Believe It!

I grabbed a little notebook out of a pile last night
to keep track of a new project I've started.

As I flipped through the notebook to find a blank page,
I came across a few thoughts I jotted down in 2009.



Mar 7, 2009

I'm a good mom - I love Brett,
Paige, Matt, Hope, Hart, Tate
with ALL my heart.

I'm a good wife.  I love
and respect Grant.

I'm a good daughter.  I love
my mom and try not to
put up walls.

I'm a good friend.  I
encourage my friends and
love their children.

I am a child of God.
God loves me and
sustains me.

 I let Satan in through a
cracked door and listened
to his whispers that sounded
like my voice --

"I'm a bad mom"
"I'm a bad wife"
"I'm a bad daughter"
"I'm a failure"
"God must be disappointed in me"

And then I said these out
loud to Grant and friends
and almost believed them as
truth.

And then I AGAIN banished
Satan from my dwelling
place.

God knows the desires of
my heart.

Satan might too.  I will
not let Satan have
power over the desires of
my heart.


Seek first the kingdom of
God and his justice and
then all the rest will be
added to you.

TV Tray Makeover

Sometimes when I'm sewing or crafting

and I need to iron just a little something,

I hate to drag out my ironing board.

So I stole an idea off www.pinterest.com

and made a little ironing board for my little projects.

I happened to have an $8 TV tray that
I had picked up at Wal-Mart a couple
weeks ago.  I had something else in mind
for it, but I'll get another one and work on that later.

 I used one bag of natural cotton batting

and less than 1/2 yard of heavy decorative fabric.

 I cut 4 layers of batting a little bigger than the
top of the tray, placed the tray on top of them
and trimmed the corners to get rid of some bulk.

Then I stapled away.

The fabric came next.  I wish I had been more
careful about centering the design of this fabric
on the tray, but oh well!  It's not like I won't change
it sooner or later anyways.  That's why I stapled it
on seperately from the batting.

 I don't know if you can see it in this picture,
but at the bottom the iron is a little label that
says CRAFTS.  I have ruined many a nice
iron as I've melted some craft project or another
 onto it, so now I have a CRAFTS iron
and a CLOTHES iron.

Don't you love the height of this ironing tray?
I can set it right beside my craft/sewing table
and iron away in the middle of a project.

Jello In A Jar

Hart decided he wanted to take

rainbow jello for his birthday treat.

I looked for some small, clear plastic

cups to use.  I found some that were

the perfect size, but the wrong "color".

 Then I found some that were crystal clear,

but they were too big.  So I decided to

make his lovely teacher cringe and make the

jello in little glass jars instead of something

that she could just pitch into the trash.

Sorry, Mrs. Richardson! 

I promise I'll make it up to you.

Hart + 21 jello jars = HAPPINESS!

Can you see the rainbow?  Next time I'll leave out the orange

layer and add in a yellow layer.  I just wasn't sure how many

second graders like lemon jello.  It only took one small box of

each color to fill 21 jars.  I used red, orange, green, blue and purple jello.

I punched out paper circles to add a little fun.

And then to add more fun, I printed out jokes to tie onto the spoons.

I hope they like them. 

Alphabet Rocks

I'm always looking for creative ways

to teach my preschool kiddos what

they need to know for kindergarten

without actually sitting down and "teaching".

What better way for a little boy to learn

his letters than playing with rocks?

I printed off a fun alphabet and

picked up two sacks of rocks at Hobby Lobby.

I trimmed around the letters and figured out

which letters to put on white rocks and which

letters to put on black rocks.  For the most part,

I put light backgrounds on the black rocks and 

dark backgrounds on the white rocks.

I put a decent coat of Mod Podge on the rock.

 Then I smoothed the letter onto the Mod Podged rock,

brushed another coat of Mod Podge on and let it dry.

When they were all dry, I put another decent coat of

Mod Podge on, let them dry again and then

sprayed them with a clear sealer.

Sing with me!  A B C D E F G....

I picked up the little wooden tray at a thrift store.

To pretty it up a little bit, I cut a plastic placemat

from Target (that I got on clearance) and stuck

it in the bottom.  I didn't glue it down so I

can switch it out when I get tired of orange and

pink polka dots.  But can one ever really get

tired of orange and pink polka dots?

Welcome Home!

To keep myself busy on the first day of school,

I threw together some decorations and made

a Rice Krispy treat cake.  What do you think?

I decorated a chalkboard with paper pennants and propped

it up on the table with four bricks covered with some ABC fabric.

These will be sent to Hope and Hart's teachers.

Grabbed a globe off the bookcase and the Willow Tree

reader off my nightstand.  This might be my favorite thing.

I printed out some jokes and slapped these together while

Tate and I were at the park yesterday.

This lunch box and the old red dictionary are thrift store

purchases.  I printed out the ABC print, slapped it onto

a piece of green paper and plopped it into the frame.

I made two batches of Rice Krispy treats and

used some round pans and casserole dishes

to create something to make the kids say 'WOW'.

The paper pennants are stuck into the 

bottom two layers with wooden skewers.

 

Snack Time!

Unrelated to school, but isn't it fun?

I moved a few things from the dining table to

the entry table for some 'back to school' decoration.

First Day of School

 

Hart's first day of 2nd grade.

Hope's first day of 4th grade.

Tate's first day of his last year at home with Mom.

 It's all I can do not to run after the bus yelling,

"STOP, STOP!  I need one more day of summer with them!"

Brett and Paige headed to high school.

Brett is a sophomore and Paige is a freshman.

What will we do all by ourselves?

GO TO THE PARK!