Convergence

A few days ago I was praying and in that time the Lord showed me several things that I needed to lay down. And as I was working through all that I saw a very clear picture in my mind of all of the paths of our lives coming together and converging into one straight path and purpose.

In the old testament when the Israelites miraculously crossed the Jordan river they took 12 stones from the river and set it up as a monument to what God had done in their lives so that when they looked at it they would remember everything God had done for them. And last night I felt very impressed that I should paint a picture of what I'd seen. So here is Convergence.

Since it is symbolic I'll explain it to you. The background is clearly a rainbow which signifies God's promises to us upon which our journey is built. The black at the bottom of the rainbow signifies death and sin and everything that God saved us from. The rainbow is in a particular order and signifies the order in God's kingdom that is constant. The lines going upward signify our lives and the different paths that we've taken. There seems to be no order in the color of these lines and that indicates our lack of understanding and seeming disorder of our lives. The yellow/orange indicates the fire of God that propelled and also guided us from within and the yellow outer layer signifies the hand/power/provision of God that kept us on a path that to us was uncertain. Then the colors converge into one clear path of our destiny still surrounded by the hand/power/provision of almighty God. I hope this ministers to you as it has to me. I have often thought that I'd like to set up a monument to what God has done but thought that setting up a rock altar would be impractical at best. But this is something that will hang in our home as a constant testament to God's goodness, his faithfulness, his provision and his greatness.

Random Stuff and Art

This is the painting I like that I get to keep. After I got the easel I set it up and just started painting without having any idea what I was going to paint. Why a blue vase and apple, you ask? Well, because the vase is just what came out of my noggin and there was a large bowl of apples sitting on the island. Plus I love blues and greens together- it's one of my faves. I'm not completely done with it. The brown blob next to the vase is supposed to be a shadow but I'm not sure I like it since it's just brown and the rest of the background seems very fluid.

And during the Christmas season I was one crafty girl. I made several handmade things for friends children and started several handmade things for friends but it seriously took longer than I anticipated. I finished one hand towel and did 75% of another but all of that took at least 9 hours to do so I ended up buying things for them. Oh, and I originally intended to do 4- yikes! They're super cute, but I can't show them to you because they will still end up as gifts.

I had no idea what to do for our friends kids and was a bit frantic about it when I saw some chalkboards at JoAnn's and thought, "what kid doesn't like a chalkboard?" And if it's personalized all the better. So I painted all of them, put their name on them and made individual chalk holders that double as an eraser. The holder/eraser is made from felt that I just wrapped around the chalk (long way), stitched around it with embroidery floss (all 6 strands and a different color for each child so they didn't mix them up), added a snap and voila! It was more time consuming than I thought but everyone seemed to like theirs. Originally I wanted to do skateboards or something else that the kids liked but I just didn't have time.

And here's Halle's finished stocking. I actually finished it Christmas Eve night just before we opened stockings so I had to finish it on a machine. It ended up being skinnier than I wanted to I may have to re-do it. And at the very end when I was sewing the loop to hang it I broke the needle on my machine. Gaaa! I like the stocking though.

And this is Mary's painting. I've already shown it to her so I guess I can show it to you. I had to do some touch ups because I got some espresso colored paint on the front that I was using on the sides so I had to clean that up. I use the espresso color on the sides so that she doesn't have to have it framed. Now I need to touch up my signature and varnish and I'm done.

I wish I could show you the other painting but the recipient hasn't seen it yet. I had to completely re-work it but I like how it's turning out even better now.

OK, and one more thing. I have to show you the super-cutest table runner ever- that I didn't make. I guess this was my Christmas present to me because I love it! I didn't have a Christmas-ey anything to put on the table or island and I saw this at Target when I was Christmas shopping. I love cute stuff!

So Christmas Was...

Great. After all my thoughts on what Christmas should be about it was really a nice- if not incredibly emotional- holiday. But God provided and our kids got lots of great stuff. We had a nice dinner with the highlight being crab stuffed mushrooms, which only Travis and I will eat. The recipe for the mushrooms turned out a little bland and while I didn't follow the recipe exactly (I didn't have any white wine and Travis won't eat onions so I substituted fresh garlic and cooked them in mojo.) the substitutions should have been enough to flavor them nicely but wasn't. Some salt and lemon juice made them tasty enough. I think that the recipe is a good starting point though. Maybe a stronger cheese would help. Asiago perhaps? I'll work on it.

Travis was home for 3 whole days although we were so busy it didn't feel like it. The majority of Christmas Eve was spent with us trying to figure out what to get the girls. We always get them practical things with a couple of toys thrown in. But God was really putting it on my heart to get them what they wanted instead of what they needed. So we bought toys. And it was really fun because we never do that. During the year I sometimes I buy a Color Wonder book and markers for them and maybe for their birthday but not during the rest of the year. It's partly out of necessity and partly because they don't need any toys. So it was really a blessing for Travis and I to see how much enjoyment they were getting out of their new toys. And as an added bonus Target had already put a lot of their toys on clearance. I was very surprised but we got a robot dog for Chloe that was half price. And it was officially declared her favorite toy of the day! She also got an easel which is chalk board on one side and white board on the other with clips that you can attach a large piece of paper to for painting. It has survived the initial excitement (unlike the robot dog) and she and Halle play with it every day. We were planning on getting a bigger ticket item for Amanda but in talking to her she declared all of our ideas impractical (seriously) and said she just wanted clothes. And all the clothes I picked out for her were promptly taken back to the store. Just wait ladies, it's coming. I miss the days when my style was Amanda's style.

And for the first time in several years we were at home for Christmas. I have said that I don't want to travel for the holidays, that I want to establish our own traditions for our kids, that it's too stressful, etc. But I'm not completely sure about that now. Because Lakeland holds a lot of Christmas traditions and memories for Travis, Amanda and I. I know some families travel every Christmas and some rarely do and we've been the "every Christmas" family but maybe there's some happy medium there. Or maybe we should just go to FL for Christmas (especially if my parents end up moving back there because we could be with all of our family for Christmas) and that would leave the other times of the year for us to vacation somewhere else. It was nice but I did miss our families.

I have painted quite a bit lately since my present from my parents was an easel. I'll post some pictures later. This is a new computer though and I haven't taken the time to set everything up for picture posting. Two of the paintings are for people and one person hasn't seen hers yet so I can't post that one- which I hate because I'm really liking all three that I've painted lately. Thankfully one is not intended for anybody so I get to keep it! I just have a teensy bit of touch up left so I'm going to try to post that one soon.

OK, I'm done typing now.