The Lyrical Soul

Friday, November 4

Benjamin's Testimony

One night last week, I was sitting in the living room with the baby, while Ben played in his room. About 10 minutes before, I heard him ask Nick to turn on his Fisher Price piano game that hooks up to his tv. I could hear him laughing and repeating various shapes and numbers back to the television. Then all of sudden I heard a loud crash. I raced down the hall to Benjamin's room. Nick, ran from the other end of the hall, and we met at the doorway. We stopped and stared for a second, not saying anything. There was a pile of glass in the middle of the floor.

The glass globe over his bedroom light had fallen off and broken into a million pieces. Benjamin, sitting on his rocking horse in the corner, was just barely out of harms way.
"Are you okay?" I asked Ben. "I okay Mommy", he said; his eyes as big as saucers.
I handed the baby to Nick and carefully stepped over the shards of glass to pick Benjamin up. Nick watched the kids in the next room while I cleaned up the mess. After a little bit, I looked up to see Nick checking on my progress. Neither of us had said much- I think we were in shock. I finally said, "Nick, it was the Lord that this didn't hit Benjamin. He was playing his game all this time, and it was right above where was standing." "I know." He said. "He never sits on that rocking horse."

I hadn't even thought of that. Nick was right, Benjamin never played with the thing. Something had prompted him to stop playing his game, and go sit in the only place in his room where he would be safe.

I started thanking God over and over that Ben hadn't been hurt... or killed. Tears formed in eyes while I cleaned, just imagining what could have happened. "Why did the globe fall?" I wondered. I took it down to clean it about a month before that... I must not have screwed it in good enough. I needed to check every other light in the house! Why did it take an entire month to fall down? Why in the world did it shatter so badly? It fell onto a thick shag rug, on top of thick carpet. My mind continued to race as I began freaking out about this "near miss" and the safety of my children.

Thankfully, the Lord quickened my mind and helped me snap out of the downward spiral I had started mentally. I reminded myself that I am only human. No matter how hard I try to be a perfect parent and protect my kids from everything dangerous, I will make mistakes. We need the grace of God just to make it through each day. Some days it is much more obvious to us than others- like when our child almost gets hit in the head, or we nearly get into a car accident. But, truth is, even the days we don't realize it, God's grace is the only thing getting us through. He gives us breath. We MUST depend on Him for our safety... for our life.

Otherwise we could go nuts (some people do) trying to do it on our own. Putting our trust in God to take of us and our families is the only way to really have peace. Worrying about it all the time and dwelling on what "could happen", slowly steals away at your faith and will likely send you into a frenzy! While thinking through these things, my tense expression gradually broke into a little smile of relief. I thanked God again.
I thanked Him for His hand of protection. Then, I thanked Him for the resulting testimony- that would one day be Benjamin's to tell.

Thursday, October 20

A Living Room Update

A couple of months ago, my mother asked if I would "take the reigns" on her living room. She couldn't seem to decide on a paint color, or pin point what wasn't working for her in this room. All she knew was, it WASN'T working!

Here were her complaints:

#1 It was TOO DARK! My mom loves dark colors, but admitted that layers and layers of them had turned her living room into a cave!

#2 It didn't function. The only time this room was EVER used, was when my parents had a party or gathering. Whenever us kids came over to chit chat with my parents or watch a ball game, we would all pile into their master bedroom, sitting on the floor & edge of the bed (since there were only 2 chairs in the room.) The considerably large living room served only as a "passage way" between their bedroom and the kitchen. For some reason, no one wanted to sit in it.

My task: To take this dark, foreboding room and make it fresh, modern, & functional- without losing the western style my parents love.

Here's the BEFORE

Here's the AFTER:

When you have dark trim and doors in your house, going with lighter walls is a must. Contrast is important, and Kilim Beige on the walls really makes the beautiful stone fireplace stand out as the focal point of the entire room.

Switching her dark candles to white ones creates a fresh, clean look. In keeping with the earthy, organic vibe of the room; we added some lightly colored rattan balls in clear apothecary jars.

The brown suede throw pillows got re-covered with beautiful fabrics and even some burlap for added texture, and a pop of color!

By simply re-arranging the furniture my mom already had (and pulling some pieces from other rooms,) we created 3 different seating areas within the room, that beckon you to come and sit.

Before, it was easy to drown in a sea of dark brown in this room. By placing a light colored rug between the dark wood furniture and the dark wood floor, it breaks up the monotony. :)

The over-the-window dark shelves were replaced by floor length panels, which draw your eye up and make the room appear taller. (Tip: Another aid in making the ceiling look higher is painting it 1 or 2 shades lighter than your wall color.)

Bringing in small elements in a mixture of different finishes like pewter, antique brass, straw & pottery helped to create warmth in the space, and makes the darker pieces stand out more- instead of all blending together.

The small (almost non-existent) entry way needed some defining. Mom has always been unhappy that you seem to be stepping into the center of the room when you walk in the door. The furniture helps create an illusion of a small square entry area, along with hooks for a coat or hat, and a small round rug.

Family photos in black and white will be going into the frames in the collage. This myriad of mix-matched frames brings in a small eclectic element (which mom asked for,) without losing a rustic feel.

By the way....

This coffee table is FOR SALE along with 2 matching end tables,

and (possibly) a matching console table! :)

It's taking up a little too much space in the room and will be replaced with some fabric upholstered ottomans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TIP

for hanging pictures in a pattern

First, arrange your frames on the floor... playing with them until you achieve the look you want. Then, lay them out on paper- (I used the backside of wrapping paper, which conveniently had a 1'' grid marked out for cutting.)

Simply trace your frames on the paper, drawing an "X" where the nail needs to go.

Hang the paper on your wall. (Here's where you can move it up, down, side to side, and level it...a lot easier than doing that with the real frames!)

When you get it just right, go ahead and hammer a nail thru each "x" mark, so your holes with already be there. Now, hanging the real pictures is not a guessing game!

If you're doing a collage like this one, and you're not sure about spacing, stick to 1 inch. It's a good place to start. :)

Friday, September 30

September pics

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's FALL!!

Well, okay... it's still in the upper 90's here in Houston, but tomorrow's October people! We gotta start celebrating fall some time right? Maybe cooler weather is on it's way!

*fingers crossed*

I tend to think of the seasons in terms of clothing and food.

(What can I say? I love fashion, and I love to eat! ;)

Fall is time for Stews, Chili, Pecan Pie, Heavy Spice Cakes, Hot Cider, Pumpkin Bread....

Oh, and S'MORES!!!

I love, love, LOVE S'mores...

and here's a unique way to enjoy that incredible trifecta of flavors:

You know the drill...

get your marshmallows, chocolate bars & grahams ready...

Mix up your fav Chocolate Chip cookie recipe...

(or use a mix... whatever)

Build your S'more using only 1/4 or 1/2 of the usual amounts.

(Example: I used 2 mini marshmallows, 1 square of a miniature Hershey bar,

& 2 rectangles of a graham.)

Then put a heaping scoop of cookie dough on the top and bottom.

Alright, here's the tricky part. You have to mold the dough around your S'more. Don't worry about the S'more getting messed up, it really doesn't matter just as long as you enclose the cookie dough around the entire thing, forming a big ball.

My mouth is watering just remembering what these tasted like

fresh out of the oven....

Mmmmm.....

Now, I must warn you: These are some BIG cookies! Using the amounts I listed above, mine turned out about 7 inches wide. Sometimes you have to keep adding cookie dough to get it all molded together. You can use less S'more ingredients if you want smaller cookies.

Just be sure to give these babies plenty of room to spread on the cookie sheet!

Bon Appetit!

Tuesday, August 9

Place Mat Window Treatment

I bought these 6 bamboo placemats at World Market for next to nothing.

First I made 2 wall hangings with them for our previous house.

Then, I used them as placemats (imagine that :)

THEN... I repurposed them yet again to make a window treatment for my back door!

First, I hot glued ea. set of 2 side by side, then glued them on top of each other... (over lapping each one evenly to make it the length I wanted.)

Then, I played around with tiering them up, and added velcro in the correct spots so I could "open" these "blinds" of mine. (tip: I place the velcro in the overlapped sections so they wouldn't show thru when the sun was shining.)

Oh, and I hot glued the top around my magnetic curtain rod.

Here is what it looks like all the way down.

(See what I mean about the sun shining thru? The overlapped sections have to be measured the same so it doesn't look funny, and it does a good job of hiding the velcro.)