Hope Farm Housewife

I heart valentines day. The simplicity of celebrating the ones I love and the season of love warm my heart. The Bible has so much to say about love: “Above all virtues put on love” “If  I have not love them I am a clanging symbol” “but the greatest of these is love”. 1 Corinthians 13;1,13

This year I wanted to do some family activities to demonstrate how to intentionally show love to one another. This topic has made some great meal time discussion! It also stepped on my toes as I evaluated whether my boys observe me showing intentional, unconditional love to their father. Which do they hear more often in my voice- love, frustration- nagging? not an easy question to ponder. One way we are going to increase our demonstration of love is by composing notes for the Lewis Love Mail Center which we constructed together this week. Since the boys aren’t avid writers yet I purchased lots of stamps: letters, phrases and symbols.

Dislaimer: This is not really a step by step tutorial or DIY- as I am not highly skilled in that area- Secret- I don’t follow recipes.  However I do hope it brings inspiration and a wealth of ideas into your mind!

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1. I bought tons of fun valentine makings at the dollar sections of Target and Michaels. The boys had a ball using these heart punchers to cut hearts out of fun paper.

2. I tried the large white newsprint paper for the heart bags but it was too flimsy. so I used what is becoming one of my favorite crafting items: Paper bags from the grocery store!

3. The mister and I cut out the bags, stapled them and loaded the table with glue, crazy scissors, stickers,a bowl full of heart punch- outs and stamps.

4. Look at the cute little fingers just-a-creating. They really enjoyed this. They were so engaged.

Next we hung them up on our newly made artwork display. I had an empty spot on the wall and I simply got a large yardstick from Lowes, (.59 cents) painted it, painted wooden clothespins and hot glued them and then attached to the wall. This has been a great place to display art and school work.

The boys loved stamping and delivering notes at the Lewis Land Mail Center.

I know all of this might sound cheesey but it has been crazy rainy and cold down here in south Georgia and this project saved a few crazy afternoons. I am still in awe of the mood changes that occur when we decide to do an art or craft project. I mentioned that in my last blog post: hand-made -Hope.

and so I close with a few pics of those I love the most crafting their heart out. Oh Wait- is that my HubbyLove cutting out hearts?  I do believe I heard him say these things ” Hey, where is the Bee- Mine Stamp ?”,  ” Wasn’t there a bird stamp?”  ” Oh stamps are so fun”.

Yes, even the songwriting-recording genius of the house enjoyed a little crafting.  P.S. if you do anything like this in your home please do share, I enjoy seeing others ideas. Happy Monday!

I stopped by my sisters house yesterday, I could tell she was a little sad and I later learned that the day had brought a bit of disapointment.  Within five minutes of my arrival, she and I were throwing out new ideas left and right,  she showed me all of her new creations. We talked about visions and goals, some really neat insights about what the Holy Spirit was doing in and through his people by way of creativity.

Then I noticed something was happening. The mood and general sadness was lifting and excitement was abounding. Creating is good for the soul. The one thing to remember is that perfection is a key to keeping you locked up. Let it go. I have some creations I would never let anyone see-they are that bad! But I guarantee it was therapeutic for me when I was creating it.

Here are some things my sis has been making.  A logo and website are on their way for Honey B. designs.

1. hand- stamped, hand sewn, burlap sack pillow. I love the verse and I really want to keep this for my porch!

2. Mr. and Mrs. Pillow- she made this for a wedding gift.

3. hand- made earring display. I got one of these for Christmas and it is very useful- plus it looks nice on the wall.

4. a cute little burlap hand purse with a precious yellow flowered birdie on the corner.

She made these cute tags and tied them with jute string and dried oranges. They were adorable!

Here are a few things I made for Christmas gifts…

glitter starlit head wrap on satin ribbon. You can’t see the glimmers but they are there.

We hand sculpted and baked these doves, making them into pens. They went to teachers and some grandmothers and mothers.  The dove was so special and meaningful this year.

Last year, I was planning to make some burlap wreaths, I was inspired by this post from tater tots and Jello in January 2010.  Life happened and this project didn’t until November 2010.

The Prestons- The Sis and Bro-in-law: I asked them what theme they would like for the front door, they said the world since they feel called to missions. So this is what we came up,  lil sis specifically asked for the burlap to be messy.

The Tuckers-The bro and sis-in-law: My bro stated that the New York skyline best described them and would be great for their front door. I laughed and said ” I don’t think we can do that”. The hubby overheard me and said ” sure, we can”. so we did. My brother and sister in law were engaged in New York and it is a very special place to them. They are only 2-3 hour from the windy city-  making romantic day trips possible… how nice.

If you are reading this and think I can’t create things, let  me ask you if you are capable of following a recipe? If you answered yes,  I challenge you to search the web for do it yourself projects. Go buy the materials and follow the tutorial. You will proud that you made something and it will give you confidence to make more! Happy Friday…..

I composed an ever-so-long book list for 2010, but only read about halfway through the list because I kept finding other books along the way that I wanted to read. While I want to continue reading in 2011 I don’t want to make another mile long list of what to read. I have enough books around the house I’d like to read, so I thought to keep the goal simple: read one book a month – 12 books total – and whatever I feel led or desire to read! Without further ado I shall attempt to present my first completed book of 2011 in summary.

The Book: Women on the Front Lines: A Call to Courage
The Author: Michal Ann Goll

This book is part of a 3-part series: Women on the front Lines, also containing “A Call to Courage” and “A Call to the Secret Place”. While in Nashville this past summer I purchased the whole series. These books were on the want-to-purchase mental list for a while, partially because I have the privlidge of knowing the Goll family in a special way. On August 14, 2010, my brother married the youngest Goll, Rachel. Rachel’s father, James is the founder of the Encounter Network and has authored more than 30 books. His wife was the founder of Compassion Acts, and a speaker and author as well. Michel Ann has graduated to be with the Lord, so these books are extraordinarily meaningful to me.

“Women on the Front Lines: A Call to Courage” is different from other spiritual books directed towards women that I’ve read, as it outlines the life of nine amazing women: Vibia Perpetua, Joan of Arc, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Aimee Semple Mcpherson, Lydia Prince, Bertha Smith, Corrie Ten Boon and Jackie Pullinger.

I have always appreciated biographies, and the author’s biographical approach did not disappoint. These women had several points of commonality that I correlated with:

1. They all lived in a time or country that did not endorse women leaders or influencers, yet each of them fiercely influenced and led in a mighty way.

2. Each of them had points of total dependence on the Lord. They each had to give up all dependence in order to hear the voice of the Lord.

3. They each had moments of revelation where they knew the Lord was calling them to mighty kingdom work.

4. They all experienced dreams and or visions that served as foreshadowing for what was to come in their lives. Some of the women even found theirselves in very familiar situation and then remembered they had seen that scene in a vision or dream. This served as confirmation that they were in God’s perfect will.

This book also contains three chapters outlining the author’s personal journey of overcoming fear, embracing the call and adorning herself with courage. The last two chapters are a challenge to women to seize the day do what the Lord has put in our hearts to do.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Don’t let your fears stand in the way of your dreams”

“Courage arises out of knowing who God is and who we are in relation to him”

“God is revealed and glorified in your weakness”

I was greatly moved by Michel Ann’s description of a hero:  She said “…a hero is someone who breaks through a barrier in one generation so that another people, another generation can go even further. Once someone proves that something can be done, it creates an environment of the possible, an impartation of hope and possibility that enables others to do it. It is a natural principle.  If you are going to accept your calling as a hero, you must be prepared to live vicariously. That is you must be ready to live your lives for the sake of others”.

This confronted me. I will ponder these words for a long while to come.

It was a normal bed-time routine. I told both boys to grab a book and snuggle with me on the bed. My oldest child asked if I had any Valentine books that I could get out. He stated that since the Christmas books had been put away there were no kid books in living room.  I agreed that I would bring the Valentine books out even if it was a bit early.

The “February” book bag had four books in it. Amidst the titles were two of my favorite Children’s books: The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and Love you Forever by Robert Munsch.  Love you Forever is a regular in our reading repertoire. We had multiple copies so I stuck the extra in the bag, since it depicts the cycle of life and love so flawlessly.

Let’s just say I did not hold back any ounce of feeling while reading this story. It was a perfect moment with both offspring nestled on either side of me. As I read and sang the song the boys exuded beautiful expressions of love for me. They even laughed about the wild two year old in the bathroom- we recounted stories of when they had in fact been that terrible, two year old. We gawked at the unruly teenager who left handprints on his mothers cabinets. Then it was time to sing the lullaby:

I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be

Kenimer stopped me with these words  “That is a really pretty song you sing to me, Now I want to sing this to you”…  In the sweetest tone he sang:

I love you forever- My Mommy

I like you always- My Mommy

Because you always take care of me- and Tucker too.

And Daddy takes care of us too. I love you both.

My mommy you’ll be.

Then he leaned over and gave me the most tender Kiss. I held back tears and then we lept into a conversation about kids growing up to take care of their parents.

Kisses. Hugs. Two little boys tucked in. Lights out.

Ten minutes later the eldest boy walks into the kitchen.

“You said I can only get up to go pee pee or poo poo or if I am hurt. Well, I am hurt.” It appeared his knee was bothering him. I prayed for his knee. Hugged him and as he was leaving he said

“Mommy, I don’t want to let you down”.

I calmly asked him what he meant and he started to tell me about the prodigal son story he had heard Sunday. He did not want to be like that son. He said “I know if I’m bad you will still love me, but I really hope I don’t let you down.” The conversation was deep, heavy, tender and loving all at once.

This was three nights ago and I cannot help but feel that was one of the sweetest nights of all my mothering history. I am Thankful , Thankful, Thankful for the awesome and humbling job and Title of “ Mother”.

Lastly- If you have never read “ love you forever” Go buy it even if you do not have kids. You will be glad you did.

This blog post is dedicated in part to the husb. The handyman. The mister.  etc. etc.  He seems to enjoy the fact that I sometimes show off his handywork. He has asked me several times if I ever blogged about the entertainment center he built. He has asked more than once indicating it is important for his manly ego. I love it when he builds stuff for me after I make the– This is absolute necessity case. Therefore I want to keep it coming and hence this blog post is born.

Also- I am having problems with retrieval of pics at the moment. This is hindering several blog posts.  The hard drive has a doctor app. with the specialist on Thursday, hopefully he can fix her right up.  Finding these pics on my desktop tonight inspired this post!

The before pic is a bit embarrassing. The bottom of the cart was not always so messy:)  Every time I put a DVD on for the kids I realize how blessed I am to have this custom piece. I drew out exactly what i needed in a entertainment center everything from height so the kids cannot reach controls to a place to store the DJembe and other music stuff.

Speaking of music and my husband. We have some exciting things we are walking towards in 2011.  In an effort to share music- Shannon has picked four songs and is offering them for free download on noisetrade.com Please feel free to pass it along to as many people as you would like.

www.noisetrade.com/saintlewis