Spreadin' the Love

So I'm excited to share some original ideas with you all!  You have to understand, these come few and far between.  Sometimes when I do get an original idea, out of curiosity I do a Google search (and now I search Pinterest too) and come to disappointedly find out that someone else came up with the same "original" idea before me.  So as far as I know, and as far as I've searched, here are some original ideas I've come up with that I hope inspire you.

Lately I've been into wanting to decorate our home with branches.  I went "branch hunting" recently while going on a walk with my husband and two girls and broke off three small ones.  I have yet to use those for an idea I have that I will reveal in a later post.  Then I saw this big branch outside near our home!  I think the neighborhood kids knocked it down.  Well, what they may have meant for destruction, I have found a constructive use for [smile].  I was encouraged this last weekend to start decorating our home for Valentine's Day from an old post on Sally Clarkson's blog.

I got the idea to hang paper hearts and red ball ornaments on the branches from when I threw my oldest daughter a heart-themed birthday party (since her middle name is "Heart") at a local park when she turned one a couple years ago.  I cut out all the hearts from pink and red construction paper and looked up quotes that mentioned the heart or that were about love to write on each one.  A friend who helped me decorate for the party is actually the one who hung the ball ornaments in the trees and several of our guests made comments about them looking like berries from a distance.

When my husband came home from work and saw the new decor he said, "That's cool!"  And then later he commented again saying, "That's cute."  I always think it's funny when guys use the word "cute" to describe something.

Quotes from Mother Teresa are among some of my favorites.  I kept this one in mind when I went to church Sunday morning.  (Note: the screen print on my Bible was done by an awesome ministry named The Death Defeaters and Crazy Love is a thought-provoking book from Francis Chan).

I used to hate Valentine's Day.  To me it was one of the few holidays that excluded some people (like me) from celebrating it.  As far as I could tell, unless there was a guy who was interested in me, I had a boyfriend or I was married, I wasn't going to get to celebrate Valentine's Day.  I had heard that there were moms out there who did special things for their kids for Valentine's Day to include them, which is what I decided I wanted to do someday for my future kids.  Well, one day I did get to get married and when Valentine's Day came around I was determined to remember my single friends and what it felt like to be in their shoes.  I remember meeting with a couple of my friends at a Starbucks and giving them a little heart-decorated lunch box I had filled with homemade sugar cookies and a handmade Valentine card.

I remember writing a list of all the single girl friends I could think of and mailing them the rest of the handmade Valentine cards I made.  I had some pink cardstock left over from when I was into stamping and decorated them with heart stickers and pink and red gel pens.

I meant to do the same thing the following year, but I didn't end up mailing out the new handmade Valentines I made.

I made these out of scrapbook paper I had leftover from some past project and decorated them with those leftover heart stickers, torn pieces of white printer paper and vellum quotes and words from some pads I bought for wedding decor a few years ago.

This year my list of single friends is short but this time a couple widows also came to mind.  I never thought of widows around Valentine's Day and though I haven't experienced that season of life myself, I can imagine they must feel a little sad too when February 14 comes around.  So hopefully this won't be another good intention I don't follow through on.  I gotta get these Valentines in the mail!

A Handmade Christmas

Well it was a busy December working on several Christmas projects.  I made an asserted effort to have a stress-free holiday season.  I was so excited about the handmade things I had planned to give to family and friends and I didn't want to lose the cheerfulness of it (see 2 Corinthians 9:7).  I was also trying to trust that God would give me the time I needed to finish my projects since I had honored my husband by not starting on them until he was done with his school semester about 2 1/2 weeks into December as he had requested.  I will say though, after several late nights working to get things done, I understood why people start planning for Christmas in November.  I think I will do that next year.

This tinsel wreath was just something fun.  A lady from my Bible study group gave me some Christmas decorations including this tinsel so I thought I'd put it to some good use.  

I saw this wreath on Bleubird Vintage's blog and had planned to make something like it.  I never had the time to put a word on my wreath.  Before I pack the Christmas decorations away, I want to shape the word "peace" out of some black wire I have and wrap strips of scrap fabric around it.  I've heard the Christmas story so many times, but this year the part that says, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will toward men," (Luke 2:14) came to mind and really stuck with me.  For my wreath, I wrapped the tinsel around a wire hanger I grabbed from our closet.

Click on Image for Full-Size

A friend of ours offered to take some pictures of our family but wasn't able to shoot them until mid December because Gregg had finals and had to also meet a couple Ph. D program application deadlines.  I had in my mind that if we didn't get the pictures done in time to use them for Christmas cards, I could order New Years cards instead.  So these handmade cards were my Plan B.  I used a bunch of "Thank You" cards I had left over that I had ordered for my wedding more than 4 years ago, and got the angel and blue velvet ribbon images from The Graphics Fairy and the "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" sheet music off of Google Images.  I added a little shine with gold and blue gel pens.

I got this tutorial for Cinnamon Ornaments emailed to me.  My Bible study co-leader also gave me a little different variation of this recipe which you can find here (recipe at the bottom of the page).  When Kristen blogged that the dough shouldn't be sticky, I have no idea what she was talking about.  I let the dough stand for an hour and followed the recipe and it was super sticky!  I ended up seriously kneading my dough quarters in lots of cinnamon, as pictured above in the black plate.  I also found the thicker my dough, the easier it was to tap it out of my cookie cutters.  Metal cookie cutters were suggested as working the best.  But other than that, these were fun to make and bake and they sure do smell good!  I'm planning on making more to use as decor around the house and as future gifts.  As pictured above, I decided to make monogram ornaments for different families.  The letters with the heart represent the couples and the letters below represent their children.  I thought a tradition could be started where the kids get to take their letter ornament with them when they move out and when they get married, I could make them a heart ornament with the letter that represents their spouse's name and then make more letter ornaments as gifts when they have children.

So this year we literally had no Christmas budget.  But that didn't discourage us from having presents for Leala to open.  We got creative and came up with gifts we could make her for free.  Gregg thought it would be nice for Leala to have her own chair since she likes climbing into her old one that she's too heavy for now and that we need to use for her younger sister, Adella.  I have to admit, that when Gregg told me his idea for making Leala a chair out of cardboard, I couldn't imagine how that would work well.  But when he started showing me pictures of his progress from a co-worker's phone, I was impressed!  He accomplished it with just cardboard filled with paper and some duct tape.  We remembered that we had some black furry fabric in our closet that we were going to use to make a dash board mat for my car years ago.  It worked very well for a chair cover!

It was so fun staying up a few late nights with Gregg, busily piecing together and sewing up Leala's presents. We had experienced so much joy making her gifts that it didn't bother me this year that Gregg and I couldn't buy each other presents (though we did end up getting blessed with Christmas cash from some friends and family).  It truly did feel more blessed to give than to receive this year!

With all the other Christmas projects I had to get done, I only had time to make Leala these bracelets.  I guess I'll save the necklaces for next year.  I used this tutorial to make the felt flowers on the pink and yellow bracelets.  I used the embellishments to cover up my stitches.  These really are super easy to make!  Because I didn't have wide enough elastic (the 1/8" stuff I had was a nightmare to work with and I did have a little melt down about the project not working), Gregg did let me go to JoAnn's to buy the elastic I needed which only ended up costing $1.50 for a yard (I ended up getting 3/4" for Leala instead of the 1" used in the tutorial).  And the felt was from a 14-sheet package I had bought at the Dollar Tree to make a princess crown for a 4-year-old girl's birthday present for the Build-a-Bear birthday party me and the girls were invited to earlier this month.  So technically the Christmas present I made Leala wasn't completely free, but pretty darn affordable!

I know when money's tight, people can get discouraged thinking they can't celebrate Christmas (at least the consumer American way).  But with a little resourcefulness and creativity it is possible to have something to give.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Three more Sundays until Christmas!  [laughs] Put that way, it makes it seem like there's not much time to get things done.  Okay, don't panic.  How does 21 days until Christmas sound?  Much better?  Alright, you can relax now.  I, myself, have been trying not to worry about the list of handmade projects I've given myself to do before Christmas.  Aside from hoping I'll get what I have planned done on time, I've been REALLY excited this Christmas season about all the ideas I have for giving people stuff, from the gift ideas I have for my girls to all the Christmas cards I hope to send out ('cause I know how happy I get when I get a card in the mail).  And then there's the free stuff I get to share with you all including some of the songs that are on my iTunes Christmas playlist and links to tutorials for handmade gifts and Christmas cards, contests, and a couple places in town to see Christmas light displays.  I hope what I have to share makes your holiday a little more merry and bright.  =D


Jolly Jingles
If you're already tired of hearing Taylor Swift mournfully sing for the thousandth time about her heart being given away last Christmas, then here are a few tunes you may be less familiar with or renditions you can rock out to (maybe around the Christmas tree).  Enjoy!

 

Handmade Gift Ideas for Leala

As I had mentioned in my post Privation is the Mother of Creation, there was a list of gift ideas I had for Leala that I could make for free with the fabric scraps and materials I have in my sewing stash.  Due to a limited amount of time though, I narrowed the handmade projects to these bracelets, this necklace, and maybe these too.  Then, after watching Leala have fun playing with her Ikea puppets yesterday, I remembered a post I had seen on a mom's blog about a puppet theatre she made for her kids.  Oh my goodness, was this link hard to find!  NEVER again will I neglect to bookmark something I like!  So I hope to make a similar little puppet theatre for Leala for Christmas... and even more so because back in June, my husband was having fun making Leala laugh by making her hand puppet eat her finger puppets and spit them back out in her face, and now she thinks that's how you're supposed to play with them.  A little puppet theatre may help teach her a more constructive way to play with her puppets [laughs].

Munchie Puppy Puppet from Yolanda Fields on Vimeo.

Handmade Gift Idea for Adella

If I have the time, I would like to make some flower headbands for Adella because one, I think they'd be cute, and two, maybe then people wouldn't ask us if she's a boy.  I liked this tutorial.

Crafty Christmas Cards

I signed up for Parent Magazine's 100 Days of Holidays email newsletter and this update caught my attention.  My favorite handmade Christmas card designs were the ones with the stitched border and sheet music background.  I came up with a design that combines the two.  I'll post pictures when I complete one.

Giving-It-Away-For-Free Business
You know where I got that title from if you've seen Veggie Tales:  St. Nicholas:  A Story of Joyful Giving.  You'll often hear me quote movies.  Well, speaking of giving away stuff, here are a couple Christmas contests I know of where you can win free stuff:

Anthropology: 20 Days A'Gifting
Sorry I didn't get this link up in time for you to enter the contest when it started on the 2nd.  BUT, better later than never and you still have 18 chances to enter to win 18 different prizes (1 entry per day).

Parents Magazine Weekly Toy Giveaway
I just found out about this contest yesterday, BUT there are still 3 weeks left to enter to win 3 different prizes (1 entry per week).  Here are the weeks that are left and their corresponding prizes:

Week 3: 12/4/11-12/10/11
One (1) winner will receive a Stow & Go Activity Cart, retail value $85.

Week 4: 12/11/11-12/17/11
One (1) winner will receive a Grow & Play toy package, including one (1) Start Me Up! Car Keys, retail value $15; one (1) Fun with Food! ABC Blocks, retail value $30; and one (1) Busy Hands Bear, retail value $27; total retail value of Grow & Play package $72.

Week 5: 12/18/11-12/24/11
One (1) winner will receive a Rhythm Music toy package, including one (1) Colorful Notes Xylophone, retail value $28; one (1) Beat Bop Drum, retail value $30; and one (1) Clickity Clack Bugs, retail value $12; total retail value of Grow & Play package $70.


Local Lights

Christmas on Knob Hill, San Marcos

through December 31

Christmas Card Lane, Rancho Peñasquitos

through January 1

Deck the Halls
I still have some decorating left to do in our house.  I've only managed to get my interchangeable bulletin board decorated with some of my favorite greeting cards from Christmas past and a few ornaments and a pine cone garland that I strung with colored lights and hung red balls and a few of my mom's handmade felt ornaments on.  I LOVED the white Christmas light decor in Dave Barne's Christmas Tonight music video.  Maybe it'll spark some creative ideas I can implement in our home.

Thankful [Part 2]

As I mentioned in my post, Thankful [Part 1], I was glad to see that people actually take the time to celebrate Thanksgiving and don't ignore it in light of the Christmas craze.  Just today, when I went to our bank to deposit a check, I was pleasantly surprised to see that each bank teller's counter was decorated with gourds of different colors and sizes.  And as I was leaving, I noticed that strings of orange and purple lights were hanging from the front desk, intertwined with a tinsel fall leaf garland.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about!  And it was so refreshing on Monday night, when I went to the house that hosts our Mom Heart Group (inspired by Sally Clarkson), to see fall leaf decorations up on the kitchen wall and a homemade sewn "Give Thanks" fabric garland hanging from the fireplace mantel.

Check out these great Thanksgiving garland ideas (and a kindred spirit who has found creative ways to not overlook this important holiday)!

I've discovered that this bulletin board has been an inexpensive, interchangeable way to decorate!  I love looking at this Fall collage from the dining room table when I sit down with my family for our meals.  It's made up of old greeting cards that I keep in a box, favorite verses I've jotted down on index cards over the years, and freshly picked Fall leaves from outside.

One of the cards in the collage is actually a new one we received in the mail this month from the sweet Seniors group from our church.  I really liked this quote in it: 

"The most important ingredient for happiness is not fortunate circumstances or great possessions, but a heart that knows how to be grateful.  Gratefulness is the root of contentment and peace."

{Scott Walker}

It reminds me of the "Happiness vs. Joy" sermon our pastor just taught on Sunday from his "Key to Unlocking Joy" series.

Alright, so here are more things I'm thankful for for each day of November from the last list I posted on the 11th.

12. 75 FREE prints from Shutterfly!

13. This Advent calender idea.  I seriously was just thinking yesterday about what I could do with old toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  I want to implement this idea for making a Thanksgiving Advent calendar for next year.  I think it would be cool for my family to write down what we're each thankful for every day, put those scraps of paper in the numbered pocket for that day, and then on Thanksgiving, take all the pieces of paper out and read them.  Maybe to make it more fun, we could put quotes we find about being thankful in the pockets too!

14. FINALLY getting to check out this book!  A lady from my Bible study group earlier this year mentioned it and said the pastor from the church my family used to go to, highly recommended it.  The subject of Heaven has always made me curious.  And I figure since I'm going to spend an infinite amount of my existence there compared to Earth, why wouldn't I learn as much as I could about it?  So anyway, I've tried checking this book out from the library since the summer, but apparently it's a hot item!  Well, my patience paid off (and particularly since I made myself not buy a copy and waited until it was available to borrow)!  By the way, this video about Colton Burpo brought tears to my eyes (the good kind). 

15. Getting a Ribbon gift card from Gregg's work!  We get to pick a gift from the Ribbon gift catalog and this Safety 1st Sounds 'n' Lights Activity Walker is what I think Gregg and I agreed upon.  Adella seems like she is going to be quite an active one when she's able to start walking, so we think this will be a great way for her to get around and yet contain her enough so that I'll be free to get things done around the house.

16. Getting the idea to make a "Sleepy Sounds" CD.  So one of my top picks from the Ribbon gift catalog was a First Years Sounds for Silence machine.  What I liked about this Premium one was that it included a MP3 player connection cable.  Talking it over with Gregg, he suggested that I just find some white noise audio I could download online and make my own CD to play in Leala's room on our CD player.  So I went on iTunes and was surprised that there are whole CD's of just white noise and nature sounds.  So I purchased one of rain and then got some cool lullaby renditions of some of my favorite songs from artists like Johnny Cash, Third Day, Jars of Clay, and Chris Tomlin! 

17. Finding a couple recipes online so I can start making my own blended frappes (I'll tell you how that goes in a future post with links to the recipes if I end up liking them).

18. My dad being available and willing to watch Leala for me the past few weeks so it was easier to go to each of the girl's doctor's appointments and mine.

Thankful [Part 1]

Okay, I thought doing a Thanksgiving Advent was an original idea until I just Googled it!  However, I am glad to see that there are people out there who actually celebrate Thanksgiving and don't go from Halloween straight to Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but this year, more than ever before, it's really bugged me how overlooked Thanksgiving really is.  As I walked toward a store the other day, it actually made me sad to see a big Christmas tree set up in it's entrance.  To me it said, "'Tis the season to start coveting and consuming!" Where are the reminders that it's really the season to focus on being thankful for what we already have?

Well, I came across one the other day when I found this quote I highlighted in a book I'm reading:

"A thankful heart galvanizes the connection between my God and me."
{Sally Clarkson, Dancing With My Father, 92}

You know, back in May I was feeling bad about how easy it was to be thankful when all was going well in my life - for the blessings I felt God was giving me - in my post, Project Thankful.  And though it was good to evaluate whether or not I was loving the gifts more than the Giver who was giving them, I was reminded recently of the Scripture that says:

"Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17).

I don't need to feel guilty for enjoying the things God has given.  In fact, I think it glorifies God when I'm giving Him the credit for the blessings in my life.  I do need to be careful that I'm not trusting in possessions to make me happy.  God is the one I need to put my trust in because everything else is temporary.  Putting my trust in Him will give me that strong foundation to stand on whether life gives or takes.

With that being said, I would like to start my Thanksgiving Advent and list at least 11 things I'm thankful for:

1. Though my neighbors can get loud past curfew, disrupting our sleep, yell at and verbally abuse their children throughout the week, make periodic mysterious screaming noises like the strange sounds heard in Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, or right as I'm typing this, boom their bass so loud it can be felt through our walls while both my children are napping, I am thankful for a roof over our head and a home I have the privilege of making our haven.

2. The dashboard may be cracking, tires needing replacing, cosmetic damage increasing, and with a family of four, space now limiting, I'm thankful for our 2-door, 10-year-old Chevy Cavalier that gets us to the places that would be very inconvenient and time-consuming to get to if we didn't have a car that still works.

3. She may wake me up a couple times at night, have had two explosive diapers that soiled her clothes the past couple days (probably related to the broccoli that I gave in to and ate) and sometimes hysterically cry when we've tried everything we know to do to try and console her, but I'm reminded that Adella really is a precious gift from God (Psalm 127:3) and I'm thankful that He chose for her to exist (plus He made her really cute and adorable).

4. She can throw her fits, but they're really few and far between compared to all the sweet, snuggly, entertaining, proud moments I get to share with my first gift from God, Leala, who I am truly thankful for.

5. When I realize how like-minded we are, how patient he is, how hard and faithful he works, how devoted to God he is, how Christ-like he loves... I am really thankful for the husband God picked out for me!

6. It may be limiting our family time and wearing my poor husband out (and me when I don't have the extra help in taking care of the kids), but I'm thankful for the grants he's gotten to pay for enrollment at CSUSM and aid him in finishing his BA in English Literature which then may take him on to a Ph.D program.

7. I am very thankful for Gregg's employer, RCP Block and Brick, with how flexible they've been with his school schedule, how supportive they've been to our family and the awesome medical coverage they provide!

8. There is not a day that goes by that I don't genuinely thank God in prayer for the meals He provides for our family, especially after reading through one of Gregg's school books, Women's Indian Captivity Narratives, and learning how some people have had to survive (and being reminded that some people currently have to live) days without food.

9. I am very thankful for another cool, rainy fall season that has protected us southern Californians from wildfire-causing Santa Anas.

10. I am truly blessed and thankful for our church, Calvary Chapel of Escondido, where we enjoy fellowship, have opportunities to serve, and that provides good Bible teaching that refreshes and encourages us.

11. As said in a worship song that's one of the dearest to my heart (which I just learned by Googling, is actually the refrain from a hymn), "I thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.  I thank You, Lord, for making me whole.  I thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free."

Speaking of songs, wouldn't that be great if you could do a word search, like "thankful" in iTunes that would provide a list of songs that contained that word?  It would make it easier to put together playlists, I think.  I want to put together a "Thankful" one, but I'm afraid it would be too time-consuming.  The only songs that come to mind are "Thank You" by Rebecca St. James and "Thank You" by Dido.  Hey look - someone else had the same idea too!

Q.  Which songs would be in your "Thankful" playlist?

Harvest Fun

So this year for Halloween, I was inspired to do my girls' costumes the old school way; hand make them.  The hand-me-down overall dress Leala got recently sparked the first idea.  It reminded me of the little outfit the character, Agnes, wears in the movie Despicable Me, so I decided it would be easiest to dress Leala up as her.  Plus, Despicable Me, has been our family's movie of the year.  Ever since we saw it with friends for New Year's, Leala has wanted to watch our copy of it over and over and over again.  Before she turned 2, Leala's first full sentence was, "Woah, woah, woah - what is that?!," from one of Gru's lines.  Then our friends who introduced us to the movie in the first place, got Leala a "Fluffy" unicorn from Universal Studios for her 2nd birthday.  So it seemed like fun to go with the reoccurring Despicable Me theme of the year.  From there, somehow I got the idea to dress Adella up as a unicorn to match Leala.  

For Leala's dress, I got a couple pieces of scrap fabric and stamped a part of the song Agnes sings when her and her sisters wander into Gru's "secret lab".  I cut the heart out of a piece of red felt and hand sewed it on the patch.  The patches I machine sewed on to the dress with a zig zag stitch to keep the fabric from fraying.  The little unicorn came from a McDonald's Happy Meal.  The two front hooves have a velcrow closure, but I hand sewed them together with a little stitch for reinforcement.  If Leala ever got annoyed with the unicorn, I could just slide it off the overall strap, but she never did.

I Googled "baby beanie" and came across this tutorial for a DIY reversible baby bonnet.  I shrunk the pattern to fit an 8"x11" size page with a 0.5" margin all the way around and it just so happened to print out as the right size for my 3-week-old baby.  I took the ruffle concept that was used on Quinn's bonnet on the front to make my pink unicorn hair.  I Googled how to sew a unicorn horn and found out it was a half circle, so I used the pattern part for the back of the bonnet for my horn.  To get the horn to stick straight up, I had to pack it as full as I could with stuffing and then hand sew it to the bonnet because the base of the horn was too big for the foot of my sewing machine to sew over.  I used an animal child's hat pattern online to figure out how to draw a pattern for my own ears and a horse stuffed animal we have.  It wasn't until I sewed the pink lining to one of my ears that I discovered they were too small, so I drew a bigger ear pattern that ended up working.  I totally chanced it when I cut a couple slits in the top of the bonnet to attach my ears, but it worked!  And I ended up saving time on the chin strap by finding a piece of ribbon that was already finished on the edges.  It was so great finding the right scraps of fabric and the buttons I needed in my sewing stash.

What was wonderful about these costumes was that they were warm.  I noticed last year, when we were out at our church's Harvest Celebration, that it was cold outside.  Leala wore a cute Snow White dress, but it ended up having to be covered up with a jacket.  So I kept that in mind this year.

Leala was such an excited ball of energy, it was hard to get a good picture of her in her costume.  The one I was able to take in the house before we left was the best one I could get.  If you've never seen Despicable Me, then you have to at least watch this video of the "Best of Agnes."

Leala was still a little too young to understand how to play the games our church had at our annual Harvest Celebration, but I think she was good with just the balloon she got.  She did also enjoy a couple pieces of chocolate, a little lollipop, a glow-in-the-dark bracelet she won, some popcorn, a few bites of a BBQ hot dog, and a visit with a black lab. 

I was so proud of Gregg for working hard all weekend to get his school work done so we could spend this time together as a family.  Not only that, but he was running on about 4 hours of sleep.  And I thought it was so cute how proud Gregg was of me for making Adella's unicorn hat.  He kept telling everyone that I handmade it.  We all had a good time and I think special memories were created.

Change of Seasons

What a beautiful, cool, crisp morning to begin the Fall season.  It makes me feel like having a warm mug of hot chocolate (or enjoying the next best thing I have available in my pantry: Ovaltine).  In fact "warmth" is what I think Fall brings.  The warmth of delicious things being baked in the oven.  The warmth of family and friends being brought together to celebrate the holidays.  The warmth of the season's spicy scents like apples and cinnamon, pumpkin and ginger, cider and cloves.  The warmth of bundling up in a cozy jacket or slipping your feet into a pair of soft slippers.  I love the changes this season brings.  

Q.  What does Fall bring to you?  I would love to read your comments about what traditions you celebrate this time of year!

Speaking of celebrations, a couple days ago we celebrated my daughter's second birthday.  This has been a new season I have enjoyed as well.  I love hearing the new words Leala is able to say every day or watching the things she's able to accomplish all on her own.  And speaking of traditions, I started one with Leala last year on her birthday.  She got this really cute little pink crown with one of her birthday presents and I had a 12 month size dress that I had been holding on to for a special occasion since it was given to me at a White Elephant Gift Exchange the December of the year before.  So on her first birthday, September 21, 2010, I dressed her in that special dress, put the cute crown on her head, and took the first of her annual birthday pictures.

Click on Image to Enlarge

This year, when I was shopping for notebooks for my Women's Bible Study group, I spotted these really cute princess tiaras at the Dollar Tree.  I was able to go back for it after I was given some birthday spending money.  I also had a hand-me-down dress I had in the back of Leala's closet that I had saved to be worn for her birthday.  So on Wednesday, starting at noon, the time she was born 2 years before, I shot her second annual birthday pictures.

Click on Image to Enlarge

As I mentioned in my last post, Discovering the Mission of Motherhood, I loved Sally Clarkson's suggestion at the end of chapter 1 in her book The Mission of Motherhood, to start a book for each of your children, writing their story in it and adding to it each year as they grow.  It reminded me of the opening scene in What a Girl Wants and when I found the movie stills online to give you a visual of what I was talking about, I forgot that Amanda Bynes's character, Daphne Reynolds, got dressed up each year on her birthday too.

When I finally do get Leala's little book started, I'll make sure to post pictures of it on here for you all to see.

What Freedom Means to Me

Last night I remembered that Leala had a couple of patriotic hand-me-down dresses hanging in the closet that needed to be worn this year because by next 4th of July she will be too big for them.  I don't ever remember dressing up in red, white, and blue for 4th of July, but I remembered one family who does.  One of my favorite bloggers, Amber, regularly dresses her family in matching colors for her blog posts.  Last year, for the 4th of July, was no exception.  I looked up her 4th of July post from last year because I remembered her family doing something special to celebrate the holiday and I thought it would be a cool tradition to start with our family.  One of them was reading "freedom" verses from the Bible like:

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

I love doing word searches through the Bible and thought looking up "freedom" verses to read and meditate on on the 4th of July was a great idea!  One of the ones that have come to my mind is:

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." (Galatians 5:13, NLT).

As a Christian, that's what freedom means to me.  The country I live in may give me the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but as a Christian, those are governed by God's law summed up by Jesus when He said:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'... and... 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:36-40).

I liked the point our pastor made at the end of our church service this morning.  He encouraged us as we celebrated our country's independence tomorrow, to remember that we're dependent on God and interdependent on one another in the body of Christ.  Well said.  The independence I celebrate the most is a life free from the bondage of sin.  One of my favorite verses that I believe defines true life is what Jesus said in John 10:10:

"The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

At the beginning of our church service we sang "The Wonderful Cross" and I think it's a great song to remember on the 4th of July.  Maybe every 4th of July our family's tradition will be to sing worship songs together and read verses that remind us of true life, liberty, and happiness.  The whole song is great, but the line that always sticks out to me is:

"Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

We're reminded repeatedly in this country, and especially on the 4th of July, that our freedom wasn't free.  Lives were sacrificed to gain our freedom and lives are continually being sacrificed to preserve our freedom.  As Christians we need to remember that our freedom, our salvation, wasn't free either.  It was bought at a price, so in gratitude, I need to use my being in a way that brings glory to God (see 1 Corinthians 6:20).  I like what Nancy Leigh DeMoss said at a True Woman conference about counting the cost.

Q.  What are your 4th of July traditions?

I know some families have barbecues or make special food in celebration of the holiday.  I would like to start doing that.  I'm making these Brownie 'N Fruit Kabobs.  Don't they look yummy?

A Father's Legacy

 

I took advantage of not being able to sleep since sometime after 3:00 am Sunday morning and made my dad a Father's Day card.  Saturday I was reminiscing over the childhood memories I had of my dad:  the painting that hung on the wall at my grandma's house depicting my dad bottle feeding me and the story of the special formula my dad concocted to remedy my colic as a baby; his special recipes like tuna sandwiches for our family picnics, messy malts over the summer, yummy seasoned mashed potatoes, hamburger macaroni from scratch, the English muffin pizzas he learned how to make from my grandpa, and the pumpkin pie filling he'd make to fill my mom's homemade pie crust at Thanksgiving.  But one of my favorite memories of my dad is growing up hearing him play worship songs on his guitar.  As I was thumbing through an old album, looking for a good photo to post on Facebook as my profile picture to honor my dad for Father's Day, the one of me standing next to my dad while he's playing guitar stood out to me.

When I moved out of my parents' house to get married, getting to hear my dad play worship everyday was one of the things I missed the most.  But then Gregg decided to pick up our guitar and teach himself to play.  His diligence to practice paid off and now Leala gets to grow up with the memory of her daddy playing worship on his guitar.

 

This video was shot at Christmas and I think was the first time Leala took interest in trying to strum Gregg's guitar when he was playing it.  These days Leala's strum is more steady so when Gregg presses down the chords it sounds more like a song.  I'll have to get that on video sometime. 

Father's Day was so special getting to spend it with my family and honoring my dad, my brother and my husband. 

My brother gave Gregg a really nice card that read:

For A

Wonderful Brother

On Father's Day

God,

in His wisdom,

brings hearts together-

joining them as a family

in His love.

Father's Day gives me a chance to say how proud I am of you and how thankful I am that God has placed us in the same family.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

PHILLIPIANS 1:3 NIV

May This Father's Day Bring You

Happiness And Love

Then my brother wrote a personal note:

Gregg,

May God bless you and your family!  I know you will be setting the standard for #1 Dad so watch out I'll be following closely.

Love your brother,

Rusty

The card also came with a cool pen.  Both my dad and Gregg got thoughtful cards from my brother with a pen.

I was so happy to get to replace the pocket Bible Gregg lost - after being such a great husband and cleaning up my substantial throw up mess at Souplantation a couple weeks ago - as a Father's Day gift, to honor him and show how appreciative I am of what a great father he's been to Leala.  He even puts his mouth up to my stomach and talks to Ruth Anne and gives her kisses.  He did that when I was pregnant with Leala too.

 

I personalized this Bible with Gregg's favorite wedding picture of us, a photo of our family that can be changed out as we grow, a photo of his family, and a poem that I wrote.

Christ-like love is what has shown through

From the time that I first met you.

You're patient, kind and compassionate too.

You love to help others and are a servant, it's true.

I am so thankful to God that He chose you to be

A caring father to our children and a loving husband to me.

♥

Yolanda Fields

I realize that having a father in one's life, and a good one at that, can be a rare treasure these days.  I am thankful for the father I have been blessed to have and that Leala has a father in her life.