Summer of 7

Garden Update

June 5, 2012 by Amy 5 Comments

It’s been just shy of 2 months since I planted my first garden. So far I’ve been able to harvest lettuce, basil, parsley, broccoli and as of last night, jalapeno peppers. They were two smallish peppers that I turned straight into stuffed jalapenos to eat with our burgers and let me tell you they were HOT. I had read that I could leave them on the plant longer to get hotter but I like them mild and wow, I’m glad I pulled them when I did. It was SO NICE though being able to have those and not have to go to the store to pay an arm and leg at the store.

OK last I updated you, it was about one month ago:

Wow. It’s amazing to look at that now. Since then, we talked with our farmer’s exchange and they recommended we take out some of the dirt on the right bed that was having issues and replace with some soil. He then gave us some FREE replacement plants with a few extra plants. Super nice folks there!

This below picture is about 2 weeks ago, just about 2 weeks after the above picture. As you can see my tomatoes exploded and also the zucchini he gave us on the right there started exploding too. The broccoli stems were hanging down to the ground and this is the day I took the broccoli plants out.

So it’s been about two weeks since that and I moved a few things over in place of the broccoli and here’s where we are today:

As you can see the tomatoes and zucchini are taking over.Tomatoes from the side. They’re trying to grow through the fence.

We’ve got a ton of tomatoes actually growing.

More peppers are under way

And I actually have blooms on my zucchini!

My parsley, basil, marigolds and nasturtium flowers are all doing well too.

Look ma, I have a real garden!

I really cannot tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this garden. Yes, part has been frustrating but I love tending to it and I just can’t even explain the peace I get when I’m there. I know it’s just two piddly beds but something really speaks to me working it. Most recently, God really spoke to me through that right bed which had too much fertilizer. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. I think this is particularly poignant this week as I stare down the excess of food in my life through Summer of 7. Food is good. Very good. But too many desserts, too much unused food, too much caffeine, or too much take out is bad. Even having a garden and having an excess that is not used is not good. I was so happy to give away some extra basil yesterday and it was just so right. Not that I want to pat myself on the back but I want to say that growing my own food, using what I need and then giving away the excess is definitely something I want to pursue more.

Weekend Recap

June 4, 2012 by Amy 1 Comment

Scott the DRE

Good morning. This weekend was best of all because Scott came home! He reached his goal of becoming a Drug Recognition Expert. Just like an officer can do a few tests on the side of the road to determine if someone is under the influence of alcohol, he has learned a set of tests that can determine what category of drug someone is on, be it stimulant, depressant, etc. As I type this, he is at the hospital after being called in to test someone they had arrested. He will be considered an expert now in that court case.

He spent two weeks in Columbia last month learning all kinds of medical stuff and then just spent a week in Arizona in a jail testing people and then doing a 6 hour long test. We’re all very proud to say the least. That said, I was VERY happy to have all that over and done with and have him home last night.

Gluten-Free Expo

While he was away this weekend, a few highlights included attending a gluten-free expo in Charlotte. Normally, no matter where we go I am always on alert about food. I have to question everything and feel like I’m running defense for Emma to protect her from eating something that might make her sick. We walked into the expo where about 50 vendors, including the likes of Glutino and Udi’s, had samples out and I leaned down to Emma and said, “You can eat ALL of this!” Not since we’ve started have we been anywhere where every morsel of food was gluten-free. It was divine.

Let Me Run Race

Saturday evening I was able to attend a local race for an organization called Let Me Run via our big volunteer day with my work. Let Me Run is sort of like Girls on the Run but for boys. I volunteered as the Social Media Ambassador as let me tell you, I loved it. My job was purely to post pictures and statuses to Twitter and Facebook as the event went along. I mean, how fun is that? I also pitched in to organize bags and put tattoos on some kids and that was super fun too. Seriously, does anyone have a Social Media position open because I am ON IT. The end of the race was pretty spectacular too. A finish line never fails to bring tears to my eyes. As I watched the kids coming in knowing all the work they had put into it, I couldn’t help but clap and holler for them in celebration. Doesn’t it remind you of the race we are running and that “well done” we strive for at our heavenly finish line? Gah, I love that.

Man Card

Sunday we kicked off a fantastic service called Man Card. It’s all about biblically manhood. I’m telling you, even after just the first service, I know every male needs to hear this one. Seriously, if you’re a guy, hightail it over here and if you’re a gal, send all your favorite boys and men over there too.

Summer of 7

And finally, I wanted to touch on the first few days Summer of 7. This week is food week for me. No dessert. No take-out. Nothing but water. I think I somewhat failed at the expo and didn’t even realize it. A lot of the samples were cupcakes, cookies and brownies so technically that fell in the dessert category but I gave myself a pass since I wasn’t eating it with the intent of having a treat, just to sample food I would not otherwise.

Saturday night after the race was super hard not to eat dessert. I’d had a long day, the kids were spending the night elsewhere and it just would have been the perfect time to eat a bowl of ice cream. I felt sorry for myself and then remembered that some people didn’t even have dinner that night and quit my whining.

Sunday morning I missed not having coffee at church. No compensation there. I just missed it. Sunday dinner I sat down and drank a few sips of sweet tea before I realized what I was doing. I changed it out for water and kept going. As I drank I thought of all the people who don’t have clean water to enjoy. As fate would have it, on the way home we passed a homeless person asking for money. My friend Dani had put the word out just a few days ago to help if we had seen this one particular lady so I grabbed all the cash I had and gave it to her. It’s not the first time I’ve done that but it was a well-timed reminder that what we do with our money and how we view food matters. It still has not left me thinking about her living outside and worrying about every meal. Drinking water and eating as many meals and snacks as I want doesn’t seem so bad anymore. If anyone should eat a bowl of ice cream, it ought to be her.

Have you thought about joining us for Summer of 7? I can honestly say in just a few days it’s made an impact and it’s not too late!

I’m looking forward to the rest of the week as we’re headed out to Hilton Head this weekend! Hope you had a great weekend and have a great week!

Summer of 7: The Why

June 1, 2012 by Amy 10 Comments

My mom left a very concerned message yesterday on my post announcing Summer of 7. I trust her a lot so it got my attention. I’ll admit I had to take a step back and say why is this important? Why am I really pushing myself here? I thought it was worth sharing so you don’t misconstrue what’s happening here.

The first thing I want to touch on is surprisingly a quote from Downton Abbey from the beloved Mr. Carson “What would be the point of living if we didn’t let life change us?”

Good question, Mr. Carson. Because I for one am on a journey. But it’s not just a journey to be a perfect, good-girl Christian. My journey is to be more Christ-like and that means not being perfect (it’s impossible, folks!), but loving God and other people more (Jesus says this is the most important thing!). I also believe love is a verb and so when I become more Christ-like, yes, I do believe that my character will change but that also means my actions will change. But as my former pastor Loran Livingston said, “Works are a result of our faith not a prerequisite.” In other words, I’m not going to end up doing these things so God will love me more or my good will outweigh my bad when I get to heaven. Not at all. I believe Jesus did ALL the work I will ever need on the cross for my salvation.

When I search scriptures, I see he really has a heart for the poor and the downtrodden and the people bound up. In fact, the Bible says in James, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In Matthew it says, “I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” This is just the tip of the iceberg. These are all DOING things. But you don’t do these things so you can BECOME a Christian. It’s the things you should want do BECAUSE of what Christ did for us. Above all, I believe that’s how we show people who God is and live out the gospel.

So what does this have to do with 7? Here is just a snippet of how I think the 7 categories fit into what I talked about above:

When I eat the right foods, I’m taking care of my body. When I take care of my body, several things happen. First, I am more fit so I can physically complete the good works that God has planned for me and for much longer. Second, I am free from the financial burden of healthcare. And third, I free up my time dedicated to diagnosis, treatment and healing. Let’s not even talk about the quality of life even if you aren’t “sick”. So when I am well and have more time and money, guess what? I can help others more.
When I am less stressed, once again this can have less effects on my health and I am not thinking so much about me, me, me. I can think and pray more for OTHERS.
When I can free up my things, I can bless someone else and also not be ruled by my possessions. Possessions have a funny way of multiplying and taking over. More, more, more! When we let go of possessions we not only let go of them in our hearts but again, it frees up more finances.
When I let go of a preoccupation with clothes, I free up money, time and most of all PRIDE.
This is a huge one but spending! Wow, can we Americans get tied up in our spending. When we free up finances, we can change the world. And I don’t say that lightly. I have read too much and heard about too much not to care about where my money goes. My money needs to be funneled to the poor, mistreated and hurting.
Media. I see this simply a thief of our time that we could be doing good works. There are other downsides (you know that part of being polluted by the world?) and upsides to media (connecting with others to love them well!) but for me, it’s time. I’m not quitting media altogether but I do see it as something that needs managed well. This will certainly be a reminder of just how much I’m using media.
Waste. I think God gave us the earth to take care of it. When we take care of the earth, we’re also taking care of each other, particularly the generations that come after us.

OK, so do you see? I want to love people better and I think by reducing things in my life, I can. I’m not being legalistic. In fact, I want to be FREE from these excesses so I can help others be FREE in Christ. I want to do and be more with what God has given me. Why? Because I want people to know God’s love. I truly believe LIFE is found through his good news!

Now I am FAR from the picture of this person doing good works all the time. But I’m on the journey of loving people more. I think Summer of 7 is just a time to hop off the spinning top of life for a moment. I hope during each of these weeks the times of strain will be times of prayer and reflection in that area and as Mr. Carson said, let [Jesus] change me a bit. The VERY last thing I want to do is mark off this list and then continue exactly the way I was before. I am SO tired of those kinds of exercises. I don’t want to stay in these restrictions because I believe in God we are truly free but I don’t want to leave unchanged. Make sense?

So does that help you see where I’m going with this? And more importantly, have you gotten your book yet??

The Summer of 7: Mowing Down the Excess of an Overgrown Life

May 31, 2012 by Amy 18 Comments

A few years ago, God sort of began to wreck me a bit. With a move to a different church and then with a few well-timed books, my outlook slowly started to change. I’d say reading Crazy Love and Radical both did quite the number on me in regards to where our time and finances were going and how I looked at our possessions. In the midst of that, Dani and I started The Sisterhood of the Traveling Belt. I won’t say that all my materialism has disappeared but God is still at work.

I’d read Jen Hatmaker’s book Interrupted and then watched as her new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess debuted. I followed Marla Taviano’s read-along but still didn’t read the book. For whatever reason, I just didn’t feel it was my time. And then Katrina from The Poorganic Life posted about needing another blogger to help blog through the book this summer and it was like a light bulb moment and I knew I needed to be involved. It was time to meet 7.

The point of 7 is to look at 7 areas of excess in our lives and then cut it out all while realizing how we could help others with the excess and be more grateful for what we did have. It’s right on par with what God had been doing in me. She’s like a soul sister I’ve never met. I mean, really. Eating more whole foods. Wondering why we dress up for church. Putting a cap on what we spend. Watching too much TV. All these things and more hit home. Jen took it a step (or 800) further and spent 7 months on each of the 7 areas doing some cut-throat activities that challenged her. One month she only ate 7 ingredients in all her meals. In another, she only wore 7 items of clothing. And on and on it went.

So Katrina is having us read the book and then do 7 mini challenges for the summer called Summer of 7. She has put together 7 bloggers that will all attempt a week of challenge from each category and then we each take a week to blog about one area. Mine is possessions. I feel it’s pretty fitting.

The rules are pretty much up to each person. She realized pretty fast that with everyone’s schedule it’d almost be impossible to enforce the same schedule for everyone. I’ve put together my own schedule. My plan is to roughly do the challenge from Saturday to Friday and then post about it the following Tuesday. Here’s what we’re looking at:

June 2-8 FOOD – I feel like I’ve been on one big food challenge since we went gluten free the past few months. I’ve learned so much about food and I honestly don’t feel like food is a huge sore spot of excess for me right now. So for this week, I’m doing no take-out, no desserts and only water to drink. Those are probably the 3 areas in which I do see excess.

June 10-16 STRESS – I’m going to do the 7 prayers in the book. We will be on vacation this week so I think it’s the perfect time to de-stress.

June 17-24 POSSESSIONS – I’ve been wanting to do a major clean-out of the house and I think it’s time. I want to take a day to do one room and then at the end I will do something…either a yard sale for Jen Hatmaker’s homes in Haiti, donate to Goodwill or give to individuals as needed.

June 25-30 CLOTHES – I will wear 7 articles of clothing all week. To be honest, being in the same jean shorts and a t-shirt all week isn’t that challenging for me, so I’m going to also go without makeup all week too. Hello, my name is Amy and I’m a Mary Kay consultant.

July 1-7 SPENDING – I’m planning to only buy groceries this week. No Amazon, no Target, no Wal-Mart, no CVS, etc. Now this is something FOR ME. If the girls need Tylenol or something, I’m buying it.

There will be a gap here. It’s birthday week in this house.

July 21-July 27 WASTE – I’ve been wanting to start composting and I think this is the right week to start.

July 28-Aug 3 MEDIA – No blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reader, general browsing, no TV and no cell phone use except for calls/texting.

OK, so I would LOVE it if some of you would join me? Surely there are some of you that want to cut some excess out of your life and like a good challenge? Don’t want to do all 7? Sure! Pick one area that is a sore spot (not the easy one!) and join up. Katrina has a linky over here where you can post an intro and then sub-pages so we can link up our individual category posts as well. Below is the *same* linky that you can enter it without hopping over to hers!