40acts: Week 2

Week 2 is the first full week of 40acts (week 1 is a shorter week due to Lent starting on a Wednesday) with six challenges to try to complete. The 40acts week runs from Monday to Saturday – Sundays in Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent and allow for a pause each week to stop and reflect.

The challenges for this week have been:

• Act 5: Fair and square – supporting the Fairtrade movement
• Act 6: Thank you, #thankyou, ‘Thank you’ – taking time to say thank you
• Act 7: Hold it lightly – what possessions do you hold on too tightly?
• Act 8: Tick tock – getting somewhere on time.
• Act 9: Mix it up – engaging with someone of a different culture
• Act 10: Fix up, look sharp – create or fix something for someone

As with last week, I’ve been mostly sticking to the green and yellow options (red being the most challenging of the three suggestions). Some of the challenges though have inspired me to think beyond just that day and change something longer-term.   Act 5 – supporting the Fairtrade movement – is one of these. The day’s challenge (buying and sharing a Fairtrade chocolate bar) was a nice easy one to do but it made me realise how much more I could do with regards to changing my shopping habits. I’ll be trying to look out for Fairtrade and more ethical options in future.

Act 6 was a good trigger for me to say thank you to the bloggers on my ‘Blogs I Love’ page for inspiring me, making me laugh, sharing their beautiful photos or running amazing linkys that I love joining in with. When I started this blog nearly a year ago, I never knew I would discover such a wonderful community of bloggers and it has been one of the best gifts blogging has given me.

Act 7 in some ways was quite a challenging one. Whilst I have a house full of ‘stuff’, I struggled to think of something that I treasured that I could give away – most of my ‘treasures’ are things like my wedding video, the memory boxes for my girls – things that are special to me and less of interest to someone else. It did remind me though that I have a bag of things for the charity shop that I need to take there.

Time-keeping – the challenge for Act 8 – was another one that encouraged me to look beyond just that day’s challenge. Despite being someone who dislikes being late, I’m rarely on time unless I really have to be – for example getting Jessica to preschool . It made me realise that whilst I hide behind the excuse of two children making getting anywhere on time a challenge, the reality is that my tardiness is mostly due to me being disorganised and not allowing enough time to get to places. I had three places to go on the day of the challenge and arrived at every single one on time or early, having made the effort to leave the house a little earlier. I’ve now set myself the challenge to be on time for a week and try to break the lateness habit.

The final two acts have seen me learning a few words of greeting in other languages and getting my mum’s internet working (although I suspect the latter was more for my benefit if I’m being completely honest!)

Have you been taking part in 40acts? I’d love to hear how you’ve been getting on.