Inspiration...

I am not a painter, as I stated in my last post, but my sweet girl is! The picture on the right is a watercolor that just happened to be in one of the frames from my thrifty project. Being another's hand-made art, I had no intention of throwing it out. But, something even better happened, it inspired my 9 year old artist. The picture on the left is her replica. Mind you, she has had no official training or traditional art classes. Nothing more than simple projects and lessons we have done together. She amazes me at how naturally she picks up and applies brushstrokes and lighting techniques. Effortless.  It's like she "sees" it you know? In a way that I don't when I look at the canvas. She comes to life when she paints, and my heart swells just getting to experience it!

What a Blessing!

Thrifty Wanna Be!

 

Yea so, I am pretty much in complete awe and envy of those amazing people who can take random thrift store finds and turn them into creative, elaborate treasures. You know the type. Well, I'm not one of them. Perhaps it's a skill that can be honed and there is still hope for me, but this weekend, I attempted the craftiness and my aching body is still paying for it! LOL! However, I did learn something (or was at least reminded) about myself....I am (also) NOT a painter.  

I was on the hunt for a bunch of frames, preferably different sizes, shapes and details, and I knew that it being the last weekend of the month it was half/price weekend at the thrift stores. (yea, you didn't know that? I mean that's like common knowledge right???) ;) First stop was a total bomb....nothing. I was feeling a bit discouraged, thinking perhaps this was a bad joke and I would end up coming home with nothing more than a lampshade and a dress that fit no one in my house but was too cute to leave behind. I really wanted these frames, so I mustered up the courage to make a second attempt, and SCORE! It didn't matter what color they were because I intended to paint them.

My pile of "treasure". And ALL for about $20! (which is what I wanted to spend....one of those tricks of the trade I think, setting a $ limit.)

All laid out ready to paint. BTW.....the picnic tablecloth here has a fuzzy back that "stuck" to the driveway perfectly to keep everything in place and never blew up on my freshly painted projects while drying. See....I AM a fast learner! Another one of those tricks of the trade I bet!

My personal assistant who promised to get no paint on him. Ahem. We'll just leave it at that.

And my finished products! I was pleased. And the display they created turned out just the way I wanted, so I suppose not a bad thrifty experience after all. Who knows, I may surprise myself yet! ;)

Shhhhhh....

Can you hear that? It's the hum of my sewing machine. Ahhhhh. I love the sound. It brings an instant calm to me. Sewing feeds my soul. It's a gift straight from God that allows me to refuel and refocus. Right now it is encouraging quietness. And, providing great satisfaction as I am ever amazed that I can take random cuts of fabric and run them through my machine and they come out the other side a new, wearable, practically useful creation. Amazing. What fun!
Do you think something such as sewing could ever be a worship experience? I would never have imagined, but indeed it has been. How blessed and grateful I am to be privileged to serve Christ and my precious family while doing something I so thoroughly love and enjoy!

1 Thessalonians 4:11 - "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands."

Patience, Hope and Reliance on God in the Struggle Against Injustice from :redux on Vimeo.

** 15 **

15 years ago today the man God created to be my husband, life friend and leader of my home asked me to marry him. It was a long, exhausting, rather frustrating day. I know, I know....where's the romance right? Give me a minute. :) At the time, we were both working our first Valentines Day in the newly acquired family florist. Valentines Day as a florist is ANYTHING but romantic! I will save you the grueling details, but let's just say the day had resulted in tears for me. Then it happened. My sweet, sweet fella, back from one of his frantic delivery runs handed me a box of chocolates that he insisted I open. Inside, a shiny token representing his intentions stood from one of the candies. Then down on one knee he asked the question that I gave an immediate response to, "YES!"....and the adventure began. Six months later we were married. It has, and continues to be anything put predictable, as every step seems to purposefully evade my strategy to plan it. But it has been so good! I can't imagine my life without this most amazing man and am blessed beyond expectation to be lock-armed by his side as we move ahead....to more unknown, but together, trusting God for every step.
Happy Valentines My Love and My Hero!

"Do not depend on the hope of results... [Y]ou may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself." - Thomas Merton


Learning,

GUILTY!

Yes, me. Guilty. Guilty of letting my emotions get in the way of my rationale. Guilty of speaking too soon. Guilty of over reacting at times. Guilty of casting judgment on people and situations when I had no way of knowing what their experience might have been, because my haste to prove a point got ahead of my compassion for those whose shoes I'd never walked in. Yes, there are many times in life when it is important to speak up and speak out. But there are also many times in life that doing so, without clear prompting from God, can be nothing short of recklessness.

I would consider myself a person passionate about the care of children. I completely adore my own children, have worked with children in some way for much of my life and support adoption and orphan care on a variety of levels. Just recently has foster care become one of the ways I express my care for children. I have been known to climb many a soap box when it comes to these things, and am not for a moment promising it won't happen again.

BUT.

With a different perspective now.

With the most humble understanding that while it may be appropriate for me to challenge my fellow Christians to give up their daily latte, Christmas gifts or birthdays, or even more, to "walk their talk", when it comes to the decision of sacrificing one's family, I will leave that conviction up to the most capable discretion of God.

You see, when we started our journey of foster care, with the purest of intention, but also the untouched, naive heart, I publicly challenged others to "take up the cross" and care for those around them. I was prepared to rally the troops and even secretly judged those who appeared to me as indifferent. Oh how this breaks my heart now. And oh how I apologize. For I had no idea what I was asking. I had no idea the potential depth of sacrifice. Now, having walked it for a spell, I realize it isn't up to me to "guilt" anyone into service. Is service that is motivated entirely by guilt genuine anyway? I think at times I have taken my "job" a bit too seriously, perhaps making my responsibility more than it should be. Maybe even forgetting that while God desires a heart to serve, ultimately, He doesn't need me to do His work....he blesses me with the opportunity to participate because He loves me. I am thankful He loves me that much! And that He also loves me enough to keep on teaching me in spite of myself. I will never take so lightly the sacrifice of one's family and I will most definitely be more careful about judging others and their circumstances that I have no inside point of view on. Lesson learned.

Perhaps true compassion is as much about what we don't do as it is about what we do.
His work in progress,