Faith and a Haircut

Hi!

Here’s a fun, true story that has happened in our world this week.

My mom was brushing Maddy’s hair a few days ago and asked her if Mommy took her for a haircut.  She said no.

A few days went by, and a few more people commented – her hair was still able to be pulled up easily and it looked even, yes there were some areas that looked like there had been some breakage, but it had been a while since her last haircut.

Finally, Maddy went to stay the night with Grandma.  Before bedtime Grandma asked her if she had cut her hair herself and this is what she said:  “Well, I wanted shorter hair so I decided to cut it.  So while Grammy was downstairs doing laundry with Caleb I took the scissors and cut my hair and threw it away in the kitchen trash.  I knew after I did it that it  was wrong and I should not have done it so I prayed to God, because He was the only one who saw me do it, and I know He forgave me so everything was okay and I didn’t need to worry about it.”

…needless to say my mother called me immediately and retold the story, and I made a mental note that we were going to Best Cuts as soon as she got home the next day…we’ll come back to this later…

More important to me was how she responded to my mom.  Maddy knew that it was wrong to cut her hair so she prayed and asked forgiveness.  I’m so glad that she understands the true nature of God’s forgiveness and freedom from guilt at an early age!  In the last few weeks we have been talking a great deal about forgiveness at church.  In fact, you can watch one of the most recent teachings about forgiveness here.

We love our church and we love how much our family is growing into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  We transitioned here as a family in January and it was a big decision to leave where we were very involved, but over the past months God has show us in so many ways that we are in the right place.  I have gone from seeing Jesus in black and white to high definition, and it appears that our little ones are being fed in the same way we are!  Hallelujah!

So back to the haircut.  I took Maddy to Best Cuts to “fix” the haircut.  The stylist took about five minutes to fix her style and informed me that for a self haircut it was extremely even.  In fact it was the best self haircut she had ever seen.

…we’re not sharing that tidbit with Maddy.  She now understands that she need a license to cut hair!

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Joy

I love these little guys!

No matter what is going on, they are pure joy…most of the time…

Of course they test me every day.  Are there any children who do not?

But more importantly, they are making me grow.  God is using them to shape me into the person that he wants me to be.  One messy face, handprint, and giggle at a time.

Blogging Frequency

So this is not so much a post for you, but more a post for me.

I’m setting expectations for myself.  In the past…especially with this blog…I’ve put parameters and expectations on blogging so frequently that anytime I hit a wall or get busy I begin to resent it or just give up.

In an effort to restart and keep moving I’m setting up some expectations for myself.

1.  I will blog once a month.  Even if I don’t want to or feel like it I will post something.

2.  I will not blog everyday…at least for now.

3.  I will have fun with this blog!

4.  I will share what is in my heart – because that is really what it is all about!

Back from the black…

Hello…again!

It’s time to get back to blogging.  Where have I been?  In case anyone is still following me from before…and there’s probably five of you left…there’s a simple answer for that.  I wasn’t feeling it.

No really!  If you’re local family or friends you may understand that last year was hard with having a new baby and losing my grandpa, but honestly it was so much more than that.

I wasn’t happy.  Not the I’m having a bummer day that my clothes don’t look right or I’m having a bad hair day unhappy.  I mean that I’m not sure where I fit in and I don’t know what exactly is going on with my life not happy.  There comes a point in life where you just stop “faking it” and just walk away…from a lot.  For the majority of last year I was not present in a lot of things: family…work…marriage…everything.  I was just in a bad place, and when you’re in a bad place…if you’ve ever been in one…you just don’t want to do anything.  It cripples you; whether you realize it or not.

In the past when I haven’t been happy with things I’ve been able to push through and keep the happy facade.  And there were times last year that I thought I was doing pretty good keeping everyone in the dark, keeping up appearances, pretending, but I wasn’t doing so well with it…I think everyone knew that something was going on whether or not they could put their finger on it.

I was angry.

I was sad.

I disengaged from a lot.

So what changed my outlook?

It is so simple: Jesus.

I started praying again…REALLY praying.  I renewed my relationship and reconnected with my God and He delivered me from the darkness.  I’m changing and growing everyday and I look forward to spending time with Him each day.

Some days are better than others.  And I still have a lot to learn, but I’m back on track.  God has done a lot of healing in my life, my marriage, my outlook, and I can honestly say that my connection with God is stronger and more true than it has ever been.  Because of that connection, the relationships in my life are growing and blossoming in ways that I never imagined.  I’m finding true happiness.

God just didn’t deliver me; He gave me greater!

As time goes on I hope to share more about my faith and my journey with you.  There is so much that God wants me to share, but for now I’m saying I’m back…and this time I really am. I’m not going to be serious all the time…after all, so much of life (especially mine) laughs even at the hard stuff.  To quote Carl Lentz, “I will come out of my shell because I have a story to tell.”

Recently during my SOAPing (more on this in a later post) I read Proverbs 20:24…

“The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”  Prov. 20:24 NLT

For the ultimate control freak, that’s me, this is becoming more of a life verse than I could have ever imagined!  Looking back over the last year I am amazed at the healing, deliverance, and joy that has come from it all!

So what can you expect from the blog?  I’m not exactly sure yet…

There will be crafting…

…and family fun…

…and faith…

If you have some ideas or suggestions, feel free to post a comment.  I’m looking forward to where God takes me.

This is the beginning!

Repurpose & Reinvent: The Checkerboard Challenge

Happy Thursday to All!

So today I’d like to show you a project that I helped Maddy’s preschool class complete for an upcoming silent auction.  Each class had to do a project to auction off.  Being the creative one in the bunch I was approached to help create a fun and unique project with a budget of $20.

I immediately began thinking of what Maddy’s class could make to set them apart.  I have to admit that the competitive spirit in me wanted to make sure that the Monday Mom-n-Tot class crushed all of the other projects…we’ll see what happens.

Anyway, I found a wall hanging checkerboard at Hobby Lobby in the 80% off clearance.  Score!  I should have taken a photo of it before I finished it so that you could gaze at its overall nastiness because it was a grungy brown and brick-red checkerboard with chickens on it.

In order to prep the board I used gesso to cover the entire front and sides.  Once it was completely clear I was at least able to think of ways to use it.  I redrew the lines and created a cloudy checkerboard with a green base.  On preschool Mondays the kids placed thumbprints around the entire canvas.  Once I had the board home I doodled on the prints making flowers, butterflies, worms, and lots of other fun things.  I also had the little ones put thumbprints on the checkers creating frogs and bumble bees.  Here are some photos of the finished work:

To make sure everything stayed in place I sealed the entire board and all of the checkers with Mod Podge.  I love how this project looks and now I’m thinking I need to bid on this at the silent auction…and if I lose I know how to make another one.