Winter Mantel

I really didn’t want to take down my Christmas decorations this year… Partly because it seemed like Christmas just flew by and I wanted to hold onto it a little bit longer.. And partly because I really liked the decorations this year!
BUT.. Once I got them all down and got some nice Pinterest inspiration to do a Winter mantel, I was pretty motivated to give it a shot!
Most of this was either left over from Christmas decorations or bought after Christmas at either TJMaxx or Marshalls… For 70% off! Woohoo!
Then I decided to finally try and make my own burlap pennant/bunting and was pretty pleased with how it turned out AND especially with how easy it was to make!
Whatcha think????

We’ve been rolled…By an elf!!

Finnigan Ninny Noggin has been quite the prankster this season… I suspect he may have opened a Pinterest account, but who can be sure?
Tonight, the ever-stoic-faced Finnigan thought it was a good idea to use an entire roll of t.p. to do a little “decorating” of his own

A Work In Progress

Ok, so we’re just gonna breeze past the awkwardness of the the fact that it’s now been over 2 years since I’ve blogged… Breezing on past it…
Yesterday, I had a sickie at home. And with the exception of 12 loads of laundry and 2ish loads of dishes… I had some unexpected, lovely time on my hands! So what else could I do, but peruse Pinterest and find ways to launch a mid-season redecorating spree! Our mantel was fun before, but Je t’adore the new revamp! Let me remind you that the inspiration came from Pinterest, but it sure was fun to recreate!
I still want to add a burlap & twine banner with “All ye faithful” across the front, but we’ll see if that happens. I have another sickie at home today….
Those sparkly stars hanging from the ceiling were $3.99 each at TJMaxx last week-score!! They might just be my new favorite… Everything else I had lying around the house… Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!!

A Message in the rain

Ok, so last night the girls and I were headed out to have our “Girls Only” night…and of course by “girls” I mean AC and Moo! Anyway, as we were driving on Thompson Lane, out of NOWHERE came this heavy, LOUD, really hard rain shower! It came upon us so quickly that I immediately had to slow way down, turn on my lights and my windshield wipers and really focus on the road ahead. It was SO incredibly loud that I could no longer hear anything except the storm and the water pounding down on the car. It was overwhelming, to say the least. I glanced in my rearview mirror to check on the girls and I could tell that they were watching me to see what my reaction would be. I knew it was a teachable moment and the Holy Spirit prompted me to turn up the praise song that was playing on the radio. Now, it was so LOUD inside that car that I had to turn the radio REALLY LOUD to even hear the music. Once I did, almost immediately, as quickly as it started, the rain all but stopped. I could see in my rear view mirror that there were dark, foreboding clouds behind us, but up ahead was a beautiful sunset getting ready to happen. So peaceful, so serene.

I told the girls that just like that storm that came upon us so quickly, life will happen the very same way. Before we know it we are in a situation that can be overwhelming, consuming, and often times, even very scary, but that we ALWAYS have the option to do just what we did in our mini-van…get a grip, take a breath, and turn UP God in our lives. He is always there, just like that praise music is always available. Often times there is so much else going on that turning up the praise music seems to be unimportant or even trivial when your body,mind and senses are saying to go into survival mode, but always remember that Christ is there, waiting on you to turn Him up in your life.

Waiting on you to focus your attention and your prayers and your time and your feelings and your worries and your burdens on Him, and He will watch over you, He will quiet you with His presence and He will give you peace…to get you straight through whatever storm you may be “powering through”…until the only remnants remain in your own rear-view mirror and that beautiful peace is all that stands before you.

Thank You Lord for speaking to us, for loving us, and for always showing us the way out of our own storms..

Tis the season…

***I just  found this and am publishing it, over a month late!****

How does the saying go? Tis the season to be jolly, Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.. (Yes, I know it’s wrong, but I love the Christmas Story far too much to think of it any other way!)

Anyway…I am really feeling the nudging this year to live simply, especially this Christmas season…and I see the same thought everywhere I go, every blog, every magazine article…EVERYwhere. Is God trying to tell just me something or is this a trend? I would love for it to be a trend..doesn’t that always make transitions easier..if everyone else is doing it? What a crazy thought, that to be obedient and peaceful with my choices, that it could be “easier” because everyone else is doing it! I truly don’t want to BE like everyone else, but I also don’t want to be, well, a freak, you know? I want my children to be loved and accepted for who they are, but I also want them to be set apart from this crazy world and it’s backwards virtues. How do you do that? There are so many beautiful examples of families that actually accomplish this at our church. One, in particular, is my absolute FAVORITE family to sit behind at church on Sundays. I love to watch them as they sing the praise songs and as their teenaged children worship God freely and without looking over their shoulder to see who is watching…..

When God wows me…

As I type, I am in awe of our God, of MY God and the way that He is constantly at work in my life. This morning, as I typed out the scripture that I send out daily to my people…my “Prayer Warriors” as they are titled in my address book in my phone, actually, as I searched for a scripture to send out, I found it in the Joyce Meyer study notes that I had downloaded this past weekend on “Contentment and Satisfaction”, which God has chosen as the theme for my life with God this year. THIS is what God is doing in my life right now, in case you were wondering…

Anyway, this theme keeps coming up, as God is always faithful to do when He wants to tell us something. The verse I decided upon was Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.” You hear it all the time, right? Well, as I type this I am also listening to a sermon by one of my favorite pastors, a good friend of ours, Jacob Armstrong at Providence United Methodist in Mt.Juliet, Tn. What verse is he preaching on? Philippians 4:13! What is he talking about? Being content in all situations, in ALL circumstances.

Why is this so important, SO life-changing to me right NOW? Because last week I had my own version of a mini-breakdown. I admit it. I threw a royal fit….with God. I screamed. I cried. I told Him that I knew that He is BIGGER than THIS. This situation. This circumstance. Which one, you might ask? I am ashamed to say, but I will confess it to show you just how selfish and ungrateful a person I REALLY am. I was mad at God for not selling our house yet. For allowing us to find yet another home that I “fell in love with” and that would be “perfect for our family”. I was MAD at God for putting this desire on my heart and not filling it…YET. I was MAD at God for Miller pooping in his pants…AGAIN. I was MAD at God because I have been working so hard to keep the house clean, working SO hard to read my devotionals (all, like 10 of them) everyday, working SO hard to try and BE the woman He wants me to be, and in all reality, to EARN the grace and the reward that He has promised me. Striving. Toiling. Working. IN VAIN. At least in my own mind. I actually decided that I was done with it. Done with trying. Done with thinking about what I NEEDED to do all the time. Done trying to please Him all the time and DONE trying to figure Him out.

Do you know what He said?

GOOD. Now I can actually do something in you. NOW I can actually work with you and use you.

Now that I KNOW that I am useless to God unless I surrender all of me to Him, NOW He can make BIG things happen. I understand that my “righteous acts” are as “filthy rags” to Him, because He is so pure. So righteous. So GOOD. And I am me. I am weak. I am inconsistent. I am flesh..and that’s it! WITHOUT God, that is.

But WITH God, WITH His Spirit in me, “I can DO ALL THINGS” through Christ who strengthens me….

He didn’t tell me this at that moment, like I wanted Him to. He didn’t immediately comfort me with this…or actually maybe He did, but I wasn’t ready to receive it. I repented later that night, for feeling blasphemous and disobedient. I prayed for God to show me how He loves me. I prayed for His love to be all consuming. I prayed to start over with God. Luckily, God happens to be in the business of fresh starts. Of new beginnings. Of doing a “new thing” and giving us a “new song” to sing.

The song “How He Loves Us” by the David Crowder Band has been in my head and heart all weekend and still today. Even as I was sitting on the couch Friday night, I heard Josh playing it on the computer in our room, randomly. I don’t know why, but he was playing it. Then he told me that the praise band would be singing it on Sunday. I didn’t actually get to hear that, because AC had gotten sick, but that was ok. I knew that God wanted me to know that it was being sang.

How has He loved me? Well, He’s told me over and over to just trust Him. Whenever my mind starts going to that place of anxiety, to remember that I trust Him. That He ALONE is trustworthy. Even when I don’t see things happening the way I think they should. To whisper to my Spirit, “I trust You”.

Just a little while ago, as I turned on my laptop to check e-mail and Facebook updates, I came across something that caught my eye, something that a friend had posted. I watched it in amazement and cried and praised God at the same time. Something that God put on my heart a LONG time ago. Something that I had very easily given up on because of life circumstances. Something I very honestly DID NOT WANT anymore. But today, as I watched and read and listened, I heard something that wasn’t on the video clip. I heard something move in my heart. I heard God whisper something in my heart that I realize now that I have been very adamantly pushing out of my mind and heart for a LONG time.

Not that anyone ever reads this, but even so, I am not going to tell you what it is. This is between me and God, at least for now. I’ve got lots of praying to do about it. Lots of spirit searching. But I will tell you this. The fact that I am even CONSIDERING this, is an act of God ALONE. But you know what? I HAVE PEACE. I HAVE TOTAL PEACE about this AND about our house situation, and about just about EVERYTHING else. Because if God is BIG enough to make this happen (and I KNOW that He is), then my God is BIG enough to do anything. And THAT is what I trust.

I couldn’t make this thing happen if I strived day and night. Not a chance. But thankfully, God doesn’t ever want us striving, for anything. If He wants us to have it, He wants us to have peace about receiving it…from Him. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t want us working hard in obedience to Him, just as Nehemiah worked hard after he prayed to God for His wall to be built (yet another story God keeps presenting me with on this journey!). It just means that when we are STRIVING and toiling, that if whatever we are stiriving for is in God’s will for us, striving is NOT part of the process. “Toiling in vain” doesn’t mean “working in vain”, it means “toiling or striving”. That may not make much sense, but I don’t know how to explain it, except that toiling will ALWAYS be in vain.

Trust God. Don’t toil. Don’t strive. Work hard. Pray even harder. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will GIVE you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4.

“Living with joy and power because you’re connected with Jesus.” -Jacob

A New Year and a new perspective…

Just this morning, as I finally got around to making the time to be quiet with my God, I was yet again tremendously blessed with His comforting Spirit through His Word. The Upper Room Devotional for yesterday (that I just got around to reading today!) was just beautiful. Here it is:

-Psalm 42:1 (NIV)

Well, apparently that is all the Lord wants me to give you for now, b/c as hard as I have tried, I can’t copy and paste the entire thing, just this sweet scripture, which reads:

Psalm 42:1

“As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, oh God.”

Here is the link to read it all for yourself:

http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?month=1&day=1&year=2010

Isn’t that simple verse so sweetly, and completely true, though? Even when we don’t know what that longing is, what it is that we are longing for, He shows up as soon as we invite Him into our hearts and take the time away from the world to be with Him alone. As the New Year begins, my mind goes immediately to the decision that we have been putting off for a few months now. Our house.

God has been so trustworthy and faithful to provide peace to my soul about the fact that He has not yet moved us to the “spacious place” that He has promised again and again. I can finally, without a doubt say that I don’t doubt that promise. He has it for us and I can feel the longing that He put there when I see the house of my dreams still sitting on the market, at an unbelievable price…still sitting there, unsold..just like ours.

Our decision was to wait to re-list until after the holidays…and here we are..sitting on the couch, with a much needed day of rest, watching the snow fall and not talking about it…it’s the elephant in the room to me and I so wish that it were not…so many times I’ve pleaded with God to take the desire away but He does not, He leaves it there in hopeful anticipation of the promise to come…

But…

then we have many other decisions to make and lots of work to do before that can happen. Well, not LOTS, but some. The real work comes in the constant upkeep of the house in the hope that we’ll get a call that day to show it. What a crazy thing to have anxiety about, but I do. It makes my stomach hurt, to be honest. Is it just not the “season” of my life, well, my kids lives to be doing this again?  Is it detrimental to their well-being because of the stress it brings me? Isn’t that simply my problem to overcome and be at peace with?

Then, I read today’s (yesterdays, really)devotional and something stirs within me. Whenever I feel the anxiety coming over the house, seek His face. Seek His peace. Seek His comfort and remember His promises.

So beautifully simple.

Peace-not from my surroundings, not from the dream of a bigger house or the false hope of a recovering market. But faith in Him. The One we call Father. Provider. Lover of my soul. Prince of Peace. He created peace to bestow it upon us. Upon me in my desperate seeking of Him. Like a deer panting by a stream and the quenching of that thirst that He creates in us so that we will look only for His face to provide…

I love Him so much. Thank You God. I sing your praises.