New, New, New!

New blog design...
     ...New daughter!...
          ...New & refreshed me!

I haven't blogged in FOREVER. Well, except for earlier today ;). But I'm back. Consider that a warning ;).

What's new that you'll find, other than brighter colors and an updated picture? You'll find a glimpse inside. I'm stepping out and making a point to make my life healthier. I'm working out, eating right, and trying to be a better mommy and wife {ok, so all of that is in backwards order}. I'm trying to do a better job of PLAYING with my kids, TALKING with my hubby and trying to be an encourager to him. Spell check doesn't like my word encourager and is telling me it's not correct, but I know it is because it's what I'm trying to be.

As for the exercising part...I hope to be at least a little transparent here in order for you, my (2?) readers to help hold me accountable. I NEED accountability like none other on this!!! I'll fill in more later, but let's just say that I've set some high goals that I desperately hope to accomplish, and I'm willing to be open if it means it'll help at least one other person who struggles with the same things I do.

And on top of all of that, I'm trying, deeply, to be a better daughter of the King. I slack. I disobey. I neglect. I run the other direction than He wants. I cave. I fail.

I need. I desire. I thirst.

I'm ready for HIM to transform me, from the inside out.

A New Found Love

I stumbled across this new blog.

Ok, I lied. I kinda stumbled across it. I won't go into detail here just how, but let's just say God works everything to the good of those who love Him.


Here's the site: www.incourage.me

Real name is (in)courage. Don'tcha love that name?

Anyway, it is a site/blog for women who love the Lord to come and share, be encouraged (hello Captain Obvious!), and to grow in friendships, relationships, and more importantly in the Lord. Check it out:

They also have a new fall Book Club book by Angie Smith (wife of Todd Smith from Selah). I haven't started following this yet, or gotten the book yet, but am hoping to soon. You can find more on this at this link http://vimeo.com/28911850

Trail of a Toddler

I gave up chasing him today. I let him play with whatever he wanted. My floor is now covered in:

1 raisin fallen from the high chair

2 sticker books

3 random stickers stuck to the linoleum floor

2 stocking caps

2 pair of mittens

1 pair of mommy's flip flops he tried wearing

1 winter coat

1 rain coat (it was raining outside, so he insisted he needed to wear it inside)

1 sippy cup

1 play kitchen

1 play cupcake thingy

3 books

2 pieces of play fence from play farm

1 can of corn

2 large containers of oats

1 container of hot chocolate

1 jar of gravy

1 pkg honey grahams

1 pair size 7 toddler sandals

1 pair of daddy's shoes size 13

1 wooden train

1 play laptop

2 jars of spaghetti sauce (thankful he didn't drop them)

1 pkg wheat flour unopened (thankfully)

numerous random coffee filters

1 'fit the object in its shape' game

1 old Gerber baby food jar

1 box lasagna noodles

1 can black beans

...it might not sound like much, except that we live in a small duplex, and ALL of this is just in the front room and kitchen, and I keep tripping over everything, but don't have the energy (or room) to keep bending over this baby belly to pick stuff up! Good thing he's learned to put his toys away at night :). He made me tired just watching him play...

Love Came For Me

I've been on a Shannon Wexelberg kick lately. I first heard her at the National Worship Leader Conference last year, and have LOVED her music ever since. So peaceful, so vivid with lyrics.

Now granted, this one is on her Christmas album, but it is one to listen to and reflect on all year.

Reflect on these lyrics:

Love Came for Me 

Words & music by Shannon J. Wexelberg 

If You had not come 

Tender baby King 

And humbly left Your throne 

To reach someone like me 

If You had not walked 

Upon this broken ground 

Where on earth would I be now? 

If You had not come 

If You had not come 

To seek the sick and lame 

To set the captive free 

To break the prisoners chains 

I’d still be in the dark 

Grappling for the door 

Longing for some way, somehow (but…) 

   

Love came for me 

 Love rescued me 

 Love called my name 

 Love took my place 

 Sweet Lamb of God 

 I’m bowing down 

 My eyes have seen 

 I’m finally free 

 Love came for me  

If You had not come 

Willing, spotless Lamb 

My sin would be too much 

For You to take me as I am 

But, oh, the blood of Christ 

That washes over me 

Flowing from Your hands and feet 

Don’t have to worry where I’d be        

Love came for me 

 Love rescued me 

 Love called my name 

 Love took my place 

 Sweet Lamb of God 

 I’m bowing down 

 My eyes have seen 

 I’m finally free 

 Love came for me 

 This manger King 

 My everything 

 Love came for me  

©/2010 Shanny Banny Music / BMI  

who are You? and who am i?

The song 'Who Is Like You' by Starfield came to mind tonight as I was praying. Here are the lyrics:

The Lord is my strength and my song
He has become my salvation
He is my God and I will praise Him,
I will lift him up.

Who is like You, Majestic in holiness
Awesome in glory, Working wonders?
Who is like You, Majestic in holiness
Awesome in glory, Working wonders?

In Your unfailing love
You will lead the people there You Redeemed
And in your strength, You will guide them
to Your holy place

Who among the gods is like You,
who in all the heavens?
Who among the gods is like You?

This song reminds me to put things into perspective: Who is like Him? He is everything. Why do I rely so much on the world and its wisdom, on the thoughts of others instead of His thoughts about me, why do I spend so much of my time on worldly things instead of focusing my attention to Him?

I'm reminded also in the song 'Who Am I?' of the same thoughts:

Who am I? 
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt.
Who am I? 
That the bright and morning star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart.
...
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
...
Who am I? 
That the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again.
Who am I? 
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me.


...these questions are my questions. Even when I know full well that He is God, He is the Great I Am, that no one is like Him in majesty and glory, I still doubt {in my sinner way} that He surely can't love me for who I am, the things I've done, the mistakes I've made. I love the chorus of this song though-

Not because of who I am,
But because of what you've done.
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who you are.

-and it reminds me-He reminds me-that He loves me for me. Not because of who I am, or anything I've done, but because of what He came to do for me. 

"As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the Lord is flawless.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him.

For who is God besides the Lord?

And who is the Rock except our God?"

~Psalm 18:30-31

Chalkboard Paint: The Beginning of an Addiction {Part 2}

Glad I took the plunge :).

Here's the final product{s}:

I did learn some things along the way. The plastic totes in the top picture did good taking the paint, but when I tried writing on them, two of the three different types of plastic had issues. I managed to easily scratch the chalk paint right off (you'll see in additional pics below).

I also had trouble with the big metal tin. The original chalkboard painted tin that I found on a blog was painted over the entire outer surface, whereas I tried to do a small area which I marked off with masking tape. In the final product the green plastic tote peeled off easily and clean, whereas the tin had some grunge/vintage look to it from the paint seeping under the masking tape. Thankfully I sort of like the unfinished look ;)

So what'd I do with all my newly labeled organization?

{sadly I am out of straws to put in my new straw container!}

{You can see where the paint looked great in the first picture before I wrote on them, but then where it chipped when I used the chalk on it. I'm considering, for smaller projects, using chalkboard contact paper sold on amazon.com for $12 for an 18"x6' roll}

INSPIRATION SPURS MOTIVATION!!!

I thought I had a picture of the before hall closet, but I'm sort of thankful now that I don't because it was just...that...unorganized!! I thought it was, but now I'm realizing it was FAR from organized. 

If you put new containers in the closet,

then the rest looks bad...so you have to clean the closet out.

If you clean the closet out, 

then you have to reorganize it with the new space {aka less clutter}.

If you reorganize it, 

you realize it still looks bleh. You wish you could paint the closet, 

...but then you remember you rent and are not allowed to paint.

Then you remember you have half a roll of white contact paper left from another project, so you cover the shelves!

The final, VERY clean, VERY organized, LESS intimidating hall closet:

There are really 3 coolers inside the one big orange one :), and thankful for the saved-in-great-condition Christmas and birthday gift bags!

Well would you look at that-the green tote for $2.64 found a home!!

Even more exciting, the clean closet meant a new shelf for my sewing machine and scrapbooking/sewing tote. The tote used to live downstairs, but I realize that I use stuff from it on a daily basis...now it's quick and easy to get to.

Chalkboard Paint: The Beginning of an Addiction {Part 1}

       i heart chalk     .

Seriously-I've always loved chalk much more than marker boards. I can remember sitting in school and thinking, "When is it MY turn to write the answer on the chalkboard??!?" I never had such gumption to write on the marker boards...perhaps because they wiped so clean and you couldn't see the ghost markings in the background which often made for a cool design? 

Needless to say, I've been wanting to play with chalkboard paint for a while. My dream was to build my own little frame on a wall and use chalkboard paint to create my own chalkboard...this of course was when we lived in Iowa and we owned our home. Now we rent, and I doubt that the landlord would be happy if I did that here. 

So, what do you do when you want to experiment with paint, but are not brave enough? 

1. Find awesome blogs that give how-to's so that you don't feel dumb for not knowing how to 

actually create it ;)

New favorite in the bookmarked blogs: I Heart Organizing

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/03/project-teal-chalk-it-to-me-again.html

{above link shows the how-to for making a chalkboard, the link below shows an awesome idea for storing the chalk on the board. I REALLLY wanted to do this, but alas, my frames were too narrow}

http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/06/hmmm-thats-pinteresting.html

2. Take the plunge. 

I've been thinking of buying a piece of plywood and framing and make my own board...but why do that when you can come across these 2 pre-made boards with frames at a garage sale for $1 each?? Add a can of chalk paint for $9.97, a sample can of OOPS! paint for $0.50 {I wanted a fun, vibrant color, but it was $3}, and two brushes for $2...

{Before}

{After...the little guy couldn't wait for mommy to hang it-he insisted on using it immediately! One is for his play area downstairs...

...and one in the kids' bedroom for Mommy's notes, like this one, announcing our coming attraction of 

Miss Abigail Lucy :) }

I was very pleased with the results...so why stop there?? I got addicted to that blog again and decided, after seeing some organized totes, to get a little plastic organizer that Isaac could tote his crayons and coloring stuff in. Sadly, after perusing nearly every aisle in Target, I did not find what I was looking for, but I did find these:

Plastic Tote for organizing clearanced at $2.64 

{...not really sure what to organize in it, but the options are endless!}

Metal basket for $14.99 on clearance for $10!!! It's big enough that I plan on putting it by the door to drop our shoes in {my husband's sandals NEVER make it all the way to our closet, so in my attempt to live in peace, I decided to just make them more organized in their current location}

I taped the area that I wanted to paint, and attempted getting creative with the edges...we'll see how the that worked in Part 2.

Step 1: Put on first coat. ...Realize this is fun and feeling organized, 

grab sugar and flour containers to do the same.

I did notice that the paint took directly to the plastic containers, but the metal was streaky. It actually dried well after an hour (I was nervous that it might not work on metal), and took an easy 2nd coat.

Coat #2 drying nicely. ...Well that's funny. How did another container get in there??

And why stop there? 

I got extra ambitious and cleaned out the medicine containers and first aid container. They need labels too, right? {Not to mention also needed DESPERATELY cleaned out ;)}

Tomorrow I shall post Part 2 and we'll see how they all turned out!!!!

Oh, incase you were wondering what my child was up to while I was painting everything in the house to chalk:

...he was helping Mommy with the more important things on the To-Do list, like dusting :). This kid LOVES to dust!! In a raincoat of course, because, you know, don't wanna get all that dust on you apparently ;)