Becoming Like Jesus in 2012

I get a devotion on the computer every day called the Purpose Driven Devotion, it originally came from Rick Warren book titles "The Purpose Driven Life. Its Pretty good

You can see todays title becoming like Jesus it says,

But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe & put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet." Luke 15:22 In the story of the prodigal son, we identify with the younger brother, seeing ourselves as prodigals returning to God. Some of us even identify with the older brother, realizing we've sinfully harbored resentment when God shows grace to others who, in our wrongful judgement, are "less Christian" than ourselves.

But have you ever thought God wants you to identify with the prodigals father, who "keeps no records of wrongs" as he scans the horizon, always hoping for the return of his son. 1 Corinthians 13:5

Consider that we're on a journey, through Jesus, to become like the heavenly Father, where we become one with his heart, one with his mind, and one with his other-centered focus. We are called to become Christ-like, and when we resemble Jesus, we resemble the Father. John 10:30

People will see the family resemblance in us; as sons & daughters, they'll see the maturity of our Father working in & through us. Our objective is to become a father or mother of the faith, a living representation of the Father's compassion for others.

TO be honest, the idea of becoming a father of the faith is as alien to me as it may be for you to believe you could mature into a mother or father of the faith. In fact, it seems impossible; yet, its what we are meant to become.

What prevents you from growing into greater Christian maturity in 2012? TO echo Oswald Chambers, "Do you not want to be a saint, or do you not believe God can make you one?

Hmmm something to think about.....

Taylor

Taylor seems to like where we moved her toys, she wanted to climb up in the chair right away

And tehn she climbed on the table :)

more projects, organization

some of the cookbooks I took of the other shelf in the kitchen

here is the shelf after I organized it & took off all the cookbooks & phone books, & a bunch of JUNK

I did make one of the top baskets ours, with the phone book, my address Rolodex & some other stuff, it is on the shelf basically where Taylor cant get it out next to that basket is T's bowls, plates & silver ware (the Montessori says to store childrens stuff so they can set their place a the table -Montessori has some good ideas but also some wacky ones. LOL)

on the bottom shelf is all T's snacks & baby food I have left & little special toddler meals she likes, (she usually eats what we eat but a lot of times I dont eat lunch)

the middle shelf has a basket for her bibs & wash rags, her flavored water pouches she likes, and the other basket has her sippy cups (everything Taylor uses & needs is right together) :)

When we took the Christmas down , we moved the furniture (yep Chucks idea), he likes change :)

he put this little spot light behind the tv that shines up on our favorite pictures of T- good idea Chuck

we switched the couch & the love seat to make room to move all of T's toys by the recliner it was just to crowded over by the kitchen/back door, plus you couldnt get out the back door & you could hardly get to the book case

Now its nice & open, makes the room look less cluttered

Taylors toys are where she can get to them & actually sit at the table without blocking the doorway to the kitchen or going to the sun porch.

Going to our friends surprise 50th bday party tonight, I have started donating canned goods in honor of a persons bday instead of a gift, its hard to know what to get people & usually they dont really need anything & it helps others. We need to find some younger friends though, I donate their age so I took 50 cans to the mission, its gets a little heavy lugging that many around. :)

things Ive been working on this week

My yearly creative project for this year is this one line journal. I found this cute little gift box at dollar tree & used 4x6 lined index cards cut in half to put in the box.

I stamped the date on each card, the idea is that you journal one line each day , & you continue to do it every year til you fill the card up & you will have a little journal about one thing in your day for 12 years (there are 12 lines on the card) I suppose you could do the back side to but there are not any lines. You can write, something your grateful for that day, something that happened that day or something you did, maybe something you are praying about, a bible verse from your daily reading, lots of different ways to use it, I havent really decided what I will put on mine, Each night before going to bed I will write something, I will keep it on my nightstand by my bed.

Next Im working on typing up all our favorite recipes, so I can get rid of big cook books that I keep for just a few recipes. I am going to put them on jump rings in categories to help find the recipe quicker & to help with meal planning. This is my ring for crock pot meals. It may take awhile but will be so worth it. I am getting rid of the recipes I have cut out years ago & have never bothered to make. Too much CLUTTER..

working on moms 70th bday book, way to many pictures to actually make a scrapbook like I first intended.

I am putting them in this album where I can put 4 picture to a page , I have sectioned them off according to our family time there, the food at mom party, the guests at mom party & I forget what else, Im going to make little tabs to find each section & I have left lots of spaces to journal. I will have to get with her on some names & such. I think it will look great when its done., Dont you love moms face when she is holding both the babies. Think of that lady in her 60's a few years ago that had twins CRAZY!!!!!

One of the bookcases in the kitchen that had lots of books & games , etc, Taylor had just started getting into them before break so I knew it was time to start reorganizing (childproofing)

Some of the stuff that came off the shelf

Now it has Chuck & I Bible (they are pretty heavy dont know that she can get them off), books, toys & other stuff for her & little ones to play with if they came to visit us, I did put a few games we play there like dominoes I figure she would enjoy getting the dominoes out.

junk drawer, seems like I just cleaned this

Ahhhh thats better...:)

My new idea I want to do with pictures for the front hallway, I think I will start off with a grouping in our bedroom first to see if I like it, then if I do I will make some more for the hallway.

I bought a board that was like 12x42 & had the guy at Lowes cut it I thought 12 x 12 (3 times)unfortuantely after I started to put my picture on it I realized its more like 12x11 1/4. Not sure how that happened

Anyways I painted the sides gray

And a little on the top in case your picture is a little off

I let it dry on a cup but I should have used a tip I saw where you put a bulletin board push pin in every corner then you dont have to hold it & you dont get paint on yourself, once that dries put modge podge on the front of the board & also on the back of your photo & place photo on the board & then smooth out & add another coat of modge podge on top of the photo, I know you dont want to but it dries clear, just try to keep it even & do your strokes all the same direction.

Here is the finished product pretty cool huh. I didnt get my picture on to straight but since I painted the board you really cant tell unless your up close & looking for it. Cant wait to order more enlargements, kind of reminds you of the canvas' but lots cheaper...

Organizing

The bookcase in the living room has all of our scrapbooks, but they are not labeled so in order to find out what year each of them are you have to pull them off the shelf , well not anymore

I wish they were all the same type album but its ok

here they are all labeled

up close look at some labels

I am starting to type up recipes that we like, to organize a little better than my system now, so then I can organize meal planning a little better, I saw an idea on the PINTEREST board (yes Im addicted LOL) that a lady did, it was a little more involved then I need or want to do but I gleaned some ideas of my own, we will see how it all turns out.

another organizing idea on PINTEREST- put your plastic grocery bags(like Walmart ones) in an empty tissue box, then you can pull them out one at a time when you need them, instead of just throwing them under the kitchen sink where they seem to multiply..

use a container that you store magazines in to hold all your hair appliances under the sink. I have my hair dryer, curling irons, straightener & mirror in this magazine holder, takes up a lot less space then just throwing them all under the sink.

Christmas Morning

Taylor got a little people airplane, she LOVES it.....

come on DAD hurry up!!!!

She also got some other little people & animals.

playing with G-daddy

trying to get a picture of T's cute Christmas pj from Nana

She got a little people van with people

A shopping cart but it ist very sturdy for her to walk behind without help, she needs to learn to walk

yummy breakfast timeG-daddy & T playing peek a boo with grandma

g-daddy entertaining T while Mom & dad load up the truck for MI

Oops we almost forgot the stocking,

socks, tylenol, a cool name stamp a few of the things in T's stocking

mommy got Daddy a new golf bag