Little crafty things!

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I obviously uploaded my images wrong but anyways here's what we got. The top two are sympathy cards, the first one is for a gentleman that Charlie works with who lost a friend last week (all paper came from hobby lobby, the stamped image is a callie lily that I embossed, then I punched out ribbon holes to run the ribbon through which came from joann fabrics off the $1 rack), the next one is for my mom and dad's preacher and his wife who lost their daughter on sunday to cancer (the paper is from a paper pack from joann fabrics, I'm not sure what the name of the stampin up punch is I love this thing, I stamped the trees with versa mark and then embossed them with white embossing powder, then I stamped the tree trunk just under the one that I raised up with glue dots) the next one is a scrapbook page that we put together at my mil's stampin up party on wednesday, then next one is a "belated" anniversary card for a couple at church.

Hope you enjoy! I'll be posting crafty items that my daughter made later today so come back and see what my little crafter did!

This card I made for my pastor and his wife. Their anniversary was 2 weeks ago so I'm a little late. The paper came from hobby lobby and I used my doodlecharms cricut cart to cut the flowers and used the home accents one for the stems and the word love. I hope they enjoy it!

Sorry I haven't been posting but this past week as been a busy one. Robby had lifting and football camp til 9 pm and Leesha had vacation bible school this week at church from 6-8 so I've done alot of driving this week. I'm ready for a break! This week I'll hopefully get alot done.

Yesturday we were extremely busy cleaning out the back porch, it's a room that was added to the house years ago when they put the cistern back there so that's where my washer and dryer are, it gets extremely cold in the winter cuz there's no insulation out there, so I've had the water to the washer freeze on me a couple of times since we moved here in 2001, but hey I'm just thankful it's not every winter that it happens :)

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and I'll be back soon

God Bless you!

Good morning!!!

Well it is 7 a.m. and I'm feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed :) Yesturday we had a beautiful service at church, of course there was not actual preaching but the music that we had done all the preaching for Pastor Doug. Check out this website and listen to some of the music http://www.tackettmusic.com/ Jeff,Sarah and Jason are amazing together and I love when they come to our church to sing. Jeff is my Pastor's son so when they are not busy and are in town our church gets the wonderful oppertunity to hear them sing. This trio is just amazing together!

I'll be back soon with some updates and some crafty things also!
God Bless you!!!!

Homemade laundry soap

http://frugalhomeliving.blogspot.com/2009/04/homemade-liquid-gel-laundry-detergent.html
just a little change that I have is use Ivory soap instead. This stuff is amazing! Hope you experiment with making your own, honestly you do save money!

Am I the problem?

Raising children is hard! Leesha is such a wonderful child and I enjoy raising her, but she has a definate way of challenging me to really step out of the box and get out of regular disicpline routines. Let me explain, rules are rules right? Well not with her, her character has a " I don't care" attitude. She is a mixture of Charlie and I both (she looks like me but acts like dad, so I thought). Today I called my mil and was asking for help in teaching Leesha that it's not ok to lie. Here are some of the details--yesturday she had to clean her room, so she comes downstairs and tells me she's done, I didn't give it much thought nor did I go check it. So last night she stays all night with my mom and when I go upstairs I see that she had done nothing to her room, my mil was telling me that there's time Leesha will put wrappers of something she had in places where they are not suppose to go and then tell mamaw that she didn't do it. So I was doing some reading today and found that sometimes lying is associated with adhd. Is this the problem or am I? I look back at the many conversations that I 've had with her and there is alot of times that I don't believe what she says, I was raised that trust and respect is something that's earned not giving. Quickly finding out that children don't have the resources "built" into their character to earn respect that's something that needs to be taught. So does telling the truth so trust is something that they don't have the built in resources to gain unless their taught. Now this has been going on the Leesha for along time, especially since she started school. I know she struggles at school alot and they have tested her for adhd but I'm not sure that this is the problem. I don't believe she has adhd,alot of her problem is not being able to focus because I've never forced the issue. She perfers to act as though she doesn't stuggle in school. How did my 9 year old learn to not face the truth? What exactly have I taught her? There is a difference between imagination and not being able to deal with what is really going on. I know she doesn't want to do the extra work this summer that she has to do to get ready for this coming school year, but I struggled in school too and my mom and dad done nothing to get me some extra help, sure I had to take speech class (in shool) sure I had a summer tutor before enterin into my junior year in math ( the tutoring was done by my math teacher and was free cuz I would babysit for her). That was all the help I had and according to my kindergarten report card that I looked at a couple of weeks ago I was struggling then, just like Leesha. So this is what I mean by "so I thought she was like her daddy". I'm finding that when it comes to school Leesha is just like me but we are getting that corrected by this website that I found for her where it allows her to go back through second grade cirriculum and she also started on the third grade to stay ahead. I think that if she already knows how to do the work it'll give her more confidence in the classroom. Where did that go, her confidence? I'll tell ya where, something as simple as a sticker on a paper she was promised in kindergarten one day for doing a paper, well she never got that sticker. It started then of her just putting things down to finish the paper, right or wrong. I was reading an article on christian mommies website (http://www.christian-mommies.com/ageless/handle-emotions/dealing-with-lying-the-dos-and-donts/) that stated that lying is a call for help. Oh my gosh my child needs my help, I feel as though I've left her standing by herself with me no where in sight! So this morning I called my mom and told her to get Leesha up that I was coming over to pick up sooner than I was suppose too and guess what, I get there and my mom starts telling me how wrong I am for correcting her about lying to me about her room. WHAT????? Are you kidding me? So of course this is said within ear shot of Leesha and so she thinks it's wrong that she had to come home. Why oh Why???? But then again I never got support growing up so why would I think I would get it as an adult? Silly me! Well Leesha just went upstairs to clean her room and we'll have to see what happens. I told her on the way home that I love her, but there are consequences for not doing what we are asked to do, so I took her tv away for 2 days (for lying) and a week if she doesn't get her room cleaned up the right way. I set the timer for 1 1/2 hours (she's like her mommy, she'll lollygag all day on it if she has the oppertunity) and if it's not done right she looses the tv for a week also. There I'm trying to teach her time framing like she has in school for her school work. There were alot of papers that she brought home where the problems she did was correct but she was unable to finish the paper within a certain time so the ones she wasn't able to get done is what brought her grade down. Please pray that God gives me and her both strength to get this corrected.

Have a blessed day!

I can't sleep!!!

I'm worried about the finances as usual. Why can't things just go right? I'm going to be really honest, Charlie and I have hit another financial heartache it's called cash advances and we are not able to pay on time. They call anywhere from 6-10 times a day and I'am really worried they are going to start calling Charlie's work. We have tried to set up payments but they said that it has to be paid in full. I tried to get a loan yesturday to get them paid off and was denied, what lesson am I suppose to learn here? Up until now we've not had a hard time paying them, why now? I don't like getting these things, it's so hard to pay them and your bills at the same time. I just want off of them for good. Oh boy I'm getting sleepy now. I'll post tomorrow after I do some bible study. I'm studying the book of Proverbs now and from what I've heard there's alot of verses in there that really teach you how God wants us to live so we can be blessed. Please say a prayer for us that we get through this little heartache safely!

Have a wonderful night :)

I'm so excited!!!

I wasn't sure if I was going to post today cuz once again I have so many thoughts going through my mind, but I was on this blog http://reneeswope.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-and-hope.html and was looking around and noticed at the top of the page "what's D6", well that's interesting so I clicked on it and here's what I got http://www.d6conference.com/. I started reading and found out it's about raising our kids up to be Godly people. Holy Moly I've been on how to approach my kids with the way God want's us to live but I've been a little stumped since I'm really just finding out myself. I was worried that I would be overbearing but in reading deuteronomy I realized that it is my responsibility to teach them ( I already knew that but I didn't know how, I was raised not to be too overbearing). So if you are stumped on how to teach your children God's ways then please head on over with me and we'll learn together. I want my children to know what God says not what humans tell them.

Thanks for stopping by for a little chat and I'm sure I'll talk more on this later
Have a blessed day

HAPPY BELATED FOURTH OF JULY!

We didn't do anything to celebrate yesturday cuz our town has a festival called bicycle days the weekend after the fourth so that's when we do our fireworks. But we did have an exciting evening though, see little guys? well we found them up by our house and they were crying which scared me, when Robby found em this one in my hand was bleeding across his back, but as you can see from the pics above he's recovering just fine! today we are going to rebuild their burrow for their momma to come back and see what happens, I might end up taking them to a wildlife rehab somewhere. I was going to try to raise them myself til I read on the computer it's illegal to raise wild rabbits! Darn it, I'm a little attached to them now....

Mother-Daughter relationships

I hate you

whore

$itch

if you date him it'll make you popular

these people are lower than you

the "evil" eye when you go out in public

the list of actions you are to follow when attending events

boy crazy

They don't care about you



As anyone else heard these comments from their mom? Well I don't know about anyone else but these comments, the list of actions, the "evil" eye cuz you laughed are just down right hateful!



My first post is going to be about mother-daughter relationships just how important are they?

My answer is VERY! I grew up without any real positive upbringing. I've missed out on alot of things because of this. I started doing some research on this today so I knew what I wanted to post, some is from personal experience and some is professional. I don't want this post to sound like it's a slander toward my mom, I know I could have had worse.

My mom and I have also had a tense relationship, I'm not sure why though and I don't think I'm ever going to know. the tension between us has always been there since I can remember. I started reading an article today from the discovery health channel and the second paragraph starts out with when you're five, she's a goddess. You smear your face with her lipstick and model her earrings and high heels, wanting to be just like mommy. I don't remember feeling that way. I'm not sure Leesha ever put my earrings on and I know she didn't wear my high heels cuz I've never owned any. In the article it stats how through the different ages of the daughter the relationship with mom becomes different, it goes on to say that between your twenties and thirties if your lucky your mom becomes your best friend again. Well I'm not lucky. My mom is not my best friend and I don't think I've ever considered her a friend. She was very hard on me with her words and her "looks". All of this makes me glad that I'm now an adult. It's taken me along time to realize that my mom didn't want memories of me and her doing things together or she would have helped make them, but I've made the decision that I will not make the same mistake with my own children (babies as I call them). This is where I can see God's work in my life, he has opened my eyes at a young age to realize the ways that I don't want to be and I've tried to always be the way that God has put upon my heart to be. According to Laura Tracy ph.d. a family therapist who specializies in counseling mothers and daughters and has written books on the relationships between women. "Will the mother accept the daughter as an adult? That means, when she's visiting you, does she let you run your house? Does she trust you to be independent on small issues as well as large-who are you with, what's your sexuality (this is another subject I would like to discuss), where do you work, how do you spend your money? Letting the daughter be her own woman is a universal issue," she explains. My mom and I have a very anger filled relationship and Dr. Tracy put it best when she said "They can't hear each other. the daughter will hear the mother say something and she'll think, 'She wants to control me'. An the mother is saying something that is absolutely controlling, but is not meant to be." Meanwhile, when the daughter speaks the mother hears nothing but anger - in a comment that does indeed convey anger but also "Ilove you, and can't we do this differently?" Boy I do I know these feelings. My mom always says that she don't know how to say things and sometimes I think she's right but other times she just says what she wants and dares me ( at 37) to talk back to her. there have been many suggestions from people to talk it out with her but when I tried I was told that I was either lieing, making false assumptions or to just "get over it" according to my mom this is the famous Joyce Meyer comment. I'm sorry but I don't think Joyce Meyer meant for that to be said to our children! I've watched my mom's face light up when certain things have happened to me, when Charlie and I seperated 11 years ago my mom did nothing to contact me, anytime their phone number came up on caller id and I would answer it, it was always dad calling to see how we were not my mom. I'll have another post on father daughter realationships too. During this time I was told that I was dumb for trying to save my marriage, he doesn't want me anymore, I look back and am so thankful that I listened to God instead. When Charlie and I first got married I had a real hard time making decisions cuz they were always made for me, ya know I always made the wrong the choice. One thing that makes me the angriest is that when I was going through something she always acted as though she never had "those feelings". I remember her asking me several times if I was gay because I would get so involved in my friends. What kinda question is that? Juanita Johnson a New York -based therapist and storyteller says that the best give a mother and daughter can give eachother is the permission to be themselves, the daughter can be who she wants to be because the mother is who she wants to be---did ya get that?, the daughter CAN be because the mother IS! There is an example in the story about a mother giving her young daughters the chance to make decisions, this is exactly what I try to do with Leesha, I don't want her to be so insecure with herself that she's afraid to make decisions on her own, I feel she needs to know that the decisions she makes, right or wrong I'm always here for her, there's times when I'll be angry with her but that doesn't change the way I feel about her and her choices that she's made. I just got done reading about about being a Titus 2 woman, here's the verse in the bible that explains what it is(it explains the qualities of a sound church) 3: the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things-4: that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5: to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, the the word of God may not e blasphemed.
According to Donna Otto, author of Between women of God, this is what the older women are supposed to do for the younger women. Now I know that God don't make mistakes and that I was created to be my mother's daughter, that don't mean that I understand why sometimes. I was raised up being told that children are a gift from God, why then did she not want a good relationship with me? I know that God didn't make a mistake when he gave me to my mom and I know that I don't have to answer for her. Not all mother daughter relationships are going to be perfect, mine isn't with Leesha and she's only 9 so I'm sure it will get even more difficult but I pray that we still value eachother and our relationship as she grows into a woman and a Godly woman is what I would like to see the most from her. She is MY gift and I pray that I raise her the way God wants me too, that I teach her that things that she needs to know in order to have a successful life full of enjoyment and love. When she's a mother I hope she looks back and can see how important our relationship was and is to me! I love you Leesha and you are my best friend! Go and live your life according to God!

What's on my mind

I've had these thoughts running through my mind now for quit some time, I guess I've been nervous about posting them here because I'm not sure who is reading my blog. It was put upon my heart this morning that the last couple of months I've been givin certain ideas and been tugged at my heart to start them, well I've wasted time and the other day I was looking at my church bulletin and realized that a lovely young lady was starting a youth outreach at our church. Please don't get me wrong by no means am I jealous or anything (ok maybe a little disappointed in myself for not moving when I was told to move) but nothing toward the young lady at church, I would love to get involved in it with her. But let me tell ya a little history about this post---
Idea #1
back before christmas I had this idea come upon me to teach young mother's and young wives how to cook on a budget, when I told some people of my idea (the critics) I was it was a dumb idea, so I didn't go any further with it, well guess what, after christmas there was an article in the newspaper where a local hospital was starting cooking on a budget class!!! What? That was my idea! Idea #1 gone to someone else.
Idea #2
I love listening to Klove and the songs are so inspiritional. Leesha (my dd) loves it too! Robby on the other hand likes his secular music (ok I can't change everything :))anyhow I had this idea that we needed to do something to reach our children, in my opinion they are in serious trouble in this world and to say the least I'm ashamed that it's my generation that is raising this generation. Our children are left to themselves alot and many grandparents are raising their grand babies! I thought to myself "this is just wrong". So I thought something needed to be done to help our children get a better education about Jesus, what it meant to "help others" things that my generation was raised with ( I think). I know Charlie and I were raised very different but we still watched our parents help other people. I've watched young kids walk past an elderly person and just about knock them down. This is ridiculous! My thought was that I needed to talk to my pastor and see if we couldn't set something up the kids during our annual camp meeting in the spring, well guess what I was too afraid to approach him with it so this young lady had the courage that I didn't have and that's why there is now a youth outreach at our church. Don't get me wrong I'm very excited that there's something for the youngins, I just regret being afraid!
So that leads me up to now idea #3
I told Charlie a couple of months ago that I feel a tugging at my heart to let our life be a story for those who want to read it, at first he was sceptical and wasn't sure he wanted people to know the intimate details of our marriage (the good, the bad and the ugly). Well this morning I've made a decision that I'm not going to be afraid of who's reading this blog, who might get offended (even Jesus offended people without meaning too), what people might think about our family and so on. I feel that I'm being told that there's someone or some people who can learn from us. I believe that Charlie and I have gone through things in our marriage that are worth telling others about and the lessons that we've learned through them.
So I hope that you are up for some good conversations here! I love communicating with people and learning some of life's most valuable lessons from those whose already walked the path that I'm on or not on. True life stories are the best.
Now I just need to give it some thought as to where I want to begin! Please pray that God leads me in His direction!
I'm going to apologize first hand to anyone who might get offended by what is posted here! These are just my experiences and other things that I've learned.

Have a blessed day everyone and I'll post as soon as God shows me what to post first.
I got too many things going through my head right now.