::My Life Verse::

I have been praying in earnest for the Lord to give life verses for my boys.
My daughter has always had a life verse that we have spoken over her.
As it happens so often with us mama's, we think of ourselves last.
Well, it's time for me to have a life verse.
A promise to stand on and to work toward, having my identity firmly rooted in Christ.
For the Lord to tell me what to BE.
So often I focus on what I'm doing in the Lord, that I forget to BE in the Lord.
As I have been praying about this, He delivered a verse and a message.
So here is my life verse.

Psalm 27:7-8
"Hear my voice when I call, O Lord;
Be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, Seek His face!
Your face Lord, I will seek."

So simple isn't it, but how easily we forget.

The Lord also spoke something very interesting to me.
The message is that if He tells me who I am to BE, will I then stop seeking Him?
Am I content to just go with it? Can I accept that what I am to BE can change from day to day?
Very interesting stuff to pray about.

Do you have a life verse?

Have a blessed day, Tami

::look what I made::

{I love the look of this vintage book}

One of my surprises of Christmas happened after Christmas.
Specifically a fabulous after Christmas sale.

{loving Pandora indie radio}

Eric bought me a Kindle Fire !

Wow is this thing cool.
Of course, I needed a case.
And of course, I had to make one.

Here it is.

I love it!
I took a vintage book, ripped out the guts, and made the inside look pretty.
With a bit of hot glue, fabric scraps, cardboard, elastic, and foam ~ Voila!
I didn't find any tutorials on the subject, so I had to rely on a few photos out there for how to construct it. I think it came out very well.

{can you spot it on the bookshelf ?}

It sits on the bookshelf and looks like a vintage book.
Yes.

Blessings, Tami

::I heart books::

 

I like to know how to do stuff. And I like to read about other people doing cool stuff. And I like to be transported away (for a bit) by a fantastic story.

This is why I love books, and not so much ebooks, but touch them, smell them books. I like seeing them all lined up (sometimes by color arranged like a rainbow). I just love books.

We do not have an enormous collection of books, but the ones we do have are well loved for sure. We love the library, too. I should be a librarian sometime. Yeah, I'd be good at that.

Children's books are my all time favorites. The artwork is such a gift . The art makes reading them such an enormous pleasure. I would love to be skilled enough to write and illustrate a children's book. Writing one is definitely on my life list.

I recently had all of my 2007-2009 blog posts bound into a hardcover book through Blurb.
I have used them before and find it pretty straight-forward. I had to spend a few days
editing to get it to look just right. What a treasure this will be in the years to come.

I have no idea what the future holds for Joyful Noise, but I like knowing my words are forever on our bookshelf. I enjoy seeing my kids look at it, it's a book about them and they like that.

 

No matter what the future brings technology-wise, I will always own books.

I like having words and knowledge at my fingertips. Their physical presence in our home speaks coziness and comfort to me.

I heart books.

Blessings, Tami

::Skirts for My Girl::

 

I had given up hope that my daughter would ever let me make clothes for her again.

She has always had very strong opinions about how she is dressed.
When she was 5, (she is now 8) I made her some clothes for preschool.
I upcycled, refashioned, and made a few new things. It was so much fun.
At 8, she is less easy to persuade.

I offered to buy her 3 pieces of fabric from our favorite little store in Country Village,
called  Keepsake Cottage Fabrics. The bribe worked.
The next challenge is to see if she will actually wear them!
I am hoping that if she has enough creative input and participation,
that she will love them and want to wear them.
This would be the start to something very cool for she and I. Making clothes together. Yes.

Blessings, Tami

::Victory::

I had a moment of victory in the kitchen today.

Rafe says, "Mom, your pancakes are the very best, even better than Denny's!"

Wow, now this could just be that he is the sweetest boy in the whole world, and would tell me this to make me feel happy, but he did devour the whole plate.

My whole-wheat "healthy" pancakes are now a favorite. I am, of course, discounting the possibility that it's the syrup, but that's part of the package right? :~)

I am one of those mom's who gets a bit of grief in the kitchen, trying to feed my family right.
It's nice to get some positive feedback once in awhile.

Feeding one's family in the very healthiest way is sometimes a thankless endeavor. But I press on, knowing that I am responsible for growing healthy adults. I pray that they look back and appreciate all the effort, and that it shows in their healthy eating habits as adults.

I just know, that like all kids that are now adults, we look back and think that our moms were *the best* cooks. We have a blissfully selective memory that brings back the good food memories, even though I know that I probably gave my mom a hard time too. :~)

We moms haven't changed much over the generations, we do the very best we can. The kids, haven't changed much either, they will still manage to complain LOL!

There are little victories. Maybe next time someone will think my lentils are the best, Yeah!

Bless you,
Tami

::Family Crest::

We worked on a very special family art project over Christmas break.

I was inspired to do this project in two ways. I love the idea of having a family crest to establish the identity and values of our family. I was also inspired by Soulemama's "family art" post from awhile back. This is what we came up with. I love it!

Each member came up with words and images to contribute that were meaningful to them. It was a slightly structured endeavor. I had to really keep my *design eye* under control in order to not hinder any creativeness on the kids parts. It 's hard to give up control.......but freeing at the same time.

I painted the background and the crest, the tree branches with the little birds were my contribution, along with the words, "Live Simply, Expect Little, Give Much, Love Extravagantly".

Eric chose his favorite quote by Albert Einstein, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
I am so pleased with the ideas that the kids came up with.

We are almost finished with it. Just a few more family values to write around the edges of the crest.

This has become family crest, meets family rules and values, meets mixed-media collage art.

The kids are so excited to display this for everyone to see!

Have a blessed day,
Tami

::Quiet House::

{A Christmas gift from Rafe}

The kids went back to school two days ago.

I *really* enjoyed having them home, and Eric too! He was home the entire week before Christmas.
We did have such a wonderful time together. We baked, and ate, crafted and created, did puzzles, ate more, and spent much time with friends and family.

My house is now quiet.

There is always such an adjustment period after the kids go back to school.
When everyone is at home there is sound, not like noise, but the underlying hum of family life.
I love this, it calms me and uplifts me.

It's way too quiet now.

Now it's time to organize, plan, budget, and give my time to my kids in their classrooms.
I can think off all sorts of things that I can do to keep me busy.
The fact is that I miss their little faces during the day.

I am still finding my way, my rhythm. It's uncomfortable. But change usually is.
I do know this, God will use this to grow me and to stretch me in ways that I cannot even imagine.
And that is good.

Blessings to you,
Tami