Rejuvenated and Revived

Have you ever needed your lamp refilled? You don't know? Well, let me ask you this....have you heard of the parable of the Ten Virgins? Let me tell you what I know. As a kid my grandmother had a plaque sitting in her living room with an illustration of the parable of the Ten Virgins. I read through it probably fifty times over the years and I never really got it....until I was much older. Let me see if I can tell you what I have learned. See....there were these ten women. They were invited to this swanky wedding. It was an evening wedding and all were required to bring an oil burning lamp to light their own way. The time of the wedding was a little vague so the women were forced to wait around for the groom to appear....all the while burning precious oil. Five of the women were wise and thought to bring extra oil to refill their lamps....should they need it. The other five were foolish and did not take the time to prepare themselves properly. When the groom arrived, the five women with enough oil were allowed into the wedding....the five less prepared women were denied entrance. Though they tried to borrow some oil from the other women, they were refused. The five wise and prepared women had only enough oil for themselves. If they shared their oil then none of them would have enough for the entire wedding. And so it is with us. We are given opportunities to fill our lamps with the things we need as women to be wise and prepared....spiritually. The parable teaches us to prepare today to meet God. We need enough oil in our reserves to help get us through this life until it is time for us to return home to Heaven. If we are truly wise daughters we will not only fill our lamps but help those around us fill theirs. Now....that being said....last weekend my lamp was given a much needed fill.
Heather and I attended Time Out For Women in Minneapolis. It was awesome. We had such a good time. We aren't much for driving in heavy traffic so even the thought of a road trip to The Cities was intimidating....but the lure of Time Out For Women was just too enticing.
The view from our hotel was amazing. We were on the fourteenth floor in down town Minneapolis.
The diversity of the people and the unique buildings made it fun to just stop and look.
We are funny girls indeed!!! hahahaha
On Friday night I didn't bring my camera because I assumed that photos would not be permitted. WRONG!! So I had to make due with my phone. Not good....but at least I had that. This is Michael McLean. He is a fabulous song writer, composer, author and movie writer. The man is amazing. One of my favorite Michael McLean projects is The Forgotten Carols. Reading the book and listening to the cd was one fun tradition we started while the kids were still pliable. We attended the play when it came to Idaho Falls. My kids still talk about the powerful story of The Forgotten Carols.
Cherie Call was a musical presenter. Her songs were uplifting and inspired me to be better. I loved hearing about how the songs came about. We also heard form Brad and Debi Wilcox. They were an awesome team encouraging us to laugh at the lemons life throws at as. Their message was...."If you can laugh at it, you can live with it".
On Saturday we got up early and headed back across the skywalk to the Convention Center. We were able to look around at the vendors (Deseret Book mostly) and pick up a few things. When we were in line waiting to go in....Mary Ellen Edmunds was walking through the line greeting people. At the time I really didn't know who she was....but Heather did. She was so excited. MEE stopped and chatted with us and I soon realized why Heather liked her so much. She is genuine and honestly loves what she does and the women that she writes for. On Saturday we heard from Deanne Flynn, Brent Top, Kim Nelson (a Pocatello native) and Mary Ellen Edmunds (MEE). Their messages were different but the impression I kept getting was to not be so hard on myself and that NO ONE is perfect.
We tend to see the best of people we admire and then judge ourselves by the worst traits we think are ours. What a vicious and counter productive trap that is!
Using humor and reality (everyone has weakness and faults) we can build stronger selves and have a steady supply of oil in our lives. We can help those around us only after our lamp is full....and we have some in reserve.

Honestly....this was the most fun girls weekend I've had in a REALLY long time. Heather and I found our way home....without a map!!! Lucky for us and our keen sense of direction!! We discovered that we make a great driving team and that we truly are FABULOUS!!

Not Just An Apple

One of my favorite memories of growing up is loading up the car and going to one of my Mom's uncles to pick apples. The trees seemed huge and there were kids and adults all over the place...all of them related....and the sound of conversation and laughter filled the air. When the magic number of bushel baskets was picked and loaded into the trunks of several cars we headed off to Aunt Peggy's (Mom's sister) house. Once there we would unload the apples and the kids would be sent out to play while the women got to work. They would wash the apples and prepare them for the jars by running them through the Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer which made lovely green ribbons of apple peel that were a ready made snack for the occasional child that strayed through the kitchen to hear the banter of the sisters as they worked along side their Mother (my grandma). The peeled, cored and sliced apples were then placed in sanitized quart sized canning jars. At that point one of the Goodwin sisters would pour the most wonderful smelling sauce over the apples. It was thick and sweet and smelled faintly of cinnamon and cloves. Into the boiling water bath went the filled and sealed jars to cook and seal tight. While shooing the kids out to play...again...one of the sisters would carefully remove the jars out of the big pot and set them on the table to cool. The popping sound the jars made when the seal was achieved was celebrated with the fervor of a touch down pass.
It is a sweet smelling memory without a touch of sadness....except for the part when the day was over and we had to bid our cousins farewell. In that grand tradition I have learned to make apple pie filling for my own family. I started out making it with my friend Jackie. We canned all sorts of things that first year....but the apple pie filling was my favorite.
The childhood memories could be part of it...but it really does just taste that good. I make pies and crisps and cobblers and wonderful things that make my house smell like apple heaven.
It is not easy work but the rewards are worth the effort. This year I canned apple pie filling with my friends (sisters themselves) Heather and Salena. It was a great day and the fruits of our labors will be preserved throughout the winter months.
I know this is not the usual Met Monday post...but a metamorphosis was achieved and so it is here that I leave it with you. Check in with the group at Between Naps on the Porch for more metamorphosis marvels. You'll be glad you did.

photos by Heather Hubert

A New Love

Is it a new color of spray paint? No....Is it a new batch of frames from Good Will? No....Is it a new niece or nephew? No....but it is a little girl....and man is she sweet. She is the new girl in the Resource Room where I've been working on and off for the last couple of months. I have to admit to being less than inspired this year. If the paycheck wasn't more than enough to cover the bathroom project I am in the middle of....I would probably not sub this year. I have been kicked, pinched, bitten and sorely bruised. I still love the kids in that room.....but man. My body and spirit were taking a beating. When I was told we would be getting a new girl that was somewhere on the spectrum between Mr. J and Ms. S. I'll admit....I was nervous. Ms. S is very low functioning and Mr. J is a bit higher...but violent. Not knowing what to expect from another Autistic child (not to mention yet another schedule change) left me with a furrowed brow. (I wonder if workman's comp will pay for Botox on the the ever deepening worry lines on my forehead? huh I gotta check into that.....) As I received my newest schedule I was looking it over and noticed that I was primarily working with the new girl. hhhmmmmm A bit nervous. I still had a couple of 45 minute time blocks with Ms. S and a 30 minute time block in the classroom helping a boy with math. But the rest of my day would be an unknown (because I LOVE that...). What would she be like? Wild and thrashing like Ms. S or giggly and risky Mr. J...or would she be something in between? Part of my new schedule was getting Ms. S off the bus. OK...no problem there. While I was doing that I got a glimpse of the new girl. She was petite, with huge brown eyes but the thing I noticed about her the most was how calm she was. She just walked off the bus and went with the para in charge of getting her to class. Cool...at least it wouldn't be a trial just walking down the hall. It gave me some hope. When it was my turn to work with the new girl...Ms. A...the first thing I noticed were the angry, raised scars on the backs of both hands. Bite scars. Ouch. Instead of biting others in her frustration...she bites herself. Poor kid. I can't tell you how badly it hurt my heart to see her tiny hands all puffy with scars. When we started to work, the next thing I noticed was how smart this little imp was. She did immitate some words and she did talk to herself occasionally....but mostly she was just quite. Her huge melted cocolate eyes just took everything in. She actually wanted to learn. What a treat this little angel was to work with. For the first time all day I was relieved and pleased to be able to work with the new girl. Then a new thought formed....what if these were her "company manners"? What if, when she got more comfortable with us, her inner demon would emerge? ish...What if indeed. Well, by lunch I was thanking my lucky stars that she was still the model student. She ate her chips...and would ONLY eat her chips. Note to self...this kid has a stubborn streak a mile long....good to know. She did throw a fit and start to cry when the Special Ed teacher tried to get her to eat more of her lunch. No problem...(for me...) The afternoon went really well. I discovered she liked to play catch with a four-square ball. She would bounce it to me and I would bounce it back...and she could actually catch it! It was so FUN!! She had this HUGE grin on her face the whole time. It was great. Then it was time to go to her mainstream classroom. Not so fabulous....she started to cry at the door. Well....not one to give into others fits (but full expect mine to be indulged) we went in. It was story time. Yeah...Ms. A had other ideas. We sat in the back so I could try to "help" her sit and listen. Yeah...good luck there. She cried and kicked and tried to hit (right...it takes a bigger kid than that to smack me!!)...but I have been working with Mr. J enough to know when to bob and when to weave. At the end of the day I was still so smitten with this little pixie that I was willing to over-look that last 20 minutes of the day. Unfortunately for me...they have hired a para for the open position and my last day is Monday. So my time with the kids that I love is going to be very limited from here on out. It has been a good run. I have learned a lot and I can't wait until they call me back.

A Birthday Treat and One For me

So as you have been told and some of you have seen I am TERRIBLE at taking pictures of my projects. I am really trying to get better...I am. And just when I think I have done well with one project....I forget to take photos on the very next one!! I had seen a project here.... and I just had to try it. Perfect case of forgetting to photograph the entire project.....I had these gorgeous frames......
And of course I used some lovely, magical spray paint on them.

Then I ordered some magnetic sheet metal from Quick Ship Metals. They were very helpful and they had very fast shipping. I did try to get Home Depot to cut some for me....they told me no. Oh well. I guess they weren't really on my Christmas card list anyway. Then I took some beautiful scrapbook paper from my stash and rounded up the Mod Podge and some ribbon. I spray painted some clothes pins too.
I took the Mod Podge and attached the scrapbook paper to the metal and let it dry. Then I put some ribbon over the seams. Watch this very closely as it dries. The ribbon on mine slid a little before it was dry all the way and will now drive me crazy for eternity. I glued the paper covered metal into the frame. Then I Mod Podged some strips of paper to the top of the clothes pins and glued (with Liquid Nails) a strip of magnet to the back of the clothes pin. ((Side note...if I make another one of these I will look for {and find} some super strong magnets)) Here is one of the finished message boards. I neglected to get a photo of the other one before I gave it to my sweet friend Renae. But it turned out pretty good.
I am linking to Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps on the Porch. You should head on over there to check out the fabulous projects and decorating ideas.
My sweet friend Renae sent me a picture of the project board I made for her....here it is........

It All Started With This Guy

Do you have things from your childhood that gave you joy just to look at? I did. I can look at the Christmas decorations that my Mom had up around the house every year for decades and I still feel those Christmas butterflies. I love Christmas. You all know that by now. Some of the things my Mom put up were from the store or some catalog or other. Some were made by her and some were made by others and given to us. We didn't have a ton of money when I was growing up. Our decorations were simple. And splendiferuos. One year when I was about 6 (I know this because Kim wasn't born yet) Mom brought out a Santa like this....(actually they are identical twins. I saw him on etsy and HAD to have him.) He is a jolly old elf and as kids we LOVED him. Mom also placed by his side 2 elves to help him out. They are the perfect companions for our jolly friend.
Every year when it was time to set up our Christmas wonderland these three would get top billing. As kids we decided that when we grew up I would get the Santa and Travis and Michelle would each get an elf. Of course, as kids, we didn't realize then that we would never break them apart. These three are a set...maybe they didn't come that way from their respective makers...but they were now a team. Whoever took one would have to have all three. As you know, I am an impatient person. I am given many opportunities to work on that....I'm also a slow learner. But...I didn't want to wait for Dad to be ready to part with any of Mom's treasures. So when I saw this Santa looking for a new home, I was happy to oblige. Then to put icing on that fabulous cake....I found these elves!! They too are the identical twins of the ones in my Mom's collection. Etsy was kind to me that day!! What started all this, you ask? Well, on a recent trip to Good Will I saw these two.
The plan from there was to find a Santa that was close to the one from my childhood and have a set of my own that was similar...but not identical. (Only because I never dared to hope that an identical set was out there!) So here is my new set. Not quite the same as the one from my childhood, but every bit as precious.

It's Monday....Again....

I do hate with a passion of the fires of hell dread Monday mornings. I have usually enjoyed the weekend spent with my family so much I just hate to see it end. The only thing I don't hate about Monday morning is visiting Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday. It is a great way to chase the "Ick....it's Monday" feeling right out of the room. Yesterday I finished some framing I had wanted to get done. I didn't frame the photos in any traditional way. I used glass, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge and ribbon.
I took 2 sizes of glass. One is 5x7 and the other is just bigger than that.....like 6x8. I cut a piece of ribbon and some scrapbook paper. I Mod Podged the paper to the front of the bigger piece of glass and let it dry. (I did that for one. For the rest I just skipped the scrapbook paper and went straight for the glue.)
Then I glued the ribbon to the front of the bigger glass and put glue on the back of the 5x7 piece of glass and squished them together. I put some books on this and left it for a while.
Then I came back and Mod Podged the picture to the front of the 5x7 glass and put Mod Podge to the front of the picture too. It dries fairly quickly.
Then you have a beautiful family picture (or any other photo) that you can hang on the wall.
Here is the one with the scrapbook paper. I also used bigger ribbon.

Then I took this piece of mdf with a ribbon attached to it that I bought at the dollar store. So many uses for this thing. I think I will go back later today and get a couple more.

I Mod Podged some scrapbook paper to this and found some stickers from my stash and went to work. I glued the photo down (with what else.....Mod Podge) and put a thick layer over all of it. I think that I will go back and cut off the ribbon and replace it with one I like better.
Quite the metamorphosis if I do say so myself. Easy as pie....if you're into that sort of thing.

It May Seem Small.....

The following may seem like a small thing to some of you...but for me it was HUGE!! Last week while Jim was gone, I received a check in the mail from my doctor in Idaho. The amount was $166 and change. WOW!! Oh, the things I had in mind for this unexpected windfall of cashola. Yahoo!! I have quite the list of projects just awaiting some much needed cizash. As I started to make a list...Thursday rolled around. As many of you know...my son is serving a 2 year church mission and I get a much anticipated e-mail on Thursday. I watched and waited all day. My friend Rochelle who just happens to live in the area that my son is serving in saw him at the library which is where he goes to write to his Mama. So...I waited...and waited....and whined and patiently waited. By the end of the day I was thoroughly depressed. No letter from Kevin. Have I mentioned how much I miss that kid?? No?? Well....I DO! I was so ticked off sad. The next morning as I was planning my trip to Home Depot (only because Lowe's is a long car ride away) I checked my mail. WOOHOO!! There in my in box was the the coveted e-mail from my boy. Oh....balm to my agitated soul. As I read it, a few things just fell into place. First....in order to get longer more detailed correspondence from Kev, I discovered that it helps to send him some pics to view. See....the public access computer he has to use is very slow to download photos. Therefore he has to stay busy while they load.....hence the longer e-mails for Mama. Yay me! Also, he has lost about 40 pounds due to his more active lifestyle and lack of cooking skills. He has been in need of a suit for a while and informed me that he found one on sale and bought it. He also purchased some replacement parts for the "free" bike he has been using as his main mode of transportation. The grand total....about $163 and change. Well, very quickly my plans changed. Instead of running to the wish fulfillment center.....I headed to the bank to deposit the check into Kevin's mission account to cover his purchases. Without even one moment of hesitation I quickly thanked my loving Heavenly Father for watching out for me and my missionary son. It may not seem like a big deal to some....but to me it is immense. I love being reminded that God knows us as individuals and knows our needs and wants. Even if I don't always get what I want....I ALWAYS get exactly what I need.

Without My Hubby

As I become more confident, I am finding abilities that I really didn't know I had. I know I make Jim very nervous with my new found independence. So I do try to be careful. Yesterday in my blog lurking I stumbled across these fine women at Shanty 2 Chic . They are having a link party called"I made it without my husband". While I do like having Jim's input...sometimes I just want to get it done fast his time table just doesn't work out for me. So here is our cast of characters: 2 Styrofoam centered pumpkins, an old knife and hubby's saw. I tell you...I stink at before pics. Here is a plastic charger I bought for 25 cents at GW. It was red. I started with the knife....it didn't work out for us...so I switched to the saw. After almost cutting into my finger I really started to wonder if the saw was a good idea....but I persisted. Until the first pumpkin was half of it's former beauty. Loved it. So easy. So I dug into the next victim pumpkin.
Not as easy. This was going to take a while. The skin plastic was tough....and.....wait.... there seems to be a problem. I consider myself a relatively strong female (Thanks Natalie) but the saw seemed to be stuck..... Now who's bright idea do ya suppose that was!!!!! Seriously?? A chunk of concrete??? WTH! Well, I was determined at that point. So I whittled and carved and tried to pry around it until..... There it is...and it's not even centered in the pumpkin!! If I had been paying buy the pound for this little gem.....I'd be miffed.

So here we have the blood guts and feathers of the project.....and yes, the kitchen counter seemed as good a place as any to use a saw....ish.....No harm no foul. So I took my liquid nails and some pretty ribbon that just happened to follow me home from H.L. yesterday and.......
There you have it. A pretty little pumpkin to hang out in one of the pumpkin patches that have taken over my living room. Now...for the bathroom project..........

Welcome

We interrupt your blustery Thursday afternoon to bring you a special announcement. We here at Casa Reader would like to welcome a new-comer to our pumpkin patch. So here she is straight from Hobby Lobby (at a whopping 50% off) hheeeerrrrreeeee's Ivy......
What do ya say folks. Isn't she just precious. The lovely pedestal we have placed her on is straight from the Salvation Army Thrift Store. And what a bargain! A little taller now. Just to mix it up a bit. I think she will fit in nicely.

Rainy Day Fun

It's really cold and rainy today. I have a cold and so to self medicate I whipped out the spray paint. It really is therapeutic. I had to use it in the garage though. I hate to do that. My poor car had to sit outside in the rain. Oh well....Here's what I did.
Months ago I landed (quite by mistake) on a blog where this fabulous lady sells vinyl lettering. Well, you all know I LOVE VINYL LETTERING!! And I saw some of the projects she did and I was inspired. I had a bunch of frames that I have been buying from Good Will and such that were screaming for me to use them.
As you can see some of them are fancy and some are not so much. I loved them all and so the project began.
I'm not sure if you all know this...but most pictures, even though they are gallery wrapped, can be removed to use the frame for something else. All it takes are some simple tools. I used a mommy screw driver a butter knife and Jim's old trusty needle nose pliers.
I am really impatient and I don't love taking forever on a project so I just rip into the back and go from there. After I got all the pics and glass out of the frames I took the frames out to the garage for a couple coats of magic in a can black spray paint. In between coats I washed the glass and cut the scrapbook paper to go behind the letters.
I am forever forgetting to take good "before" pics...so here is what I got. Just so you know I do have a few more picture projects to finish and hang before this is really finished. I will post that someday. Maybe today...maybe not.
So here are the frames all pretty and black and.....lettered. Not too bad for an hour out of my oh so lazy massively productive day. I guess if you have to be sick and it is raining outside....this is as good as anything to pass the time. Maybe I'll make bread now.......