Holiday Headlines

From December 14 until January 12 we were without internet at our house. We were switching providers and there was miscommunication on when to discontinue with our previous provider. Then our current provider notified us that it would be a few weeks until they put a tower up in our area. Hence, no internet for a month.

We learned to cope however, and it actually ended up being quite nice, though at times incredibly inconvenient. David wasn't terribly affected because he could get online at his office at the church. I, however, had to rely on the connection from the parking lot outside the local dentist's office. After three weeks of missing my Friday Skype call with my parents, my desperation finally overpowered my nerves and, yes, I skyped from my car, in the parking lot, in front of the reliable dentist's office. My brother called this ghetto. What's a girl to do?

There have been some highlights during this past month that I've missed blogging about. So here is my effort to update.

CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA
David and I spent a week in Virginia with his family over the Christmas holiday. On Christmas day, a fire erupted in the kitchen. We're talking huge flames from the stove, reaching up to the cupboards above. Thick black smoke billowing along the ceiling. David saved the day, when, coming out of the bathroom in a hurry due to all the commotion, ran for the extinguisher, discharging it three times before the fire finally died. The culprit? A hot pad that was stuck unnoticed to the underside of a pot. Needless to say, we went out for Christmas dinner. To the only place open, Chinese.

COLLEGE DAYS
It all started with Groupon. I had five Hi-8 tapes sitting around my house containing footage from college that I had been meaning to convert at some point in my life. It's expensive! But not with Groupon. Last year I got a hold of a really great deal to convert old tapes to data files through a company based in Chattanooga. I snatched it up, sent in my tapes, and got the converted forms back by November. With no internet in the house, I suddenly had all this time for projects such as this. And I had so. much. fun. remembering, and laughing, and showing David who his crazy wife was back in those college years. Now that we have internet again, my editing of the files has been interrupted. =) But when I finish, I just might have to share. (P.S. Seeing myself with long hair inspired me to grow it out again. Ha.)

ONE-YEAR RECOGNITION
On January 12, I completed my first year at Hospice Advantage. I feel so blessed working for such a wonderful company with such tremendous colleagues. I feel like an official social worker. One year behind me already. Hard to believe. Always more to learn, but no longer a novice. Hospice Advantage gave me a congratulatory framed certificate and a pin. A fellow colleague who started when I did brought in donuts to celebrate.

CRAFTY CONFIDENCE
During the internet fast I also caught up on some sewing projects. I haven't done much more than mending, hemming, and altering. However, I am really enjoying learning more about my machine (that my husband bought me . . . two years ago(!)). My confidence has also increased as I try those bigger projects. During one, I went from total discouragement, convinced I had ruined it, to a breakthrough and saving the day! Well, the skirt, at least.

DOWNHILL DAREDEVILS
In less than one week, David and I will be leaving Michigan for Austria. Sounds like a good trade to me! David is speaking for a young adult ski/snowboard camp. We'll fly to Zurich, Switzerland, spend a couple days there, then drive to the Austrian Alps. In preparation for the slopes, and because neither of us could remember the last time we skied, we decided we should attempt some bunny hills in Michigan before braving the mountains. And again -- had. so. much. fun. We went to a small place a couple hours away. Started with the literal bunny hills, then moved on up to the greens. It didn't take us too long to get bored there, so we moved up to the blues in no time. We were really getting the groove down on those. I took a detour through a narrow path in the woods and hit a tree branch. (I could see that coming, but seriously, the last born child in me couldn't help but try it.) After taking a break for lunch I asked David if he was ready to try the black diamond. He responded very matter-of factly that he would not be going on the black diamond. He didn't want to get hurt right before Austria after all. Granted, we were trying to play it safe, for the most part. I didn't say anything. "Are you going to?" he asked after a pause. "Yep!" More silence. "Well, I'll come with you then." Yes! I thought.

So after a couple more trips down the blues, we braved the blacks. Upon getting off the ski lift and turning the corner to face the hill, we both looked down, then looked at each other, then looked down again. My eyes were wide, I'll admit. I wasn't sure about this after all. We waited a little bit to let the crowd go first. We watched them go down without much problem. "Okay, here goes nothing", my hero clad in grey gortex exclaimed as he pushed himself forward. I followed behind and giggled the whole way down. It was that fun. We spent the rest of the day here, only going back to the blue when we had to make our way back to the lodge. And wow, were those blue slopes short and small or what. We were amazed with our recurring knowledge that it is all so relative. These Michigan black diamonds will turn out to be pretty relative as well I'm sure. At least I hope. Here we come, Austria!

P.S. David did suffer a fall, no injury, when I "clotheslined" him (his words) coming off the ski lift. All I knew was, I stood up and skied down the off-ramp like you are supposed to (while hearing a muffled yelp behind me). I started laughing before I even turned around. Yep, he was on the ground. I was doubled-over. "Well, thanks!" he said with a glare. I just kept laughing and eventually he joined in.

The Asia Room

I have, yet again, been up to some re-decorating, which is a never-ending story in this household.

I've been wanting an Asia room for awhile now. One of my favorite rooms of this house is our Africa room, which is also our library/my office space.

A long time ago I received a chinese box which first gave me the idea for an Asia-themed room. All I needed was a trip to an Asian country to stock up on pretty artwork and good memories. That never happened. But what did happen is I married a Korean American. And other family members took their own trips to Asia for me.

So, as I've been inheriting David's grandfather's artwork and gifts from Taiwan, I've been slowly saving them away for my "Asia Room."

Last March, I received more artwork from David's family and this past week I've been working on framing them.

I had some good finds at Goodwill again:

And with a quick trip to Walmart and Michaels I set to work on creating these:

Galations 5:22 - The Fruits of the Spirit in Chinese Characters

And so to put it all together with my previous framing projects and gifts from Taiwan, I have a small start to my long-awaited Asia Room:

The chinese box that started it all

Wall Hanging from Tell & Lacey from Taiwan

The Last Room

A number of months ago, I read an article on a blog for pastors' wives about making and keeping your bedroom a peaceful place.  I could relate well with the author, who lamented how her bedroom was a cluttered "catch-all" that left her feeling anything but peaceful.  She resolved to clean-up the clutter and keep the room as a reflection of her love for her husband.


As I read the article, I couldn't help but think of my own bedroom, which was what I'd considered the last room of the house to get ordered "just right." I'm a compulsive organizer and always changing little things here and there in every room to find the "just right" stage, but for some reason our bedroom was the exception.  I realized the reason was because our bedroom was the one place no visitor, or only a rare visitor, sees.  I felt my bedroom was the one place where I could get away with unmatching furniture, random wall-hangings, and stash anything that just couldn't fit anywhere else in the house but was necessary to keep available.  Among other things, our bedroom had become our exercise room and my sewing room.  And it was starting to bug me.


So last week I resolved to change that.


It all started, however, with a completely different goal in mind - simply, to frame David's late-grandfather's paintings.  When David's grandmother passed away in the spring of 2009, (her husband proceeding her by a few years) we were able to keep some of his grandfather's paintings.  They were on simple boards, though, that needed appropriately-sized frames -- items not readily available at our house.  So they sat for 20 months, shuffled between a shelf here, a drawer there, and a closet in between.


Finally, I decided something needed to be done to give them the proper display they needed.  These pictures, after all, were meaningful to us and it felt wrong to let them sit collecting dust.  I got out the measuring tape and headed off to Goodwill in hopes of finding quality, hardwood frames as opposed to the particle board you find at most stores, and at a fraction of the cost.


I was ecstatic about my finds.  Just the sizes I needed. I just needed to cut, tear, and yank out the pictures currently glued and stapled to the current frames, then sand and paint, and I would be done!


And I am happy with the result.

This is my favorite picture from David's grandfather.  What makes it extra special now is that my grandfather made the frame.   Neither the picture nor the frame were a standard size, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out they matched each other exactly.  Both were sitting in the same closet together for these many months, but I had never compared them. I just needed to paint the frame to match.

This was a picture I kept after the original frame broke.  I was happy to find a frame of the exact dimensions at Goodwill even though it wasn't a standard size either.

So, how did I get to our bedroom?


After I finished, I realized I had all these framed pictures and no where to put them!


Most of our house is colored in earth tones with pictures housed in brown frames.  What was I supposed to do with all of this black and white?


Well, go to the one room that didn't have a theme yet, of course.  Or if it did, was currently hodge podge.


So that's right where I went.  I entered our bedroom and oh my. I looked around at the ... randomness.


Maybe this is my opportunity to make our bedroom what it should be, I thought, remembering the article I had read.


I looked at the clock. 8:30pm. David should be home at ... 9:30? Hmmm. I determined I wanted the room completely finished before he got home. After all, I wasn't just wanting to organize for organization's sake. I didn't want to just put up more "random" pictures for the sake of the meaning behind the pictures. I wanted to make our bedroom what it deserved to be. A peaceful place. Out of love for my marriage and my husband.


I had a desk to move out and a dresser to move around the room.  Could I do it by myself?  It was my only option.  I set to work.


I knew I didn't have a lot of matching "stuff" to move back in the room, so I would have to do with simple.  I looked through my closet and drawers and tupperwares of decorations.  Rummaging around, pulling pieces here and pieces there that would match.


Finally, the finishing touch was placed just has I heard the garage door open.


The fun part for me was working with what we already had.  I realized it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to make a home comfortable and peaceful.  In fact, simplicity, for us, is peaceful.  The whole operation was $7.00, the cost of the frames at Goodwill.  Even the paint I already had!  At a time when money can be tight, our God still looks over the smallest things and helps us create beauty out of clutter.


In my small effort to honor my husband through keeping a neat and peaceful sanctuary of space, I felt God honoring me too. Honoring me with His help and presence, enabling me to give my marriage more of my time, thought, and intention.