Midweek Confessions, Part Deux

Time to blow the dust off this ole' blog, and what better way to do that than some Midweek Confessions? Hey if that's the only thing that gets me blogging at the moment, then I'll take it. My philosophy in life is to appreciate the small victories... or try to. So for this week, writing a post instead of just reading other peoples' posts and wishing I was writing a post will have to do. I think I just confused myself.

Let the confessing commence! Here are my top 5 confessions of the week:

1. I have static cling in my skirt this morning. I'm pretty certain I walked through the entire office with more of my back side showing than the law allows. Good thing I was the only one there.

2. O laundry, how I loathe thee. I recently discovered that it is better for me to do a small load of laundry every couple of days than it is for me to wait an entire week to do laundry. If I wait the whole week to do laundry, then I will likely let it pile up for another week and another week and...you get the point. At this point, I've got at least a week's worth of laundry to catch up on. Ugh.

3. Last night my husband pointed out that I was listening to Incubus while reading an assigned reading for my the religion class that I'm auditing. Apparently, in his eyes anyways, listening to Incubus while studying the Torah is ironic.

4. The word nerd in me went to look up the correct use of the word "ironic" (see confession above). Apparently, my use of the word is not accurate. Did you know that many scholars consider the word "ironic"  to be the most abused word in the English language? Isn't that ironic? Don't you think? *Sing it with me, people.*

5. My office is currently a disaster. It's not like it isn't anything other than a disaster on a regular basis, it's just that I'm noticing what a terrible disaster it actually is today. Perhaps I should be cleaning instead of blogging. Nah!

Have a great week, friends!

Midweek Confessions

This is my first attempt at a Midweek Confessions blog post. I was recently introduced to the E,Myself,&I blog and have found it quite entertaining. I love the Midweek Confessions post that Elizabeth posts on Wednesdays. This week, I thought I would jump in on the fun. So here's my top 5 confessions:

1. Apparently, my desk is the collection point for all paper in the universe. It's like an endless pile. The more I clean, the more paper shows up. Where does it all come from?

2. I am a paper pack rat. See confession above. However, I am convinced that this could not possibly be all my paper.

3. I have this volunteer at work - we'll call her the "sleeping giant" (S.G. for short). S.G. is a very nice person, but due to medical reasons, she falls asleep and snores...really loudly. While she's very nice (did I emphasize that enough?) and volunteering in the office is very kind of her, I can't help but snicker when she snores.

4.I might have a small habit of comparing people to movie/cartoon characters. See confession above. For instance, I once nicknamed an office I worked in the Death Star and proceeded to give everyone Star Wars character names and refer to our staff meetings as the Imperial Senate.

5. The grocery chain Trader Joe's has finally made their may to Texas! I have heard so many great things about this store. As a family in ministry, we're not exactly raking in the dough, so we are always most of the time looking for ways to eat healthy healthier. The store is on the other side of town, so we're going to make a day of going down to check it out. Hopefully, our groceries will make it home before they melt in this crazy heat!

Blessings!

I Heart Mondays

Monday. The day of the week that most people could do without. But I <3 Mondays. Want to know why? Because I get to do my third favorite thing in the world every Monday evening from 7pm - 9pm CST. What's my third favorite thing in the whole wide world, you ask. It's hosting the IllumiNATION Radio show on the Fishbowl Radio Network!

The hubs and I have hosted 8 shows so far, and it's been a total blast! I love it. I especially love getting to work with my hubby, talk about Jesus and our ministry, and play some amazing rock music (of course). We have fun spotlighting other ministries and talking about topics relevant to faith and culture. 

This is a true blessing, something I truly enjoy (even in the stressful moments of show prep). In all that we do, my prayer is this from Ephesians 6:19 :

 "that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel..."

32

I recently turned 32. 32 is one of those ages that you never imagine reaching when you are a kid. It might as well have been 102 back in those days. The funny thing about being 32 is that I'm still young enough to look in the mirror and see a teenager staring back at me. Is that weird? In my mind, especially when I'm around my parents, I feel like I'm still 16 or 17 just enjoying life. Then my 7 year-old bursts in and that delusion is quickly gone, but I still don't feel 32.

I've been thinking a lot about life and what direction it is taking. We spend our youthful lives wondering what we are going to be when we grow up. At 32, I'm still wondering. I get glimmers of it here and there. To be honest, I'm doing things I never dreamed I'd be doing - being a wife and mom, ministry work, promoting concerts, hosting a radio show. It's already beyond my wildest dreams, and I dreamed up some pretty darn crazy stuff  back in the day.


I'm glad God saw fit to repair my brokenness, to move me out of my comfort zone on so many levels, and to make life more extraordinary than I could have imagined. If none of this had happened, I would probably still be waiting.

I guess the point of this little post, is that life is more about the journey than the destination. If you're waiting for something to happen, chances are you will be waiting a really long time. Time is a commodity that we can't afford to waste. It flashes in an instant and passes you by so quickly. You can't get back the moments that are wasted, you can only move forward to make new ones.

You know what else I'm learning about myself? I would much rather do a little bit of laundry every day, then have to do 150 loads of laundry at the end of the week...but that's for another post.

Blessings!

Love At First Sight

Today is a special day. The Dude turns 7. I can't believe it's been 7 years since he burst into our lives...Ok, he didn't burst so much as he took his sweet time (24 hours to the minute) to get here. In the end, it took a funny looking doctor and 2 pairs of ice cream scoops to coax him out. But it was all so worth it!

That's the funny thing about motherhood. No matter what pain you have gone through to get your bundle of joy out into the world, it all melts away the moment you see that little life for the very first time. Now I'm certain this is probably part of God's amazing human creation and how our momma  hormones work, but I'm also convinced that it is the ultimate love at first sight.

I fell in love the moment I knew this boy was in my belly, but I was head over heels when I got to hold him for the very first time.

He's not that little baby anymore. In fact he's gone from calling me mommy to calling me mom. He's learning and growing more each day. He's thinking about what kind of man he is going to grow up to be. I love him more with every new thing I learn about him. He's quirky and fun, sweet and lovely, stubborn and smart. He's full of adventure and wonder. He's all boy!

Happy Birthday, C5!

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time in a land far away....
I...

Met this guy...

And we started on a great adventure together (yep, that's the courthouse)...

Along the way, we added someone fun to join us on this journey...

Our journey has taken us many places, but as long we're together...

That's what counts!

God has blessed me with some awesome guys! I love these guys, and can't imagine my life without them. They are a true blessing and make me want to grow each day to be a better person - woman - wife - mom. 

Random Acts of Craftiness

Many people that know me know that one of my favorite things to do is to "be crafty". I enjoy creating things. Being creative is almost like a spiritual thing for me. God has a pretty creative spirit if you count the world and stuff. There are times that it's as if I'm bursting to make something. Sometimes for other people. Sometimes to get the idea out of my head and into my hands. Being creative is joy and madness all rolled into one...or maybe that's just the way it is for me. I love the excitement of making something new and the surprise of how it turns out in the end. Will it be amazing or will it be a total flop? I have had a little of both over the years.

This is a picture of a project that I worked on recently (and will soon be working on again).

The way that this project came about is really the tale of two bands and one special friend, all of which have inspired me along the way. During the month of December the hubby and I embarked on a new journey with Ten Talents Ministry. We promoted and went on our first tour. It was a local tour with a few dates that was called the Winter Chill Tour. It was exciting because we got to be on the other end of concert promoting, but that's a subject for another blog. The headlining band for the tour was an awesome band called Ilia.

Check out their song, We Were Shipwrecks.

The ladies in Ilia had some really great handmade wooden Christmas ornaments. I fell in love instantly and knew we would be "ilia-fying" our tree for Christmas. I've been making Christmas ornaments for a few years now, and I enjoyed the organic look of the wooden ornaments. This got my creative juices flowing, and I had to find out how to transfer images to wood. Turns out, it's a fairly easy process if you are patient...not exactly my best quality. There are multiple methods, but I finally found one that suited me (unfortunately, the link is no longer working or I would happily share).

As Christmas was quickly approaching, I wanted to give a gift to a dear friend of ours who has been an encouragement to both me and Chas. She is a fabulous person. The kind of person that you instantly like. Perhaps it's our common love of Christian rock music or the show Castle. I don't know. All I know is that I wanted to give her something out of the norm. Then it totally hit me! Don't Wake Aislin, an amazing local DFW band who had performed at one of the Winter Chill shows and favorite of my friend, released an epic self-titled EP earlier in the year with the most beautiful artwork in the cover. I took all six pictures from inside the jacket, did a little of this and a little of that, and created six 6"x6" wooden tiles. Thankfully, I have a dad who has a workshop and always has wood scraps lying around. It was such a fun project, that I've been transferring all sorts of pictures to wood, including transferring family pictures to small pieces of wood to use as creative gift tags.

Check out the video for Don't Wake Aislin's single, Through the Oppression of the Wicked.

Blessings!