scripture sunday #bebroken

This morning a man was baptized at church. This is awesome. What made it especially moving though was his personal story. He is in his 90s. He needed support to stand and get to the fount. His wife has been a member for years, lifting him in prayer and caring for him. She is the woman who sends cards of love and kindness and is constantly looking to help those around her. Today as I watched her walk alongside him as he dedicated his life to Jesus I was touched. And then heart was broken for those who don't know God and for the loved ones around them who struggle with what to do and say. As my heart broke, God immediately filled my heart with gratitude, love and inspiration to keep looking for opportunities to reflect his love. I'm glad for that man and his family, I'm glad that we worship a God who has grace and mercy on us, and I'm glad I was open to seeing the many ways God used that moment to reach out to us all.

 

——————————

Each Sunday I choose a scripture for the week. The scripture relates to my one little word for the year and helps me intentionally explore my word and set a purpose for each week. See more scripture sunday posts here.

 

fiber friday

This is where I learned to sew. I was shorter and younger. The furniture has been arranged and rearranged at one point moving rooms altogether on,y to return. The machine has changed and the projects ebb and flow but the thrill of taking a flat piece of fabric and creating something new remains.

Sewing garments is something I have love hate relationship with. I remember the pattern choosing being difficult because the fabric shown on the model wasn't my choice and it's hard to imagine how the sketch on that page will transform into something wearable.

Last night I returned to this room to sew and mom my- who introduced me to all things fiber related- gifted me with cutting and prepping all the piece. I am grateful that she didn't have to rip seams for me, like the olden days and instead could pass on this gift her mom gave to her. Seam by seam I stitched, then ironed then tried it on. I am still not great at remembering easy to try on clothing when garment sewing, something that comes on and off quickly so the fit is most accurate.

Interfacingm French seams and pockets are done, just need to hem the bottom and sleeves (great fridaynifbt project!). I'm in the last stretch of the garment process, the one where I imagine all the different ways to wear the dress: the shoes, leggings vs no leggings, necklaces, shawls, etc. Then I imagine which occasions it will be best for and wonder if I can really hold off until Tuesday (first day of school) to wear the dress or if I will cave and wear it Sunday...

 

#coffeecoffeecoffee

Around here we love our coffee! It all began last year when we visited a local coffee roaster and decided to test out all the coffee related gadgets we'd received as gifts over the years.

During the year we tried french press, cold press, drip coffee, aeropress, espresso, stovetop espresso, lattes, americanos, and I'm sure something else I'm forgetting. Next we tried changing up the roast of the beans and ordered a variety of beans from here. Then we decided to use a gift card to buy a hand grinder. This seemed like a great investment because we could take it camping, or use it when the power fails. But as you can see, with new ways of preparing coffee, came a more complicated involved process.


This is when I kind of hit a wall. You see, I like to do things quickly. It's a blessing and a curse really.  The more complicated a process becomes, the less accurate I get; the more I begin to improvise. Sometimes this works and my creativity is welcome, but not always.  So I stopped making coffee. If it was made for me (barista or otherwise) I enjoyed it greatly, but in the mornings when I got ready for work, the thought of weighing and hand grinding beans just to START the coffee put me over the edge. I was out.


Fast forward to last week. I'd been on homemade coffee hiatus for a few months and suddenly found myself longing for a cup of coffee.  One of my favorite methods we'd discovered was french press (aka, the method that takes the least amount of time) and I decided to jump back in! I got out the scale, weighed the beans, adjusted the hand grinder to the right level and started up the kettle. That cup of coffee was so satisfying! It made me realize that the process doesn't really take that much time. In fact, I enjoyed the quiet hiss of the kettle and the crunch sound of the beans. In the stillness and quiet of the early morning I found myself relaxing into the experience. This has since become my tried and true method for getting my morning cup of coffee and I'm calling it:

We like our small demitasse cups as it means the coffee doesn't get cold. I also usually wrap a tea towel or napkin around the carafe to keep in the heat. But really, the coffee doesn't last long. It's so yummy and rich that we drink it up quickly!

There are so many things in life that are meant to be enjoyed. I'm working to find and savor these small rituals in my days. Even if I only linger for a moment, there is joy. Do you have a daily ritual or regular task that you savor?

Here's another yummy recipe and some of the tools we use (or similar).

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Slice of Life 2013 - you know you're reaching your students when....

Today was rough.
Today was not what I anticipated.
Today came with smiles and tears,
with kindness and heartbreak.
with singing and stern, serious conversations.

But today also brought one small message of hope and encouragement.
In a moment that almost slipped by unnoticed, a student surprised me and reminded me why I chose this path.

For when his mom asked which friends he wanted to request for his class next year,
he mentioned only two,

and one name was mine.

Slice of Life 2013 - Burgers and Buddies

I didn't mean to stay so late at work, but the work needed doing and the time seemed right. Unfortunately that meant no energy or motivation remained to think about, let alone make, dinner. I offered to pick something up, but he insisted on going out to eat. Not one to argue, I swung by the house and without much deliberation, we headed out.

As we entered the diner I thought to myself, "That couple looks so familiar..." and they seemed to be thinking to same about us. And suddenly, our evening plans needed no planning, because there stood our good friends who we'd been trying to get together with for a months. They'd driven around looking for a place to eat and ended up rather suddenly at the same diner as us. And with that, a day which began as stressful and disheartening ended with an impromptu date-night with friends.

Answer drove home S said, "That was fun." I felt my heart sigh happily and I smiled back in agreement, speechless at the way God gives us what we need long before we even recognize our need.

more project life prep

today i searched around some more blogs to get inspiration and ideas for making project life happen in 2013! Cathy Zielske has some great templates to help with cropping and prepping photos to be printed at home. After playing around with the templates and watching her videos i created some template additions of my own!

Cathy has some nice digital projects available (as do many other scrapbookers that I follow) and i loved her idea of using hashtags from twitter to overlay on photos that she uses for project life. I took a few of my current faves and made .png files out of them so that i could easily drop them on top of photos before printing.

here is an example after i dropped the .png file onto the photo, made it white and adjusted the opacity.

 

it is so simple and adds just a bit of fun to the photo :)

here are a few other tips i picked up along the way:

1. have everything easily accessible!
2. choose a day that you are regularly available to sit down and work on the week's layout.
3. organize your photos when you import them into folders by week, quarter and project life (or what ever system makes sense for you)
4. do what works for you, not necessarily what others are doing.
5. precut cards and have them ready to grab and go!
6. enJOY the process (i am REALLY looking forward to this part!)

Jess Creating (finally!)

Have you seen Project Life? I have really enjoyed seeing the layouts and reading the stories of bloggers who are participating. As they all decided to participate, I had a brief thought of joining in, but the idea of weekly setting aside the time to look through & print photos as well as document the story of our lives... I fell asleep from exhaustion just thinking about it.

But as the year has progressed different people have talked about how they facilitate the process. Some do a little every day, others set aside on day a week to put it all together.

Enter spring break.

Maybe it's the sun, maybe it's a few days off but I was suddenly inspired to DO something with all the pictures and cards and things i've been keeping. I love making mini books, but it didn't feel right this time. So I impulse bought a fun yet inexpensive photo album at target and decided to just dive in. I am not going back and documenting each week of the year, but with instagram and slice of life, i knew I had enough to put together some monthly layouts.

So far, it has been a blast! I've printed all the photos as home using iphoto contact sheets (elise has a great video here) or pages. I created a few templates in pages to help me print and organize for march. Since i posted nearly every day I thought it would be fun to print off the posts and images for the book. Here are some shots from what I did today.

cover, close up of blog posts, close up of collage, march intro page, blog post layout zoomed out

Three days later and I'm all caught up. I've used supplies that have been collecting dust, used photos that were just taking up memory on my phone and put my pen to paper. Even if it doesn't last the entire year, it will be fun to look through and I've eliminated a few more piles.
  

Slice of Life 2012 - 31

March was a roller coaster.
There was good news and bad news,
Restful moments and stress filled weeks,
Running in shorts and a tee, running in wind and snow,
Days off with S and 13 hour work days,
Baking, cooking, eating out,
New habits forming, pushing old habits off my radar
And on and on and on.

As I reflect on all that happened this month, I am so happy that it is ending well: new knowledge, a clean house and a bit of vitamin D. Although some slices were rushed or leaned toward a whining teenager, I am quite pleased to have a documentation of all that occurred in March 2012.

April, I have high, positive and happy hopes for you! Let's start this month off right!

Slice of Life 2012 - 29

"When you say yes to one thing, you’re saying no to something else." - Aby Garvy, weekly organizing tip

When I signed up for the weekly organizing emails, I pictured my house becoming magically orderly and tidy: Piles vanish with a "poof!" and coordinating baskets line the bookcases. While that would be lovely and wonderful, I have found that at the foundation of most of the tips is mental organization. More than having a cute file folder for paper, I need to intentionally sit down and sort the papers, make decisions and dive into my work. The quote above has been a major help in tackling the piles in my head and the clutter of my schedule. And hopefully it will influence the piles on my desk!

Slice of Life 2012 - 28

Tonight I am distracted. Joy was in the lead until a bad conversation and an email about an acquaintance came out of nowhere. Determined not to fall asleep downhearted, I began thinking about these people. And then i thought of all of the people whose names came up in conversations today. They seemed like characters in a story at the time, but now I remember that they are real people, living real stories.

So tonight I'm praying for healing: Healing relationships and words between friends; healing bodies and emotions; healing for hearts heavy with loss, for minds littered with decisions to make... I believe we all need a little healing somewhere in our lives and the good news is this, "If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us, and if our God is with us, then what can stand against? Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God You are higher than any other, our God is Healer, Awesome in power, our God."**

May the healing hands of Jesus and the Holy Spirit cover us all tonight.


**lyrics from Chris Tomlin "Our God"

Slice of Life 2012 - 27

"I am fine setting my run, mind, and body on cruise control and relishing the fact that 4 moderate miles provides me-time, an endorphin rush, and a chance to recalibrate my the-world-sucks meter back to neutral." - Train Like A Mother 55/1575

Mission 'positive attitude' is going steady. Too early to call it a success but I'm feeling confident and noticing the little things that help me refocus and reboot my perspective. Running, reading and helping others are currently topping the list of joy-boosting activities!

Slice of Life 2012 - 26

We braved the crowds on opening night and learned a few things. Our town is bigger than we think, people actually DO go out on Friday nights, and we are not willing to stand in line with hoards of people especially when an alternative is staring right at us. And so we waited a few days and were flexible when plans needed to change. We were first in the theater tonight, having our choice of seats. The anticipation is bubbling with each commercial happens (including one for my school!). Time to turn off the cell phone, open the candy and enjoy the show!

Slice of Life 2012 - 25

You know how they say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?" I'm changing it to:

When life doubles the shortening, double the entire cookie recipe.

That's what happened yesterday and while this means that I'll be eating too many cookies for twice as long as usual, it is also inspiring me to stay positive. My slices have been sad and frustrated yesterday so today, I am claiming the last week of March and making it mine! And with each accident and unhappy surprise that comes my way, I will do my best to see it as an opportunity to spin things for the better.

I know this is the right thing to do and I know that my heart needs to make this choice. So I'll have a cup of lemonade with my extra batch of cookies and celebrate the finals days of March.

Slice of Life 2012 - 24

I'm trying so hard not to lose the spring in my step. A new summer haircut, a long run, sun streaming in the window...
Yet I feel continually bombarded by unwelcome surprises. This sickness that is going around could very well be the end of me. Not because I've caught the bug, but it seems everyone else has. And though I have managed to avoid it thus far, I seem to be doing way too much cleaning up those less fortunate.
Going with flow is so much easier when everything is going smoothly. Maybe I'll go back outside and let the sun wash away this unwanted stress...

Slice of Life 2012 - 22

Today I am making a list of things I am looking forward to doing and enjoying this summer. Here's the top ten:

1. Wearing shoes without socks and not losing the feeling in my toes
2. Iced tea and lattes
3. Opening the windows in the house
4. More dresses :)
5. Listening to fun music with the car windows rolled down
6. Having a reason to paint my toenails
7. Running in a tank and shoes and carrying water
8. Getting more miles in
9. Reading in the sun
10. Relaxing and freedom to play!!!

I noticed you, sunshine, and I am eager to see more of you!

Slice of Life 2012 - 19

Sometimes the work is less than exciting. At times it is frustrating and at other times fulfilling. Today I am reminded that regardless, there is a reason for the work to be done. And yet again we are given the option to choose joy over all else.

Ephesians 6:7 MSG
"And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God."

Slice of Life 2012 - 18

I have decided to choose my attitude today. I am choosing to be positive, cheerful, restful, intentional. Yet the whispers of criticism, frustration, weariness and disappointment remain. And while I know that for today I can drown them out, I wonder how I can more permanently deal with their presence.

"Be cheerful, no matter what. Pray continually." 1 Thessalonians 5.16-17

Slice of Life 2012 - 17

St. Patrick's Day has never been a holiday that I get overly excited about. I think I got off the boat the year someone pinched me for not wearing green. I mean, really? Pinching is
NEVER okay in my book. But this morning offered a unique weekend morning with both of us home and nothing planned. Se we decided to embrace the fun of the day by making green pancakes with kiwi on the side! And now that I'm a teacher, I guess it's time I set a reminder to wear green each year on 3/17, mostly for the fun of it, but also to avoid any chance of a pinch!

Slice of Life 2012 - 16

Today I had a new perspective. As the class walked in I smiled and gave directions in a quiet and warm voice. I made an extra effort to point out students who were doing their job, especially those who often do not fit this category. I watched their interactions, what seemed to interest them and how long it kept their interest, what or who distracted them... It is so easy to let things slide since they are the last class of the day, but today I learned from them and I pondered how this 20 minute snapshot reflects the rest of their school day. They are fun and inquisitive and made me excited for a new adventure that is beginning to come into focus.

Slice of Life 2012 - 15

There is something about a fresh cup of coffee that helps the day start smoothly. Perhaps it's the caffeine, the aroma, the warm billowing steam, or maybe it is the intentional choice to pause amidst the busyness, close your eyes and take a slow sip. Maybe this is the reason I choose to start my fullest days with an extra stop at the coffee shop, in hopes that I will savor a moment or two and not let the day pass me by.