Locks of Love

I'm so excited to report that I've met one of my New Year's resolutions. Unfortunately, I haven't kept all of them, but I still have a little less than half a year to work on them. I'm really happy that I made this list, because it has helped me want to attain the goals that I set for myself in 2012.

The resolution I've completely met is donating my hair to Locks of Love. This is something that I've always wanted to do. What a simple way to give back to the world. It's quite funny that I'm using these phrases - always and simple because I'm not a huge fan of change. All my life I've had two haircuts: long with bangs and long layered with no bangs. My hair was of various lengths, but always past my shoulders. Having long hair is something that has always made me feel feminine, and I've always feared how I would look with short hair. So when I discovered that locks of love required a minimum of 10 in to be donated, I knew that this was going to be an extreme change for me.

I'm really happy that this was the year that I decided to donate my hair, because I feel that this year I have been more open to change and trying to be less controlling. What a great way to represent this change in my personal life by changing my outward appearance. Besides, if I don't like it, it's just hair right? It will eventually grow back....well, I faced my fear of short hair, and I love my new hair cut! Oh, and it doesn't hurt that it now takes me no time to wash and dry my hair, and it's a lot more pleasant to deal with in this record breaking summer heat.

Before....

During....

After!

Peace, love, and change,
-Miche

Top Ten Resolutions for 2012

I've never been good at keeping New Year's resolutions, but this year I want to really focus and not treat my resolutions as a to do list for January.

To help me with my resolutions, I've decided to adopt the "Movement" series from the Vineyard Nola and SKL. (Want to know more?  Check out my blog HERE or the church's website HERE.)

UPWARD:

1. Read the Bible in a year, and study more theology. (GeEk alert!)

2. Pray throughout the day - not just the start of my day (a 30 min commute to work can sometimes be good) or in an "emergency."

INWARD: (myself)

3. Write in a P-journal - 4 days a week. Of course, I'd love to do it everyday, but I'm trying to make this realistic/doable. :) So what is a P-journal you ask? It's a short entry that states a Peak (high for the day), a Pit (low for the day), a Praise (thankful for the day), and a Prayer. I'm really looking forward in journaling more. I used to journal a lot in college, and I'm looking forward in doing it again. I enjoy having a way to express myself and have a time to reflect.

4. Maintain a healthy body. Has anyone noticed that as you get older that this area gets more difficult? Ok...just making sure I'm not the only one. I want to try and improve eating habits and get out and exercise more.

INWARD: (others)

5. Get to know my neighbors. This year, I really want to make this a priority like I stated in my previous blog. My husband and I for Christmas made goodies and personally handed out to a few. (It's a start!). I was sad that we couldn't hand out more, but many were not home.

6. Continue to work on loving people in my everyday ordinary life - even if it means letting people who cut the line into traffic - Ugh! Um...still working on that one.

OUTWARD


7. Continue to pray for my friends in Zambia, Africa.

8. Volunteer more often at our church's food bank - Bag Hunger (and purchase food for it every month).

These are a few personal/fun ones:

9. Quit biting my nails. (unfortunately this makes my list every year.)

10. Grow my hair long enough to donate to Locks of Love. (currently working on this one, hopefully I don't loose patience!)

Lastly, I am starting a new tradition this year with my husband. We will have a "Memory Jar" in the kitchen. Every time we experience something we want to remember we will write it down on a piece of paper with the date and place it in the jar. On New Year's Eve 2012 we will take them all out and read them. I think it will be neat to have some sort of time capsule. How funny would it be to read these in 2022?!

Good luck with keeping your New Year's resolutions, if you make them!
Wishing you a prosperous New Year!

-Miche