Redeem The Time

I was at my sweet cousin's house in Northern Michigan last night, and taped to the windowsill above the kitchen sink was a note that read:

"The days are long
The years are short
Redeem the time"

She is a wonderful mom to five beautiful children and after I read that I thought, what a great reminder to enjoy every moment and use every moment for the glory of God! I started thinking about moms, dads, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and the godly influences we can all have on a child's life. It is so true that the years are short, they seem to pass by quickly.

This reminder also applies to every season of life, not just raising, disciplining and loving children. It applies to the college years, young married years and even years spent working a job and building a career. We must use every moment fully and to the glory of a great and mighty God.

Lord, redeem the time!

"There is always enough time, to do the will of God. For that we can never say, 'I don't have time.'"³ - Elisabeth Elliot

If God gives us something to do He will also give us the time necessary to complete the task. He will not frustrate us. Though everyone is given the same daily allotment -24 hours- God is very creative with the 1,440 minutes within.

 This morning a dear friend mentioned this very thing on her facebook status, stating:

"The Lord lovingly reminds me that it isn't about the amount of hours in a day or what we get done in a day BUT instead Whom we serve and how we love. Lord redeem the time... that it would be Your day and not ours alone!"                       -- Rhonda Phegley

 

 I believe the Lord is trying to tell me something here! The Lord is sovereign and it is no coincidence that this has been brought to my attention.


3. Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline: The Glad Surrender (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1982), p. 103

Fall Break Project Numero Uno - Complete!

Who knew painting and then beating up furniture could be such fun!?

I gave you a sneak peek in a previous post, and now the painting and distressing of the dresser is complete!



I wasn't on the ball enough to take a before picture of the dresser, you know, all together and in it's natural glory, but I did get one of all the drawers before I took the pulls off and another one with the black base coat. I'm going with tans, reds and whites in the second guest room/office so I wanted a red dresser, distressed with black showing through. Never done it before, but figured it would be worth the try! Okay, enough words, on to the pictures!

I borrowed the blue wall from my hallway for these pics since I still have yet to strip the two layers of wallpaper in the room this will go in. I kind of like it with the blue! Anyway, I love how this turned out! It is exactly what I wanted!

Now on to Fall project Numero dos! : )

Lists: Fall Break Fun!!

If you just heard a faint squeal slice through the air from the direction of Kentucky, don't be alarmed! It was just me celebrating the start of my week-long fall break from nursing classes! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I am learning and count it a tremendous blessing to be in the middle of second semester with only two more semesters to go before acing the NCLEX and being dubbed a full-fledged RN. But nursing school is like taking a drink from a fire hose...sooo much information in a tiny amount of time to have to digest and apply. It can be a tad bit overwhelming at times.

So, since I'm a list person and I have yet to officially lace my little blog with lists galore I figured the first list should be one of leisure and joy!

So what is on tap for my week of freedom you ask!?

• A furniture painting project (which I'm already half-way finished with!)  Check!
• Sleep! Glorious, wonderful, Tylenol PM induced sleep!
• Photography (both a family portrait session for my sweet cousin and her family and then whatever my eye fancies, both are fun and relaxing!)
• Some time well spent behind the wheel of my car
• Time with family!!!
• Sushi and time spent with someone special : )
• A deep cleaning of the humble abode
• A sewing project!!! I found the fabric below and LOVE it! It will hopefully be fashioned into a fall dress for a precious little two-yr-old.

• My cousin's wedding! I'm so excited for her!
• Some journaling, Bible reading, other reading and time spent in deep thought.
• And a few other things that may just be fodder for future posts : )

So, now that the list is complete, it's time to get started!!

Easy Fall Decorations

 Woah. I'm actually getting a post on here that I "hoped" I would post in a timely manner! That's progress kids! As promised in the last post, this one is about my fall decorations. They are out, they are complete and they make me smile!


Normally in years past, for the two big flower pots on my front porch, I would just put some mums in them, put some pumpkins around them and call it good. This year, I wanted something different. I found these pumpkins on sale at Hobby Lobby and I liked that they came in various sizes. My immediate thought was to stack them on top of each other to create a Fall time topiary to greet my visitors. Since they were made of styrofoam, I bought a dowel rod at Lowe's and used a hammer and chop stick to make pilot holes through the middle of the pumpkins. Then I just pushed the dowel rod through the pumpkins in the appropriate order, and viola! Stacked pumpkins.

I found the floral grassy stuff in the floral section and decided to just plant the pumpkin topiary in the middle of it.

And to finish it off, I bought some of the colorful beaded picks to stick into the pumpkins for some added pizzazz. Simple, fun and pretty! I hope that the sun doesn't fade the pumpkins too much so I can reuse them next year! But I'm thinking that if they do fade, I can just get creative with some spray paint to spruce them up!

I didn't leave out the mums this year, I just moved them lower into my flower beds and added some to some other pots from the backyard that I painted to match the ones on the front porch.

But seriously, now that my fall decorations are out, my mind has already turned to the Christmas decorations and call me crazy, but this year the front door will be painted to coordinate more appropriately with Christmas! Mandarin Orange is great for Spring, Summer and Fall, but it really just clashes with red!

And there you have it, nothing fancy, just simple yet festive. Fall!

And Daisy Lou is stopping by to make a visit with this special little outtake. My dog hates my camera. When I say hate, I mean when it gets close to her, she physically turns her back to me. I told her to stay and this was the look I got! I love my dog. Because just like me, she is a mess!

-------------------- Sneak Peek -----------------------

 I started a new project today! This is the hint and I will post when it is finished!