Staying in the Peace

I have tried to write this post several times explaining why I have chosen this particular verse this week.  Each time it became a very long, and even more importantly, a very personal post.  Every time I ended up deleting it.  What I had thought was going to be a personal quest to find peace has just become a quest to find peace when things get turned upside down and the dreams you had for another are at best put on hold and at worst gone forever.  I don't feel comfortable saying more than that at this time because while the situation could have a HUGE impact on me and my household, it isn't my story to tell. 

After finding that out yesterday I was amazed at how I was able to maintain peace.  Am I upset?  Yes.  Disappointed? Definately.  But what is done is done and rather than dwell on it, I am chosing to give the situation to God and move forward.  This weeks verse reminds me that peace is not something that I can get on my own.  It is a gift that I recieve when I chose to surrender.  This world is full of things that are not peaceful and I can chose to live in the world or to live in the one who has overcome!

So despite the news from yesterday, despite having my 3 year old spew all over herself, the store and me today while grocery shopping (she wasn't sick when we left the house I promise!) and despite everything else the world continues to throw at me, I am taking heart and staying in the peace!

Until next time,

Prepare for the Battle

One of the things that I have discovered (and some of you may just read this and go "duh!") is that the battles of this life are more than just physical, they are spiritual too.  I know, that's deep isn't it?  But we are told throughout scripture that we are battling spiritually.  (Ephesians 6:10-12).  When I look at things through those eyes, I see that there is so much more at stake.

I had a clear realization of just how this works on Friday.  I told you in my One Word 2012 post that I am participating in the Made to Crave Bible study (You can get the book here or you can do the 21 day challenge for free here) which not only focuses on God but on weight loss as well.  Friday was my weigh in day.  After losing almost 6 lbs the first 2 weeks my scale showed no weight loss on Friday.  I began to get frustrated and a little voice started to tell me that this really wasn't worth it.  (You can read about it on my SparkPeople blog here)  This was my first spiritual battle on this new journey I was on.

I had felt peace until the scale didn't show me anything different.  I was letting those numbers and that little niggling voice rob me of my peace.  So I turned to scripture.  After all, Ephesians 6:15-18 tells us to use scripture and faith to defend ourselves, not to mention that little reminder about being ready with the gospel of peace.  And I found this little nugget of truth:

Photo taken by Jose Carlos Norte licensed under the Creative Commons license

I felt like I had fallen, that I had failed at this new journey.  We have all had moments when we felt like we just didn't quite measure up and in those moments it is so easy to give ourselves over to the negative thoughts that plague us in those times.  That my friends is the spiritual battle.  We need to remember that even though we may have fallen, we have the strength to rise again (Philippians 4:13)!  We are never alone in our struggle.  God provides a way if we will just look to Him to lead.



Until next time,

Monday Musings

Just wanted to share Princess A's new dress.  Last year I fashioned a dress for her made from 2 bandanas and some ribbon that everyone seemed to love, so of course I had to make one this year too.  To be honest though I had wanted to make her one of those adorable dresses with the shirred top out of the bandanas but after much some trail and error I scrapped the idea and fell back on this standby:

The back is bare with the second bandana beginning at her waist.  It is elastic so it can grow with her.  The ties are also very long on her neck so she has room to grow there also.  All in all it is pretty simple to whip up and she loves them.  I love that they are lightweight, inexpensive to make, and look cute. 

I am also working on a cute project from Natalie Larson called the  Two Summer Sundress.  To the best of my knowledge it is only available as a Ravelry download, so if you aren't a member what are you waiting for?  This one has a knit bodice and material skirt.  I have it finished and hope to post pics of it later this week.

So what are you working on?

Until next time,

No Fear

Just wanted to share a project I created almost a year ago for a great youth pastor at church.  He had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemo treatments (Praise God he is currently undergoing his last intracath treatment as I type this and has no cancer cells in his body!)  I wanted to create something that let him know he wasn't alone and this came to mind.  Each of the letters is made up of Bible verses related to the thought that there was no reason to fear because God is with us. 

When I first came up with the idea I didn't realize how time consuming it would be to create this.  I am sure there hs to be an easier way out there but I am pleased with the results and he seemed to be too.  (Of course his version didn't have the Sunflowers at Home going across it!)

Until next time,

It's beginning to feel a lot like...

a birthday!  Today is H's 11th birthday!  I would do one of those photo montage things with pictures of her as a baby and through the years until now but to be honest, I am just not feeling it as I type this.  My little princess requested egg rolls and chicken alfredo for dinner and I also decided to get kind of fancy with her cake so I have been in the kitchen for quite a while.  That is with a sick 2 year old and a morning at church.  Not to mention that I was trying to hide the fancy addition to her cake from her.  (Look for pictures tomorrow because I am so not hooking up the camera to the computer right now!)  So right now I am tired, praying that Princess A will sleep through the night so that we can all rest before having to get up early to prepare for school after 9 days off. 

I did, however, remember to also put together a little something for todays musing and scripture card.  Starting to feel a little Christmas-y with the tree up already and even some wrapped presents underneath.  I hope you are feeling it too.  With only 26 days until Christmas you are either feeling Christmas-y or you are realizing you are running out of shopping days!  Slow down and take a deep breath.  Remember that Christmas isn't about the gifts but about celebrating The Gift. 

If you click the above picture it will open in a new window.  Click on the picture again to make it bigger then you can right click and save it. This prints as an 8 by 10 but feel free to resize it to whatever you need. 

I also wanted to share a video with you that was shared with me by a good friend at church.  Even if it isn't your style of music (to be honest it isn't really mine either) listen to the words because the message is a good one!



Until next time,

Day 8 - Ten Days of Turkey

Thanksgiving week is here!  At my house that means a week of not having to pack lunches, get up early, trek the kids to school or pick them up.  We get to hang out together, play together, watch movies together and just enjoy each other.  Hubby gets a 4 day weekend also.  Thanksgiving week also means that H's birthday is near (the 29th) so we have to start planning for that also. 

Today, I have no scripture card for you.  Before your face falls, let me explain.  I have been seeing a lot of definition pictures floating around on the web.  Like this one over at Sayitonthewall.com

or word art picture like this one over at Craftily Ever After

or this one also at Craftily Ever After

So in keeping with our Thanksgiving theme I created something similiar.  Here is my version of this art.  Of course I had to include scripture on it!

You are free to save this and use it, if you chose to share it please include a link back!  I would greatly appreciate it.  To save it click the picture to open a new screen then click it again to make it larger.  Then right click and save it.

I pray that you have a wonderfully blessed week and that your family remembers to give thanks to the One who makes everything possible!

Until next time,

Just Do It!

This weeks scripture card is actually from a lesson I put together for the women's group at my church.  Below is the lesson as well as the card.  I pray that it blesses you this week!

Just Do It!

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” … David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

1 Chronicles 28:9-10, 20

David wanted to build the temple, he wanted to be the man who created a permanent home for the Ark that was precious to him and his people. God had other plans and informed David that because he was a warrior and had shed blood the honor of being the temple builder would fall to his son Solomon. The above advice was given to Solomon by David before construction began. Solomon spent 7 years building a home for the Ark that lasted about 400 years.

Today we have no beautiful, elaborately decorated building to “work for the service” of. There is no longer a physical building to store the ark, for that matter we don’t even know where the ark is currently resting. However, we do have a temple that we should be building.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

So, the advice that David gave to Solomon applies to us as well. Let us look a little closer at the advice.
“acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind” I feel safe in saying that if you are here reading this, you acknowledge God. I also feel safe in saying that we don’t always serve him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. Do you, without reservation, commit yourself to serving him and His way of life with a willing mind? I believe I can answer for each of us when I say no. We have let things get in the way of our service. Bitterness, other tasks, pride, loneliness take your pick. David tells us that God searches our hearts and understands our desires and thoughts. He understands our desire to feel appreciated for what we are doing, to have someone acknowledge our efforts. He understands why we make excuses to not serve. But notice that David doesn’t say that it is okay to not serve because of these things, he tells us to seek the Lord.

Not sure what you should be doing? Seek the Lord. He isn’t trying to hide your purpose from you, He is just waiting for you to ask. It may not be glamorous, it may not be fun, and it may not be what you thought you should be doing. Then again it may be some or all of those things. What is important is that once you ask, you listen for a response and then serve with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. Notice it wasn’t Solomon who desired to build the house. That was David’s dream. Perhaps Solomon had his own dreams of what his service to the Lord looked like. Maybe he thought he would lead God’s people into a time of peace. Or maybe he didn’t even want to be king and he hoped that his brother, who traditionally should be king, would be king so that he could sit back out of the spot light and enjoy a relatively worry free life. God had other plans though, and Solomon was appointed to build the temple. David tells Solomon to be strong and do the work. Don’t complain about not getting what you wanted. Don’t try to get out of it and tell yourself that someone else is just as capable and probably has more time or more skill to do the job. Don’t let the people that are whispering that you are going to fail affect you. Just be strong and do the work.

I say the same to you. You are building a temple today. And when your temple is completed you will be taken from this life. Be strong and DO THE WORK. Find the time and the way to serve in the building of the temple. Study God’s word, pray and seek his plan for you. Ask to see God’s blueprints for this temple rather than trying to haphazardly put it together on your own. Quit complaining about it being hard, quit making excuses about why you didn’t do such and such. It is going to be hard, not going to lie to you. And you will have periods in your life where your service in building this temple is painful, difficult, and will require you to sacrifice. But here is the thing. Your temple, you, are only a piece of the puzzle.

When you are strong and do your work, then others can do theirs as well. Solomon didn’t single handedly build the temple. He probably didn’t ever move a stone, weave a cloth, refine the metals, or craft any of the decorations. It took a LOT of people to build the temple. If Solomon hadn’t done his work then others would not have had the finances, the materials, the inclination to do theirs. God is working towards a much bigger temple in this world. One that involves all of us. And if you don’t do your part, you may be making someone elses work more difficult. I won’t say impossible because we know that God will make a way for His will to be done. However, I firmly believe that we can, and do, put up roadblocks on the easy paths by refusing to do things God’s way and insisting on doing them ours. That makes the work of others more difficult as they now have to tear down the roadblock we have created.

So what is your service? Is it a children’s ministry? Then Do the Work with wholehearted devotion. Is it music? Do the work. Is it cleaning the church? Just do the work. Is it encouraging others? Do the work. Is it ministry? Do the work. Is it being a wife? Or maybe being a mother? Just do the work. God is with you, and He will be until your temple is built. He sees what you are doing, even if no one else comments on it. He sees your struggles, He sees your heart, and he loves you. You are never alone in His service.

Until next time,

Monday Musings - Psalm 143:8

Still trying to get back in the habit of blogging.  I tend to get all of these ideas and in the business of the day I lose them.  I have an idea hit while preparing pancakes for breakfast and by the time I finish and can get to a pad and paper to record it... well I can't seem to remember what "it" is.  So I am beginning today's post with my pancake inspiration.

I don't know if you have ever seen the collections where someone takes close up shots of normal things that look like letters and puts them together to spell words such as these by Alphabet Photography

Well, as I stood there, flipping pancake after pancake I thought about taking pictures such as this myself.  I have wanted one that said family or possibly my last name to put in a little spot over the door to my bedroom (which is visible from the front door of my house).  I figure if I take the time to actually be observant I should be able to come up with pictures of the letters.  Then I started thinking about getting them printed as a wide but short photo (8 X 24) and thought that might be a bit cost prohibitive.  (Have I mentioned that I am a cheapskate?)  Then I remembered seeing some 1X4 pieces of lumber during my most recent trip to Home Depot that wasn't very expensive. 

So here is my idea...take the pictures.  Print them out as 4X4 photo's (each letter is a seperate photo).  Cut a 1X4 into squares.  Sand each block and either stain or paint it.  Modge Podge the photos to the blocks.  Then I can set them on the ledge above my door.  If they don't want to stay I can use some of the sticky back velcro dots to help them stay up.  If I had one of those fancy Cricut machines and some vinyl I would try that but did I mention that I am a cheapskate?  Way out of my current price range.  If you decide to give my idea a go before I do I would love for you to show me your finished project, just add a pic to my Flickr group!

When breakfast was done and H&J were safely dropped off to school I sat down to read my morning devotion from Proverbs31 Ministry and a verse jumped out at me.  It was a reminder for me about how important it is to start my day with God so that I can follow Him rather than expecting Him to follow along with me.  So, bringing back the Monday scripture cards, here is this weeks card.

I pray that you week is blessed with an uplifted soul!
Love,
 

Just another manic monday....

Okay, so this song tells my age quite a bit.  I loved the Bangles growing up.  This morning the title of this song and some of the lyrics kept coming to me.  Today is the first day in about 2 years that the kids have ridden the bus to school.
     I realize that for most kids this is the norm, and it was in my house for years just because it was easier to send the kids out the door without having to bundle up a toddler and pack everyone in the car to drop them off.  Then K started middle school.  The first year or so she rode the bus, until complaints began to trickle in about how they were being dropped off at the school unsupervised because the bus schedule got them there about an hour before school started!  Needless to say bus rides stopped then, and if I was driving one then I could drive them all since by that time they were all in school.
     Now that we are down to 1 vehicle and hubby won't be here with it when they would otherwise have to leave for school, we are back to riding the bus.  I have learned that the schedule has not changed much but the driver stays with the kids on the bus until a staff person at the middle school arrives to supervise.  Both J and K will get to school almost an hour before classes start.  It also means we have to get up an hour earlier.  They have to catch the bus at 6:40 in the morning. 
     So today was the first day.  Baby A didn't sleep well last night and woke up at around 6:30 cranky and exhausted.  I discovered that the schedule posted on the schools website for bus runs was inaccurate.  K and J would have been 5 minutes late for the bus had we not left early and H would have been almost 10 minutes late.  (Fortunately my hubby was home this morning so I drove the kids to the bus stop just to be sure that the times were correct.  Glad I did!)  Baby A refused to eat breakfast and is currently asleep again at 8:30 am when she usually doesn't nap until about 11 am.  Not sure how the rest of the day is going to work out!  Should be interesting.
      Needless to say all of us are going to be tired and probably grouchy this afternoon/evening.  Which is a good segway into today's scripture card.  This month we were attempting to read a chapter of Proverbs a day as our family Bible Study.  It hasn't worked out quite like any of us had hoped.  Up to chapter 15 it was a very grueling process.  We had to stop and review each verse since this book isn't in "story" format.  The kids were having a difficult time following along and understanding everything, especially when wisdom and folly were personified as women.  Once they got used to the personification concept it switches back to a more literal reading.  Finally, with chapter 15 I decided that each person would read the chapter and chose one proverb.  They would then come to Bible study with their chosen proverb, an explanation of what it means to them, and an example of that proverb in action in real life.  so we are only actually discussing 5 proverbs an evening, but those 5 really mean something and sink in.  Today is the 25th of January and we are only on Proverbs 17 (told you those first chapters were grueling and difficult for us!) and that is where today's scripture card comes from:

as always feel free to click here and download a higher resolution image suitable for printing, or grab this and share it as you wish, but please be sure to include a link back to my blog and give me credit for the card.

  
     Like I said, this is a great verse for us to review this evening since we will all be so apt to argue and quarrel this evening.  Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Monday Musings

The kids are back in school after a week of snow that ended up translating as only 1 1/2 days of school.  It was great to have that extra time with them, but I am glad to have some time to myself again.  Especially since last week was my first week trying to count calories, work in 30-45 minutes of exercise a day, and my husband worked every night and had to sleep during the day.  (You try keeping 4 kids quite that are experiencing cabin fever!)  Still, I was able to spend a few extra days playing with them, I did get my exercising in, and I lost almost 5 lbs.

I sat here today and edited the sermon from Sunday to post on the website.  Have you ever sat through a service that didn't seem to apply to you only to glean information that really hits your heart?  That is what happened to me not only on Sunday, but again today.  The sermon was titled, "Who's the Man? Leading your family as God intended" and was an address to the men in the congregation.  On the surface that sounds like it totally does not apply to me.  However, lots of things hit me, such as my needing to step back and let my husband lead.  I was raised to be the one to make all of the decisions and to not rely on anyone else.  My mother made every decision and often told my father he was handling situations incorrectly while she was married.  I believe she did this with the best of intentions, but it isn't how God intended it to work.  I saw ways that I was also doing this to my own husband, just not as openly.  I also saw ways that I should be praying for my husband that I had not been.  Let's just say that there were several things that were pointed out to me that I need to work on.

What really stuck with me was Pastor Doug's final thought.  Many of us hear what we should be doing while sitting in the pew.  Quite often we nod our heads in agreement and our hearts are convicted.  But within the day, or the week we find that we haven't done what we were convicted to do.  I am part of that crowd also.  This isn't a new problem, or a new circumstance.  James even addressed it and that is why I chose James 1:22 as this weeks scripture card.

as always you can download a better resolution image suitable for printing by clicking here  Feel free to share this image in any form, but if you place it in an electronic format (webpage, blog, email etc) please include a link to my blog.

Love,

Monday Musings

It's the first Monday of 2010, I still try to type 2009!  Today was my first day of Body Bootcamp and it really wasn't so bad.  I did 30 minutes of step aerobics on the Wii and I did a 7 minute strength video working on my lower body.  I will probably pay for it later as my legs feel kind of funny, but in the long run it will be worth it!

I also started my first group of crochet projects for GTA.  I went through my yarn stash and organized it first.  I have a 45 gallon tote full of full skeins of worsted weight yarn, a large back of size 10 crochet thread, and a wal-mart bag full of eyelash and specialty yarns.  In addition I have about 5 or 6 skeins of baby weight yarn and about 20-30 balls of yarn.  After I took an inventory I decided what I wanted to use up first.  I decided that I wanted to use the balls of yarn first, so I was limited to small projects that used worsted weight yarn.  That led me to shoes/booties and my first projects.  For the boys, crochet sneaker slippers/booties  and for the girls crochet mary janes and now my fingers are working away!

And as for my Bible Study, I am now reading about Jacob and his dream of the stairway to heaven in my personal study time, in my stay at home mom weekly group we are reading through Ruth, and in my family study we are reading a chapter of Proverbs every day this month (31 chapters and 31 days in January.  To cool huh?!)  And that leads me to today's scripture card from yesterday's reading from Proverbs 3

as always you can click the picture above or click here to download a high resolution version of this card suitable for printing.  Feel free to use this on your websites as long as you include a link back here.

Hope your new year is starting off wonderfully!

Love,

Monday Musings

I can't believe that this is the last Monday of 2009!  It seems that this year has gone so very, very fast!  In the span of a year I have seen baby A learn to crawl and then walk.  I have heard her learn to vocalize and then talk.  I watched K adjust to high school, J adjust to middle school, and H adjust to being in a school all by herself for the very first time in her life.

My husband and I began the year with him laid off of work (almost a year total), to begin a job making a phenomenal amount of money but we both hated it, to being offered his job back with a company we both absolutely loved.  He took the job and started back working days only to discover that he is now (and for the next year) on nights.

The year started with us trying to find a place in our church and ended with both of us serving faithfully in capacities that we really feel called to.

We have grown closer as a family, closer to our church family and closer to God.  It has truly been an amazing year of growth for all of us.

And I have to admit that it has been a wonderful experience sharing my life with you, my reader.  I feel that I have grown close to some of you.  I have had the privilege of sharing your experiences as well.  You have at times encouraged me with wonderful words of praise, you have lifted me up at times that I needed to hear a friendly voice, and you have at times even validated me.  Thank you.

I look forward with eager anticipation to what He has in store for me and my family in the coming year.  I know that like this year I may not always like the situation that I will be in, but I also know that God will provide for me and that everything will have a purpose.

So Happy New Year to each of you.  Hug your families, let them know how much you love them, and most of all remember to thank God, especially when things get difficult, because His plans are such that will prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

as always, you can download a better resolution of this by clicking here

feel free to share it in it's original form but please, give me credit and include a link to my blog.

Love,

Monday Musings

I can't believe there are only 10 days until Christmas!  The shopping is done, and the cards are mailed out, but the crafting is now in a race to see if the projects are going to be completed in time!


Be on the lookout this week for my second headband pattern.  It should be posted soon.

I had a few minutes this week to pick one of my favorite verses to turn into a scripture card.  This weeks verse is Matthew 6:21.  Most people may not connect this verse with Christmas, but I often do.  Christmas is about celebrating family love, as well as the greatest love.  It is about remembering what love is...being willing to sacrifice self for others.  If we remember to put love first, then our treasures truly will be where our heart is.  We won't focus on the material treasures that surround us in this world.  Having the newest gadget or 500 cable channels, or the best house, or the fanciest decorations, or the most lights, or buying the best gift won't be nearly as important as our real treasures - family that loves us, a God that cared enough to send his Son.

I was reading an article that talked about God's gift to us.  It said that most of us love to celebrate Christmas.  We love the image of the Christ child as a babe in the manger - sweet, helpless, and innocent.  However, if the Christmas story ended there it really wouldn't be an image of love would it?  God knew when he sent his Son that He would have to sacrifice His life for us.  Did Jesus want to die?  I don't think so.  He prayed in Gethsemane for God to take this cup from Him, to allow Him to live if there was any other way.  There wasn't.  God loved us so much that He sacrificed Himself for us.  We are his heart.  We are His treasure.  Yet we continue to ignore Jesus two requests,  love Him and love others.  If we do those two simple things, everything else seems to be less important.

So this Christmas season ask yourself, "Where is my heart?  Where are my treasures?"  I pray that your heart is first and foremost with God, and that you are blessed with many treasures through Him.

as always, feel free to click here to download a better quality image suitable for printing

Love,

Monday Musings

I have been off track quite a bit lately.  It seems that life has been getting quite crazy lately.  My mother had her second knee replacement surgery this past week, and is now out of the hospital and recovering at my aunt's house (no stairs to maneuver as there are at my house!)  I am still scrambling to get Christmas presents started and/or completed.  I am struggling to adjust to my hubby working on call night shift, and now baby A has a cold.  J is struggling in his Language Arts class, H had a book report and a report on the Seminole Indians complete with a model of their living structure to complete over the weekend as well as set up for the church Thanksgiving dinner.  Been quite busy.

I made table decorations for the dinner.  I made a turkey for each table.


I also made 80+ pumpkin favors with K's help to decorate the tables with as well.

Each pumpkin has jolly rancher candies in it.  These were super simple to make.  Just take some orange tissue paper,  (I couldn't find packets of just orange so I bought a packet of white at my local dollar tree, mixed up some orange acrylic paint and water in a spray bottle and sprayed each piece then allowed it to dry) and cut it into squares.  I got 9 squares per full size sheet of paper.  Place your candy in the middle, pull up the sides and twist.  Then use florist tape to secure the top creating a stem.  Now I just need to come up with some ideas for the Christmas dinner!

I had a few minutes to create this weeks scripture card as well.  It really applies to me right now as I find myself drifting quite a bit spiritually.  I have been struggling with depression lately and this verse really helps to put things in perspective (Thanks Jones!).  The world may fall apart around you and it may seem like life is going everywhere but where you want it to go.  However, if your guard your heart, and know that God is in control and has a plan, you won't feel so lost and out of control.  If you are still here, you still have a purpose, otherwise you would have already gone home.  Don't let the troubles of today prevent you from staying on the straight path.





as always, please click the picture to download a printable version of this card. You may use it on your site, but please include a link back to this blog


So, that being said I just want to include one more thing today.  Happy Birthday Sis!

Love,

Monday Musings

It has been another great weekend. Hubby got to go hunting on Saturday with H. I still don't have any successful hunting children, but they got to spend the morning together which they seemed to enjoy. Hubby bagged several squirrels.

In addition we were able to spend a wonderful afternoon after church at a fellowship lunch with our church family. Great food and good company make for a happy day. It still amazes me that a small, relatively new church can feel so much like home to us. It is great knowing that we have found where it is God wants us to be, and to be so happy there.

I hope that this week ends up being a very productive one. I hope to put my first item in my Etsy shop. I don't know how that will work out, but everyone who has seen my hand sanitizer clippies has suggested I sell them so I decided to give it a go. That means that I won't be offering that pattern on here as a freebie. I also plan to design a headband pattern to make for the girls for Christmas presents. I need to complete 5 12 inch crochet squares for J's Christmas pillowghan. I need to finish the sweater I am making for God's Tiny Angels and start on baby A's sweater. I also want to get to Wal-mart and purchase some heavy fusible interfacing to make a Bible cover for each of the kids for Christmas as well. I had intended to work on presents throughout the year since this is supposed to be a homemade Christmas. Like most things though I put it off and now I will be scrambling for the next 2 months trying to get it all done!

I did do this weeks scripture card. I used the "ecouraging word" from KLove today. I think it is timeless and sometimes we all need to be reminded of this simple truth.


Anger has been my thorn lately. It may be due to lack of sleep, but that is not an excuse. Hopefully if I focus on this verse this week I will be better able to react to life and turn it over to God. As always, please click the image to download a better resolution suitable for printing. Feel free to use this image, but if you post it somewhere please include a link back to my blog! Have a great week!

Love,

Monday Musings

Have you ever had one of those weeks where it just feels like nothing is going right for you? Last week was one of those for me. I felt like no matter what I tried to do roadblocks kept popping up and I kept getting more and more frustrated and aggravated. It took 4 days to make the hand sanitizer sleeves which was nuts since they only take about 20 minutes to make each one. I didn't finish J's hat until just a few hours ago. The list goes on and on of things that I didn't get accomplished.

I spent half of the church service outside with baby A because she was in a fowl mood and wouldn't stay quiet. Fortunately I am the person who maintains the website so I get a copy of the sermon to edit and post every Sunday. This weeks sermon really hit home with me.

Pastor Doss spoke on how we tend to come up with tons of excuses about not having time to do anything. I really felt that way lately. One of the things that he said was that we need to look at our time differently, more like money. Rather than "spending" our time we need to "invest" it. Examine the activity and decide if it will add value to our life. I have to admit that many of the things that I did last week that prevented me from accomplishing many of my tasks added little to no value to my life.

The second thing that he said that really hit home with me was this... it isn't MY time. Seriously, how often have we all said that "I just don't have time to do that"? Whether it be a daily Bible Study, daily prayer time, helping out at church, sending someone a card to let them know they are thought of and not alone. The reality of the matter is that it isn't MY time. I only have the time that God has given me. I don't know how much that is so I should make sure that I am investing it in the the things that matter, the things that are truly important to me.

And that is why I have chosen Psalm 90:12 for this weeks scripture card. Take a minute and consider just how short life really is so that you can prioritize and spend what time you have been given wisely.

As always, feel free to click the above picture so that you can download a higher resolution image suitable for printing. If you chose to post this on your own site or blog, please give credit and a link to my blog.

Love,

Monday Musings

In case you missed the previous post in which I talked about the free email Bible Study, you might want to check it out. This weeks Scripture Card comes from that study.

All that I can say this week is that I am thankful that I serve such a wonderful and caring God! Do I deserve forgiveness? Absolutely not! I still mess up, I still do things that I shouldn't. Sometimes repeatedly. I forget to tell God how much I love him, how much I appreciate the world He has created for me, how much I appreciate all of the good things he provides for me, how much I even appreciate the things I don't like that in the end force me to grow. Yet, despite all of my failings and disappointing actions, He still finds it in his heart to forgive if I but ask. That is amazing to me!

If you haven't checked out the Bible Study yet, and you want to, you can read more about it here Until next time, here is the scripture card. As always, click the pic to download a better resolution image for printing. If you decide to use it on the web, please give me credit for it and a link back. Otherwise, enjoy!



Love,

Monday Musings

I was reading a devotional on Friday and while the devotional didn't really strike me, the verse did. I chose it for this weeks scripture card.

You see, sometimes we forget that every day is a choice between following God and turning away towards Satan. There is no in between. Now I am not a black and white person. My husband is and this is an easy concept for him. I on the other hand tend to see everything as shades of gray. Very rarely do I see life as absolutes. And that is where I falter.

I have begun to slack off in my relationship with God. My personal Bible study time keeps getting shifted farther and farther down my priority list. After all, I tell myself, God knows how busy my life is. He understands and know that I love Him. This is true. He does know how busy my life is, he does understand, and he does know that I love Him. So I slipped into the gray area and began to fall away from God. What happens if we move away from God? We move closer to that lion that is waiting to devour us. We can not grow spiritually without making God a priority.

We have to be alert to the excuses that we make in our lives that we use to justify not putting God first. It is a relationship. Let's be honest, how long would our marriages last if we woke up in the morning, glanced at our husband as we prepare breakfast for our children but don't take time to tell him good morning. Thought about our husband and we drop the children off and then head to work or to the gym or grocery shopping but don't take a moment to call or text him and let him know we love him. Then we see him come home from work and don't ask how his day was or tell him about ours because we are to busy helping with our children's homework and cooking dinner. When we finally tuck the kids in at night and all is quiet we turn on the television and sit beside our husband, but still don't talk to him. Then off to bed without so much as a good night kiss. We would be in couples counseling or divorce court if this continued for to long. If this were reversed and your husband was treating you this way, would you feel loved? appreciated? valued? important to him? I wouldn't. And yet this is often how we treat God, who provides everything and from whom love originated.

All Satan has to do is look for those of us who lack self-control, who let life get in the way of our most important relationship. So how about you? Are you being alert to what is causing you to let God slip down your priority list? Or are you being self-controlled and keeping that relationship where it should be? I am making the effort to see this as a black and white issue and be self-controled and alert so that I don't get devoured!

As always you can click this week's scripture card to download a better resolution image suitable for printing.

P.S. I also wanted to share an online Bible study with you that I will be participating in. It is a study of 1,2, and 3 John. If you sign up, you get an email every week with the portion to be read, and questions to ask yourself each day of the week concerning the selection. Often background information is included. I have done a few of these studies in the past and learned a lot from them. If you are interested you can visit Discipleship Lessons from John's Letters to sign up.

Love,

Monday, no musings

Good morning all. Just wanted to stop and let you know that I have no musings or scripture card to post today. My laptop has finally given up it's battle with Baby A. Ever since she began to pull up and walk she would come over and pull the power cord out of the laptop, whether it was in my lap or put up. As a result the internal mechanism has become loose and you had to wiggle jiggle the cord to get a connection so that it would charge. It has given up it's battle and surrendered to my 11 month old.

Fortunately, a great guy at church has volunteered to take my battered trusty friend and attempt to put it back together again. Hopefully this story ends better than Humpty Dumpty did. The down side is that currently I am stuck using the dinosaur computer that is slow as molasses. I dare not try to put together a scripture card for fear that it will take up to much operating memory and freeze the system. That would mean the hours of work creating the card would be lost and I am just not patient enough to face that. So, no scripture card this week.

I hope to get my laptop back on Wednesday so I can update the church website and get freebies up for Friday. I do have a possible recipe for Wednesday. Trying to decide between the healthy one or the junk food one. What do you think?

Have a great week!
Love,

Monday Musings

I sit here attempting to type one handed as baby A has recently decided that the only way to go to sleep and stay that way is in mommy's arms. I know that this is a habit I will come to regret, but they are only little once, and she looks so sweet sleeping!

I took my laptop today to see about getting it fixed. Baby A decided when she started walking that it was great fun to pull the power cord out of the laptop as I sat working on it. As a result the connector inside the computer is loose and you have to do this wonderful wiggle jiggle thing to get a good connection to get power now. I took it in to the local repair shop and the gentleman there said that "if" he could fix it, and "if" he didn't need to order anything it would cost about $60-$100 for labor. This seems a bit steep to me as I only paid about $400 for the laptop new 4 years ago. Needless to say I thanked him and took my computer home. Perhaps I can locate someone who can do the work for less. If not, it will be back to working on the dinosaur desktop computer!

I didn't spend much time crafting over the weekend as hubby came home! YEAH! He was home in time for dinner of Friday. We had a great number of plans for the weekend, such as cleaning the carpet, repairing the children's fort, cuddling together, etc. Somehow the weekend got away from us. Saturday we went pricing lumber for a storage building and plywood to put down so we can install bamboo flooring rather than laminate. I have become so frustrated with the flooring situation. It feels like everytime we get close to having enough to install, something else comes up. I told hubby that I just don't want to talk about the floor anymore until we can actually purchase the materials and install. So we decided to just clean the carpet again. Went grocery shopping and to rent the cleaner.

Just as I got ready to rent the cleaner I happened to notice the time. Thank goodness I did as if we had rented it then we would have had to either make a late trip out that night to return it, or attempt to return it before church the next day. Neither seemed a good option so we postponed. The rest of the day was spent cleaning, and then playing on the Wii together. While I am the champion at golfing, bowling, step aerobics, ski jumping, and hula hooping on the Wii, hubby kicks my hiney at tennis, pool, slalom, and baseball. It is a lot of fun though and I am really glad he bought it for us.

So that is my update. I want to start crocheting for God's Tiny Angels again. I started on a baby sweater. I am also preparing for my first ever consignment sale. I figure that I might as well try to sell some of baby A's outgrown clothes and use the proceeds to purchase new ones. Hopefully it is successful. Look for more info on the sale to come as it is next month.

And finally, this weeks scripture card. I came across this verse when another verse (for the righteous falls seven times and rises again ~proverbs 24:16a) appeared in a devotion I was reading. I liked it and considered using it for today's card, but when I went to read Proverbs 24 in it's entirety, this verse really called to my heart. Parenting is hard work. In my house it seems to be especially hard right now as we are having some problems with honesty from the girls. I pray for wisdom on how to approach this, and the understanding to do it with compassion and in a godly manner. Perhaps this verse has a different meaning for you, but I also pray that it touches your heart as well!

As always, feel free to click the above picture to download a higher resolution image suitable for printing

Love,