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...

Today is my 36 th birthday. I don’t feel a need to hide the real number and am not afraid of getting older. Through volunteering with hospice, I’ve learned what a gift and privilege it is to have birthdays. Not everyone gets more years.  I find myself looking back today. This is the fourth time I have had a “6” in my age. I have been reminiscing about my birthdays when I turned 6, 16 and 26. It’s fun to look back and see my growth. My life and situation really changed for each age, especially since it is a snapshot of when I was a child, a teenager, and newly married adult. Each age had aspects I enjoyed and things that I lacked. At age 6, I had fun and family. I had a happy childhood with lots of time to play and explore, along with a supportive family. I felt secure and loved. I had it all…except physical strength. Monkey bars. I quit gymnastics, something that I was really interested in, because I couldn’t even hang on the monkey bars. I didn’t have any upper body s...

The emphasis in my life lately has been on taking action and completing items on my epic quest list, but not so much on blogging about my adventures. Sorry. Let me catch you up! I discovered that some items on my list require multiple steps and may take a long time to accomplish. This makes me impatient as I enjoy quick victories (who doesn't?!) but I keep going as I will get to my destination step by step. My goal is to read 25 books in 2016. This takes awhile - it can't be done overnight! I read most days of the week and really enjoy the books I have read so far, but I can't cross this item off the list for awhile. It takes time. It will happen soon though as I just finished book #24! I am also working towards doing my first unassisted pull-up. I do strength training for this often and have been working on this goal for almost a year. I continue to be patient (most days!!) and put the work in to ensure the time will come. Eventually. What have I accomplished recently?...

Connecting with other people requires deliberate effort and vulnerability, but is worth the sacrifice. Connecting with myself requires complete honesty and acceptance, as does connecting with my Creator. Connecting is often messy, disruptive and unpredictable, but the rewards are amazing. That is what I have discovered so far in this year’s theme of “connect”. I realized that connecting takes effort on my part. Big surprise, huh?! It means when talking to people I need to be fully present in the moment and listening to them, and not thinking about the last food I ate. (Sidepoint: if I have a REALLY good meal, I tend to think about it for awhile after. Is that weird?!).   Listening and really connecting means asking questions about the other person and finding out what is happening in their life. It means offering insight and possibly relating a personal story. It means being open about my life too. This is a struggle for me but I am working on it! I found out a few weeks ago ...