a piece of my heart

This is going to be a little bit of a change from the regular "stuff" I choose to write about.
I am currently doing a study on the book of James, not the apostle, Jesus' younger half brother. It is a Beth Moore study whom I absolutely adore and  cannot begin to describe how much I learn from her. In the last two months I have probably learned more about the Bible than maybe my entire life. I am not sure what the motivation is, but I am loving this time of learning in my life.

Well, I was enjoying it.

The book of James is tough to swallow! You can turn to it right between Hebrews and 1 Peter, don't miss it though.You can easily skip over this five chapter book. It is chalk full of hard lessons if you are really looking. Of course, just skimming it, it seems pretty common sense and an easy book to read in about 15 minutes (or less) and then not think about it for the rest of the day. Which I have tried doing, trust me! There are several lessons to take from James. In the first chapter James tells us:

Consider it pure joy, my brother, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish it work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

James 1:2-5

When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

James 1:13-15

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

James 1:19-20

There are many more lessons throughout the book of James, believe it or not there are more in the first chapter. Which brings me to the reason I am writing. Towards the end of chapter one of James under the heading Listening and Doing it reads:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:22-25

This verse almost brought me to my knees while in bible study today. How often do I "look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom?" Intently, never. How often do I leave the sermon on Sunday morning and not think of the message again? Too many times to count. How often do I do what I have heard? Do I have to answer this?! 

I am " the man who looks in the mirror and, after looking at himself, 

goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." 

I hardly want to open the book of James again. It is so painful to see the truth of what I am. 

Praise God for his precious son, our Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The first chapter of James ends with this sentence: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27

I am only in the third week of the study of James, and this last week of study was tough for me. There were several times I just didn't understand what Beth or the Bible were trying to say. That scares me. To me that means I don't have the knowledge or wisdom to comprehend something new. On one hand that is okay, I know we are all a work in progress. On the other, it just tells me how much more growing (seeing more of that man in the mirror than I want to)I have to do. 

My prayer is that I will not be polluted by the world. That I may be set apart for you Lord. I ask that I may grow in wisdom to the one who gives generously to all without finding fault. Help me to find ways that I can look after orphans and widows in their distress. Thank you for opening me eyes to the man in the mirror, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. I want to look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom. In your sons precious name, Amen. 

"...humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

November 09, 2011 ~ A Date to Remember

My precious Matthew Corrigan is enjoying his first day of preschool as I type this! I can hardly believe it. I didn't think I would have a hard time letting go of him, but I did am. Of course, I didn't act like I was having a hard time in front of him. I don't even think I was having a hard time when I walked out of his classroom. It is when I sat down in my car, shut the door and thought "what am I going to do now?" I could go to the grocery store, but I love going to the grocery store with Matthew. I could go to Lowe's and purchase the threshold thingy's we need for our doorways, but Matthew loves Lowe's (he really does) and I don't want to go without him. Our home is so quiet. I did end up going to the grocery store and after realizing I forgot my grocery list I just wandered around Aldi until I was thoroughly bored. I know it will get easier, as a matter a fact I am babysitting on Friday when he goes again so I won't even have time to think about it, but for now I have a huge lump in my throat and all I want is my Matthew. I realized this morning while we were on our way to preschool this is the beginning of a new time in our lives. For the next 13 years, I will  drive him to school. I will gladly take that responsibility, but not without a little heart ache.

*UPDATE (a few hours later): I picked Matthew up and we treated ourselves to a healthy Burger King lunch. Then we went back to the grocery store, only to realize I once again left the list in the car. However, I walked down every toy aisle they had, and let Matthew touch every toy he asked to touch, all because I missed him so much and was so happy to have him back.




Dear Jesus, 
please protect your precious Matthew and watch over his mom too that she doesn't go crazy from missing him.
 Amen

Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday. I have to admit, it was probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had. The day started at 6am with a phone call from my dad saying "Happy Birthday! I am on my way to drop of your card!" Luckily, I was already half awake. It was such a nice morning my dad and I were able to go on a walk around our neighborhood before much traffic was on the roads and anyone in my house was awake. Matthew and I then got ready for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). We both had a wonderful day at BSF! I was teaching the childrens story and if I do say so myself I did a pretty awesome job (some weeks are hit or miss for me, and all the credit goes to God for my success!). My mom then took me on a little shopping trip for some much needed clothing items. I love new clothes, especially ones that make you look and feel good! Patrick and I took care of some things around the house. For dinner we headed off to the Frost's, where we enjoyed our time with not only the Frost's but Sara and Simon Anderson. They are really wonderful people. Patrick and I have had the privilege of getting to know them over the last year. We all had a great night of games and lots of laughter.  Thank you for all the birthday love!

We have done a little more on the house front, but for now I am going to enjoy the fact that little Matthew is asleep in his bed in our awesome home. I am so blessed!
Have a great week!

Happy Wednesday!

I have a lot to write about! A little house updating, a little blog advertising and a little bit of fun!  We have been quite busy over the last two weeks.
I will begin with all the house updates.

We FINALLY have TWO fully functioning bathrooms in our home! Yippee!
To be completely honest we haven't had that since April 8th, the day we got the keys!
We are so excited to be able to choose which bathroom we are going to use.
Let us take a little look back to where it all began.

       

Yeah, it was pretty scary when we first viewed our home, but we saw so much potential in it. 

Was the wallpaper hideous? YES!

Was it scary that there was matching wallpaper on the ceiling, walls, cabinets? YES!

Was it creepy that the curtains and shower curtain matched the pattern on the wallpaper? Yes, yes, yes!

Was the floor carpet? YES!

However, it was so big! There was so much storage. So much potential!

Here was the scene on April 8th.

Brittany and Alice enjoying their demo job!












A few days weeks later. We had ripped all the carpet out and installed tile. 

We still had a long way to go.        

Next came the long and tedious process of sanding, scraping, mudding, and spackling over and over and over again. Once it was finally done it was well worth all the hard work. We had a freshly painted bathroom.

 ...and then we installed the toilet...and trim...

Then I removed all the doors and trim from the linen closet beside the shower. 

I wanted it to be a little more open.

Next came the vanity.  We probably looked at a million different bathroom vanities. We even bought one and I made Patrick return it because it just wasn't what I wanted. All the vanities I wanted were ridiculously priced. So after going quite awhile without a vanity I made up my mind to build one (meaning my husband would build me one). I still was hesitant to start building because 1) I had no idea where to begin when it came to building something and 2) I figured the wood must be pretty pricey since all those vanities online were so expensive. Then one Saturday two weeks ago I was tired of living without a vanity in the main bathroom of our house. So we headed to Menards. After spending about 3-4 hours at Menards we had all our wood and screws to at least get started. We called up some favors from friends and family asking for  tools, saws and advice and we were on our way. By the end of that night we had a pretty good frame built. All I had to do was start staining. After staining we started putting pieces together and before we knew it, we had a pretty awesome looking vanity. It's exactly what I wanted. It is the $1200 vanity I salivated over on the internet and best yet...my hubby built it for me. I love it!

We went ahead and used the same counter that was on the old vanity. It was the right size, in great condition and best of all FREE! Bringing the grand total for this vanity under $50!!! We are going to be purchasing a new faucet causing the price of the vanity to rise significantly but nothing close to $1200!
We still have a few areas that still need work. We need to frame out the mirror, purchase an above the mirror light, hang some decor and figure out what we are going to do with this ugly area.

This area is right under the bottom shelf that use to be the linen closet. We did not put tile down because at one point in time we discussed putting a laundry shoot down there. After discussing the pros and cons we decided to just tile it. When we went to Lowe's to purchase the 9 whole tiles we needed to finish the project we learned they had been discontinued. For the time being I am going to put a little curtain over it but I am hoping we can figure something else out for this area. If you have any suggestions we will gladly consider any and all.

Once we have a completed bathroom I will share many more photos.

On to some smaller updates that have taken place in our home.

You may or may not have seen this light fixture in our dining room. 

It use to look like this...gold.

It now looks like this...after being spray painted with ORB (that is for you Sherry).

Yes, I along with Brittany pretend that Sherry, Brittany and I are blog BFF's!

Our master closet use to look like this (imagine closet doors, I forgot to snap a photo with the doors attached)...

It now looks like this...

I plan on painting the shelves and walls in the closet and hanging a pretty fabric instead of doors. I am sure I will post pics once the project is complete. We decided to place shelves in our closet for a number of reasons: 1) we do not have many hanging clothes, and the hanging clothes we do have can go in another closet in another room for the time being. 2) We never put our clothes in a dresser anyway. They end up all over the floor or a mess in a basket. I am great at folding laundry. I am horrible at putting the laundry away once it is folded. This way I can just put the folded piles of clothes right on the shelves. 

Genius if you ask me!

Eventually, we plan on purchasing some sort of armoire that will probably have a hanging rack in it and a few drawers. That should be enough to hold all of our hanging clothes. Something along these lines, maybe a little less fancy.

For now we love having the extra space with no dressers!

Here is a photo of Matthew's CLEAN room! 

It doesn't happen often and I thought I should snap a photo and record it before the moment is gone.

Other than bathroom remodeling and updating I have been babysitting again. I took some cute photos the last time Matthew and I were there and I thought I would share them with you.

Fighting bubbles is a hard job but someones got to do it!

I have another blog to add to the list. Last time I added Brittany's and this time I am endorsing my cousin, Kristen's blog. She has been through a lot during her short life, and unbelievably lived to tell about it, and that is exactly what she will be doing over at her blog. I am excited to hear how she has overcame the obstacles that have been placed in her way and what the future holds for her. 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Be the Church Sunday

Last August, our church tried something new by the name of "Be the Church Sunday." Instead of having a normal Sunday, with three services and Sunday School, we had one short service and were sent into the community to be the hands and feet of Christ. It was a huge success! So this year we wanted bigger! Instead of one day it has turned into an entire week. We have committed to re-roofing 5 different houses in our community. We were also encouraged to do something else. Once again, we didn't have the (now four) morning services. There was one short service and then we were sent into the community. Our adult small group also wanted to do something a little bigger than last year.
Last year, we went to Dunkin Donuts, bought coffee and donuts, and took them to the local animal shelter, a hospital ER, and a crisis nursery. Did we do something nice? Did it take time and money? Yes and yes, but it wasn't as big as we wanted it to be. We were determined to do something this year that took a little more effort and impacted a bigger group of people.
We decided we were going to prepare dinners for a local homeless shelter. We all went to the grocery store (Aldi, our groups personal favorite!) and purchased all of the items needed. We then went to Brittany and Jeremy's house to prepare the meals. We made four baked spaghetti's and four chicken pot pies. Each entree feeding at least 30 people. Even better, it was less expensive to buy the items and feed more people than it cost each couple last year just to pass out donuts and coffee. Still even better, we had a great time doing it! We all agreed this was more up our ally. We even decided we were going to start preparing meals for homeless shelters once a month! I love our small group! We all want to do more for our church, our community and most importantly our awesome God!
Here are a few photos I took to document our "Be the Church Sunday."
Some of the ingredients we started with.

Chopping, dicing, browning...
   
Stirring and posing (of course!)
  
My job was un-canning and dumping.

Preparing all the food.
   
                                                Chicken Pot Pie              Baked Spaghetti

Group photo of our small group, minus one couple, but they were there in spirit!

Jeremy and Brittany were so nice to let us come in and mess up their kitchen. 

They are a pretty awesome couple and the reason our small group gets anything done! 

Speaking of awesome! Brittany recently started her own blog! 

I am very excited to see what goes on in that wonderful, crafty, intelligent, Jesus-loving head of hers! 

To end on a different, more awkward note. Here is a photo of our husbands being themselves...

Many Good Changes

I have been in a bit of a rut lately. You know, the usual female emotions--"I'm not a good enough mom, I'm not even close to a respectful wife, my home is never clean enough, we are never going to pay off all our debt, etc...." I hate these feelings. They are so paralyzing. The more these thoughts consume you the less you do and the worse you feel. Well, yesterday I was listening to WGN 1120 (I don't normally listen to this radio station but my hubby does and apparently he changed my radio station). They had a guest speaker discussing whether or not our bodies are built to deal with the types of stress we deal with today.  I honestly don't remember what her response was but I do remember this one little bit of info that I thought was very clever.  She used an ATM as an example.  If you go to an ATM and try to take out $100 without $100 being in your account you won't magically get $100. Wouldn't that be nice if you didn't have the money but the ATM gave you it anyway...ha! The same goes for us.  If we continue to be hit by everyday stresses without having the small joys and happiness in our everyday we will be overdrawn (so punny!).  So, in an attempt to balance out my life I have decided to make a few adjustments in my everyday. Here is a little list for starters.
1. Make our bed every morning.
2. Read the Bible for at least 30 minutes everyday. I hate that I do not do this already.
3. Sit down in Matthew's room every day for at least 30 minutes and just play in his world. Hopefully, it lasts longer than 30 minutes but it's a start.
4. Make dinner 5 out of 7 evenings (6 evenings if I am really on top of things). This was hard with our work schedules before, but it should be do-able now, not to mention cost-effective!
5. Start doing some sort of workout routine, DAILY. Not sure what this will be but figuring it out. Lately, it has been nightly bike rides with Matthew, hubby and Geo. I love this time with my family. We are always smiling and laughing. I wish I was coordinated enough to take photos while riding my bicycle.
6. Do at least one thing every day that shows my husband I respect him.
*Unfortunetly, this is a struggle for me. So if you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate any and all.
7. Do at least one load of laundry every day.
8. GO and DO something FREE and FUN once a week with Matthew and Patrick.
9. Read a book.
10. Don't sweat the small stuff. I get so upset about the smallest of things. One wrong word from my husband can send me off the deep end and ruin the rest of my day. It's so not worth it and I hate it when I see it coming.
Some of these things listed I already do but I want to make a conscience effort to continue doing them and maybe even improve upon them.

To back up a little, I have recently decided to become a full-time stay at home mom. I have worked at a pizza place in Tolono 2-3 times a week, for the last 3 years. My last day at Tolono Monical's will be August 31st. I am both excited and a little scared.  For the first time ever we will really be a one income family. Hopefully some of these items I have listed help to make that adjustment a little smoother.
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On to other news, we have been super busy. The weekend after I came home from Belize we packed back up and headed to the Dells in Wisconsin to enjoy a long weekend with Patrick's college friends.  It was a great time and everyone LOVED Matthew.  Even if he was uber loud in the mornings and wouldn't stop singing "who let the dogs out!" We stayed in a really nice cabin and there was a perfect pool for Matthew on the property.
We have also started back up with home improvements/updating. We are still working on the bathroom and a new little project for our bedroom closet. I should be able to post photos soonish.

P.S. I have made dinner the last two nights!
P.S.S. I have never been a list person but I feel I am turning into one. Probably not a bad thing. :)