Hard Love Hurts, Its Hard

This is my second time posting with the Five Minute Friday.  You can read about it at The Gypsy Mama.  The rules write about the topic for 5 minutes, no editing.  The topic this week is The Hard Love.

Ready, Go.

As I think about this weeks topic, it hurts.  It hurts because right now my family is experiencing this very truth.  Hard love is just that, it is hard and it does hurt.  God shows us hard love.  God is full of grace and mercy, but his love is hard.  It is held to a standard of truth, right and wrong.  Hard love is when we show our love by giving/telling the righteous truth, God's truth even when it may be painful to give or to receive.  We love so much that we are willing to go outside of our comfort zone to make sure the other knows we love, we care and we want to save them from the impending danger even if this will put us out or cause ridicule and un-fair judgment on ourselves.  God is our example to hard love.  He loves us, but he will not tolerate sin and though he loves us if we do not receive his Son, if we reject him, there will come a time when he will reject us. "Depart from me for I never knew you."
Matthew 7:23 "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Done

Some Things I've Been Working On

I have been dying to get these done, but I needed to get a couple things from the store and I was refusing to make a trip just for this.  With gas prices so high I am trying extra hard to consolidate my shopping trips and believe me waiting wasn't easy.   So what did I do.  I turned these:

 Into These Silhouettes:

 This was a fun and easy project.  First I painted the plates with paint leftover from painting the living room.  Then I used Mod Podge to apply the tissue paper (this paper came with a wedding gift from over 7 years ago. Yes I tend to hang onto things) to the painted plate.  Don't forget to let them dry in between steps!  The next step should have been easy, but my printer is weird and only does what it wants to do when it wants to do it.  You should be able to pick out a photo of the desired subject or take a photo and print it out the size you want it.  Cut out the silhouette. (If you have printer issues here is what I did. I pulled up the picture on my computer, viewed it in the size I wanted and then very gently traced the outline onto paper. Then cut it out.)  After cutting out the silhouette, Mod Podge it.  Once I had the silhouettes Mod Podged I did a final cover with tinted Mod Podge.  I tinted it with a very tiny dot of dark brown craft paint.  This gave my finished product the aged look that I was wanting.  It is very important to realize that you do not need much at all of the paint.  I did not like my first finished project.  I originally used white paper.  Sometimes my envisioner doesn't work.  In other words things don't always turn out how I envision them in my mind.  Fixing it was no problem, though.  I took black craft paint, a toothpick and small thin paintbrush and very carefully painted the silhouette black.  After the paint dried I put another coat of Mod Podge over the silhouette.  I am loving these.  They hang in my bedroom on either side of my bathroom doors.


Next up is this sundress I made for Princess.  She loves it!  I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

 Just for fun here is a pic of my handsome curious little man.

5 Minute Fridays -- On Distance

I found The Gypsy Mama through Kelly's Plain Path, my dear friend who got me started into blogging. Love you Kelly.  The idea is to write about the chosen topic for 5 minutes with  no editing. It sounded like fun, so I thought I would give it a go.  This weeks topic is "On Distance".






So here it goes.
I am no stranger to distance.  I grew up in a military family which means we moved and distance was placed between friends and family alike.  Being that I was so used to distance after graduating I went across the states to go to college.  Now that I am married and have a family of my own distance is still a big part of my life.  Some of my best friends are a good distance away and nowadays that distance doesn't have to be that far with the price of gas. My family is still distances away.  Most of my family is about 7-8 hours drive time away.  We do still get to see each other a lot compared to how often I saw my grandparents growing up.  No matter how far the distance is email, phone calls and facebook are able to help close the gap if only for moment in time.
I am reminded of another distance.  The distance of a lost soul from an ever loving God.  This distance is by far the worst and the saddest I can think of.  "For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son..."

There you have it.  My five minutes unedited.

Monsters for the Monster

Isn't this fabric adorable?  Roochie picked it out for his birthday outfit and I love it. I can't wait to get it finished! 

 

I got several things cut out yesterday.  I am not a fan of cutting so I prefer to cut several things out at once and then sew, sew, sew.   I am also working on other craft, decor items for my room.  I will share more photos when the projects are finished.

Extreme Couponing in Moderation

 My own little version of extreme couponing.  I tend to believe moderation is the key.  I love to get a good deal, but spending hours upon hours to get stuff for free or nearly free that I wouldn't normally buy or don't really need seems kind of crazy.  I like to fit my couponing and deal hunting into my life as a wife and mother and not the other way around.  I don't make 'special' trips just to get one deal.

 Yesterday we were meeting The Man for a lunch date, it had been a while since we've done this.  Since we were going to be in town anyway, I decided to check on some deals and go to one of my favorite bargain stops, Target.  So what did I find, but one of my best savings yet.  I purchased 1 gallon of coconut milk, 4 individual skittles packs and 2 wishbone dressings for a grand total of $1.88.  All this would have normally cost $13.16.  What a savings!  This was just one of my stops that I made.  Did you know that you can teach math while shopping your coupon deals?  My kids get so excited, they love finding coupons and quoting prices.  Even though this was an amazing deal, I would have to say the best deal of the day was getting to see The Man and having lunch together on a week day.

Homeschooling Myself

Am I the only one that finds I am learning as I am schooling my kiddos?  Currently we are reading through The Building on the Rock Series.  I love how God uses these stories not only to bring about more conversation of the things of God with the kiddos, but also to remind and encourage me of His greatness.

How God Used a Drought and an Umbrella - a short story that recently served as a reminder about faith.
There was a severe drought and  a special prayer service for rain was being held.  As the minister was approaching the church he noticed a little girl with an umbrella in her hand.  He asked her why she had an umbrella on such a hot day. Her reply was "We are going to ask God to send rain today. I want to be ready." 

I can't honestly say I have that strong of faith.  My prayer is that God will teach me stronger faith in my life. 

Yogurt or Jello...That is the Question

Our family loves coconut. Well I am always trying to find new ways to save money and make our food healthier.  I had been interested in making yogurt for a while, but all the ways I had seen either required a yogurt maker or were just too involved for me to take the plunge, until recently.  I was googling (my favorite pass time, it seems like there is always something to google) and came across this crockpot recipe. I made it, we loved, I kept making it.  Then I started thinking can I make coconut yogurt?  How would I make it simply add coconut flakes and honey or use coconut milk?  Of course I had to google and here is what I found a coconut milk yogurt recipe. I was excited to give it a try and surprise The Man with what was sure to be his favorite homemade yogurt yet.  What I didn't count on was being surprised myself.  So we are told that coconut milk yogurt will not firm up on its own and we need to add 3 packets of gelatin. When its time in the crock pot was up everything seemed right on so far, smelt like yogurt, but still runny.  I put in the fridge to cool and here is where the surprise came in.  When I came back to scoop some out it was a solid block of gel. Oops!  It taste great and I am definitely going to be tinkering with this recipe until it comes out like yogurt, but for the time being the kids and The Man are enjoying their coconut yogurt jello. Maybe I'm onto something.

One Productive Day!

Yesterday was not a good day.  Everything was off.  Half the day had passed by without me even realizing it, so of course we didn't get much done.  Today is a new day!  Filled with new hope and new opportunity.  I started today early despite the fact I was up past midnight last night waiting on the Man to finish his homework.  This morning went very smoothly.  We started our school lessons and moved from one subject to the next quite quickly.  We even did an extra math lesson and I think they would have done more if I let them.  After we finished up with school I had a choice to make, pick something off my to do list or The Man's to do list.  I chose to scratch a big to do off The Man's list.  He has been so busy lately and I had all this energy that came from who knows where.  I decided to clean up the yard.  I mean pick up trash, logs, pine cones (the never ending collection of pine cones) and mow front, side and back.  Our yard is no joke either we have just under a half acre.  I was feeling pretty good getting all that accomplished.  There is just something about a job well done.  As my afternoon and evening went on I noticed some things, I got sunburned and I have muscles I wasn't aware of. haha.  I guess it has been a while since I have done so much yard work.  Even after all that I still managed to get supper on the table and a couple dozen burritos in the freezer.  Yes today was a good day!  Thank you God for answering my prayer for a productive day.