40 days

yesterday, was Fat Tuesday and we celebrated with our usual tradition of crepes. i also set everything up for the beginning of Lent, which begins today. 40 days (not counting Sundays) as we wait for the arrival of Easter. Easter is my absolute favorite holiday, so this time of year is always so exciting to me.

if you read my blog every so often, you know that i loved reading the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. it challenges you to really examine your life and the world of excess that we live it. i read the book last summer, and really began to implement some of the things the book talks about. however, i wanted to do more and after talking to a friend about it, i decided that i wanted to really focus on implementing some of it during the Lent season, leading up to Easter.  just like Jen says, "less of my junk, more of You." Jen focus' on 7 issues of excess and so we are going to focus on how we can reduce our excess and focus more on Christ. we had a little family meeting to discuss what we would do and here's what we came up with for the next 40 days...

food
we are going to eat what we already have.  i'm going to get creative and try and use up what we already have.  i still will buy a few kitchen staples when we need them like milk, eggs and produce, but we will reduce our excess of buying so much stuff.

we will eat 7 different meals from 7 different third world countries.

possessions/clothing
clean out our closets/room and get rid of anything we don't use or need.

get rid of 7 pairs of shoes.

waste
we are going to recycle and compost and are only allowed 1 bag of trash per week.

get our garden ready and begin to plant.

use no ziploc bags.

spending
live on $7 a day...$49 a week.  this will include all groceries, clothing, shoes, personal items.  this will exclude bills, gas, trips to any hardware store (we are in the middle of redoing our kitchen, and we don't want to stop our progress.)

media/stress
keep the Sabbath- no work, no computer (emails, Facebook, etc.), no phone (texting, talking...except for emergencies) on Sundays.

daily devotion during the Lent season.

learn 7 verses a week.  my husband, my little lady and i will each learn 2 verses each per week and my little guy will learn 1 verse per week, totaling up to 7 verses a week.

i'm also going to be watching these videos throughout the next 40 days.