PrincipledMom™

I need a respite from BPA topics around here. So here are some of my recent projects...

This is a postcard for a swap with the theme "Wings". I cannot do one more art piece with a child with wings or a pointy hat, so the bird was a lovely take on the theme for me. I haven't gotten mine yet, so we'll see what I get in return.

This is the cover for a book I made for a friend who suddenly lost her husband a couple of months ago.

This is the inside front. The tag at the top is the dedication tag. A group of us all made the tags and I made the book to hold them all.

Here it is all opened up. It's a "flag book" with everyone's prayers and well wishes on little 2X4 cardstock, complete with fibers, beads and all sorts of embellishments. I think it turned out so well. She said she loved it.

I am also working on a book swap for Thanksgiving that I will post when I am done in a few days. That book is amazing!

I put some ornaments for a swap in the mail yesterday but I didn't take photos because I didn't like them that much. I hope whoever gets them likes them more! lol

If you like to make art with paper, please feel free to join our group.

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Ever have one of those days weeks months? It seems that everything is wrong. Everything. I am not doing anything "right." I need some peace in my mind and rest in my soul.

I am going through a sort of crisis right now, so I've been scarce. I am not sure about my place in the world right now. I feel like I have so many ideas, so many plans, so many dreams. I have an opinion about everything in my life and that constant chatter in my head is tiresome. I feel like life is spinning out of control and I have no way to stop it.

I must work to find the balance I crave. As I said before, I am very much an "all or nothing" person, so slow changes are a challenge. When I get an idea of something I want to change, I want it to happen yesterday. I think that is in part to fear that if it doesn't happen right now, it may never change at all. But God is faithful and He is teaching me. He is showing me how to have balance, to get everything done that I need to and still enjoy my life.

Joyce Meyer says that enjoying your life is a decision. So why can I never seem to make that decision to just be happy? I am always in a discontented state; never at peace with my decisions. I second guess myself every chance I get. Could God really be in the midst of my mess? Could He use this condition to lead me to Him? I believe the answer is a relieved YES. 

He can use my discontent to show me that I will never be satisfied with anything outside of Him. I will never be "good enough" in my own eyes. I can never do enough, but then I am not about the "doing" at all. It's about the "being." I am to abide in Christ. I am to put on Christ. I am to enter into the divine rest. God is not so concerned about what I am doing. He is much more concerned with what I am being. So the discontent can drive me crazy or drive me to my knees, where my Heavenly Father takes me in His arms and gently, lovingly restores my soul. He draws me closer and closer until I can hear His heartbeat. Then He shows me His plans and my plans suddenly seem insignificant. I don't want my will, but His. And His will is for me to look more and more like Him every day.

Help me, Lord, to walk out Your will. Never let me be satisfied with my own way. That's truly divine discontentment.

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Well I'm late with a recap because I have been pretty ill with a respiratory thing. Here's what we did last week in our unit on homekeeping.

• We defined keeping home. We looked up scriptures and discussed things needed to keep home--diligence, organization, etc. We discussed what it means to "bless" your home. 
• We learned about the history of cleaning through the ages with Cleaning the House by John Mala and 300 Years of Housekeeping Collectibles by Linda Franklin.
  We drew our unhappy (messy home). We will finish the unit with drawing a happy (clean home).
• We read several cleaning books: Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do, In a Minute!, Spring Cleaning, Boo and Baa on a Cleaning Spree and Home Tools among them.
• We are coloring a picture each day from Doorposts' coloring book on Psalm 31.
• We memorized Psalm 31:10.
• We made a kid-safe cleaning solution with baking soda, Borax and water. Now they have a special spray they like to use.
• They did worksheets for math. 
• And more...

It was a fun week. We learned a lot about cleaning and God's idea of home keeping and blessing. This week we will continue, but my health has put things on a bit of a hold so far. We will start to work on a schedule and lots more that I will post next week.

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My good friend, Miiko, has just released her e-book Being a Good Friend, a lovely book for girls on friendship. It is terrific and I highly recommend it. My 8yo daughter enjoyed it and read the whole book in one sitting.

Being a Good Friend discusses important concepts like enjoying differences, sharing and being gracious, with scripture references for each chapter. She even offers questions at the end of the book that you can use to talk over the book with your daughter. It's a small investment for an important topic. Click the book to view a sample and to order.

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Life in a Shoe has a great contest going. Guess how many items Vision Forum has in their catalog (to be released soon) and you could win $700 of great stuff. Read all about it here. Take a minute and enter. You may be the winner!

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