Sometimes

Sometimes I forget. I forget to be thankful in all the moments.

All. the moments.

I think things like "why are you crying?" and "you liked this food yesterday, why does it make you upset right now?"

And then I remember.

I remember to be thankful for the now.

There are not that many more days where I will get to take care of, care for, and fend for my boy. He's already One. One eighteenth of the way to being an adult already. 

Won't be long (and I will have to remind myself of this when it comes time to potty train) and he won't need me to lovingly clean up his diaper. 

Won't be long until he won't want to throw the green beans and carrots and black beans on the floor- he'll want to eat them. And then he'll want to help me cook them. And then he'll drive to the store for me to buy more.

Won't be long until those teeth will all be here, and then they'll fall out, and then they'll be here to stay. Only the next set won't make him cry. And he won't be my baby any more. He'll be big.

Won't be long until he doesn't cry every. single. time. I get out the vacuum and I won't have to decide it's not worth it to have vacuumed floors right now. He may even help me vacuum. 

Won't be long and he'll eat the same foods as us, and I won't have to make baby food in the afternoons so dinner doesn't get cold if I wait to make it til later. And I won't get to feed him. He'll just eat by himself and I'll just have to watch.

Won't be long and he'll know all the words, and I won't have the daily practice of learning to understand him, study him, read him and know him to know what he wants. I won't be forced to, that is- it will be a discipline to maintain on purpose.

Won't be long and I won't have to try to figure out which clothes to put him in because of the size difference between the days he wears a cloth diaper or the days he wears a paper one. He'll have one size, no diaper, and big boy underpants. And he'll probably dress himself. No more tickling him as I change his shirt.

Won't be long until I fold laundry without him crawling into the basket and crawling over the folded piles, and I'll probably miss it- even if we do have clean, folded clothes.

Won't be long and he will be telling me what he sees in the car, rather than me asking him what he can see- hoping he understands what his mother is babbling about in the front seat. I'll hear a constant stream of chatter and it will be bliss.

Won't be long, and he won't try to eat the crayons, and the refrigerator will run out of room for pictures, and two or three will probably get in the way or fall off (again) each time we open the fridge door.

Won't be long and those little fingers will not get into stuff, and I won't get to hold him back or move him to a better spot all day long. Won't be long til I can't pick him up at all anymore.

Won't be long, and he'll be big, and he won't put his feet on the table under his high chair anymore. And I won't get to tickle high-chair bare feet.

Won't be long, and I won't have to worry about him spilling my drink, but instead, maybe worry about him drinking it all.

Won't be long until I won't get to hear a high-baby-voiced 'Mama?' on the monitor.

Won't be long and I'll actually get an answer when I ask, instead of daily daily silence every day when I ask him "did you have good dreams? What did you dream about?" He will tell me. If I listen.

It all won't be long.

He's growing too fast.

I must remember the moments, and remember to live all here in the moments. 

For they don't last long.

Newsprint Drink Tray

Newsprint Drink Tray for Ottoman

Hello again. I’ve missed you. And I’ve missed crafting. And my lack of crafting is exactly why I haven’t been here lately.

Ah, busy life. Why must we always stay so busy?

Well here’s a quick project that I started over a year and a half ago. When I first started this blog, actually- I had all kinds of Christmas gift projects in my head, and then being preggo and just, yes, busy… they didn’t all get done. This one was lowest priority, so it didn’t get done before Christmas.

And then I messed up a little, and didn’t know what to do with it, and then it still didn’t get done.

But I finally got inspiration for it, and now I’m just swooning over it.

Drink tray posing with my treasures from Hope Handmade and Cache Chic on Etsy

Let’s start with the problem so you can see what a beautiful solution this is.

No coffee table.

So where are our drinks supposed to go? We have an ottoman, but let’s face it, cushy ottoman can equal spilled drinks. And I’m tired of grabbing a DVD case to put my drink on.

Enter drink tray project.

I started at Goodwill, looking for a frame or something that would suffice as a good size for a tray. Not too huge, and the right kind of frame.

I found this framed painting with –ahem– not my style of painting. I painted over it.

(My husband keeps teasing me that “someone worked very hard on that, and you just painted over it!” but I blamed Pinterest, but really, if it was all that important to them, it wouldn’t have been at Goodwill in the first place.)

So here’s where I became unhappy with it. I was trying to be fast and frugal and all that, and used some of the paint from the walls upstairs. Lovely sunflower gold. Yellow. Whatever.

Hmph. Didn’t give it quite the look I wanted. Even if I planned to mod-podge some photos on it, I didn’t really like the yellow on this particular project.

So, inspirationless, it sat.

And sat.

And sat.

Until I was tossing out a newspaper, and had an idea.

I love newsprint. I love words. I love black and white.

And this love translates to me rescuing that newspaper from the trash and tearing it up.

This project is a good kind of messy.

Here’s how to do it:

You will need:

Old picture frame or piece of wood
Newspaper or magazine pages
Mod Podge
Foam brushes
Drawer handles

First, you’ll want to cut a straight edge on one side of the piece, and then tear the other side just haphazardly, so it doesn’t look too planned.

One straight edge lines up with edge of project. The other will be covered up.

Next, mod-podge on the back of the piece (VERY important!! I’ll explain why in a minute) and then stick the straight edge along the edge of your frame, and mod-podge over top of it.

Continue with more pieces, laying them this way and that, and fill up your area. I recommend starting with the edges and moving in, but you can do it however.

BIG TIP: I have learned from experience that you need to smear the back of your piece of paper with mod-podge before you stick it down!
The reason why is because the paper is going to soak up the moisture from the glue and pucker after you’ve laid it down on your beautiful craft project. And then there’s nothing you can do about it. Get it nice and wet with the mod-podge on the backside, and then lay it down, and mod-podge over the top. You may still see a few bubbles or puckers, but they should be small enough you can smoothe them down with your fingers.

TIP: You may even want to get all your pieces ready first, and then mod-podge them down, simply because if you’re holding it over the wet gluey pieces to ‘see if it will fit’, it might accidentally stick there, and then tear before you’re ready. This happened to me, but it wasn’t that big of a deal- I just covered up the tear.

Once the whole area is nice and covered, put a layer of mod-podge over it all. After it’s set and dry, put another layer of mod-podge, and let dry. It should be good and set before you put any drinks on it- but the mod-podge should water-proof it well enough to protect your newsprint, photos, or whatever you put on it.

You can attach little cute handles to it, or just leave it as is.

You can also mod-podge some photos on it if you want. I may still do that, but haven’t decided if I’m done swooning at it the way it is right now.

Ta Da!

Counting 1000 Blessings - July 2013

1          547 Husband & son family    

            548 Baby hand and traced fingers

            549 Mowed grass and laughter

2          550 Words on my cup from Bri

            551 Baby-food book borrowed from my friend

            552 Words from my husband, written for my birthday

3          553 Faithspoken of – we are Christ’s Bride

           554 Crouched low for fireworks

            555 neighbors, community, unspoken friends

4          556 Rows of train tracks

            557 Dust trail behind a truck

            558 Fireworks over the lake

5          559 God-breathed Bible study

            560 Communication good and bad

            561 Rows of corn glitter in morning sun

6          562 Enthusiasm adoption brings new parents

            563 Ivan’s excitement over lukewarm beans

            564 I was so excited about this little squash that I woke the baby by accident

7          565 Changed to become a lasting legacy

            566 Challenging Ivan’s mind with new language skills

            567 Reacquainted with someone after 6 years

8          568 My fish follow each other around all day

            569 just finished my insanity workout, and am soo thankful for water!

            570 watercolor blank cards

9          571 Birds in unified flight

            572 Sunshine yellow bird perched on sunflower

            573 7^th tooth pokes through

10        574 Carpet picnic in the room with air conditioning.

            575 ps 103:14 He remembers we are but dust.

            576 The weak are made strong

11        577 canned peaches,
            578 homemade granola from gracelaced's blog (yum!),
            579 and sun-tea in an old pickle jar. #ahhsummer

12        580 This year my boy has grown and changed so much. Happy birthday, baby

            581 It’s also my spiritual birthday. I love that I share this day with him in such a special way

            582 borrowed portable air conditioner

13        583 Curled ribbon

            584 ‘1’ candle from my 21^st birthday – first birthday married, now used for the ‘1’ on his first birthday cake

            585 Baby fingers curled around his Bible, Daddy’s arm curled around him, reading it

14        586 Macaroni and cheese

            587 yellow streamers left over

            588 favorite music on old CD

15        589 Singsong neighbor children’s voices from the window, “It’s raining, It’s pouring…” #rainyday

            590 hands that smell of basil, fresh leaves harvested

            591 I got a shower!

16        592 Unable to stop watching my baby boy grow up too fast. A year old and I'm still in awe.

            593 Finishing a craft I started a year and a half ago. Drink tray for our ottoman. Modpodge with newsprint and I am just swooning in spite of myself.

            594 Can't get enough of these two.

17        595 Warm clean dishes from the dishwasher

            596 New shorts my husband bought

            597 Wearing my wedding dress for pics with my hubby today

18        598 mac'n'cheese fed me lunches for a week.

            599 shower!

            600 boy growing up too fast

19        601 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:11

            602 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! Isaiah 53:3

            603 How did he get so big?

20        604 Sitting on the steps with Ian

            605 Free Starbucks

            606 Cool air and clouds

21        607 Reading children’s books – The monster at the end of this book

            608 Sleeping boy against me as I read Isaac’s Storm to him

            609 Him reaching for my hand in the dark

22        610 This boy it's as excited as his momma for the awesome thunder!

           611 volunteer squash actually producing! And raindrops on the whole garden is beautiful

            612 apples all in a row

23        613 10 precious minutes. Time is so valuable, let me not take it for granted.

            614 this little dolly is 1 month old today and I haven't got to meet her yet :(  #niece

            615I found it!!!!!!!! I got this great birthday gift from my sister and then lost it. I thought it was gone for good, and that I lost it at one of the kids ball games. Well my prince charming FOUND it! #sohappy

24        616 he was mesmerized with the squirrel out the window

            617  the sand we collected in Atlantis from the #arbonnerewardtrip

            618 Sandy curls and #romansproject cards

25        619  last stop of my marathon of errands was #Starbucks #treatformom

            620 Watching Ivan playing with the cats at the insurance office

            621 #hardeucharisteo talking about life insurance

26        622 fresh air and friends

            623 homemade baby food for the boy! sweet potatoes are a favorite

            624 indoor smores!

27        625 rest from cooking

            626 husband who serves

            627 Too tired to finish lunch. He and Daddy must have played hard!

28        628 rain

            629 73 degrees in the kitchen! (With a broken AC, this is the first time since spring!)

            630 Coffee

29        631 Black beans and green beans

            632 Coffee is in the "need" category today.

            633 Prayers for Grandpa in his last weeks. And prayers for Grandma, his bride for 55 years.

30        634 little voice saying “mama”

            635 little laughter

            636 knock at the door – sister surprised us with a visit!

31        637 Cake pops a little difficult to make at first

            638 working in a workout with a little one

            639 keeping tabs on a toddler