I took a quick trip to Disney World last week! So fun.

Week 6 & 7 of 52

10)   Practice 12 spiritual disciplines.

This month’s spiritual discipline is Bible intake in the form of meditation on the Word. These last two weeks, I have completed my daily meditation maybe 1/3 of the days. Disney knocked me out of the habit of reading my 2 chapters, and so I lost momentum. I did meditate on Ecclesiastes quite a bit on my bumpy, I am falling-out-of-the-sky flight to Orlando, though. The man next to said he didn’t think we’d make it. I meditated on “death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.” And, “For the living know that they will die,” and “Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come.” I was ready. 

9)   Complete 12 credits toward MDiv.

Working…

8)   Connect with one person a week.

My trip to Disney was with two of my nieces and a friend of theirs. We had great conversation, laughs and adventures! I also hung out with a friend over lunch this week. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of home after Disney, though!

7)   Complete writing a 12-week Bible study.

I haven’t worked on this in two weeks.

6)    Submit 6 articles for publication.

I’ve evaluated the feasibility of this goal. It is causing more guilt than motivation. The desire to get it done is lacking. I’m also concerned my second class, which starts in a few weeks, is going to add extra writing time that will only increase my stress of not working on this goal. So, I’m cutting this one off the list, and my goals for 2017 are reduced to 9.

5)    Learn how to needle felt and create 25 sculptures. 

Hagar and giant sheep, as I’m calling the tutorial sheep I started and didn’t realize would be so large in size, are on hold. I’m working on a trio of little sheep, that are the proper proportion for the human figures I want to make. Obviously, this is just the beginning.

4)    Complete 12 house/yard projects. 

This lamp was poorly designed and a wire was cut about a month after we installed it from over-zealous kids turning it round and round. So, its been collecting dust for more than a year. Stephen decided it wasn’t able to be taken apart, and the cut in the wire was in a place completely inaccessible. So, this Saturday, I decided to see if I could do whatever it took to get it apart and re-wired. I figured I had nothing to loose, since we’d have to buy a new one anyway. Three hours later and one trip to the hardware store, I had it working! I won’t bore you with details, but it was a trial. And the kids have been warned not to touch it.

We’ve also been making small steps toward designing, ordering and installing the iron railings for the front steps and patio. We found a local welder, and now I have to settle on the specifics.

I also ordered seeds!! I’m excited about this flower, and I’m trying carrot seed tape for the first time this year. The dirt is calling.

3)    Move at least 15 minutes a day.

I moved a lot at Disney, and succeeded in moving every day after the trip, except for one.

2)   Fix my teeth. 

Invisalign was installed five days ago. Along with the plasticy trays that completely cover my teeth and do the work of aligning, small buttons were glued to a few of my teeth. If you look closely, you can see the things that look like warts on my teeth. These are like little shards of glass when I remove the trays. Imagine eating with shards of glass on the front of your teeth! My cheeks and lips are damaged. After doing a quick browse on-line of invisalign problems, I decided I’m going to give my ortho a call next week and see if I can get them smoothed and polished out. I knew I would have sores from getting used to things, and that my teeth would ache as they move, but the buttons are pretty painful. I suspect the assistant who installed them was a novice.

1)  Hike to 12 new places.

Nothing new these two weeks.

January: Hike to Twin Falls.