More Loving, More Serving

 

Question: Do you ever feel a personal conviction to do more? Do you ever look around at all of the terrible problems in the world and wonder what you can do to help? Are you short on money, time, and other resources that you think are needed in order for you to be able to make a difference? Do you have too many mouths to feed, rooms to clean, and errands to run?? Yeah... me too.

 

But nonetheless, we have been called to love and serve. In recent years, I have dreamed about being able to serve others in better ways. I've wanted to be the one who does the helping. So many people have been there for me, and helped me in my life. I'm so grateful to every one of them. It is a blessing to know that you're loved by God and that other's are working for God to show you his love and their love. 

 

Having a large family with small children is something that most people in America either never experience or forget soon after their season is over. I vow to never forget. I will remember the many days when lonely hopelessness filled my heart. The times that I struggled to just keep everyone alive and fed and sort-of clean. The times when it was all I could do to pray, let alone dress everyone and make it to church.

 

But that's not even what today's post is about. Today I'd like to share about "more". Doing more to serve as the hands and feet of God. I've spent many many days and nights thinking and praying about the needs all around me and what ways I can show others the love that God has for them. What loves and talents do I have that I could use? Well, I have a serious love for children that I feel is something like a gift. My entire life I've had a special interest in the poor and needy. And most of all, the helpless. There is a place in my heart for the helpless that I think can only be filled by helping.

 

Soooo.....I'm going to help now. 

 

How am I going to help, you ask?

 

Well....... I'm going to do something. Yep. Something.

 

I'm going to start by writing this. And hopefully encourage you to do something too. For years I've been following different non-profits, researching charity groups and companies, asking questions, and searching for whatever it is that I could/should be doing. My favorite website/instagram/facebook page is without a doubt Neema House - Geita, where some of the greatest work in the world is being done. I could write about it all day.

It's basically an orphanage in East Africa, Tanzania. They not only care for orphans but also for children in broken families who need care and they care for and protect albino children from witch doctors who kidnap and dismember them because they believe their bones have magic powers.

Can you imagine having to bring your child to an orphanage just because he/she was albino and needed to be protected from being murdered? Heartbreaking to think about, isn't it? Neema House - Geita is so good about updating their Facebook page and sharing progress on their children and their families if they have any, and also on projects and goals they're working on.

 

These are from their Facebook page :)

 

A local family threw a birthday party for all of the kids.

They have to shave their heads. I'm not sure if it's a certain times or all the time.



Thomas, Gloria, and Agnes in their new cribs.

The girls' bedroom makeover this month :)

Charity visiting with her mom for the first time in 10 months.

 

 

Here is their mission:

 

Neema (pronounced Nāma) is the Swahili word for “grace” or “abundance.”  

 

Located in the Geita District of Northern Tanzania, Neema House is the only organization in the region supporting at-risk, abandoned, and orphaned children ages five years and younger.  Neema House has been developed as one of the ministries of the mission team in Geita. It is currently set up as an interim care facility to serve up to 25 children and is designed with the purpose that people from the Geita community will experience the grace and abundance of God through tangible acts of love and service. 

Neema House works in connection with the local hospital and government social welfare offices to identify children in need and ensure their care and safety.  While at Neema House, children are provided food, clothing, shelter, medical care and love.  Day to day care of the children is provided by Tanzanian "mamas" to help ensure that they are raised in their Tanzanian culture as much as possible and therefore more easily reintegrate into homes in the community.

Though many children are orphaned due to AIDS, malaria, other diseases, or abandonment, some children may have extended family in the area.  Neema House is committed to maintaining and developing a relationship with any extended family these children may have in the hope that as many children has possible may return to their homes in the future.  Children who do not have additional known family will remain in the care of Neema House until further long-term plans can be arranged to ensure the child's care and safety, whether through local adoption, possible fostering, or other future arrangements.

 

 

If any of you are looking for an opportunity to help the helpless, this is a great one. You can meet these sweet babies HERE!

 

These little angels is where I'll be donating 10% of ALL sales from Journey's Creations and Photography. All photography sessions and craft sales included.

 

I don't know how much of a difference it will make but it will be a little "more" than they had before. Go check out Neema House and you'll quickly see the amazing work going on there.

 

Money isn't always the best way to help. I'm still praying about what I can do more locally. But this has been on my heart for  many months and it feels good to finally commit to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Morning AND Big News

 

 

This Monday morning has been a lovely one! Yes, I could complain about at least a dozen things that haven't gone "right" already, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to say another little prayer for today's worries and move on. There' s plenty to get done around here and nobody has time to waste thinking about things that can't be changed!

 

My lone tomato plant is really flourishing!

 

 

The weather was amazing in Tennessee this morning. But when I went outside I noticed how bad my favorite place has been neglected (the front porch). But there is hope. I saw some tiny seedlings sprouting in one of my pots, and hopefully the window boxes will have sprouting activity soon. I've been using the porch for sanding and painting cabinets for weeks. I'll have to add "make porch beautiful" to my list.

 

 

 

 

 

This week's "to-do" list is already a mile long. The kitchen is close. Really, really close. Some more cabinet doors are going up tonight and I hope to have all cabinets totally finished by the end of the week.

 

Note to self: Never ever under any circumstances paint the kitchen again!

 

In other news....

 

I am SO excited to announce that I am hosting a fall craft party!! eeeeek!!

 

 

I love making things and I love opening my home up to my people. So why not put them together for some serious fun?! Come join me for a night of food, fellowship, and cute crafts!

 

 

Here's the details:

 

+ Fall craft party with Journey's Creations at my home in White House TN.

+ On Friday  September 25th at 6:00 pm.

+ Cost is $25 per person.

+ Materials, dinner, and dessert included in registration fee.

+ We will make three adorable crafts that will not disappoint!

 

 

 

Registration is OPEN NOW! Space is limited and some supplies need time for shipping, so please be sure to reserve your spot early.

Craziness & Finding Beauty in the Everyday

 

 

What a week this has been!

 

Colds are fading away and life is getting back to normal. Well.... the new normal. And, I'm not even exactly sure what that is yet. I've been working like a crazy person trying to finish house projects, working on orders from Journey's Creations, and best of all, getting my Etsy Shop back up and running! I'm so terrible at the Etsy thing. I list things and then end up selling them to someone local or giving them away as gifts. But I have a new strategy that I'm hoping will help. We shall see.

 

 

 

Fall is my busiest season of the year for photography and it's right around the corner! I've already been busy setting up sessions this week and getting ready for a big wedding with Authentic Photos & Designs next weekend.

 

The girls are doing amazing in school. Or at least I'm amazed. Taylor did happen to bomb out on her history test last week but I'm certain that she'll improve. She has awesome study habits and I know she'll come through. I couldn't be happier with their effort. Mary seems to be averaging B's on her work, and considering that she's never been to school before, I think that's wonderful.

 

The best thing to me, is that August is almost over and fall is a little closer. I'm looking forward to fall even more than usual. This summer has been the saddest, most difficult time in my entire life. I'd like to move on to another season and leave this summer behind me. I'm so ready for change (remember, I love change). Ready for cool breezes. And sweatshirts and baking and coffee on the porch swing. Ready for the grass to slow down and the leaves to change.

 

At this point in my life, I'm learning how important it is to truly enjoy the little things. The everyday. Seeing beauty in the everyday is priceless. These lives we live are special gifts from our Heavenly Father and we should cherish them as He would want us to. We have to be careful to not waste them away worrying and feeling sorry for ourselves. Careful to not dwell on our troubles, but on the joy in our journey. And learning to find that joy in the everyday feels good.  

 

Today, I found joy in watching my babies play with an $8 bag of used kitchen toys. They played and played. They never even spoke to each other. I sat there and watched them and I loved it. They were so busy investigating every single plate and piece of play food. After they had touched each piece, they started creating meals and play feeding them to me. It was the cutest!

 

Then I made my big babies some rice krispy treats to enjoy when they get home from school. I slapped a tablecloth on the front porch table and I was the very first person to break into the mums at walmart this morning!

 

 

Happy Friday Y'all!

 

A Tiny Peek at Our Kitchen Makeover

I guess we'll start with this crazy awful embarrassing picture. The right side is the dirty old green cabinets and the left side is the clean new grey cabinets (obviously). I actually like the old green color and seriously considered repainting them the same exact color. But then I thought, if I'm going to go through all the trouble of painting my entire kitchen, I may as well change the color.

 

What do you think about the grey?

 

 

I went back and forth after painting this one little section. I never really decided if I loved it or not but I didn't want to repaint what I had already finished. I'm really lazy and I can't work on any one project for very long. I usually have at least four things going at once. I like to hop around and have the choice of what I feel like working on. I like change, so I just keep on moving around and changing.

 

I know this is not much of a peek but I don't want to spoil the big reveal :)

 

 

Happy Tuesday Friends!

Sunday Harvest and August in the Garden (Don't get excited)

 

 

 

This is the gorgeous Sunday morning harvest from our garden. And technically, aside from the strawberries, this is the only harvest from our garden ALL year.

 

I really hope you enjoyed that pretty picture. Now get ready for some not-so-pretty pictures from our August garden.

 

Yes, that's Buster's tail bouncing around in there. He was looking for something edible. He didn't find anything, except maybe a rabbit :(

 



The fence is basically covered in vines.

 

Now check out some of last year's garden activity. It was the opposite of this year. It was awesome!

 

 

 



 

Fermented salsa! I would slap someone for some of this right now.

 

This is what our cucumber harvest looked like every other morning!



The pickling was endless.

 

The tomatoes were gorgeous!

 

Below is our only living and happily thriving tomato plant of 2015. Notice that it's not even in the garden. I should probably mention that we didn't even plant it!! It just sprouted up in the front flowerbed all by itself :)

 

So we tied it to a pole and it's totally content.

 



It's Friday! SO How About a Cookie Recipe!

 

This school lunch business is really making me crazy. I don't mind them eating sandwiches and chips (that's what they ate many days homeschooling) but I can't handle or afford the little prepackaged snacks.

 

I'll admit it, I bought some. I was overwhelmed (like most parents) this first week and I caved. I didn't really feel bad about it either. But into the second week, as we were running out of lunch food, I felt like I could do better. Mary said that one kid had cookies and another had fudge rounds and a list of other things that I don't buy regularly.

 

I get it. They want sweets and junk food. So do I.

 

My last couple of batches of healthy sweet stuff haven't been very tasty so I needed to try something less drastic. My theory on food is "make good choices when you can, anything is better than nothing". So I made a batch of semi healthy chocolate chip cookies. They are no doubt better than pre-packaged desserts and they actually tasted really good. Yes, I ate three of them :(

 

Here's my recipe! Use what you have. Pretty much every ingredient is organic so I'll spare you and not put organic in front of everything.

 

Semi Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

 

1/2 cup shortening of your choice

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sucanat

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

 

 

Mix ingredients in order of recipe with an electric mixer. Then stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

 

 

Roll or drop (I did both and they both worked) onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 60.



 

 

Paisley approved!

 

 

 

Have a Super Happy Friday!!!!

 

 

 

Homemade Wide Plank (Plywood) Hardwood Floors {Bedroom Makeover}

It's a good morning today! The babies both slept pretty much all night, the weather is amazing!!!, and I'm ready to share what we'll call "phase 1" in our girls' bedroom makeover.

 

 Our homemade wide plank  hardwood flooring in the girls room!

 

 

 

So we bought 5 sheets of plywood and had the guy at Home Depot cut them into 8" wide strips. We sanded the best side of each piece.

 

Then we removed the furniture, baseboards, carpet, and padding. And played around with the layout a bit.

 

 

I painted the room an awesome griege color. You'll see through the pictures how the color changes in different lighting. All of the pictures were taken from my phone, just at different times of the day.

 

The next day we layed down a sheet of thick plastic to protect the cheap particle board subfloor underneath.

 

 

And then we pretty much mixed and matched the pieces and nailed them down with the nail gun when we had the look we were after. While he nailed, I came behind him and stained.

 

 

We started out seperating the boards with a penny to leave space for expanding but it wasnt really necessary because of the slight variation in the size of the boards. It worked out just perfectly.

 

When the stain dried, we did two layers of polyurethane.

 

 

The only mistake that we made (and I mean "I" made) was not letting the poly dry enough before eagerly skidding the box springs across. I'll have to fix that another day.

 

 

 

Paint color: Whiskers by Porter Paints

Stain color: Walnut by Porter Paints
Room size: 11x13
Floor cost: Around $150


 

A Bang and a Cough

 

The second week of school has come in with a bang.... and a cough :(

 

Monday morning we dealt with a broken dryer, a serious laundry backup, and I was eventually forced to iron school clothes (double sad face). By that afternoon, the Queen (Victoria) was coming down with a cold. That evening we had some unexpected school/homework confusion with Mary but it was nothing that a quick phone call to her teacher couldn't solve.

 

Monday after school hair.

 

Taylor had her first basketball practice after school. When I picked her up, she looked like she was about to faint, red faced and pale at the same time. I would have LOVED to take a picture to share but as you can imagine, she probably would not have appreciated that very much. And by bedtime, the Queen was sick. She slept in my bed and I snuck into bed with Paisley. I may or may not have cried on Monday.

 

But we persevered! We not only made it through Monday, we also made it through Tuesday. And you know what?! I have some of the best, most exciting news to share (and it's not my new floor, which I promise I will share soon). My van is HOME and FIXED! :) ! :)

 

 

I've been speculating about how much better things will get when I get my van back and I was way off. It's even better than I imagined! Life with four kids is nearly impossible without a minivan. At least for me and my family it is. Check out how happy the babies are about another trip to school in the truck :/

 

 

Thanks to an amazing friend I sucked it up and pulled my stuff together. I cleaned, painted a dresser, caught up on laundry, cooked a chicken for two dinners, made bone broth for the sickies, soaked oatmeal, made dinner, and I didn't cry once all day. It's obvious that we just need more practice living this busy schedule kind of life.

 

Of course, by Tuesday night we added another sick kid to the mix and I pulled what was extremely close to an all night'r last night. My first in a while. Surprisingly, today has been ok. I'm tired. But I'm making it. With a little extra support from my super sweet Honey and a lot of coffee I'm still hanging in here.

 

Tomorrow I tackle this disaster. 

 

 

 

 



Monday Stuff

Monday is kinda wonderful and kind of a bummer. Glad to get back to the new routine but the weekend seriously was not long enough. 

The babies continued to... we'll say adjust, over the weekend. I sure hope this adjustment period passes quickly. It turns out that my super sweet Paze is a full blown fit throwing toddler now. I know her sweetness will eventually win and she will come back to me. But for now, she stinks!
 
I seriously loved having my big girls home. They played and cooked and crafted.

 

 

Just like I expected, absence does make the heart grow fonder :)
  

 

I can't wait to share our floor project but I'm not quite done yet. We've finished painting the room, and installing, staining, and sealing the floor. When it's dry we'll get everything put back together and then share.
 
I was a little overwhelmed selecting the stain. I didn't have a real vision so I just picked something from the Paint N Paper Shoppe (one of my favorite stores) and went with it. I was going to do a white wash originally and then I considered a light blue stain but didn't go with either of those. Maybe tomorrow I can share. Maybe!

 

While I painted and stained all weekend, I brainstormed, as usual. For a long time, my heart has been deeply searching to find a cause to immerse myself in. But there are just so many needs out there, how can I know exactly where God wants me! And where will He be able to use me best? And how can I use my talents and interests to glorify Him? And how much time and energy am I willing to commit? Ugh! So many questions!

The needs of others are endless. Abortion, adoption, orphans, hunger, missionary work, poverty, politics, and so on. 

I want to mention that I'd love to hear any ideas that you all may have. My mind is all over the place. I know one thing is for sure, I'm happier when I'm serving God by serving others. Serving others feeds my soul. When God is using me to to do His work, it's brings a whole new perspective to my life. What a privilege it is to be His hands and feet. It's so easy to neglect His work for things that we think are important, but are actually meaningless. I'll keep praying and searching until the right thing comes along.
 

To serve is to love. Get out there and love!