Tag: Hello Fears

A Time to Play: Taking Time to Create

Posted on by Mary
Play

Welcome to our new weekly blog post, A Time to Play. Sunday afternoon’s were made for relaxing in our house. It is something we have made a huge priority over the last few years. We guard it pretty closely and it ends with a date night rotating amongst the family members. It’s a way that my very busy Hubby is able to spend quality time with each one of us.

Well this is the beginning of what I hope to carve out some time to learn some new skills. As we have had to change our schedules when hubby left his ministry it has been difficult to find the time for my craftiness. (HEHEHE- that just sounded kinda funny)

Scheduled play Time

Now each week will look a little different- some weeks I will share some artwork or I might share a favorite supply

This week for instance I am going to share….

WHAT’S In MY TRAVEL ART BAG

I have had this Eastpak Back Pack since I was in High school- It has been half away around the world with me and back again. It has been through 4 years of college too. It has been camping and hiking and has now found permanent residence in my craft room.

The front pocket

Let’s start with the clear pouch that holds 2 bottles of water- I used two travel bottles that came with our camper. (It had shampoo and conditioner) in them. and there is masking fluid. It keeps white spaces when using water color. you paint it on and then rub it off when dry. a glue stick and some binder clips.

Then there is my favorite mechanical pencil and a simple microfiber cloth for wiping off my paint brushes.

Then there are scraps of paper for testing projects and an artist card pack.

The Big Pocket

This is one of my favorite watercolor notebooks. It’s small and I love the spiral bound option so I Can fold it over for easier use.. I have really grown to enjoy Arteza’s Art supplies and there a bunch listed throughout this post. You can check out their website here and stay tuned to learn about more of their art supplies! You can check out more here

THESE are my absolute favorite water brushes also from Arteza. They come in 6 different brushes 3 round (small, medium, and large) and 3 flat brushes (Small , medium, and large). I lost one of the caps while we were camping 2 years ago! the velvet bag came with the Artsy palette coming up in a few pics

this pencil set was an Amazon find. I needed a cheaper set for traveling and I needed some new drawing pencils. this set was perfect.

This simple little travelers notebook was something I put together a few years ago. I had to re-work the band. and I took so over side sketch paper and water color paper and cut them down to fit the inserts. It is perfect for camping and traveling.

Somedays you just need a coloring book! and this one is small enough to just slide in amongst the other stuff in the bag and I can just grab it and the colored pencil pack and go sit at t a picnic table somewhere. and the little book to the left is just an insert for the travelers notebook above covered in scrapbook paper and it has some heavy duty mixed yardstick.

This little pack has a bunch of goodies in it. Hubby and I have matching ones. His is gray and mine is this lovely shade of purple

The top picture is what is held in the pockets on the left hand side.. The pack come with three pencil holder “Pages. the first one is stitched in but the second two can be put in with velcro. I only have an extra one in. in currently. the first one front and back hold my Arteza Woodless Watercolor pencils- they are my faves to date. they are so smooth and not scratchy like some. And they dissolve so well.

Page two

The second page has my PITT Pens (fine Liners and a Mechanical pencil with Red lead in it!!! I have recently started using red colored pencil to sketch in before I water color over it. It just kinda melts into the painting and adds depth to the artwork.

The big part of the pack has just a few little things.

This little cellphone looking device is actually a watercolor paint palette. I needed something small. Would you believe that there are 60 colors in it? I love just how pigmented these colors have and I love to play with them.

The top picture are 2 silicone muffin cups one for clean and one for dirty water, my kneadable gray eraser (AKA stress therapy) and a roll of WASHI tape .

These are super special paints!!! These are Derwent Graphitint watercolor paints. They have Graphite mixed into the hues- These amazing paints give wonderful earthy tones with a slight graphite luster. I have thoroughly enjoyed using them and I am currently saving upper the water soluble Graphitint colored pencils.

Finally these mini travel brushes can be corked and make for easy travel.

If I need to get smaller I can just grab the purple pack and the travelers notebook. and be good to go. These are made by Sakura Koi and come in round brushes in 3 sizes (small, medium, and large).

So are you ready to play>. Join me each Sunday and be ready to share what you are working on!! I can’t wait to hear what you are working on!!

You can check out last weeks art post here

And to check out the rest of my Choosing Courage posts you can click here. This marks my 14th blog post and the end of week 2!

School Year 2021-2022

Posted on by Mary
School

In the past I haven’t shred what we have done for school. It just seems like such a trigger subject for so many Christians and I just Shied away from the conflict it could bring. I had a blog post about last years school choice all set and then I chickened out. It was just easier to avoid the school choice drama.

Well you all know the journey I am currently on and I am working on eradicating the fear out of my writing so I’m just gonna preface this here before we get started. …..this is our choice. I am not going to force our choice on someone else. And I likewise expect the same respect.

It is what works for our family in this season…..and I can tell you we have done it all. We have had kids in public school (Hubby and I both went to public school)- and we had good reasons for it.

All four kids at some point have been in Christian school and we have had great reasons for that too.

And we have just homeschooled one kid while the other kids were at a different school- and we have had great reasons for that.

And both last year and this year we are homeschooling all four kids and we have GREAT reasons for that.

school

Expect more posts about homeschooling this year! Just little did-bits that have helped us through the process and remember we are homeschooling two special needs kids too. That adds an extra element of excitement around here!

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

To Read more Choosing Courage posts Click here (yes we just finished Day 13!)

Choosing Courage.: You Never Knew Me

Posted on by Mary
Choosing

Good evening everyone! Welcome to post #12 in the Choosing Courage project. I hope you have had a great week! I have a very interesting question for you tonight! Have you ever invested time into someone- given them all of your heart (I’m not talking about a spouse necessarily), just to be all of a sudden accused of being a horrible person in some shape or form.? You are left standing there with the pieces of your shattered relationship laying at your feet and the overwhelming sense of “You never really knew me”?

If we are honest we all have (especially if you were a girl in middle school. We also have the tendency to either take offense far too easily or project our own problems on other people (more on this in a future blog post).

Grace upon Grace, Mercy upon Mercy

No matter which side you are on it’s important to remember that our ultimate goal as believers in Jesus is to be Christ emulators. And Jesus was full of GRACE and MERCY. I know some people aren’t naturally bent towards these traits. We need to work very hard to be like Christ. It takes practice and sometimes blowing it and then being able to learn from those mistakes.

It also takes a great measure of humility to admit that we don’t know everything. The only person who really knows our Hearts is God himself. Even we ourselves don’t know our own hearts because emotions can be severely deceptive. We can convince ourselves of lies both about ourselves and our closest of friends and when we let those lies and emotions take over and we lose sight of who Jesus really is and how we are supposed to love! UNCONDITIONALLY!

FORGIVE

This is the ultimate act of Christ like behavior , especially if you forgive before you are asked to forgive. Jesus provided the ultimate gift of forgiveness before anyone ever knew they needed forgiving..

Forgiveness is HARD. Especially when we have been hurt whether intentionally and unintentionally! But it is a choice we must make.

STOP PLAYING GOD

When we assume that we know someone’s heart , we are playing God. I know that’s hard to hear. But we all do it. And it’s so important to admit that flaw and move forward to understanding. That’s what we need to strive for understanding and love rather that assumptions and gossip. It’s our job to extend Grace and mercy so we can become the picture of true Christ-like love.

But how ado we do that? It Comes to to CHOOSING…..

It starts with some Courageous choices that goes against the world’s perspective.

  1. Choose to acknowledge that you don’t have all the understanding of peoples motives. When we assume we know their motives we are saying we know them better than God. And in doing that we show that we don’t really know them,
  2. Choose to Die to self. Put others before yourself and realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Value other people and their insights I had a history teacher who had a phrase he used to say “There is a world outside of Hetlerville. Yes that’s a real place. But the point is we get so stuck with seeing what is in our immediate location that we lose sight that the world is a much bigger place. The same is true fore us as individuals. When we get so wrapped up in our own little worlds and all the drama in our lives we fail to see what other people are going through. and even sometimes we take the struggles we are having and project them onto those around us.
  3. Choose Grace and mercy. It doesn’t matter of you are good at these things or not. we need to actively choose these! When we do so we will grow and we get better and better. But remember you can’t give what you don’t have.

These three choices are just the beginning! There is a part two of this coming soon…..So what will you be choosing to do? For me it’s forgiveness but more on that in the next post.

But while you wait you can check out the other CHOOSING COURAGE posts here

Joy Dare- One Thousand Gifts

Posted on by Mary
Joy

Happy Thursday and you know what that means! It’s Joy Dare Day. (It is also Day 11 of my Choosing Courage 100 day writing project) it’s the part of my week when I share about all of the little joys God has brought into my life. Those simple little blessings that I take for granted on a regular basis and this daily act of gratitude brings them front and center..

Joy

Day 20- 3 gifts in serving

  • watching people grow in their walk with Jesus.
  • seeing God meet unspoken needs
  • my own personal walk with Jesus growing leaps and bounds when I trust him to use me.

Day 21- A gift straight, curved, turn

  • Straight- colorful pencils (I got a great deal on a nice brand of colored pencils
  • curve- bananas
  • turn- the next bend in our path

Day 22- 3 gifts in Light

  • a new day
  • Christmas
  • our table outside

Day23- 3 gifts old

  • our parents -Both sets(they aren’t very old but older….) No way I can say this will turn out nicely! but I don’t mean it in a bad way!
  • our furniture handed to us from family. we have someaniques passed down from family and friends
  • Books!

Day 24- 3 gifts meaning

  • Our kids- they are always going on an adventure
  • Our animals are always doing something comical
  • our vehicle getting us from one place to the next.

Day 25- 3 gifts Fragile

  • Eggs- from our neighbor
  • cute little birthday gifts from my parents
  • Hearts opened to each other

Day 26- A gift cut, sewn and buttoned

  • Cut- A freshly cut lawn (I love that smell)
  • Sewn- A patched set of bean bag chairs that are well loved
  • Buttoned-Details all buttoned up- I love to finish things. and move forward.

I’m glad you could join me on this gratitude journey. It really is amazing just how much our hearts change when our perspective changes! There is always something to be grateful for- even in the hard stuff.

How about you? What are some little blessings that you are grateful for? What brings you Joy? Let me know in the comments below.

You can check out more about the Book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp by clicking here and you can check out more about the Joy dare by visiting her website here.

You Can also check our my other posts in my Choosing Courage Project by clicking here

Thank you again for doing me on my journey. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments

What I Know -Choosing Courage -Day 10

Posted on by Mary
Know

Good evening sweet friends! Welcome to Day 10 of my Choosing Courage Project. Today we are going to talk about “What I know”. the great thing is what I know is what you can know too.

But First the back story

I know I have shared what my December looked like but what I haven’t shared was how much of a mental struggle it was.

As a family we grew leaps and bounds throughout the whole season of lockdown.. We made it as much fun as we possibly could and did a lot of really awesome stuff together. We did long distance daily lego challenges with an uncle and a cousin. During the summer we had friends over to play on our slip n slide. and Christmas was shaping up to be a fun one too. I had made a fun advent calendar. Each day held a fun family activity and a reverse advent calendar where we put an item of food in a box and then donated it to a family.

Everything was going great until December 8th. That was the first of three trips to the ER and for the next three days we lived in complete uncertainty as to why my body had quit doing a very simple task that we all do every single day (sorry for now that’s all the details you get). The did a quick fix and sent me home. 2 days later I found myself right back there and this time I got some answers…and I knew what it meant…or at least I thought I did. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase “you are a very special case”. and I would continue to prove them right all through the month of December.

A week later I had a special procedure and I was told that I would be in the worst pain I have ever experienced and they weren’t wrong. I made it through Christmas and the pain was finally subsiding. I knew surgery was coming and then the pain started- different pain on the 27th.

Back to the ER on the 28th

Up until this point I was exhausted and in pain but my focus had been where it should be on Jesus. But when I found myself in what felt like labor. I can’t tell you how many times that day that I was a very special case and hat “we have never seen anything quite like this” and off to the ER I went again.

And at this point I was at my breaking point. I felt like I was losing my mind. Have you ever been in such excruciating pain that wouldn’t stop. You seriously feel like you are going crazy….or at least I did. and then I reached out to my friends in tears I wrote “I feel like I am making life difficult for everyone right now I’m struggling to see the purpose in this for sure.” I was laying a lone In the ER for the third time, I was mentally, physically and emotionally spent. I felt like I had completely ruined Christmas for everyone. I had spent weeks a lone on the apartment. We had a kid in quarantine and hubby was trying to keep me healthy because we knew I had to have surgery but not sure when. On December 28th God took surgery off the table.

After that post one of my friends sent me a devotional she had read the same morning. Are you ready for the title?

When you Don’t Understand God’s Timing ……REALLY?? I can’t make this stuff up! The author, Alicia Bruxvoort.

Here’s the excerpt of that devotional.

But I’m learning that when God’s timing doesn’t match my pining, I need to focus on what I know rather than what I feel. So, I turn to Ecclesiastes 3:11 and read the words of King Solomon:

“God has given [us] a desire to know the future. He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what he is doing.”

This verse helps me filter my frustration through God’s unchanging truth. It reminds me that my delays aren’t a sign of God’s indifference, but an expression of His wisdom. 

I’ll never fully understand the complexities of God’s eternal plan while I’m bound to the dust of earth. But I can place my hope in God’s integrity even when I can’t comprehend His itinerary.

When my hope is tied to God’s trustworthiness instead of His timing, it changes my attitude in the waiting.

I am prone to recall His faithfulness instead of questioning His fairness. (Psalm 77:11)

I am able to respect His wisdom instead of disputing His ways.

I am inclined to celebrate His majesty instead of second-guessing His motives.

But, best of all, when I place the crux of my faith on the trustworthiness of God’s character, I discover an unexpected gift in the grit of delay.

It’s that first line that really hit me….”ut I’m learning that when God’s timing doesn’t match my pining, I need to focus on what I know rather than what I feel.”

I was having a whole lot of really raw and scary feelings (The was compounded by some anxiety induced by low iron levels that couldn’t even be registered in my blood work.

Where “What I know ” was born.

That sentence changed everything and gave bye a change of perspective. Right then and there I started going over and over in my head all the truth I knew about God and you know what I learned? When you are in intense pain AND have morphine coursing through your system your memory is NOT GOOD AT ALL! and so I purposed in my heart togo on a learning adventure when I got home. I would write down all of my “learning is a set of spiral bound set of index cards.

Know

I wrote these items don- all scripture based and when I have struggled I turn to that little tool . It is amazing just how many promises and characteristics of God cam during that time. They were everywhere (They still are).

I think so often that we are going through something we look for a quick fix. I could have jumped to a tool that had all of these things already done fore me but for this time and circumstance, I needed to go on this journey by myself. Reading and searching God’s word for these gems.

So What Now?

I’m still adding to this notebook. These note cards have helped many a night when the anxiety sky- rockets as my iron level dropped. It slipped easily into my purse when going to a doctor’s appointment that triggered fear and anxiety.

I continue this journey with what I know because feelings are deceitful and can mislead us.

How about you? Do you have a plan in place for when you are facing fear and anxiety? How do you keep your mind focused on what you know rather than our misleading feelings? Let me know in the comments below !

For more of the Choosing Courage posts click here.