The Art Gallery

I have a whole room (unfinished) in my basement that is wallpapered with the creations of the littles.  Thought I would share a few from last week.  First, Lexi:

No it's not a windmill, it's a flower, and you will get an earful if you say otherwise.  Just warnin' ya.  I was pretty impressed with the whole 3D thing though - my tape dispenser is nearly empty but this jewel was worth it! 

Got it yet?  It says "the dumb turkey."  (Inventive spelling, that's what you call that.)  Why is he dumb?  Because he thinks the shaking, cracking egg down in the corner is "A baby!" ... in other words a turkey baby ... but the truth?  Joke's on him - it's a T-REX inside that egg! 

How 'bout this one?  "Bugs in Action"!  (Again with the spelling, I know.)

Had to zoom in on the detail - note the eyelashes, etc., on these fine little folks!

And ... drum roll please ... Mason:

I love how all his people have a "V" for a mouth ... and the careful use of stickers too!

This one makes me smile for two reasons - the "S" in his name, and the unabashed use of the pink flowers!

And last but not least, Callie Anne:

 Indiscriminate use of pattern, texture and dimension!

Lexi did the flowers for her, the stamps were already on the paper, so her contribution was the red heart, the green trail through the leaves, and the VIOLENT blue patch in the middle.  :)

LOVE THEM!

Prelude to Vacation

A taste of my day, just a little tiny morsel:

My headband gave me a headache, but not until I was already at work and couldn't change my mind +

the poor sweet MOPS baby that screamed for nearly an hour straight just outside my office this morning +

I let the tyranny of the urgent rule the day +

I hit my wall for the WHOLE WORK WEEK at 2:00 on Tuesday!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, YAY, I'm on vacation for a week!!!  Brandon and Shiloh are coming home Thursday and will stay through Tuesday.  My office lights are out, my door is shut, I'm home in my pajamas and my recliner, my e-mail and voice mail will inform any and all of where to turn just in case, and I can turn away for awhile, and get properly excited about seeing my son!

In reflecting on "thanksgiving" this week, I found myself lured back to Psalm 95:1-7 over and over:

1 O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

3 For the LORD is a great God

And a great King above all gods,

4 In whose hand are the depths of the earth,

The peaks of the mountains are His also.

5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it,

And His hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

7 For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand .

Verses 1, 2 and 6 instruct us on how to be thankful - shouting, singing with joy, worship, bowing down, and kneeling - and verses 3-5 and 7 tell us WHY we should be thankful - He is our God, everything was made by His hand, and we are His people.  

Seems I forgot this for a few hours - oh I felt like shouting all right, but not with joy!  But I return to joy tonight, and remember all that I have to be thankful for, and to Whom my thanks should be directed.  My grocery list, dirty house, a desperate aversion to all things related to Black Friday, and the prospect of eating too much fade away as I turn my mind toward worship.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I'm a Publisher!

OK not true, really.  But it made me laugh to type it.  Actually, I'm trying to learn Publisher so that I can do brochures and newsletters and the like at work.  And I'm feeling that whole old dogs, new tricks thing a bit.  I started with an existing document and just played around with it, trying to get a feel for how it works, and much to my consternation two pages quickly overflowed to three, whole sections of text disappeared, and while trying to shrink a "text box" I turned it sideways instead.  I'm laughing now ... let's see if that's still true as my deadlines grow near ... somehow I must figure out how to engage my under-developed right brain, as my dominant left brain is not serving me well in this venture!

What's in your cupboard?

I poured my coffee this morning, and the first sip resulted in irritation.  I had the chipped cup.  The one that usually stays in the back of the cupboard, but every now and then rotates itself to the front (usually when my dishwasher is full).  I kept moving through my morning routine, but every time I lifted that cup to my lips I felt a flash of annoyance.  As I was about to pour my second cup, it suddenly dawned on me:  I COULD get rid of this cup!  I have probably 20 perfectly good, unchipped, coffee cups, and yet I keep hanging on to this one even though it irritates me every time I use it.


And then I wondered, how many "chipped cups" am I hanging on to within myself?  Things that might be technically functional, but are not the best I have to give, and in fact are blocking the way to the perfectly good cups?  Time to clean out some cupboards!

Knock knock ...

I've been very anti-social toward my blog for awhile.  In fact for so long that I doubt anyone's checking anymore, which is probably just as it should be.  Here's why.

I realized a couple of months ago that I was too often writing "to" my audience, instead of just pouring from my heart.  Which led to a consideration of a pride component, and the ugly realization that I was not only writing "for" my readers but avidly seeking their affirmation and approval.  So I stopped writing anywhere but my journal, and let God lay me bare on this issue of still needing/wanting the approval and affirmation of others, instead of being fully and completely satisfied with His never-changing and endless approval of me and therefore writing out of the overflow of my heart.  It doesn't matter whether the subject is some silly or wonderful thing one of my grandchildren has done, chronicling an event in my life, or writing about what God is teaching me and what I see Him doing all around me ... my motivation must NOT be the hope that someone will read it and leave a glowing comment, that it will move someone to action, that I will make someone laugh, or that (here's the heart of it) I will impress someone with my skill.

That was a really hard paragraph to write.  My weakness, my wrong motivations, my prideful heart ... laid before you, but most importantly spoken "aloud" before God and laid on the altar.  He has gently humbled me during these weeks and months. 

Somebody might be thinking, "What's the big deal?"  The big deal is that I have always wanted to write.  Always.  Since I was a little girl. I know I am passionate about many things that I would like to pour out in words.  But until now, that desire has been rooted in mixed motivation.  I think that there are things I have to say that might be worth reading.  But, and here is the change, they will only be worth reading if they're written from a place of weakness and humility, therefore allowing God to write through me, instead of me writing "for Him."  He doesn't need me to write for Him - after all, isn't He the author of all things?

So I come back here with the simple desire to share my heart as God leads me.  That's it.  It will be interesting to see what pours out ... I'm done planning and plotting how to be funny, powerful, motivating with my words.  No more agenda rooted in pride.

I imagine my subject matter won't change much ... isn't it totally unpredictable anyway?  :)  But my heart is changed and I look forward to see where He takes me on this little Slice of Life blog from here.

Oh so much has happened to me and around me since I've posted regularly!  What I will share remains to be seen - I feel like I'm going to be sitting beside you waiting to see what will come next.  Can I sign up to follow my own blog?

I'll leave you with my favorite snippet of the week.  As background, the littles are enthralled with knock-knock jokes right now.  At 6, 5 and 3, you might imagine the content and effectiveness of these 'jokes' ... and I use the term loosely.  Recently, though, Mason has started to find his comedic timing, and tells this one very well:

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting c... MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Does that even translate into writing?  I can heard it in my head though and it's hilarious - he's SO LOUD anyway.

So here's Callie's latest version:

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Interrupting horse.
Interrupting horse who?
Neigh, neigh ... Hey!  I wanna ride a tiny horse!!!!!!

And she's off in a whole other non-sensical direction that left me in tears I was laughing so hard.  Precious little dolly!

Back soon.