MyLife As of Late.

We have been outside every minute of every day. The littlest one wakes up, grabs his shoes, and heads straight for the door. Breakfast doesn't matter. It's play time!

It's been a delightful spring, and my heart feels so overwhelmed in gratitude as I watch these three explore and beam with excitement.

Loves the mailbox:

A boy to hang with!! This picture melts my heart:

While the girls chum around together:

Charlie has conquered flying down the slide:

My ingenius husband took care of the "I want a turn!!" problem:

Little worker bee. Follows daddy around everywhere! This is very good and very bad (as he can't always be following Daddy!). But, today is Saturday, so I say he can!!:

Baby boy chasing the ball all around the yard:

Loves being outside. Makes him so happy:

Being inside, on the other hand...this is where
he stands nearly the entire time we are indoors:

Popsicles in March? You better believe it:

Yard work in March? Weird:

Layla sitting in the chair caring for her baby with purse in tact? totally normal:

The looking so stinkin' old beauty, Maleah, mastering her scootin' skills:

Look real closely and Charlie is giving me the
look of, "you won't get me outta here."
Stinker:

All is good with the world right now! I am sure you are enjoying this gorgeous weather, as well!
Happy Weekend!

Week 1 (seven.food)

I finally feel as though we turned a corner. Our extreme craving for sugar is gone, and we are feeling more content in our food. Last night we were at a party with chips & dips and cupcakes staring at us, and it wasn't super tempting! Part of it is the mindset; you know you can't have it so don't bother wishing you could.

The week has been so good in realizing a)how good we have it! and b)how much we desire more than we need. We have all our nutritional needs met and aren't necessarily hungry, yet we have so wanted more. We've been crabby, tired, impatient, and discouraged...all in the name of food. Kind of sad, isn't it? Food definitely has more power and value in my life than I ever desire again.

Now, time for confession:

Brandon & Nicole (also doing seven) came to church with us last night. Much to our delight, we had communion! When the communion plate came to our row, we looked at each other with a sparkle in our eye and said, "grape juice!" We held our communion, did our thing with the Lord, no giggles, nothing else said about grape juice.

When we drank our grape juice, different story. I felt as though I was 8 years old, back in church, having the giggles with my friend. When the grape juice went in, Nicole & I both started laughing and laughing (insert some snorting too). The itty bitty cup of grape juice has never tasted so good! As Nicole put it, "it tasted like candy."

Maybe it's because we are deprived of caffeine, hungry, down 5 pounds, tired, whatever the case...it was stinkin' funny! Communion has never tasted so good.

Now, hear me. I totally and completely understand the sacrament of the Lord supper. I am so thankful for the blood shed for me. Okay, I am. As I said, this is a confession (i am sorry!)!

Day 5 (seven.food)

Went to the grocery store last night. That was torture! I walked in and there was a display with all the yumminess of Easter staring right at me; Cadbury eggs, peanut butter Reese's eggs, jelly beans. I wanted some!!!

We have yet to really be hungry. We feel very satisified, and in fact, our foods are quite good! We just want more! This is the whole point: I am a product of America: I want more.

We've gone through times of being really annoyed and needing encouragement from our council, then times of feeling confident and excited about what we are doing and encouraging them. The first couple days we had horrible caffeine headaches. Thankfully, we are through with that. We are getting super creative with how we make our foods, so that challenge has been fun for me as I love to cook!

And for the record: we switched out spinach and got yogurt! Woo Hoo!!

Lastly, I am so thankful Dallas is doing this with me. It's been nice to help each other, not have to stare at his gourmet plate while I sit with my blandness, and have a growing experience together. There is nobody I would rather do it with. I love him for being willing to be miserable for a month (the man really loves foods), at the expense of my crazy idea (even though I don't know he'll agree to an idea of mine every again!). Two are better than one, and it's so nice to do the challenge as a united front!


In other news:
* I had photos taken of the kids the other morning. It was an absolute fail. Charlie was such a stinker! He laughed the whole way there and the whole way home. But at the studio? Grouch!
*Layla's speech has taken off! You can understand nearly everything she says! What a relief!
* I realized I am going to miss Kindergarten Round-up (gasp!!!!). I will be in Florida for a life-long friend's wedding with my mom and sisters. Thankfully Daddy will be around, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it made my heart throb.

Happy Friday!

Day 3 (seven.food)

Part of the seven experiment is having a council. These are the people you go to with a question. Example: "I am going to a bridal shower. Can I have a piece of cake?"

We have a couple people we have talked to about this experiment. I talked with a dear dietitian friend before choosing our foods, and our council-council-council members are Brandon & Nicole and Jim & Erin, as they are doing the challenge as well.

Tonight at supper, Dallas and I realized we really despise spinach. Oddly enough, prior to this week I have a spinach salad nearly every day for lunch, but with feta cheese, craisins, and dressing! Spinach, in and of itself, is yucko (who knew?)!!

Enter: the council.

We sent out a text: Okay, council! We need a ruling here. We didn't realize how much we did not like spinach. Can we swap out spinach for yogurt, pleeeease?

Erin: We vote a strong YES! God is full of grace, and we want to be too. (thank you!!)
Nicole: No!!! You have two votes for no switch-a-roo! (meanie!!)

Because we can't stand "losing," or someone thinking we "cheated," we will continue to suck up the darn spinach.

We aren't feeling one bit hungry. In fact, we are stuffed full after every meal! We are eating more, and better. However, the enjoyment of food is out the window for this month. This is so boring!! When you only have seven foods (chicken, lean beef, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, apples, whole wheat bread), between the 3 meals a day you pretty much have the same thing.

Let's put it this way: When the highlight of your day is eating your Viactiv calcium chew, you're in a sad state of affairs. (it's ok to laugh, we did)

As I was getting ready this morning, I thought back to a video of Eli's life in Ethiopia. It's a neat thing Jim and Erin get to show Eli some day - all about his heritage, where he came from, his mommy, his home. In the video, it shows his mom preparing a "meal" for the family. They literally put a couple of corn kernels (kernels!), on a pot. I was instantly overcome with gratitude and repentance. How could I complain about 7 healthy, wholesome, tasty foods, when people all over the world are eating kernels of corn.

As boring as these foods feel to my spoiled tongue and stomach, Lord, thank you! We are so blessed!

Day 2 (seven.food)

If I had one word to describe how it is going so far, I would say: dry.

I love spinach, with dressing on it. I love hamburgers, with ketchup on. I love baked potatoes, with butter. I love grilled chicken, with barbecue sauce. I love toast, with anything. We don't get dressing, ketchup, butter, bbq sauce, or anything. Our food is dry!!

Dallas and I were laughing at lunch yesterday, while choking down our food. He said, "I think I'm going to start having soggy bread, just so it slides down better." We laughed and laughed.

The food itself is not bad at all. It's just so boring and mundane. Our 7 foods are foods we eat very regularly anyway, but boy howdy have we learned we like condiments!

I've realized I do a lot of grabbing this and that, finishing the kids' food, or popping something into my mouth. I think about food. A lot. I love food. I love planning meals, grocery shopping, feeding my family. I love food. And that has been apparent the last two days.

It hasn't been horribly difficult. I'm not super hungry, as the foods we are eating are so wholesome and good. It's a different mindset: food is for nutrition, not for fun. I like to eat because I like to eat (that's the truth, folks). Energy and hunger wise, we are getting along just fine. But I can see that by March 30 we will be sick.and.tired.of.this.

We are hoping that after a week or so of getting over the food battle, we can move forward with the idea of the fast, which is not really about food at all.

But for now, our mouths feel dry.

Seven.

Dallas is currently popping me popcorn, my favorite snack. Oh, how I love his popcorn. This tonight, is considered my "last supper." Here is why...

A while back my friend, Erin, recommended the book "7; An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess," by Jen Hatmaker. I've really enjoyed reading lately (weird, I know!), so picked up the book and haven't quit thinking about it since.

Jen (I feel like we're bff's already) leads us through seven months of a greatly reduced life. The idea of the book is to raise awareness, in your own life, of all the options we have and plenty we live in. It is a spiritual fast, with the idea of going to Jesus to meet our needs, instead of the American dream meeting our needs of comfort foods, cute jeans, and more, more, more.

I live in a beautiful, 4 bedroom home, have all the foods options we love, eat out with a friend every single week, drive a comfortable van, dress my kids in darling clothes, throw food away every single day, and am comfortable. That is the bottom line: I am so comfortable. All these things are great. I love my life and feel the Lord has richly blessed us! None of these things are bad (at all!). It's just that not everybody has these luxuries.

Why it takes something so radical as 7 for me to realize there is life beyond rich America baffles me. While I may say I know how fortunate I am, and how grateful I feel everyday for our choices, do I really? I am doing this "experiment" to see how my thought life really goes. Will wearing only 7 articles of clothes bother me? Will eating only 7 foods annoy the snot out of me? Will not using facebook in month 3 free up a ton of time?

On one hand I feel like our life is at such a great place right now. The kids are so much fun. Dallas is becoming more established and confident in his farming all the time. Life is very do-able lately, finally. On the other hand, we have a lot coming up. Dallas and I want to use the next 7 months to really converse with our Father. When hungry (for popcorn!), I want to spend time with Jesus, talking about farming opportunities, direction with Maleah's schooling, our family goals, and what our family is supposed to be/look like (figuratively speaking).

I think this experiment is going to challenge us big time. I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Eating only seven foods with no condiments, wearing only 7 things, getting rid of the radio, sounds like boot camp. But, I can't wait to see how good we have it. Living a greatly reduced life will increase our need for God, and that is worth it. I am ready for more.

The hardest part of this? It puts us in the category of weird. But if normal is greedy, self-absorbed, a gluten, and disconnected to my family because I'm connected to the rest of the world, I don't care to be normal.

Again: and again: and again: I am not saying things are bad. America is not bad. It's great! I don't desire to live in a cardboard box and eat spinach the rest of my life. But not relying on God fully, not having a perspective of a world out there that has no choice but a cardboard box, and always wanting more, is.

So, along with our great friends who have hearts who desire more of Jesus and less of themselves, here goes. Tomorrow is the day.

Over the next seven months, we will address seven areas of excess: Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress.

Thanks for following along on our journey. This is the craziest experiment I've ever done. I bet it will be the most life-changing one too.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/12/26/an-experimental-mutiny-against-excess