We are finishing up our 2 weeks of giving away 7 possession each day for our "7" project. Up next is Media. Starting Sunday, March 17th through Saturday, March 30th our family is going on a TOTAL MEDIA FAST. We will be unplugging the TV, computer, radio/ipod, DS, Kindle etc, etc....we are going to embark on a journey of discovering what it's like to actually spend time together!! So there will be no posts after this one until March 31st....I can't wait to share with you this experience and also about our Fast/Pray day on March 29th...so many things going on right now! God is really working in our lives.

In addition to the Media fast our family is kind of taking a BAD CHOICES fast....we are going to (as a family) try to eliminate eating foods that are bad for our bodies. The kids have been challenged to become more active and to lose some weight...if they do so by Christmas they each get a Kindle Fire....boy are they motivated....for now! But this will need prayer...this will be a lifestyle change for our ENTIRE family. I hope that we do lose weight, but more than that I hope that we become less dependent on electronic entertainment and more active, more interested in positive, good of the mind and body activities.

So pray for us, the next two weeks will be a good hard jump start and it will take an act of God for us to be successful in these endeavors...but as Phil 4:13 says "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength". We will put our focus on God and our faith in Him an

Just have to share a few proud mama moments I've had over the last couple of weeks.... A few Thursday nights ago (yes I know I am very delayed at posting pictures)...Carly had her first band concert...see picture below...she plays the flute. I am so proud of her for how well she and the rest of the 5th graders and all of the other grades for that matter performed...it was a very nice evening and we are looking forward to many more!!

Next...Carly entered a car into the AWANA Grand Prix at our church...she won 3rd place in the design category..it was an adorable Hershey bar car...she worked hard on it....so proud again!

And then this past weekend Carson's indoor soccer team took home first place at a tournament in Hudson. They played undefeated in their first U-8 indoor soccer season...way to go boys!

We just finished 2 weeks of the clothes expirement with 7. From February 17th to March 2nd I wore 7...okay 8 articles of clothing (not including undergarments). My choices included 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of black lounge pants, a brown sweater, another brown sweater with a purple undershirt (the 8th item), a grey A-P shirt, 1 pair of tennis shoes and 1 pair of brown dress shoes, no jewelry, nothing else. The positives of this expirement definietly out weighed the negatives. My daily dressing time was so easy (already the first day after the experiment ended I spent 20 minutes changing outfits before church....seriously!!), my laundry was minimal, I found that I enjoy wearing tennis shoes, I was much less concerned with my appearance (this might be a negative too), I became very thankful for the abundance of clothes in my closet, I became more mindful of future purchase of clothing and determining if they are a want or a need. The negatives...well basically they were just sinful...I do care what I look like each day so this was a bit of a struggle for me and the inconvenience of having to wash these few clothes more regularly was kind of annoying. But overall I do feel like I learned something. God taught me that I have plenty, more than I need and I am thankful for that. I had a moment when it snowed and I couldn't wear snowboots and another moment when I was just chilled, I couldn't add more clothes, but I could add a blanket and I wondered how would I feel if I were homeless and the clothes on my back were all I had?? I learned that I really do have a desire to help others get things like clothes and shoes and blankets that are so abudant to me and this is something I can actually do....just in time for the next experiment POSSESSIONS!
On Sunday we began our 2 weeks of Possessions. From March 3 to March 16th we are to give away 7 things each day. Not go out and buy 7 things to give away...go through our personal belongings and find 7 things to give to someone in need. Here is where I am with this....On Sunday I started with plastic bags and food. Conveniently for me our church is currently doing a plastic bag drive for a hunger awareness group at Wartburg College and we always collect food for the local food pantry on the first Sunday of each month. So I started my expirement giving well over 7 plastic grocery bags and I rummaged through the pantry to find 7 useful things to donate to the food pantry. The rest of this time I have combined into one large donation opportunity. I calculated out that to give 7 things away per day I would need to give away 98 things total. So I cleaned out closets (mine and the kids) and came up with a large tote filled with 86 articles of clothing. In another large tote I gathered 5 sheet sets, 3 full bedding sets, 1 comforter and 7 blankets, and from our coat closet I gathered 6 spring jackets that are 2nd's for my kids or too small. So this comes to a grand total of 108 items (I counted the sheet and bedding sets as 1 each). First of all I am pretty sickened with myself because all of this is EXTRA stuff we have...none of it will really be missed...how sad and sinful! But what brings me peace is to know that next Monday i will be dropping all of this off at the Clothes Closet, a local mission in the basement of the Parkersburg Library that provides free clothes and necessities to local families in need. For the next 7 days until I deliver these items I will be praying over them and asking God to use them to help someone. I will be praying for the families that get these items that they will bring them joy even if their current situation is not ideal. I will also pray for other opportunities...I may have already met my "expirement goal"...but that does not mean that I am not open to God using something I have to help someone yet...not just for the next 2 weeks, but for the rest of my life I want everything I have to used by Him, I want to treat everything I own as what it really is...just gifts from God that I can pass on here on earth...because not one of these things will be going to heaven with me!
Please pray for me and my girlfriends as we journey through this part of the expirement, please continue to pray for us that we can be used by God to reach others in anyway possible!