Art that makes me happy

Several weeks ago, Amber showed me a print that she bought as part of her bedroom re-do.  I absolutely loved what it said and it got my creative wheels turning.  Cale and I have always loved to travel, especially together and we've been lucky enough to travel all over the US as well as a handful of international countries.  We started planning last year for our 10 year anniversary because we hope to go somewhere special.  We just love to see new places and add to that, my husband has a deep and abiding love of maps.  He has a freakishly good memory when it comes to navigation and can generally look once at a map and know exactly where to go, even if it was years ago.  So we love to travel and he loves maps...enter our new artwork...

Our bedroom has really high ceilings, and when we first re-did our bedroom almost six years ago, we needed a cheap solution to fill in some major wall space.  Thanks to Ikea we had cheap frames and okay prints of flowers that served their purpose but never meant much.  The frames we had filled the space well so we decided to just re-use them to create something new.

We purchased some old maps on etsy and used a mishmash of them for these pieces.  I decoupaged them to the old flower prints and we used the Silhouette to cut out the letters from card stock.  Now that big empty space on our wall is filled with art that means something to us, that represents us.  And isn't that what art should be?

Real life: messy dresser, but we got them hung up. And it really does make me happy!

Two weeks later...

I'll spare you the excuses and just simply state that being out of town for a week and coming home sick don't bode well for the old blog.  But that's life and now it's Friday and I almost feel like myself again.  I decided to treat the kids to breakfast this morning because they've been such troopers while mama's laid on the couch.  It was nice to be out and enjoy the kids and our favorite bagels.  Then I braved Target.  It's been two weeks since I could show my face there again.  We had a little incident the last time we visited.  It involved one of my children deciding that the shopping cart seemed like a good place to go potty. Yeah, I really did just type that out.  Let's just say I had to wipe off some items before purchasing (because, really you can't abandon a cart full of stuff that your child has just peed on.  It crossed my mind, but it seemed wrong, very wrong.) Enough of that though, I'm happy to report that we made it home without incident.

I'm glad it's Friday and we've got a weekend wide open before us.  I've done nothing but lay around all week so there's lots of catching up to do, but  there's nothing like not being able to do the most basic of chores to give you an appreciation for the ability to do laundry and scrub the toilets.  We've also got Haven's Tuesday School program to look forward to; it never fails to be entertaining!  I also see some grocery shopping in my future, finishing Season 8 of "24" with Cale, buying some birthday presents for my mom, and trying to not be bitter that it's 40 degrees out again.  Maybe next week we'll get back to some semi-regular programming around here.

Happy Friday!

Friday again

This picture has nothing to do with what's written below. My kids are just cute and I thought I'd share cause I'm nice like that!

I'm so glad it's Friday.  We've had a good, but busy week.  Its been filled with lots of good things and little drama which is a nice change.  I've gotten to spend more time then usual with some of my favorite people.  We spent Tuesday morning at an Open House for a program we anticipate being part of Haven's schooling next year.  We made progress on some home projects that have been languishing for years, literally.  We ate dinner at home every night and had a new recipe four out of five of those nights (all good!).  We get to spend tonight with good friends who are about to grow from a family of 3 to a family of 4.  Today's been exciting because I chopped my hair off!  I've been debating going short after 1.5 years of letting it grow.  I woke up this morning and literally couldn't stand it one more minute.  So I called a new salon, got an early appointment and by 10:30am, I felt like myself again.  At this point in my life, I'm just a short-haired gal.  And I like that.

See, all just good, normal stuff.

And then there is this weekend...I get tired just thinking about it!  We've had the privilege of being part of a ministry through our church that is starting a food pantry to help families in need in our community.  None of us really know what we're doing, but by God's grace and His people getting involved, ten of our local families will get a weeks worth of groceries next week.  We've gone from zero to 60 with this ministry in a very short amount of time and we're so excited to see it all coming together this weekend.  We've also got another outreach event going on with our home group on Sunday.  After a two year break from any type of church/ministry leadership, I'd say we're back with a bang.  And I really love it.  Mostly. I love getting to serve alongside my friends and meet people's needs and hopefully share the love of Jesus with them.  It excites me like nothing else.  So Sunday is going to be a little crazy, but a lot good.

Happy weekend, my friends!

Giving up to get more

This Wednesday is the beginning of Lent.  The next 40 days will be spent preparing our hearts and minds to remember the death and resurrection of Christ.  Different denominations mark the time of preparation differently, many observing a fast of some sort.  Like last year, Cale and I are giving up beverages other then water to participate in Forty Days of Water. This is a challenge I both look forward to and dread.  It's such a simple way to get outside myself and wipe some of the accumulated sleep from my eyes to the world around me.  But more importantly it's an opportunity to open myself up to more of Him.  I'm ashamed to admit how hard it was some days last year.  The hard days were used to draw me closer to Him as I denied myself of such a simple luxury.  Can't have an Iced Capp or some milk or tea?  Well, at least I've got an abundance of clean water.  That's more then many can say.  And I need to be reminded of that. 

There are other areas of life that I've felt the Lord leading me to give up.  I feel like the next 40 plus days are going to be a time of purging, getting rid of some junk I've picked up.  I need to give up some things so I have room for more...of Him and the life He has for me.  There's nothing this world offers that I need more of...not more stuff or technology or ideas or words or money.  I need Him and all that He offers to give, which, coincidentally, is everything that I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).


His grace...love...peace...joy...hope...perspective...heart... knowledge...wisdom...power...truth...I'll gladly give up anything to make room for more of these in my life.

Lost: Haven's first tooth

It took one teeth to the head accident, one kick in the face, and 2 nasty falls for it to finally happen...

Haven lost her first tooth!  

I can't believe it hung on as long as it did; we thought they'd not last into the new year.  A fall on Tuesday into the concrete floor at Chipotle finally did it in.  I think the other front one will follow quickly.  For now, we'll need some time to get used to this minus-one-tooth-smile.  Good thing she's cute no matter how many teeth she's got!