Painted Mason Jars

A quick little DIY I did a few days ago. It was so simple! I just painted different jars and vase I had on hand and they turned out great! I painted the inside of them a mixture of white and two different shades of gray. As I was doing it and looking inside the jars I thought this is a disaster, but the glass (obviously) changes the look of the paint! The idea came from here

The beauty of the Lord's kindness

I have been reminded this week of the kindness of the Lord. How He so cares about the small things in our lives. That He is a God that cares deeply about His children. Owen was running a fever on Sunday and was pretty pitiful all day I thought we were going to have to go to the doctor on Monday, but on Monday little guy woke up fever gone and ready to play. I can only attribute that to the Lord and His kindness to Owen and myself. Another thing from this week, is that we have had mice. Yes, mice!!! It has been horrible and highly stressful on Don and myself. Seriously, you don't even know how this has impacted the Gale household. Thankfully, Don has attacked those mice with everything he has. He has put grates up, plugged holes, put traps down and even ordered a "rat zapper". And last night we didn't hear them and there were no droppings in the house when we got up. Some may say that it is because of Don's hard work and yes that is part of it, but I know that the Lord is sovereign and even in something like mice in the house He cares. We prayed every night that the Lord would take them away and we have seen His hand move. I know some of this could sound "over spiritual" (whatever that means) but I believe that God is not detached from our the everyday part of our lives that He is working and gives favor and mercy where He desires and wills. I can confidently say that I am blessed by the kindness of the Lord.

Rise and Shine!

Alright, this is going to be a hard one to talk about...
Getting up early in the morning is a valuable thing. (But why is it so hard!) I am right there with the person that just wants to go back to sleep or that thinks they are going to sleep for just another 10 minutes, but wakes up 45 minutes later and has to rush in the shower or doesn't get a shower at all. I love my bed! And I love to sleep. It is a great comfort. When I was in high school probably like most high schoolers my Saturday mornings meant I got to sleep until 12 or 1 in the morning... i mean afternoon. That's a lot of sleep! I wanted to share what the Bible says about rising early and importance of it.

"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." Mark 1:35
Jesus got up early. So many times in the Gospels it talks about him getting up early to teach the crowds and here to meet with the Lord. He knew and made an example of getting up while it was still calm and the craziness of the day hadn't set in. This is the time it seemed that He knew He could just be with His Father.

"O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." Psalm 5:3
David and the other psalmist made it a priority as well to get up early and be with the Lord. They started their day with prayer and pouring their heart out to the Lord. The Psalms are full of request being made early in the morning. Ex. "But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you." Psalm 88:13

"She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens." Proverbs 31:15
I am so encouraged by the example of the Proverbs 31 woman. I want to be more like her. I can picture her getting up lighting her candles getting things ready for her household. Preparing their food, getting herself ready for a full day of work.

These are just a few examples of the importance of rising early. Personally, while it is hard and the moment I hear that alarm go off I dread putting my feet on the cold hardwood once I am up and going I am so thankful that I did it. I see 2 reasons why it is important. 1. it makes sure that you have time with the Lord and 2. it helps to get your day going without interruptions.

My rising time changes with different season of my life. Right now my alarm is set for 5:50. I take my shower, I spend time with the Lord, I finish getting ready, I eat my breakfast, check my email, and then start on house chores and having the kid's breakfast ready. When this happens it is a smooth morning even if Eden and Owen both wake up in terrible moods, which does happen. I can then take the time i need to console and help them instead of rushing around to get the morning started and grumpy because I know that I didn't get a shower and probably won't get one for the rest of the day!

I am not perfect at this. By no means. I already said how much I love to sleep, but I know I have to get up. There are mornings when it just doesn't happen. But there is grace for that and thankfully I serve a gracious God who helps me through the day and provides me with strength for those crazy mornings.

Quick disclaimer: I do believe that if you are sick or just had a hard time sleeping or a late night then the extra sleep is needed. We need our bodies to be well rested. That is also why you have to get in the bed at a good hour. On a typical night my bedtime is 10:00pm at the latest. Also, when you have a baby your sleep schedule is most of the time their sleep schedule. So rising early is not always possible maybe getting up 20 minutes before your baby typically gets up is a better goal.

Basically, you make it fit with your schedule for work, when your children rise, but the valuable thing is getting up to spend time with the Lord and to get your morning going. Trust me I understand the difficulty, but it is so worth it!

Completed Fabric Wall

Finally a post! I’ve had this project completed for about a week now, but no time to write about it. Life is so busy! Making things and being creative is so life giving. Sometimes it is relaxing and sometimes I can get frustrated. When I start to get frustrated I just have to walk away from it and come back to it. That is what happened when I started on the art piece for my dining room. I knew I wanted to do fabric -covered canvases. I liked the eclectic feel of it and how simple it seemed. Well, when I started buying my supplies I really hated to buy canvases just to cover them up and not paint on them, so I decided to go with foam board. I had no idea how hard it would be for me to cut and get the foam board straight! If it hadn't been for my sweet hubs the project would have been all kinds of crooked. Plus with the foam board I had to attach something to hang it, which I just used twine. So, if you want to do this and save money then use foam board, but it might be more of a headache. When I started putting the fabric pieces on I hated how it looked. So I just had to walk away. After about a day ideas started coming and I knew each piece needed some kind of "accessory" on it. Here are some pics and description of the added accessories:

the finish product

the accessories on these two are from a stained tablecloth. I just very carefully cut out the lace. So glad I was able to reuse this tablecloth. i loved it so


this flower I made using this tutorial.

the little cluster of flowers are the same style I did for my fall wreath, so that was an easy one.

the top piece I just made some circle looking things with some coordinating felt in the middle. Nothing brilliant.

It took me some rearranging to finally love how it looked, but I am pleased with it now. It is much better than the bare wall I've had for over 2 months now. I've got more to share soon!

Off to Nan's house they go!

The kiddos are spending the night and most of Saturday with Nan, so that means Don and I are going out! Woohoo! Our dates always revolve around where we are going to eat. My husband and I LOVE good local food. Don is amazing at finding awesome restaurants. If you ever need a new place to eat ask him. He knows. And he will never point you to a chain. I think he hates them. We had planned on eating at Andrew Michael, but they were basically booked. The earliest we could get a table was like 8:30 and that is way too late for me and dinner. So we will have to try again. Our next choice was Acre we have heard great things about it and cannot wait to try it out. Then tomorrow we are going to do the Victorian Village tour personally I am way excited about this. I love old houses and history. Plus it is going to be beautiful day tomorrow. Of course we will miss Eden and Owen, but they will have a blast at Nan's and it will be a good refreshing time for us. Any yummy restaurant suggestions for us? Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Creating a "Family Plan"

I am about to reveal just how "type A" I am... because this is all about planning and writing things down. However, I have to give the family plan planning and initiating all to my husband it was his idea for our family. I love how he leads us :)

Almost a year ago Don came to me after he had listened to this sermon on managing your family and wanted us to create a family plan. Of course I was excited because I love lists and planning! I get all excited about calendars and writing things on them... i know that is rather dorky. Basically what it is is creating a mission statement for your family, making goals divided into different categories, and then planning on how to do them each day, week, month and year. This is our first year doing it so we have had some months were the family plan did not happen. Plus unexpected things happen and you just have to be flexible with life, but this is a great tool to help your family stay on track and focused. I am not going to share our whole family plan because it is 3 pages long, but just the basics of it:

Categories: Finances, Marriage, Family/Parenting, Outreach, Church Life
Then under each of those categories we wrote down the things that were important to us. Goals we had for each sections. Here are a few examples from each category
Finances: Maintain a monthly budget. Evaluate it as a couple. Live and give generously.
Marriage: Date night once or twice a month, Yearly getaway alone, Pray nightly together, Read 3 books a year together,
Family/Parenting: Daily family worship, Keep a family journal,
Outreach: Plan a monthly thing to do as a family to reach out to our neighbors and city
Church Life: Have someone over for dinner twice a month

The last Sunday of each month Don and I sit down and look at the upcoming month and we decide on who we want to invite over for dinner, when date nights are going to be, when family nights are going to be, what outreach we want to do. It is a great way to keep it all going. Like I mentioned before we are so not perfect at this. There are things on the family plan that we have never even done before, but it really helps.

Here is the audio and here is the blog to get the whole picture. Happy planning :)

The Fall Wreath is Finished!

For a few days I thought this wreath was going to have to be a Christmas wreath because it seemed to take forever! All those little flowers were a bit time consuming, but I am so happy with the results. This is my first Fall wreath to make, so I am sure they will get better over the years. I got the idea from here Check her blog out she has some super cute ideas. Anyone else finished up some wreaths for their front door if not you should make one. They are fun and of course they make your front door look cute :)

a close up of all those flowers