Make Me Smile Monday

I just got back from dropping the kids off at school. Although this morning they looked a lot like twin Hannah Montana's (my two girls), a hippy with brightly coloured hair and Iron Man (the children I babysit). My little pirate and I are here and are just about to go drop off some owl cupcakes at the school for a Halloween bakesale.

And I'm filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. One I just can't shake (nor do I want to). It's hard to believe that just 8 years ago I was praying asking God whether or not we should let our firstborn go trick or treating when she was older.

I grew up being taught about the origins of Halloween and going to "Hallelujah Harvest" nights at our church. It was fun, but there was always a part of me that felt isolated from all of the children I went to school with who I knew were going trick or treating with their friends.

Unfortunately, the message that it left me with was that Halloween was to be feared. The costumes, the decorations, even the day itself. Almost as though any sort of involvement would lead ultimately to being seperated from God. A very scary thought indeed! I found myself  feeling conflicted as a young mom when Jason's expectation for Halloween was different than mine. So while S was still quite young I determined to take the next couple of years to (prayerfully) consider what I should do.

Amazingly, the more I prayed about it the deeper my conviction became that we should enjoy the day. To break it down real simple:

1) The Bible tells us nothing can seperate us from God's love.
2) IF I believed the day itself is evil, then I should have nothing to do with it, not even within the walls of the church. I believe God made the world, everything in it including every day of the year. So how could any day be evil? It belongs to God just like any other!
3) I have a responsibility to not withdraw in fear from being with the people and community surrounding me so that I can grow and learn how to love with Christ's love.
4) If there's nothing wrong with costumes, candy and neighbours any other day of the year why would there be on this day?
5) If all of the above things are true I need to treat it that way. I could teach my children to celebrate friends, fun, neighbours and community on Halloween. And that we  don't have to be afraid: of scary costumes, scary decorations or even belief systems that are different than ours. And that we can remain true to who we are in Christ every day of the year, no exceptions! Ah...what freeedom! :)

So, this morning as I head over to drop off these cupcakes it's with a heart honestly that feels like it's ready to burst. Sure that might sound pretty cheesy but I'm OK with that...and I couldn't be more sincere! I'm so grateful for a loving father who is helping me see Him in His loving mercy more clearly every day. That when He said He came to give life and life more abundantly - He really meant it!

(If you didn't get a chance to read this article I shared the other day on Facebook, you might want to check it out. Steve Bell does a much better job explaining all of this than I ever could. ;) He even shares how St.Patrick was connected to Halloween in a positive way adding much greater depth to how we as Christians can enjoy Halloween. I hope you find it as encouraging as I did!)
http://stevebell.com/2009/10/keeping-christ-in-halloween/

Make Me Smile Monday

Yesterday Jason and I were suprised with a party after church for our joint 30th birthdays!!!

The first thing I thought when I realized what was happening was a quick mental check to consider what I looked like followed by a sense of, "Phew! I look alright". (haha! I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever done that before.) It was followed by a sense of "Awww...I can't believe they did this!"

It was complete with the second rewriting of the lyrics to "Turning 30" for Jason and I, yummy food, a slide show (Which only had a few embarassing pictures of me. :D It would be hard to put together a slideshow when you can only use your own pictures because you're throwing the party for a husband and wife duo, so you have no way of getting pictures from their selection at home. Unless you resort to B and E, which I'm glad they didn't! ha!)

The highlight of course was that most of my family was there, (missed not having my brother and sister there) and the Dragers, the Hieberts and the Michels dropped in to be a part of it!

I haven't had a chance to talk to her about it yet, but my undersanding is that it was Rebecca's idea! Thank-you to Rebecca and Andrew, Nancy and Scott and Tim and Jamie. And Wanetta who of course helped out in the kitchen. :) Thanks also to Pastor Fred for sending sending out a discreet party invitation to everyone in the church but us. This morning I find myself wondering how they managed to not give anything away. Neither of us had any idea that it was happening until the day of. It took us completely by surprise. Very impressive!!! It was so sweet and thoughtful of them, and it made my heart so happy. Thank-you so much! (Forgive me if I missed anyone who also helped out, more details I'm sure will trickle in over the couple of few days and even weeks.)

Thank-you as well to everyone who brought food. It was delicious! (I think most women love not having to cook every once in a while. Seriously!) Thank-you also to everyone for contributing to such an amazing group gift! I can't wait to plan a weekend away for the two of us. :) But especially thank-you for coming. I know I didn't get a chance to talk to everyone, but I noticed you were there and it meant the world to me. Love you all! :)

I don't have a picture from last night, so I'll add some colour to todays post with this one instead:

Photo Courtesy of Jodi Taylor

Clean and Tidy - September/October



I've been wanting to mount some cork board inside my kitchen cabinet doors for a while now, after seeing the idea here at Maillardville Manor:

  



http://www.maillardvillemanor.com/2011/07/organized-office-and-paperwork.html

Last November I joined a planning committee at my church to help plan get togethers for our ladies group. Along with this came new to-do lists. I need my to-do lists to be right where I can see them and I found I was using my counter for all of my papers and lists until I discovered that sticky notes on the front of the cabinet doors worked better. But I knew I didn't want this couldn't be the permanent solution. I thought cork boards would be the perfect solution for my to-lists. I've more recently taken on a part time job at the church overseeing the children's ministry. Knowing this will come with more to-do lists, it became even more important to me to find a solution to my "problem".

After looking around for some cork board and finally finding some, (I'm amazed at how hard it was to find. I found some at Michaels, which for me is a 40 minute drive. I had hoped to find some much closer to home.) I bought extra strength velcro from Canadian Tire and used the velcro to mount the cork inside my cupboards. My thought was that I could pull the cork boards out of the cupboard and lay them on the counter when I needed them and tuck them away when they weren't in use. Unfortunately the velcro (Which worked incredibly well for attaching labels to my storage bins.) wouldn't adhere to the back of the cork or the inside of the cupboard doors. So I was back to square one.

This is when I remembered a few great DIY ideas I saw on Pinterest I was also wanting to try out. I thought these would also come in handy in my kitchen:




I loved this idea for remembering the things we do week after week: dance class, skating, pizza day, even Gym so the girls remember not to wear a skirt or jeans.

 http://fey-next2heaven.blogspot.com/2011/09/our-launch-pad-new-weekly-calendar.html




I also loved this idea for all of our monthly plans, things that aren't a part of our weekly schedule.

 

http://pinterest.com/pin/220631614/





This idea I just fell in love with right away. For some reason it makes the thought of meal planning more fun for me.

  

http://blog.fancifulframes.com/

So now I had three DIY projects involving frames I wanted to do and I really wanted a way to keep my to-do lists (And anything else needing prompt attention: permission slips, bills, b-day party invites, etc.) under control. This is when I realized I could frame the cork, make the other three frames and mount them all on the wall in my kitchen...gallery style! 

Here's the wall I decided to mount it on:

I already had a frame from Walmart and I tried fitting the cork in there. It was perfect because it was deep enough to fit two layers of cork and the backing still went back on. It was a pretty frame in an off-white, but I really love my white, so when I picked up the rest of the frames I needed I gave them each a light coat of glossy white spray paint. I cut scrapping paper to size and used that as the back ground for the calender, weekly schedule and menu plan. I used a ruler and pencil and eraser working until I got the exact dimensions I wanted. I used the ruler to go over them with a black sharpie.

They turned out like this:








I didn't want to lose the verse I had posted on the wall. It was printed out on just a regular piece of printer paper before. Again I used scrapping paper and framed it, I love how it turned out. :)

 

The next step was mounting the frames. Here's how I did it:




I lay the frame upside down on some old wrapping paper and traced the frame with a pencil and then cut the shape out. I did this with each one.

 


Next I placed the matching paper cut-out on top of the frame and lined it up on all sides. Then I marked exactly where the screw would need to go.

 




Then I taped them on the wall exactly where I wanted them to go, using the markings (and a level when there was more than one scre needed) as a guide for drilling the necessary holes. My little man asked to be in on this one. :)

 

And that was that! Here's a picture of the final result. What do you think?