Glimpses of Christmas

My dining room table has become my craft space in the past few weeks. I don't want to spend all of my time before Christmas, preparing, wrapping and creating downstairs and away from the family.

 

I have my soaps, along with gifts, ribbons, paper, glitter etc...scattered all about the dining room! And, although I usually hate messes, I feel quite content with it tonight. I'm happy to smell the cinnamon candles and baked goods, to hear the kids laughing (and even arguing once in a while), to just be warm and cozy in my home, enjoying my family. Thank God for all of this chaos!

I hope you are enjoying your time preparing for the holidays as well.

 

  ...that you are cherishing those moments with family.

 (This is what the kids and I ended up doing with our origami stars!)

 

 (...another project that is in progress.) 

 

 And let me tell ya- the animals are diggin' all of the fun stuff to play with. All stuff they shouldn't be playing with...but try telling them that.

And isn't this an awesome little Christmas village?!

 My son made this for me, and when it was presented to me, I thanked him for this wonderful little "town"... He was quick to tell me it's a village.

Duh... Of course it's a village.

Even with all of the messes, endless lists and events, I hope your joy hasn't been buried under all of it. I hope you're enjoying all of the little moments that lead up to Christmas day.

 ~Jen

 

The Story of The Last Stanza

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

 (Refrain)

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

(Link to Mercyme's version of the song)

I love this song and recently I've been reading about the history behind many of today's most cherished hymns. When I ran across the history of this one, I had to share it, not to mention the words of the beautiful hymn itself.
The last stanza of this hymn was found penciled on the wall of a patient's room in a California asylum for the insane in 1917 after he had passed away.
This part of the song's history is amazing to me and I wish I knew more about this guy. Like, why was he there? Was he really insane or was he sick with an illness that caused depression or other mental anguish? He did pass away so that would make sense. Either way, how incredible that he would write about the love of God in such a time of distress...when the demons in his mind were probably trying to convince him of just the opposite. I see this as a deep love and trust in God even through a dark valley of Illness. (Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4)
Anyway, this writing of his was based on the Jewish poem, Hadamut, written by Meir Ben Isaac Nahorai, circa 1050. It was somewhat paraphrased by this mystery patient, but is still beautiful.
A pastor by the name of Fredrick M. Lehman, who somehow learned of these words on the wall and copied them down, was so moved by them that he penned two stanzas of his own one day on his breaks while at work, then added them to the poem segment. In a nutshell, this is how we came to have the Hymn we know today as The Love Of God.   What beautiful imagery this song holds! I hope it blesses you as much as it has me.
Have a good night friends ~Jen

Making Origami Christmas Ornaments

I've always loved working with paper. 

 Card making, decoupage, collage & mixed media. 

Even paper folding boxes and envelopes. 

...Stuff like that.

But origami? No, that never really crossed my mind. 

Whenever I heard the word 'origami'

...this is what came to mind.

 ...or this.

 ...or something mythological-like.

 Not that I didn't think they were cool. I've made a few with my 11 year old son. I just never would have thought of taking it up as some sort of hobby.

But while browsing for Christmas ornament ideas to make with the kids for an art lesson, I found that origami is where it's at! 

Look! I made these!

A spike ball (Video here.)

 

A Stellated Octahedron (Video here.)

A snowflake. (video here.)

I won't lie. They were a bit time-consuming, but I did the first two during a movie with the family and the snowflake was our art project for the day.

...And even tough the 14 year old daughter sighed, slouched and rolled her eyes upon first hearing of this paper-folding endeavor, she asked me tonight if we could find some more to do tomorrow. I love it.

Resting In Him

Closing eyes...breathing in...exhaling slowly... 
Opening my eyes and now and beginning the click-clicking on the keyboard.
Ahhh, it's quiet. Lately that's been a difficult thing to find around here.

To make a long story short: My husband hurt his neck, which caused him some seriously painful shoulder problems. It's kept him home from work and we've used up nearly all of his vacation pay in the past several weeks. (Ugh.) But thankfully, with the chiropractic care, the pain clinic and therapy it looks like he'll be able to go back to work next week. I just pray it continues to heal. God has been so good through all of it and has provided for all of our needs. Things like this will really show you how strong (or weak) your faith is. I can't say I've felt very good about how strong my faith has been. With half the income as usual, Christmas around the corner and bills that won't just go away I pretty much hunkered down and settled into a nice little depression for a while.

 Then I thought of when I first became a child of God about 11 years ago. Brand new and enough faith to move a mountain. And you know what? Mountains DID move back then! Well, they were mountains to me anyway. And I recalled the words to a song that got me through some really difficult times back then (and they were often). "I Will Rest In You" by Jaci Velasquez. So, I googled it and found the song again. Wow, it's been a while since these words calmed my heart. And they did all over again. Just a flood of memories of the times He's been faithful and delivered us from dark times before.
(Here's a link to the only video I could find with the original song in english.)

Lord, I'm in the dark,
Seems to me the line is dead when I come calling.
No one there, the sky is falling;
Lord, I need to know.
My mind is playing games again,
You're right where You have always been.
Take me back to You,
The place that I once knew as a little child;
Constantly the eyes of God watched over me.
Oh, I want to be
In the place that I once knew as a little child,
Fall into the bed of faith prepared for me.
I will rest in You,
I will rest in You,
I will rest in You.
Tell me I'm a fool,
Tell me that You love me for the fool I am,
[And*] comfort me like only You can,
And tell me there's a place
Where I can feel Your breath
Like sweet caresses on my face again.
Take me back to You,
The place that I once knew as a little child;
Constantly the eyes of God watched over me.
Oh, I want to be
In the place that I once knew as a little child,
Fall into the bed of faith prepared for me.


Anyway, I'm learning all over again how to rest in Him. And up until this evening it's been a big bunch of chaos around here. But I'm back now and look forward to sharing some upcoming posts and things I've been working on. Lot's of Christmas projects and lots of inspiration for beautiful handmade Christmas gifts and decor I've been seeing. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Good night everyone! ~Jen

 

(Stormy helping me with my Christmas card photos.)

Dress Up Your Couch (And your family)

 Now this is NOT what I expected when I was doing an internet search for a way to "dress up" my couch!

Goodbye Snuggie!

So I thought this was meant to be serious for a minute, but then I saw the other items on Plantiane's online shop. I got quite a chuckle out of what I saw.

 (I'm pretty sure my college-age daughter would appreciate this one this winter while waiting for those shuttle buses. Ha!)

 XX's  ~ Jen

Need a good laugh?

 Chances are, you've seen this before. I, myself, have seen it a few times. But it always makes me smile at the very least.



Blessings!
~Jen

Perfect day for yard-saling

 Finished up with school early today and heading out to hit a few yard sales. I'm hoping to come across some more yarn to contribute to the Stripy blanket I've started. Isn't it cute? It looks like a good way to get rid of some of the leftover yarn I have.

I am, however, a bit concerned as to what Malachi  might be up to while we're away...Hmmm...possibly no good?