Did you make resolutions this year? To Grow & Strengthen in 2015 are the words I specifically chose for me and my family.
In that post I set out some things I'd like to work on: Bible reading, outreach, contentedness, and health. This post will just touch on how those aspects are coming along.
It has only been a little over a month since that post was written so in that time, how much can have been accomplished? If I were a more dedicated individual, probably quite a bit! I'm more of a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kinda gal so it's been slow going.
Bible reading: Personally, I have joined with a small group of ladies wanting to read the Bible everyday. We don't have a singular plan that we follow. We are utilizing various means of reading the Bible. For me it is YouVersion and the small Facebook group we have. The YV app makes it very convenient to read, as I have my phone with me a lot of the time. Sometimes I do want the physical pages to turn and just find the day's reading on the app but read it in my book. I missed a day at one point and while I said to the group I felt guilty, it was more that I felt sad because it's become something to look forward to. There are days that I am so engrossed in the reading I read more than the day's set passages. That hasn't happened a lot but it's nice when it does.
Along with the reading, I've made a renewed effort to memorize verses. I'm fairly sure I mentioned our church's memorization group. I am paired with a lady at church who is memorizing the same verses as I am; we get together every other Sunday to recite them to each other. It is very helpful to have the accountability. I'm actually using ScriptureTyper now for this. I resisted for so long but it is actually a very helpful app.
The next step to work on is thinking deeper about what I read and memorize. Why does God want me to think on this? What application can it have in my life? One lady in our group has been doing a narration on her readings each day and it has been a blessing to read them in our FB group.
Outreach This is not going much of anywhere at the moment. I'm honestly not exactly sure what I need to do- definitely know my prayers need to include this, as they haven't really lately. I did come across a little blurb from a local newsletter for a "home [that] will be a place of refuge and transformation for women who need to be coached towards re-adjustment into society" due to various reasons. I'd torn it out of the newsletter months ago, before thinking of my words for the year, and it practically fell in my lap right after I'd started this post to update. I don't necessarily believe in coincidence.
Otherwise, I have not been doing well with foreign language or sign language studies. That needs to be more of a focus for me personally. I've started to put it in my bullet journal each day (it is included with other things I wish to do daily: Bible reading, prayer, verses, exercise, thankful entry, Russian, and nature journal entry). It's a little check the box type system that I include next to each day's date. So far I've been able to check off at least a couple of the boxes. Need to work more diligently on that, for sure.
Another part of this is church membership: We've been going through a class in Sunday school to discuss church membership. I think we have just a couple more to go, which are actually catch-up for a couple who came into the class late, and then we move onto to baptism class (as none of us are baptized).
In the area of outreach, for me, is being involved with other like-minded people. Specifically I'm referring to Charlotte Masonhomeschoolers educators. Outreach is not just me helping others, because I can hardly help myself!; but allowing myself to be helped by others. Reading online and conversing in forums and FB are ways to connect, but there's definitely something missing in these formats. I would love to start a CM type book group, co-op, nature group, or something. But I lack the follow-through. I lack the drive to continue on with whatever I want to start. Besides, there are already groups like these that are somewhat close that I could become part of; I don't need to start something new. Although closer would be nice.
Contentedness I think I am doing alright in this area but occasionally I am caught off guard. As I mentioned in the other post, we got a new car right before the end of the year. We haven't even been able to drive it much because we've had a lot of snow this winter (my latest nature journal entry shows a pile of snow over 5 ft tall! in our front yard). As this adds a car payment to the budget, it lessens the money we have each month for other things. I won't say I'm terrible with money but suffice it to say, if there's money there, I'll probably spend it. The little things here and there are having to be curtailed, and that's a little harder than I thought it'd be.
I need to add in prayer here, I think. When we pray we are more content through our day. We try to start our mornings in prayer together but way too often it doesn't happen.
Health I do 'think' we are doing better, or at least okay, in this area. We've cut back to our usual sugary consumption amount (on Friday-Sunday, in limited amounts), and even hubby has resolved to not buy sodas when he picks up snacky stuff at the store. This week, menu-wise, has been a little strange because the weather was bad and I didn't get to the store like I planned. But as we have fairly healthy food on hand, it's not like we've had to resort to junk.
We haven't been sick yet this winter although many around us have had the flu and respiratory issues. We've been healthy.
Exercise...this week has been off but usually we (the kids and I) exercise at least 3 times a week. I know that doesn't seem like much but when you don't do any to start with, even 1 time a week is an improvement. This week has been a no school week so things are all wonky. Next week I intend to be back at it, and possibly even bump it to 4 times a week. When it snows, the kids get plenty of exercise from shoveling. *smile*
Fox and I did get outside a few days ago, even though it was cold. It was rather nice, too. It's been in the single digits lately and that's too cold for me.
Those are my updates. Hopefully the next update will include more advances.
It has only been a little over a month since that post was written so in that time, how much can have been accomplished? If I were a more dedicated individual, probably quite a bit! I'm more of a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kinda gal so it's been slow going.
Bible reading: Personally, I have joined with a small group of ladies wanting to read the Bible everyday. We don't have a singular plan that we follow. We are utilizing various means of reading the Bible. For me it is YouVersion and the small Facebook group we have. The YV app makes it very convenient to read, as I have my phone with me a lot of the time. Sometimes I do want the physical pages to turn and just find the day's reading on the app but read it in my book. I missed a day at one point and while I said to the group I felt guilty, it was more that I felt sad because it's become something to look forward to. There are days that I am so engrossed in the reading I read more than the day's set passages. That hasn't happened a lot but it's nice when it does.
Along with the reading, I've made a renewed effort to memorize verses. I'm fairly sure I mentioned our church's memorization group. I am paired with a lady at church who is memorizing the same verses as I am; we get together every other Sunday to recite them to each other. It is very helpful to have the accountability. I'm actually using ScriptureTyper now for this. I resisted for so long but it is actually a very helpful app.
The next step to work on is thinking deeper about what I read and memorize. Why does God want me to think on this? What application can it have in my life? One lady in our group has been doing a narration on her readings each day and it has been a blessing to read them in our FB group.
Outreach This is not going much of anywhere at the moment. I'm honestly not exactly sure what I need to do- definitely know my prayers need to include this, as they haven't really lately. I did come across a little blurb from a local newsletter for a "home [that] will be a place of refuge and transformation for women who need to be coached towards re-adjustment into society" due to various reasons. I'd torn it out of the newsletter months ago, before thinking of my words for the year, and it practically fell in my lap right after I'd started this post to update. I don't necessarily believe in coincidence.
Otherwise, I have not been doing well with foreign language or sign language studies. That needs to be more of a focus for me personally. I've started to put it in my bullet journal each day (it is included with other things I wish to do daily: Bible reading, prayer, verses, exercise, thankful entry, Russian, and nature journal entry). It's a little check the box type system that I include next to each day's date. So far I've been able to check off at least a couple of the boxes. Need to work more diligently on that, for sure.
Another part of this is church membership: We've been going through a class in Sunday school to discuss church membership. I think we have just a couple more to go, which are actually catch-up for a couple who came into the class late, and then we move onto to baptism class (as none of us are baptized).
In the area of outreach, for me, is being involved with other like-minded people. Specifically I'm referring to Charlotte Mason
Contentedness I think I am doing alright in this area but occasionally I am caught off guard. As I mentioned in the other post, we got a new car right before the end of the year. We haven't even been able to drive it much because we've had a lot of snow this winter (my latest nature journal entry shows a pile of snow over 5 ft tall! in our front yard). As this adds a car payment to the budget, it lessens the money we have each month for other things. I won't say I'm terrible with money but suffice it to say, if there's money there, I'll probably spend it. The little things here and there are having to be curtailed, and that's a little harder than I thought it'd be.
I need to add in prayer here, I think. When we pray we are more content through our day. We try to start our mornings in prayer together but way too often it doesn't happen.
Health I do 'think' we are doing better, or at least okay, in this area. We've cut back to our usual sugary consumption amount (on Friday-Sunday, in limited amounts), and even hubby has resolved to not buy sodas when he picks up snacky stuff at the store. This week, menu-wise, has been a little strange because the weather was bad and I didn't get to the store like I planned. But as we have fairly healthy food on hand, it's not like we've had to resort to junk.
We haven't been sick yet this winter although many around us have had the flu and respiratory issues. We've been healthy.
Exercise...this week has been off but usually we (the kids and I) exercise at least 3 times a week. I know that doesn't seem like much but when you don't do any to start with, even 1 time a week is an improvement. This week has been a no school week so things are all wonky. Next week I intend to be back at it, and possibly even bump it to 4 times a week. When it snows, the kids get plenty of exercise from shoveling. *smile*
Fox and I did get outside a few days ago, even though it was cold. It was rather nice, too. It's been in the single digits lately and that's too cold for me.
Those are my updates. Hopefully the next update will include more advances.
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