Monday, March 26, 2012

Nature surrounds us, why not use it?

This whole week whenever I walk past the living room window, I am just blown away at how awesome this bush is:

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Now don’t let the picture fool you, the yellow is super bright! I’m still learning how to enhance photos, so hopefully soon I’ll be able to post better looking pictures.  Here is an up close shot:

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I decided that I wanted to have some of that yellow happiness in my house, so I got a vase, clippers, and got to work.  I cut off some pretty long branches and adjusted them in the vase. 

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It looks great!  I’m going to make sure and do this for every season! We have a Hawthorne tree in the backyard, so in the fall it will make a fantastic center piece!  Have you ever used nature in your area to make something pretty for your home?  Post a photo or link in the comment section. I’d love to hear and see about your nature crafty moments!

Lisa

Saturday, March 24, 2012

I’m completely mental.

It’s been a tough mental week. Meaning, I’ve had a hard time staying on the positive side of things and in turn it becomes a battle of the mind.  On top of that I’ve also been learning that I’m a bitch selfish and a control freak.  But let’s cover one thing at a time.

So.  Jeremy has been unemployed for almost a year now. It sucks. I really miss being able to go to Joanne’s Fabric and spending 40 bucks on material, baskets, and crafty things.  (Pardon my complaining, but you chose to read this. Take it as you will. Hehehe.) I miss going grocery shopping and not freaking out if the bill is over $50.  I hate being behind a month on certain bills.  I also hate that we never know if Jeremy’s unemployment checks will go through.  For instance, we usually get deposits for two weeks worth on Thursdays. This week, he only got payment for one weeks worth.  Lovely.  We’re back to this not knowing crap  business.  So here’s where the battle comes in play.  There are lots of friends around us who are getting promotion in jobs, and  we. are. struggling. It’s very hard to be happy for them (which we truly are), while we are facing such a hard time. It’s a difficult thing to step over the huge elephant and pick up your pity party, and just walk on.  Usually I can do okay with walking on. But this time, it just got the best of me, and I dawdled in my pity party for a while. It’s not at all pleasant.  It’s an ugly feeling.  The enemy had a field day with it, and he won a 1st place ribbon.  But guess what? He cheated. So it doesn’t count.  I’m really happy for my friends who got their promotions, and I know the Lord hasn’t forgotten us.  Something is waiting in the wings for us, and I know it will be great.  On the way to work Friday, I was told prompted  to think of all of the things in my life that are blessings, and you know what?  They WAY outnumbered the puny things I think are negative.  So I brushed off the negative, and now look to the positive blessings.  Lesson learned.

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Control Freak.  Yes, that’s me.  The Lord has graciously helped me to see that I am a total control freak!  I never realized it before!  And what goes hand in hand with being a bitch control freak?  Being selfish!  Oye!  I’m trying to think of an instance that I can post here without hurting anyone’s feelings. *chirp, chirp*  * chirp, chirp*   Okay got it.  (And this is a miniscule instance. There are other substantial situations.) I was running the lights at church last weekend, and the trash bin in the sound booth stunk like a vomited in toilet to high heaven!  I took it to the kitchen and washed it out after service to rid it of the stench. I grabbed a trash bag, and put the bin back in its designated spot.  I hung the bag over the side and taped a note to the trash bin saying “I will line this tomorrow, it’s wet and drying out.” – Lisa K.  So I get to church the next morning, and what do I see? Someone threw away my note and lined the trash can with the bag.  This totally pissed me off irritated me!  I was thinking to myself “Can people not read??  I said I would do it!!!!!”  So because I was not in control of the situation, and didn’t get to finish out my plan, I was pissed offended!  I sat down at the light board, with steam coming out of my ears.  After a minute, the Lord stopped me and told me to chill the hell out showed me that someone did it so that I didn’t have to.   I should have been thankful, but no. I took offense to it.  I’m  glad I’ve been shown the areas that I’ve been selfish and bitchy control freakish.  I don’t want to be that person.  It’s wasted energy to be a control freak, and there are other areas in my life where I can put that kind of energy. Lesson learned.

 

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I’d love to see some comments posted here.  Let me know if you’ve dealt with a challenge this week and if so, how you did you repent change your ways?  I believe we all can learn from each other and how we handle things. 

That’s enough for this week.  I was going to apologize for making such a downer of a post. But you know what? I’m not sorry. It’s my life, and I’m still a princess regardless.

Lisa

P.S. As I was finishing up this post, this song came on, and I just LOVE it!!!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Getting into the habit…

As you all may recall, in my last post I said I’d post a picture of the dump cake I made.  Well, that didn’t happen. Apparently I got up from the computer and my brain switched thought processes, and I failed to take a picture of it. Booooo!  I’ve got to get into the habit of taking before and after photos!  I totally re-organized my bathroom cabinet.  I even planned out ahead of time to take the before mess photo, and the after cuteness photo.

Well. All you get are the after shots.

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I saw this fantastic idea on an organization blog called Delightful Order.  She’s got some great ideas in her blog!  I went to the Dollar tree and got the pink baskets, and I made labels with  Microsoft Excel, and then I cut those out and glued them to cute scrapbooking paper.  To finish I punched a hole in the label and tied a ribbon through the holes. It looks SO much nicer than  having a bunch of stuff just sitting on the shelves.  I’ll say almost every time I go into the bathroom now I have to open the cabinet to check out the cuteness of the baskets!  Lol!

Another project I did  was the baking cabinet.  I’m not all the way done, but I will post a semi-before picture….

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Again I got the containers from Dollar Tree, and used the Excel program to make labels. I’m just learning how to do the labels from a tutorial at another awesome organization blog called I heart organizing.   I used contact paper from the Dollar Tree to stick the labels on. (All those years of labeling shelves at KinderCare are paying off! Lol!)  Like I said, I still have to finish this project, and I’ll be sure to take photos of it in the end. 

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Seth went up to a Youth Retreat in Estes Park this weekend  so my Mom and Dad came down and took me to lunch at Q-doba before they had to pick him up at the church. (Jeremy was also up there running sound, so I was a bachelorette all weekend! ) When we walked in I was SO excited because there was a huge sign that said “We have whole wheat tortillas”!  YES!  Finally!  I opted to get a naked burrito this time, because I kind of want Jeremy to be the wheat tortilla tester. Sometimes they just aren’t good, and he’ll usually eat any kind of wheat thing.  I’ll give a review next time we go.

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Most of you know that I’m a Preschool teacher.  I really like the group of talented teachers I’m blessed to work with!  Something that I LOVE about our school is the integration of special needs children. Even though those kiddos have a lot against them, they are welcomed into our classrooms and get the opportunity to function, learn,  and explore just as any ordinary child would.  I just watched a movie called  A Smile as Big as the Moon. It’s set in 1989, and is about a teacher who successfully petitions for his class of special needs students to get into Space Camp. I was smiling several time through the movie seeing the successes of these kids in a situation where they were expected to fail!  We’ve come a long way in the way we view and treat kiddos with special needs.  After seeing this movie, it just fuels the fire of knowing  how great our program is!  Find the movie and watch it!

*I hope that I’ve worded everything here correctly!

 

Cheers,

 

Lisa