A Joyful Home.

Well, it’s spring break. You know what that means, time to do things that I never have time to do. Like writing blog posts. And reading non-nursing books. And showering…just kidding, I still haven’t showered. 

For some reason, I’ve always loved to decorate. When I was little, I would spend road trips drawing out rooms I someday wanted.  Unfortunately, the rubber ducky themed bathroom and the secret garden bedroom didn’t seem to go over well with Dawson.  When we got engaged in 2009, I literally spent more time looking for furniture and mentally decorating our little space than planning the wedding. End point, I love taking a place and making it feel comfortable and beautiful.

Also, I love holidays. Dawson always says that my favorite holiday is whichever one is next. And its true! I love ‘em! I love to celebrate and I love giving gifts. Okay, I love to get gifts too. So, almost every month, I combine my love for decorating with my love for holidays, and deck out the house. However, as I learned early on the first year of marriage, this can get pricey. So I wanted to talk a little about decorating for holidays on a budget!

1. Reuse old cards.

I love getting and giving cards. And if you’ve ever given me one, I probably still have it. Every once in a while I will sit down and read through stacks of them and it warms my heart. So, for holidays I like to bust out some old cards from the year before, read through them, and then display them. 

I got a great deal on this chicken wire frame, and I’m sure you can find a Pinterest tutorial on how to make one. I like to change it out for holidays and birthdays.

2. Focus on the fireplace.

If you don’t have a fireplace, use something else that is the focal point of your main living area and use that. When people are over, their eye will be drawn to the focal point and it will seem as if you’ve decorated your whole house.

3. Shop the deals after the holidays.

Like many of you, I can hardly resist the dollar section at target. I always come away with like 10 things I don’t need. The even better deal, however, is the days following a holiday. You can usually go to the holiday section of the store and find things from up to 70% off. This is where I snag all my stuff for the next year, put it in a bin, label it, and when I open it next year, it’s like a huge present to myself!

4. Use jars and vases and change the contents.

I used to have an aversion to fake flowers. I hated them. However, I found that a really simple vase with some fake flowers in it makes your home brighter and more welcoming.  Also, one thing I’ve learned from my mom when it comes to decorating and hospitality is that people love candy. She was always great about having a dish out filled with candy. This is another great way to decorate for holidays: conversation hearts for Valentine’s Day, jelly beans for Easter, ect.

I ate most of these jelly beans….

5. Most importantly, focus on your heart more than your home.

We can spend a lot of time and money on making our homes look exactly the way we want them. We can have people over to the perfect dinner party with the cleanest house ever, and miss completely out on the joy of community with others. Let's focus more on the hearts of people than our houses. I say this only for the fact that I live it, and through God's grace He has revealed this to me. Through the Holy Spirit, I must constantly battle the desire to pretend like I have it all together at the expense of true authenticity. 

Romans 12:12-14

¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Well, I guess I’ll go fold laundry.  I plan on writing another post soon about the book I’m currently reading on being a church planters wife. It is unbelievably good (the book, not the post).  Thanks for reading. Happy Palm Sunday, and Happy Spring Break for a lot of you!

Joy,

The Joy in Memorizing Scripture.

In the spring, I had the wonderful opportunity to do a study by Beth Moore on the book of James with my ladies bible study. If you've never done a Beth Moore study, I recommend all of her bible studies and books- especially her James study. 

In the study, you choose a level of participation. You can just watch the videos or you can add extra things on like doing the weekly homework, writing the book of James, and digging deeper with the history in the book. The final "level" is memorizing the book of James. When we started the study, I was in the middle of my 6th semester as a nursing student and the idea of memorizing anything more than labs values seemed too daunting. However, a couple weeks ago, I really felt convicting on the need to memorize scripture. So, I decided to start memorizing the book of James. It has been a couple weeks now and I'm almost finished with the first chapter! Even since I've started, I've seen huge fruit from memorizing scripture. I've been able to use the scripture as encouragement to others, as promises to cling to during the day, and God continues to bring up situations where the scripture I'm memorizing is just the truth I need. It is so cool to scripture as "living and active."

A part of chapter 1 of James that I just finished memorizing says:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

James 1:17

As I memorized that scripture this week, I couldn't help but think of the wonderful gifts God has given me, including my sweet husband, Dawson.

Out celebrating our 2 year anniversary!

This week, I made Dawson a little picture montage on Animoto, and as I looked through the pictures and memories of this past 2 years, I was full of joy at what an awesome (and handsome!) husband God has blessed me with! God blesses with good and perfect gifts. What I love even more about the scripture, however, is the truth that God does not change. God is the stability in our lives and the stability in our marriage. Through hard times, transitions, unknowns, happiness, pain, and all that encompasses life: He has "no variation or shadow due to change."

That promise gives me joy. 

Here's a link to the slideshow I made for Dawson, it's a little cheesy- but we're pretty cheesy together!

2 Year Anniversary Slideshow

         

Joy,

Considering it ALL joy- my summer ramblings.

Today, I’m so thankful for summer break and the few days of rest it has brought with it. I’m thankful for the ability to have my quiet time, work on my crafts, open my house to beautiful people, and to drink coffee with friends whenever I want to.  I’ve been afforded the opportunity to go on so many trips and make memories with so many special people.  This little wonderful window of time between semesters has been such a blessing.  This time, as I start off another crazy semester as a nursing student, I feel like I get to do it with a fresh perspective and renewed spirit.

The best thing about the break is that in the slowness and the quietness, I can feel and see God molding my heart and bringing me through sanctification so vividly. Honestly, 2011 was a rocky year, plagued with instability, heartbreak, and the sharp knife of unwelcomed change. I fought through the busyness, hoping that my ability to balance everything and succeed would bring me the desired approval I was longing for. I felt like even as I leaned in to God, even as I called on Him to save me from the mess, I was thrown another curveball, another thing to balance. 

James tells us that we are to count trials as pure joy because they produce a steadfastness of faith. Though it has taken me a while to process, I see growth in me that could only be attested to God’s work in the trials.  Seeing joy in the midst of trials seems like such a huge request sometimes, but the promise that God has control and He is shaping me allows me to rest in Him.  And the resting is the key, not to try harder, to be better, to look like you have it all figured out, it’s to rest in Christ, in his grace, and in the promise the his mercies are new every morning.

I have so much more to talk about, from my conquest of several pinterest crafts with Kelli to my thoughts on the shortening road that leads to graduation.

Shout out to those sweet friends of mine who got coffee, ate lunch, or just hung out with me this week- you stir my affections for Christ and make my life so special. 

Joy,

   

New Year's Resolution 1: Blog.

 So, I feel like New Year's resolutions get a bad rap; sure, six months from now less than half of those who made a resolution this year will still be working to achieve it. Yet still. I think there's something to be said about a fresh start, a clean slate if you will, that makes the new year an exciting time to better ourselves. When thinking of my own resolutions this year (which I will get to in a minute), I couldn't help but correlate the fresh start of a new year to the redemption that has been offered for my life to give me a clean slate. Through Christ,  I am "a new creation, the old has passed away"(2 Cor. 5:17) and daily I'm offered forgiveness and grace to "put to death my sinful nature." (Romans 8:13). What an amazing gift-- and something I do not deserve and that gives me great JOY everyday.

    As I said earlier, I enjoy New Year's resolutions; because I like setting goals, and I like accomplishing tasks. Even though I'm a list maker and I enjoy any opportunity to make a list, a wonderful friend (and new pen pal) of mine, Sarah Everett, gave me the idea to make a "vision board" of all my goals for 2012. Since I'm also in need of something to hang up in my office/craft room, I jumped all over the idea and made one that night! 

This is it, I haven’t hung it up yet because I’m not sure if it’s done just yet. I showed it to Dawson’s mom yesterday, and she really encouraged me by saying that she thought that a key to life was to have vision and goals in it. That’s a summary not a direct quote. But it made my day! I think it’s important for me to remember and for me to say, that when it comes to trying to do life in our own strength, we will ultimately fail. We need the Holy Spirit to empower us to live the lives Christ has called us to live. 


Oh, and Happy New Year from me, Conner, and my double (nah, triple) chin.

Love,

A page is turned in this life...

...He's made her his wife.

      I've been working on a post this past week about the incredible adventures I've had serving the Lord this summer- I may want to warm you now, that post is going to be pretty long! However, I wanted to take a break from that today to thank someone who has truly been a joy to me these past 3 years and especially this last year. One year ago today, I married the most wonderful man, Dawson. Dawson is like the coolest person I know...I really mean that. You can see one reason why here.  Plus, he lets me each sour patch kids in the bed, he adores our puppy Bailey (she's pretty adorable though), he would cover our walls in pictures if I let him, and he even lets me match us from time to time (here's one of those times). Throw in the fact that he is the most gentle, friendly, loving and Christ-like man that I know. Sounds like love to me! I cherish all the time we spend together, especially serving the Lord together.

Uganda 2011

     I have learned SO much this year, really. I learn or relearn something new about loving someone and dying to my own selfish desires literally every day. I've learned that life is messy, but so utterly wonderful. I've learned that marriage is hard, but incredibly satisfying. Most importantly, I've learned that God is faithful and He is ready to equip us with everything we need to love one another. Sometimes it is hard to love, so I ask God to love through me. Sometimes it is hard to be patient, so I ask God to give patience through me. Sometimes it is hard to be joyful, so I ask God to show joy through me.  I know God's faithfulness, because I know what it is like to really mess up; but thankfully, our God is a God of forgiveness and restoration. And thankfully, Dawson chooses to forgive too. Through the highs and lows, I cannot wait to see where God leads us.

Happy Anniversary, Dawson. Thank you for a wonderful year!

Happy Daddy Day!

"A wise child brings joy to their father,
but a foolish child brings grief to their mother"

Proverbs 10:1

    

    I have been so blessed with the wonderful gift of a great father! This year I was so thankful to also be given a great father-in-law and stepfather-in-law. I woke up this morning thinking about memories my dad and I have shared, recalling our first father-daughter dance when I was in girl scouts (mostly a disaster!), our trips to the cottage in Canada ( where we visited most summers, and where Dawson asked him his permission to marry me), countless camping trips, and Dawson and I's wedding. I haven't always been a "wise" child; but when he says he's proud of me, I can tell that I've brought him joy. He lives in Russia now (here) and I totally miss seeing him. Now, I cherish every time I get to talk to him or skype with him- it's crazy how we take for granted just being able to talk with our parents and family!

    I just really wanted to thank all dads out there: especially the ones God has blessed me with. Thanks for being strong, caring, and a joy to me. And I can't help but give a shout out to God: the ultimate Father.

Something worth Catching

"Some things are taught, other things are
caught."
–Beth Moore

Working at an urgent care clinic for a couple years, I know what it happens when we hear the word contagious.

        "How contagious?"

        "Can I catch it just being near them?"

        "How long it must I stay away?"

        "Where's the Lysol?"

However, I wonder if we have ever considered there being something worth catching? I want, and what I'm trying to say is, I want something that others can't help but catch after they've been with me. I want to live a life so complete in the love of Christ…that I don't have to use words to explain.

A contagious joy is what I want.

Jesus says:

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

-John 15:11

 

So, if you want: Join me. For ramblings on what a person with contagious joy looks like, what the bible has to say about joy, the things that give me joy, and on my journey of letting the truths of Christ make my joy complete…and contagious.