SAY

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--SAY

Five minutes to free write about it 

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What can I say?

It did snow, but it's hardly THE big snow that the forecasters said was coming and that triggered a frenzy of frantic shoppers trying to stock up in anticipation.  I heard say that they did a good job of emptying shelves at the local grocery stores.  That's just hearsay, though, as I am still in the middle of the No Spend January challenge and did not visit any of them myself.

Although I was a little disappointed not to wake up to the sight of the winter wonderland I was expecting, it was still a pretty view, and probably a relief to the folks who have to be out and about.

Here are some pictures I took from my balcony.

PATTERN

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PATTERN

Five minutes to free write about it 

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Though I did not enter the new year with any resolutions, I did join a couple of January challenges that have totally altered the pattern of my day-to-day life.

The first challenge is "No Spend January," and this has been a big pattern changer for sure. My freezer and pantry were well stocked, so I won't be going hungry any time soon, but no more same old same old that I usually eat because it's easy and doesn't take long to put on a plate. Once I ran out of those items, I had to start substituting others, which meant being creative as well. The result is much more variety, and probably a healthier, more balanced diet that will help me get rid of a few extra pounds.

The second challenge is a 30 day challenge called Do It For A Day by Mark Batterson which is a book on making or breaking a habit in 30 days. I started it because I wanted to break myself of a bad habit I've struggled with for years, but then decided it might be fun to make a habit as well. 

I picked a walking challenge to help me get into the habit of regular walking even if it's mostly just indoors. My goal is to walk 1,000,000 steps (approximately 500 miles) by my birthday at the end of September, and I'm using a free app called million steps which adds a lttle extra motivation by rewarding you with a small Amazon gift card when you complete the challenge.

The third challenge, and the most meaningful one is a spiritual one. Every year my church starts out the year with 21 days of prayer and fasting (doesn't have to be from food). This year we are learning how to pray through the psalms. Every morning at 7:00 there's an interactive devotional on Facebook led by one of the pastors. You can watch a replay at any time, but to be able to interact you need to watch it live. 

This, more than anything, has really changed the pattern of my day-to-day life and taught me a lot about trusting the Lord. For starters, I'm getting up much earlier than I normally would so I can be ready at 7:00. And it's practically doubling--even sometimes tripling--my usual morning quiet time, which is where the part about trusting the Lord has been coming in. 

Instead of trying to be in control of my day my way, I'm having to trust Him to enable me to get everything done I need to in much less time than what I normally have and am always  overwhelmed at not having enough of. Amazingly, as I trust Him to order my steps and orchestrate my time, and become more sensitive and obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, I've been able to accomplish a lot more with a lot less stress. 

I'm probably over my five minutes by now (I wasn't timing myself), so I'll stop here, but since the word prompt was pattern, here are a couple of pictures I took today of things I thought had interesting patterns.

The first picture at the top of the post is a Berry Hibiscus tea bag. These other two are the sunlight reflecting on a Kleenex box near the window. One taken directly of the box, and the other one through the back of my computer chair.