What's Working Wednesday: HabitRPG (Guest Post)

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Today I have a special guest writer, my son, to tell you about a website that my kids have been having fun with and has been a motivating factor in helping them get things done called HabitRPG. It is a website but there are also apps on Android and IOS which aren't as user friendly as the website yet (they're working on it). I haven't used it as much as the kids have so I'm grateful he accepted my request to write this post. With no further ado, my guest writer.

So today I am going to blog about a new website that my Mom found for me called HabitRPG.

HabitRPG is a habit tracking website that as they say it “Your Life The Role Playing Game.” There are   three different  types of tasks. The first type of tasks are Habits which you can do as much as you want and get lots of gold from them. The second type of tasks are dailies. As the name suggests these are things you do everyday as part of your routine. They can also be only on certain days (e.g. you only have school on Monday to Friday so you just highlight those days and not the weekends) Finally the third and last type of tasks are to-dos. To-dos are a one time basis thing for stuff like go grocery shopping not something you would do every day.

As you do tasks you level up and different things happen. At level 2 you can get armor with that gold that you saved up. Level 4 enables drops which “drop” eggs, hatching potions, and food. With eggs you can hatch them into pets with hatching potions. You can feed pets and they will grow up into mounts that you can ride. At level 10 you unlock classes from which you can pick either Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Healer which each give you special “powers”. Also if you are homeschooled then you can just put your children’s assignments in their HabitRPG if they need a little bit more motivation.  Well that has been a pretty long rundown of HabitRPG.

Now I am going to talk about some of the negative aspects of HabitRPG. As in most RPGs [Role Playing Games] HabitRPG has weapons and “magical” potions. There are also gems that cost money but are not needed. They cost $5 and they give you 20 gems and remove ads. On that subject, ads are only little white things with words and sometimes they don’t even show up depending on your internet so no inappropriate pictures. Also there are different types of pets you can get there are nine eggs and ten different hatching potions two of which are zombie and skeleton which some families don’t like. HabitRPG also has a social party that your child could join so I would just go over the rules and tell him/her to not go on that and set up a party for just your family (maybe your friends as well). It also requires an email to sign up for it like most websites. Finally always know your child’s password so you can see what they are up to.

  That is pretty much it. So if you are looking for a fun gamified way to keep up your resolutions or just your daily life and you don’t mind the problems then I would sincerely recommend this website.

 

Thanks, my boy, for writing a guest post for me. The kids have added various school assignments as well as chores and hygiene habits to their lists. It has been a good motivation for them this past week. There is a wiki if you want more info. I am trying to use it with them but I have found the Good Habits app much more simple and user friendly for non-gamer me.

What do you use to help you stay on track with your habits?

Trust and Obey

"By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Hebrews 11:8-10

 I'm really loving the OWNit365 One Story Bible reading plan on YouVersion. It is a walk through the Bible and each day there are a couple of corresponding of passages that relate to the part of The Story in the main scripture.

Today I got to Genesis 12. I'm so grateful for the example of Abraham. He went out not knowing where he was going because he trusted and obeyed God. As a result of his obedience all the people on earth have been blessed.

Reading about Abram this morning I thought of the contrast to Adam we read about last night in our catechism book. "God's covenant with Adam required him to trust God's Word enough to obey it. God wanted Adam to trust Him completely. When God told Adam not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or he would die, Adam should have trusted God enough to believe and obey Him." As a result of Adam's choice to not trust and obey God all the people on earth have been cursed.

Neither of these men knew nor would they have ever been able to comprehend the broad scope and long lasting implications of their choices. Like them, I have no idea nor can I comprehend the broad scope and long lasting implications of choices that I have made and will make in the future.

How I long to obey God like Abraham did walking into the unknown, obeying each step of the way because the One guiding my steps is trustworthy even if what He asks me to do doesn't make sense to me.  I long to always be "looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." It reminds me of "Will You Go Out Without Knowing?" by Oswald Chambers that I blogged about last January and the January before. It's January again, at least I'm consistent. I laughed and smiled and cried as I searched "go out without knowing" on my blog. Those posts remind me of God's faithfulness when He has asked me to go out without knowing. I can trust Him completely. You can too.

1. When we walk with the Lord
     In the light of His Word,
   What a glory He sheds on our way;
     While we do His good will,
     He abides with us still,
   And with all who will trust and obey.
• Trust and obey,
  For there’s no other way
  To be happy in Jesus,
    But to trust and obey.
2. Not a shadow can rise,
     Not a cloud in the skies,
   But His smile quickly drives it away;
     Not a doubt or a fear,
     Not a sigh or a tear,
   Can abide while we trust and obey.
3. Not a burden we bear,
     Not a sorrow we share,
   But our toil He doth richly repay;
     Not a grief or a loss,
     Not a frown or a cross,
   But is blest if we trust and obey.
4. But we never can prove
     The delights of His love,
   Until all on the altar we lay;
     For the favor He shows,
     And the joy He bestows,
   Are for them who will trust and obey.
5. Then in fellowship sweet
     We will sit at His feet,
   Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
     What He says we will do;
     Where He sends, we will go,
   Never fear, only trust and obey.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/582#ixzz2qNyTBEqO

Trust Him. He is trustworthy. Obey Him. He knows best. He promises to bless those who trust Him and obey.

Interesting Epiphany or When the Sky Started Falling

Yesterday the kids and I went over to the church because the community ministries that we help with is moving to a different part of the church and we were helping out. While there I got a call from Glenn asking where we were and saying that he really needed us to come home to help because part of the roof had fallen in in the back room. (At least that's what I thought he said.) I ran around gathering kids, telling them we really needed to get home and we ran home to help where we could.

As it was it turns out it was the ceiling, not the roof (Glenn probably said ceiling and I, in my panic, just heard roof).

 I guess that some animal had chewed the insulation stuff off our pipes and, with the temps under 20 the previous night, the pipes above the ceiling had frozen. It could have been horrible but here are things we're thankful for:

- Glenn's afternoon clinic had unexpectedly been cancelled so he was home at the time. (The kids and I probably wouldn't have gotten home for another half hour after we did and that would have been almost 2 hours after the pipes had burst - our house would have been flooded, tons of stuff destroyed and lots more damage would have been done to the house, etc, etc, etc.)
- Glenn had been in the room doing Wii Fit while waiting for us to get home when he heard and saw the water start flowing and was able to get some stuff moved before chunks of the ceiling started falling.
- Glenn was home and knew to and knew how to turn the water main off. I would have had no clue!! (Again, saving from a lot more damage.)
- Our landlord was close by. When Glenn called him he was actually just behind our house checking on the garage apartment back there that is vacant.
- The landlord's handyman was able to make it over and do a temporary patch job to make it so we could turn our water back on. (Hurray for being able to go potty in our own house!)

It could have been so. much. worse! We kept talking about what we are grateful for and and mentioning God's providence and how He worked things out. It took me back to our catechism book:
Q11. What is God's providence?
A. God's providence is His completely holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.

I'm thankful that, in God's providence, Glenn's clinic was cancelled yesterday afternoon so he was home when the ceiling starting coming down in the back bedroom/ school room. Now we get to heat the outside as we wait for the remaining parts of the ceiling and insulation to dry before the handyman will come back and fix the hole in the ceiling. I'm, once again, so thankful that we don't own this house!! I'm thinking that our landlord probably wishes it wasn't his either.

Our normal tradition is to have our Magi and their entourage finally arrive at the baby Jesus, exchange gifts and eat Chinese take out (since the magi came from the East) on Epiphany so while the handy man was working on the pipes we exchanged gifts and phoned in orders to two local restaurants. We had never ordered from the Lebanese or the Chinese restaurant before so we ordered too much and ended up with tons of food. I guess we'll have leftovers for several days.

After dinner Glenn and the kids had an all out Nerf gun war and then we played another round of 10 Days in the USA. (It's our game of the week that we picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby.) After that we did Thank Yous and read "The King of all kings" from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

It was not your typical Epiphany celebration but it was a good day. I got to spend most of it with my favorite people. God was, again, so gracious to us and I, again, wonder why He chooses to be so gracious to unworthy us.

So Long 2013: Lift my Life Up (Tuesday Tunes)

As I was reflecting on the past year I wanted to come up with a song that could put it in words how I feel. There are so many that God has used in my heart over the past year or so so I think that I am going to start a temporary "Tuesday Tunes" series to blog about favorite songs. For today though I found a post that I'd started a couple of months ago about a song that I heard on the radio and loved. Below is that post, with some additions I've made today.

A few weeks ago I heard a song on FLN online. I caught the first few words as I was in the middle of doing something else:

You brought me this far
So why would I question you now
You have provided
So why would I start to doubt

As I worked on dinner or whatever I was doing the words kept repeating in my mind. I could have written those very words. That is the cry of my heart. I needed to know the rest of the words so I got on the internet to try to figure out what song it was so I could look up the lyrics and see if I could hear it again. I finally found the recent songs playlist and from it figured out that it was probably "Lift My Life Up" by Unspoken. I searched for it on youtube to listen to it again and only found this video of a live performance. I listened to it a couple of times and searched for the lyrics online somewhere. It was kind of difficult because it turns out that the song wasn't actually going to be released for a couple of days. I guess that FLN got an advance copy.

I finally found the words on another radio station's website and they resonated with so much in our lives in the past, in the present, in the future. It goes so well with the Anything study I am doing.

You brought me this far so why would I question You now
You have provided so why would I start to doubt
I've never been stranded, abandoned, or left to fight alone
So I'm giving You control
(Chorus) I lift my life, lift my life up
I give it all in surrender
I lift my heart, lift my heart up
You can have it forever
All my dreams, all my plans
Lord, I leave it in Your hands
I lift my life, lift my life up
Have Your way in me
Have Your way in me

If this is a river, then let it sweep over me
If I'm under fire, I know it's refining me
When I hear you calling out
I follow now wherever the road may go
I know You're leading me home

(Chorus) Take my life and let it be
All for You
Take my life and let it be
All for You

I lift my life, lift my life up
I give it all in surrender
I lift my heart, lift my heart up
Take my life

(Chorus)

My whole life God has been at work in my heart about seeking Him and wanting His way in my life. This has been especially true over the last year as we sought Him about where we should go for residency and handed Him our options with open hands asking Him to pick, knowing that He would put us in the place that would be the best for us even if it was not the place that we would prefer. We truly wanted what He wanted more than we wanted what we wanted because we know that His way is always better.

So now we are in Fort Worth, TX. "A big change from Upstate New York" as everyone says. Texas is not a place I would have ever chosen to live but I know that God has a reason for bringing us here and we have given Him control. He has allowed many trials into our lives in or short time here. I know that He is refining me and leading me home as the song says.

 This year hasn't been easy with the crazy hours of intern year, the emotional ups and downs that all the changes we have encountered have provided personally and in our family, the challenges of finding people and making friends, homeschooling, the heat, the cold, the break-in, the dog, the chicken, etc.  But God... "You brought me this far so why would I question You now, You have provided so why would I start to doubt, I've never been stranded, abandoned, or left to fight alone, So I'm giving You control"

This song has been a reminder of God's faithfulness and that I can trust Him no matter what challenges He allows. He has brought us this far through moves, friendships, years of waiting, fun times, rejection, acceptance, loss, gain. We have never been alone. I can let Him control my life.

So "I lift my life, lift my life up, I give it all in surrender, I lift my heart, lift my heart up, You can have it forever, All my dreams, all my plans, Lord, I leave it in Your hands. I lift my life, lift my life up
Have Your way in me."

As I look back on 2013 I am so grateful for how God has taken care of us, allowed pain into our lives, given us SO many blessings and showed us more of who He is. As I worked through the 20 questions to review 2013 the last one was "Create a phrase or statement that describes this past year for you." My answer was "learn and lean in through the changes that God allows in your life." I look forward to getting to know Him more in 2014 and the pain and blessings He will bring into our lives over the next 12 months should the Lord tarry.

So long 2013.

The Jesus Storybook Bible: $1.99 on Kindle now (What's Working Wednesday)

 I want to make a plug for The Jesus Storybook Bible. It's only $1.99 right now on Kindle (probably temporarily, Amazon changes prices all the time so check the price before you by it though it is worth paying full price). NOTE: THIS DEAL HAS EXPIRED. We were originally given a copy of this book when we first started going to Missio Church and they were using it as a tool to use with the kids as they were preaching an overview of the Bible in a year.

This year we are reading though The Jesus Storybook Bible as our advent readings with an ebook guide I downloaded here. In the ebook there are little ornaments to color and decorate that go along with each of the stories. (I was planning on hanging them with little clothes pins on twine on our mirror but since none of them have been colored yet maybe I'll just stick them in our Christmas box so we can do it next year.)

We have read it most nights though this month and many times I have had tears run down my cheeks in amazement at God's plan and His "Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love." I love this book. It's not perfect. There are some things that are said in ways that I wouldn't have said but I really do like it. I especially love how every Bible story that is shared points to the main character of the Bible: Jesus. As it says in the introductory first story: "There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them."

We read Jonah tonight with our Advent devotional and even Jonah points us to Jesus:

     "Many years later, God was going to send another Messenger with the same wonderful message. Like Jonah, he would spend three days in utter darkness.
     "But this Messenger would be God's own Son. He would be called "The Word" because he himself would be God's Message. God's Message translated into our own language. Everything God wanted to say to the whole world - in a Person."

We have the hardcover version of the book but we bought the Kindle version today and tonight we were able to all see it without passing it around and all read along because it had been downloaded to our Nooks and a laptop. The pictures are great. The kids loved it! These stories really bring out the  expression in their voices as they read (and exclaim in wonder at what we've read). They really get into these stories.

If you don't already own a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible I would highly recommend you buy this Kindle edition now while it is only $1.99. It will not work on a phone but it will work on most larger devices with the Kindle App. Even if you don't have a tablet you can get Kindle for your computer and read it on your computer screen. If you haven't done that yet (which you should - Kindle offers great free books often) I would do it just to have this book.

OK, commercial over - and I'm not even getting anything for this free advertisement ;)

NOTE: I just saw on the Jesus Storybook Bible facebook page that this book is free through 1/5/14 but I would still spend the $2 today to buy it and not wait and forget (I hate when I do that!). It will also give you a chance to read though the before Jesus is born on earth stories before Christmas.

I haven't done one in a while but  I guess this is my What's Working Wednesday post for the week. It is working for us. I'm sure it would work for you too ;)

Where We Went (Fall of 2012 through Spring of 2013)

We spent a lot of the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 travelling and living out of our minivan for residency interviews, second looks, service opportunities, visiting friends and family, family vacation, etc. Last month I found a website that someone linked to on facebook that you could color code a map of the US. I had posted our map to facebook back then but wanted to put our map on our blog so we could look back at it/ find it in the future.

In the fall of 2012 through spring of 2013:
Green: we lived there
Purple: we slept there more than 1 night
Orange: we slept there 1 night
Pink: we drove through
I'm not 100% certain we drove in MI and I think CO may have only been 1 night though we had 2 interviews there. It was a fun, crazy few months! We got to see some awesome sights and spend time with some great people. 

 You can make your own color coded map of places you've been, places you've lived, place you want to go, etc. here.

Mommy Guilt

Mommy guilt/ envy is one thing that I think all moms deal with. There are no perfect moms. There is always going to be someone who is more _________ than you are. Mommy guilt/envy comes in many forms and many faces.

Yesterday I had an attack of mommy guilt. In the mail we got the cutest invitation for a birthday party from some friends for their son. As soon as I saw it all kind of thoughts ran through my mind. After the initial, "That is one of the cutest invitations I've ever seen!" thought all kinds of self deprecating thoughts came after me, "I'm a horrible mom because... I never organize fun birthday parties for my kids, I never make fun invitations, I'm totally not organized enough to get invitations to people three weeks before an event, etc, etc, etc." This was all magnified because I really don't do birthdays well which always makes me feel guilty and because my baby turns 8 next week and she and her sisters were planning her birthday party and making invitations with crayons and pencils to hand out at church on Sunday afternoon so people could be informed a few days before her "party" (AKA hopefully have a couple friends over and probably paint nails and eat cake). "Oh, why am I not together enough to throw my own kid a birthday party so she has to plan it herself??"

Glenn had just gotten home and he saw the direction of my thoughts and my wonderful husband asked me a simple question, "Did you ever just have a two year old?"

That caused me to pause and reflect. I have just had a 2 year old. For one month. The party we threw when that little guy turned 2 was a big event- we stayed up late several nights before it making fish out of Starbursts and Laffy Taffy for his amazing aquarium cake and creating fun Veggie Tale themed carnival games to play. We had made cute invitations and I made homemade pizza for the 30+ people of all ages that came to help us celebrate that wonderful occasion. I did just have a 2 year old back then. His sister came a month later. I've not thrown a party like that since.

I'm thankful for my dear husband helping me with my perspective yesterday. I'm not a big party person. I feel mommy guilt/ envy often when I see pictures of the spectacular birthday extravaganzas from people who are that they have for their kids and think that I really should do all of that but I don't. I don't have big parties for my kids. They get homemade cinnamon rolls and a favorite meal for their birthday - usually Hawaiian Haystacks. They sometimes have a friend or two over if we've met people where we are living at the time or are not homeless. One child didn't have a cake until a couple of months after the birthday had passed because of the sickness and chaos in our lives that was going on at the time, another child got to celebrate while living in someone else's house two years in a row. As a general rule birthdays are simple events in our home but the kids still feel loved and special and they've never complained they don't get extravaganzas every year.

It is enough. I am enough. God didn't give my kids a great party planning mom but He knew what He was doing and for some reason in His infinite plan He gave them me. Imperfect, disorganized, not a party planner me.

I surrender my mommy guilt and envy to God once again. I can't live anyone else's life. I get to live mine. I am not anyone else. I am me. The me that God created perfectly for His plan and purpose and to glorify Him.

For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]. (Ephesians 2:10 AMP)