Pink Paper Peppermints - Craft. Create. Celebrate.

cold night thankful {heARTs} and warm soup

brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Wow.  It is really *ccccold* in Texas tonight!

thankful thursday

What a difference a week makes!  God is so good and my dad is doing so well.  My heart is overflowing with gratitude towards those who have been praying for us.  I really do feel your prayers and I count it an honor that you would take that time in your chatting with the Lord to mention me & my daddy. Really, I do.  It's humbling.

I'm thankful for so many things, but today I'm especially thankful for this box of bolts and fuses sitting next to me (hubby is correcting me somewhere in his head right now - fuses, bolts, circuits, whatever) that has allowed me to take a peek into some of your lives, pray for you, laugh with you, go on wild, rabbitty blog trails (spell check is outraged at the word rabbitty - ha!) with you, finding other amazing women who are just trying to be good moms and not throw the tv out the window (or some other mommy impulse) every day. 

I am really grateful that God is showing me that I'm right where I need to be, doing exactly what He wants me to be doing right now. 

That being a mother is valuable.  yep.  it is. 

That loving and nurturing these two little people (well one is *hardly* little anymore, but you know what I mean) is critical to the success of the mission.  I'm needed here right now.  And I'm so thankful that I'm finally getting that.

So thankful.

{heART}

Remember my e-zine from the other blog?  "The {heART} of the Matter"?  I'm gonna start that over here.  Soon.  I have lots of ideas and a whole new implementation concept (you know, like um...actually doing it).  Anyway...look out for a little sign up dealie in the sidebar and a little treat for those who sign up first!

and more {heART}


I am so ready for Valentine's Day!!  You may have guessed from the colors of my blog that I like pink & red. No. really.  I do.

As you can imagine Valentines is my funnest!

(heh-heh, kidding...I know that's not a sentence a grown up would say - it's just fun saying it...don't freak out writer types and grammar peoples...k?) 

So I am getting ready to make lots of pretties!  Look!

The fabric & ribbon is stuff I've had for awhile.

I just picked up the above today.  Pink legal pads...isn't that the greatest??  How inspired are my notes going to be now??

I'm actually going to be sewing some fabric instead of paper for a change so I needed some straight pins and a...pin...holder...thingie.  Now I know the tomato pin cushion (there it is - pin cushion) is sort of utilitarian and *not* handmade and I actually saw some sweet ones on Etsy that I loved, but when I saw the tomato today...well...it just reminded me of my mom and being a little girl

(who refused to learn how to sew, by the way, when she had a fabulously talented seamstress of a mom willing to teach her and whose grown up self does not now appreciate that she was so hard-headed about that!)

and I don't know...I felt sentimental about it...plus...you know it's red and look how cute it looks against that pink notepad!?

So I am hoping to get lots of craftiness done this weekend and have all kinds of good papery, fabric-y things to show you on Monday!

warm soup

And finally what we had for dinner tonight:

I typically don't do packaged stuff...yuk...but this is "all natural" and really it's just the dried beans and spices, which unless you're planning on growing and drying your own beans and spices....(I know there is someone reading this who probably *does* that!)....then I think it's ok.

Besides which, it has ribbon on the package and really...how bad can a food product be that comes with ribbon??

So here it is after just pouring it in to the water.  Doesn't it look pretty?

(Just FYI, if you are the "non-instruction-reading" type and go and just pour the beans into the pot...you may end up pouring the little seasoning packet into the pot too...and then have to fish it out...not that I did that or anything...'cause...you know...I *always* read the instructions....)

I added some sauteed onions, peppers and garlic as well as a little chopped smoked ham and it turned out pretty yummy.  I think next time I will add more veggies though, like celery, carrots and more peppers. 

Alright then...snuggle up with your families and friends or just a good book and hot mug of tea and keep warm tonight!

Don't forget to enter my bloggy giveaway  if you haven't....it's the last night before I pick a winner!

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"At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way."
-Luke 10:21

thankful thursday

"There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"

-Romans 5:3-5

Today as we were driving home from the hospital I was feeling tired and a little complain-y.  I started to think, "I'll be glad when this is over, I wish this hadn't happened....why *did* this happen" and then I caught myself and actually changed my thought process to, "this is building faith, this is testing my endurance...this is where all the talk proves that it's not just talk....why would I wish this away?...I get to stand on what I believe and let my faith work itself out.  I can do this, it's not even a big deal."

That moment almost slipped by.  It happened so quickly I didn't even recognize it.  Only later when I read the scripture below (the same scripture in The Message is above) at the Thankful Thursday blog did I realize that I had embraced the troubles in that moment. 

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” ~ Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)

Sometimes, (okay a lot of times) I am sooooooo hard on myself.  And today I felt a little nudge from the Holy Spirit saying, "you are doing this, this is what it looks like, to stand in faith, to rejoice in troubles".

I guess I had a vision of trumpets playing and Super-Spiritual-Woman spinning into her costume and with hands on her hips and feet spread apart valiantly proclaiming to the sky....

"I AM REJOICING IN TROUBLES...troubles....troubles...troubles....."

That would be fun (and kinda funny, what would her costume look like??), but it's really not what happens.  It's just small moments of taking thoughts captive, of guarding my tongue, of walking in peace when it's stormy all around me.

So today I am thankful for:

* Troubles

*The Holy Spirit

*God's tender mercies that are new every morning

*Realizing that I'm doing this.  I can do this.

*and maybe picturing super-spiritual-woman's costume to make me laugh when I don't feel like laughing.

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"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."
-John 14:26