Yellow Distressed Dresser

 

Primer, two tones of yellow paint distressed.  Recycled lumber bottom thanks to Johnny.  Distressed stained top.

But YOU Loved Me Anyway

This life is such a mystery.  As I look at the refrigerator and glance at a picture Henry scribbled  the task of raising a child can be overwhelming.  The loss of my neighbor's 52 year old wife of 30 years makes his heart bleed like any other human being.  When I fail so deeply all that remains is wrecked lives in my wake, I feel the pain, you feel the pain as deeply as our fellow man.  But in all of those circumstances, though my physical makeup is the same, I praise God, the Lord Jesus Christ for something deeper (our message at church today).    I praise Him for his grace that carries me when life blind sides me or when I am my own worst enemy.  And the greatest mystery of it all, other than that He loves me anyway and picks up the pieces and makes something beautiful, is many of these things that physically and emotionally seem to destroy me, through His mind and with His thoughts, I can look back over time and see them as His mercies.  His mercy because it is quite possible that this heart of mine that is so prone to turning as hard as a stone and as dark as the blackest night can be turned toward Him.  I can experience His life and joy and have even a more abundant life in spite of myself and in spite of what others have done to me and in spite of life's circumstances. His mercy and He loves me anyway.

http://minivandiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-god-thing-weekend-link-up.html

Wild Night

It was a wild night and morning of wind and rain but very thankful to God for the limited damage I have seen so far in our area.  Here's a video of one are in Virginia...

Much Prayer Needed

For all you prayer warriors out there – please pray for these requests if you feel led:

1. A newborn in our church was born with a tumor and serious cancer – please pray for healing for the baby and comfort and grace for the parents and extended family.  The parents are just off the missionfield in Eastern Europe (they are Americans) to have their first child.

2.  Complete healing for my cousin with cancer – young mother with two young children.

3. Henry and my trip to Maine on Saturday.  Hurricane is approaching and we would like to catch our flight (if it’s safe) at 2:30 pm.  Travelling mercies.

4.  Two unlikely art teachers who have NO idea what they are doing.  Only have a heart to serve and enrich the lives of the students in our Christian school.  Yes, that’s I and my friend Beth.  In the next two weeks we need to collect materials, create a syllabus, clean out a classroom, and encourage kids to sign up!  All by the grace of God.  I mean ALL.  And it is our deepest heart’s desire to be Spirit filled and God led in each and every step.  This is a major step of faith and we covet your prayers.

5. I am looking forward to our fall schedule but we are also entering into a new season in our lives.  School + child + work + life.  Dave returns to Bible College next week, I have some side things I am always working on, we are managing a household and Dave is working full time.  Prayers are always welcomed as we want to have God’s mind in every aspect of our lives and receive His grace and His strength to go forward with His will.  And forever grateful for His mercies and grace for our frail human state.  Praise God!

Here is my little turkey:

Just after puddle stomping.

There have been some serious downpours over the last couple of weeks.

 

My turkey on the couch earlier this morning.  Do you love his sneakers?  I think he is so cute in them!!

Encouragement and a Dose of Henry

It has been a secret desire, prayer, wish of mine to be featured on this blog:

 

Shaunna from Perfectly Imperfect and Miss Mustard Seed were the first two furniture blogs I started reading and were the inspiration for me to try it myself and get addicted to other furniture blogs.  I highly esteem their work and have had a few conversations with God that I would love to be featured on one or both of their blogs.  Well, today my prayers were answered. My table above was featured on Perfectly Imperfect.  It is such an honor to have someone I look up to feature my work.  Thank you, Shaunna!

••••••••••••••••••

My son is becoming quite, quite the character.  I wish I could blog directly from the situation so it’s fresh in my mind, but we just don’t roll that way (as far as our level of technology). 

I think I am not so different from other mothers in romanticizing how much fun we are going to have doing ______ (fill in the blank).  I don’t always feel that way but today I was going to make our shopping trip to Trader Joe’s delightful for both of us.  I decided to let Henry push one of the kiddy carts and load the groceries into it for him to cart around.  I have let him do this in the past but he was a little younger, a little less independent, and with a little less of a mind of his own.  Today was not the right day to try it out.  Way, way too many people.  Once the idea was in his head, there was no turning back.  First thing, he wildly ran up to a 10ish year old boy like they were old buddies and slapped him on the back in a friendly two year old gesture and aggressively said hi.  Thankfully the boy found it funny and so did the mother.  Then he crazily pushed the cart through the crowded store and screamed at me every time I tried to steer it away from an oncoming customer.  Not an easy task to balance protection of fellow man and an independent little boy.  One time he got away from me and full force crashed into a 9ish year old girl’s legs.  Not good.  Not good for her.  Not good for me when getting why-don’t-you-control-your-child stares from the victim’s mother and then picking up a a shrieking child from the floor with an audience of many.  So not good.  The screams continued off and on and no amount of threatening ceased them.  So not good.  So, now I have been initiated into the out-of-control-bratty-child-in-grocery-store club.  We have had some rocky trips in the past, but this was full force two year old action. 

Henry’s Dresser Redo ~ Start to Finish

Navy blue over white. 

Linking up here:

Madly in ♥

Our little family unit is very important to Henry.  He is constantly saying Mommy, Daddy, Henry, Maggie.  Over and over again.  He’s in love and we are madly in love with him.

Stella

My niece Stella was born this morning after 3 a.m.  Congratulations Jana, Hana, Eric, aunts, uncles cousins, and grandparents!  She weighed 8lbs and 13 oz. and I will be able to meet her next weekend when Henry and I fly up to stay in the timeshare my mom has so generously offered to us!  Yay! 

Here is a sneak peek at the project I am working…

The Chocolate Monster Returns & More

Bubs was so tired yesterday.  We were at Stacey’s “parm” (as he calls it) and all the week’s festivities caught up with him.  Melt down.  This morning he woke up coughing and was very pale.  I could tell he was very sick because he wanted to go right back to sleep on me.  Se we were cuddling in my bed while he slept.  Then he woke up whining and crying with his eyes clothes.  And vomited.  A lot.  All over me and the bed.  I felt so bad for him because he was so tired and sick that I stayed that way for a while.  Just lying there.  Pretty gross.  The things mother’s do for love.  He slept for a little while and woke up and started talking about Mammie and Papa Pease.  I had called the doctor in this time frame which was probably a few hours.  After being up for a while mister mister asked for ICE CREAM!  Well, we don’t eat ice cream frequently around here (at least not for Henry to see).  What the heck.  We got ready and went to get some dairy free frozen dessert.  This is the after math. 

He also wanted a ride in the back pack and to walk Maggie.  He settled for carrying around the back pack.

Johnny pulled down his old car which Henry calls a tractor because we know how much he loves tractors.  It was instant love for the H. man.

You could quite be southern without a glass of ice tea to ride along with you on your tractor…

Henry in the back ground driving his tractor while I work on my next project.

This wood dresser needs some extra tlc.

The top looks quite nice after a good hardy sand.

Chugs on the tractor just loving life (for the moment).

Driving is a very serious and important job.

much more serious and important than fixing an old dresser… and I want to always remind myself how important it is to enjoy these fun moments with Henry while he still wants to hang off his mommy and be attached at the hip.  They won’t last forever.

Something Stacey and Johnny are selling in their egg shop.  And hutch or hosier (I guess, not sure of spelling).

The doctor said Henry was probably having morning vomiting from mucus build up in his stomach.  Really?  What mucus?

This is what Henry looks like when there are too many bugs around and he is overtired. 

Here are the drawers pre-work.

Dresser pre-work