Lent/Friendship/makeover

Today marks the start of Lent. I have a friend who is Catholic and has challenged us in our "playgroup" to better our self during this 6 week period. For some Christians lent is when they sacrifice something as a reminder of what Jesus sacrificed for us for others lent is a time of self betterment --a time to improve your self as a way of giving thanks to God for all He did for us through Christ. I have been a christian for most of my life but since I'm not catholic lent hasn't been much of a big deal. It's a term I have heard but never really understood and NEVER PRACTICED. I think that is sad in some ways, as I truly believe we as Christians can learn from those of different faiths. Most of the time we only look to our own denomination and never explore or try to understand someone else's denomination or how or why they do what they do. But thankfully our little playgroup is made up of many different denominations and we all learn and grow through them all. I so love having friends who are different than me as it makes me stretch and grow. We have all decided to exercise and put our money where our mouth is during lent. Our challenge is to "pay" our self for exercising and after Easter we are going to a FANCY EXPENSIVE restaurant and can only spend what we earn! Our hope is that we can afford more than just a glass of water--lol!!

Having a group of friends has been one of the treasures that I value in my life. For so many years(18 to be exact!) I haven't had any "girlfriends" to hang out with and that had left a void and emptiness that my husband could never fill. He has and still is my very best friend but he is no GIRL and doesn't understand being a GIRL at all--lol!!! So during this time of reflection as we girls work hard to earn our night out I'm giving thanks for my girlfriends!

This leads me to the last thing and that is a TOTAL ME MAKEOVER!! I'm going to use the 6 weeks of lent to work on making ME BETTER--both inside and out. Many of the things John and I will be doing to get our finances in shape are things that will have a wonderful and profound effect on getting me in shape to be the woman God and I have both wanted me to be.So the list of things I want to work on are as follows
DILIGENCE
HEALTH
CONSISTENCY
RESOURCE FULLNESS
CREATIVITY
And finally FEMININITY

Many of the things go hand in hand and since I'm going to be working on some with the aide of others I hope to be successful in them all. By doing a hard long look at our finances and taking the steps needed to get out of the ocean of debt we are in I will become more diligent in not just money but in other areas of our life which will help in being more resourceful. I would like to work harder at being a better housewife in both my cleaning and cooking skills. This of course means I have to become consistent in everything I do. Right now I'm good on some days but not so good on others. I really do want to be a better cook and getting healthy is going to be a great way to improve my creativity in that department. But I also want to be better at being creative in every area of my life. I want to establish a household routine and stick to it, a discipline routine for the boys, preschool work time every week,a daily OUTSIDE PLAYTIME, and a time for God which should actually come first in the day so God gets the best of me and not the left overs! And lastly I'd like to improve on my femininity --lol!!! I didn't grow up with a girly mom so I have nothing to pull from. I'm not a girly girl and that is not my intentions on becoming one either but I could improve how I look and take care of myself, not only for my benefit but for John's to. Some of the things I really need to work on is skin care, nail care, along with weight loss. I don't feel very womanly mostly because I don't take the time to nurture myself. So I'm going to strive to be more womanly in the next 6 weeks with wearing more dresses to church( right now I only wear slacks as I hate high heals!!), doing my nails as they are awful and my hands are so rough it hurts to put on my makeup lately, and lastly get my feet in shape along with the rest of me. My feet are so rough you could use them like 30 grit sandpaper--lol!! I want to wear sandals and like the way my feet look in them. So that's the plan.