5 Day Challenge

Our church has been pushing us to go deeper in our compassion and action through the Micah 6:8 Project. Micah 6:8 says "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."


On Monday we began our (short) journey into living on less than $2 of food per day. To do this we decreased our portion sizes to 8 oz. (1 cup). We ate 3 meals a day of beans, rice, tortillas, lentils, or a few bits of fish or chicken, and tap water. We had many different thoughts during these few days. "This is harder than we thought it would be." "We are SO much more blessed that we realize." "We have so much variety available to us." "We've experienced this....now what? What can we do?" "At the end of these 5 days, we can go back to our grocery store or restaurants and eat 'like normal' again.....for most of the world, rice and beans is it." "I can't even eat these foods 'plain'. I've added brown sugar, or butter, or seasonings." There were many more thoughts and conversations throughout the week, but I guess one of my friends said it best... "Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours." I hope and pray that this doesn't end here. That my awareness leads to an action of some sort. What that is...I'm not exactly sure.......
It's an interesting challenge, and I would recommend it (to those physically able), for even just a day or two. :)

Valentine's Day through the eyes of my kiddos...

Well, today was one of the rare moments where I was able to step back a little bit and observe my kiddos as they celebrated Valentine's Day together. First, we wrote about what "love" means to us. Here are a few things they wrote...
LOVE IS...

• considerate of others
• letting go of your anger
• family and friends, hugs and kisses
• not hurting your animals
• colorless (yes, one of them came up with that on their own!)
• giving presents to people and being nice

Another cute moment today was during Math. I had given the kids each a box of "sweethearts" to sort and graph. I was just walking around the kids letting them do their own thing when I overheard them whispering...

"These hearts are inappropriate for school!"
"Yeah, this one says 'FIRST KISS'!"
"Oh yeah?!? Well, mine says 'HEY BABY'!"

hehe--I guess the kids are still innocent about some things ;)