Real Food

I cooked a couple of things today to take to church to feed the Vaden family after Mr. Judson's funeral. I cooked a big pot of green beans and meatloaf. They were a huge hit! I got so many comments and I was really surprised that people thought they were so good. Two of the most stellar compliments were "those green beans are just like my mama used to make" (mighty high praise if you ask me) and (to Eugene) "your wife sure makes a mean meatloaf" (that's pretty high praise too). Wow. I am so humbled and cannot imagine that I deserve such compliments. I think that usually comes from making some fancy casserole or maybe some sinful dessert, not green beans and meatloaf. Real food. Lesson learned. Fancy is not necessary. I am so pleased that they enjoyed it.

I've been productive this weekend!

I had the opportunity to do some scrapbooking last night with Amy and Lori Beth. I finished that "Names of God" mini book that I talked about a while ago. I'll have to take some pictures of the pages. The cover was shared in this post . Here are the pages I did:

The light wasn't the best for photographing it. I used some Amy Butler paper and Cricut cartridge Lyrical Letters (love it!). These are pictures of Aubrey from last August. Her blue eyes really show up in the pictures!

These are some pictures from two summers ago. There goes that time flying again! We had bought a shopping cart for Lily and she was entertaining us with it. I used some old KI Memories paper and some new KI chipboard, the turquoise is American Crafts and miscellaneous buttons.

These pictures were taken right before Lily's tonsilectomy. She was really into ballerinas and we found this little number at Hobby Lobby on clearance, complete with the tiara, pony tail holder and shoes. She was in little girl heaven! I used some paper and pink vinyl Thickers from my April Scarlet Lime kit and some black chipboard Thickers for the title. I have heard so many people say they love them and I never really saw the fascination for them, but I'm think I'm beginning to!

Maybe I'll get some more done this evening and have more to share soon.

God bless you, dear readers!

How in the world does time go by so fast??

I have been neglecting my little blog again. And I'm going to rely on it some day to jog my memory about what I've done and what was going on in my world. Oh well, I'll try to do better!

I was just reading the LPM blog and Beth was talking about Moon Pies and treats from childhood. It brought back a memory of me when I was a little girl. Sitting in the back seat of our car, taking a drive through the country (as we often did) with the windows rolled down on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Stopping somewhere along the way for a cold drink and a bag of peanuts. My parents got those little Cokes, in glass bottles of course, and I got grape Crush (I hadn't developed a taste for Coke back then). Dump those peanuts in that bottle and you've got yourself a treat. Away we went, drinking our cold drinks and sucking those peanuts out of the bottom of the bottle. Ahhhhhh... We were probably listening to the radio too. Later on we added a 8 track player to the car. Then we were really in style. Herb Alpert or Roger Miller or maybe movie theme songs. Yep, those were good days!

Holy Week

I just read the new post on the LPM blog about Palm Sunday and memories of Easter. I was thinking about my favorite part of this week, Holy Week, between Palm Sunday and Easter. I love that our church has a Maundy Thursday service, celebrating the Lord's Supper and really reminding us of what is about to happen. From the upper room to the Mount of Olives, to Calvary and then the tomb. But then VICTORY on that first Easter morning. He is risen!

This is the real celebration for us. Christmas is important, of course. Without His birth, there would be no life to end on the cross. But without the resurrection, there would be no Savior.

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever; til my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Oh praise His Holy Name!!

Way Behind

I have been neglecting my little blog. How do I get so far behind? The weeks have been so crazy, but so wonderful too. A vacation for Amy and Daniel and us babysitting for 3 days, a trip to Chuck E Cheese with them, a revival at Brazil United Methodist Church, preparations for Easter, and now it is Holy Week and the pace hasn't slowed. But we have made some new friends and many precious memories. Life is good.

Life is good. I haven't always been able to say that with feeling, but I can really say it now. I guess it is all in my attitude. The ability to truly have peace and joy, even when everything isn't perfect. Praise the Lord for that!

"Praise the Lord" has certainly been a theme lately. I have heard sermons on the subject, it was the central theme of our "A Heart Like His" Bible study (by Beth Moore) Thursday night and seems to be cropping up all over the place. So, that is just what I am going to try to do all the time.

Praise the Lord!

Art

I found a link to this video on The Crop Circle. It is really inspiring me right now. I do consider my scrapbooking to be art. Everyone should have some creative outlet, in my opinion. After all, we inherited creativity from our Father. Just go look outside. Is that not proof of it? God created a beautiful, colorful world. Try it! Think you're not creative? Just grab a box of crayons or finger paint. I dare you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI

Craftiness!

Just wanted to share some things I've been working on. This sort of thing is what keeps me happy and sane!

This is my very first layout with my very first scrapbook kit club. I subscribed to Scarlet Lime because the bright fun style which is very different from what I usually buy. I was ready to get out of my comfort zone and use something new. It's not a very good picture of the girls, but it was the only one I had of Aubrey's first pigtails and I wanted to do a page about them. She is not a very happy girl!

This is a layout I did using all old stash stuff:

While I was fiddling with the camera trying to get a good shot of her, she was busy playing in the cheese sauce of Lily's Lunchable. I wasn't paying attention to that, but you notice the guilty glances? She was looking to see if her Mama was looking at her. Little stinker!

And here is my Names of God book that I have been working on. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was doing a study of the Hebrew names for God. I have finished with the research and am almost finished with this book. This is just the cover. I'll share more another time. It has been such a blessing and a joy to do. I'm going to cherish this, I know.