My Most Recent Creations...

Here are my most recent creations...

I finally finished the girl's piano bags I had cut out long before their birthdays in November. Their grandma ended up sending piano bags to them for their presents though...so I was in no big hurry to get them done. Now they just have an extra bag to tote their books and things around in. I thought it was going to be difficult to sew, but it ended up being rather easy. The hardest part is cutting everything out....it just takes so much time. Sewing them took no time at all. They love them!

Here is what I call a "sword sheath" or you could call it a "verse purse". I have always desired to take the advice to write Scripture that I want to memorize on index cards and keep them with me throughout the day to refer to and memorize...well...that suggestion is great and all, but not real practical for me considering I don't usually have any way of keeping them on me because I wear stretchy pants so often...I like to be comfortable :o) So, in an attempt to fight against the sin that so entangles me daily, I have thought of a more practical way for me to "keep His Word with me"..... and since The Word is referred to in the Bible as a "sword" that is where I came up with calling it a "sword sheath". I just wear it like a necklace throughout the day. I just used old jeans I cut up, ribbon, and added a little bling to dress it up a bit. I also thought, if you didn't want to go through the trouble of making something like this, you could buy one of those things you can wear around your neck that has a clip hanging from it and just attach the index card(s) to it and then you could just turn it around and look at it easily. Where do you get these little "things" I'm referring to? I don't know...good question. I am on a quest though and will share if I find what I'm talking about.

This here is an owl adhered to a long-sleeve onesie. I got the idea from another site...but the owl was on sewn coasters. I just bought some fusible web (Steam-a-Seam...you can get it cheapest at Joann's or from Hobby Lobby) and used it according to the directions. I cut out my owl first, without hemming any edges, and followed the directions of the webbing. It makes a permanent bond so the fabric doesn't fray. I love it! I can't wait to make other things using this idea. You can use this fusible web on fabric, paper, and more... I can't wait to make birds, elephants, flowers...oh my just so many options... Good craft idea for kids too! Mine will sure enjoy this.

That's it! I will share more as I create....

Gifts Made with Love

I just thought I would share the gifts I made for friends and family this past Christmas. Hope you enjoy and become inspired to create something yourself...

Here are two painted stain glass pictures I made for two of my nephews. I used 11 x 14 picture frames, glued the glass in with E6000 (the greatest glue ever), found the logos online, printed them and traced them onto tracing paper...next I taped the tracing paper under the glass and following the image I began outlining the image with liquid leading...I let that dry overnight and then with the stain glass paint finished it. I really like how they turned out. They were my first attempt at using stain glass paint. My mother does large windows and such...she was my inspiration for these gifts. I'm so grateful for her talent that she willingly shares with me.

These next two photos are of the bath salts my dear friend, Jessica, and I made together. Some are Lavender, Lavender Vanilla, or Orange Vanilla. We put them in these practical containers purchased from Hobby Lobby (Jessica's great "sale" find). I printed labels on card stock and decorated them with ribbon and vintage jewelry. A simple soothing smelly good gift.

Next are the tin can lanterns. These are great! They don't look pretty unlit, but when the lights are out and they are lit...they are beautiful! I wish I had a fireplace mantel to line different sized ones on top of and light at night. I did mostly circles as the pattern...only a couple did I do stars, but you could do us about anything. I started by printing out the different sizes of shapes and cutting them out as templates to use. I positioned them where I wanted them on the cans and made dots outlining the shapes using a sharpie marker (don't do a solid line). Then I filled them with water, froze them, and once frozen I was able to use a hammer and nail to punch the holes. You can make the holes as large as you like...then once your done hammering you can melt the ice cube in them dry and presto, you have a tin can lantern.

I came up with the idea of making rubber band guns for the boys and their dads. I was inspired by Travis and Avrie setting up army men and using rubber bands to have a battle. So, I searched for ideas of how to make one. I used a dowel rod, clothes pin and glue. Of course I painted them and put their names on each one, but that wouldn't be necessary. I just tend to go over the top. I purchased each person a different color of army men. Then I had the idea to make a bag to hold the items all together. With my abundant supply of fabric I had plenty to work with. I bought a camouflage t-shirt from a thrift store for 25 cents and used it on the green bags....then not having any camouflage print to go with the red and blue bags, I decided to go over the top once more and create my own using white and light blue fabric and sharpie markers. I'm sick I know. So, when all was finished, each person had a bag with their name on it, a rubber band gun, a supply of army men and a bag of size 30 rubber bands.

For my 14 year old nephew, I made a message board out of an 11 x 14 frame without the glass...I covered a piece of foam board, tacked it in and covered the back with brown paper bag paper to hide the mess. I bought some tiny clothes pins for him to use to attach his pictures and keepsake things. Then for giggles, I put some old pictures from him growing up and his mom with she was a teenager :o) This was an easy to make gift and it was fun to pick out the fabric and ribbon.

This here is a little girls skirt that I turned into a purse. I lined the inside with a lighter green fabric and used corduroy pants I cut up for the handles. I really liked it when I made it...still do, but then I made the next three used little girls jean skirts. These though I didn't sew up the bottom, but made the inside and attached only from the top...that way the skirt look was still there. Then I used the same fabric and made the straps and appliqued each girl's first initial on the front to match. I really like the jean skirt ones!

Well, that's it for Christmas gifts. I've got a plethora of ideas for gifts this next Christmas. I am in the process of getting started....gathering materials and deciding what to do for who! I love making the gifts that we give. I'm so thankful to the Father for providing the means to do so and for giving me the ability to be creative. The options and ideas are endless.

Along with getting started on Christmas gifts, I am also going to begin to make me a new quilt for my bed. The first one I made (took me five years) is falling apart slowly. We have had it on our bed for almost four and a half years, but my desire it to pass it onto one of my children some day and it won't do much good in pieces....so let the challenge begin!

For this next one, I had the idea of making a rag quilt, but I also wanted to use my old fancy hankies somehow....so I am going to attach a hankie to each square and go about it the same way as a regular rag quilt. I chose a light cream color top fabric for each hankie to be attached to and a taupe for the backing. I chose neutral colors to not take away from the beauty of the different hankies. I can't wait to get started. I will post pictures of my progress.

What if You Stopped Believing in God? (George Mueller, Thomas Huxley, and Dave Ramsey)

    

George Mueller was a man much like myself, and yet completely set apart from my ways. We have one thing in common: Desperately wanting God to show up in an undeniable way. George Mueller was not American. I am. I like to manipulate things so that I get what I want. When I get it, I can give the credit to God, wondering in my soul if that was God or did I just make it seem that way. As a young, poor, restless Christian, George Mueller had the same problem. He so strongly desired to be a missionary that he resolved to buy a lottery ticket to determine if God should want him in the mission field. When he won money from that ticket, he declared it a genuine sign that the Lord had blessed his efforts, only to be rejected by the missionary society. Mueller learned a priceless lesson from that bit of folly, and his life changed drastically afterward. He then took painstaking care to not play sleight of hand with the Sovereign Will again. He went so far as a pastor to not pass the offering plate in his church for fear of manipulating men's hearts into giving out of guilt. He would not even let a monetary need be known to another man while operating his penniless orphanage, but only took his request to God. He lived out what so many of us claim to believe. God hears prayer and is sovereign over man's heart.

This is not intended to be another biography of Mueller's life (although you should not die without reading A.T. Pierson's account of this man's life!). However radical Mueller's life and practices may seem to us, he would claim the contrary. He even stated that not every man has been called to a like vocation as he, but we are all called to like faith.

    I have been encouraged, excited, and challenged by the life of George Mueller. I have also been challenged by this thought that I gleaned from another book I recently read: "How much would your life change if you stopped believing in God?" What the author was asking was: If God didn't show up for you (financially or otherwise) how much of a difference would it really make and how would you react? According to Dave Ramsey, we should plan as if God isn't going to come through. His ministry is certainly helpful in teaching basic principles for managing money, and I have benefited from his "ministry". But should we plan our lives so that we can kick back and "live like no one else" later in life? Much of our American lives are saturated with this type of thinking. Well, what if God doesn't want you to have 3-6 months worth of expenses saved up when you lose your job? What if, instead, He causes a job loss so that you will begin to lean into Him? How glorious does God look when, because I have prepared ahead of time, I really don't need any help other than maybe a new job and moral support. A.T. Pierson states in Mueller's biography "Such love is obedience to a principle of unselfishness, and makes self-sacrifice habitual and even natural. While Satan's motto is, "Spare thyself." Christ's motto is, "Deny thyself.""

What would our lives look like if we only made our requests known to the Sovereign One, and accept His answer as final? I suspect we might own less junk, be less busy, have greater faith, unspeakable joy, and contentment.

    Thomas Huxley known as "Darwin's Bulldog" is best recognized from his debate with William Wilberforce in 1860 and his invention of the term agnostic. He was also a contemporary of George Mueller. Huxley was part of the great "Prayer-Gauge Debate" in which he intended to prove that there was no relation to prayer and the healing of the sick. One of Mueller's donors attached a note to a donation that it "might be well if Prof. Huxley and his sympathizers, who had been proposing some new arbitrary "prayer-gauge," would, instead of treating prayer as so much waste of breath, try how long they could keep five orphan houses running, with over two thousand orphans, and without asking any one for help,-- either "GOD or MAN.""

Hellish Stay / Heavenly Leave

    Just wrapping up a 48 hour retreat where I set out to posture myself before the Lord and seek His fullness in my own life. I clearly had plenty of sin to confess and could have made it a Martin Luther weekend and accomplished nothing else. However, I chose to be still, read the Word, and listen to what the Lord would say. I remember specifically praying at the outset that He would reveal the vast depravity of my heart…

    Friday night: Spent most of the evening reading Acts. I was particularly struck by the childlike faith of the early churches. As Paul and his cohorts went out on their missionary journeys, they were sometimes in various cities for just a couple of weeks (ex: 13:13-52) they bid their followers to "continue in the grace of God", and then they were off. I was able to meditate on the lives of these early believers for a spell. Think of their plight: they barely knew the gospel, had no written NT if they had any of the scriptures at all, they had no commentaries, no systematic theology. How in the world did they live godly lives without so much help? They trusted in the promises of God and believed in the faithfulness of God's character as understood in the Gospel. By definition: childlike faith. They didn't rely on 100 different "interpretations" of a particular text, they didn't need a giant "Christian Living" section in their ancient bookstores. They relied on the Spirit of God to lead them as they trusted in God's sovereign purpose.

    Saturday: Woke up early Saturday, took my Bible for a walk with the Psalms around the lake. Good morning. Within 2 hours of waking I began to develop a headache, which turned into a completely debilitating migraine. I thought maybe I should eat something, because this type of headache was certainly counter-productive to what I was trying to achieve. How could I seek God when I can't even move my eyes, much less my head. One afternoon trip to Taco Bell resulted in no relief. So I spent the rest of my Saturday on into Sunday morning laying in my cabin wrestling with God, sensing bitterness, expressing disappointment, crying out that my trip couldn't end up this way. Why was God so pronouncedly silent? This was something that had led me to such a retreat in the first place: maybe I just needed to get away from all the noise where I could really focus on the Lord. So here I was, completely disabled lying on my back while the rain pours down outside my cabin and within my heart. After failing to start a fire in the rain, I spent the next 16 ½ hours trying to sleep away my head pain. The sleep was wrenching and anxious, constantly waking to see if it was over, if God would be gracious and wake me with a vision of His grandeur. Instead I woke thinking "that was the single longest night of my life" and "I only have a few hours left here before my 'retreat' is over". I was depressed and disappointed. I remember thinking that my wife will simply be undone if I come home in the same sorry state that I left in. I love my wife more than anything on this earth. She is a precious gem to me. I will do anything for her, but I will not lie about where I am with the Lord, I will not give her false hope.

    Today: Praise the Lord! As of 8:30 am I am able to stand upright without being led to tears! The rain has stopped and I was able to start a fire! Although I don't know what the purpose of last night was (and maybe I never will), I can say that today I am thinking a bit more clearly. I don't "feel" God's presence, however, I "know" His promises. It's as simple as "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" and "^37
zAll that ^athe Father gives me will come to me, and ^bwhoever comes to me I will never cast out." and "⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began ^ha good work in you ⁱwill bring it to completion at ^jthe day of Jesus Christ" and "¹² So then, brothers,⁴ we are debtors, ^cnot to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you ^dput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are ^eled by the Spirit of God are ^fsons⁵ of God." and "¹⁶ You did not choose me, but ^zI chose you and appointed you that you should go and ^abear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that ^bwhatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you" or "^13
zWhatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that ^athe Father may be glorified in the Son. ^14
zIf you ask me⁵ anything in my name, I will do it."

    A man driving down the interstate realizes that he is low on fuel. 5 miles ago he passed a sign that said "Gas Station 20 miles ahead!" As he drives, he begins to panic, thinking "what if they were lying, what if there is no gas station ahead? I will surely perish on this lonely stretch of desert highway!" Which is more foolish: to believe that the signs are false (although virtually every other road sign he can remember has always been accurate) and so, simply stop in the road and wait to die or try to find another road that will hopefully lead to somewhere of value, or to continue on this path, trusting that the gas station lies just ahead?

    Resolution: I will live with the following as my banner: I know that my salvation is based upon the merits of Jesus Christ alone. I know that He will never cast me from His presence. I know that He will finish what He began in me, in His good time. I know that I must "fight the good fight" by putting to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirit. I know that prayer in accordance with His will will always be answered in the positive, not to believe so makes God out to be a liar and perjurer.

    Therefore: I will not live doubting the promises of God because of what I see in my heart, but rather live with a patient trust of the Promiser. Thank God for George Mueller and the testimony of his life that proves "It is not vain to trust in God alone." May my life begin to reflect such a thought. All of my "waiting" up to this point has been a spiritually passive activity. Waiting on the Lord demands a posture of constant reassurance through His word, communion with His Spirit through prayer, and to "look not at the little in hand, but at the fullness of God". Trusting is not naive, but it is simple.

"To rest solely on the promise of a faithful God is the only way to know for one's self and prove to others, His faithfulness." We do not and cannot prove God's faithfulness through a weekend of flowery feelings no matter how many shooting stars we may see, we cannot prove His faithfulness through an experience of "enlightenment". We prove God's faithfulness through a lifetime of dependence solely upon Him through petition to Him alone, not seeking the aid of men along every step. We must allow God to be shown to be faithful. We must wait in hopeful, patient, resolved trust. He's either sovereign or He's not.

Meaningful Words

I can't help but post the poem Travis wrote and gave to me as a gift over the holidays along with a beautiful necklace (he got it from Jared) that symbolizes that I have his heart. A few days later he gave me a letter accompanied with a beautiful Citizen watch. I must say I felt like a princess to be lavished with such gifts of words and jewelry. I can't begin to share how meaningful it was to read the words he wrote me. I didn't know it, but they were words I needed to hear.

Because of Who You Are

Because of what you do today

My history is changing.

Because of what you do not say

I understand forbearance.

All that you see that's good in me

Is because of who you are.

Because your smile pales the sun

I'm willing to be foolish.

Because you've proven you're the one

I don't need to think of others.

And any joy that I might bring

Is because of who you are.

Because your arms are life to me

I've held on to romancing.

Because your eyes have made me see

I look to you for guidance.

With any wisdom that I lead

Is because of who you are.

Because you are my wife today

I can stand and face tomorrow.

Because your love will never sway

I can always be transparent.

And any strength that I can be

Is because of who you are.

Because of the warmth that's in your heart

I can always sense forgiveness.

Because of your mercy from the start

I can begin to see who God is.

All of the kindness that I've shown

Is because of who you are.

Because of the beauty that's in your face

I do heartily adore you.

Because of your sacrifices of grace

I am learning I can give more.

And I only know what love is

Because of who you are.

Travis 2009

He really has great taste....I love him.

Catching Up

It's been a while since we've posted anything....so I thought I might attempt to give a brief update of our lives over the last couple months.

Well, Christmas has passed. We went back to Indiana for a visit. We cut it short due to sickness which made us ready to come home sooner than we originally planned. It was nice to see family. We didn't get to see as many friends as we would have liked, but that's just the way it goes I suppose.

Here are some moments captured during our celebration of Christmas at my parent's house....

Here is Oliver thoroughly enjoying a ring pop...his new love.

Travis couldn't pass up getting this for my Dad who is

obsessed with Pepsi...notice it says "Sexsi".

Here are the girls with Oliver all ready to

open presents.

Emma, Raeni, and Elise...aren't they beautiful.

My handsome nephew, Caslin and son, Avrie.

Raeni cheesin...she looks just like her mother.

Queen Elise...

Princess Emma opening things from her stocking...

Travis helping Oliver open things from his stocking...he really liked this spinning light toy...he was quite mesmerized by it.

Now some shots from our Christmas celebration at Grandma Rosie's house....

A shot of all the girls in front of G-ma's tree...

Rose has her eyes closed...in most of her pictures her mouth is either open or her eyes closed :o)

All the kiddos except Oliver, he was napping...

One of the boys (except Oliver again).

So those were some shots from the holiday celebrations. We did spend Christmas Day at Todds, Travis' brother. That was nice. Grandpa Bill came over to visit with Autumn, her boyfriend and Tahlyn. I failed to get any pictures though...wish I had. It was a rather hard day though. Elise was recovering from a stomach virus and therefore we were unable to visit my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bill like we planned because of my uncle's weak immune system. We didn't want to take the chance of having Elise around him and getting him sick. We were thankful to spend the day with Todd and his family though. We had great sweets and a wonderful dinner together.

As far as the trip there and back itself, let's just say it's a loooooong drive. Here are a few shots of the ride there and back.

This is one of the kids on the way to Indiana...make a mental note of all the space they had...

Here's one of Travis snoozing...also on the way to Indiana.

Now for the trip back to Texas...notice the space had shrunk...the heap of stuff I took the picture over and the things piled up in the back? There were things in every crevice of the van. We definitely came home with a lot more than we left with.

I snapped this shot to show Oliver in his little cubical...poor thing. He was so good on the way to Indiana and home. He's eating his favorite popcorn puffs from Grandma Rosie. She had packed bubble gum balls for the big kids and the popcorn for Oliver. She wanted to ensure that the kids ingested enough junk to successfully have Grandma Rosie poops when they got home. Gotta love her!

I must say it was quite nice to be home. There's nothing like home. A day or so after we were home, Travis finally came down with the stomach virus and spent a day and a half in bed. Poor guy...he just doesn't handle sickness well. After his bout with the pukes and poops, we were able to enjoy the rest of his vacation just being together. It was nice. We spent New Year's Eve with our friends, the Millers. We had a delicious dinner, visited while the kids played, let the kids have a mini celebration before midnight, put all of them to bed, and we enjoyed the rest of our time playing Solitaire Frenzy and a hilarious game of Quelf. It was a blast! Overall hearts were shared and memories made. A perfect way to spend bringing in the new year.

Since Travis' return to work after vacation, we've gotten back into the grove of normal life and we're doing quite well.

I am joyless because my joy is often rooted in materialism, the idea of ideal circumstances, perceived perfection and my will being done NOT in Jesus Christ.