The Masterpiece {A creative use for old puzzles}

Every Christmas when I was growing up my super crafty mom would make us a gift.  We still got other gifts but this one was always so special to me because I never knew what it would be. I can remember almost every gift mom ever made me over the years. I can't, however, tell you many of the toys I received.  After seeing the impact this left on me I wanted to pass this tradition on to our kids.  The only problem is that I am not crafty.  I can be if you give me step by step instructions but even then I tend to have more pinterest fails then wins.  

As this Christmas season rolled around I decided I just wasn't going to make the kids anything.  It was too much time and effort.  But as I've watched my daughter, Ellie, work so hard over the last few weeks sewing and knitting gifts for people I knew I needed to make something.  It is her love language. So I started praying about what to make because God knows I need help in this area. :)

Earlier this week we discovered a local store called Scrap that has a ton of used craft supplies for really cheap.  I saw a tub of mismatched puzzle pieces for .25 cents a bag.  However, I remembered we have a TON of old puzzles the kids never use. When we got home I pulled out a few princess puzzles and got to looking on Pinterest for ideas on repurposing these puzzles.  I saw things like spray painting them and gluing them to a letter shape, or making a heart out of them on a canvas or gluing them around a picture frame.  While these things were cool they just weren't clicking with what I was looking for.  This might sound silly but I truly believe God dropped this idea on my heart of painting a piece for each of our family members that would connect together.  One thing lead to the next and before I know it I had created this masterpiece that I will cherish forever(and I hope my kids do too).

Here's what you need:

• an old puzzle(just put it together first to make sure you paint the pieces that fit together)
• paint & brushes(I just used what I had on hand but the color schemes, drawings & words are endless)
• a word or image you want to be the central theme of your masterpiece

How to make it:

• After you've determined the pieces you will use simply paint both sides a solid color. I did a brush but you could spray paint(I just didn't have any on hand)
• Once that is dry paint whatever your design is on one side. 
• On the other side write the names or initial of the people whose piece is part of the puzzle
• Hole punch the top of those pieces and string them on a necklace(I used colored rope but any string would work)

I used 9 pieces because we have 5 people in our family(plus 1 baby who is in heaven). And I felt the Lord tell me to put God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the center.  The kids will each get a necklace with a puzzle piece(as shown in top 2 photos below). 

Here are the 2 key points the Holy Spirit lead me to discuss with my kids about this creation:

1. Our family is held together by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Without the trinity working in our lives we will fall apart.  

2. We each look different and have different qualities and talents.  Yet the puzzle is not complete when one piece is missing.  We must all embrace who we are and know we are valued and loved.  

This project is super simple, cheap and fun.  I hope you try it out for your family!  I have a feeling my kids will want to do one of their own. :)  

Merry Christmas!  

Finding Peace in Your Relationship with Food

When most people write about stress during the holidays they address the hustle and bustle of different parties and the weight of feeling the need to do everything.  But God put it on my heart to address another aspect of Thanksgiving and Christmas that brings stress and anxiety to many people. This article is going to address the anxiety that food brings to the table(no pun intended).  

When I opened my email today I received one entitled "How to survive Thanksgiving".  At first it sounded interesting so I clicked it to read their tips and as soon as I started reading I heard the Lord tell me to stop.  So I closed out the browser and He began to speak to me about my own anxiety when it comes to parties and food. He showed me How deeply saddened He is that a time that was meant to be full of thanks has turned into a time of anxiety about what to eat and how to burn the extra holiday calories off.

As He was speaking to me about this someone sent me a video on a new eating disorder called "EDNOS" or "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".  As I watched this video my heart broke, especially when the girl referred to her disorder as "Ed".  The number of Americans, especially women, who have eating disorders is growing by the minute.  Everywhere we turn we are told we need to look a certain way in order to be valued and loved. If we weren't born naturally thin we will go to great lengths to ensure we fit the norm.  

When I was a teen girl(and even throughout my early twenties) I would go in cycles where I would binge or starve myself.  I remember in the times I was starving myself I would have nightmares that I was eating junk like pizza or donuts.  I would wake up terrified and disgusted with myself.  Because of this I know all too well how much of a death grip food can have on your life. If you are addicted to food, or the lack there of, you will rearrange your entire day around it.  If you are addicted to eating it you are concerned about what the next meal will be even while you are eating the first. If you are addicted to withholding food from your body then you will decline certain party invitations if you know it will be too tempting to eat food.  You will retreat and isolate yourself to a place where you feel in control.  To put it simply, satan has you on a chain and the idol(food) is leading the way.  It tells you when to go and when to stay.  God has no voice in your life when you are in bondage to food.  

For those struggling with something like this, Thanksgiving and Christmas, times that are meant to bring joy and peace, can bring nothing but anxiety and wishing you could just play sick for all the family gatherings.  I can tell you that God has set me free from this cycle of bondage but it is something that I must keep submitted to Him or it will rear its ugly head.  

Here are two key truths in finding peace with food and your body:

1. Food is Fuel.

Food was created by God to fuel our body. However, from the beginning of time satan has used food, a beautiful thing God created, to get between us and God. Food was never intended to be our enemy or an idol in our life. 


There is nothing more true than the statement "Eat to live, don't live to eat".  I remember when binging on junk food was a bondage of mine I  meditated on this truth often.  God's word says in 1 Corinithians 10:21 "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Pray before you go to the Thanksgiving feasts or Christmas parties.  And pray often.  Even as you are loading your plate, ask God to give you wisdom and self-control.  Ask Him to show you how to enjoy the food but not over indulge. Reevaluate often and ask if your behaviors are bringing glory to God.  Ask questions like: am I at war with food?  Am I using it to fuel my body or to fill a desire only God can fill?

2. You are not your own. 

 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says  "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."

If you are a born again believer your body is a temple of the most High God.  He dwells in you and you in Him.  There is not one moment of any of our days on this earth that this is not true. There are no exceptions or special holidays when our bodies are no longer temples. So when we enter into holiday parties we must keep this perspective. Does God want us to enjoy a yummy meal with our family and friends?  Absolutely.  But does He want us to go to an extreme and either starve ourselves out of fear of gaining weight OR go the other way and binge until we feel we are going to throw up?  Not at all.  Do everything in moderation and with a sound mind and God will bless your temple.  

If this article spoke to you today I encourage you to take a few moments and talk to God about it.  Ask the Holy Spirit what He is asking you to give up this holiday season or enjoy with no guilt.  He cares about every single detail of your life and food is no exception. In fact, food was His idea.

I pray you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! :) 

C-section, VBACS and a Miscarriage {My Birth Stories}

With Christmas coming up there is so much to think about and get done before the big day.  Now that I am a mom my focus has shifted from myself to my kids and those around me.  I could care less about receiving one gift because the look of excitement on my kids faces when they open their gifts is priceless.  Another view of Christmas that I never stopped to look too hard at until I was a mom was the perspective of Mary's birth story of Jesus.  When I really stop and think about the circumstances in which Mary gave birth to Jesus I can't help but think "Mary gets me!"  Mary's story of birthing Jesus in a manger with smelly animals around and no bed to lay on but hay makes my birth stories seem so small yet they have one thing in common....the element of surprise and faith in God.

Meet, Ellie, my oldest child and our big "surprise" as we found out I was pregnant only 9 months into marriage.  

 

Ellie's middle name is Joy(like me) and she is just that...so full of joy and she brings joy to everyone around her. 

When I was pregnant with Ellie I had only happy thoughts about how it all was going to go down...I would go into labor naturally(a few days early of course), all while having makeup on, hair done and a nice easy trip to the hospital then out would come baby!  No c-sections, no complications, everything exactly as I had planned.  Wow was I wrong.

I did not take care of myself like I should nor did I do any research or think I had any say in the decisions made for the birth.  I began to develop pre-eclampsia the last few weeks of my pregnancy so one day before my due date my doctor had me induced.  The induction did not go well and they gave me an epidural(strike one against my "plan") and the epidural completely stopped my labor. The doctor came in and gave me the news no mother longs to hear...I was having a c-section.  I remember bursting into tears.  All my hopes and dreams of natural childbirth crushed.  Yet despite it all I had my beautiful and healthy Ellie Joy in my arms.

My recovery from my c-section was hard physically and emotionally.  I could barely walk up stairs or stand upright without feeling like my scar would re-open for a few months after I had my daughter.  I remember hearing stories of other moms who had such easy vaginal deliveries and I would just crumble on the inside.  I struggled with questions like "What was wrong with me that my body couldn't deliver my baby naturally?  Why God?"

When Ellie was a little over a year old I became pregnant with our second child.  Meet Olivia Grace:

 

Olivia Grace is just that....full of grace and such a sweet spirit.  She has the softest, sweetest voice you have ever heard and she has such a nurturing spirit.

When I was pregnant with Olivia my husband was in chiropractic school and we learned more about our options in regards to natural child birth.  I was told I could not have a vaginal birth after my c-section by all but one doctor.  When God lead me to Dr.Cummings I knew it was confirmation that He was going to give me the desire of my heart, a vaginal birth.  I took better care of myself with that pregnancy, I prayed, stood on scripture and believed for a vaginal birth.  Because I was doing a VBAC(vaginal birth after cesarean) my doctor would not induce(nor did I want to be) and I went 10 days past due.  My beautiful Olivia Grace was born in the hospital and I did it completely drug free.  The Lord had given me the desire of my heart.

After our second daughter was born my husband felt the Lord tell him we would have a son.  I became pregnant and felt better than ever in my 3rd pregnancy.  Until I started bleeding at 14 weeks pregnant and ,to make a very long story short, was taken to the hospital because I had passed out on my sisters bathroom floor and was unresponsive.  It was by the grace of God that I was at my sisters home whose husband is a doctor and who knew what to do for me until the ambulance arrived.  I remember waking up in the ER with doctors talking around me about how to get the bleeding to stop...I just remember thinking there was no way this was happening to me because I would never have a miscarriage.  I was surprised and heart broken all at the same time.

The next few weeks after my miscarriage I felt very distant from God.  Wondering why He allowed it to happen when He could have stopped it and really just feeling sorry for myself.  I even questioned if what He had spoken to my husband about having a son was true. Until one day God spoke to my heart and reminded me that He was grieving with me and that He wanted to redeem what had been stolen from me.  

Meet Ezekiel Wayne:

Ezekiel means "strength of God" and he is just that....strong in both body and spirit.  

After I prayed that day for God to redeem what was lost, I became pregnant the next month with our first son(though we did not know it because we did not find out the sex of the baby). I went 10 days past due and went into labor and had my second VBAC. My first and only son was born on my birthday(my birthday boyfriend).  It was a sweet sign of Gods redeeming love.

So what does my c-section, VBACs and miscarriage have to do with my talk of Christmas and Mary at the beginning of this post?  Just like Mary did not plan to become pregnant with Jesus before she was married and definitely didn't plan to have him in a stable, we also have things in our lives that we did not plan. Mary was taken by surprise with the birth of Jesus but God sure wasn't.  I did not plan a c-section or a miscarriage but God redeemed both of those things with beautiful gifts.  I had a c-section with Ellie but I still received my gift of a beautiful baby girl.  I may not have planned my miscarriage but God used what the enemy intended for evil and turned it for good.

I could write several points on how to find God in the hard times or how to encourage someone walking through an unplanned c-section or miscarriage but I felt the Lord wanted me to focus one simple thing....God is a redeemer.  He is so many other things but in this story He is a redeemer.  And he longs to be one in your life too.  Do you have an area of your life you need redeemed?  Give it to Him and allow Him to restore all that has been stolen from you.

The Christmas Angel

Every year as Christmas comes around I pray about how to make sure my kids get the message of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  As much as I love gifts, cookies, lights and decorating, we would have none of it if Jesus had not been born so many years ago.  I was beyond excited last year when I heard of the Christmas Angel so I wanted to share it with you in case you are also looking for a fun way to celebrate the real reason for this Christmas season.

What is the Christmas Angel?   It is very similar to "Elf on the Shelf" except instead of getting into trouble the angel leaves messages of inspiration that teach the joy of giving.  They even provide you with a calendar full of ideas!  You can learn more about the story of how it got started here. 

I didn't use all of their ideas(couldn't do a garage sale in December) but did use it for inspiration:  

I love how a few days on the calendar have a memory verse to memorize!  Here is a picture of the first day I introduced the angel to our kids last year:

Our kids LOVED the Christmas Angel and I LOVED that it helped us focus on giving in a season that can be so "me" centered.  You can purchase a Christmas Angel at some local christian bookstores OR order online here.  They even have a boy Christmas Angel! :)  (Please note:  I do NOT get paid to promote this product, I just think everyone needs to know about it!)

I LOVE hearing other creative ways families come up with to stay focused during this holiday season.  What traditions do you and your family do to keep Christ at the center?