A Little Structure

It's amazing how something as simple as publishing that first post has sent my mind whirling! I've spent a lot of time in the past two days thinking about what I'm going to write about next. And then that gets me to wondering if the things I think about are at all interesting to others and if anyone cares. And then I start to feel stupid and kind of embarrassed and again wonder why I'm even doing this. And then I'm able to relax because I remember why I'm starting this. It's for structure and order and challenge to my otherwise unstructured days.

Okay - so how is this going to bring structure? Well for one I don't have Internet at home so in order to do this I have to go to the library. And since one of my resolutions for the year is to use my car less I have to walk the mile and a half to the library which takes about 20 min due to all the stop lights and crosswalks. And the fact that its hard to find a plug for my laptop after the kids are out of school I have to get to the library earlier in the day. Good - There's some order!

Now the question is what am I going to write about? And that my friends is where the challenge comes in! But I have a plan and some inspiration thanks to all of the other amazing blogs that I've spent so much time reading. I'm going to come up with some regular "features" or "challenges" to keep me creative and motivated. For instance, I love to bake but I hate having a bunch of yummy things readily available when those little cravings poke their evil heads out. So.... I've been doing my baking on Wednesdays and bringing all the yummies to my Jr. High staff meetings at church. That way I can enjoy baking and I get rid of all the not so appealing side effects. But since I'm sharing my baked goods with others, I've challenged myself to never make the same thing twice. So that's one "feature". A regular weekly baking recipe.

Another great part of my Wednesday's are the craft table at our Jr. High youth meetings. Each week we have to come up with a project that the kids will deem "cool" enough to participate in, but that is as close to free as possible, and do-able for a group of 10 to 30 people in about a twenty minute time frame. Honestly this weekly project has been my lifeline these last six months. It takes a considerable amount of home testing and prep work to stay within our twenty minutes and be cool. And that would be feature number two.

I have several other ideas that I will be rolling out in the days and weeks to come. I'm thinking maybe three weekly challenges and a couple monthly. I'm actually a little excited about all of this! And life being what it is, this will probably be the time I get a job and then no longer have time for any of it! But in all of this I have learned a tremendous amount about myself, my God, and his plans and purposes for me. So whatever happens - I will just keep trusting in Him! He loves me so!