Me & My Quite Contrary Life

NUDGED: "Try a new recipe" BACKSTORY: Our meals have become very routine - my husband and I eat the same things in a rotation each week. It's food that we are comfortable with and it tastes good. Occasionally I mix in a new recipe I find online, but those "new" dishes are usually the same type of meals we normally eat - one pot dinners, casseroles, or crockpot meals. It was time to add more excitement, variation, and thought into our meal planning! QUOTE: "The life of faith is inherently a life of risk," said Pastor Phill of Ransom Church in his sermon this week. I desire all my "nudges" to be done in faith, with God's guidance in selecting the perfect nudge I need each week and His help to complete it. Risk is a part of faith and a big part of this project! HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:  Always the overachiever, I made 5 new recipes this week. GOLD STAR FOR ME! The recipes were all things I wouldn't normally make, so it challenge...

Mid-week check in! I am working on my latest "nudge" and having fun while doing it (along with being challenged!!). It has definitely given me new insights....more to come on that! I am so blessed to have so much support with this project. It keeps coming up in conversations (okay, so I may be excited and bring it up!) and each time I come away with new ideas and support. No one has told me I am crazy for trying this (yet!). I love it when the response I get is, "you know what I've always wanted to do but have been too afraid..." Great ideas! Each time, I write down the new idea on a small piece of paper, crumple it up, and add it to the box. Each Sunday, I pick a task from the box and implement it that week. With all the great ideas from other people, ideas from the original author of the project, ideas from books I'm reading, and more ideas that randomly pop into my head, I had to move to a bigger box this week. I picked a container that I love that ...

This is the first week of my 52 Nudges project. NUDGED: "Change my routine" BACKSTORY: I have my schedule planned out by the minute. I do the same thing at the same time each day, with little variation, for the past few years. While I love this predictability, I wanted to see what happened when my schedule was altered. Could I be flexible and go with the flow, or would it totally throw me off for the entire week? Would it help me to avoid going through the motions on autopilot? Would I find better ways of doing things? QUOTE: "Insight and discovery are most accessible to us when we break up our routine. Only when the brain is confronted with stimuli that it has not encountered before does it start to reorganize perception." - Gregory Berns, as quoted in "Thrive" by Arianna Huffington HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I made some changes to my schedule, which may not seem like big adjustments, but were a bit uncomfortable for a planner like me! Deep breaths....

I started working on my new challenge before I even knew it was a challenge. My "tasks" sound totally random, but I discovered later that they were all connected. Isn't it amazing when the picture suddenly becomes clear? There were several random, seemingly unrelated moments recently. I walked the halls of my middle school and elementary school, both places I hadn't stepped foot in for over two decades at least. I tried one class of aerials and learned I could survive doing something scary, and that it was okay if I didn't love it. I ordered a mystery clothing box from an online retailer and enjoyed trying on different styles that I normally wouldn't select for myself. I was immersed in a completely different culture while on vacation and had the opportunity to try new foods, ask lots of questions (of course!), and experience new things. It all came together when a friend mentioned the " 52 Nudges " project. Kathleen Guthrie Woods began this pers...