We Over-complicate Things...

Recently Ben and I have had the opportunity to do some pre-marital counseling with a couple.  It's our first time doing the entire counseling together.  After the first time we met with them, Ben and I looked at each other almost giddy with excitement.


Pre-marital counseling is fun.  Really fun.  Generally, we do more marriage counseling than pre-marriage...just because most of the people around us are already married.  Marriage counseling and fun rarely go together.  Most of the time is spent with two people not-feeling very loving and trying to convince the couple that they can, in fact, repair the damage that's been done...pre-marital counseling involves trying to equip two people head over heals in love,  to avoid the damage in the first place.  One couple is in the valley, and the other, at the top of the world.


In pre-marital you've got two people who are desperately in love, and blissfully hopeful about their future.  They're open to ideas, cautions, and plans.  They want to do whatever it's going to take to keep the loving feeling they have.  They're listening.


I like when people listen.  I especially like giving counsel to people who are actually listening.  As I look at ministry...from my perspective as the pastors wife, my hardest part in it is trying to minister to people who want answers, who want direction, who want to change...but most of the time they are not genuinely listening.  


It didn't take me long in ministry to realize that I was only going to offer advice or counsel when asked...and even then I'm not sure they're always hearing what I'm saying. ;)  


And through all the counseling...there's one lesson that God keeps pounding into my heart:  It is so, so much easier to avoid the pitfalls of life, than it is to get out of them.


It's true in marriage, and it's true in life.  


I think we make life more difficult than it needs to be sometimes.  Is life full of hard stuff?  Yep, for sure.  But do we add selfish over-dramatics to it as well?  Often.


I came across this verse this morning:  Micah 6:8  "The Lord has told you what is good.  He has told you what He wants from you:  Do what is right to other people.  Love being kind to others.  And live humbly, trusting your God."


Sounds like a pretty good verse to build a healthy, godly marriage and life on. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated...just a matter of doing.  That verse is going on my fridge.  Today.

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Inspiring Me Lately

Ok, so this makes two posts in one day...does that make up for the past few months? heh heh heh.  Anyways, in my previous post I explained what Inspiring Me Lately is.  


Let's get this party started.  I'm kidding, I don't really talk like that.  Or maybe I do...


Have you ever come across a blog and liked it SO much that you really did feel like a stalker?  I mean really did?  Because you just couldn't stop reading it?  Man, I sure hope so, otherwise maybe I really am a stalker...


So, I came across the blog Funky Vintage Lovely several months ago.  I adore it. April's style, her little shop, and her home decor style has sucked me right in.  Literally.  And, when she blogged about a certain skirt she had got from an Etsy store, I fell in love.  And ordered the skirt.  


It's my favorite favorite FAVORITE skirt.  I want this red one too.  But alas Dave Ramsey would not be pleased.  Let's not tell him I bought the yellow one, k?  Our secret.

I'm sorta wishing I'd cropped my head out of this picture.   It turns out, that when I try to have my hubby take my picture, I feel all awkward and it shows...terribly...even worse than this grainy pic in the mirror.  I'm working on it.

So, needless to say, Funky Vintage Lovely is Inspiring Me Lately.  Hugely.


And, before you leave...do tell if you've ever stalked a blog...and then tell me which one...because maybe I want to stalk too!

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I'm Inspired...Easily.

When it comes style and decor, both in fashion and home, I am very un-original.  Some people are able to dream up plans, ideas, and then put it together and it's fabulous.  I can't.  My mind is just not hard-wired that way.  But, I know what I like when I see it...almost immediately.  AND, I'm super good at copying. *wink*  


Sometimes, we just have to embrace who we are and go with it, right?


I chuckle whenever someone asks if I mind if they get something like I have...because how could I mind?  I likely stole the idea from someone somewhere in the first place.  Or, I can say it nicely and say I was "inspired" by someone else's idea...yeah, let's go with that version.


With the remodel/building project going on I have been seeking out inspiring ideas like never before.  The internet does not disappoint.  I  have found a plethora of good stuff, and I'd like to start sharing it with all of you.  So...I'm gonna start a little segment I like to call Inspiring Me Lately so that I can share some of it with you...in case you're copy-ers...like me.


And, just as a sort of disclaimer, I want you to know I read a vast range of different blogs.  If l link to someone, I'll be certain to let you know what it is I'm inspired by, don't assume I agree with everything.  Because there's some gals with some amazing sense of style who's beliefs I don't line up with, and there's some amazing women of faith who's style is not my inspiration.  Make sense?  Clear as mud?  Oh good.




PS - I have a new blog design in the works, it won't likely debut till August sometime, but it's cute, and bound to inspire me. :)  (I'm not creating it, of course...I mean have you seen my HTML skills?  That's what I thought.)

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Today and Yesterday...

Here's some random:

• I'm trying to make a menu for the week, but I can't seem to get past BLT's.  I guess we'll eat them every night.
• I'm in desperate need of a blog makeover.  I've said that before...but THIS time I'm doing something about it.
• This weekend I get to go on a little girls getaway.  YAY.  When we planned it, we didn't realize it was also Father's Day weekend.  Oops.  But what better way to help celebrate than to let our husbands have the kids ALL to themselves?  
• I've been painting lots of things turquoise:

 

You get the idea.  I've recently bought orange and grey spray paint, but haven't quite decided what to paint.

• My oldest is away at camp for the week.  It's his first time away...he was thrilled.  Letting go is hard.  And feels weird.  
• Ben and I had a date night on Saturday.  You know you're in a building project when date night involves looking at cabinets and flooring at Lowes.  Floor plans and details make my head hurt.  Starbucks helped make it better.
• I made a quilt this weekend. Well, sorta.  My mother in law cut the squares for me, because I have a TERRIBLE time cutting things evenly.  I still have to sew the back on, but here it is:

This little chicklet helped.  She liked to push the foot pedal to the sewing machine every single time I turned around to iron.   But with that smile, what can you do?!?

Side Note:  I now cannot stand the material I put on the chairs awhile back.  I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time.  Bleh.  I'm on the lookout for new material that fits in with my new "vision"...new cheap material ;)

• I have a new favorite skirt that I can't wait to share with you, but I have to take a picture first.  
• I love love love Summer.  
• I really have to go get groceries now.  Bye!

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Don't Cry for Me...

I'm hoping to blog about something other than the building project we have going on...eventually.  Sometimes, Facebook and the blog and real life all mush together and I can't remember what I've shared where.  Kinda like in real life when I start in on a story and then say, "Did I tell you this already?!?"  Because frankly, my friends, my mind is mush.

I should do more crosswords or something.

Anyways, lest you start to feel too sorry for me about living through construction, I should tell you that other than the fact that my house is somewhat smaller than normal (for the time being) life goes on as usual.  Nothing is really disrupted all that much.  Even Lucy is getting used to sleeping through the noise.

My kitchen is currently housing my washer and dryer.  My friend from England tells me I have now have an English kitchen.  I love that.  Those English people know what they're doing, because I happen to LOVE it in there.

Summer is going good so far.  I'll admit, sometimes my children make me insanely crazy with their bickering and dragging in of sand, and their eating all. day. long, and their changing of clothes 500 times, they're messy hogs really.  But they're my messy hogs, and I love them.  And in between times of ripping out my own hair, I smile and remember that someday I'm going to miss their hog-i-ness and I'll be totally bored not having to clean up all the time.  I'll find myself doing frivilous things, such as showering and wandering around Target aimlessly...which reminds me...Target is waiting for me...right now...with four kids...still worth it.

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It's Begun...

Saturday I awoke to the sound of large machinery.

I knew it could only mean one thing.

And please, by all means, have a good laugh at the "trailor" for the old shingles.  I did.

Now, the hole will be dug and the cement people will come...that's as far as I choose to look ahead.

I have one motto regarding remodeling, it's called No Expectations.

So far, it's working swimmingly.

On a completely other note...I learned a lesson about Lucy while grocery shopping with her and her three brothers last week.

1 - She loves M&Ms.  Like...a lot.
2 - She rages when I take them away.
3 - They make a huge mess.

I also know you do not visit my blog because of my fantastic photo taking capabilities.  It's likely more because of my excellent English grammar.  *cough*  Either way, thanks for visiting...much appreciated ;)

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The Parsonage is Getting Bigger

Hello poor, neglected blog of mine...I've missed you.  I think of you often.  Let's update.

My husband's a pastor in a tiny town.  We live in the parsonage next door.  The 100 year old, three bedroom, one bathroom house that I really quite adore.  This is all old news...the NEW news is that our church recently voted  to add an addition onto the parsonage.  A quite large addition, like double-the-parsonage-size type addition.

They will be tearing off the back of the house, which consists of the mud room, little tiny garage, and attic/storage room above it.


They will be adding a  24'x 24' two-story addition.  New kitchen, dining, mudroom, and bathroom downstairs and upstairs there will be two  new bedrooms, one huge master and one smaller bedroom.  Then it will be new windows and siding throughout.

It's going to be  a process.  A likely long process.  Our tiny church never ceases to amaze us, we are humbled and excited.

The section with the red door is what will be torn off and where the new addition will be.

Ok, lets keep it real.  This is at the top of the stairs, that is the tiny door to the attic/storage room.  This is where I have been the last few weeks.

This is the attic mostly emptied out.  I know.  It was completely full, like "how do I even get in here" type full.

In order to tear off the back of the house, it required me emptying the attic, which is the room I like to call "I have no idea what to do with the item so I'll just open the door, toss it in and worry about it later."  I've done that for close to 6 years now.  Let's just say it's taken me weeks and hours of my life to sort through our stuff.

Ridiculous amount of stuff, most of which is sitting in my garage waiting for tiny-town city wide garage sale tomorrow!

It's got me thinking a lot about "stuff" and why we had so much.  I never want that much stuff again.  I want less stuff in our bigger house, because the stuff  is a waste of time and energy for me.  It's a new way of thinking, and I'd love to write more about it as soon as this garage sale is over!  :)

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