100 Day Challenge

Sorry folks, this is a long one! Recently, I have been thinking about my life. I am about to enter a brand new chapter, with new experiences, adventures, high's and hopefully not too many low's. With all of that coming near, I am realizing I want to move forward in other areas of my life....do some inward housekeeping if you will.

That's where this 100 day challenge comes from....100 days to better myself. I wish I could take the credit for this idea, but my twin sister, Aimee-Lee started it. Her and I are doing this together. Imagine yourself as a knife. Constantly cutting through hard things, soft things, good things, bad things....or maybe just sitting there getting rusty. Well this is the time where I sharpen the knife that is my life, rid it of all the dirt, grime and rust and choose to better myself. Not just clean up those sloppy areas, but get RID of them, so I can arise to my full potential.

Before I let you in on my plans for the next 100 days, I just thought I would take a moment to encourage you to possibly think about doing this for yourself. With me, or on your own. It's not easy looking inward at the places that need changing. I legitimately thought I was doing pretty good. But we all have areas, emotionally or habitually that need changing. When I decided to be the bigger person in my own life, own up to the areas that I need to work on, just that made me feel good! NO DOUBT this is going to be a challenge. I probably won't have time to read any Myrtle Clover mysteries (see previous post) or I don't know....do the things that make me less productive. I believe that this will help unlock part of my calling and mandate that the Lord has given me. It's like God is standing outside of my bedroom door, calling me to open it. But I am inside, I hear Him, but am in a room filled with stuff. I can't just clear a path because the door still won't be able to open all the way. I gotta clean it up. SO it's time to clean up.

My Strategy (this is bound to change or advance as time goes on, my goal is to keep you posted with my progress)

Begin: Thursday, June 4th, 2013 End: Saturday, October 5th, 2013

READ (4 books, each must be read in 2.5 weeks) 1."Boundaries" by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend - 17 pages per day

2. "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey - 22 pages per day

3. "Getting things done" by David Allen - 16 pages per day

4. "Radical" by David Platt - 13 pages per day

EATING 1. WELL.....If you know me, you know I have a somewhat secret, somewhat open LOVE of Diet Coke. It is something I actually cherish (I am weird), it's my comfort drink, when I am thirsty, when I am bored, when I am eating, before bed....anytime...I just love it. But aspartame is a slow bullet and I gotta bite it! NO MORE DC FOR ME!

2. Cut out carbs. I know there are healthy carbs and blah blah blah. But I just need to not eat carbs because I love them so much. It's carbs such as pasta, bread, cakes (carbs and sweets)....etc.

3. NO MORE SUGAR. I recently found out that cancer loves sugar....it thrives off of it. That was enough to scare the sour patch kids right out of my hand! SCAREY huh?! Aside from the fact that it is just terrible for me in health kind of way, it just adds pounds....and really, why do I want that?!

Lifestyle/Exercise 1. I recently started running. I actually have begun to really like it. I would like to run 3 times per week for no less than 20 mins.

2. Work out. I would like to work out 5 times per week.

3. CLEAN SLATE. I don't want to have any un-forgiveness or bitterness anywhere in my heart. Sometimes, it hides deep down inside. We don't even realize it's there until we truly look for it. I want to make peace during this time. Love on people and not care about the past. Everyone changes, we all grow up. Mistakes are the lessons that teach us how to be better people. I want to give more people chances and just be okay with it.

4. Say "No" to things.

5. Wake up at 7:30-8am to begin my day, keep the evenings for quality family time.

6. Go to bed at 10pm

ORGANIZATION 1. Get better at scheduling....or not OVER-SCHEDULING myself (hence learning to say "no" ^^^).

2.Get on a more consistent GTD method (getting things done)

3. I want to write 10 songs within the next 14 weeks (I originally said 100, but my sister wisely advised me that I might be a little too excited about this challenge. I agreed.)

4. No procrastinating. YOLO. Do it now.

Sorry this is so lengthy and detailed. It's good for me...keeps me accountable. Even if others don't read it, I know my mom is....and if anyone, she will be asking me about this for the whole 100 days!

Thanks for reading! I hope you join in, and if you do, let me know! I will keep you posted with updates, changes and progress!

Much Love!

LL

Book Review.....kind of.

I love to read. I kind of love reading everything. History books, motivational books, girly books, books on revival, cook books, biographies....even the label on my shampoo bottle. If it’s got letters....I will probably read it (using discretion of course). Although, if you are or have ever been a student, you would know that if you didn’t force yourself to read something other than a text book, you would never discover the literary world outside of instruction manuals on how to become rich in your career after spending all of your money to read those books in a classroom setting. I know that if I didn’t make an effort, I would probably never read anything except educational requirements, which at my school, wouldn’t be so bad.....but you get what I’m saying.

My point in writing this blog was to give you a great and descriptive list with summaries of all the wonderful books I have read. Books about culture, experience, vivid adventures and biographical accounts of wonderful lives. The only problem is, other than the Bible, in the past 3 months I have only read 2 books.

1.New Testament Survey (which I have yet to actually finish...there is an oatmeal stain keeping a mark on where I last ended off).

2.Myrtle Clover Mystery

I don’t know if my lack of reading has deceived my mind, but I have enjoyed reading New Testament Survey so much (I’m more shocked because I thought it would be full of timelines and dates....but it’s actually awesome). I realized that history played more of a part in the Bible than we realize because the writer of books left out those random wars and what they probably thought was “boring” stuff ;). It was so cool to almost lie a history book on top of a Bible and see the two line up!

Now, the Myrtle Clover Mystery.....I don’t even have a good explanation for that. Except it was free on my kindle and it satisfied my love for “MURDER SHE WROTE” which is my favorite show. I recently finished all 12 seasons, much to my sadness and fiance’s joy, this was the perfect way to continue my love for that type of “whodunit’s”.

Myrtle Clover is octogenarian (which I learned means she is in her 80’s). She lives in a small town where apparently everyone is being murdered. In my head, she looks like my french Grandmother without the french accent (so it not only satisfied my Angela Landsbury type story line, but she became endearing to my heart). This book takes place in Georgia, where her and her neighbor, Miles, solve mysteries before her son, a police officer does. Sounds so simple, but let me tell you, I have spent many of nights staying up hoping Myrtle Clover doesn’t die in the search of the dinner party killer. She always comes close to being attacked by the murderer, but always make it out on top.

SO...that is my glamorous literature.

I am hoping to move on to something a little more.....challenging? Like C.S. Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Plato....you know. But who am I kidding...Myrtle Clover has an entire series.

;)

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