the back door

last monday the kiddos were out of school. my little girl had been asking for a playdate for many weeks and well, i'm not so good with that kind of stuff. so this was a great day. i asked for the girls and then we decided to just all get together...so we headed over to my dear friends house for the boys to play, the girls to play, and then well, of course us moms to play:) i may or may not have a slight problem with pinterest. i try to limit myself, but boy do i love the ideas floating around. i keep telling my dear friend she needs to get on, so that morning i got her hooked up. as we were deciding how to be crafty we browsed pinterest and saw that adorable yarn craft above. (well, not exactly that one!) now, something you should know about my dear friend. she has yarn out the wazoo!! and she loves to get rid of things so this was the perfect craft. we sat down and made yarn ball after yarn ball. isn't it cute? she just did a round one, but i wanted to attempt to do the heart...

discovery: joy in following a call many of you know a friend and i set out this fall to get blessings in a backpack going in p-town. it seemed like a slow start, but we were committed and this past november we started handing out 25 backpacks each friday . the blessings are supposed to be for the kids, but i have to say, i think the blessings i receive are beyond my wildest dreams. this past week my dear friend tama was featured in people magazine with this article . she has been our faithful cheerleader in this attempt to help feed some hungry kids. reading this made me all the more thankful that she is my friend! but what i really want to say is how amazing this program has been. each friday my friend and i personally deliver the backpacks to the kids. their faces tell it all. some of them have run up to us and given us hugs, others say thank-you in some of the sweetest voices with the sweetest smiles. the past couple of weeks hubby and i have had several conversations abo...

discovery - my word for 2012. well, i intended to be a bit more faithful in blogging about my discoveries, but alas, i failed. so i thought to my self, "self, get crackin." so here i am midway through february (it can be considered midway on the 9th right? i mean there are only 29 days!) and decided i'd give you bullet point discoveries from january. i like bullet points, but i usually think and process in circles so this might be a bullet point list in random order! ...the joy dare has given me many discoveries....like what i consider things to be grateful for ...grace - i'm discovering just how much i need it, don't deserve it, and crave it all at the same time ...how cool it is that my hubby knows random odd facts ...my family finds great joy in sitting in front of the tv on friday night and learning about people's family trees ...learning that i'd like to do more homemade ...i have an issue with sugar. kind of like a love affair ...son really doe...

so last night this little girl decided she wanted to learn to sew. well, i'm not an overly patient teacher, but hey, why not? she was very patient as i got my work done this morning. then after coming in from playing outside we sat down to get to work. i quickly discovered it was more of her wanting me to sew something for her:) i whipped up a pillow case shirt for her out of an old one i had in my stash. i need to find a ribbon that matches but it is a very vintage cute shirt:) and no, i didn't get a picture of that. but while i was sewing the shirt, i set her to work on cutting out hearts. she was very diligent for about 7 hearts. then i cut a few, then she cut a few. i had been inspired here ( i am pretty sure if we met in real life we would be instant friends - but for now i just pretend that she is my real life friend! ) to put something like this together. i sewed them all together and fell in love!!! and yes, i already have it hanging up! then i got my cra...

discover this year i decided i needed a word again. you see last year, i'd like to name as survival. that is how i felt all year - just surviving, for many reasons. although, i will say God grew me in amazing ways last year - it was still survival. this year, with the gift of zija in my life and God's bit of goodness i felt the need to focus. for the first couple weeks of 2012 i pondered. i had a few thoughts, but mostly i just chewed on them. then, one morning while chewing on those pondered words a new word immediately jumped at me: discover....ah yes, God, there it is. so what am i out to discover you may ask? well, i'm not so sure. but i feel like God has asked me to discover Him a bit deeper this year. to discover where He is at work, where He is leading me, who He is leading me to. i want to discover a bit more about my hubby; where is God leading him, what is growing in his heart. i want to discover my kids; how God is putting them together, what their dreams are...

many of you have already seen the pictures of our "new" dining room. if not, check my hubby's blog out at hoosier happenings . it is really quite amazing and well, makes me giddy happy. but this post is really about finding a new home for this this clock hung in my grandpa and grandma's kitchen, then in the apartment, and then in their nursing home room. this summer my grandma died and we had to clean out their room. my cousin brought some items for us cousins to sort through. we found pins, bookmarks, and charms that were easy to divide up (in some rather unique ways i might add!), but there was only 1 clock and 13 of us grandkids. as we all stood there no one seemed overly eager to take it, but i sure wasn't going to give it up. the cousins remembered it from their farmhouse (prior to my arrival) and since i'm the only one with a farmhouse today the clock was sent home with me. i was delighted. i brought it home and set it on the table. it isn't...

there have been some great disappointments lately in my little neck of the woods, but i'd like to take some time to acknowledge those "ugly beautiful" tid bits for which i can offer words of praise this thanksgiving.... ...bottles upon bottles of medicine for it helps my son breathe ...piles of laundry for my family has clothes ...dusty floors and furniture for it shows progress on our dining room remodel ...tears for it shows i still feel ...a serving of humble pie for it is a way to receive and demonstrate God's grace ...for trials that draw me to the feet of Jesus and make me fully dependent on Him ...a cluttered kitchen for it fills us ...rainy days for it reminds me that God's love rains down on us ...gloomy, cloudy days that force me to hunt for glimmers of light ...noise from the backseats that bring me to my knees often ...hurt because it reveals my need for healing ...empty coffee cups for the comfort that warmed my soul is lasting how about you - what gl...