Do Hard Things

I'm finally getting to that post I was talking about.  Before I begin I'll set myself up to be held accountable for another post....Jed's b-day pictures.  The pictures are still on my camera.  It really seems to be too much right now to get them off.  Don't get me wrong, I've not been lazy or anything, I've been busy, and getting pictures off the camera just doesn't seem doable at the present moment.  I've been trying to do some of my bulk cooking.  And get this, I cooked up one of the packages of meat that was in the back fridge (which by the way produced some cold juice -one of the girls made some and put it back there, so I guess it's not totally busted) and it was totally fine.  So today I went about to cook up some chicken (think huge bulk pack from BJ's) that was NOT apart of the back fridge meat crisis and it was BAD!!!   What?!?  We had to return meat to BJ's and got this pack in return, and this one was bad as well.  Seriously we've not had a problem before this, so maybe it was a bad truck load as we bought the meat only days apart.  Either way, I'm out a pack of chicken.  I do have another one, but I need to defrost it first....and well, I need to move on to some other cooking for tomorrow. 

Ok, on to my topic at hand.  "Do Hard Things" (dht)

DHT is a book written by teens for teens.  Written by Alex and Brett Harris (their brother, Josh Harris, wrote the book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye") when they were 18, I think they are 21 now.  I had been planning on a Mother/Daughter trip to the beach with Isabella for her 13th birthday this coming August.  I was hoping that I could find a book on the teen years to have us both read before our trip to have something to discuss.  Before I was able to find a book we had a situation that arose that made it more clear that our values were not being passed on in the way we had hoped.  For various reasons that I won't get into we find we have a budding teen that values what the world does, which is not something we agree with....at ALL.  So I happened to mention to a friend that I need a book, and she gave me a couple of titles.  Then she remembered that a friend of hers (who goes to our church) was a part of a book study that was just starting on the DHT book.  She told me that the dht book was the talk of the Charlotte Mason conference that she had attended the month before.  She told me that everyone had nothing but wonderful things to say about this book.  So we ordered it immediately and I got in contact with the study leader to see if there was room for another person or two (as Jeremiah or I will be going with her). 

I haven't even finished reading the book and I am heartily recommending it, it is that good.  The amazing thing is that Isabella stayed up late each evening to read the whole book. Now she is rereading it!  The book was written to get teens to rebel against the low expectations of our culture.  So if you have a budding teen, a teen, or anyone older I recommend this book.  I think we all need to hear this message.  You can go to their website to see more and read some articles:

The Rebelution

Another amazing thing is that Isabella asked that instead of going to the beach for her birthday if instead we could attend one of the Rebelution conferences!  The closest one is in D.C. this coming September.  She is bummed it can't be in her birthday month, but is very excited about being able to attend one of the conferences.  I'm excited as well as I am praying that this is an answer to prayer.  Not only will we get to go to the conference, but we'll be able to see my sister and her family!  Yeah! 

The book talks about different areas that we need to take the 'do hard things' mindset.  The first being about stepping out of our comfort zones.  I really can not remember them all, as I am still reading and processing. I can honestly say that so far the areas that I have read about all need work on in my life!  For starters since this is the most pressing of issues for me at the moment I will be working on getting the house in order and, here's the kicker, keeping it that way!  I know, it might not seem like a huge contribution to society at large, but it still needs to be done.  There is always some excuse that I have that it can not stay clean.  I mean, I have 6 kids, or they are sick, or I'm just not a born organizer, or......you get the idea.  Don't get me wrong, when 4 of the children are sick and I'm coming down with it too....well there is only so much I can do.  Trying to attend to 4 sick children and having to cook, and clean up what ever mess said sick children may have made, that pretty much takes up my whole day.  BUT, that doesn't mean I have to settle for it being an excuse for the constant mess that my house is.  I need to raise the bar, as the book points out.  So that is where I will start.  I know there are other worthy, more pressing spiritual areas that could be dealt with.  I did just sign up for the 8 week Bible reading challenge.  So that is a start there as well. 

Ok, I have to end this as we are heading out the door for some errands and dinner....yeah a night off of cooking!