It is a war.

My son is all about the war and fighting talk and I, being a girl I guess, am always like, "Ugh. I can't stand all this talk of violence!" So don't you know when I get completely fed up and say something like that to him we always go to services and hear about, you guessed it, war! It never fails. In the future I hope I remember to remind myself to redirect his war talk in the righteous direction of fighting against the 3 S's. This is yet another area where the male balance is missing in our life...but thankfully God has provided for the fatherless with a Godly ministry! But this life is a war against selfishness, for one thing, and we must remember to persevere no matter how great the struggle is, no matter how comfy our beds are, and no matter how excellent raspberry cheesecake cookies taste. No, we must fight for the subjection of our minds and bodies to the will of a greater, much, much, much greater One. Just wanted to take a minute to encourage everyone to keep up the good fight in faith and hope and joy!
Much love,
You know who.

Love like crazy?

I'm not talking about loving like romantic people stuff, but more like just how we should all love, agape', each other, more like how God loves us. When I think about all the stuff God has loved me through His love just seems kinda, well, crazy. Not like God is foolish or insane or any of the other descriptions of crazy that are perceived to be negative. But that His love is exceedingly great, totally departing from the realm and ability or leanings of humans to love one another or in a way that we humans consider "normal", without moderation He loves us, enthusiastically, intensely, impractically; when it holds no advantage whatsoever to Him and He has nothing to gain and everything to lose, like the day He sent us our Savior and just like the day He accepted our Savior and a way was made for mankind to enter His Family and just the same as He loved us yesterday He loves us tomorrow. To an exceeding degree. Like crazy. I want to love like that, but people, well, we sure don't make it easy, do we? I don't think God is scared of losing the people He loves. I don't think He's scared they won't love Him back or for that matter even like Him or pay Him any attention at all. Maybe loving people is something worth doing not because of what you can get from it, what you think you have to give to others by loving them or what you could lose but rather because of what you become by doing it. A giver. Kinda like the greatest Giver of all. Well, in that case, call me crazy...it would be an honor. But one I will just have to strive to be worthy of. I hope every one of you dear readers has someone to love like crazy, whether its a parent or complete stranger or a relative, and lets not put God last, a spouse or child or brother or sister, I hope you all learn to love like crazy, if you don't already know how, cause you might... :)

Most recent creative endeavors...

I've been working on creating some new cards the last few weeks, since I got a new toy and all. It's called the Big Shot and it's by Sizzix. It embosses and using dies it also cuts. So much fun! If anyone reading this has an embossing machine that will take Sizzix embossing folders please let me know...I have a few free embossing folders that I can't really use and I would love to give them away! I used my Cricut to make the bunting and balloons and some of the other embellishments and some were simply handcut.

 When you open this one up the elephant is actually on the inside, you can just see him through a window I cut and put a ruffled ribbon around. The other thing you can't see is that all the dots actually sparkle a bit since they are glitter, as are the 4 larger dots in the corners. This one was way cuter than it photo'd.

(It says Hope Your Anniversary Was Sweet and it was for a dear dear clay artist I know and see those little round thingy's that look like mini candies? She sent me these sticks and I cut those off them and clued them on this card and well, I don't know all the technical terms but they are lotsa fun to use for embellishing!)

This next card seems kinda plain, but its for a boy anyways and I've noticed they don't seem to care much about glitter and all that, though I did outline the leaves on the leafy thingy in a blue glitter and used some foam popouts to make the congrats banner pop...

 I'm not sure this one is completely complete either. Mostly cause I don't know exactly what to use it for. I just got the paper and loved it so I made this card up...I think I'm thinking something along the lines of it you build it they will come...so if I make cards then I will have people to send them to...well, its a work in progress, at any rate. But you should see this paper...its so vintage and I dirtied up the edges and the button border I embossed down the centers.

Well, this next one could be sent to so many dear ladies I know...whenever one door closes I hope one more opens, promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance, I hope you dance. I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, never settle for the path of least resistance...and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...