'Twas A Few Days Before Christmas...

'Twas A Few Days Before Christmas, When All Through The House

Lots of Creatures Were Stirring, But Hopefully No Mouse!

The Stockings Were Hung By The Chimney With Care

In Hopes That St. Nicholas Would Soon Be There.

The Children Were Shuttled Off To Their Schools

And They Were Instructed To Please Not Break Any Rules.

Dad sped off To Work With a Clang And a Clatter

I Went To The Window To See What Was The Matter

A Flat Tire Was Had By The Dad Of The House

"Merry Christmas", Said I, "And At Least We Don't Have a Mouse!"

These Days Before Christmas, As I Check Things Off My List

I Wonder...Hmmm...What's The Point Of All This?

And Then I Remember...The Reason For All This Joy,

It's Because Of The Birth Of A Special Little Boy!

So, These Days Before Christmas We Are As Busy As Little Bees,

Baking, Wrapping, Shopping And Things Such As These,

We Look Forward To St. Nicholas Stopping By,

And...
Celebrating The Birth of Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas!

**Only slightly tweaked from my original post in December 2010. 

A Day of Silence...

Although I'm struggling today with grief and sadness over Friday's tragedy, I will continue to Believe these words...

Remember your God has the final word, your name is written in the palm of His Hand, and you do not need to live in fear of the future. God is already there.

"See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.." Isaiah 49:16

What Kind Of World Is This?

Someone wrote on Facebook yesterday, "...according to the Mayan calendar our world is going to end soon...but I believe our world ended today..."

Powerful words written.

The world that we have lived in has changed throughout the years, hasn't it?  It's not the world it was when we were children.  This tragedy that happened yesterday has brought us to our knees and turned our world Dark.  Lights Out.  Darkness.

I noticed today on Facebook a few people are already going back to talking about their Christmas plans, things they have purchased, things they are selling, etc.  I can't bring myself to do that.  I know life must go on...but I feel changed.  How?  I'm not sure yet.  Tragedy happens around us constantly...but this has rocked me to my core.

Innocent children and their teachers killed.  Unspeakable. 

The question many of us are asking is...Why?

I guess we'll never have the answer, will we?

I hugged my children tighter yesterday...I forgot the problems I'm facing...I stopped to Thank God for the Blessings I have.

But...

I'm Scared!

I know now that these things can be taken away in an instant.  I always knew that...but it's more apparent to me now.

Today, this day after the tragedy, what am I going to do?  What are you going to do?

I'm looking for Hope!  I'm searching for some meaning in this.  I'm seeking some Light in the sacrifice of these 27 lives.

"Every Story Has An Ending, But In Life Every Ending Is A New Beginning".

 ~unknown

I'm searching for what this new beginning might be.  

God?  Please.  Light our way.

Hopeful,

Canning Jar Snowglobes...

Kyler and I had so much fun doing these.  I loved having my little craft helper working on these with me.  If you are looking for a simple gift idea to give to teachers, neighbors and friends this is perfect!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Mason jars or any glass jar with a lid (I found wide-mouthed jars easiest to work with)
• Distilled Water
• Glycerin (Found at Michaels in the cake decorating section)
• Coarse Glitter
• E-6000 Glue or Epoxy glue, that dries clear and is waterproof
• Stickers/Scrapbook Papers to decorate the lids (optional - we didn't do this)
• Something cute to put in your jar (all plastic or resin - metal objects, like bottle brush trees, will rust)
• Note:  We had a little trouble finding items to put in the jars.  We found the figurines at Dollar Tree (2 -3 per pkg. for $1.00).  Next time we will look for taller items

INSTRUCTIONS: 

• Apply a generous amount of E-6000 glue to the bottom of your figurine and place on the inside of your lid.  You will need to allow this to dry for at least 24 hours.
• Fill your jar almost to the top with distilled water.
• Add a generous splash of glycerin to the water (I may have added too much as some of my glitter has been clumping).
• Stir the glycerin and water to mix.
• Add desired amount of glitter (we used a LOT - 6 year olds and 43 year old Moms like glitter)!
• Run a generous amount of the glue around the rim of your lid.
• Over a sink gently place the lid on your jar and screw on tightly.
• Allow glue to dry for several hours before playing with Snow Globe. (Good Luck Waiting!)
• HAVE FUN!
  

P.S.

You know how sometimes photos make something look a little better than real-life?  This time, however, I think the Snow-globes look much better in person than the photos show.

Christmas Tree Terrariums...

I spent the weekend Christmas shopping and Christmas crafting.  Kyler (my 6 year-old) and I had a great time making Mason Jar Snowglobes.  I'll be posting about those this week as soon as I take some pictures.  They turned out so cute!  We also made a few Christmas Tree Terrariums.  I really like the simplicity of the way we made the terrariums.  They were super easy to make.  I purchased the trees at Dollar Tree (2 in a package for $1.00) and the bag of "Snow" was approximately $4.00 at Michaels.  I already had the jars, so this was a very inexpensive project.

Don't forget...this was the first crafting project I've done in a few years...so an easy project was good for me.  Pouring fake snow into jars and placing the tree in the middle of the jar is my kind of project.  Easy but Cute!

These trees are on top of the 1970's hutch in my dining room.  I plan to leave this grouping up all Winter.

 

These two trees in the canning jars are inside of the old painted cabinet that was always in my Grandma's house.  This is in my foyer.

Late Fall Backyard...

I guess it's not officially Winter yet and it sure doesn't feel like it here in Missouri.  Today it's supposed to be 70 degrees.  Our Christmas decorations are up and it seems a little weird to have the windows open and Christmas lights on.  This morning, Maisy and I spent a little time in the backyard taking some shots of our feathered neighbors.  They were really active this morning, but our little pup kept chasing them as soon as I'd get setup for a shot.  I love watching the birds, but it's a lot of fun to see that Maisy has discovered all the creatures in our backyard.  Here is what I got this morning...

...and a quick shot through the glass door at Maisy keeping watch over the bird feeder...

Following The Star: A Daily Online Advent Devotional Guide...

Every year at this time I direct you to the Following the Star website.  This website provides a devotional experience each day during the Advent Season.  This year it begins on December 2nd.

I invite you to spend a few moments each day there.

The music and the message are both beautiful.

Each morning I sit in the darkness of my living room while everyone else is asleep with only my Christmas tree lights illuminating the room and take part in these devotions.  My mornings in December are some of the most special of the whole year.  Starting my mornings in December in this way helps to put the focus of the Season where it should be...on Jesus.

I hope you'll join me this year.

P.S.

Devotions are available throughout the year as well at d365.org.  They are in the same format as Following The Star if you would like to check it out and see what it's like.

A Weekend Of Crafting...

I have finally almost got caught up on all the home repair/re-do projects to get ready for the holidays.  I'm hoping to finish up my Christmas shopping this week and then start some craft projects.  Starting a craft project or two for some of you is no big deal.  For me...it's BIG.  I haven't done any crafting for YEARS...like 6-8 years I'd say.  So BIG that until today I didn't even have a crafting tag (label) here on the blog since I haven't done any since I started this little writing gig in 2007.  I hope to post the final results of the projects here on the blog.  See those pics below...I'm planning to work on those...Cute, Huh?

Please Note: There is a 99% likelihood that I may not be able to do the followup post because I predict that my fingers will be stuck together with epoxy glue.  Stay Tuned!

Have a great Thursday!

Mason Jar Snow-Globes

The Lemonista

Snowflake Pictures

A Place 2 Call Home

Twinkle...

We've just finished up enjoying our family and friends over the Thanksgiving Holiday and the Christmas Season is in full swing already.  I have a tendency to get caught up in the busy-ness and stress of the holiday many years.  This year, however, I vow to take it easy and drink it all in and ENJOY.  I'm inspired to collect a few images of Twinkle Lights.  The lights beckon us to slow down...soak it in...and REST.  December 25th will be here before we know it.  For now, grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the Twinkling...

**Where possible, all images are linked to their original website on my Pinterest Christmas Board.

Christmas Preparation

We're starting to get ready for Christmas around here. We got the Family tree up (filled with our family keepsake ornaments...not a decorative ornament on the tree) and our Snowman tree up. I still have a couple of other areas to decorate and then I'm ready to enjoy the decorations and start Christmas shopping (which I seriously need to get started on). I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Jackie

Peeks Of Fall...

Good Morning,

Hope you are all having a good Monday morning.  It's a bit chilly here (in the 30's) and there is some frosty areas in our neighborhood.  Yesterday I took a short walkabout in our house and backyard and took some shots to give you a little peek at what Fall is looking like right now at our house.  About half of the leaves have fallen so the trees aren't too pretty right now. We are getting ready for Halloween although my oldest son still hasn't decided if he wants to dress up this year or not.  He is 11 and is in that in-between time in his life (part little boy/part pre-teen).  It's a confusing time for all of us (:

 
Have a great Monday and I'm continuing to say prayers for all of you on the East Coast in the path of the hurricane.