Super Bowl Table Centers

In trying to think on how to decorate the tables at our MOPS meeting, I tried to think of something that would go nicely with the table cloth that I previously made. (see previous post)

Here's what I came up with:

These are actually about 4 feet long and about 2- 2.5 feet wide. :)

All you need is butcher paper, scissors and white paint! Simple as that!

Just cut huge football shapes out of butcher paper and add paint. :)

Super Bowl!

With the Super Bowl coming up next weekend, there are lots of parties going on that are themed for the occasion. One of the events I will be going to next week is for our MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) group at church. As I looked on my table leader's pinterest, I got so many good ideas!

The main thing, is that I can never seem to find instructions. So for all of you who prefer following instructions to the trial and error method... this is for you!

One of the main things that my table is in charge of is decorating. And of course one of the biggest (seriously.. it's 18 feet!) part is the table cloth for the food table. Here's what we decided on:

I'll get a new picture of it once we use it!

Here's how I made it:

You need 18 feet (or however long your table is) of butcher paper

white paint

measuring tape/ yard stick

Pencil

Paint or sharpies of team colors

Straight edge

Start by laying out your butcher paper flat and marking out 13 lines (evenly spaces out)(for 18 feet it's every 18 inches..first line in at edge of paper) Use your straight edge to make the lines.

Paint over the lines with your white paint

Once all of your lines are painted on, paint/write field line numbers (10,20,30,40,50,40,30,20,10)

In the end zones, I decided to draw the team logos. (Do it with pencil first in case you mess up.. I had my eraser handy too)

I ended up using my white paint for the Seahawks Logo, and just sharpie for the Broncos. Then I realized I actually have paint in those colors.... oh well.. next time! :)

Selling Our House Part 2

I prayed and prayed that we would sell our house. I got to the point that I prayed that we would just, please oh please, start the new year with a legitimate offer. Needless to say, New Year's eve, at 6:30 pm, as we were looking back at the past year, we got an offer!!

Once we got the contract signed, after a counter offer and acceptance, we started getting ready. We had about 7 weeks to get our stuff packed and ready to go. One of the conditions the buyer had was that we had to paint over our murals upstairs. The Winnie The Pooh Nursery, the Texans Logo in the Mancave, and the pink wall with damask pattern in Abby's room.

So I did. I painted over them. First with primer, then back to normal. (Here's a look at what it looked like when I did the primer.... )

No more tree and saying

No more Texans

No more Tigger and Piglet

No more Pooh

But of course, as things go, so must our paint choices as we move.

With the house packed and purged of everything we don't use on a daily basis, we are pretty much ready to go. We still have about 4 weeks left, but we have a place lined up and a plan of attack for the final packing. 

DIY Kissing Booth

I have been scouring the internet and found so many cute ideas for kissing booths... problem is I don't want to spend money on something I will use once.

(See more pictures of my love monkey at the bottom)

Solution: Use what I have!

I had a wood backdrop for my photography and plenty of boxes, so I figured I would make something from that. So I got to taping, cutting, and placing. Here's what I got.

I took my wood looking backdrop and started wrapping it around a box, like gift wrap.

Taping the ends nice and taught so it wouldn't sag.

Then I taped a piece to the top. (I did it in a different direction so it would look, hopefully, less like paper.)

Got my handy-dandy cord out of my Christmas wrapping stuff

Printed out and cut out my words :)

Used the cord as holder for the letters.... and there you go!

Be Still

I went to a girl's retreat this weekend and it was wonderful! I don't think I've been to something like this since "Freedom Weekend" at Prestonwood when I was in high school. I was such a great time to not only meet new people, but also get refreshed and learn new things about God.

There were two main things that really stuck with me, though there were so many great point I ran out of paper. ;) The first is the Hebrew meaning of "be still" in Psalm 46:10. It is one of the first verses that we learn, yet I never realized that it didn't mean just sit there. In Hebrew, as one of our speakers explained, "be still" is described as an image of letting go of a rope or a lifeline. To literally let go of what we are trusting instead of God.

After hearing her explanation, I was so amazed when I re-read that verse, in my head hearing the definition. "Be still (let go) and know that I am God." I actually heard it more personally though. I heard it as "let go of your control and know that I am God." I started hearing a lot of different things that I was holding on to instead of God, and I realized that I really did need to rest in him. I need to rest completely, letting go of everything else, and just being with God.

I thought it was interesting, also, that our speaker pointed out that in the story of the woman at the well, John 4: 6 says, "Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon." Jesus himself, God who became man, grew tired from long journeys and rested. !!! Isn't that an amazing relief!?

I know I often feel guilty when I lay down to rest when there are other things I could be doing. I mean tonight is a perfect example. I could be in bed, but instead I knew that I should probably send out emails to our small groups about this coming semester. Then I realized that our toll tags needed to be updated so that we wont get penalties, and of course I HAD to write a post about rest. (Yes its ironic)

As I close out this post, I want to revisit the concept of rest. It is so crucial that we allow ourselves to rest. We all need those moments, small as they can be sometimes, to just breath and relax. I feel like in this day-in-age, we are so use to going, going, going, that we never stop to realize how exhausted we are. I know I told my husband tonight that I am just exhausted. When new situations come up, I feel like I have no energy to deal with them. I feel like I just get frustrated and want to quit everything.

I know that's not the right attitude. I know that a better response would be to graciously pray for wisdom to deal with every new situation. (Did you catch the grace?) I am too often focused on how busy I am and how overwhelmed I am, that I forget that I can, in some part, decide to be less "busy" with all that life can be sometimes.

When is the last time you took a break? When is the last time you truly let go of something you were holding on to instead of fully trusting God?

Finding New Hope In A New Year

Just over two weeks in to the New Year and already I feel like life is crazy. I was reminded today that, especially if you aren't actively in the work force, you don't have a break between the old year and the new year. It's often tough to be motivated because most often we don't have a goal that we can look towards. Most vacations at this point have been taken, and now the next thing we have to look forward to, or not so much, is bathing suit season.

I'm trying to challenge myself this year, not by saying I will have done ___ by the end of the year, but by having a word each month that I would focus on. One word that would challenge me to read my bible more for answers and guidance,  a word that will help me be a better wife, mom, and friend.

So this month, my word is grace. I love the word Grace, don't you? It's such a great word because it means so much. In focusing on grace, I not only have to get better at giving grace to others, but also to myself.  I also have to be willing to see and gratefully receive grace from God.

I love Hebrews 4:16 when it says, "Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." A Proverbs 31 ministries devotional put it this way, God gives us "grace to take one more step, to utter one more prayer, to risk rejection one more time. Grace to trust in His promise and to cling to His hand."

I just love that. It reminds me that God's grace allows us to be able to receive mercy in all that we do. We don't have to give up on life just because we have fallen down. Grace gives us chance after chance, and hope after hope. Though some things may always come back as a rejection,  His Grace is still there. He still wants us to know, through all circumstances, that we are still loved.

Nancy Taylor, a lady who came to speak to some ladies at our church said it this way, "Jesus didn't come to just help  you with your life, he came to be IN your life!" That's grace, ultimate grace. No matter what we do, what situations come up, he will be there.  He's not a genie or a magic lamp, he's not a vending machine that you put prayer in and wants come out. Jesus came so that we could have ultimate grace, the undeserved grace of forgiveness, to be able to start each day as a new, clean slate.

So my word for January is Grace. I have a feeling,  with the pending sale of our home, us considering birth control to take a break from infertility,  pressures on Chris at his work, raising an almost three year old, and us stepping up to a leadership position at church,  we will need a lot of grace. I will need a lot of grace, to start every day fresh, new, and encouraged.

Not Feeling Christmas-y

I usually LOVE the holiday season. Everything about November through January 1st, I just love. I love cooking, hosting, decorating, being creative, and spoiling family and friends. I enjoy it so much that I am usually one of the first to get my Christmas cards out and my house usually looks like Santa's workshop.

This year though, I don't love the holiday season. Thanksgiving was great, a good time with family and lots of cooking, but once it was over I was never able to get into the holiday spirit, as I usually do. I barely got my Christmas card out in time, didn't decorate the house, since we are trying to sell it, and everything seems tedious.

As I sat in a bible study, one of the ladies asked me why I wasn't more excited. I thought about it for a second and realized that it isn't just my "situation", with infertility seeming to rule out lives, but it's more than that. I realized that this year everything was a task to accomplish, not a joyful event. (And yes, I know that life is not candies and roses all the time, but the holidays were usually what I looked forward to all year.)

One of the main things I realized was different this year was the present giving, or rather "here's my shopping list". I have been given wish lists in the past, but I always tried to get something without looking at it, mainly because I wanted it to be something from ME, not from them with my money.This year, though, it feels like the year of lists with my family. We get big long lists, "shopping lists" as I like to call them, and that's what we buy. As most of the things were online, I went on amazon, and a few other sites, typed in the items, added them to my cart, gave my credit card info.... and just like that I was done. There was no browsing to find that perfect gift. There was no thinking about what someone would like. It was just fulfilling a grocery list.

Of course, I participated in the list giving, as I was asked to, but after all was said and done, I felt like something was amiss. Sure I have "brown packages tied up with string," yes literally, but there was more thought put into the wrapping than the present itself.

I keep trying to think back to my childhood, growing up close to my family. I feel like we knew each other well enough to get something personal. Now I don't remember if we had "wishlists" or not, but I remember putting thought into gifts. I remember on Christmas day, watching someone open what you got them, and watching their reaction. (It was usually laughter, as we would get things that made the other happy, though sometimes we did get some weird looks. :))

I wish we could all put down our expectations, our IPads, our phones, our computers.... and just get to know one another well enough to be able to get each other something of meaning.

Now I know this year it's too late, but my challenge, to you and my self, is to not ask what someone wants next time it's their birthday, anniversary, Christmas.... Think about that person, get to know them better, buy something from the heart, or better yet! Make something special! Put a little bit of yourself, a little effort, and a lot of love. See what you can come up with.

Last thought... instead of being a shopping list of "I want this... I want that," try to get someone something they wouldn't think to ask for. Something special that they will remember years from now.

****Most of all, remember that it's not about what you get, or even what you give. It's about the ultimate gift, Jesus Christ. Yes life can be disappointing at times, but in the end, if we have Jesus, we have it all.

Think of it this way, if you died tomorrow, would you care that you didn't get ____? Or would you care if you didn't have Jesus?

(And yes, even with infertility, this is true.... If I die tomorrow, will I be upset that I haven't been able to conceive again? Or will I be focused on the fact that I'm in heaven and God is what matters?)(This is not to say I won't be upset here on earth for these things, but it means that they are things that matter "in this world")