Lent

I'm doing two things for lent, and "giving up" something isn't directly involved. But it will happen indirectly. I understand the purpose behind the "giving up" in order to represent the suffering of Christ for 40 days in the desert. But I've been thinking of things I could give up, and most of them are things that I am not heavily reliant on anyway (television, internet, junk food, reading). I have what you might call "built in moderation" because I am busy in many ways. But I have decided that in the same spirit, I'm going to adopt two things that will be a struggle for me, but that will ultimately be a joy.
1) Drink water. I don't like it. It tastes like nothing. I drink it when I go to the gym, or if it's really hot outside, but I mostly stick with juice or tea or milk. But I know that water is good for me, and I notice immediately when I start drinking a good 64 ounces a day that I have prettier skin, more energy, and I feel healthier. So I've got my pink nalgene all filled with agua, and it's off we go.

2) Live on a Dave Ramsey approved budget. I have had a "budget" in the past, but mostly it involved not spending too much money and having plenty left over at the end of the month. Dave advises a zero-balance budget, because "mystery unused money" lying in a checking account gets spent on junk. So I've balanced my budget precisely to the penny, I've got my envelopes all ready.

Balancing my budget out was actually surprising. I sat down with my calculator, bank statements, and Monthly Cash-Flow plan(from daveramsey.com) and figured out where I was spending too much and where I wasn't spending enough (can you say "giving" and "savings"?). I was spending very little on food, which I was sure would be the culprit. I actually increased my food budget significantly and tithed fully as well as saved 10% of my income, while paying off my school loans a little extra each month, and still came up with extra cash. That goes in the "blow money" which sounds like drug money, but really just means it's money that's there for my "Just in Case" moments. ;)

Anyway, I think both things will be like "giving up" things, but really adopting things that I know God is calling me to. I'll try to keep everyone updated. :)

Small group

I teach small group at church for fourth grade girls. They are sweet and adorable and dying to talk to a "big kid" like me, which is fun. :) They also talk ninety miles a minute about anything in the world, and are VERY high energy. I love talking with them! But it does make for a difficult setting for our small group - especially since they've just come from sitting still for half an hour for large group. I've been experimenting with ways to make our time productive as well as social. The results so far: Lesson planning is helpful, but not tremendously; a different location helped as long as there were NO distractions (water fountains are too much of a distraction); board games involved too much time between turns so they got overexcited; today we did Christ, Community, Challenge cards. (They're something we do at the camp to have kids set goals for themselves). They actually listened, spread out quietly, and filled out their cards well. It was fun to see what they wrote. I gave them examples of goals, and let them read mine, but they each came up with one true original goal somewhere on their cards. One girl wanted to "do my part to make our group less noisy", another "I want to find out how to be friends with God", and another "I want to listen more and talk less". It was so cute! Now I am trying to think of a way to keep them engaged in reaching those goals, and continuing to check back and hold themselves accountable. I know it's doable, but in only 20 minutes a week? It's tough!
Any suggestions for me?
I'm off to Pittsburgh for a promo/reunion in the South Hills. Have a great Sunday.