Things that give me life...

I've been away from the ole blog for a few days. Here's what's been going on in the Gale family
~My sister turned 30, so we were in Covington for a few days celebrating. I cannot believe she is 30! So crazy to me. Happy Birthday to my sweet sister!
~My amazing husband got a new job at FedEx in the internal audit department, his last day at his old job was Thursday and he doesn't start the new one until this coming Thursday, so we have a few days all together. So proud of him and this new job. He is a hard working man :)
~ We have all been battling sickness. Owen and Eden were sick first. Ear infections. Not fun. Eden rarely gets sick. I think she has maybe been sick 3 times. Owen on the other hand gets sick a little easier. Then Don and I both got sick and I feel like I have battled a cough and headaches for over week, but thankfully I have felt great today!
~ I've finally finished painting my kitchen. No one will probably ever notice, but I hadn't carried to paint color of my kitchen to above the cabinets and it has been driving me crazy, so I tackled it yesterday and today and it looks great. I notice every time I walk in our kitchen, which is a lot, so it makes me happy :)
~ Owen is in love with this pink puppy. I have tried to divert his attention to a more "boyish" stuffed animal, but he will just throw them and point for the pink puppy. I will have to give it to him it is really soft and he doesn't care that it is pink. It's a dog and it's soft that's all he cares about. So I guess a pink puppy it is.
There is a little update on our simple family.

I have been thinking on things that "give me life". I had a great conversation with my sweet friend Monica about the same topic on Monday. I am learning how important it is to have things in my life that bring me joy and just flat out give me life. Let me explain a little more. There are things in life that just naturally give me life such as the Lord, my husband, my children. But I mean more specific things that I can do when my day is going rough or I am having a hard time finding joy. I don't know about you, but sometimes I can just get in a funk. It can be for a few hours or a day. Now, the Lord is the first thing I should (and try) to turn to when I am having a hard time. But sometimes I need to do something in addition to that. Here is a list of things that I know will give me life and they are not just needed when I am having a hard day, but things that just make me happy. When Monica and I were discussing this we talked about how having such a list is good, but obviously not to replace time with the Lord, but only to enhance it. God created me (us) to bring Him glory through the things that we do and create, so it is natural that He has given us things that we just flat out enjoy doing and make us happy.
So I just wanted to share my list with you and I know it will continue to evolve and be added to
(in no order)
1. Sewing. I haven't been sewing for very long, but it makes me so happy to sit down and make a skirt for Eden or curtains or whatever project I am working on. Granted I do get frustrated with sewing, but it isn't a bad frustrated... it's a I am going to figure this out kind of frustrated.

2. Drinking my husband's AMAZING chai tea with chantilly cream. Seriously, I am smiling right now just thinking about how wonderful it is. And really it's the chantilly cream. I cannot get over how good it is.

3. Sitting with my tea and having a good conversation with my husband. Good conversation meaning we talk about the future, our plans, we share what the Lord is teaching us and pray together. So life giving!

4. Having people over for dinner. I love everything from the conversation, to the cooking, setting the table and in a crazy way even the cleaning up.

5. Seeing my children laugh. And even more seeing my children laugh together. It brings me so much joy to see them bonding and how Eden takes care of Owen.

6. Making things/decorating my home. I love to do crafts. And I always feel like I have some idea swirling in my head, so making those things happen makes me happy. Typically it is something to "improve" our humble abode

7. Good worship music. I cannot stop listening to this CD. It makes me just stop what I am doing and worship and praise our good good God.

8. Being outside on a beautiful warm day. I love the sunshine and warm weather.

9. Reading.

10. Planning my upcoming and week. Sounds silly I know. But I really enjoy sitting down and figuring out what Eden and I are doing in our school time, what things we are going to make, what I am cooking for the week, what outings we are going to take, and etc.

11.Writing on my little blog :)

12. Good alone time with my Bible and journal.

13. Having a good conversation with a stranger

14. My accountability time with my sweet friends Al and Steph. Every time I leave I am encouraged, challenged and humbled.

There you have it. Do you have a "life giving list"? I would love to hear about it :)

Valentine's Decorations

Now, I have no idea who won the Super Bowl and I didn't even know it was going on until a random man at the grocery store asked me if I was getting ready for it. But I did make some Valentine decorations over the weekend. Yay! I love making decorations. All I did was put dollies on twine and you don't even have to paste them because they just hang. Then I already had the felt hearts and I cut out the letters out of fabric that I already had on hand. So cost of little project about $2. Cutting the letters out did take a little bit of time since they are small. I first traced them on fusible web and then ironed them on my fabric and then cut them out. The whole thing probably took me about a little over an hour. Did we NEED decorations for valentine's day, no, but it was fun and my family likes them :) The idea came from the Handmade Home. Very cute website. I have a few more ideas for the actual day that I will share soon!

Project Door completed!

I am happy to say that my almost month long project of creating an art piece out of an old door is finished. The only expense was paint stripper (which I ended up not needing) and a few pieces of hardware to hang it. I have to give my husband major credit for drawing the chevron lines and for hanging it. I attempted the lines and they were not even and something like chevron has to be symmetrical. I just love looking at it!

The frame around it is actually a pretty bright yellow, it just doesn't really show up that well in the picture.

Getting my recipes together

I do love to cook, but lately it has seemed like a chore and just something I have to do to feed my family. One of my resolutions was to begin enjoying my time in the kitchen again. To fuel that I started by organizing my recipes and the way I plan my weekly menu. Typically, planning my menu would take me over an hour sometimes because I felt like I had to look through all my cookbooks and read so much. I knew I couldn't keep spending so much time each week on our meals. I have other things to do! So, I figured out a more simple way, at least I think so. I am taking a few days/weeks. (hope to have it done by beginning of February) and going through my cookbooks and making a document of the recipe, page number and name cookbook of recipes my family has liked or that I want to try out. And then at the beginning of the month I am going to plan February menu. Now, I am not going to plan the whole month because things come up and we have people over for dinner or such, but I am going to plan at least 3-4 meals per week for the month of Feb. It will take a little time a the first of the month, but I think everything will be easy sailing after I get my document done and the first month planned. May be silly, but I am way excited about this new method. I do still plan on weekly grocery shopping. We eat mostly fresh, so it is just better to buy it once a week. I love getting organized!

On a little more serious of a note. My husband (Don) just wrote an awesome blog post about where we are at in pursuing missions and some things the Lord has shown him and encouraged me with. Read it here if you are interested. I am so blessed by a wonderful husband that leads our family so well.

Joy

I am learning to find joy in all the little moments that the Lord gives me. I struggle with this. I often want life to be one big exciting time. I constantly want something to look forward to, whether it is going out, having a date, doing a fun family night, vacation, buying a new outfit, buying anything new or fill in the blank. And when life slows down and all that happened that day was a sink full of dishes, toys all over the house and a mom that hasn't had a shower I want to feel down about the day. The Lord is greatly working and opening my eyes to finding and having joy in Him during those "not so glamorous moments". I can't remember where I read this, but I remember someone saying that "life is made up of all those little moments". And that is so true and I feel challenged to make the most of those days. To love my children, husband and those around me and be filled with great joy even when life can seem mundane. Thankful that the Lord is filling me with the desire to overcome this in my life and that He will provide the grace that I need.

Dates and family nights

I loved having a date with Eden! It was so sweet just getting to sit, talk and play with her in a different setting. We went to Starbucks on Saturday morning. Ordered drinks. Made a puzzle. Took pictures. And played games. Here are a few pics


taking some pics / Puzzle we put together


having a taste of mommy's tea / Playing Brown Bear Brown Bear game

Mommy and E

Daddy and Owen played with Eden's dolls. It's really funny but he loves playing with them

For our family night we went to Whole Foods for some dessert. And then came home and made puppets. We did the story of Esther.

Mordecai, Esther and Haman / Our little puppet show about Esther.

the woes of unfinished projects

I have been messing around with the "look" of my blog for over an hour! I have got to leave it alone. I am on the verge of hiring someone to make it how i want it. I am not completely ignorant when it comes to technology, but i am also not the most clever. Enough of that.

I haven't posted any of my little projects lately because they are all unfinished! Some are still floating around in my head. My biggest one that I am eager to get done is my chevron door. I love chevron. I know it is pretty popular, but I just want something chevron in my house! I found an old door behind our house and I scraped and sanded and scraped and sanded it. It had a lot of old paint on it. My plan is to paint the frame part of the door and in the inside of the door yellow and then gray chevron strips in the middle. Then distress it. I am a little torn if I should distress it or not because it is a modern looking pattern. Or if I should even do the chevron and simply paint it and distress it. Plus, i am having a hard time getting the chevron strips drawn perfectly even. And they have to be perfect. Hubs says he will help this weekend. He is good at that kind of thing. Ok I am thinking on this door way too much. Well, here's hoping it is finished by this weekend. I have no clue how we will hang it. Don can figure that one out. :)


after i scraped and sanded it. I couldn't get all the paint off, but it is smooth enough that it should paint over fine.