Review: You Can Be Everything God Wants You to Be by Max Lucado

I received a complimentary copy of the book You Can Be Everything God Wants You to Be by Max Lucado from Thomas Nelson Publishing. This book is 127 pages long and contains excerpts from another Lucado book, Cure for the Common Life. It contains encouraging passages about how each of us is uniquely created by God and He has given each of us specific gifts and talents that make up who we are. Each section has scripture and various stories to better explain Lucado's points. The sections are only 2-3 pages each and which makes the book easy to pick up and put down periodically.

I see this book as a "gift book" or a "coffee table book." I enjoyed the insights Lucado gave, and that it was a quick easy read. However there were times I was wanting more and therefore for someone struggling with who they are in Christ, I think even more could be gained from reading the original book in its entirety, Cure for the Common Life (which I have not read, but am interested in after reading this shorter book). However, as a gift book or an encouraging word for someone struggling in their job or current life situation, I think this would be great to give away or read for yourself. Max Lucado does a great job of focusing on scriptures and he has a unique, easy to follow style of writing. I recommend this for new graduates, those starting new jobs, or seeking a career change. The book itself even came with a sticker marketing it as a gift for graduations. If you are looking for something deeper and more instructive, I would recommend looking into the full version instead of this shorter version of excerpts.

Review: Gigi’s Big Break DVD by Sheila Walsh

I recently watched Gigi’s Big Break on DVD. It contains two stories: “The White Lie” and “The Pink Surprise.” The first story is a lesson in honesty and follows Gigi as she tells a bigger and bigger lie, eventually admitting the truth and asking forgiveness. At the end a Scripture verse relating to honesty is shown. The second story: “The Pink Surprise” is about loving siblings. Gigi’s parents reveal they will be having another baby. At first Gigi is excited, but that soon changes. The storylines move in between Gigi’s make believe world and the real world.

The animation on the DVD is pretty basic and not very exciting. At the beginning of the story this bothered me as the characters seem incredibly stiff. However, once I was involved in the story this no longer bothered me. I liked the fact that the story includes real conversations between Gigi and her mother. Some other highlights include a family prayer before a meal, Gigi praying before bed, and scriptures included at the end of each story. The lesson is told clearly and interestingly. I do recommend this video and other Gigi products for young girls. Young girls (preschool) would enjoy the cuteness of the characters and animation while school age girls would be more likely to get something from the story.

**A complimentary copy of Gigi’s Big Break (DVD) was provided for me by Thomas Nelson Publishing for the purpose of this review.

Learn more about this DVD at Thomas Nelson Publishing

Gifts

One of my favorite parts of scrapbooking is being able to make things for other people. I love giving unique, thoughtful gifts, and if I can make the gift even better! The following I made for a friend who was kind enough to do something for me, and I wanted to say thank you.

I made an album using a BoBunny kit I had purchased awhile back at Archivers. I highly recommend any BoBunny kits you can purchase. They come with everything you need and they are awesome. They are beautiful and different then just a standard mini-album. I wish I was creative enough to create this on my own, but since I am not I love using kits!! Here are a few pictures from the album I made that can be used for pictures or just journaling.

The Cover

A cool page but quite difficult. I used a craft knife to cut the page in half and to take a square out of the page to show the pictures on either side. I don't have a great craft knife, but I did my best.

This might be my favorite page of the whole book. I think it is a beautiful design, and I love the right side and the layers it holds.

This is a fun page as well because it has a pocket with various journal pages. Pockets are a lot of fun and add a lot to a page!

As with most kits, when I finished I had quite a few leftover pieces so I decided to try and create a few cards for my friend. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. My base was a yellow card with a slight white flowery background. Most of the embellishments are stickers with a few other embellishments I had on hand. I created a layered look on many of the cards using paper layers as a starting point sometimes finishing with an embellishment using pop-ups. Also, many of the pieces already had a layered look to them. It was great how much stuff was left from the kit!

Birthday Creations

For Thomas's birthday I tried to get a little crafty. I made this sign to hang on the front door. It's great because it will double as a scrap book page! I also made some favor bags using this same truck cut out--unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of those!

I also made this display of Thomas's birth announcement. I wanted to do something to display all three pieces of the announcement and wasn't sure what to do. For this, I just attached all three pieces to a strand of ribbon.

Thomas's First Christmas Mini Album

After Christmas, I wanted to make something easy and quick to guarantee I got something created to remember Thomas's first Christmas. I didn't want a lot of journaling, I just wanted to display some of the fun pictures, and have something ready to show friends and family at his birthday party. I hadn't really created in a few months. I had tried to make some cards, but just couldn't get into it because my scrap area was a complete disaster.

After Christmas Nathan and I committed to cleaning up our bonus room so that it could really become the multi-purpose room we envision. Though we hope for a lot of improvements still, it finally is a place we can all be. Thomas has a huge area to play in and Nathan and I have usable areas as well. Since then I have been in the room almost every day working on things. One of the first things I created this year was a 6x6 album of Thomas's first Christmas. It's very simple. I precut all the background papers, printed the pictures I wanted in size 3x4 (my at home picture printer does this), grabbed a few embellishments I had, and went to work. Hope you like it!

Life Gets in the Way

I never meant to go three months without publishing. I really had a lot of posts in mind that just never made it from my head to the computer. A lot was going on in the past three months. Thomas learned to walk which really changed everything; he was sick and teething and fussy. And then the holidays came with lots of shopping and traveling. Then we celebrated Thomas's birthday. Finally life has calmed a bit, Thomas is sleeping through the night, and I am making myself get up early for some quiet time with God and sometimes Thomas even sleeps a little extra long. So, one of my goals this year is to use this time for my blog when possible. I do like sharing what I have created or sharing my opinion on what I have read or seen. I have read a few things over the past few months, so I will try to share those things over the next week or so. I haven't seen much. Nathan and I haven't been to the movies in months, and we held on to a Netflix movie way to long (we never did watch it). But finally we sent our Netflix back and got Star Trek. I have to say I did enjoy it! It moved pretty fast, and was entertaining. We watched some of the extras (which I recommend) and it was fascinating to see how they created certain scenes. Evidently during a lot of scenes they were manually shaking the camera! Very cool. So, if you haven't seen Star Trek, and your husband or boyfriend or guy friend wants to watch it, I'd see it with him. I don't think you will be bored, and it's a good movie everyone can enjoy.

So, my goal from now on is to make sure life doesn't get in the way of blogging. I spend too much time browsing the internet anyway when I could be posting!

Social Scrapbooking

My favorite part of scrapbooking is sharing it with others. When I make something, I can't keep it to myself. I have to show Nathan or take a picture and email it to my mom or other friends. Part of this is sharing in an accomplishment, but part of it is wanting someone else to get out of the project what I got such as remembering the story or a memory associated with it. When I can share scrapbooking in person with a good friend; this is even better.

Aimee came to visit a couple weeks ago for a few days. While Thomas slept we were able to spend some time making fall cards. The Halloween card that Aimee made was "scraplifted" from a card in a the Scrapbook Etc. magazine (scraplifting is when you use or find inspiration from another person's work and is totally allowed and encouraged in most scrapbooking circles!) The Fall card was inspired by a card in the magazine Cards. I had precut all the materials for the Halloween card so Aimee was able to complete 20 of them (1o for each of us)! The Fall card I created was a little bit slower as I had to find the inspiration and then design it to work with my materials. Luckily I was able to use up things I already had at home including a lot of Fall ribbon from the One Stop Dollar Stop at Target! I was able to complete 9 cards for Aimee, and now have the design to complete cards for myself.

Other than the great cards we both now have, the best part was being together, talking, and sharing ideas. I don't mind creating on my own, but I definitely enjoy creating with a friend! Here are pictures of the cards!

Being vs. Doing

To do or to be? That seems to be the question, or at least a popular sermon theme. I can remember countless sermons focusing on this theme, and I'm sure there are many I can't remember! Again, this Sunday it was the theme of the Sunday sermon. The focus was on how too often we try to grow in our relationship with God merely through what we do...we forget that God's grace is the reason for our relationship with Him, and that we actually need to focus on Being a child of God.

But with that, comes with what does it mean to "Be" a child of God. Do we sit and do nothing? Of course, the answer is no. But what do we "do" when we are "being"? This concept is confusing to write about much less figure out what it means to live it! One big conclusion I came to this past Sunday is that this concept "being vs. doing" is really important and really hard. This is why it's a constant theme...it's probably one of the most difficult things of the Christian walk and also one of the most vital aspects of the walk.

With this in mind, I realize that being vs. doing is something that needs to be ever present on my mind. As I continue doing life, I need to be still at times and concentrate on the being part. This is a challenge I am slow to take on, yet eager knowing that the results will be great. To everyone else who has heard the sermon and has struggled, I want to encourage you! You are not alone in seeking to be a child of God!

More Mini Albums

The past week I was busy making a few more mini albums as well as a gift card holder.  All of these were gifts, so I had to wait to publish them till the new owners received them.  I think the gift card holder is my favorite that I have made so far.  I just like how the colors and papers worked out!  I'm quite pleased by the mini albums as well.  I used my book to create them from scratch.  The covers are made with covered chipboard and then the pages (one sheet of cardstock) are attached accordion style.  I also learned a cool trick about hiding the ribbon underneath the pages.  The mini albums are very similar because they were created for my friends Kathy and Rachel to commemorate our weekend get together over labor day.  I used the same format for both albums and was able to create them over a couple days in 15-20 minute increments.  Now I just need to make one for myself!

Gift Card holder for my friend Kathy for her birthday

I fully lined the inside piece (because I didn't like its color) and I love the way it turned out!

Album for Kathy celebrating Labor Day weekend

The inside can be turned like pages or...

completely pulled apart for full viewing.  (Inside of Rachel's album)

Cover of Rachel's album.

Creating

I actually created this mini album a few weeks ago.  It's my first "coffee-related" album.  The title "Life is Short, Stay Awake for It" is the theme from Caribou Coffee.  I loved it as soon as I read it, because I truly feel that way.  It was the perfect theme for my album on things I want to do someday.  I am loving mini albums.  I think they are the perfect thing for a new mom.  I get 15 minutes here and there, and when I put a few together, I get my mini album.  :)  It's fun!

"My Cup" Overfloweth

At a recent Bible study I attended, a speaker used a coffee mug as an object lesson to illustrate her relationships with other women.  Immediately I realized that I would have done the same thing, and I began to ponder this.  Though I do not get the opportunity as much anymore, I used to love going to a coffee shop with a friend.  Occasionally a group of us would go, but the memorable times involve just one or two close friends.  We would all order our coffee or drink of choice and sit and talk.  Conversations would cover guys or marriage, work, family, church, and an array of other things.  Sometimes there would be depth in the discussion and even confessions--things that wouldn't have been revealed in a phone conversation, an email exchange, or even a shopping trip.  They were things saved for discussion at this moment over this cup of coffee.  

On a bad day, I sometimes go to the coffee shop alone.  Sometimes it is just a day when I need to "regroup."  I need time for myself so that I can continue to be all that is demanded of me:  teacher, friend, daughter, sister, a spouse and a mother.  

The speaker's object lesson brought all these things to the forefront of my mind.  And then I thought about Biblical descriptions and the children's song about filling our cup with Christ and letting it overflow.  I love the connection between these things:  between my relationships with others and my relationship with Christ.  As I remembered the many wonderful times of friendship and growth and connection over a cup of coffee, I realized that my "cup of life" truly does runneth over.  I am blessed by so many friendships and so many memories of friendships over the past few years, and I am encouraged to think and wonder about the cups that will be shared in the future.

Connecting: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

We all find ourselves in situations where it is necessary to connect with new people.  Sometimes it comes from a move, and sometimes it just comes from life circumstances.  In army life (and 3 duty stations in 3 years), I have found the need to make new friends multiple times.  Loneliness can be dangerous at any time, but in army life it can be devastating.  Loneliness combined with fear (such as that found during deployments) is not a good combination!  Today in Bible Study (PWOC, Ft. Bragg), our devotion was on connecting with others and what the Bible has to say.  Four truths were presented on what the Bible says about connecting with others. 

 They came from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:

(9) Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  (10) For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!  (11) Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?  (12) And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  

The first truth found in verse 9 is that there is greater reward when we work together or have someone to work with.  This practical truth is easily forgotten when we try to "go at something alone."  But the Scripture plainly states that the outcome will be better when two (or more) face something together.  The second truth presented, found in verse 10, was that connections with others bring timely support.  As a wife, my husband is a wonderful source of support; however, as an army wife he cannot always be my "timely support" because I do face moments when he is not around or even unreachable.  Therefore, friendship with others is necessary!  

The third truth is found in verse 11, and it is mutual comfort.  This picture of physical comfort, can help us remember that there are times we need emotional comfort as well.  When we are faced with difficult circumstances, how wonderful is it to have a friend who understands and who can encourage us.  Finally, the fourth truth is found in verse 12:  there is strength in numbers.  God didn't create us to face life alone.  He meant for us to face it while connected to Him and to others.  So many visual illustrations accompany this verse, but we have all faced circumstances that also bring light to this truth.  

Today, in a new place, I was reminded how difficult it can be to connect with others, but also I was reminded of its importance.  Through all circumstances I must persevere, and find the connections God has for me.  In this way, I can fully realize the life that God has for me.

Addictions

I might be, could be, probably shouldn't be addicted to: Netflix, Make it or Break It (on ABC family), DVR, fast-forwarding commercials, Twilight series, Hummus, FoxNews, Facebook, scrapbooking, blogs, Ohio State Football, Harry Potter, and my Camera.

Busy Weekend

This weekend, Nathan's sister and her family came to visit.  They have two kids, Madeline age 5 and Nathaniel age 2.  We had a busy weekend including a trip the the NC zoo on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures to show you!

Elizabeth and Madeline baking cookies

At the Zoo.  Nathan and Thomas in front of the man made Marsh.

We visited the polar bear.  Thomas enjoyed watching the bear and seeing how big he was!

Enjoying one of my favorite treats, an ICEE!

Family Photo

A Murphy Family Photo

Cousins!

Nathaniel (almost 2), Madeline (almost 5), Thomas (7 months)

The End of a great weekend.