30 Minutes and Spouse-less

What do you do when your husband is gone for a week leaving you with extra time on your hands cause for some reason it makes you feel lazy to watch tv on the couch at night all by yourself? Well, for me, I decided what better opportunity to tackle one of my "Thirty by 30" challenges and commit myself to reading my bible daily for a week for at least thirty minutes, than while my husband is out of the country. The purpose of my challenge isn't necessarily that I'll do many of the items on the list just one time to reach my goal, but that with some of these items, I'll be encouraged and inspired to continue. For instance, I'm sure it would only be to my benefit if I regularly took notes on JRs' sermons, but it seems I need some sort of jump start to get me in that habit. However, that's for another time.

As for my daily (or at least weekday-daily...) bible reading, I've lately been in the habit of reading a chapter or two and then patting myself on the back for making that commitment. Obviously, the pat on the back is completely missing the point and not what these devotionals should be about, but I also recently noticed that reading these 1-2 chapters take only an average of just five minutes of my time! I knew it would be a challenge for me to then commit to a full thirty minutes of bible reading, but knew I needed to take that plunge to help me in my understanding of God's word and grow my relationship closer to Him.

I'm happy to say that I've been consistent with this thirty-minute bible reading challenge for the past three days and am enjoying the book of Matthew. I figured a good place to start was in the New Testament and hopefully after this challenge, I'll be inspired to become more intentional with an actual devotional guide. I'm taking my pastor's recent advice of reading aloud, too (well, whispering aloud at least for my voice), and have noticed that also makes me read more slowly and get more out of the passages. There are several things I'm noticing in Matthew now that I don't really "get" or understand that I've never noticed before, so I'm excited to take note of these questions and spark some good conversation with my hubby when he returns.

Speaking of my sweet hubby, Steve... he is in Stockholm, Sweden for the week- the lucky guy. Why you may ask? Well, his prof from UCSD works fairly closely with people at the Karolinska Institute, http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=130&L=en, and goes there frequently as well (he's got a bit of Swedish blood in him in fact); while we were in San Diego, a grad student from KI, Helene, came over to UCSD for a couple months and worked with Steve on one of his projects. Helene is now giving her thesis defense on some of the material they worked on together so she graciously invited both of us out there to attend. So sweet, sigh... but alas, it wouldn't work out for me to go so I'm all by my lonesome. Steve gets to give a talk while he's there which is awesome for him, plus it's an all expense paid trip to EUROPE which is even more awesome for him, so I am happy for him.

But, I am unhappy without him. :(

Life in the Mason household is just not the same with half a Mason gone. Even Parker seems to notice. Luckily, it's a fairly busy week so I'm not at home much with nothing to do, but when I am home, his absence is definitely felt. He spoils me in the mornings making me breakfast and getting my lunch ready and, well, just being there, so I'm not quite as inspired to get moving when I wake up. And falling asleep without him by my side seems to invoke less sweet dreams. I am blessed to call him my husband and miss him when he's away. I could go on and on with this, but will save that for a post of "why I love my husband" for another time.

For now, the first "challenge" begins and I'll return with a report upon its' completion! :)