I tell you, He does not disappoint.  There are several things that he’s impressed upon me already this year. 

The biggest one is that I want to be more about His Kingdom this year than my own.  I was trying to explain this to a couple of friends last week and I just wasn’t explaining it well.  But when I got home later, this verse of a song went through my head and I realized it totally summed up what I’d been feeling.

“You put me here for a reason
You have a mission for me
You knew my name and You called it
Long before I learned to breathe

Sometimes I feel disappointed
By the way I spend my time
How can I further Your kingdom
When I’m so wrapped up in mine?”

~ Mercy Me “In the Blink of an Eye”

For me, as a stay at home mom, it’s so easy to focus so much on what’s going on in my own home and with my own family (and become overwhelmed by that), that I think I miss opportunities to be God’s hands and feet.

But in 2012 I want to be building His Kingdom, not my own.

Some of this thought process began back in December when I read my friend Esther’s blog post here about pleasing Jesus when we give out of our lack.  And since then, this thought has been rolling around in my head – the thought that I can only be about building God’s Kingdom when I am willing to give out of my lack.

So, I’ve been asking and listening, on alternating mornings.  This morning I knew I would be going to MOPS and I asked God that if there was someone who needed His encouragement, His love, to put them in my path.  Wouldn’t you know He did just that? 

Amazing what happens when you listen and obey.

So I’ll ask again, what do you want your 2012 to be about?

to God.

more “yes”s and less “no”s…

to the people I love.

more “no”s and less “yes”s…

to unhealthy foods.

more reading and less tv.

(I got a Nook for Christmas!)

more order and less chaos.

(I need to get back to doing this.)

more exercise and less excuses.

(why is it so hard to make time to exercise?)

more face time and less Facebook.

(last fall hubby and I started to devote a Sat. morning/month for each child to have one-on-one time with Mom or Dad.  We hope to continue this in 2012.)

What do you want more / less of in 2012?

Fortunately, most of the ideas came from either pinterest or blogs I frequent.  So in case any of you are interested in some good gift ideas (for next year?) I thought I’d link them up here.  I am so thankful for all the crafty folks who blog out there – I am good at replicating things I see, but not so good at thinking them up myself!

Get your glue gun ready!

Ceramic Tile Coasters

First, we made Christmas coasters for teacher gifts.  They were simple, turned out really cute, and were quite inexpensive.  We found ceramic tiles at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore for 10 cents each!  Can’t beat that!  Used scrapbooking paper, glue, felt, and ModPodge that I already had on hand.  Tutorial here.

Sign Post

Made this entryway sign post for my porch. 

Since this wasn’t a gift and I still have it, I could take a photo!  Again, quite easy and I’m excited about it because I can use it year-round.  I made a Christmas sign, a Thanksgiving sign, and a generic welcome sign (wood scraps and hardware came from the Restore, and the fence-post topper thingy came from Lowe’s).  Used paint I already had.  Got the idea for the sign post here.  I also used this idea for hand-painting letters.  It worked great.

Craft Stick Nativity

I made three of these handmade nativity scenes – gave two away and kept one for myself!  So easy and took only about 1 hour to finish one.  Used paint and fabric I already had.  Bought the wooden materials at Michael’s and the moss sheets at the Dollar Tree – spent about $10 – that made these three and I have some materials left over.  Tutorial here.  One thing I did differently was to use wooden pieces for the bodies rather than clay pots and I like the way it turned out.

My favorite memory from making these was that my 4 year old helped me paint some of the body pieces – she giggled when she said “I am painting God!”.  She meant the baby Jesus – but it was too cute.

Letter Photo Art

Made one of these for my niece.  Bought scrap wood from Home Depot (and had them cut it for me!) and frames from the Dollar Tree.  Again, I used paint I already had.  Instead of hot gluing the frames to the wood, though, I used hot glue and velcro tabs to attach the frames.  I wanted her to have the option of changing out the letters and putting photos in it in the future.  Great gift – fairly easy and inexpensive.  It seemed like picking out the letters, editing and printing them took the most time!

Scrabble Tile Ornaments

My nephew and his fiancee love to play scrabble.  So I made these Christmas ornaments for them.  One for each of them with their names, and one with their wedding date on it.  As long as you can find a scrabble game at a thrift store for cheap, you’re good to go!!  (and I got some of the tiles, including the numbers, from a friend who was willing to share!  Thanks!)  Instructions here.

White Chocolate Snack Mix

This is a favorite in our home, and perfect for gifting.  Put it in a cute little snack bag and it makes a great gift accompaniment.  (we gave this to the kids’ teachers as well!)

6 cups rice or corn chex (or a mixture of the two!)

3 cups cheerios

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

1 cup pretzel twists

12 ounces m&ms

1 pound white chocolate

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl.  Melt white chocolate using the microwave or a double boiler.  Pour over mixture and stir to coat.  Spread out on waxed paper covered cookie sheets until chocolate is hardened and mixture is cool.  Store in an airtight container. 

Be careful because this stuff is addicting!! 

DIY Campfire Starters

I made DIY campfire starters for my hubby and brother-in-law.  We seriously have the worst time starting campfires when we’re camping!  Last summer I had to make an emergency trip to the campground store for firestarters, and at 1.50 a pop, that was my inspiration for making my own!  Survivors we are not.  But DIYers, yes!

These were simple to make – I have two monstrous evergreens in my front yard that drop copious amounts of needles.  So I used those and some old candles I already had.  Genious idea to use egg cartons! 

This makes a great gift for a camping-kinda guy, paired with a camping lighter.  I found some instructions here.  They smell delicious.

(I did find instructions elsewhere that used dryer lint.  I tried that first - but I won’t tell you what I thought they looked like when they were done.  Not exactly gift-worthy.  So I went with the pine needles!)

Melting Snowman Cookies

We made these for my kids’ classmates.  They were a huge hit.  Definitely fun for the kids to decorate, too.  I used my own sugar cookie and frosting recipe.  Inspiration was found here.

Framed Christmas Tree / Scripture Art

My friends got these for Christmas.  Free printable found here, with some scrapbook paper and ribbon I had on hand, and some classy frames from the Dollar Tree.  Wish I’d made one for myself!

Whew!  Lots of ideas here – hopefully they’re helpful to you!  Did you make any handmade gifts or decor for Christmas??  Care to share a link?

Introducing… the Silver Blitzen Trophy.

Unfortunately, I did not win the 25 Days of Christmas Trivia Contest.

But my husband did. So the Silver Blitzen trophy gets to be displayed in my house!  Yay!

And no matter what he says, his winning it was, in fact, due to some combined effort between the two of us!! 

Happy New Year!

And it’s turning out to be a lot of fun.

He is running a “25 Days of Christmas Trivia Game”.

Every day he sends out a new trivia question via text on our cell phones. 

Check out the current scores that are updated daily on our “secret” FB page (along with a bit of trash-talking):

Can you tell he is enjoying this?  And that he is an engineer? (and believe me, I say that in love because I have an engineer’s brain, too!)

Sorry I had to block out names, but I’ll give you a hint on which column is mine – I only had one wrong answer so far.  (The ones I didn’t respond to were because I didn’t have my cell phone with me!)  The question I got wrong was, “How many pieces did the grinch cut off the branch he used for Max’s antlers?”  I answered 3, but the correct answer is 4.  Just in case you need to know!

So, a couple of things I’m learning from this:

1. My old verizon LG phone just doesn’t cut it for this type of thing!
2. My texting skills are, let’s face it, not so good.  But I did learn how to use T9!  Yay me!
3. My family is much more competitive than I thought.
4. I can’t feel my phone vibrate or ring when I’m in a store shopping/walking.  That’s a problem.
5. I’ve actually gotten to the point where I’m remembering to recharge my phone overnight, turn it on in the morning, AND carry it with me!  This is real progress, people!
6. Starting some new traditions can be lots of fun!

Do you have any new traditions you’re starting this year?

Anyways, I had a couple of people say they wished they had some way to hear it again, so I’m adding a link here to my speaking notes.  For those of you who weren’t there and are so inclined to read it – I hope it is a blessing for you in the midst of this busy season.  I spoke about something God is trying to teach me this Christmas.  (Notice I used present tense – sometimes I’m a slow learner!) 

If you do read it, I apologize if it seems a bit stiff – I think I write a bit differently when I’m writing something that I’ll actually be speaking out loud because I know I’ll improvise a bit! 

So here it is.  May God speak to you through it, and may you not miss the real gifts God intends for you this Christmas.

MOPS 2011 Christmas Devotion

Been too busy to even hear myself think, so I apologize for the lack of posts recently!  Here are some pics to show you what we’ve been working on…

We, of course, have been preparing for Christmas – the tree and decorations are up, but we still have a lot of baking to do! 

The “snowmen family decoration” was a craft I did last year – I made one for us, and then also one for each of my sisters.  This is really easy, cute, and doesn’t take long.  Perfect gift for extended family.  Instructions are here.

The last two pictures are a Christmas Card display – again, I saw something like it on Pinterest recently.  Our local Habitat for Humanity Restore had these shutters for 5 bucks, and I was intending to paint them, but decided just to leave them black and rustic looking!  I attached them using some hinges I picked up at Lowe’s going out of business sale (score!) and then added a couple of ornaments, a lighted garland, and a Merry Christmas sign that I already had.  The horizontal fold cards just slip right in, and we’re attaching vertically folded cards with red and green paper clips.  I’m so pleased with how it turned out!!

What are you up to these days?

Saw the idea on pinterest (sorry, don’t know what the original site was!) and made it my own.   Used some scrap wood from the garage, some paint I already had on hand, some rub-ons that I thrifted last year for 99 cents!, and my trusty glue gun.  I did have to buy some clothes pins.  A hint if you try this yourself – don’t buy clothespins from the dollar store!  That’s where I bought mine, but they’re kinda flimsy and I don’t know how many years they’ll hold out!

This was definitely a little more difficult than last year’s advent, but actually took probably the same amount of time!  And this can be used again!

I just wrapped the little gifts / activity suggestions in brown lunch bags and secured with ribbon.  The majority of the days have things to do rather than gifts – like read Luke chapter 2, put up the Christmas tree, bake cookies, etc. 

I love how it turned out and I’m so looking forward to all those activities with my kiddos!

Happy December!

Yay for Meg!  I’ll contact you and we’ll work out getting the shawl to you (or maybe Manda?)!

Thanks to everyone for entering!  It was a lot of fun, and it was neat to see how this little giveaway had a ripple effect – two of my friends were inspired to do their own giveaways!

Have a wonderful week everyone!