If ever there was a reason to believe that we are beings made for eternity, it is how much we want to do every day. It is more than we could ever possibly do. I have made a hobby of reading time management books, and they all start with the same premise: you can't do it all. There will always be more to do, to read, to enjoy, to savor than we possibly can take in or give out any given 24 hours.

This fact can sometimes send me into panic mode. I want to grab up everything I hold dear and keep grabbing...more time, Lord. I need more time. I so want to do it all, and do it well.  And it sends me to my knees, this inability to keep all my plates spinning in the air, how I miss the sweet moment with my son because I'm distracted by the cobwebs in the den, how I neglect my prayer time to read my email, how I wish I could just spend a day or two doing nothing but reading all of the books stacked up by my bed. And then (and this is funny) there are books I want to re-read and I think, I can't, I'm already almost 40 and look at all of the books still left for me to read!

And that is just the beginning.

We were made for more than this, I can feel it in my bones. 

We were made to be perfect, we were made to live forever, we were made to enjoy life completely, fully. You know how even our best moments are tinged with sadness? Even the very best moments have a little of the bittersweet in them, because they are so fleeting, often still a little dirty with selfishness.

I am looking forward to a place I don't know and yet I do, a place with plenty of room for everybody, a table that is full of the very best food, a sing-a-long full of people from all over the world. We'll all understand each other, finally speaking the same language again after so many years...indeed, our eyes will light up when we see each other, because we know that we all share the same feeling of excitement, of joy and of love. 

A place where Someone will come up to me and wipe the tears from my eyes, tears that no one else has seen, a place where wrongs are made right, where everyone can run as fast as the wind and no one cares who wins the race because really, everyone here has already won.  Where trees grow lush and full of fruit (I would like to go ahead and put in a vote for peaches), where sparkling, sweetly-singing rivers laugh and whisper truths I already know in my soul. 

Where there is plenty of time to read all of the books, to paint and to sing, to laugh and to dance, to do the very best work that only you can do.  Oh yes, there is such a place and I will be there for eternity.  To think that life on earth is all the existence I was made for...it just doesn't make sense.

AND THEN, on top of all that goodness, will be the best Friend and Father, my King and my sweet Brother.  No longer will I have to wonder, because I will see Him as He is. I look forward to a great big bear hug, a grin, and a kiss on top of my head.

Oh friends, if you read this and think I'm wrong...let's talk about it. But think, and listen to your heart and to your heart's longings.  Everything, everyone was made for better than what we have right now.

My First Appliqued Pillow

How do you get the little accent over the "e" in applique? I don't know. But I don't have to have the accent there to tell you that I finally completed my Christmas pillow.

Yes, it is January. Mid- to late-January, to be specific. BUT done is better than perfect, and I'll throw it in a bin with all of the other decorations and it will be such a happy surprise next December!

 I used the tutorial from TaDa! Creations. It was very thorough and helpful, and if you ever need to applique something yourself, you should check it out.


Since my mom lives four hours away, I have no one to truly tell me what a great job I did.  Actually there are mistakes, but for a first go-round, I think it turned out fabulous. And I'm sure my mom would too.


I showed it to each of my kids and my husband, and they all said it looked good. Fluffy and soft, actually, was the prevailing sentiment.

I love the ball fringe too. It was my first time with it, and it is much more forgiving than twisted cord piping. And so much more fun! The retro print and the ball fringe give it a childhood vibe that I luuuuuuv.

OK, it's time to fix supper now. If you want, you can be a mom substitute and tell me how awesome my pillow creation is.  Apparently I need a LOT of affirmation. 


Don't you love it?

MLK day

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so the kids were out of school.  We went to Charlotte to watch a Bobcats game.  I tried to take a picture of all of these little birds sitting on the barricades, but they flew away.

Sadly, none of my family wanted to stay outside in the cold and wait for the birds to come back for my picture.

Here is one little guy who stayed around. He was brave.

 

Here is a bobcat head getting ready to eat the children.  Emma is as tall as me now, but she's hunched over because she is cold. Jack is wearing my vest because he was cold. Will, surprisingly, was the only one with sense to wear the appropriate clothing.

  A glimpse of Charlotte.

 I have no pictures of the Bobcats game because it was dark and I didn't feel like wrestling my camera out of my bag. They lost. Thankfully, we are not die hard Bobcat fans, so it did not affect us too much. 


It was a fun day!

January 3

THAT is the world's worst chicken pot pie casserole. Not only did it taste horrible, it looked nasty and it took a long time to make. I boiled a whole chicken to get the meat, cut up tiny little pieces of carrots, onion and celery, made a homemade sauce. The only thing not time-consuming were the canned biscuits on top, and they were the only edible piece of the whole concoction.
While making some pineapple casserole to go with my nasty chicken pot pie (at the time it was in the oven, so I didn't know it was nasty yet), I hear Jack yell out, "Will's throwing up!". And indeed he was, puking and crying simultaneously. So sad, and yet my first thought was that I was glad he was on the wood floor and not the rug because it would make clean up much easier.

So this picture is of Will on his vinyl beanbag, which is on a huge beach blanket, watching t.v. With a trash can between his legs. Boudreaux is keeping him company.

I hope no one else gets it, but the beanbag and the blanket will stay out tonight just in case.

January 1

On the first day of 2012, my resolution is to pursue God.

I will not always do this very well, but this truth is what I will cling to:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6 ESV)

God began a good work in me when He first adopted me as his daughter, bought back from sin and death at a steep price.

It is easy to spend most of one's day only noticing the bad, the wrong, the inconvenient, the brokenness of our world. It is also easy to not notice anything at all, but just to go through our hours in a flurry of busy tasks, either completely on autopilot or too stressed to see people or beauty or anything besides the next task to be completed.

Instead, let's take to heart Phillipians 4:8...

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

And not only think about these things, but look for them as we go about our lives. Look for God entering into our daily business, see him responding to our praises and petitions. I would like to open my eyes in 2012 and see Jesus more clearly.
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV)

I know I am a little behind the times, but in the last week or two I have immersed myself in the world of Pinterest and more recently, Houzz.  Alternatively, these sites can be called Unrealistic Expectations Addiction or Crack for Homemakers.  They should both link to Perfectionists Anonymous, or If I Would Just Stop Looking at All These Pictures I Might Actually Get Some of My Projects Done Anonymous.

I am so glad that I found both of these websites, because I was a little concerned that I was not wasting quite enough time on the Internet.  Pinterest was created by an evil genius who evidently spent a lot of time like me tearing pictures out of magazines and organizing them by topic.  I still have 3-ring binders - big fat ones - with magazine articles in sheet protectors.  In the early years of our marriage, I would spend hours tearing out and organizing inspiring magazine articles. Our house would be beautiful! I would make all of my children's clothing and smile humbly as all of my jealous mom-peers heaped compliments upon my head. It was like playing make-believe.  Then I had kids and actually had to play make-believe, and the tearing out of inspiring articles slowed considerably.

How many of those ideas have I acted upon?  Off the top of my head, I'd say maybe 5%.  But oh, how I love to be inspired.

Houzz is what every home magazine in print should be - just straight up pictures.  I don't want to hear about how you and the architect had to tweak the design, nor do I care that it took two months for your decorator to track down the absolutely perfect paint color to match your $125/yard custom curtains.  Just show me the stinkin' pictures.

So I would write more tonight, but I'm too busy violating Exodus 20:17 (go look it up...and then pin it to my "Habitual Sins" board).

Fall Days

Emma loves to take pictures, so she took the camera out back one fall day and captured some great images.

 Here you see our backyard from the perspective of a beetle.

 Will practices kicking the football. 

  

Action shots! Jack takes a plunge off the retaining wall.

 Here's Will!

 In the last picture, Will was pretty obvious. This time you have to hunt for him.

 Jack has his own fun in the leaf pile.

  

For Jack's birthday party, I made cupcakes. I thought it would be easier than a big cake, but I still managed to make it pretty labor-intensive.  However, they turned out pretty cute and Jack loved them.

  

OK, I found a recipe on Pinterest for koolaid-flavored popcorn.  It looked so fun! But it tasted exactly like Cap'n Crunch, which is not bad, but it took a long time to make and left a huge mess to clean up in the kitchen. Can't say I would recommend Kool-Aid popcorn. Next time I'll just set out a bowlful of dry cereal and save my energy for better uses.

 The highlight of Jack's birthday party was the touch football game. Justin quarterbacked both sides.  Here he is calling a play in the huddle.

 OK, does everybody know the play?  Here we go!

 

Hike!

 Jack catches it in the corner of the endzone.

Congratulations follow from Adam, his teammate. What a great birthday party!