Joyfully Weary

I can't remember exactly who, but while I was pregnant with Big Buddy somebody advised Jeremy and I to sit down and really talk about our parenting goals. What were our hopes for our children, what experiences did we want to give them, what values did we want pass on, etc? My knee jerk response was that I wanted to give them everything. But that is just a silly fantasy. Parenting, like the rest of life, is full of choices. You only have time and energy for so much. You have to choose where you want to focus your attention. A little bit later on we heard Pastor James MacDonald share  his family values in a sermon and we decided we wanted to create some for our family as well. We had a couple great conversations but then life got busy and we completely forgot about this goal. Until right after Little Lady was born and I was taking the bible study Entrusted with a Child's Heart (if you are a mom I can't say enough how much I recommend this study , it's packed full of b...

I spotted numbered steps on Pinterest awhile ago and quickly put the idea on my summer to do list. I figured it'd be a pretty easy and inexpensive project to complete since I could buy house numbers at our local hardware store for just a few dollars. But then Jeremy's work got a new laser cutter, which made me think a bit bigger - words! Jeremy and I tossed back and forth a few ideas and then one morning I read over Galatians 5:22-23  and decided the fruits of the Spirit were perfect. Not only would it add the whimsy I was hoping for but it would be a daily reminder of the way in which the Spirit of God wants us to live our lives. Jeremy used the laser cutter to cut the words out of chip board and then I used a couple different cans of spray paint (black, bronze, & gold) to achieve the antiqued gold finish we wanted. Since the chip board is fairly light weight we were able to us 3M strips to hold them in place. They've been up for about a week now w...