Heaven on Earth!

What is it about the ocean, so powerful, yet peaceful at the same time? It is such an amazing force the we can never understand.  There are depths to the ocean that have never been reached.  When you stand by the sea and hear the roar why does it not bring fear instead of calm?  For me, it is the way of My Lord.  I can't even begin to fathom His depths, His power, His strength, and where I should be afraid, I am filled with love and peace!  The time I spend by the ocean with my family is precious to me.  

 I not only get to feel His power by the pull of the waves and the wind on my face but when I look into the innocent, sweet smiles of children.

Emma is growing to love the ocean as much as I do.  I remember playing on this very beach as a child.  I remember how big it all felt!

Here we are playing and laughing, just enjoying being a family.

I think I am going to blow up this picture and place it somewhere in my home, so that when life gets tough I can rest in the moments God has given me!

Toes in the sand!!!!!!!!!!!

My girls playing with their cousin and having a blast on the beach!

Smore's in a Mason Jar!

What do you have for dessert when you live in the South and you are itching for summer. Smore's in a mason jar would be the answer. You can find anything in Bloggerville. The other day I ran across these yummy treats and knew I had to try them.
Make sure you have plenty of milk when you serve these sweet treats!

My little angel needs to learn a few social skills. I'm thinking we will work on these before she starts dating (or maybe we won't!)

One jar will easily feed two but as you can see Rebekah felt she could finish one off all by herself.

Perhaps 8:00pm, after AWANA, on a school night, was not the best time try out this new recipe! However, life is short and precious, kids are only little for a while, and a tummy full of chocolate will always bring sweet dreams!

My new favorite room!

What is more frustrating than a trashed up closet? Everytime I walked into my closet I became anxious! I mean look at this mess - I am rather embarassed to put this out in bloggerville but this is my life. As you can see I did attempt to organize my shoes but couldn't get past all the boxes. If you think this is crazy you should have seen it after my 5 year old took out each and every shoe from the boxes that lined the entire floor.
Needless to say, something had to be done..........................

I approached my fabulous man with my closet vision. It only took a few moments of "bottom- lip-quivering pouting" to melt away his resolve. (And yes, my children are learning from a master!

So, off to Lowes for wood and screws! I am a shoe lover! I couldn't believe how many old pairs of shoes I got to throw away during this process. I now get to go fill in all the holes left by my purging!

There is nothing sexier than watching the man you love work tirelessly to please you! God has given me such a precious gift in my husband.

I didn't take long to put up the shelves. Caulking and painting was another story!

I love, love, love this man!!!

Here is the first glimpse of my new shoe shelves. He built one tall section for boots!

I found these great jewelry boxes at TJ Max - my favorite store! They are so smart looking and now I can actually find my costume jewelry.

Shoes a plenty, shoes galore! (Just in case you are visiting this site and don't have children the correct title is Pigs a plenty, pigs galore!)

I really don't mind heading to my "prayer closet" anymore!

I plan on getting a small zebra print bench to go under the mirror. I mean a girl needs a place to sit while deciding what shoe to wear! I also think above the mirror I will hang black and white pictures of my girls playing with my shoes!

Don't forget to visit Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for more Metamorphosis Monday!

Thanks for visiting!

Hot Pink Flower Power!

I love to duplicate things I see in bloggerville! I saw a post not that long ago on making fabulous flower embellishments. I had to give it a try! I started with biscuit cutters. Yes, that is a strange way to begin but they are perfect circles and graduate up in size.

I then found some hot pink taffeta and began the transformation. Can you tell I have little girls? I mean, I just happen to have some hot pink taffeta hanging around. Then I cut my circles out and made sure they were ironed. (Later, I found out that the ironing step is really not that necessary depending on how you want your petals to look.)

After the petals are cut you simply use a lighter to burn the edges and the fabric will flip up nicely at the edges. Layer the petals, pop a jewel in the center, and voila, you have an adorable flower to put on anything you please. I used velcro dots to adhere mine to this shirt so that I could remove it for laundering. Also, when the shirt gets stained (as all white shirts do in my house) I can just place the flower on a new bright white one.

I then layered another flower with organza and made this precious hair clip. My daughter was so excited! She couldn't wait to show off her new hot pink doo at school!

I am going to be making these for every little girl I know! Isn't is too cute!

Just perfect for a rock star!

Isn't this is a sweet little girl!

Okay, then I thought to myself "I want one," so I found some black lining in the closet and began working more magic. The lining fabric curled up much nicer than the taffeta! I didn't have any organza for this one but I have since been to the store and my next one will be much fluffier!

Playing around with my camera! I love anything in black and white!

Happy Crafting and don't forget to check out all the great Pink Saturday posts at How Sweet the Sound!

A New Kind of Metamorphosis!

Today I want to share a new kind of metamorphosis I have been working on. At the end of November I spent a week in Haiti with a team of 11 from my church. We were going on a construction trip to build shelters. While there I built shelters and worked in a medical clinic as a nurse. What I saw in that week has changed my life forever and I had to share the metamorphosis that took place in my heart!

This is a picture of the ONLY toy I saw in Haiti. A little boy had fashioned this out of a milk container and he was so proud of his creation. I too was proud of this little fellow and the creativity he exhibited. I thought of all us makover divas and wondered if we would have the gumption to make something out of this trash.

Here I am at the clinic with a precious little baby who kept sticking her tongue out at me. I fell in love with these people and there smiles.

You can't help but be changed when you see children praying with all their hearts. These are a few of the children we saw in the orphanage we visited. It was a fabulous time as we shared the Christmas story and gave them juice and cookies.

Here is a woman who got up before dawn and walked several miles so she could sell her eggs at the market.

After several hours we finished our first tent home and this is the woman who recieved the home. She had a family of 10 that would be living in this tent with her. I was so blessed to have my father along on this trip with me!

The children are so happy and they have nothing. Most eat one meal a day and have very little to no water to drink. How can they smile and laugh and play? Where are the Nintendos? Where are the soccer balls?

My first roofing experience!


Look closely and you will see the man helping me in this picture has only one arm. He works all day as a volunteer in hopes that we will have an extra sandwich or bottle of water.

These children are singing Father Abraham in their language. I love to see the fruits of other mission trips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Finally, this is the moment I was changed forever. We spent a day up in the mountains in Haiti. I thought I had seen devastation in the city but there is no poverty like the remote places of Haiti. We had worked all day in the clinc and were tired. One of the Haitian doctors asked if I would like to pass out some clothes to the children in the village. She warned me that we would have to bring the kids into the tent because a riot may break out in the village if the people saw us giving anything away. She warned me to give to only the children who really needed it since there was a limited suppy. I was pulling clothes out and didn't see the little girl standing behind me. When I turned around I saw the rag she was wearing, no shoes, no underwear. You should have seen the look in her eyes. I have never done anything in my life that will compare to giving that girl clothing to wear!

This Monday as you look at all the beautiful transformations on Susan's blog Between Naps on the Porch please send up a prayer of thanks for all your blessings. Then don't forget to pray for all those who have less!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all those out in the blogging world. I am so excited to be entering a new season of life. I am in the process of making my New Year New You resolutions and one is to get back to blogging. I love zoning out and reflecting on my life and learning about others in the process. We are having a fabulous time in the South with the snow. We don't see much down here and it was such a gift on Christmas Day from the Father above to be blanketed in the beautiful winter blanket. It was the first snow on Christmas Day since 1969!


I am especially excited because I recieved a Canon Rebel camera from by wonderful husband for Christmas! I have no idea how to use it yet but I played around with it and can't wait to post beautiful pictures in the future.

Isn't it great to see a teardrop of color when the world is white with snow!

The kids couldn't wait to ge out in the cold! They built a snowman and the next day the melting process began. Wouldn't this make a great advertising pic for some cold medicine. I am calling this the Snotty Snowman.
The new year holds so much hope and promise. This year I am going to try and slow down and enjoy this fabulous life I have been given. As a busy mother I sometimes feel spring loaded! I pray for more peace this year, more time to get to know Christ and become more like him, more time playing with my kids, more time doing for others, and more time blogging about my adventures.

Check out the beautiful winter scenes in Georgia at A Southern Daydreamer.

Teacher Appreciation!

At the end of each school year you can go into any Michael's or Walmart and see mothers scurrying around to buy towels and totes, mugs and books, or anything that can be given to teachers. Is it appreciation or compensation for spending another year with our children? Whatever the reason, I am always looking for new ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week. This year my a dear friend and I got together to make these lovely gifts.
(I apologize for the blurry pics, a Canon Rebel is in my future as soon as I sell a kidney!)
I decided to make a flower pot full of goodies!
I started with a terra cotta pot and spray painted it with chalkboard paint. Then stocked up on gardening things. Gloves, shovel, apron, spray bottle, chalk, all purchased at Michaels. I then stopped by Home Depot for a gift card and Voila, instant teacher gift.

It wasn't easy to let the perfectionist in me stand aside while my daughter added her touch to the pot. However, when she was finished I knew that she had made these gifts priceless!

These pots are for my daughter's Visual Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Exceptional Children teacher. On the back of this pot she wrote "When I need help, you help me." How precious it that?

I can see all the possibilites here. I am going to paint one and place it at my front door with a flower and leave notes for my kids. Something along the lines of - Come on in - I have Brownies, or Wipe your shoes off, it was a rainy day, or Water me before you come in.

The possibilities are endless.I hope you can grab a can of spray paint and think of a fun way to personalize your pot!