In the kitchen.....

A friend of mine posted a rather random note on his facebook page about his mother's Kitchenaid mixer. He was thinking about how silly it was that throughout his life he always remembers that mixer as being a constant, and it got me thinking.

A Kitchenaid mixer has been a part of my life since I was born. My mother had one, my grandmother had one, my aunt had one, and now, my sister and I both have one in our homes, both of which were wedding presents. It is almost like the mixer itself is a family tradition.

I remember my mom used hers so much that she burned out the first gear on it. I remember many many hours helping my mom in the kitchen as a kid, standing on a stool using that mixer. I remember several years of baking Christmas cookies where you had to be careful not to throw the flour everywhere because when you turned it on, it came on in 2nd gear! We have pictures of me using my mom's Kitchenaid mixer when I was less than 2, now I have similar pictures of both of my kids!

The heart of the home was once, and in my humble opinion, should still be, the kitchen. It was mentioned the other day that kitchens are now simply "warming stations". A generation or two ago, things were created in the kitchen. You started with flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and created a meal or a dessert or whatever. Now, you take some pre-packaged, pre-processed, pre-cooked meat substitute, and warm it. I remember when all of life's problems were solved in the kitchen. Dinners were made in the kitchen, desserts and cookies were made in the kitchen, and the kids were messy enough afterwards to prove it. Memories were made in the kitchen.

No, I have decided that there is nothing silly about the memories in a mixer. I have several stirring around in there myself. And with the holidays coming, I plan on adding a few more. :)

Babies Babies Babies!!!!

WOW -- Everybody seems to be having babies all of a sudden!! Two of my very good friends, Julie and Jenny, both had girls in the last 8 days! Congratulations to your growing families!!!


Allyson Paige



Olivia Jane (with her Grandma Jane)

Stained Glass Theatre -- Our Silver Celbration

Celebrating 25 Years of
Serving Christ through the Arts

We have just wrapped up our 25th season. It is hard to believe that what started out as a little rag-tag band of actors 25 years ago, has developed into a nearly 300-seat full service theatre, producing 7 shows every year. We truly are a jewel among theatres. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. Here are a couple photos of our current home in Ozark, MO.Did I mention we are all volunteers?? Everyone; the actors, directors, tech crew, set crew, concession workers, house managers, ushers, dinner theatre servers, board of directors, EVERYONE you see on a performance night is a volunteer. There are only 3 paid staff members in the whole theatre. Pretty amazing, huh? We're not crazy, (well, not entirely crazy...) we do it out of love. Love for the Lord, love for the ministry, love for what Stained Glass Theatre stands for. Every year, we have an appreciation banquet and awards ceremony. It is a fun night that gives us a chance to dress up in our finest and have a fun evening celebrating another season, and showing our appreciation for all the hard work everyone does to make this ministry a success. So I wanted to post a few pictures from our 2007-2008 Banquet, to share a small taste of our fun with you.

CKC Tulsa

Wow -- I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post!!! I have been SoOoOoOo busy lately... my new mantra is "I can't... I have rehearsal." DH and I are both in the next show at Stained Glass Theatre and we rehearse 24 hours per week. That is enough for a part-time job!! It is going to be a great show, though! It is a musical called "Without Fear" - it is the story of Daniel. We will have performances every Thurs/Fri/Sat from Sept 11 - Oct 18. If you are in the area check out the SGT website for show times and ticket information!!

CKC TULSA
Wow!! CKC is a scrapbooker's dream! 4 days of cropping, shopping, classes, shopping, vendors, and more cropping! My mom and I went up on Thursday and hit a few of the Tulsa area scrapbook stores along the way. We also stayed on Sunday for a crop at one of their stores, and it was so much fun! I got a LOT done, which made me very happy!!

As for the CKC classes, I took a wonderful class from Allison Davis of Scrapbook Generation called One Two Three 4x6. It was all aout using full 4x6 photos on your layouts without cropping them first. It made for some fast and fun pages!! We completed 2 different 1-page layouts, and a 2-page layout in under an hour. I will be heading to Scrapbook Gen this week to get more paper to turn those 1-pagers into 2-page spreads, since I am totally a 2-page layout kinda girl. Another good class Allison taught was about journaling. She highlighted 8 different journaling styles, so when you are stuck in a journaling rut, you can try a different approach and see if it works better. I am anxious to get the copies of the notes from that class she is going to be mailing to us.

I also took 3 different board book classes, and loved them all!! I am really getting into making some board books now, since the boys love to look at them. NONE of these are finished, but I thought I would show you what I have done so far.

PIGGY TALES
This was a new company to me - they have been around about 3 years or so, but I had never heard of them before, and fell in love!! All of their paper lines are named after Fairy Tales. Simple, bold patterns for kids, and some more "sophisticated" styles for teens and adults. Their board books are FAR from ordinary! Lift-the-flap books, books with sliders, and more. I was definitely impressed! Here is a lift-the-flap book I made in one of their classes using their "Chicken Little" line of papers.



















LICKETY SPLIT
This was another company that was new to me. One of their designers, Shannon, taught the board book class I took. Shannon is from Carthage MO and has a company called K.I.S.S. that hosts all kinds of retreats and crops there, so I am sure I will be seeing her again, now that I know about her!! The Lickety Split Disney board book was a great class too!! I learned how to do a board book with a covered binding that doesn't get worn out from all the opening & closing. This book is still missing a lot of ribbon, tags, and white pen doodling, but I can already see it coming together in my mind, so I know it is going to be a favorite when I get it done!!



























PAPER KANDI
I also took the "A Boys Life" board book class from Tracey & Darby that was sponsored by Oriental Trading. It was pretty time-intensive with the stitching on the front cover, so the cover was all we got finished in class, but we have instructions on how to complete the rest of the book.








While shopping at the Vendor Faire I found a great sheet of robot punch outs from Cosmo Cricket that I bought for AJ. Here are his creations so far!

Back from the BEE

Well, I just got home from the Bee early this morning. By early, I mean 5:30 -- AM. Yes, we drove all night long! I left Dresden, OH (Home of Longaberger) about 6:00 last night. We planned to stop in either Indianapolis or Terra Haute to sleep, then drive the rest of the way home today. We did not know there was a nascar race in Indianapolis today... there was not a hotel room to be found anywhere in the entire state! People were staying 4 and 5 hours away and driving in for the race. It was crazy! From Dresden OH to Springfield MO is approximately a 13 hour drive. My branch leader started out driving, till we got to Columbus. I took over the wheel there, and drove through to St. Louis while we talked about the classes we had taken, the FABULOUS new product we had seen, and formulating our plans for the 4th quarter. After we had made our lists and strategized our game plan we knew we were going to make some touchdowns with our customers when we got home! We could have stopped and stayed the night in St. Louis, but it was only another 3 hours to home, so we switched drivers and came on in. It was a great time, and I can't wait to share!!

I will be having an open house the last weekend in August to show off all the newest Longaberger baskets, pottery, and wrought iron pieces. I specialize in helping you solve your decorating, organizing, gift-giving, entertaining, and storage needs. Feel free to contact me or check out my webpage at www.longaberger.com/christianmcneal if you want to know more.

**Chris

ps - in case you missed my little "hints" I have a great new basket for football fans!!

Arrrggghhh Matey!

Aye! It be a pirate-themed party we had for AJ's birthday. Swashbuckling scallywags (and one princess) filled the yard on a hot Saturday afternoon. DH & I made a pirate ship out of cardboard boxes from an idea I found at Mr. McGroovy's. It was a hit! The kids loved playing in it and having sword fights with the balloon swords we made.


These are the Pirate cupcakes I made for the party. AJ said he wanted cupcakes with pirate faces on them. I thought they turned out really cute!!!





I cut X's out of red card stock and the kids played "Pin the X on the Treasure Map" They wore a pirate bandanna over their eyes while pinning it on the map. Every kid got an eye patch for playing the game.





I planned for the kids to make little treasure chests & they could take their treasures home in those instead of loot bags. Unfortunately, I did not do enough research into that little project. Instead of the sticker-type foam project I THOUGHT it was, you had to glue it all together. Needless to say, it did not go over so well with our 4 and 5 year old pirates. Several of the moms tried to put them together for the kids, and even the parents were having some challenges! (You can tell it made Pirate-Mommy-Debbie say AAARRRGGGHH!) SO we scrapped the treasure chest idea. A few of them got finished, but we sent the loot from the treasure hunt home in bags instead. The treasure hunt was held in the sandbox, of course. DH had buried necklaces, jewels, seashells, and gold coins for the kids to find. I think the treasure hunt was everybody's favorite activity! All in all I think the party was a hit. I know AJ had a lot of fun playing with his friends, and that was pretty much the whole point of the party. No presents, just friends (16 of them, actually!),a little food and a whole lot of fun!

8 questions....

Katie aka Ragamuffin Gal has asked me to answer the following questions 8 times:

8 things i say a lot:

1. Quit (hitting/pinching/biting/throwing things at/etc.) your brother!

2. Just a second

3. I love you!

4. shhhhh Baby Hunter is asleep.

5. Helllllllooooooooo! Bye-Bye!

(Baby Hunter likes to play telephone.)

6. Sweet tea, no lemon.

7. Hi, Baby.

8. Don't slam the ... **SLAM** ... door.

8 books i have read lately:

1. Self Talk Soul Talk ~ Jennifer Rothschild (small group study)

2. Hood ~ Stephen Lawhead

3. Thorn in My Heart ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

4. Fair is the Rose ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

5. Whence Came a Prince ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

6. Afton of Margate Castle ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

7. The Trubadour's Quest ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

8. Ingram of the Irish ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

8 movies i have seen at least 8 times:

1. Gone with the Wind

2. A Knight's Tale

3. First Knight

4. A Walk in the Clouds

5. Mr Holland's Opus

6. Ever After

7. Anything Veggie Tales

8. Anything Disney

8 things I am working On

1. My Daily Quiet time

2. My prayer life

3. Catching up on my Scrapbooks

4. new Art pieces

5. Cooking at home more

6. Being more patient

7. Being less critical

8. saying No to things that take time away from my family.

I would love to hear your answers to these questions, too!

Answer them on your blog, then leave me a comment & I will check it out.

catching up!

Here are a few of the things that have been going on around our house the last couple of weeks....

June 27 - DH & I drove to Tulsa so he could fly out on the 28th. He went to Guadalajara Mexico for a mission trip with the choir from our church. They sang 9 concerts in 5 days! It was a pretty crazy schedule. Plus they sang the concert again twice after they got home for our church. DH nearly lost his voice, but the Lord worked through him! There were over 100 salvations during their concerts!! This photo is of DH with some of the kids at one of the concerts in El Quince.

July 3 - AJ turned 5 the day Daddy came home from Mexico! We were all glad to have him home safe.

July 4 - Mom & my cousins & our favorite Drummer Girl all came over for the 4th. we grilled & shot off fireworks like good Americans. :)

July 7 - The family all came over to celebrate AJ's birthday. We decided to wait a few days to let Daddy recuperate from his trip before having a bunch of people over. It was a blast! We had a pirate theme, and my aunt & uncle & cousins came in some great costumes! Unfortunately, all the pirate photos are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to see if I can get those from her...

July 10 - today was the last day of AJ's swim lessons for the summer. He had a good time, and although he didn't really learn much, he did gain more confidence in the water, so that was well worth it. He will now jump off the side of the pool (and so will the baby after watching big brother do it...), put his face in the water, blow bubbles in the water, float on his back and stomach, and pick up something from the bottom of the pool. Way to go AJ!!


Tonight I get to have some crop time at Scrapbook Generation! woo-hoo! Better go get pictures printed...

Scrap Happy!

Wow - the last few weeks have been super busy! But I did find some time to scrap last weekend, so I thought I would post a few of my layouts... Considering it is my #1 hobby and I have yet to post any layouts here, I thought it was past time!

This is one of my favorites. AJ started playing T-Ball this year, and this is HIS page! He did the baseball, inked the edges of the pages, told me what order to put the pictures in, etc. I did the cutting and assembly, but he did the rest! He likes to help Mommy scrap. :)

These pictures were taken on February 4th- it was SO warm that day! The kids loved playing outside for a change. I thought these papers really went well with her dress. Sorry for the glare -- next time I will take the pages out of the protectors first....duh.

Grandma's birthday - there is more color to this LO in person. The large photo is of her looking at the recipe album I made for her. It is a 9x9 scrapbook filled with family recipes/traditions & photos. I am thinking it will be a continuing work in progress. Hopefully other family members will make pages to add to it!

Oh Boy! Hunter playing in the mulch at Silver Dollar City. An entire amusement park surrounds him, but no, he is intrigued by the mulch...

AJ and his buddy from church, enjoying popsicles and making mud pies in the lid of the Turtle sandbox. Oh, come on, admit it! You had the turtle sandbox as a kid too...

Blessings in my Mail

I have been wonderfully blessed with a lovely piece of artwork created by Katie, aka Ragamuffin Gal! She made this gorgeous name hanger for me to hang in my art room. Thank you so much, Katie!

Please check out her blog - she has one of the best blogs I have seen! She has wonderful posts on "Try something new Tuesdays," her artwork is great, and she posts the best pictures of her latest antiquing aquisitions. Make sure you look at the pictures she took at Leola's grand opening!

Katie and I met through CPA, only to find out that we live in the same town! We keep saying that we are going to get together one of these days, but with the schedules of a school teacher and a SAHM, it is hard to find time when we are both free! Someday soon, though!

She Sells Seashells

I am playing in another inchie swap on CPA. This one's theme is "by the sea". Here is my creation...

The sand is a piece of sandpaper that I cut to the right size, then tore the edge to give it a seashore-looking edge. I painted the blue background with a glitter glaze by Making Memories to make it sparkle like water. That is a real seashell, attached with a glue dot.

Wedding Day!

Saturday, May 31 my youngest cousin got married.

Bride and Groom during the ceremony...

My oldest son was the ringbearer... Isn't he adorable??? Here is my family - I loved seeing all my boys in tuxes!

Here are "the girls" in my family, in front (obviously the bride) is my cousin. Then left to right is my sister, my mom, my aunt (the mother of the bride), me, and my Gramma. We were all asked to wear champagne, and the groom's family was asked to wear blue.

Here's to the happy couple!

And the Winners Are....

Linda from CPA and of Linda Jo's Obsessions
Tara from my church who does not have her own blog... YET!
Katie from CPA and of Ragamuffin Gal
Lori from CPA who does not have a blog that I know of
Angie from CPA and of ArtVisionz

Congratulations ladies!!

Sorry it took me a few days to get this posted - we had a family emergency on Monday, but I think everything has calmed down from that, and now we are all hyped up for my cousin's wedding tomorrow!! After the wedding excitement has died down a bit I will post pictures of my two little guys in their tuxes! SO Handsome!

C is for Cross

These are the Cross inchies I made for a swap on Christian Paper Artists. It is an Alphabet Inchie swap, so I made 26 1"x1" collages depicting my letter, which was C. The crosses are metallic silver, so the glare caused the picture to overexpose, but I think you can get the hint. I stamped a C, hand wrote "is for" and cut out the word Cross. All of the inchies and the cut-out words are edged in Creamy Brown chalk ink. There are 5 different background papers used, all from a new line of Crate Paper called Blue Hill. On the back side is the verse.

For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

- Galatians 2:20

I'm Giving Away A House!

Thanks to all who posted helps for my houses for the swap!! I found out that my houses did not meet the swap criteria, so I had to start over!! They were too big (supposed to be 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 INCLUDING the roof - mine were that size, PLUS the roof). So I started over and created new ones that are completely different! I will upload a picture of them later, since the pictures are on my mother's camera, not here at home. Anyway - I decided to do a giveaway with the "too-big" house ATC's! All you have to do it post a comment on this post before Midnight Sunday May 25th, and your name will be entered. To say THANK YOU to those nice ladies who helped me out with my first attempt, All of your names are already entered in the drawing, and if you post a comment here, you will get a 2nd entry. :)

Winners will be drawn on Monday the 26th.

Good Luck!

Help my House!!! Vol. 2

House ATC -- Round 2! I have added several elements to the house, and am liking it better already! There is now glitter on the roof, a design over the door, a door frame, doodles around the doorknobs (sounds like my 4 year old helped!), ink edging the roof, house and doors, plus words, blush & lipstick inside! :)
She says "Tell me you love me" and he says "my darling..."
This photo shows some of the background detail a little better. I think the door frame helped a lot.

Any other ideas floating around out there??

Help my House!!!

Ok, I need some help here.... I am in a house-themed ATC swap on the Christian Paper Artists list. This photo is of my project at the moment -- but it still needs something. Keep in mind, these did not scan very well. The background is stamped in gold with antique gold pearl-ex dusted over it. The couple inside is not as pale looking as in the scan, but I think I am going to add some color to them-- lipstick maybe? I'm just not happy with them yet... please post any ideas you may have!!! thanks :)

I've Been Tagged

I was tagged by Linda...

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Now, as for 6 things about me....
1. I lived in the same house from the day I was born until the day I got married.
2. I have my boys' closets ultra-organized, but my own is a mess. How does this happen?
3. I hate getting dressed for semi-dressy things, like church or weddings. I would rather be in jeans than anything, but I do enjoy getting REALLY dressed up for super formal events too. It is the in-between stuff I don't like.
4. I hate doing housework, but I get really cranky when the house gets messy. (I think I need a maid...)
5. Speaking of cranky, I get REALLY cranky when I'm hungry.
6. When I was pregnant with my 1st, I told my hubby if it was a girl, I wouldn't have any more kids.

NOW --- Here's the really fun part -- the RULE BREAKING!!!!

I refuse to get started in an endless trap of these silly things (I told you I was a control-freak & a rule breaker!!!) so I am NOT going to tag 6 other people to carry this on (See Linda's Blog to see what I mean). Sorry for the disappointment. But hey, you still get to read the 6 quirky things about me, so it's okay, right???

Our Weekend in Tulsa

We took the kids to Tulsa this weekend to see some long-time friends. My hubby & these guys were like the 3 musketeers from about 6th grade on, and the other two musketeers moved to Tulsa in October. We have really missed getting together with them. When we all lived close, we spent a lot of time together. The guys were all in each other's weddings. I remember when the 6 of us would go out for dinner, then meet at one of our houses & play games until midnight or so. Now, between the 3 couples we have 3 boys & 2 girls. The oldest is 4 and the youngest is 14 months... what a houseful when we all get together!!

We left Friday afternoon, and of course had to stop at the McDonald's that goes over the highway. If you've ever driven from Joplin into Tulsa, you know exactly which one I am talking about... it is pretty cool, but for a 4 year old, it was REALLY cool! We got some popcorn and chicken nuggets & sat by the windows so we could watch the traffic zoom by underneath us. Now does that sound like heaven to a kid or what?? When we got there, everybody got together at a Mexican place called Abuelo's that was really good. Now for me, that is saying something because I don't care for Mexican food. Well, in truth I like it okay, but let's just say it doesn't like me. We were already geared up for Mexican though, because I had been telling my husband about this place I had been in Tulsa when I was in high school that was really fun, Casa Bonita. Unfortunately, we learned that they are out of business, which was really sad. They had little flags on the table, and if you needed your server, you just ran your flag up the little pole, and they would come by. The atmosphere was great too -- several different rooms, each with a different theme. One had an indoor waterfall & was decorated like you were sitting in an open courtyard. I still remember their sopapillas served warm with honey... mmmmmmm........ After dinner we went back to the house & got all the kids to bed. The adults stayed up talking & playing board games, Wii, etc. until 4:00 am. I cannot even think of the last time I was up that late! We all agreed it was probably because we had not seen each other in so long & we had a lot to catch up on. I vote that we get together more often so we don't stay up so late next time!! Our kids were up at about 6:30 Saturday morning, and the rest were up by 8:30. Ugh!

The two girls had their first ballet class on Saturday morning, then that afternoon we took the kids to the Tulsa Zoo. They loved the petting area and riding the carousel! Everybody loved the train too, except the baby -- he was great with it until we went through a tunnel, which he didn't like at all. It was pretty crowded, I guess because the weather is finally getting warm. We were going to eat dinner at an Italian place called Jonny Carino's, but when we got there, we discovered it was Prom night! The wait for a table for 11 was almost 2 hours long... and with 5 young kids who missed their naps, we all agreed that was not going to happen! We ended up at another Italian place called Carrabba's. There were some Prom-goers there too, but we got in within 15 minutes, so it was perfect. I think everybody had a great time, but we were all exhausted at the end of the day! We left Tulsa at about 9:00 pm, which put us home at midnight. Praise the Lord for getting us home safe on so little sleep! Then we were up early for church on Sunday, since DH is on worship team and I am doing drama for children's worship. Naps for all on Sunday afternoon!! All in all, it was a good weekend. It was great to see everybody again... we will have to do this more often. Minus the 4am part...

Bug Inchies

These are inchies I made for a swap on the Christian Paper Artists group. Inchies are 1"x1" collages, usually made from paper or fabric. Mine are pretty simple, as this is only my second attempt at making these tiny treasures!

"Ladybug"

I stamped the ladybug in black on red paper and cut her out, then hand drew her antennae. The flowers have gold glitter glue centers. (The ladybug stamp and paper flowers are from Close to My Heart.)

"Bee Happy"

The bee and words are stamped in black ink, and then I added the dots by hand with a micron pen.

"Flutter"

The butterfly is printed and cut out, then glued on over a random-stamped background. The background and word are edged in blue ink. (Background stamp from Magenta.)

"Dragonfly Dreams"

The background is stamped with VersaMark on textured card stock, then chalked. I freehand-cut the wings and drew the bodies. (Background stamp is "Eight dragonflies on a black and white background" from Rubbermoon.)

The Meanest Mother in the World

"We choose those we will be like, those we will relate to, those we will release our innermost thoughts to. We may think we are aimlessly associating with others but we’re not. Friends influence our morals and attitudes second only to family. This is why parents scrutinize their children’s acquaintances so closely. I am so thankful for my friends. I agree to walk with them because they walk with Christ. O, Lord, as we walk, keep our paths straight and narrow. When we stray, quickly bring us back with what ever technique You must use. If I ignore Your elbow, You have my permission to use stronger methods." - Vonda Ludke

As my son starts exerting independence in his choice of friends, I realize how important those choices are. I look at my own life, and realize that as an adult (am I really an adult??) I have chosen to surround myself with Godly people. My circle of friends comes from two main sources: Church, and Stained Glass Theatre. Honestly, I think it has been a subconscious choice, and I suppose the credit for that belongs to my parents...

So I owe a long overdue thanks to Mom and Daddy for badgering me incessantly about where I was going and with whom and what time I would be home, etc. Reluctantly, I have to say "Yes, Mom, you were right" (I hate those words...) yet again. My mom was the "Meanest Mother in the World" when I was in school. You know the one. All your friends have a great idea, and somebody says "No, we can't do that because so-and-so's Mom won't let her." Just call me so-and-so. And your friend was right. Mom wouldn't have let me. Guess what? My friends' moms LOVED my Mom. They got to say yes to anything and be the "cool mom" because they knew that MY Mom would take the responsibility to say no. My Mom would also insist that everybody come hang out at our house, just so she knew what was going on and we weren't all roaming the streets. We had an open door policy (Mom always said we had a Revolving Front Door) and all my friends knew they were welcome at any time. Some of Daddy's students even slept on our couch when they were having problems with their own folks.

Now that the tables are turned, I guess it is my turn to be the Meanest Mother in the World. Just tonight I found myself saying to my son "No, honey, you can NOT go be with them. They are running around and being loud in church, and that is not respectful of God's house." Trying to contain an energetic 4 year old boy during a two-hour church service is no easy task, but when his friends are being allowed to run through the sanctuary at full tilt, it becomes Mission Impossible. I guess this is just the beginning of my Boot Camp towards becoming the next Meanest Mother in the World...

Famous Faces

I am playing in an ATC swap on the Christian Paper Artists yahoo group. The theme is "famous faces" and I chose Einstein. This piece uses one of my favorite quotes, and one of my favorite word stamps from Stampers Anonymous. The background looks like graph paper with random equations written all over it, which was awesome, but of course is mostly obscured in the finished product. I used a small white feather boa to embellish his iconic hairstyle. No greater brain ever wore a feather boa so well, don't you think?

HOPE On My Bookshelf...

Right now I am reading Jennifer Rothschild's book Self Talk, Soul Talk: what to say when you talk to yourself. This is part of a women's Bible Study we are doing on Wednesday nights. Last night we focused on chapter 6, which deals with HOPE. She talks about hope being our anchor...

"Hope anchors us because it provides spiritual grounding. Hope brings stability to every part of our being: physical, mental, emotional, and spritual. It's something steady to hold onto when fear and despair rock our world."

Fear is never on your side. Fear is a tool of the enemy to shake and intimidate us. Fear will betray you, but hope never will. Fear and despair will make you quiver, but hope will make you unshakable. Despair will work against you - serving what you are trying to avoid. When you are in despair, do you sabotage your own situation by yelling, crying, eating, or shutting yourself off from the world? Change your reaction - turn to God for help! You can make a deliberate choice to choose hope.

Jennifer does an excellent job of showing how the Psalmist dealt with hopelessness. In chapter 42 verse 5, he says "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" The Message says it this way "Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues?" Jennifer suggests that the Psalmist is interviewing his own soul, with honest, perceptive questions; a habit we can all benefit from! Despair will not go away if we ignore it - we must face it head-on with the Truth.

Choose hope, and Give GOD the control!

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. -Song of Solomon 2:11-12

This Is My Now...

"This is my now, and I am breathing in the moment. As I look around I can't believe the love I see. My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubt. That was then, this is my now..."

My first Blog post! I have finally done it. Here it is, in all it's mediocrity... my very own blog. My little corner of the web to talk about the things I love, and rant about the things that irritate me (that could be a lengthy list...), post pictures of my boys, share my heart and my art, and my love of all things Longaberger.

So why the title "This Is My Now"? It is a song that fits me at this point in my life. The last few years have been full of change and I have had to learn to trust in the Lord and be content with my life as He has ordanined it for this moment. His ways are not my ways, and He has a Plan that I am not in charge of, and do not know all the details. Let me assure you that my typical type-A "must control all situations at all times" personality has had difficulty learning this lesson. It is a lesson God is still teaching me, but I know that He is faithful, and this is my now.

Won't you join me on this journey? I have no idea where this path will lead us, but if we always know the ending, where is the excitement in getting there?