Poetry Attempt: Lament

A couple of years ago I was in a Sunday school class on Lamentations. Inspired, I researched the poetry of laments and found a rhythm of 5 syllables for each line in a stanza. (I adapted it a bit for mine). It does not necessarily need to rhyme, though some do. I decided to try my hand at it, and this is what I wrote. I came across it in one of my many journals and thought to journal it here. I hope you enjoy it!

A Lament of Blindness

Lord, I come not near
To Thy place of rest
My heart longs for joy
Toil steals my breath

There is so much more
Beyond what we see
I grieve my blind eyes
That veil Your glory

For now we see dim
Yet then face to face
Knowing not that day
Still, trusting Thy grace

How can I not come
To They mercy seat?
Standing first in awe,
Then fall at Your feet

God of hope, I pray
Bring me oft back here
To the place I see
Your beauty made more clear

Fall away the scales
My eyes treasured so
Thus a gift was hid
That I may not know

Thy Light shineth through
The darkest of night
To rescue Thy child
Restoring my sight

Your gift I now know
Grace through faith alone
Forgiveness with love
Jesus Christ hath shown

Now to the cross I look
No more grief and strife
For in the cross I find
Hope and rest and life

Blog Award!

IT'S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED!

After starting this blog only a couple of months ago, I am thrilled to announce that I have been nominated for a Leibster Award! This award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweet, kind, lovely, endearing, and welcome.

How it works:

• Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
• Answer questions that the tagger sets for you and then create 11 questions for the bloggers that you tag.
• Choose up to 11 bloggers and link them to your post
• Go to their page and tell them
• No tag backs :) 
• And lastly, have fun!!

11 Things about me:

1. I love my name, Sarah.

2. I am married to my best friend for 10 years, this Friday, July 20, '12

3. I have 3 boys who have far more energy than I do

4. I love animals - cats and dogs, but we only have a dog

5. I went to Belmont University and LOVED it

6. I L.O.V.E. tea like you would not believe!

7. I enjoy doing a thousand different things to create, but have not nearly enough time or money to devote to any of them whole-heartedly

8. I love getting to know new people and making new friends

9. I have ambitions to write a book on raising a son with autism from the Christian perspective to marry ABA therapy and Biblical instruction together

10. I have had a couple successful home businesses including a homemade cookie business and selling my own handbags

11. I make the world's BEST chocolate chip cookies. Just sayin'.

 

Questions from my nominator:

1. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would love to visit Italy. I have no family ties there or anything; it just looks like a beautiful place! Considering my new love for photography, I can only imagine the thousands of great shots to be had. I would also love to go back to Kenya, Africa where I went on a mission trip a couple of months ago with my husband and team of 11 others. Such a beautiful country!

2. Who is your best friend in the world and how did you meet him/her?

My best friend is my husband, Kyle. We met in college at Belmont University in 1998. We kept discovering random things we had in common with each other and our senior year, he proposed to me on campus in one of the beautiful historic gazebos. We celebrate our 10th anniversary of marriage together this Friday. He took me back to Nashville and treated me a bouquet of flowers from the same flower shop where he bought my bouquet the night he proposed, took me to The Melting Pot (the restaurant he took me to the night he proposed) and we took some pics in our gazebo. He's still my best friend and I love him!

 
3. Did you have a childhood hero, and if so, who was it?
I honestly cannot think of a childhood hero I had. I suppose though that I wanted to be like my mom, and I am! I wore her wedding dress at my wedding, my childhood dream. I am a wife and a mom, just like her.

4. What is your favorite beverage (alcoholic or not)?
TEA! I love tea. Black tea. I like iced tea, but my absolute FAVORITE is hot Earl Grey tea with three teaspoons of sugar and a little bit of milk. When we went to London (on a long layover on our way to Kenya), Kyle and I went to the Park Lane Hotel for afternoon tea. It was AMAZING!

5. If you could have a vacation home in a destination of your choice, where would it be?
Martha's Vineyard

6. What is your dream job?
I'm living it! Stay at home mom raising my kids. But if I were to get paid for something outside the home, it would be creating events and decorating for parties (on someone else's dime of course! but paid for my work in putting it all together). Our church had a ladies tea around Mother's Day, and I had a vision for what I wanted and pulled it all together. We had a Mad Hatter Tea Party table, a Breakfast at Tiffany's Diva table, and an Old-Fashioned Victorian table. A couple shots of each:

7. What is your greatest goal in life?

That's a doozie. To make an impact on everyone in my life and others beyond my direct sphere of influence to reach them for Christ. I want to make a difference in the world for the glory of God and the furtherance of His kingdom.

8. What is your idea of the perfect date?
Depends on my mood. Sometimes I want to get all gussied up and go out on the arm of my beau to a fancy shmancy restaurant and dancing; other times, it's walking around and happening upon an ice cream or sweets place and laughing and talking until we're too tired to stay awake anymore.

9. If you could buy anything (just one thing though), what would it be?
A cure for my son's autism.

10. Would you rather be able to sing or dance if you could only do one really well?
Sing.

11. What color do you wear to make yourself feel better?
Interesting question... I have lots of blues and salmon colors and some turquoises.

Boy Crazy

I have always been boy crazy. When I was in high school, I had more friends who were guys than I did girlfriends. I dated a lot and if I wasn't with someone, I had my eye on the next catch. Girls were just so... I don't know. Girls were snooty and always in an unofficial popularity contest with each other, even if they were best friends. Guys were just guys. You could hang out with them and you didn't have to put on a front. One of my best friends was a guy and we're still friends. We never dated, so we don't have any kind of tainted background. He was my best supporter and was like a big brother to me, offering to beat up anyone who hurt me in any way. And in good "big brother" fashion, he also practiced his karate moves and pressure points on me to torture me.

In college, I set my sights very early on a certain guy whom I now call my husband. Next week, we celebrate our 10th anniversary together! It's been a wonderful journey in marriage thus far. We wanted children, and we have three. I always wanted a girl, but alas, I was blessed instead with three high-energy boys! Benjamin is 8, Samuel is 6, and Joshua is 4. Over the next couple months, we'll transition ages to 8, 7 and 5. I'm in denial.

Benjamin is my firstborn, and he is just like me. If you have a child is just like yourself, you know how hard it is to parent yourself! :-) Our personalities are so alike, we end up clashing and butting heads because we're both strong-willed people. I love him though - this blond-haired, blue eyed kid who mirros his father as a child in looks, and is growing bigger every day. He's recently come into his personality a bit more with his humor. The things he says sometimes are surprising, and so funny! He's such a literal thinker too, so everything we have to explain must be in concrete concepts. He loves music - drumming with his hands and singing, riding his bike, playing with our dog, and he still loves cuddling with me.

Samuel is our middle child, and he is his own person in every way. When he was 27 months old, he was diagnosed with autism. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he has a very special place in my heart. I'm sure mothers of more than one child can attest to the fact that we all love our children equally, but differently. I love Sam just as much as my other boys, and vice versa, but I love him far differently as well. He has an amazing memory, knows countries by their flags, remembers dates - especially movie release dates. He has a way showing me that he loves me at the most random times and in such sweet ways.

A few months ago, we got a golden retriever to raise and train as an autism assistance dog for Sam. Wouldn't you know it - it's a boy! Everyone, meet Fred.

Joshua is our baby, and he knows it. All my kids are cute, but Josh is honestly the cutest one. He has this fine hair that covers his head like a helmet and enormous blue eyes with the longest, blackest eye lashes. And he is a H.A.M.! Just aim a camera in his direction, and he'll flash you the best smile you've ever seen. He skips all over the place, climbs and wrestles with his daddy, and follows his big brothers around like a puppy dog, copying everything they do (much to the chagrin of Ben and Sam sometimes).

As much as I think I would love to have a girl to buy ruffles and bows for and play with her hair, my boys are the lights of my life, and I wouldn't trade any of them out for sugar and spice and "all that's nice". I'm quite happy with our life of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Not to mention as the only woman in the house, there's no competition for the position of Queen!







This post is part of a blog challenge by http://www.lovekate.me/. Check it out for other great blogs!

Not So Fanciful Sojourn

Our family of 6, two adults, three kids and a dog, are on our way to Indiana for a two week vacation with family. I am playing on my phone scoping out all Google Play apps and found a good app called pixlr-o-matic. I guess it's like the droid version of Instagram.

I saw that Instagram is available on droid now, but apparently not ALL phones. It loaded onto our android tablet but not my android phone. Anyway, pixlr seems to be a good way to edit photos and make them all cool and whatnot. This is my first mobile blogging experience, so I don't quite know how the pic will show up. I didn't pixlr it since I took the pic from blogger. But this is my 8yr old, Ben, showing off his brother's kid's meal toy from lunch at Wendy's.

I'm excited to see Kyle's parents and brothers again. We just saw his parents when we returned from Africa since they had kid duty our second week of the trip, but I love our family so I'm looking forward to spending good quality time with them. They're taking off from work a few random days to do fun things with us, like going to Holiday World.

Tomorrow, I get to see a new long-distance friend I met once in person. We both have a child with autism. Both are the middle child. She has 3 girls and I have 3 boys. We're taking them to a nice indoor playground tomorrow and the kids will meet for the first time. It will be the first time since preschool that Sam meets someone else his age with autism. I think and hope it will be good for him to see he's not the only one.

Kyle's mom's birthday was yesterday so we're having a bday dinner with her tonight. Yay! We have about 5 1/2 hours left. Everyone is still alive... for now. :-)

Painted Canvas with Bible Verse

Continuing with a newfound interest in creating art with canvas, here is my latest project from start to finish:

Supplies I used:
* Canvas frame
* Letter stickers
* Paint leftover from a friend's living room makeover
* Foam brush
* Sandpaper (your choice of courseness)
* Mod Podge

Step One: After choosing what words you want, attach your letter stickers to the canvas.

I should have drawn straight lines in pencil first using a ruler for spacing so I didn't have to move around the letters so much which later altered how the letters came out since paint got underneath the peeling letters from being moved so much. Lesson one learned.



Step Two: Paint over the letters on the canvas front and sides (if desired) with a foam brush or roller (I had a foam brush on hand).
Be careful! The thinner your letters are, the more difficult it can be to paint over them without parts of the letters coming up and paint getting underneath. Lesson two learned.

I didn't have a place inside, so I took advantage of the cooler evening outside in the yard where it didn't matter if paint spilled a little. Canvas all covered!

Step Three: Let dry until completely dry (I let it dry overnight)

Step Four: Peel off the letters. Again, the thinner the letters, the more difficult this process can be.

Lesson three learned.

To help with this process, I used the point of a seam ripper to gently peel up the letters. You can also use an xacto knife. Either way, be very careful not to puncture the canvas. Lesson four learned. Only a couple tiny holes - nothing noticeable in the end.





Step Five: I used fine sandpaper to gently rub all over the front and some spots on the edges to give it that sweet "shabby chic" distressed look.

Step Six: Probably optional, but I coated the entire canvas - front and all sides - with a couple coats of Mod Podge using a foam brush. DONE!

Last step - wrapping it up and giving to my girlfriend for her 30th birthday. Hope she likes it!

Blog Button with Grab Box Tutorial That WORKS!!!

After MUCH time researching and trying out various blog button WITH grab box tutorials, I FINALLY came across one that worked, so I wanted to share it with you!

The winning tutorial comes from Rebekah at her Just for Daisy blog, http://justfordaisy.blogspot.com/. Rather than copying what she already did and re-writing it, I'm just going to send you to her awesome Blog Button WITH Grab BoxTutorial.

She also does a great job explaining how to create the image for your button first. You can use whatever photo editing program you like - Photobucket, Fotoflexer, or my newest discovery that I used (same platform as the now closed Picnik), Ribbet. Tons of options, and I especially liked all the available fonts to use!

How I created my blog button image:

First, I wanted a puzzle piece background for my autism blog, so I did a Google image search and found this:

I wanted to include a cross and of course, my blog name. Using borders, stickers and text, this is my finished product:





When I was finished creating the image, I saved it and uploaded it to my Photobucket album, then opened it for editing. I resized it to a pre-determined square size of 120x120 (I think that's what it was). It HAS to be square; the most common size is 125x125.

After resizing and saving, go ahead and keep the page open in one tab and open up the tutorial by Just for Daisy in another window. I also recommend opening up a blank Word document so you can work on your code before copying and pasting to your blog html.

Now that I finished one blog button with a grab box for my other blog, I can start working on my Fanciful Sojourns blog button!

Off you go now - happy button making!

Canvas Art Tutorial

How exciting is this? For months, I've looked up all kinds of great ideas from Pinterest and read all kinds of cool tutorials on all kinds of blogs. I've never actually written my own tutorial though.

From everything I read, I figured the projects I wanted to make couldn't be hard. Slap some Mod Podge on whatever you want, and voila! Ok, it might be slightly more involved than that. But it truly is seriously easy!

My project idea: Create canvas art using the word "thrive" for a friend's birthday present - she loves the idea of thriving, and we saw something in a store once that was some sort of chime with a metal word "thrive" dangling, but it was too expensive. So I tucked away her excitement of the word to be used later. Now is later!

Supplies I used:
* small 5x7 canvas frame from Michaels I bought on sale with a coupon
* Mod Podge (aka M.P.) - the magic component of all art projects. It is both a glue and a sealant.
* fabrics of choice
* scissors
* foam brushes
* sticker letters in whatever font and color you desire
* staple gun (loaded with staples, of course!)
* ruler (used to smooth out fabric - not necessary, you can also just use your fingers)

I found some cute fabric - one to use for a background, and one with a variety of butterflies on it - both color and size. I chose one small and one larger with the background color in it and carefully cut out each butterfly with my scissors.

I laid the canvas on top of the fabric and cut out the fabric with a couple extra inches to be able to wrap around to the back of the frame. I probably could have cut it closer, but that's one lesson learned.

I got a little too excited and stretched the fabric over the canvas and started to staple it to the back when I realized I needed to have Mod Podged the canvas and back of fabric first so it would stick to the canvas. I took out one side from the back, folded the fabric back from the canvas and swiped the front and all sides of the canvas as well as the back of the fabric with a foam brush dipped in M.P., then stretched the fabric back on top of the canvas using the ruler and my fingers to smooth out any wrinkles and stretch it really tightly across the front.

After that, I flipped over the canvas to work on tacking the fabric to the back. I folded the edge of the fabric under so it lined up with the wood frame neatly, then stapled along the edges of the two long sides.

To tack the short sides, I folded the fabric like a present on the sides and kind of fudged the edges so when I folded up the fabric over the side, the edge of the fabric lined up with the edge of frame. This kind of made the sides not lie completely flat though, so I need to work on my folding skills for next time. I folded the fabric edge under like I did before and stapled to the frame.

With all the sides stapled to the back, I covered the front and all sides of the now fabric-covered canvas with a layer of M.P. and let it dry for about 15 - 20 min.

To attach the sticker letters, I swiped the area where the word would go with a layer of M.P. then immediately peeled off each letter and placed it on the canvas. I should have let it dry before the next step, which is why I had trouble with the next part. So I advise that you let the letters dry on the M.P. first before moving on.

I used the foam brush to apply a layer of M.P. on top of the letters, but since I didn't let it dry first before covering it, the letters kept coming up and I had to use my fingers to hold them down as I brushed on the glue. After the letters were in place and covered with a layer of glue, I let it dry about 10 minutes (maybe a bit longer... I didn't set the timer.)

Now for the butterfly placement. I brushed the backs of the pretties with glue and placed them where I wanted them on the canvas. I could have let it dry first, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal so I went ahead and used my fingers to hold them in place while I covered the tops of them and the entire front and sides with M.P. and let dry.

Lastly, after the last layer dried, I coated the whole thing with another good layer of Mod Podge and let it dry.

Done! And so pretty. I really hope my friend likes her birthday present!

Aspirational: A Blog Challenge A-Z About Me

I am participating in a blog challenge hosted by Love Kate. Each week, I will be writing a post on a word about myself that begins with the coordinating letter of the alphabet on the Blog Challenge. This week's word "About Me":

ASPIRATIONAL

This word is an adjective form of "aspire", meaning "being ambitious or desiring success". As I was thinking through what I wanted to begin this challenge with, I tossed around a few ideas first: Autism- Mom, Ambitious, Arbitrary to name a few. I wanted a word that described the fact that I love lots of things, there is much variety in my life, and I have lots of "pie-in-the-sky" ideas about all of them. "Aspirational" seemed to fit me perfectly.

I aspire to be lots of things: a great wife, a great mom, a successful blogger, an effective encourager, a great homemaker (not just housekeeper - a HOMEmaker), a unique crafter, the best advocate for my son with autism, a good friend to many and a best friend to a few, a loving daughter, a cool sister, and so many more things. I have so many aspirations. I am ambitious at times in each of these categories (somewhat lackadaisical at other times), and I certainly desire success in them all.

What I aspire most to do though, is to make a difference. To be someone who really impacts the world and does something to change it, if even in some small way. Of course, my ego and driving pride desire for that impact to be huge and noticeable - to really be seen by lots of people. Important people. I have another blog where I write about our journey raising a son with autism called Post Tenebras Lux: Hope in Autism. It's a virtual presence here on the World Wide Web - it's out there, ready to be seen by the great expanse we reverently call, "The Blogosphere". (Okay, only some of us call it that. Okay, none of us call it that - at least not "reverently".) Though it is still a presence, it's only a tiny existence in comparison to the rest of the bloggy world. And that's okay, because I think that the life that it holds there has already fulfilled in part the aspirations that I held for it at its creation to build up, to encourage, and to share our story with special needs families in need of hope.

I aspire to be that person who gets featured in news stories about the great things I'm doing for my community, for the autism cause at large, for being able to give extravagantly - like the guy who raised a ton of money for the woman who was bullied on the bus, or like Nicholas Cage who shared his winning lottery ticket with a nobody waitress.

I aspire to be the mom who has an awesome art project for her kids every day - and likes doing it with them. I want to be the friend who says yes to everything to be a help. I aspire to be the wife and mom who makes our house a home, a safe haven from the big bad world outside our front door. I aspire to be a daughter who never disappoints my parents, but who makes them proud in everything I do. (I might be a grown woman, but there's still that little girl inside who needs her mommy sometimes and still needs dad's strong hugs to make it all better.)

I aspire to do something to keep my house clean EVERY DAY. Truly, I have aspirations to have a laundry room floor clear of random socks and towels and superhero costumes with spilled apple juice or chocolate milk on them. Usually, it's the kind of aspirations that require an inhaler, but they are aspirations just the same, right? :-)

I aspire to MAKE and DO everything I pin onto my Pinterest boards. I love to create, and have spent the last several years creating in several different ways. I used to have a cookie business, then I had a handmade bag business, and now I just kind of make whatever I want and hope that it becomes something I could sell that does actually sell. More recently, I've become a couponer - not THAT kind. But I have saved incredible amounts of money without clearing shelves and building my own store in my basement to provide for my family. For a while, that aspiration was fulfilled. But it's been a while since I've done it, so it's back on the "aspiring" list again.

The more aspirations I have, the more ideas I get to make something of myself or my ideas, the more it seems that maybe the "big dreams" are going to be just that - big dreams. Things that really don't become what I want, or hope they will become. It doesn't really stop me from continuing to dream big, or aspire to something more. I think that's just part of who I am. It's those big dreams that motivate me to take small steps towards fulfilling those dreams. But I also aspire to be content in my little corner of the world, in my little home with my little kids in our little town. Maybe my impact won't be on Facebook's 1 million+ "Likes" with millions more "talking about this". Maybe my community won't be hugely changed because of some incredible difference I've made, and maybe news stations won't hear about me through the grapevine. But I can still make a difference.

I can make a difference to three young boys who will one day be men who just might do something grand to really change the world. I can still encourage my girlfriend who needs a shoulder to cry on, or needs flowers to brighten her day. I can still be a loving daughter who honors my parents, even if we don't always agree on things. I can still make my house a home, even if it's not the same as a pristine model home that isn't truly lived in. I can still express my ideas in my creations whether or not they earn money. I can still keep my laundry floor cleared - oh, who am I kidding?! :-) (Did I mention I also have secret aspirations of being a motivational speaker/comedienne?)

I am "Aspirational". Good thing I don't have asthma. :-) (Please, I mean no offense to those who do!) This week's aspiration: coming up with a descriptive word for myself that starts with the letter "B" for next week's blog challenge post! I hope you'll come back for more and follow me to keep up with all the rest of my "fanciful sojourns" along the way. Thanks for reading!

Sarah @ Fanciful Sojourns