A beautiful end to a not so beautiful week

This week brings back memories and a flood of emotions all relating to my mom. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2007 and after a short battle with it, she passed away on April 26, 2008. My world completely changed when she was diagnosed with cancer. I began taking her to her doctor's appointments (which were many!) and I ended up having to put Ella in daycare so that I could be with mom while she was in and out of the hospital. Even though that season in my life was incredibly rough, I will always appreciate the many hours that I spent with her in those last months. The chemotherapy treatments and Chappy's Deli afterwards... the determination of her to go Christmas shopping even though she was having severe chemo side effects... Ella spending the night with her... seeing her drive up my driveway in that Honda Pilot with her little toboggan on... her not wanting to leave the house because we had been chit chatting and just enjoying ourselves... her watching me turn 30... her watching me scurry to prepare Thanksgiving at my house... her watching me decorate my house for Christmas... taking her to rehab to work on her shoulder... visiting her in CVICU, holding her hand and singing to her... listening to her about her visit to Australia overnight while she was in CVICU... taking her home from the hospital... telling her it's ok to let go... and finally, watching her let go.

I love you mom. Always.

His mercies are new every morning! I woke up this morning to a smiling baby boy's face, my husband getting ready for work and the glorious sun shining outdoors. I hear the pitter patter of Ella's footsteps downstairs and it's moments like these that let me know that seasons come and go. And no matter what, we must praise Him during the stormy weather and the sunny weather. So, what started off as a week reflecting on the storm of mom's final months is ending in a beautiful way. I am truly blessed and I praise God for my undeserved blessings.

Theology Thursday

thanks to my dear husband for today's Theology Thursday. love you babe!

Belief is not enough
Jas 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! (James 2:19)

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5)

The demons know and understand God better than you do and they are afraid. They know what will become of them. They will not and cannot be in the Kingdom of God. Just a mere belief in Christ is not enough. You must be born again (John 3:3), through repentance and faith (Mark 1:15), unto a living hope (1 Peter 1:3) that manifests itself through works (James 2:17). Test yourself in light of scripture and be sure (2 Corinthians 13:5). You are not saved by your works, but by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8), and your faith will produce goods works. (Eph 2:10)

Barn Door

After finishing the nursery, Scott and I decided we wanted to move Ella's room downstairs so that we would have both kids close together. But where would we move her to? We only have 2 bedrooms downstairs and hers was upstairs (and HUGE too!). What we decided on finally (after going through virtually every scenario) was to move her into the study. Doing this posed a few problems though. One was closet space... the study has a built in book shelf instead of a closet. We are still working on that problem too! But the biggest problem was there would be no door to close for privacy. Option one would have been to close in the opening with sheet rock, paint, etc. I was a bit hesitant about doing this... I really wanted the kids to be able to have another exit option... In case of an emergency. No, I'm not paranoid. Just crazy like that.


Our solution? This COOL, incredible, sliding BARN door!!! We made it ourselves and are totally pleased with it... and it fits our style perfectly. It looks great from both sides... Ella's room is a "cowgirl" room so it worked out great!


Stay tuned for a tutorial on how you can make your own barn door!

Head on over to Beneath My Heart for more DIY projects... her blog is great!!

Great day what a deal

I shop at CVS and Walgreens weekly and use this strategy to snag up great deals. I thought I'd share with you some of my savings...

These items all came from CVS.

I got 76 diapers, 2 Cover Girl mascaras, Tide, and Colgate. I paid $25.21 out of pocket and got back $10 in Extra Care Bucks. I saved a total $38.66! Now, that's savings!! I encourage you to check out Money Saving Mom's site and discover how to use her strategy for shopping at CVS and Walgreens. Happy shopping!

Theology Thursday!!

I plan on using Thursday as a day for discussing theology. I hope to use this as a way to show others that theology is not "boring", "intimidating", "hard to understand" and all the other descriptions we've heard about the study of God and His word. Before I can begin to post anything on theology, I must tell you the gospel... after all, what does theology mean to you if you don't know Christ?

In Mark 1:14-15 Jesus comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of God saying, "the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." Repent and believe. Repent and believe.

We were made for God's glory. And we should live that way. But we have failed. Miserably. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) And for that we have been eternally condemned. For the wages of sin is death... (Romans 6:23) It should end there... we should all be condemned to hell and it should be over... but it isn't!!! God sent His only son to die for the ones who REPENT and BELIEVE. Turn from your decietful ways and fall upon Jesus. Call upon Him to save you. Jesus said the kingdom of God is at hand. The day of salvation is now. Do not wait for tomorrow, tomorrow is the devil's day. Call upon Him to save you today. This is our only hope, Jesus Christ.

Another cricut idea...

Here is another cute and inexpensive idea for a baby shower gift. For this project, I purchased a 6x8 piece of white tile from Lowe's. I cannot remember exactly, but I believe it was less than $2.


Materials
6x8 tile
Vinyl lettering (I used the Cricut brand that I purchased from Walmart)
Cricut machine
Tulle ribbon
drill

I used my cricut machine to cut out the vinyl letters. In this case, the initials are 3 letter monogram style. I then had my sweet husband drill holes in the top of the tile so that I could run the ribbon through and the plaque can be hung on the wall.



























Shared on:

Do you cricut?

I bought a cricut machine last year thinking I'd use it mainly for scrapbooking. Well, I've hardly used it for scrapbooking at all! I was on semi-bedrest for a week or so when I was pregnant with Shep and that's when I discovered VINYL with Cricut. O-H M-Y! I was in crafting heaven! I couldn't wait to try some of the vinyling techniques I had learned in blogland! So here is one of the first things I did. I bought this pig at Hobby Lobby (with a 40% off coupon, of course) and added the vinyl to this and voila!! Easy Peasy. I did buy Sure Cuts A Lot, which keeps me from buying all the cartridges used with the Cricut. With SCAL, you can cut out any font on your computer. That's what I did with the piggy bank. I used the Boingo font for the letter "A".


So, with my Cricut, I was able to turn a $5 piggy bank into a one of a kind gift. These make great gifts for baby showers!!

Hobby number one...

Along with a million other things I like to dabble in, photography is my "consistent" hobby. I've always loved taking pictures... flowers, landscape and family. After Ella was born, I continued to work at Colonial Bancgroup for a few years. Thanks to Dave Ramsey's plan, we were able to lower our debt and we made the decision for me to stay at home... and I've never look back! So, I began to venture more into my hobby. Mainly because I could no longer afford to take her to have her portraits made by a professional. So, I did the next best thing and learned how to do it myself. You see, I really have a hard time paying somebody for something I can do/make myself. And this is how my photography business began. I kept my business for several years until I realized that it was a BUSINESS and I was working again! That was the point of staying at home, right? To not work! So, I ended my business in 2009. Yes, I still love photography. Yes, I occasionally take pictures for others. And the great thing about it is... I can turn someone down whenever I want... and I don't mean that in a bad way. Really.

So, what's in my camera bag? People always want to know... so here goes. It's nothing fancy, honest.

I used a Fuji S3Pro for the duration of my business. But last year, I decided to buy another camera that had higher ISO capabilities... thus, led me to purchase my Nikon D90. I adore this camera. I bought it mainly because of the ISO capabilities being better along with it being less bulky than my Fuji and it would tuck away in my purse a lot easier than my old camera. So, in my camera bag is:

Nikon D90
50mm 1.8 lens
60mm 2.8 macro


and that's it!

Here are some images from it:

I love this man...

And last but certainly not least... I love this man. Love, love, love. He's my best friend, my soul mate and I can't imagine life without him. I praise God for him. He is... honest... respectful... a wonderful husband... a wonderful daddy... is always singing... loves God... loves his wife... loves his children... loves his momma and daddy... loves theology... loves tinkering on his truck... loves to make me happy. And he does. Incredibly. I LOVE him.

I love this boy...

Our newest addition... wow. Never dreamed God would bless us with another baby... 7 years after our first. What an awesome God we serve. He continues to pour His blessings on us and we are so thankful. It's WAY more than we deserve.

Meet Shep. He is... chunky... smelly... lovable... inquisitive... loud... loves his momma and daddy... loves his big sister... loves his papa... loves his milk... loves his swing... loves his bed... and loves someone to sing to him. We are having SO much fun with him!!

I love this girl...

I'll take the next few posts to introduce my family... and I'll start with this little girl. She is...witty...compassionate...thoughtful (most of the time!)...loves horses...loves to sleep...loves her momma and her daddy... loves her little brother...loves to ride in her daddy's truck...loves to feel like a big girl... loves reading her bible... and we LOVE her!!

Here we go!

I thought I would share a few reasons as to WHY I decided to start blogging...

-to share my ideas/creations with others.
-to "virtually" meet others with my same interest; wifing, mothering, homeschooling, crafting, photography, cooking, theology... the list goes on!
-a way to express my love for God who save a wretched sinner like me. To bring glory to Him in my life and to engage others in theological conversations.
-to share with others the projects my husband and I work on.
-a place to de-clutter my mind --smiling-- maybe...
-I read so many other blogs that I thought it best to start my own and share my life with others as well.

In other words... this will be a place to show everyone what goes on at OUR PLACE! You will see a little bit of everything... and I mean SEE. I'm a photographer (well, I used to be... I'm semi-retired!) too which means I have to document everything with my camera. Everything from my kiddos to sometimes what I'm having for lunch. Hang on, get ready... cause Here We Go!