Scripture Saturday

We have read Bible stories to our son, Elijah, since he was born. Recently, we noticed he could almost remember his Bible stories word-for-word. His favorite is Joshua's Shout. One night my husband was reading it to him and stopped in the middle of the sentence. Elijah, 2-years-old, just preceded to finish it for him. We both just looked at each other. So.....Mitchell started to just randomly stop at points in the story. Every time Elijah could say the next line word-for-word. It totally amazed us(even though you hear all the time how much little minds can absorb) how much he was able to memorize.

 This got us to thinking. If he can memorize Bible stories, then we should be using this opportunity to teach him scripture. It is never too early to learn God's word. We recently had read and studied, "Shepherding a Child's Heart". He speaks about the importance of teaching little ones to obey their parents. We have to get that instilled in them at an early age, so we decided to start Elijah's scripture learning with Ephesians 6:1.

"Children obey your parents, in the Lord, for this is right."

Within three or four nights he has been able to quote this back to us word for word. Truly amazing! We will definitely be building on this. It is NEVER to early to teach your children about God and the wonderful story of His love for us. Get started today!

Stumble Upon-Random Acts of Kindness

So, I just stumbled upon a website called...wait for it....Stumbledupon (Ha, ha, ha).  You join up and let them know your different interests and they randomly share websites with you that fit your interests. Pretty cool....of course I  only made it through one site before I came across an idea that I just love.

Robyn at Mix, Mingle, and Glow (http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?page_id=1393) recently celebrated her 38th birthday. For a celebration she completed 38 Random Acts of Kindness in one day. WOW that is amazing.

What a goal! I love this idea. To make your birthday not about you and getting gifts or celebration for yourself, but making it about other people. I want to try this. I'm not sure about 38 acts in one day(I'm just not that creative), but what about trying to complete that many random acts of kindness for the year?

So, this year I will turn 36. Can I do 36 Random Acts of Kindness this next year? What better way to show God's love.

Easter Krispie Treats

Thank you, Ree Drummond! I was looking for the perfect treat to take to my in-laws Easter dinner and her she comes to save the day. I whipped these little guys up (Well it took a little while. Ever try to shove rice krispies into tiny Easter eggs?) and they were a big hit with the kids (and a few adults, too)!

Here is a link to Ree's Website with all the information:

The Pioneer Woman

Hope you have a blessed Easter and please remember the egg hunts and treats are lots of fun, but they are not the true meaning of Easter. Love this video that gives a glimpse at the real meaning.

Magic, Magic, Magic

I love my magic eraser! Our town recently had a kids consignment sale, and besides that fact that I spent WAY too much money, I scored some great deals.

One of my favorites, these Converse shoes for my little boy.

There is no way I would buy these new, but I got these babies for $3 at the sale. They were in pretty good shape except for the scuffs on the front. Steps in the magic eraser and some elbow grease! These babies look brand new. 

Before & After

Happy Valentine's Day

Today I want to send a shout out to my wonderful husband. Happy Valentine's Day!

(Made Using Tagxedo.com)

Photo Books

So.... I'm not a scrapbooker. I don't like to have to come up with all those decorative ideas and then actually cut all the little decorations out. Not my thing. BUT, I love to make photo books. It is a great way to combine all those digital photos I take every time we go somewhere into a neat little memory.

I really started making photo books when Elijah was born as a way to record his life and it is a wonderful gift to share with the grandparents. So, now I'm branching out and completing one for our last summer vacation.

If you have never tried a photo book, give it a shot. I've tried a few companies and so far Shutterfly has the best layouts and is user friendly. If you are an expert book maker, who do you like to use? Share your ideas.

Here is my latest creation.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Build your own high-quality photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Out with the Old and in with the New

This old guy has been faithful to me for the last 8 years. I remember the day a friend of ours called us up and told us they were at a garage sale and the people had an old piano they were trying to get rid of for cheap. I had been wanting a piano since we had got married, so we headed over and loaded it up. Ok, so it wasn't THAT simple. We had to get a trailer and about 8 big guys to help us, and we still managed to drop it a couple of times and break a wheel off. Whenever we tell people that this baby is heavy, they just smile and I know they are thinking to themselves, "It can't be THAT heavy." IT IS! My husband's exact words were, "That baby is never being moved again. If we sell this house, the piano goes with it!"

I loved this piano. The first time I saw it, memories washed over me. It looked just like the piano my Mamaw and Papaw had in their home when we were growing up. Every family gathering someone would attempt to play that old thing. The keys would stick, it was WAYYY out of tune. Great memories! Lucky for me, this piano was in a little better shape, but it still had that old-timey piano sound to it.

WELL, for Christmas this year my husband decided it was time to retire the old guy and replace him with something a little more modern. I don't think my husband ever had the same love for the old guy as I did. He always complained about how big it was and how much space it was taking up. He decided I needed this new guy.

I will admit the new guy is less bulky and MUCH lighter. It is a weighted keyboard and I have to say I am very impressed with how realistic it plays. I miss my old-timey piano sound, but hey, this new guy has a setting for that!

So what happened to the old guy that my husband said was NEVER moving again? A friend of ours took it with the stipulation that they bring their own trailer and their own men to move it. All we had to do was sit back and watch them! (O.K., my husband gave in and helped them a little.)  

The New Year

Yes, I know I am a day behind, but I actually used yesterday to to start organizing and rearranging. I took all my Christmas decorations down and packed them away. I even hauled myself up into the attic to arrange the boxes we have stored up there, so that I could make room for more. (That sounds sad doesn't it. I had to rearrange stuff to make room for more stuff.) Elijah is growing out of most of his baby items, but I don't want to sell or donate them in case God blesses us with another child so up to the attic they go. Anyways....

I spent some time yesterday reading about everybody's new year resolutions or Word of the Year. I'm not a big resolution person, but I actually like the idea of a Word for the Year. I thought about it all day yesterday and have come up with CONTENTMENT. This is an area of my life that needs some work. I pray that God will work on me in this area of my life this coming year.

 I pray that he will teach me to be content with:

            - being a stay-at-home mom
            - the person he has made me to be
            - what he has blessed me with
            - my abilities
            - this season of life


Are there changes I want to make? Are there changes I need to make? SURE, but I pray that no matter what the future holds, God will help me be content with where he has me at in life.

No Cost Day Volume 1

Crafting is a passion of mine. That doesn't mean I'm good at it. You might not want my crafts hanging in your house, but hey, they are good enough for mine. A lot of the time I like to try to use things I already have around my house to make my crafts. Plus, my husband would kill me if I spent all kinds of money on my crafts.

So, every once in while I plan to share a craft I made using nothing but things around our house.

Today's craft is simple, but not very simple to make I found out. I just wanted to make some of those nice wooden letters that you can find in any craft store, but I couldn't bring myself to pay over a $1 a piece for them at Hobby Lobby. I decided to make them myself using some leftover plywood in our storage room.

So, I grab the plywood and my jigsaw and went to work. When I was done, I sanded them, painted them, and put them up in my son's room.

Cost: $0
Time Spent: 3-4 hours
Worth it?: Not so sure, don't think I'll make them again

Bibical Womanhood

I recently watched this video on Godtube. What do you think of the term Biblical Womanhood? Do you agree with this young lady? Interesting.

Would You Do This? Woman Lives Biblically for 1 Year from sharethemessage on GodTube.

A New Fall Look

I'm really surprised I accomplished this before the Christmas season made it to my house, BUT this week I finally made a fall wreath to hang on our front door. I had bought the supplies over a month ago, but life happened and the wreath didn't.  Well, yesterday I determined I WAS going to put it all together. All it took was a little time and a lot of burnt fingers from the hot glue.

My Supplies:

 - an old foam wreath that I had already used once to make another wreath
 - some fall colored yarn
 - two bags of super cute acorns from Hobby Lobby(Used my 40% coupon on them)
 - package of twigs from the dollar store
 - cute fall wired ribbon from the dollar store

Directions:

1. I wrapped the foam wreath with the fall colored yarn. (This was a time consuming task. Maybe it was just because I didn't know what I was doing, but Hey, the people on pinterest can wrap a wreath with yarn so so can I.)

2. Next, I hot glued twigs all over the front of the wreath. (This is the step that hurt the most! Hot Glue you are my enemy.)

3. Next, I strategically placed my cute acorns and pinecones(that came in the same package) all over the wreath and hot glued them down.

4. Finally, I threw a bow on top using the fall ribbon I found at the dollar store and hung it from my front door.

Now I am ready for fall! And even finished before Christmas!

The Big Red Barn

One of Elijah's favorite books is "The Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown, so when my husband brought home a giant cardboard box what else is there to make but a "BIG RED BARN"! So, I set out to create. First thing's first, I'm not very imaginative, so I need to find someone that has done this before. This lead me to the following:

(Click on Picture to go to Site)

via Living Locurto

Now that I had an idea in my head, it was time to start.

Step 1: Cut off the bottom of your box or open up the bottom of your box and hot glue all the corners together. This will make your box taller and is what I did.

Step 2: Decide what two sides will be your front and back. Draw the design on your barn top on the front and back pieces. I did this by folding in one of the side pieces to my desired angle and drawing a line where the side and front piece met. Then I measured off my angle and transferred those measurements to the other side of my front and to the back piece of cardboard. ( I hope that makes since. I'm not a math person and am not good at explaining math.) Then I cut out the shape of the front and back of the barn.

Step 3: Assemble the top of your barn by hot glueing the sides to the front and back pieces. This is going to leave you with a hole at the very top.

Step 4: Measure your hole and use an another piece of cardboard to fill the gap. If you cut off the bottom of your box, you could use one of those pieces.

Step 5: Now it is time to cut out all your designs. My barn is going to have a door and a window. On the door, I cut off a strip of cardboard on the bottom so the door would open and close smoother.

Step 6: Here comes the fun part, PAINTING! I love to paint! For the barn's body, I painted it completely red. Then I went back with a dry brush and very lightly brushed on some black paint to give it a real feeling. Finally, I used dry brushes to paint light brown and black stripes to create the allusion of boards and knots in the wood.

Step 7: For the roof, I painted it completely brown. Then I created shingles using black paint. I also dry brushed some black in the shingles. 

Step 8: My last step, was to take white paint and create the outline of the door and window. Oh, yeah, I also went to Lowe's and bought a really cheap rustic door handle for the door.  Elijah LOVES to go inside his barn, shut the door, and have you knock on the door! Super fun!

(After my son played with it for a while, I went back and cut out a tunnel hole on the other side of the barn. I also added a handle on the inside of the door, a cardboard horseshoe on the front, and a weathervane on the top.)

6-12 Months

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

The Story of the Tree

When we moved into our house 10 years ago, there was a huge tree in the backyard. You know of those trees that might have been here before the founding fathers. Since the day we moved in, we have had a love/hate relationship with this tree. We loved the tree itself, how beautiful and old it was and how it shaded the whole backyard. We hated the fact that NO grass would grow in our yard due to the amount of nutrients the tree was sucking from the soil.

Well, about 5 years ago, our tree started its slow death. It had split in two locations and was starting to rot. We would listen to it creak and moan whenever the wind blew. We knew the day that tree decided to split and fall would also be the day we would lose our house. So... we got some bids and destroyed our neighbors chain link fence, but the beautiful tree was gone.

EXCEPT....

for the about 10 foot stump that was going to cost us $1,000 to destroy, which my husband would not pay. So, for the last 5 years I have looked out my kitchen window at this everyday.

Well, years passed and weather worked on that old stump. In March, it had started to rot pretty good, so my husband and his dad decided they were going to destroy it themselves. Now, my husband likes to do things the hard way. Can we use a chainsaw? NO WAY! (Plus every time we tried to borrow it, it wouldn't work.) So, with an ax in hand, they went to work.

After months of work, with a reprieve due to extremely hot weather, the stump is FINALLY gone.

Now, just fill the hole and I can create another beautiful flower garden, which my husband will love. :)

Teacher Appreciation

Well, it is time for school to start again!!! For 12 years, I enjoyed teaching everyday. But, last year God blessed my husband and I with an adorable little boy. It was a hard decision, but we chose for me to stay home. That has been the best decision for our family. I’m not saying that I don’t miss teaching everyday, but the joy on my son’s face each morning makes up for it.

I still love my school family, and I feel that it is important for them to know that people appreciate what they do each day. As a way to know they are loved, I like to make them little gifts throughout the year. So, for the beginning of the school year I decided to bake them all cookies. Yes, I did bake enough cookies for 70 people in one afternoon! After the cookies were finished, which took nearly all afternoon, I decorated it all up. The next day, I delivered them to my fellow teachers.

I hope they enjoyed them!

Reason for the Blog

I have spent years reading my friends' blogs, getting great ideas from blogs, and thinking....I should someday start a blog. I am by no means a writer (even though I taught it for 10 years). I can't even really say I enjoy writing, but I love to craft, bake, cook (love is stretching it here), and sew (love is DEFINITELY a stretch here, but I have determined that I will conquer the sewing machine!!!!).

Last year, I became a stay-at-home mom. For a girl that feels the need to constantly be busy, this was hard. How did I remedy the problem? Crafting. Baking, Cooking. Sewing. Anything to help fill the hours I wasn't teaching (some might say playing) with my son.

A few months ago, I completed a bible study on the Proverbs 31 woman. While I am by no means this woman, this is what I want to strive to be in my home. I want my husband to be proud to call me his wife.

So, all this has led to me finally taking the plunge and starting a blog. Will I go weeks, months even, between posts? Probably! (Like most people, I will start out strong and start to fade slowly.) I'm not sure where this blog will lead. I know I want to share things I have made, but you never know what else I might be led to write about. We will see. Join if you would like. We can see how I do at this little thing called writing.