Simplicity Project #6

This week's featured project made me feel like I was on one of those HGTV design shows (which, by the way I'm obsessed with). Take a look at our extreme makeover, office edition. These pictures do not even do it justice. After completing this project, I felt like I was in a whole new place. It was calm and organized and now I can be so much more productive! Atmosphere is everything when it comes to productivity. At least it is in my world.

Isn't it pretty?

Before

After

Hope Crawls!

Well, this actually happened over a week ago . . . but better late then never in sharing it, right? I'm a little behind in downloading my photos and video. Hey, I could be that mom that leaves it on the camera for over a year (so sorry, if you actually are that mom).

She's all over the place at this point. The next trick we'll be sharing is Hope pulling herself up on the furniture. She's standing now with support. It's a little scary.

Enjoy!

Remembering Infertility

The past few months, I've been feeling badly that I haven't addressed this topic lately in my blog posts. I know a few of you that read this regularly are still believing for your miracle. It's easy to reach the other side of something and forget how you got there. But the reality is there are still thousands of women fighting for their family so I feel compelled to continue writing as the Lord would lead me to encourage those women.

Sometimes I sit and think back to the time when Dave and I were walking through our journey. Those were some of the darkest and yet most precious times of my life. I may have mentioned this in a post shortly after Hope was born - that I missed the sweetness of my sorrow. When you sit in the reality of your sorrow with Jesus, there is a certain sweetness that comes with His comfort and His love that is very different than your ordinary, everyday communion with Him. I would like so much to remove the waiting and the suffering from you precious women that I know are walking this road. I would like to help remove the God-given blinders that do not allow you to see the path in front of you. But then I would be robbing you of this sweetness I am talking about that comes with your pain.

I encourage you today . . . if you are still believing the Lord to bring life into your family (no matter how He intends to bring it), press into Him as you wait, more than you ever have before. He will cover you with His sweet comfort and His overwhelming love.

Keep hoping in Him. He's not finished with your story yet!

Simplicity Project #5

Well I'm just going to go ahead and admit it. I completed this project several weeks ago right after the holidays. We were up to our ears in boxes and stuff in the garage after Christmas. I had to get it done. So I captured it on film so I could share it with you at the appropriate time. Seeing as how Hope's sick with her first cold (so sad!), I thought now was the perfect time to pull this project out of my back pocket.

The Garage Before (there was already room for my car on the left of course). . .


And The Garage After (now with room for Dave's car). . .

We got rid of that pile of broken down boxes the next day in the trash. Now we can both park in there. Woo hoo!

I hope you all are attacking your home projects. I'm spending this week preparing all of my items for the consignment sale. It's time consuming but I'm hoping to make a few hundred bucks. Nothing like cleaning and making se dough while you are at it.

If you think about it, please pray for Hope. She's pretty miserable this week. Although I have to say, even though she is stuffed up, she can't stop smiling and playing! That's my girl!

Simple Thoughts, Round 1

Well, I said it would happen and alas. . .it has. No time to think about a project this week. I do have one or two up my sleeve that I completed a few weeks back, but I'll save those for another day. Today I feel compelled to write something about simplicity.

This week I read a verse in Proverbs that, since my discovery of it, has provided me a mixture of motivation and fear. I'll let you read it now to decide how it makes you feel.

"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." Proverbs 6: 10-11

So, how do you feel? You still with me? I know. It's a bit intimidating, isn't it? At first I allowed it to be a kick in the pants for me to get off my arse and do something. I would tell myself Jess, don't be lazy. Don't be passive. Go after this stuff. Just get it done! But now, as I really consider what simplicity means for our family and our home, I have been encouraged to find a good balance between going after things and knowing when to let things go for the sake of sanity and some much needed rest.

So this week I challenge all of us to find that balance. For me it means that I am going to skip a meeting at church tonight in order to go home and get some laundry done for my family. It's just what I feel needs to be done - today. Tomorrow might look different. I might let the laundry go in order to spend time with a friend, or with Hope. Day by day, we will have the grace and wisdom we need to make the most of every moment . . . so that we can simply enjoy all of the things God has blessed us with.