Project: Birthday

So my mother's birthday is coming up and I have been trying to come up with something to give her...this is a puzzling dilemma.

I have very limited funds and hate getting her something that she won't enjoy or use.

Then I had a A-ha moment (this seems to be my week for a-has).

We have just redecorated her sunroom and changed it from the schoolroom into a sitting room. We shopped at Ikea and came up with some beautiful plants, vases, and chairs to liven things up a bit. However... the walls are bare!

So, I, in my terrifical ingenuity (ok, ok, it was inspired by Pintrest, but I digress), came up with this:

I took an old hymnal I had that was falling apart and picked out some of my mom's favorite songs.

I then cut them out and printed various pictures of purple flowers onto the hymn sheets.

They turned out beautifully! I'm so happy with the results! I'm thinking I'll hang them in distressed, antique frames!

 

Hopefully, she'll like them!

Hooray for DIY birthday gifts :)

My Enlightened Morning...

I like being enlightened.

 

I love having the Aha! moments (they are few and far between for me, but that makes me appreciate the few times things actually click for me).

 

Today I was enlightened.

 

I am reading through the book of Acts for the second time this month. As my fiancé and I were discussing our devotions a few weeks ago, I was challenged and convicted by how slow and thoughtful he is in his Bible reading. He pours and mulls over each verse, desiring to glean the most he possibly can from God's Word.  In listening to him, I realized how quickly I sometimes pass through my Scripture reading. I enjoy my devotions and usually get something out of what I read, but sometimes I speed through and mentally congratulate myself for reading another chapter.

So, I decided to start back in Acts and re-read it. I want to gain the most I can from it...and already I am amazed at what I missed before!  I was reading this morning and I found:

Acts 4:13
   When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary  men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Wow. I don't know how many times I must have read this verse but never really stopped to think about what it meant.

Peter and John were nobodies. They weren't the smartest or the most dynamic. They didn't have a great education-if any-and were just average men of the day. And yet, it says the elders and teachers of the law (those who were schooled and extraordinary men in that time), were astonished! And somehow, these men could tell that Peter and John, had been with Jesus. They saw their courage-courage that could only be given from Christ.

That is amazing.

I want to be like that. I want people to be able to tell-just by looking at me-that I have been with Jesus.

I am ordinary. I am probably by all accounts, below average. There is nothing amazing, spectacular or extraordinary about me. I have very few talents and abilities and my mental capacity is comparable to that of a flea...

But there is hope!

 I am so excited I am dancing on the inside!

Some of the greatest men in the history of the world were ordinary! And yet they were paid the biggest compliment of all-everyone-even those who hated them- could see that they had been with Jesus.

Lavender and Lace...

So, I'm getting really really excited to get married. (which is kind of a stupid statement as most people are.)

But I'm also super excited about the wedding theme...I hope it turns out beautiful. It looks awesome in my head--however--the images in my head usually have issues in translating to reality.

So here's my theme...Lavender and Lace:

Anyway, I  have just created our wedding website.

http://spearsandswick.ourwedding.com/

Please visit for all the details!

Join the Circus...

 
I'd like to run away and join the circus.

I'd make a wonderful sideshow.

Though I can't bend and twist like a fruit roll-up...
Or breath fire--tho I've tried to after eating Doritos and jalapeño cheese dip...
Or hang on a trapeze--however, I do hang upside down off my bed quite regularly...

I like the circus.

But not the clowns.

I hate clowns. They are deceptive.

They have to paint on their smile. And there is something deeply sinister about squishy, red noses.
Their shoe size is questionable...they are liars. All of them...

I have been called a clown...I take great offence. Do not compare me to those maniacal creatures from Beneath.

Unfortunately, the circus is the front for their evil doings. It is very hard for an clown-educated person like myself to enjoy the circus when they infest it like cockroaches.

I'd like to join the circus-but I can't. The clowns must go.

Just sayin'.

 

Eventide and Moonglow...

A mist of gray hovered low
Entwined among the evening.
As silent woods bend and bow
With golden ribbons gleaming.

A whispered hush of icy breeze
Bestowed on Autumn's twilight,
A rustling of the coloured leaves
As day turned into Eve's light.

The crystal tear of heaven's face
Gleams bright amidst the shadows,
And lights the path between the worlds
Of Eventide and Moonglow.

Copyright A.Swick 2013

Once Upon Another Time..

So recently I have been in a Broadway mood. I love belting out Broadway tunes in the car...which explains why the people driving past me are always staring. I usually am red-faced, mouth wide open, attempting Christine's aria from Think of Me. It is quite inspiring, I'm sure..

I, for the first time, watched Love Never Dies, the Broadway sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I gotta say, I was extremely unimpressed...at first. But the more I watch and listen to it...I am digging it. Majorly.

The songs, when sung in sequence, seem quaint at best. But sung individually...wow. My favorite right now is the lament, Beneath a Moonless Sky.

However, the song that got me thinking today is the duet Once Upon Another Time. It is basically the Phantom and Christine singing of their past love.
The chorus says:
We love. We live. We give what we can give. And take what little we deserve.

Wow. It was a light bulb moment for me. My life on this earth is to simply love others as Christ did. To give of myself as He did. Instead of worrying about myself and what little I deserve, it is about giving of myself so completely and being poured out for Him.

This is something I've known and said for years, yet the full meaning hit me like a ton of bricks today.

I never realized how much I think I deserve. So much so, that in my relationship with God, my fiancé, and my family, I subconsciously believe somehow that I deserve their love, attention, and care.

Yet, I deserve so very little. Christ loved me and gave Himself for me when I did nothing to deserve it. I have done nothing to deserve anything.

And that's the beauty of His love.

Who knew Broadway was so deep?

The View Outside My Window...

 

Today is just one of those days...

It's super gloomy outside...Spring is supposed to be warm and bright.
But instead the day is cold, and dark, and dreary

                   It rains, and the wind is never weary;

                   The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,

                   But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

                   And the day is dark and dreary.

                   My life is cold, and dark, and dreary...

Longfellow always seems to come out on days like today...but I'm pretty sure he was having one of those days too when he wrote it, so I believe it is apropos.

I kinda got some depressing news today. I don't do depressed well.

I kinda got some stressful news today. I also don't do stressed well.

To be honest, I'm not the kind of person who lets things get her down...I usually bounce right back and easily rely on God to fix my world. Today I am struggling to do this...

Memo to Self: He is still in control. He will provide.

 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God....And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6, 19

 

Sometimes I'm a little slow. Sometimes I just need a reminder.