Thoughtful Thursday- New Years Resolutions

I looked up the definition of resolution just so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into this year.

RESOLUTION: Firm decision to do or not to do something.

Well there ya go. plain and simple.

The word that startles me is "firm"... a firm decision. Great, now I feel even more pressure to make these resolutions phenomenal. I know what you're thinking, "Why make resolutions at all then? Why stress yourself out about it? Besides it's quite cheesy." Well ladies and gentlemen, you see I'm definitely the kind of person who strives off of lists and goals and marking one things off and seeing how much I can get done in my day. Some might find it exhausting (some days it can be quite the curse.) However, I find it exhilarating! I love, and I mean LOVE being productive.

But like I said, it can be a curse which is why my number one resolution (firm decision) this year is to stop planning so much. "WHA?!?!" That's right. It's going to take a lot of hard work on my part but I'm kind of tired of having my days so packed full of chores and to-do's that it leaves no room for me and Steven to have adventures. I'm still going to have things I would like to get done during the week but if laundry doesn't get done on a Monday because we wanted to go to the bookstore, then so be it! I'm a planner and organizer at heart and that will never change, but I still need to find some time to do fun things with life.

Resolution numero dos: Get Healthy. This one is probably on a lot of people's lists right now after we've gorged ourselves on all the cake, fudge, turkey, candy we could find. But in all seriousness healthy-ness will happen this year (hopefully). Working in an office, sitting all day means I don't need as many calories as I think. I don't need those extra pieces of chocolate after lunch or an extra bag of cheeze-its just because I'm bored. Boredom is my worst enemy, along with my love of how food tastes. I'm a foodie, but I need to set my sights on more fruits and veggies and things from the earth rather than things in packages and bags. Eating packaged food is actually a new habit since I got an office job (And possibly not loving it and being as happy as I think I could be has played a role in this.)

Number 3: Teach art to someone...somewhere. I really, really need for this to happen. In order to have the life I've imagined for myself I need to actually start doing something. I have a plan right now for the summer and hopefully it will be in full swing this June... as long as I don't chicken out. But a lot can happen in 6 months, so we'll see!

Resolution #4: Focus on making art I like. I have this very utilitarianism way of thinking. Everything must serve a functional purpose. I'm this way with things I buy for the house or things I buy to wear and unfortunately the way I make art. If I don't think I'm going to sell it or hang it in my house then why bother with making it? I'd just end up with a huge pile of artwork and nothing to do with it. What a sad way of thinking! Especially with something I love! So I'm going to work on not focusing about the materials I'm "wasting" but on the experience and skill I'm gaining. I've honestly been too scared to really let myself explore and see what I can do because what if I suck?! Haha But I think I'm ready.

Last but not least, resolution number 5: Plan my 1st years worth of teaching curriculum. Just thinking about this gets me all warm and fuzzy inside. Although, it might be a little tricky in the sense that I actually have no idea what grade level I'll be teaching when I do in fact get a job. I'll just have to plan for elementary, middle school, high school, and then a combination of middle and high school. This will take quite a bit of organization on my part, but luckily I'm pretty good at that :) I just figured I might as well be prepared to to teach if I actually think that's what's going to happen with my life. It's like praying for rain without carrying an umbrella. Just downright silly! I've got a good list of what I think I want to teach I just have to find a way that they all build on each other and fit into grade levels and all that jazz. I'm really excited to be prepared for the next step of my life!

I'm declaring this year for me. Not in a way where everyone else must pay attention to me and focus on me and give me what I want (I did just graduate and have a wedding, I think I've ran out of attention for now.) I'm declaring this year for me because I'm ready to start focusing and actually working towards the things I want in my life. The way I want my life to look and feel with my art and my husband and our families. I've done A LOT of soul searching since we got married and started our "grown up" lives and I have loved learning about what I want and figuring out how I need to make things happen. Growing up can be really exciting if you want to work for it and I think I'm ready!

I would LOVE to hear about some of your new years resolutions! This is such an exciting time to me and I'd love to know how you guys are going to be making 2012 amazing!

Happy New Years!

Love-Lea

Pinteresting Wednesday- New Years Eve

I am quite obsessed with sequins lately. I always want to buy sequined filled clothing, but I never have any reason to wear them. ( I would look quite over dressed in the office and honestly I don't really want to waste a magnificent outfit up here!) So, for this New Years Eve I will be on the look out for something wonderfully shiny! Here are a few ideas.

Hate the socks, love the flower!

Just absolutely darling.

Perfection.

Absolute love!

Even though I may look like a baton twirler in these, I don't think I would mind... so cute!

You can still be quite fancy even if you don't feel like going all out in sparkles

So much sparkly goodness. I hope you find just what you want for your special night!

I am so excited for New Years Eve this year. For one, it's Steven's birthday and it's our first one as Mr. and Mrs! I just can't wait to celebrate this special night with my absolute best friend in the whole world! Talk about blessed. But more on our New Years Eve shennanigans later!

A Very Merry Christmas

What a great first Christmas! Four whole days off work and lots of family time! This year was quite different, trying to accommodate all of our families and still finding some quite time for just the two of us, but we survived it!

Our wonderful Christmas breakfast!

Before....

After. There's only two of us,  I can only imagine what our house will look like when we have kids!

My gifts from Steven and Anthropology! Love, love love them!

 Yep, it's a Koi rug! It's sooo cushy!

 And I get to spend the WHOLE week with Hank!

We've already had lots of fun with him. He is currently snoozing on the couch with me, snoring away while we watch the Thunder game!

Merry Christmas and Thunder Up!

Love-Lea

Christmas Lists

    If you love festive gatherings and tradition and family time and giving as much much as I do, then this really is the most wonderful time of the year! This is by far my favorite holiday! Not only do we get to celebrate the birth of the most amazing and selfless gift ever given to mankind, we are reminded even more to extend his love to everyone around us and to those who have less than we do.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you. I also love getting caught up in all of the decorations, presents, gift wrap, baking and just the all together festiveness of this season! Here are some of my favorite things from Christmas.

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Songs

1. Baby it's cold outside

2. Mary did you know

3. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

4. Straight No Chaser's 12 Days of Christmas

5. All I want for Christmas is You!

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Movies

1. Christmas Vacation

2. Miracle on 34th Street

3. How the Grinch stole Christmas ( movie or cartoon!)

4. A Christmas Story

5. Home Alone 1 & 2

Top 5 Favorite Christmas Activities

1. Watching Christmas movies

2. Decorating  (This year we get to decorate our very own house!)

3. Baking

4. Christmas Parties

5. Buying, making, and Wrapping presents 

What are some of your favorite things to do for Christmas?



Happy Christmas!!

Love-lea

Sharing Christmas

I found this through a number of blogs that I read and I just think it's such a great thought and picture of what we are called to do that I wanted to share it with you. I hope it makes you think, even just a little

from: "top of the page with leslie"

"It's funny, how the King of Kings decided to show up, as a frail infant, in a feed bin, born of two young Jewish nobodies.

No one was there to watch.

And even more surprising are those with whom God decided to share the news. The first people who were told of the birth of the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD (besides the parties directly involved) were shepherds.

I have to ask WHY? I know it's not an accident. It's not that they happened to be closest. They were another handful of nobodies. They had zero influence, zero wealth, zero fame, and next to zero societal position. Why on earth would God choose them to be the first of all the world to know that the biggest moment in history just took place under their noses? Why wouldn't he choose a great public speaker, a charismatic leader, or at least a faithful servant in the church, I mean, someone who had really earned it?

I don't know. I don't even have a good guess. I could drum up a spiritual speculation. But what if it's just so simple; what if the reason He chose shepherds is because most other people felt they deserved to hear all the great things first. Maybe others believed they were more important than they actually were. Maybe the shepherds were the least deserving, in the eyes of the world, and knew it. And that made them the most deserving in God's.

So He invited them into the story. Forever. Do you see how BIG that is? The least deserving of all mankind. Humble. Lowly. Unassuming. And completely ecstatic to be chosen. I would have loved to see their faces at that moment, when face to face with an angel of the Lord, hearing the announcement of a lifetime. Of all our lifetimes! I bet they ran as much of the distance to the manger as they could.

Our church made some little cards listing the times of our Christmas Eve services so that we could hand them out. We are to invite our friends and family to church. And as I was spending the next few days casually weighing who I may invite, or not, walking through how the interactions might go, little did I know that my kids were passing out cards at school. They had each grabbed a stack. No weighing. No hesitation.

A couple days later, much to my surprise, my daughter says, "Mom, I invited my teacher to church with us and she said she'd love to come!" I was speechless, and then, I hate to admit, totally incredulous. I assumed her teacher was just being kind to respond positively, and followed up with a polite email letting her off the hook if, in fact, she was just being nice in showing enthusiasm for my daughter's brave invitation.

Guess what? The teacher wasn't just being nice. She is sincerely interested in joining us for church. And the truth is, I am a coward. I am a person to whom Jesus is saying, "Oh, you of little faith!" as I question who the "right" people are to invite to church. Because I would not have invited my daughter's teacher. I don't know her very well, and {now insert twenty other stupid excuses I could make}.

It took the simple faith of my child to remind me that God invited shepherds to Christmas. Shepherds were first on the list.

I'm challenged to ask who the unseen are. Who the nobodies are. Who the shepherds are in my life, those I take for granted, and don't really want to interact with on a personal, much less spiritual level.

Neighbors are the obvious ones. But what about coaches? Bosses. Siblings (ooh, it's getting more difficult!). Parents. The girl who works at Starbucks. The friend you think has it all together (but in fact doesn't!). The woman who scans your groceries. WHO? Who are they? Who are the last people you would think to invite?

Many years ago, in a workshop at church, we were told a statistic that shocked me: Surveys among non-church goers showed that if someone were to invite them to church, 75% would say "Yes." Doesn't that sorta startle you? Don't you have the same idea I do that if someone isn't already going to church, that means they don't want to? However, I swear the statistic had proven true in our lives. Nearly everyone we've invited to church over the past years has said "Yes."

And most of those have stayed, making church a regular part of their lives.

Maybe today you could make a list of at least three people. The last people you'd invite to church. The shepherds in your life.

Then invite them. It's Christmas, so even more reason why they might just say "Yes."

Because what if?

What if meeting Jesus is the one thing they've waited for their whole lives?

I just can't say no to the Lord asking me to reach out. Because one day, years ago, I was a shepherd. The least deserving. God knew I needed Jesus. And so He invited me into His story.

And I've never been the same."

Thoughtful Thursday

 

 

“We all pretend for a while or for a lifetime. But pretending is not living...I believe that God meant for life to take our breath away, sometimes because of the sheer joy of it all and sometimes because of the severe pain. To choose living over pretending means that we will know both.” 

-Angela Thomas

 

 

 

 

I want to be done living in this pretend world that I've made up for myself. Just sitting around thinking about my perfect life hasn't proved to be very productive.

 

I sometimes look through blogs or  read magazine articles and think, "Yeah, that's what I want my life to look like." But then go about my day as usual. The people I admire didn't get to where they are by just hoping and dreaming. They accomplished things by actually getting up and making it happen. By actually practicing and experimenting and making mistakes. By taking the good with the bad and making the most out of the real life situation they're in now.

 

Now, I know this can be a terribly scary thought. But... 

If we try to live our lives like a movie then we are going to miss out on a lot of real things that could be very important to how our real lives are going to turn out.

 

We can't compare our behind the scenes to somebody else's highlights. We just can't. We have to do what's best for ourselves and what's best for the dreams we have.

 

So...

 

I hope that once you realize what your dreams are, what your passion is that you actually go out and do it!

 

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

 

Pinteresting Wednesday- DIY Christmas Trees

These are a super easy way to add a special center piece to your table or just to add a little bit of Christmas to any corner of your house that hasn't been taken over yet! You can buy styrofoam pyramids at your local craft store anywhere from $2.00-$8.00 and use little bits and pieces of things you have around the house! I encourage you to be as creative as you can, fancy or fun!

Linen and lace- so classy

Covered in sparkles and put on candle holders!

Here are some other super fun Christmas crafts for you to try out!

I'm trying to make this Christmas as cheap and personal as possible. Needless to say there are lots of free/homemade decorations and packaging in our house!

Happy decorating!

Love-Lea

Thoughtful Thursday..... for Friday

-thank you-

Pinteresting Wednesday- That's a Wrap!

Finding creative ways to wrap gifts is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season! I love, love, love wrapping with things I already have around the house because, c'mon... it's just going to get ripped open and thrown away! There are plenty of easy ways to make the gifts under your tree look just as pretty for basically free instead of spending extra holiday cash on wrapping paper. That's an extra $20-$30 bucks that could fill a stocking!

Here are some of my absolute favorites. Now, I know that in reality our wrapping jobs may not come out exactly like these pictures, but I'm positive they're still going to look great! Hopefully all of my Christmas shopping will be done this weekend and I can share with you my wrapping shenanigans! Enjoy!

never buy a bow again! (100layercake)

I am loving the doily and yarn wrapping! (soapdelinews)

Love, love, love  (francineclouden)

Oh, Martha...you can even make yarn look fancy! (marthastewart)

See why I loooove doily decor!  (olderandwisor) 

Loving these fun pipe cleaners! (ohhappyday)

Cupcake liners... do versatile! (thedecorologist)

I'm such a sucker for anything with fabric! (thethriftycrafter)

One of the blogs I follow She has some really great ideas!

(older and wisor)

I hope these have inspired you to go rummaging through your craft supplies! Good luck!

Happy wrapping!

Love-Lea

Fun Friday

Time to bring the mood of this blog back up a bit! I'm declaring today Fun Friday! What's that you ask?? Well, I want to share with you just some things, crafts, foods, etc. That I think are fun! Some of the other blogs I follow do something kind of similar so I thought that was a great place to start! Enjoy.

These two are from sunshine and carousels, aren't they great!?

Cute conffetti love! Found at stelabird 

Quite darling, don't ya think?

These look like so much fun to make! A great way to add a pop of color. Check it!

I just love homemade christmas decorations and yummy things to drink!

What are some of your favorite drink recipes? I'm looking for new ones!