Forty Days Progress Update

Well, I am to the halfway point 32 days into my forty day challenge so I am here to check in! I originally meant to check in halfway, but I'm still me, so here I am about 1/2+1/4+1/20 of the way through this and my math skills are at least still intact! Well, anyway, sticking to a routine for forty days is so much more of a challenge than I realized.  My schedule is not always the same each day and I have found that if I miss one day, that usually snowballs into a week! So, I had a great start and then fell off the wagon for a few days while a friend was visiting, which is a totally legit reason to get out of my routine!

College friends reunited after too many years!
Kristin, Iris, me, and Greg 

But, for me the point of these forty days is to improve my discipline, perseverance, health and skills in some way.  Not perfection, improvement! To review, I identified FOUR specific daily activities as a starting point and they are:

• Play piano and sing 1 hour each day
• Drink 12 cups of water each day - 2 extra cups for any soda consumption
• Write 1,000 words each day
• Do 1 thing for someone else that's out of my normal routine

Here's an update on my progress for the first 32 days:

Things I've noticed so far: 

Musically (completed 75% of the days)- I have improved in skill and technique, I have learned a few new tricks on the piano and some new breath-control exercises.  This one is actually a fun one for me because I enjoy playing and singing and it has been really cool to see some improvement here.

Water (completed 81%)- I will say this one has been getting easier with time and I have been craving soda less and less. I have switched to iced coffee so I do need to be careful with how much sugar and dairy I put in it, but it's a step in the right direction for me.  I have really had an easy time getting this one done most days because it gives me a good excuse to get out of my desk at work to refill my cup a few times a day AND get some steps at the same time.

Writing (completed 15%)- Now this one has been a complete lackage for me.  I really love to write but I have found this goal to go by the wayside when I'm exhausted at the end of the night.  One of my next goals is to start waking up at 5:00AM every day because I have seen how productive you can be that early in the morning. I think once I get into that routine, writing will be a little easier as I'm not trying to do it with one brain cell awake at the end of a long day!

Helping (completed a messy 56%) - This has surprisingly been the hardest one to do even though it has a higher percentage than writing every day, it's hard for me to find someone to help outside of my normal routine.  I've mostly helped my kids with different things and that IS a change for me because I typically let them do all their stuff on their own - gotta teach 'em young right?? - but it has been nice to have some extra time with them during these times.  But I feel like I need to step up my game on this one.....I welcome ideas!

What I anticipate in the next 20  8 days: 

I think I will continue doing well with my music and water intake but I need to put a hiatus on the writing for now and start keeping my eyes open for more ways to be helpful.  What I had anticipated with that one was that I would become less self-absorbed and apparently I'm stubborn because I haven't learned that lesson just yet!

Again, I am also learning Spanish right now which means I am taking time every day to practice but I would love some face-to-face practice so any of my spanish-speaking friends, hit me up for a coffee date or video chat some day soon!

So What IS This Mission You Keep Talking About?

Hey everybody, it's Erin! Well, we have officially survived the Polar Vortex of 2019 with -50 degree wind chill today! This weekend will feel like summer compared to today! Aaaaaaannnnnnyway, you may or may not know that I am returning to Monterrey, Mexico in just 26 days now and I am looking to offer some babysitting services in exchange for financial support.  So, I thought I would give you a little more detail about what I will be doing in Monterrey during this visit as well as what my family will be doing this summer!

This past spring (2018), I attended three conferences for very different purposes.  The first, for children's ministry, the second, for worship ministry, and the third, for my Young Living convention.  At the worship conference, I started to feel some sort of tug on my heart that God was putting missions back on my heart.  But I didn't really think too much about it at the time because that wasn't the reason I was attending the conference.  Well.....the very next month, I traveled to Utah for the Young Living convention.  Since most of us that were there attended because we're interested in business, there was a session on goals.  Specifically, what's one BIG thing that you will accomplish before returning to Utah next June?

Immediately, I felt that tug again but this time, I got a much clearer vision of this being a family venture. Fast forward to November, I was blessed with the opportunity to reconnect with some people in Monterrey that I had met when I first visited in 2007.  I felt so loved and welcomed in just those few days and left there feeling like God was not done with me in this way yet.  So I planned my return without knowing many details at all.

Part of our group to Monterrey in 2007

Parque Fundidora 2018

But the one detail that I knew is that I wanted to go back to Refugio 121 Casa Hogar which is the children's home housed inside the old mission connected to a local church where our groups used to serve each year during spring break.  These boys are so sweet and just regular ol' kids who love to have fun! When I was there in November, the boys were so eager to ask me a bunch of questions about English and the U.S. and whether I knew the President! My Spanish was not very good and it was hard to communicate with them so I told them I would work on it so that it would be better when I came back! (So, please help me with that, friends! LOL)

In 26 days, I am returning to teach the boys a couple of worship songs in both Spanish and English for them to sing at their church on the Sunday that I am there. I will be teaching them the songs, playing piano, singing with them and giving them cues, so please pray that I can do all of those things and have a bit of fun with them! We will also play some large group games, pulling from my children's ministry experience, which I hope will be fun for them (and me - I mean, I AM just a big kid really!)

Friday night, we will host a fundraising pasta dinner to support the children's home.  They are currently trying to raise money so that they can remodel their dorms in order to accommodate girls into the children's home as well as the boys.  So any of the proceeds from this fundraising dinner will go towards their project.  I am seeking prayer and financial support to help me provide the food for the dinner.  Since I can't pack all of the food in my suitcase :-D, I will be going to Sam's Club in Monterrey to get all the food supplies and then a small team of volunteers will make and serve the food to anyone who attends the dinner.  

"How can I help?"

*If you need babysitting anytime in February, please call me! Accepting donations of any size!
*Pray for my travels, the dinner, support for the children's home, and the people I will get to serve with that God will continue to use them to love on these kids for His purpose.
*I am also looking for suggestions for small treat/fun type items that I can bring with me that would be loved by a boy aged 7-14, so give me your best ideas!
*You are also able to give financially through venmo/paypal or by check. 

Any financial support given will go to purchasing supplies for the dinner and anything leftover will go to the start of our fundraising efforts for our family's trip back to Monterrey this summer.  More on that trip as more details become available, so stay tuned for that and feel free to message me or comment here with any questions you have about this post! 

Forty Days (and Forty Nights)

Hello friends and family!! It's me again and I'm back with some exciting news! Did you guys make any 2019 goals, resolutions, revelations, whatever you call it?  I think January is always one of the most commonly thought-of times to ponder what you want to do next.  Well, I am no different! I started reflecting on this past year and all that God has brought me through and taught me about myself and about His love for me. 

This year has brought a lot of different circumstances, emotions, changes, etc...and one of those changes is that before we left our last church, God stretched me into confidence to use His gifts in me to share with others.  I never thought I would be on stage playing piano or singing in front of people, but when it's all for God's glory, the focus is on Him, not me!

I hadn't touched the piano since 2009 when I left a ministry that I loved so dearly so that I could take care of my growing family.  But this past year, God has brought it back into my life through filling a need on the worship team here and there.  It has become such a habit for me to just sit down and play for 30-45 minutes every night and I realized how much I love to express myself in worship through music. 

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;

    break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Psalm 98:4 ESV

This new entry of music back into my life has sparked an idea...this is the exciting news I wanted to share with you guys!  FORTY.DAYS.  Including today, I have FORTY DAYS before I return to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon in Mexico to reconnect with people through God's work.  So, forty days is sort of one of those "magical" (so to speak...) numbers that we read in the Bible, right?  

So, I thought. And I wondered.  What can I do with these next forty days as I prepare myself for ministry? I made a list, natch....And here's what I came up with:

• Play piano and sing 1 hour each day
• Drink 12 cups of water each day - 2 extra cups for any soda consumption
• Write 1,000 words each day
• Do 1 thing for someone else that's out of my normal routine

I had some other ideas come to mind, but I didn't want to overwhelm myself.  Maybe I will save them for my next growth spurt.  You'll notice these aren't actual goals with an end date or specific level of accomplishment, but I feel like building these things into my daily routine will not only start developing my skills, promote my health and probably lose a little weight, but also keep me away from those "negative" things, those things that are a time suck and when you're finished, you feel like you've killed some brain cells because of it....you guys know what I'm talking about right??? 

I would love to hear what some of your goals are - heck, maybe I can "borrow" some of them! So, leave them in the comments below or on the FB post where you saw this post linked if you want!

Love you guys, thanks for reading and following along!

Erin