Sunday, February 16, 2014

Cat + Vacuuming = thoughts on God

Living in a new state, there is always somethings that are a bit different that I have to get used to and deal with. Living in Tennessee is no different. Here there thing that gets to me the most are Japanese Beetles. These are little beetles that look very much lady bugs.  For some reason these bugs have been coming into own apartment since the fall. Most folks had the massive swarms show up for a few days, then they seemed to move on.   We did have some cover our balcony door and sneak in during those days in the fall. Since the fall though, I have been vacuuming live beetles all winter long. On cooler days I might only find a few and yet on warmer days like today I got 28. I have no idea where they are coming in at or hiding. I just go into one room in the apartment and there they are. So I vacuum them up. Just about daily.

With the vacuum running all the time these days in our home, I would have thought that our cat 'Squirrel' would have become accustomed to hearing the vacuum and less afraid of it. Yet, every time I turn on the vacuum the cat runs and hides. All I am doing is vacuuming up bugs that are poisonous  when eaten by small animals. So the vacuuming of these bugs is probably saving Squirrel from a few stomach aches.

While vacuuming and watching the cat run away, I had a thought "What if this is the way I am with God? What if when things are going on in my life that I am unsure of or I worry about are just things God is using to clean up my life so I have a better life? What if God is just running him plan that is good for me and I react to his care by running away and hiding?" 

Looking back on my life, hind sight always 20/20, I can see where I struggled and how the struggle was used to improve me. Maybe thinking of this while I vacuum will help to do better in the next new struggle... what ever that may be.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

December 2013


It is a challenge to try to keep up on a blog with all that I need and want to do with each day. It is except the blog end up being last on the list. The problem lies in when I do make or have time to blog, there is just to much to share!  Lucky for us all, I took pictures and pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

So I think that I last shared that I was working on a project that paired with my husbands sermons during Sunday in Advent.  I will let you see all those, finished.  The pictures I did for worship services, I have been working on for months. I thought it might be fun to share some of the sketches and practices that got me to the finished picture.  Also some other paintings that I have done recently, mainly for gifts this Christmas and some projects we have done as a family. It has been a fun and busy few weeks!

I was so anxious with the first picture. I am thankful to the folks up at Faith in Thompson Station that let us visit them on  Saturday evenings to get a practice run in!
Week 1: Psalm 122
Week 2: Psalm 72
Week 3: Psalm 146
This was a challenge for me. I worked for hours on just trying to draw a chair! I have my favorite sketch of the chairs that I did further down the page.
  I very much enjoyed weeks 3 and 4 because I like the pieces the most and I was finally becoming more comfortable to be doing my art in front of a group of folks. (Thankful that they were all so kind to me!)

Week 4: Psalm 96

  
The sketch that the throne in week 2 was based off of.


A practice painting for week 2, before the decision was made to do the pictures as oil pastels instead of all acrylic paints. And of course before the throne was added in place of the cross.                                

Paintings that were given as gifts
This was also given as a gift this year.



We had a blast making gingerbread buildings as a family. This our daughter did, it is a school!

My husband worked on this gingerbread home and made it quite inviting.

I made this to be a church similar to the one my husband is currently serving at. I hope it is not a prophetic gingerbread, since the sides did collapse in!  

I just liked this picture of our cat... and yes, we had our windows open this past month! It is a very mild winter here in Tennessee!

We had a great time making jar lanterns!

Christmas Eve Service


 We pray that you all had a blessed Christmas and that you remember to keep "Christ" in Christian all year through!