A Pure Heart

I have been doing a lot thinking lately about wasted time and a pure heart. I don't want one... and want to strive for the other and until the other morning, they seemed like two entirely different things. We have such a limited amount of time and such a limitless amount of things to do. I found a quote the other day that said, "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted". To me that means that only you can deem what is worthy to spend your time on. When it comes to me, if I find pleasure in it, then I will continue to do it. That is also the same for people in my life. If you bring me happiness or I look forward to hanging around you, then I do not think you are a 'waste'.

This whole concept was really weighing heavily on me the other day while I was at work. It was before the store opened and I had just finished listening to Miranda Lambert's song "Heart like Mine". I have really been trying to focus on loving people for who they are and forgiving them for their eccentricities, because everyone has them. A line in the song says that Jesus could understand a heart like mine. That particular line really spoke to me. It is up to Jesus to understand everyone else and not us. It is up to us to love others and try to make the world a better place.

This is easily done in the larger sense, but for me, my hang up becomes my day to day life. Sure I can listen to Christian music to soothe my bad mood or I can volunteer my time to helps others out, but can I control my temper with bad drivers? Can I keep my cynical view of the world and people to myself? Not usually :) To me, even if I get happiness from being sarcastic or snarky, does that waste my time? What is the main outcome of those things? Can it really change things if I try to only put good words out there? Yes! But I truly believe I can do this and still be myself. I can be sarcastic and dry without being offensive. I can not have strong opinions about things that don't necessarily affect on a personal level. I will try to have my own thoughts and not adopt those of others because I think I lose a lot of my personal identity that way. Not hopping on a bandwagon in regards to my family, friends or even Facebook will help me have a pure heart because at least all the things I will put my efforts into will be original emotions.

Everyone should always be on a journey for self improvement, because if you are not, you can become stagnant and it will begin to affect parts of your life. Or at least I believe that to be true. Over the next few weeks I am going to watch what thoughts come to my head and figure out if they are pleasant or pertinent enough to be said. I believe this will help me be a happier and nicer person and if we want the world to change (be it big scale or just immediately around us) it has to start somewhere, so why not me?

A Wreath for Laikyn

So my new obsession in Pinterest. Its a web site and an app for my phone. If you don't know what it is, you should check it out! Anyway, I found a wreath on there I decided to make as a gift for my friend's new little girl. I followed the tutorial for the original wreath and learned a few things along the away.

First you need a round wire hanger and you need to bend it into the best circle you can make.

I was experimenting with the right length of fabric to achieve the right look. Longer is better. But there is your circle and don't worry about making it perfect. Once your fabric is on it, you would be able to tell where it isn't perfectly round.

You need 1/4 yard of fabric. I cut my fabric into 1/2 inch strips and had plenty left over. I also chose four different patterns, so if you choose more, you can buy less. This is where you can make your own choice for your own wreath. The tutorial I was following said to cut your strips to the right width and then cut them in half. So that is the length I used. Now, I wish I had kept them longer so have more a messy, shabby effect, but it is up to you. To look like mine, cut the strips in half lengthwise.

I would say it will probably take you 2 hours to do this process all the way through. It took me longer, but I had to stop to take care of Emily. I also can't sit still for that long tying fabric in knots. I kept my fabric in the order you see above and kept a pattern. I also sometimes double knotted the fabric on the wire (which is the way the tutorial instructed) and sometimes I decided one knot was good enough. I think this helped it not look so uniform.

That is the finished product. I made a bow out of ribbon for one side and painted a wooden block for the middle initial. I am not sure if you can tell, but the wood is 'distressed'... as much as you can distress a small block of wood. The letter is from the scrap booking section and was all one piece. To do this, you can also use ribbon, but I felt like fabric was much more cost effective and I was able to find the same fabric Kayla used for her daughter's bedding and incorporated it.

It was fun and easy and actually really cheap. Probably about $10 for all of it. Although, I did get the fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby.

Have fun!

Idle Hands

With all the anxiety surrounding my mother's time in the hospital, I needed a distraction. I have been saying for many weeks now that I will just build (insert type of furniture here) instead of buying it. I have been inspired by a site I found online and it has given me some (foolish maybe) confidence about my ability to build furniture.

Some time in the near future Emily is going to need a big girl room and her nursery will hopefully be housing another addition to our family. In getting ready for this step, I am trying to clear out the play room of anything not related to her. So, that mainly means my arts and crafts and the computer/business (bills blah) stuff. I have wanted for a long time a place for me to feel inspired to write and read and I want to do all this in front of a window. So I built a desk to fit in a small space by our french doors in the back of our living room. It took me about four hours total to do this project (I would have finished in one day but I had to go to work) and the only thing I had to pay for was the paint. All the wood came from scraps that we have had from earlier house projects.

The wood I will change into my desk!!!

The top frame for the desk slats

Legs and top frame

Getting ready to place top slats

Slats placed. Yes I know some of the boards aren't flat and some might call them warped. I say they are perfect for the rustic look of the table and nothing is perfect. Huge metaphor for my life right now :) Feel free to roll your eyes if you feel the need to.

The finished project!

Eventually I will make a colorful memo board of some kind, but I ran out of "resources". But I have already felt inspired when I sit at my new desk. Especially since I know I made it myself :)

Monkey See, Monkey Don't Do!!

There are days that I wake up feeling less that awesome and even on those days, my daughter will still watch my every movement. I did not realize how she watched *everything* until yesterday I walked up to her and she had her hand beside her head. She has had some bad allergies lately (both of us actually!) and I was worried I would have to go to the pediatrician for an ear infection. Nope. She had one of my bobby pins in her hand and she was in the process of scratching her ear with it. Those of y'all that know me well know that I do this... I know I know. My ears ITCH and bobby pins and mechanical pencils are the best solution! I blow my nose, so does Emily. I yawn, so does Emily. I stick dangerous things in my ears... so does Emily. It was a good... reminder.... that I have a 20 month old daughter who watches her mommy very carefully. I love her to death and even on my semi-awesome days, I need to set a good and SAFE example. I have too many bad habits I need to keep to myself!

Menu in Weeks

I tried to blog my menu an entire month in advance. I am not sure what I was thinking. There is no way I know what I am doing or what will sound good a month from now. So instead, I will plan the next two weeks. This makes more sense with our budget because my small, part-time paycheck is what we eat off of, so my hours reflect in the level of gourmet my food is :)

Asian BBQ Chicken with Fried Rice. The fried rice recipe takes a lot of things I don't have in my kitchen, but hopefully since I stock most of the tings in the chicken recipe, it will balance out budget wise.

Bacon Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken. I am thinking some steamed brown rice on the side. Something healthy for my husband.

Round Steak (recipe below)

Roman Chicken

Buffalo BBQ Chicken

Slow Cooker Beef Tips (recipe below)

In between we are going to eat leftovers and see how far that gets up. One of our bad habits is making too much food and then throwing it away when we get tired of it the leftovers. That wastes money, which we can't afford to do! So these next few weeks are an experiment.

Round Steak

2 lbs Round Steak

2 can green beans (whichever style you like the best)

2-3 potatoes (however many you think you will want)

2 cans cream of mushroom soup diluted with milk. This step is not an exact science. start with a cup of milk and figure out if you like that consistency.

Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours.

Beef Tips

2 lbs lean stew meat

1 dry onion soup packet

2 cans cream of mushroom soup (diluted with milk. start with a cup again)

1 cup fresh mushrooms (I don't use many and I keep them big because John picks them out)

1 bag of egg noodles

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve over Egg Noodles or Rice.

I will let you know how this new 'experiment' goes with our budget and our appetites :)

Creative Outlet

I thrive better as a person when I can be creative. That is a very true statement. For some reason I have gotten away from this and I am not sure why I did that to myself! Now I have the time and nothing to use as an excuse as to why I can't create. So, my first official project was turning an 80s headboard into a shelf for my entry way. I did not take pictures of it before I added the shelves, but I think you can get the idea from this picture. Please excuse the fact that I took it with my phone.

You can see the two white shelves that we added to turn it into a shelf and a kick board on the bottom. Then I sanded it, painted it and tried an aging technique. This is something I will keep trying to perfect ;)

For my first project I am pretty proud. I need to fill the shelves, but that will come with time. A friend of mine and myself have been spending a lot of time on Ana White's website. She posts free plans for building furniture and we are going to take on some of the projects. At least creative outlet is cheap will benefit my house :)

Mommy Confession: Discipline

Emily is finally entering the terrible twos. I thought she had reached this stage a while back, laughing that my daughter was 'ahead of the curve'. Little did I know what the terrible twos actually meant. Emily is beginning to exhibit the characteristics that I want her to have... when she is in middle school and being hit from every side with peer pressure and temptations. Not when she isn't quite two and learning things for the first time. I feel like everything I say to her is 'No!' or do you want to go to timeout? She is so stubborn and honest and independent... and an exact replica of both of her parents. I definitely want Emily to have some independence from us and that ability to learn mistakes on her own, but I want her to know what is okay and what is not. I want to teach her right and wrong now and not let it get out of hand for later. But my worry is I say too many negative things to her and not enough positive. So when she does something over and over that she knows is wrong, I have to be consistent. But I also start to wonder if I am fighting battles that I shouldn't have engaged in in the first place. But if I stop now, will I be inconsistent. How do I be a good mom that shows constant love and deal with a strong-willed child? How do I teach her what is right and wrong and be consistent when she repeatedly does that wrong thing and still be the person she wants to run to for comfort? How do I discipline well and love intensely?