anticipating growth

We planted our seeds to get started for the garden the other day. This is the first time we have ever done that, I don't know why we never did that while we lived in the valley (so much easier there). But, this is our summer. The kids are very excited and loved picking out the seeds, they are already dreaming of enjoying the harvest.

New seasons usually make me reflect on past seasons, where we've been and the lessons we've learned. We are in the midst of a new season in our lives and I've found hope in the physical act of putting seeds in and waiting. The process of being laid off, losing a job, and looking for the next step has taught us so much already. We've been reminded of how God is faithful to provide in every way, not just financially.

We are in the process of starting a new business. We are praying for fruit, praying for favor and praying for success. It's not unlike planting a garden, sowing seed and waiting patiently for the yield. It's the point in the process of waiting for God to move, we cannot make our business a success any more than we can make seeds sprout.

Trust is essential in our relationship with God. We must choose to trust that he will provide because his word says so. We choose to move forward in faith because we know the character of the one who has given us the direction. We choose unrestrained joy on our journey. Just as we don't really know how the seeds we planted will grow and how much fruit we'll get to enjoy, we don't really know the outcome of this. Will our business succeed? We certainly hope so, but even if it doesn't or if doesn't look the way we think it should we know God is good. God is faithful, and he is the Lord of the harvest. We trust him to bring in the yield.

"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass...Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him." Psalm 37:5,7

"I planted the seed...but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." 1 Corinthians 3:6-7




"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 130:5

a party

The birthday boy chose a quiet family party at home, just a few friends and family over for his favorite dinner and cake of course. It was the best kind of party, simple but very fun. We didn't even have any party games, the boys were content to play the wii while the grown ups chatted.


The best part: the R2D2 lemon cake. Not only does it look pretty cool, it tasted awesome. Lemon was Levi's choice-he choose well. I came across a great pound cake recipe that holds up well for the abuse it takes to create such a cake.

Yes, it was a great day for the birthday boy. In his words, "awesome!"

Five years ago today...

We welcomed this guy into our lives five years ago-five years of laughter, growing, learning how to be parents. Five years of exploring (as only a boy can), five years of loving him. Our lives have never been the same and we are so grateful for it. For him. Happy Birthday Bud.


"and you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the Lord almighty. "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin." Malachi 2:4-6.

That has been and continues to be our prayer for him; walking with God and bringing others with him on the journey. May he always choose God's way.

craving color....

...for the girls' room. Here they are when they were much smaller, aren't they cute, all pink and cuddly?


For the longest time I've been wanting to add more color to their room. I love the soft blue walls and white everything else-but it's time for more fun, more playfulness, more color. So I added color. It was easy and best of all, very cheap!

Teatime is big at our house- so we had to have the tea sets out and accessible. This could not be any easier-take a cheap two dollar frame, put in a sheet of felt and leave out the glass. Simple little tray to hold fun little tea things.


More with felt here-made up a whole bunch of flowers and hearts out of felt, sewed on buttons and hearts and other little things I found in the craft area and stuffed with pillow stuffing. (How many of us have old toss pillows laying around looking for a good home? Here I found a good home for their insides.) Sounds complicated but, again, was super easy. You could even do this with a straight stitch instead of a blanket stitch.


Remember the Valentine's banner? Here it is, made nice and new. Sorry about the lousy picture, I was too lazy to drag in a chair in to get closer.


More with the hearts and flowers, this time just stitched together to make a chain. The girls think this is so cool.



One more burst of color here. I found a sale on canvases (2 for $5) and used up some paper I had in my stash, plus extra felt. Just cut out the shapes and ModgePodged them on. The hardest thing about this was hanging them straight.


Okay, here's the best part. For all of this I spent about ten bucks. Really, just ten dollars. How cool is that?

spring trees

So, while recovering this week I decided I needed a little project. Something to make me sit still for awhile and something to "spring" things up around here.

The only requirements I had were that it had to be able to completed while sitting on my bum and it had to cost zero dollars (since we're living in the land of the layoff-meaning money is tight-meaning if it's not a necessity for life it will not be bought-you get the point.)

So I "shopped the house" as the Nester would say, and found some sticks, some mossy stuff, and two cute containers. I also always have paint on hand, so the brown sticks became white and got shoved into the containers. Good start, but the poor little trees looked kind of barren, more like winter and less like spring.


What's a girl to do? Keep shopping, of course. I dug out and dusted off the paper sack with last year's Easter stuff in it-complete with leftover candy (ewww, crunchy jelly beans!) The eggs on their own looked a bit bright and loud so I pulled out the paint and some ribbon and started playing. Unfortunately, the more I played the less I like what I saw. Here's what I came up with:


Not too bad, just not the look I was after. The pictures don't do justice to how bright those babies are. Good for diamonds-not so much for eggs. So, I packed the poor fellows away, they'll have to wait for the egg hunt to have their moment of glory. That left me with two empty, unspring-like trees. Now what?

That's when I remembered the Weekend Creative post from Ali Edwards. She used cool chipboard butterflies-which I had none of. I also had no cool chipboard shapes at all. (Remember, zero dollars to be spent here.)

What did I have? Sheets of naked chipboard, a pencil and some acrylic birds, more paint and some other goodies-I traced them and cut those bad boys out and painted and glued, then.....

This is what I got:


Not too bad. Here's a close up of a few of the birds.



You too can have all this for the low cost of....nothing! Just a bit of time and some creative thinking is all that is required. Who was it who said "necessity is the mother of invention"? Whelp, they were right.

I still feel like it needs a bit more punch, but not to sure what-any thoughts?

slowly come out of the fog.....

of a drug induced stupor...

Had my gallbladder yanked on Thursday and am slowly coming back to life here. Things went well and I was home that evening-well, that's what they tell me (I've got little memory of it). I'd show you pictures but they aren't as cute as the kids, and who really wants to see someone else's insides? It's yucky in a kind of cool way.

Things are being held together here by my parents-thank you so much Mom and Dad. It truly would not have been so good around here without your help. Thanks too for all the yummy food that came in from folks at church. I was only able to have small bites here and there but I've heard rave reviews.

I'm now at the point of wanting to be up and around, working on projects or puttering like I always do; but I've had to stop myself. It's just physically impossible right now.

That is OK.

There remains, then, a Sabbath — rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Heb 4:9-11

Rest is good, rest is necessary, rest is important. Whether it is self imposed or doctor's orders we all need a bit of rest. It is good to have downtime, time to recharge or reflect or just veg. I've had bits of both these last few days. It's clear from these pictures that things have gone on just fine while I napped on the couch. Mimi is a pro at pig tails.




Have you found rest this weekend?

How will you seek it out and what will you do with your downtime?

I challenge you to find some time-even just a few minutes to lay down or step outside for fresh air and seek out a bit of rest.

For me, it's back to the couch I go. Thanks Doc!

Time

This week's word is time. There are so many ways you could approach this one-time spent, time not well spent, time as a gift, time to do the things we love. I choose to focus on the speed of time. It seems like the kids grow and change in the blink of an eye. This picture of Cayden caused me to do a double take, it's one of those that makes me realize how quickly she's growing. There is much less baby in her and much more big girl. That makes me a bit sad, but excited to see who she'll grow into and how she will be. Time just keeps going-like it or not-this is a good reminder to cherish her right where she is right now.

a new day, new week, new month

and so they jumped, and then they jumped some more. Oh, and there was lots of screaming and squealing thrown in there for good measure. I think it's a great way to start the week and the month.

Busy week around here, getting ready for mom and dad visiting and a little bit of surgery for me on Thursday. It took a while but I was finally diagnosed with gallstones-yuck. Let me tell ya, I'd much rather be having babies than having attacks. So out she'll come and better I'll feel. It's opened my eyes to diet and how we eat what we eat. Been looking into doing food a little different around here. You'll probably hear more about this later.

Happy Monday, Happy March!