fun watching the comedians on there, I'm glad I'll be able to watch it freely now and not feel guilty for it! Facebook, yeah I want it back I have no clue what's happening in some of my friends/families lives or the world for that matter! HA!!! I definitely will be limiting it like I will be limiting TV for my kids though.  The hard part, I have my phone with me constantly which will have facebook access once again, unless I decide to just keep it off of my phone and only access it through the computer...hmmm, I'll have to think about that one.  It's a good idea but I'm not sure I want to!  It just provides something to do on those times when my honey is driving me around places.  I would read a book but for some reason, I get sick while reading a book, I don't get sick while reading a phone screen though.  Has anyone else experienced that?  Maybe I need a Kindle! :)  Well enough about Media, it was nice to unplug, but I'll be happy to have it back.  I'll have to catch up on the news, anything interesting happening lately?!

Day 26- Youtube Media fast?! Really? Are you sure?!!

Ugh! I can't do it! I just can't give up certain forms of media for an entire month! I failed again today and I only have less than a week left! I was doing mostly good on this Saturday hanging out at home. First I went on a wonderful brisk morning walk with friends, read the Bible, then cooked my family some sausage, egg and cheese scramble with chocolate chip pancakes. Then helped the kids clean up their toy room so their friends could come over to play.  Sore and tired from the walk, I relaxed as I organized files on my new laptop and did some research.  All was going pretty well... after eating grilled hamburgers for dinner, we continued reading one of my son's favorite books of the moment, the first book in "The Mysterious Benedict Society" series...which so far is a fun read! We are really enjoying it as a family.  Then it happened, my mind went back to a conversation with a fabulous friend from my morning walk, I had asked if they knew of any stand up comedians that my son would enjoy, because that is what he really loves, comedy. To laugh and make others laugh.   So my friend suggested Brian Regan. I had never heard of him and tonight we just HAD to Youtube him. So as a family, we sat and watched an hour long show. It was HILARIOUS! We laughed soooo hard! I'm a Brian Regan fan now, and my son loved it!  So I'm failing my Youtube portion of my media fast, BUT, we are making some priceless memories together as a family, and so....it's worth it!!! Now go Youtube Brian Regan if you've never heard him!!! :)