perspective

life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. 

so love the people who treat you right and forget the ones who don't and believe everything happens for a reason. 

if you get a chance, take it. if it changes your life, let it. 

nobody said that it'd be easy, just that it would be worth it.

~anonymous

So, I sold my car. the hillbilly limo. I hated this car. way too big, silly really for Bo and I to be driving around to get groceries. But Matt, oh he loved it.

It seats eight people. I will admit I drove it with eight people in it to go to Charity's house in Iowa...one time. It worked out better than expected. Anyway, Matt said last Tuesday nite "if you hate it so much, advertise it!" So I did. And now I am car-less way earlier than I thought I would be. And it stresses me out.

Matt and I went car shopping on Saturday. We drove one car, then it was 5 oclock and everyone closed. So we drove through every car lot in Peoria. We stopped by Menards and bought a toilet because ours broke. Then we ate the buffet at KFC. I was really mad that I didn't bring my camera. His buffet plates are legendary. I told him that you are allowed to go back up.

The thing is we had a lot of fun while we were out. Dates with Matt are fun, as long as you don't have to wait too long at a restaurant. That's his biggest pet peeve. But as soon as we got home, we went round and round on what to get and we disagree. Lots of mean things were said about fords, lots of mean things were said about everything that I like. We fought all Sunday about how much money, how many miles, how ugly, how cool, how hillbilly lots of cars were.

(Oh, and he did install my toilet but I'm going to have to save that disaster story for another post.)

Then I get this email from my sister. She says check out this blog! Sure, I love new blogs, especially ones with good pictures. WARNING: Do not read this blog until you can have a good cry.

http://www.beinthemomentphoto.com/blog/

I am praying for her. I'm praying for Leah. I'm praying for Mike & Sheri. 

I am so thankful.

time for coffee and comments

That's a coffee cozy. Ya like? Would you buy one from me if I made them? I got that mug at Border's this winter and it's easily one of my favorite mugs...mostly because of the lid. It keeps my coffee warm for a long time. But there's no handle and that cup gets hot. So problem solved.

But posts about coffee are boring, soooo......

I just wanted to let you all know that I've enjoyed getting to know some of you newbies around here! I've had quite a few new comments on the blog and some fun getting to talk to some new ones on facebook too.

If you have never clicked on any of the girls on my sidebar, you should!

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They are over there! 

I love reading about Jamie:) She is funny hilarious and she has a great story to tell of forgiveness.

Kinze is my sister in law. She's a huge supporter of me:) which obviously helps the friend situation out! Just KIDDING! There would be a big hole in my life without this girl. She recently started blogging more "real life".

This is Emily. She's a momma of four and they are adopting! She's kinda crafty and has a fun blog too!

Do you know how to leave a comment here? Down there, below the "heart, Heather", it says there's "(however many) comments". Click it and leave yours. I live for comments:) Well, not really but Jamie wrote a really good post on how we need to be encouraging of each other and that's one way to show it!

Well, I've drank two cups now! I gotta get ready for the day...it's 9am already!

week 7

So last week's reading was a lot of directions on how to build the temple, the ark, the clothes of the priest. A lot of rules basically. Rules on how to give offerings...which offerings for which sins. Rules on what to eat and what not to eat.

But I'm going to focus on the first part - the building of the temple and the ark and the clothes - this week.

God is so awesome to include this in the Bible. Well, He's awesome anyway. But this time it's like those pages were meant to speak to me. Now don't get me wrong...a lot of it was boooring. But so is sewing pattern reading (I think anyway). In order for something that we make to come out right, we have to follow a pattern.  We have to read it. We have to learn it. We have to follow the directions in order to get it right.

And almost everytime that I've thought I can do it better than that pattern, it comes out wonky. And let's face it, wonky isn't good enough for God. Thank goodness Jesus is as far from wonky as it gets. Praise Him for wanting to share that perfectness with me.

am I the only one?

I had troubles with this block! It's for my flickr group (remember? click here)



It looked like such an easy block! And really it was. It's just I obviously don't know the seam allowance settings on my sewing machine. Because when I finished this block the first time...oh yes, I said the first time...it ended up an inch and a half too short!



See all those seams? I had to rip them all out. argh! I was not happy. But I did it and finished it again.

I'm actually pleased with how it came out this time! Hope you like it Skye! Oh, and I did not trim it up for risk of screwing it up again! I'll leave that to you!

date nite with the boys

Friday was a good day. Matt decided to go to the farm show in another state that morning. He left by six. Bo and I put Slone on the bus by 7:15. Then we played and got ready for speech. This is what I wore...



I had Bo screened for preschool and they said he might need some help with speech. He can't say his {s} sound. He's just being evaluated now. We have a meeting this week to see if he needs to go for lessons this year. He wants his hair "pikie up" for speech:) (remember he can't say his s's)



Since Matt was gone, the boys and I had a date nite! We went to see Gnomeo and Juliet. It was cute. A lot of kissing for my boys. Bo was ready to go by the middle of it. But he's not really one for movies or tv...too short of an attention span:)



Then we hit up Steak and Shake and Borders. It was a pretty fun evening! What'd you do this weekend?

week 6

Always complaining....the Israelites. Did you think I meant me? Well, I did, I guess. I had this conversation with Lyn yesterday.

Why aren't we (as people in general) ever satisfied? I guess we could blame it on our society, but the society in 1500 BC was quite different and they were never satisfied. In Exodus 16, they were delivered from slavery of the Egyptians but told God they'd rather have had Him kill them in Egypt than let them starve free. Whoa, talk about ungrateful.

So God gave them manna. Then they couldn't even follow the rules on how to gather it. Then it became too dull for them. Then they wanted meat. The whole time God was providing for them, and they were ungrateful.

I think about my life. I have probably one of the most hardworking men in the state as my husband, and I complain about him not always spending time with us. But I easily walk out the door and spend way to much at target on a monthly weekly basis.
I have a decent house that keeps me warm, is bigger than the last one, and is comfortable, but I want a newer bigger one.
I complain about my children whining, fighting, and acting like boys, but they are healthy.

By Exodus 32, the Israelites are so delirious, they decide to build a golden calf. All I can say is guilty. There are tons of things that get in the way of my relationship with God. Aren't they really idols if they are in the way?

But Moses intervened for them. Sound familiar? Jesus did for us...for me. Even if I were the one last sinner, He would've died for me. He says so in John.

I going to try to put the complaining behind me. Move on, head up, and happy today:)

Valentines

Slone needs Valentines for school on Monday. And a box to put the valentines in (that we still have to make). We are going to do that this weekend. But I thought ahead on the actual cards this year.

First, I took some pics of him. And I did some of Bo, because they have little cousins that they could give them to (and the grandmas like them too:). I can't claim to have thought of this on my own. I've seen it around quite a bit in bloggie world for the last year or two. So many times that I'm not sure who to credit.

There is also this really cool shop that sells photoshop templates called ewcouture. If you follow them on facebook, they post links to free downloads a lot!  They posted some valentine ones last week...my lucky day! (if you don't have photoshop, or have no idea what a template is, just ignore this paragraph)

So here's what we ended up with.



Slone thought they were so cool. His teacher asked that the kids write their own names and all the other kids' names on them. He did that on the back of them before we put the suckers in them.

I used a regular old hole punch for the holes. But on both the boys card, I'm going to have to use something else because the punch doesn't reach far enough in.

Here's the both of them. Notice Phineas also made it in the picture. He and Ferb are the favorites around here lately. This pic really cracks me up though. Such good sports to do what mommy asks!



Happy Valentine's Day!

this cute kid

He's four. He had his birthday party last Saturday. He also got to go with his dad to the semi truck show. That's where he got his face painted. I also want to let you know that if I would have brought him home with that on his face, his dad wouldn't have been happy about it. Maybe Matt is lightening up? Let's hope so.

readin' cards

more transformers

Have a great Thursday!

week 5

Well, I missed week 4! I read but didn't post. Did you finish Job? What did you think of God's response to Job? I really like how Job's story ends..."Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life." Job 42:17

Then I moved on to Moses. I love the stories in the first five books of the Bible. I think it comes from a Sunday school book that we studied when I was in junior high. I can't remember how long we had that book but we went through everything in Genesis through Deuteronomy. I wish I still had that study book.

I love the story of Moses! I love how his mother crafted a basket to set him off in. I love how Miriam followed him. I love that the princess took him in, and Miriam had enough guts to tell her about her own mother. I love that he screwed up HUGE! (just so I don't feel so bad about myself.) I love that he didn't have enough guts to come back and speak, that he thought he couldn't do it. I love that he did it eventually.

creativity

comes to those who seek it.

I saw this poster on etsy. (click creativity to go to the shop)




And I loved it. But I knew I could do something like that myself. And this country kitchen sign in my kitchen came to mind. I had previous ideas of painting over it but had never found the right inspiration.



First I just painted over it with some latex wall paint that I had left over from before. Then I cut out some colored paper and decoupaged it across the canvas.



Then to measure out my spacing for the rest of the words, I stamped them on a scrap sheet of paper. I really liked the way they laid out and decided to do a pencil transfer on to the canvas instead of trying to freehand it.

To do a pencil transfer, you need to trace the outline of the letters on the back of the paper with a pencil. Then place you marked paper on the canvas with pencil marks facing down. Then I used my fingernail to press down to get the pencil to come off on the canvas. That way I just used my sharpie to fill all the letters in.



So what do you think? I personally think it looks really cool over our art/school board. Both boys noticed it right away and wanted to know what it said. I hope they end up wanting to be creative.

groundhog's day

My little groundhog turned 4 years old today! It seems like Bo was just born. It was bitterly cold the year he was born. I remember the nurse helping me out of the hospital with him, then she felt sorry for me because Matt came and picked me up in the truck. (If you know my husband, he doesn't drive little trucks.) And I had had a c-section with Bo. It was a high step and a bumpy ride home.

This year, it started snowing on February 1st. And it didn't stop. They say we got 15 inches. Plus the wind was around 40-50 mph. That equals a lot of drifts and a husband that has some fun playing snow-plower. (He's still not home.)



We went out and played for awhile today. It was actually a lot of fun. One of the drifts in our yard came up to my hips!



We even had to go out the front door, because the back door was drifted shut! Here is Slone trying to dig out the buried shovel and Bo is laying on a drift that's level with our third step:)



Oh well, tomorrow is another snow day...the third snow day in a row. I haven't been anywhere since Monday. I went to Walmart. Almost got cussed out by a man because I ran over his foot. When people are driving their carts three lanes wide down an aisle, do not get down on your knee when I am behind you! I promise I thought I was past him!

Happy snow daze!