The Best Valentine!

"We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God, because they must seem so small to Him who sitteth on the circle of the earth.  But if they are large enough to vex and endanger our welfare, they are large enough to touch His heart of love.  For love does not measure by a merchant's scale, nor with a surveyor's chain.  It hat a delicacy which is unknown in any handling of material substances."  -- Torrey 

No matter where you find yourself this Valentine's Day, ... single, looking, dating, engaged, married, there is one thing we can all rejoice in: we have all already been given the best, most complete, most fulfilling love there is (whether we choose to accept it and return it or not): God's love.  

Don't get me wrong, human love is an amazing and wonderful thing.  As Henry Ward Beecher put it, "Love is the medicine of all moral evil.  By it the world is to be cured of sin.  Love is the wine of existence... No man can afford to invest his being in anything lower than faith, hope, love - these three, the greatest of which is love."  But no matter how much you love someone else or they love you, in the end we are all just human and, by extension, imperfect.  We can be kind, we can be selfish, we can comfort one another, we can hurt one another (intentionally or not), we can have great days and not-as-great days.  In other words, no matter the goodness of the person or intentions, if you are looking for a perfect love in humans or anything on this earth, you will always be let down in the end.  It doesn't take much living life to realize this.     

But this love that I spoke of earlier, this love that God offers us, is a pure, a perfect, and a complete love.  A verse that many of you have probably heard before describes this love, "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."  - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a  Further, if we wonder how God factors into the love equation, the answer has been made clear: "God is love." - 1 John 4:16

What has God done to show His love to us?  Where is the action behind these words?  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  - John 3:16 

This statement involves unbelievably huge sacrifice and is, to those who believe in it, literally one that transforms.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  - 2 Corinthians 5:17 

At one point in my life, before I became a "new creation" in Christ, I was certainly in bondage.  I was seeking happiness in this life through many different things, including people and relationships.  And yet, I still felt there was something missing... a hole that had yet to be filled.  When I chose to accept God's love instead of avoiding it and seeking happiness elsewhere, it undoubtedly and forever changed me... in a good way.  The Bible says that in that moment, we are no longer "slaves to sin," but instead have been freed from that bondage.  (Romans 6:6-7).  And what amazing feeling it is to be free! 

On this Valentine's Day, I not only hope you've experienced this freedom, but I hope you know this amazing, life-changing love.  Happy Valentine's Day, friends!  

On a lighter note...

This week, the Kelly Moore Bag website is having 5 days of giveaways on their blog.  These giveaways include: a Kelly Moore bag of choice ($249 value!), The Lightroom 4 Preset System: from SLRLounge, Floral Alphabet Garland: from Pressed Cotton, Mercury Votives: from Pressed Cotton, and Nikon Coolpix Camera from Adorama.  Can you say wow?!  Not only that, but on Friday, they will have their grand giveaway... and includes a $1000 Visa gift card! 

Interested in any of these giveaways??  Go here to enter.  Good luck everyone!

Friends

Friendship is a wonderful, and sometimes mysterious, thing to me.  It is something to be honored, something to be cherished, something to be cultivated, and something to be invested in.  This post is mostly my ramblings about friendship, so excuse my stream-of-consciousness.   

I've wondered many times why it used to be so easy to make new friends when I was a child as opposed to now.  I have a specific friend from junior high that I remember flat out saying, "Hey!  We have all our classes together.  We should probably be friends, don't you think?" and she ended up being one of the people I've been closest to in my life.  It was that easy!  Of course, we ended up having a lot in common so that helped, but we just accepted each other the way we were, learned about the other person, supported and had fun with the other person, cheered each other on in our accomplishments and cried together when we were sad.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems like it's not that easy now. 

***

"False friendship, like the ivy, decays and ruins the wall it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports."  - Burton

As is expected in the process of growing up, I have since been through many things, including some friendships that really hurt me... friendships that caused me to be more cautious about opening up, being vulnerable, and allowing myself to grow close to people.  I am a work in progress in that area... so that, surely, is part of the problem, though how much of the problem it is, I am not sure.  

***

"Friendship is, strictly speaking, reciprocal benevolence, while inclines each party to be solicitous for the welfare of the other as for his own.  This equality of affection is created and preserved by a similarity of disposition and manners."  - Plato

Because of my difficulty in making new friends who I am truly close to, I have learned to truly treasure my "old" friends.  How amazing they are!  Unlike some friendships which, as I assume is somewhat normal, have slowly grown apart, these few "old" friends of mine have managed to stay in my life, have been intentional to stay in touch, even in the business of the lives we lead, and have always been there for me as I endeavor to be for them.  I am so blessed by them! 

One quick example,... today I received a surprise package in the mail from my good friend, Lydia.  She sent me a really cool little book that I can write down daily notes/thoughts about motherhood in.  No, it's not my birthday; it's obviously not Christmas; she really had no reason at all to send me such a sweet present... but she did.

I cannot tell you how much this small token meant to me.  The feeling it gave me made me wonder why I don't do this for my friends more often!  Even so, I hope I do and say enough so that they know how much they mean to me.   

***

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." - Emerson

How true is that?  It definitely makes me look at my own behavior and ask, "Would I want to be friends with myself?"  This is something I want to continually ask myself and be intentional about.  

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."  - Proverbs 17:17 (NIV) 

This is the type of friend I want to be.  One who is always there for my friends, through thick and thin, one who provides honest advice when asked for it, one who listens when that is all that is needed, one who gets the inside jokes when laughter is the best medicine, and a shoulder to cry on during hard times, among other things.  

Do you have a hard time making new close friends or do you find it comes natural to you?  What valuable lessons have you learned about friendship over the years?  In what ways do you think you could be a better friend?   

Catching Up

Man, how time flies!  It's been too long since my last blog post.  I have a couple of quick updates. 

First, I wanted to post about one more Christmas present I made.  I finally gave them to all the recipients so I can post about it now!  I made some jersey knit bracelets for good friends of mine.  Here is what they look like:

I got a very exciting package in the mail recently.  My fantasy football trophy!!!  I won first place in my league in case you were wondering. : ) I wonder if there is a way to engrave my name in the trophy so that all future recipients know who the first winner of the trophy was. 

Also, my good friend, Lydia, and her baby girl, Isabelle, came up to visit Graham and me from Fort Smith.  We had so much fun!   We played with Graham's toys.  He was VERY territorial.  Normally, he is not that bad, but I guess it's because he's not used to sharing his own toys in his own house.  Either way, Isabelle was so sweet and laid back that she didn't seem to mind Graham grabbing her toys at all. 

Lydia and I also went to see our house which is under construction.  It was looking good!  I gave her a short tour since it was pretty chilly out and the kids were hungry and tired. 

Then we went to eat lunch together.  I had such a good time catching up with her and seeing Isabelle!  They are such blessings in my life, even if I don't get to see them as often as I'd like.  I'd like to make a point to go visit them next time and make that sooner rather than later.  Here are some pictures from our visit together:

Seeing Santa

The first time he saw Santa, Graham was so calm that he was asleep!   This year, however, that was not the case.  I'm not sure if he was actually afraid of Santa or scared we were leaving him with Santa but either way you slice it, he did not enjoy seeing Santa this year.  Here's hoping he enjoys next year better! 

Family & One-Year Pictures!

The Christmas cards have been delivered so I can now share with you our family photos/Graham's one-year photos.  Kelsey Tice Photography was our photographer and she was amazing!  She was incredibly patient with our runny-nosed toddler and rambunctious lab and, due to her gracious patience, we ended up with wonderful photos. 

I really cannot say enough about Kelsey.  I plan to use her for all professional photos we take from now on and would recommend her to anyone and everyone.  She is not only a great photographer but her services are very reasonably priced when compared to other photographers of her caliber.  I've said enough about Kelsey, so now I'll let her work say the rest.  

Until next time,

Lyndsey     

Christmas Craftiness

Wow, it has been a whole month since I last wrote a blog post!  Well, after reading this one, you may understand why.  Since it is after Christmas and most of the gifts I made have been given, I wanted to share them with you.  I am the least crafty person you'll meet so, hopefully, this will inspire someone reading that you too can make gifts that people will enjoy.  I am omitting one gift and may include it in a future post, because I haven't yet distributed that gift to everyone I made it for.  Here it goes!  (By the way, all of my ideas came from Pinterest so they may look familiar to you.... I am in no way taking credit for the original idea.) 

First, I made all my siblings coasters.  I bought tile and different designs of scrapbook paper for each of them and mod podged the scrapbook paper onto the tile, glued cork onto the bottom of the tile, and sprayed the tops of the coasters with sealer so that they won't be ruined if they get wet.  A couple of pictures from the process: 

They turned out pretty cute if you ask me!

For my parents, I made a customized plant pot.  They tend to keep a lot of plants around the house so I thought this would be good.  I printed off a bunch of pictures from our recent photo shoot, mod podged them onto the pot (yes, mod podge has become my best friend), used that sealer spray again, and hot glued a ribbon around the top (how cute is that mustard chevron ribbon?!).  I think they liked it.  It'll be cool to see a plant in there next time we visit!

Next, I made a Movie Night In A Bottle for my niece.  I cut a window opening in the back of a cleaned out soda bottle (I drank the soda, because I really sacrifice during my gift giving) and put in tons of candy and several bags of popcorn.  I then taped it shut and glued a sign a printed onto it.   

Not too shabby if you ask me. And, of course, I got her a movie to go along with it.  I think that is the most excited I've seen her for ANY present I've given her, so I'd have to say this was a success! 

Excuse the messy pictures, but these next gifts were just plain messy to make.  They are bird feeders for the grandparents from Graham.  I mixed together Knox gelatine, water and bird seed and put it into cookie cutters to get shapes! 

I had to peel around the edges to get the shapes perfect, but the end product was not bad!

Next, I made 3 bags of Christmas gifts for Graham's teachers at his part-time daycare program.  Earlier in the year, they had filled out surveys about their favorite things so this Pinterest idea was perfect! 

For another niece, I made plastic bottle bowling.  I used acrylic paints to coat the inside of the bottles and dried them out and bought a ball to play with.  It looked like something I would've enjoyed as a kid so I thought it might be a fun gift.   

Last, but certainly not least, was the homemade salted caramel sauce I made for loved ones.  It was a true labor of love.  Before anyone is too impressed, let me just say that making caramel sauce is not easy!  I messed up quite a few batches before getting some I could actually use.  I don't plan on making it again, at least not with the recipe I used.  I've had other recipes offered to me that may be easier and, someday, if I get up the desire again, I may try one of those.  Until then, this is all you've got:

I hope you've enjoyed my homemade Christmas gift post!  I definitely plan to make more gifts from now on (though I may not set the lofty goal of making ALL Christmas gifts again).  It was fun and I really felt like my gifts meant more than they would have if I had gone out and bought random things for people, not knowing what they really wanted or needed.

Until next time,

Lyndsey