A Yellow and Green Easter

Here are pictures from another Easter we hosted a few years back at our last house. I love moss, so this was a fun theme to decorate for! I went on a "moss hunt" the morning before, gathering all sorts of moss from here and there around town. I created green mossy knolls on silver platters for mini daffodils to peak out from. It was fairly easy and a lot of fun to create!

Mossy knolls were built up around mini daffodils, creating our yellow and green theme.

The mossy rocks on either side were purchased at the dollar store (a bag of them for a buck!)

Here's a close up of the eggs. And you can see another one on the coffee table in the background.

I rolled the eggs in coffee grounds when they were still wet with dye, to give them a natural look.

I loved how the earthy speckles on the eggs complemented the earthy moss they were nestled in.

We used our different collections of white china - with gold and silver rims, and green leaves & blossoms.

Another close up of some of our yellow and green eggs and decor.

Outside the yellow, white & mossy green theme greeted guests.

I filled yellow wire baskets ($1 ea) with free moss and yellow pansies.

A large basket greeted guests - to put their filled eggs in to be hidden for the kids later.

Abby shows off her favorite egg she dyed herself.

Zoe shows off one of her eggs. This was three years ago, she looks so young!

A gorgeous spring day on the Palouse. I miss this huge old yard for its amazing views of the surrounding fields.

What a beautiful day to celebrate and what a fun way to do it! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  I look forward to sharing about how this year's Easter decor is shaping up. But above all, I love celebrating the whole meaning of Easter - Christ died, so that we may live. What a precious picture of LOVE. There is nothing more beautiful.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:15-17 ~  

¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves 

but for him who died for them and was raised again.  

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. 

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] 

The old has gone, the new is here!

A Blue and Brown Easter

I love hosting holidays. And I love our community. So the chance to host Easter for a small group of our friends is wonderful! I also love doing different themes for the decor. A few years back, at our old house, I did a blue and brown theme for the decor. Here are some pictures from that special day. I hope this will help give you some ideas for your Easter...

Blue and Brown ~

Blue-dyed eggshell centerpieces on each table. the eggs are nestled in moss.

Fill the eggshells with water and blue and white flowers, add blue candy eggs.

Coffee bar - I used my blue and brown transferware china for the occasion.

Different shades ob blue, white and natural brown eggs fill the hurricane glass for the buffet centerpiece.

The dessert buffet - complete with blue and white candy eggs!

Dessert Table with blue and white tablecloth and polka-dot napkins.

Everyone brought filled eggs to hide and share, this large basket with ribbon was used to disperse them.

This year even our family dressed in blue!

Sweet Abby, I loved this blue and white striped dress.

Our spunky Zoe - always the clown!

Xavier's first Easter with us - I love his sweet face in this picture.

A visiting lamb to pet made this an especially memorable Easter for the kids!

What a sweet memory this Easter was for us in our old house! I hope it gave you some inspiration. Next post will highlight another Easter decor theme... yellow and green! Stay tuned!

Lessons from A to Z ~ Putting on the Full Armor

Chad has recently introduced Xaiver and Zander to his favorite childhood superhero cartoons. Specifically, “Spiderman and His Amazing Friends”, after he discovered the original episodes were on Netflix. Ah the memories! The boys love it (and Chad still does too)!

What I love most though, is that the boys can’t watch a full episode without running in to their room and “suiting up” into full superhero gear. They put on a Spiderman or Superman costume, or put together their own “armor” with capes, masks and bright red rain boots. Only then are they ready to watch Spidey “save the day” as they call it. 

One episode and a costume is usually plenty of fuel for their imaginations. Then the TV goes off and they boys boldly fly around the house, armed with foam swords or light sabers, fighting enemies and saving an unsuspecting sister, cat or stuffed animal from the invisible perils that we were previously unaware of.

The boys are a wonderful reminder to me of the armor God has asked me to put on. I sometimes forget about the invisible perils all around me. But we have a real spiritual enemy that comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).  And he often attacks when we are being most effective in taking “enemy ground”.

With all the victories going on in our family and our ministry at Resonate Church, Chad and I have felt a spiritual battle raging. (Thankfully we are on the winning side!) We want to stand strong against the devil's schemes, put on the full armor of God and be victorious in Christ. We invite you to read and pray through the following verse with us:
  

Ephesians 6:10-19 ~

^"10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel..."

Lessons from A to Z ~ Year In Review

Last year was a BIG year for our family! I think its safe to say it was our BIGGEST yet. It was full of BIG THINGS—both wonderful and difficult. And God has stretched our faith, our wallets, and our hearts because of it. Here are some highlights (chronologically):

Big Court Trials - Both in February & June, we were in two of the biggest cases in our small area, involving our boys & 5 other parties. The trials were hard, stressful, and a first for us. But good things came out of it and we have maintained healthy relationships with all sides, even now after our adoption.

Visitations & more visitations - With all this, came lots of visits from biological family. On Skype, in hotels and DSHS rooms –we did it all!

Xavier’s Big Tonsils & Adenoids– The surgery caused Xavi a little anxiety, a lot of relief, & soon after better speech!

Potty training & more potty training - We potty-trained two kids, one successfully, one is still "in transition". Causing much trauma for Chad and I.  Seriously, we are on year two.  We covet your prayers.

 Craig’s Big Surgery - Star’s Dad had a major health scare in June. 2 surgeries, months in the hospital, and months in a wheel chair, he is now recovering. It was amazing to see how much he is loved though, and how much he loves the Lord. We were humbled to be a part of such a powerful thing. God is good!

Baptisms and more Baptisms - over 80 people were baptized last year at our church, including our own Zoe! Praise the Lord, what a wonderful thing!

Big House Issues - Between our rental and our house, a fridge, 2 ovens, a dishwasher, water heater, sewer line & foundation all failed on us since Fall. Ouch.

Abby’s Big Appendix - Just one week before Christmas, Abby went in for an emergency appendectomy. She was such a brave trooper! 

Paperwork & more Paperwork - We navigated through a flurry of adoption forms, interviews & certifications, hoping to squeak in the boys’ adoption before the New Year!

Our BIG Adoption - On December 23rd we drove back to the courthouse and officially adopted our precious sons. What a great ending to a challenging year!

  

Whew! Like I said, BIG stuff. But over this last year, we have experienced Christ more deeply, risked more for Him, learned more from Him, and clung to Him tighter. We have had seasons that are hard-fought, praying on our knees. And that's OK, God tells us these seasons will come. But He also tells us they will go.  And wonderful seasons of laughter and dancing soon follow.

 

 “To every thing there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  

…a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” 

  ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 ~

Valentines Day Tea

A few Saturdays ago we had a Valentines Day Tea and Luncheon for our girls and a few of their friends. 

I mixed and matched different pieces of my china with our red fiesta ware. The table was set with a red plastic table cloth, topped with a white lace table cloth. I found red card stock I already had and used a punch around the edges to create a pretty placemat. I tied everything together with large "confetti" made up of circles and hearts sprinkled around the table.

 I created a chandelier effect with balloons and tissue paper poufs.

I also made this fun (& free!) garland out of old scrapbooking paper, a circle-shaped punch, string and dabs of hot glue. Then I draped it everywhere!

The mantel got it too.  I displayed an antique cream and sugar set my mom gave me here too.

We had a simple, kid-friendly menu - including heart-shaped sandwiches (PB&J, cucumber & cream cheese and egg salad)...

... fruit...

 ...and yummy desserts, including cupcakes and decorate-your-own heart-shaped sugar cookies.

I invited moms to either drop their girls off or stay and have some coffee.

It was fun catching up in the dining room as we listened to our giggling girls in the kitchen.

To greet the guests as they came and left, the front door got a moss wreath, with a red bow and cookie cutter heart - a new combination of old things I had.

It was a fun and very sweet afternoon!

Kitchen Sneak Peak - Valentines Shelves

Over the last year we have been updating our kitchen, little by little, and nickle by nickle.  Our goal was to give it a well-designed, casual, classic cottage look for as little money as possible. We found free material, researched low-cost/high-impact updates and did all the work ourselves. Anything that did cost money, Chad and I "gifted" to each other for birthdays and Christmas. ("Merry Christmas honey, here is a new backsplash!") I'll be sharing all about our kitchen over the next week or so.

But today I'm giving you a sneak peak (and a "how to" break down) of our kitchen shelves, all decked out for Valentines Day:

I bought the 2 floating shelves at Walmart last Spring for about $19 each. They came with free subscriptions to Better Homes and Gardens. This was a nice little bonus that I gifted to two friends - which saved me a few bucks in our gift budget. 

They are floating shelves, quite sturdy on their own and can hold 10-15 lbs each. This is great because they also don't really put any weight on the decorative antique (aka fragile) corbels I added under them. They came with a metal bracket, anchors and wall screws.

Once I leveled and anchored the bracket to the wall, making sure I hit a few studs, the shelf slid over the bracket easily like so:

After the shelves were attached securely, I added some antique corbels to give more character and age to otherwise modern-looking shelves. 

I found a set of 6 of these corbels at a local salvage yard last year (they were my birthday present). They came from the exterior of a demo'd house. I got them for a deal because they were dirty, nail ridden, and splintered. But with some TLC, wood filler, and a little dry-brushed white paint, they cleaned up nicely. 

 

Since they are a little fragile, I pre-drilled small holes where I was nailing and screwing them into place. I also trimmed the corbels to fit the angle between the wall and shelves better.  Once all four corbels were in place, I caulked everything to give it a seamless look.

The polka-dot banner that is strung haphazardly, I made for a Valentines Tea my daughters are having this weekend.  (I'll be sure to share pics of that party soon!)  It will eventually get hung up over the table, but it added some Valentines color to the shelves for now.

 

I found any red or pink items I could from around the house, added some of our Fiestaware, silver platters and put left-over Valentines into an apothocary jar.

These shelves add so much character where there was none. And they are a great place to add fun seasonal decor into our kitchen. Here's another shot of them for February:

Here's what they looked like in January (pre-corbels):

Stay tuned for more of our Kitchen remodel soon!

Seahawks Girl

Most people who know me well, know that I'm don't follow football closely every season. And I don't often sit through a whole game.  BUT... I grew up in Seattle, sitting with my dad watching the Seahawks' Steve Largent, Jim Zorn and Curt Warner. I have been a Seahawks fan all of my life. And I'm so happy for the recent and amazing success of this team.

So proud to be a 12th man and missing Seattle a little more than usual today.