Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Cut/Slash/Pound/Pray

By now you all know that I'm slightly crazy. And that for some insane reason I love the challenge of new and the excitement of change.

Maybe its the ongoing remodeling projects. Decades of marriage and living in fixer-uppers will do that to a person....if said person survives. And they say what doesn't kill you can make you stronger.

So here's the latest kick I'm on: 23, who may or may not have received the recessive gene from my crazy side, birthed this idea. And our nutty super-trainer friend "Buffy" jumped on board with us. Yes, two twenty-somethings and me. Crazy does have a name. It is Kelly : ).

We are on a "Cut the Crapola" from our lives kick.

It began on Sunday. And it's going to last until February 1st. So here are the rules...

1) Spiritually: we want to get past the things that bog us down and keep us struggling with flesh and blood and keep us from being all that God created us to be. Our rule. Pray daily for 6 people. Three of them are people who God has laid on our hearts as needing prayer so this list of three may change daily. Three are people with whom we struggle a little bit or a lot. And what are we praying? God's absolute love, mercy and blessing, that these people would find hope and healing and abundant life in Jesus. And that we would love them through Him. We are also asking God to bring healing, hope and abundant life into our lives. We are not content to be the same people we are now in six months. We expect God to use His Word and our willingness to undergo the sword of the Spirit to change us into people more aware of Jesus and more aware of our constant need for Him in our lives.

2) Physically: Test our bodies. Work our bodies. Push our bodies into being healthy temples. Eating (mostly) the things that give life, energy and health and avoiding (mostly) the things that don't. Exercising every day, brutality as needed to meet our goals.

3) Financially: We are allowing ourselves to buy only the items that we NEED. We have discussed the parameters and decided that we will allow some leeway because life does revolve around social opportunities and requires an occasional cup of coffee in a coffee house. So all "fun" or "frivolity" needs to fall into "cheap" or "creative and cheap" because we have allowed ourselves only $50 each a month ($300 total)to cover lunches and dinners out, movies, clothes, and barista therapy. When we looked at our lives we decided that we could each easily drop $100 a weekend on non-essentials. A trip to the mall could find us holding an iced coffee, a meal or two and three bags with amazing bargains. That adds up. And we've decided to put what we don't spend toward savings or debt reduction.

4) Mentally/Emotionally: We have all set goals for something we've put on hold or something we've always wanted to do but don't for some mental, emotional, physical or spiritual reason. I will share some of these as they unfurl. But we are committed to challenging each other and to grabbing hold of some pretty intimidating things.

Stay tuned for the Cut the Crapola updates. I'm sure there will be some stories to report.