P365-January Recap

One month into Project 365- does this year already feel like it's flying by to anyone else?

I don't have an accurate update on my progress, mostly because I wasn't thinking clearly enough to track it. Lesson learned for February. I can say that January revealed to me that my three goals are exactly what God intends for me to pursue this year. And I know this because of how much resistance I faced in meeting them.

I certainly know God better than I did one month ago. I learned that even when I avoid him, reject him, scream and yell, pout, close my eyes and plug my ears- I can't avoid his voice, or his love.

I've discovered that any efforts to become myself apart from God are futile. There is no "me" apart from him.

I learned that praying for others not only opened my heart to them, but it opened my heart to God as well.

This month I'm going to be more intentional about a few things on my list. First, I learned from Allison that it helps to plan out who I'll be praying for that week. Second, I discovered a new podcast, Pray As You Go, and I'm a little obsessed with it. My plan is to spend the first 10 minutes of my day listening to each day's prayer, remembering that in all I do in the remaining hours, it's in vain if not spent aimed at knowing God more. Third, I've decided to do something specific on my list of "becoming myself" everyday, and I'll probably need to choose what it will be ahead of time. And finally, I've started a Google doc where I can easily track my progress each day.

At the very least, I'm going to try it this way for a month and see how it goes. The nice thing is I still have 11 months to figure out the best system.

Overall, I'd say January was a win for me with Project 365- I can hardly wait to see all I will have learned when I get to look back on February.

I didn't know

Post full of my ignorance, sadly ignorant in fact...

I over heard my husband in a conversation the other day say that the world is going to be out of oil in the next 100 years.  It went in one ear and out the other at the moment but the more I thought about 100 years, I realized that could be in our daughter's lifetime and for sure in our grand children's lifetime.  I asked him later that evening if what I over heard was correct and he said it was.  I then proceeded to ask what the plan was for the world to respond to this information.  I asked who was writing the plan.  The UN? The World Bank?  Maybe another source that I didn't know about?  He shared that nobody was addressing the issue.  Well, that there are a lot of people that would like to address the issue, but that the largest maker of money in the world right now is oil and the machine of people that represent these companies are only interested in squeezing every last profitable penny out of their trade.

So I asked if the car companies were getting really good at electrical designs.  He asked if I knew where electricity came from.  Clearly not.  I said something extremely clever like, Hoover Dam and Bakersfield windmills.

That conversation continued on, and by conversation I mean that he did all the talking and I just sat on the couch and realized I have been drinking the kool-aid of ignorance that all "those" people want me to be drinking.  If there is some grand plan out there for most of us to not know what is happening, it's working.

Fast forward to a couple days later at Super Bowl Sunday, I was talking to my sister in law about of all of this and she started talking to me about plastic water bottles.  The plastic that holds the water we buy for a dollar or more, is a by-product of the refining process of oil.  All plastic, every single thing that is plastic, is made from a by-product of the oil processing.  So, that will be gone too, in 100 years.  Think about that.  Just stop, look around where you are sitting right now, and take in all that is plastic.  Very nearly everything.  I don't know what you are thinking, but this is mind blowing to me.  The world as we know it, in so much of the world as we know it here, in the states, here in CA, here in orange county, a rather small dot on the globe, I know, nevertheless, this world that I live in will not look anything like it does 150 years from today.  Anyhow, she told me to watch Tapped to know more about it.  I did, I went home after the game and watched it, which I encourage you to do as well.

And that has been what I have been spending brain energy on this last week or so.  Wondering what God thinks about the human condition, from excess to scarcity, and everything in between.

Genesis is not unclear about how we are to lovingly care for this magnificent place.  Think about your part in that.  I only ask that you think about it and do only what you can do.  Influence those around you in truth and grace.  Be the change.

Be. The. Change. 


BE.

THE.

CHANGE.

Pray about everything else.

Guest Post! Michelle's P365

We have a great group of guest posts coming your way over the next few weeks!

Several readers have decided to take on Project ThreeSixtyFives of their own!

Don't miss them.

Here is part one of Michelle's Project!

Three weeks ago, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and saw that a friend had posted an image of a handmade card that she had received as part of something called "Project ThreeSixtyFive."  Allison responded back to my curiosity of what this was all about and as soon as I checked out the website and read the first few posts, I was hooked.  

I started to ponder what commitments I could make for the year that are not only doable but also satisfying. I didn't want to suffer.  That never works.  I often choose resolutions that are near impossible and rarely set me up for success.  

So here they are:

1. Write an encouraging note to someone 
2. Start my day w/ God - no if, and or but
3. Eat at least two meals at home (to practice cooking and save money)
4. Do the "Five A's" w/ Kelly at the end of each day (a marriage tool to catch up with your spouse: you appreciate him/her, apologize for something you did that hurt him/her, ask how you can serve him/her, ask how you can pray for him/her and show affection)

Read about Michelle's successes {and struggles} with her project later this week...

January P365

We are a few days into February, so here is a snapshot of my January and how I stayed committed to the fun we are having here at P365.

35 and Alive is off to a relatively good start.  I've had a bit of that coughing, fever, gross things coming out my nose, not feeling well sickness that is going around, but other than that amazing visual, I am great! 

I'm just going to keep typing and saying 35 and then at some point it will sink and and I will believe it.  Until then, it will still get that ponder look on my face because it's weird for me.  It' snot old, it's not young, it's not anything, but that I am in my mid-thirties and am not sure when that happened exactly.

The Ninja Blender I got for Christmas... I am still using her mad blending skills every morning to make my green machine smoothie.  Almond milk, 2 hand fulls of spinach, a banana, ice, protein scoop, and smidge of peanut butter.  It is so delicious.  A couple times in January, I did go back to my favorite Whole Foods and let them make it for me but only because I was doing my grocery shopping at the same time. 

As far as what I have committed to for this project for this year, here is an update:

ChallengingDrink at least 64oz of water every day.

In the 31 days of January, I did then 22 times.  22/31 is 71%.  Just eeeked out the C- on this one.  But I am stoked anyway because it is 22 more times than I had in all of the last 6 months before that, so Whoo-hoo and Amen!
What I learned is that I love, seriously love, water with lemon in it.  I love it so much that I want to drink it all the time now.  Plus, the addition to my life of my citrus squeezer, I am pounding down the water and am actually happy about it.  So, off to a higher percentage in February, but for January, I'm thrilled.

EasyGive a verbal affirmation to someone in person or do a random act of kindness (RAK) every single day.

This truly does come easy for me.  I give verbal affirmation and do RAK's anyway, but this has been so much fun to be intentional about it.  I'm at 100% for January.  Every day I made a note in my journal of who I affirmed or who I bestowed some kindness that was not asked for and no where near expected. 
A great update to the taking the neighbors trash down... Now my husband and daughter both with take the neighbors trash without even saying anything, like it's just normal behavior, which is so cool.  And, the other day we set our trash out and and the favor has been reciprocated, which is awesome times a million.  So, I say to you, lavish others with sincere words of affirmation and do kind things at every opportunity. 

Fun
My fun will be blogging 2-3 times a week.

I have had a lot of fun blogging, but has also found it a bit challenging.  On the 2 times a week, which would be 10 blogs in January, I wrote 5 times.  Again, not my best, but more than I wrote in the last 6 months, so it's a good start out of the gate.  I want this to be the place I find success this year, so pray with me that I will have the courage to do it.


This is fun and I am grateful for those that are joining in on the challenge.  I have faith in you.

January Update

January has come and gone (finally, does anyone else feel like there were a couple of extra days added in there?) so here is my update on how I did for the first month of P365.

Its funny because the things that I thought would be really difficult turned out to be not as much, but on the other hand what I thought would be super easy proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated.  I began the month diligently recording the ways that I accomplished my goals every night before I went to bed.  That lasted about two weeks.  I'm not sure exactly why I stopped, I just did so I'm going to have to come up with a better way to keep track.  If you have any brilliant ideas, feel free to shoot them my way.  Because I stopped I don't have any numbers to report but I know how I did so here is my honest assessment of how the month went.

Eat Breakfast: NAILED IT. Before P365 I ate breakfast maybe twice a week so I was expecting to totally fail at this one but you guys, I can honestly say I ate breakfast EVERY day in January!! I had a little help though.  I don't think I would have made it if not for the amazingly delicious scones from the Global Cafe at Mariners Church.  Those things are a life saver.  Seriously.  I also tried making some breakfasty type things that I could freeze and then take out the night before or throw in the microwave in the morning which generally worked except that I would forget that they were in the freezer and end up just stopping at Starbucks in the morning.  Thanks friends that have sent me recipes to help with this.  I'll get it eventually.

Give Something Away:  This is the one that I thought would be soooo easy.  I have so much stuff, surely it wouldn't be difficult to give it all away.  I ran into two problems here.  1. what do I give away?  2. who do I give it to?  Some days were awesome and opportunities just presented themselves. It also helped that there is a place on campus where I work that I can donate things to, but sometimes I would forget or just not know what to give.  I accomplished this goal maybe 5 out of 7 days each week.  So far for February I have tried to be more intentional about what I give with the goal being that by the end of the year, its not something that I will have to think about any more.

Be Thankful: I have loved this. I have expressed my thanks to people in an email, a card, face to face and even began writing lists of things that I am thankful for.  It hasn't been everyday, but pretty darn close and I love the way that it has affected my attitude about life and events and the people and things around me.

Be Vulnerable: Over the last month I've learned a lot about being vulnerable, it looks a lot of different ways and each day I am growing a little more and becoming a little more comfortable with it.  At first I was afraid that it meant that I would be having conversations in which I poured out my heart and cried everyday (I wasn't looking forward to that) but being vulnerable is so much more.  Showing up and allowing myself to be seen everyday looks like asking for and accepting help when its offered; sharing things about myself and thoughts with others instead of just assuming that people don't want to be bothered, and it means being courageous in my conversations and opening up a space for others to be vulnerable with me.

So that's January.  A lot of learning, a lot of challenge and a lot of celebration and we still have 11 more months to go!!

How are you doing with your goals in January?

My P365 January Recap

Well, hello February!

I can't believe we are 1/12 of the way through Project ThreeSixtyFive.

Mostly I can't believe we're only 1/12 of the way through, January seemed forever-long.

At the start of January {probably more accurately, the end of December} I hung six months of a calendar on my closet door. {It was a free download.} I did so with incredible accuracy and beauty, using torn pieces of painter's tape {see photo}. Obviously, the display was not my primary concern.

Most evenings, I would record whether or not I met each of my four project goals for the day. If I had, I wrote the way in which it was met as well. I also wrote the name of each person that received a note to ensure that I don't double-up too often. I missed a few items here and there, but as I look at my count today, I'm really glad I recorded what I did. {It also makes me really excited to see my totals at the end of the year.}

In the spirit of accountability, I thought I'd share about my successes from this month.

So, here we go.

My January P365:
Be Active: 20/31
Be Grateful: 96/31 (I wrote a lot of cards this month)
Be Expressive: 15/31
Be Bold: 26/31

Four Things I Learned:

1. I really like to be active. "Exercising" always equals running in my head, but "being active" is so much more fun than that! Also, I love to ride my bike.

2.  It's easier to write a note each day when I've thought through that week's recipients. There's room for spontaneous notes, but it takes away the 11pm stress of "who in the world could I thank today?!"

3. I already have everything I need to be exactly who God's created me to be. More on this lesson {and how I learned it} later.

4. The more I face my fears, the more fears I can name—it's almost overwhelming.

And, since it's February 2nd, here's how February 1st went: wrote my note, and two blogs, went on a walk and conquered a fear...so, four for four so far this month!

Are you playing along?

How are you doing with your P365? 

Feeling up to the challenge?

It's still not too late to join us!

Praying for a Miracle

This is a hard post for me to write.

Mostly because this is a hard prayer for me to pray.

Praying for strangers, praying for friends' marriages, jobs, finances, kids, even praying for myself- it requires a heart investment, but it doesn't require all that much... hope.

This prayer is a desperate prayer. A 'please don't let me down on this one' prayer. A 'how could you say anything other than yes' prayer. A 'remind me that you ARE, in fact, good' prayer. This is a life or death prayer- literally.

This is a prayer for my friend Stacie. Stacie is one of those people with a big presence. The kind of presence that cements itself in your heart. In fact, you might not even realize how big a place she occupies in your heart until the threat of that presence being removed stares you down.

Stacie is a leader at the church where I grew up. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women have been inspired and changed by her love for God and her candidness about the ups and downs of her life. And that's just the thing, her story already has so many ups and downs...

After watching her from afar for years, I finally got to know Stacie on a trip to Ukraine. When I watched her with her best friend Shelly, I couldn't help but think, "I bet this is what Laycee and I will be like in 15 years...or at least I hope so." They were ridiculous together; laughing and playing in the snow, with so many inside jokes and magically told stories of family and friendship. The way Stacie told these stories made you feel like that richness of life and relationship was open to you too- to anyone! I remember laughing so hard with Stacie passing out Bibles on the streets of Kiev, unable to ignore the tragically "valley girl" accent that marred our attempts at speaking Ukrainian. "It's a Podarunok!" we'd yell out, "A gift!" Only it came out more like "It's a pedaduck!" That may be my most vivid memory from that trip.

A month ago Stacie was diagnosed with a brain tumor- a terminal one. Even writing the words stirs a pit in my stomach. I know brain tumors. I know something of the spectrum of emotions involved with a diagnosis like this. It's been 4 years since I last needed a miracle like this, a miraculous healing of a brain tumor. But four years ago I didn't pray. I couldn't bring myself to pray, to hope. I was terrified of what it might do to my faith if He didn't meet my need- my need for her to live. Now I'm here again, and while Stacie and I are not as close, the need for that miracle feels just as heavy. But this time, I am praying. I'm on my knees, pleading. Pleading for Stacie, her husband, her kids, her friends, her church.  In every way I know how, I'm asking God to do a miracle.

Will you pray with me? Will you spread Stacie's story? Will you ask for a miracle?