Be a "WHOSOEVER"

Be a what? A who?  As a Christian Mama, church is a HUGE part of our lives.  My wonderful DH and I are also the youth leaders at our church.  We have kids from 7th grade on up.  We even have a few college kids who just can't bear to leave us yet! Which I thank God for!  We love our kids and spend countless hours each week working on lessons, outings, or just checking in with our kids.  They are part of our family.  R has many siblings! Just not blood siblings....although when I think about it, they ARE blood siblings.  Because we are ALL covered in the blood of Christ.

Back to the WHOSOEVER: We are so blessed at our church to have a wonderful amazing man as our pastor.  He often mentions that we are all also "whosoever(s)".  John 3:16 says that God sent his only son to earth to die and that "whosoever" believes in Him shall live eternally with Him in heaven.  It's a free gift that we have been given.  But like any gift, we must ACCEPT it. If we do not accept it, then we are the whosoever’s of Rev. 20:15, those whose names are not written in the Book of Life. Those who spend eternity separated from God.  In the last week, we have had the honor and privilege to be part of not one, but TWO of kids accepting Christ as their as their savior.  As a youth leader and a Christian there is nothing better!!! I always think of it as another person added to my table in heaven where we will sit with the Lord.  Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”  This verse paints the picture of us seated with Christ, at the table, enjoying God’s delight in his Son’s perfect sacrifice. In that sacrifice, we are rid of brokenness and welcome at the table. We are able to partake of the victory over sin. (This explanation was found here.) There is an excellent song that portrays this very well which I will post at the end.  The song is what that explanation is referring too. 

So my challenge to you is to be a whosoever of John 3:16, not a whosoever of Revelation 20:15 as our shirts say!  And I pray that someday, I will see you at the table!

Carried To The Table :

Wounded and forsaken

I was shattered by the fall

Broken and forgotten

Feeling lost and all alone

Summoned by the King

Into the Master’s courts

Lifted by the Savior

And cradled in His arms

I was carried to the table

Seated where I don’t belong

Carried to the table

Swept away by His love

And I don’t see my brokenness anymore

When I’m seated at the table of the Lord

I’m carried to the table

The table of the Lord

Fighting thoughts of fear

And wondering why He called my name

Am I good enough to share this cup

This world has left me lame

Even in my weakness

The Savior called my name

In His Holy presence

I’m healed and unashamed

You carried me, my God

You carried me

You can see Crabb Revival's version of this song on You Tube by clicking HERE. (This is just MY personal favorite version!)

Window "mistreatments"!! FINALLY!!!!!

Well everyone, I know it's been a long time coming but here are the pics from my window mistreatments I made for my dining room. 

This is what my dining room windows looked like before I "mistreated" them.  They are just plain sage colored sheers from Wally World that I've had in there since we moved into this house 6 1/2 years ago.  I
was soooo sick of them!!!

Sooooo I did this to them!!!

I went to Hobby Lobby with an idea in mind of what I wanted.  I had looked around online and at Wally World too of course, and couldn't find anything I close to what I wanted.  So I went to my favorite store and bought the material myself.  Now, mind you, I "own" a sewing machine and it is even OUT of the box it came in, yet in the year I have owned it, I have NEVER used it.  I have no idea how!  So armed with my hot glue gun I cut the striped fabric the correct length and then hot glued them to the flowered fabric.  Yes I said I HOT GLUED them together.  It's totally fine for the fabric and no one has a clue unless I open my big mouth and tell them.  I "hemmed" all the edges with Stitch Witchery and then used fabric glue to glue down the ribbon that covers the area where I hot glued the two fabrics together.  You don't HAVE to do that I just like how finished it looks.  Also, I didn't hem the top of the panels at all.  Too lazy.  I simply rolled them down until the curtains were the length I wanted them and then clipped them to the rings on my curtain rods.  To do the two windows in my dining room and buying the new curtain rods and clips I spent maybe $50 and I got EXACTLY what I wanted.  The rods and clips I got at Big Lots (local discount store). 

I wanted to keep my shears up but once the new panels were in place they were way too long.  Hot glue and shears don't mix well so this was my cheap thrifty solution:

I played around with them and finally decided to just use some safety pins and pin them up in a kinda ruffle.  Here's a close up of what I did:

After I pinned all four of the shears I was done except for a few other finishing touches:

This is corner cabinet that belonged to C's great grandmother.  I "shopped the house" for the lamp and have since added an "S" monogram in black to the shade.  LOVE IT!!!  The "Amazing Grace-My Chains are Gone" cross was on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby and the red plate was on 66% off clearance there too.  Told you I was cheap thrifty. That beautiful Fenton pitcher and bowl were my grandmothers.  They are my favorite thing in the cabinet.  The plaque on the left of the pitcher and bowl is actually our wedding invitation a cousin had printed on there for us as a gift. 

The plate on the same side as the window was another Hobby Lobby find in the 66% off clearance aisle.  It was a coppery color.  My new BFF is Heirloom White spray paint so it got a coat and then I distressed it with some antiquing medium.  The three platters grouped together are from.....wait for it.........THE DOLLAR TREE!!!!!!!! Yep! They were silver when I bought them but thanks to my BFF they are now a pretty shade of white.  They too, got a coat of antiquing medium.  Since I took this pic, I also added some rub on stickers from, yep, you guessed it....The Dollar Tree! :o)

Close up of the Hobby Lobby platter.

The Dollar Tree platters. All of these I just hung up with those peel and stick cloth hangers.  Also from, The Dollar Tree! :o) My hubby would be so proud! He's the king of CHEAP, uh, thriftiness....

Another 66% off clearance find at Hobby Lobby.  It too, was the same coppery color as the platter from there.  Heirloom White and antiquing medium make all the difference!

The cross plaque is another Hobby Lobby find that was 50% off.  C actually found it for me! The framed fork and spoon I made from Dollar Tree frames spray painted with Heirloom white.  I then covered the backing of the frame with scrapbook paper and hot glued the fork and spoon directly to the paper.  Then hot glued the ribbon to the utensils.  They are from a set that were my grandmothers. I wanted to find some way to display them.  I found a pic of something similar on a friends blog.  Check her blog out here: Kelly At Home  Kelly, I hope you don't mind me linking to you! Love you, girl!

Thanks for looking and I hope you'll come back soon! Leave some comments and let me know what you think! Or if you have any questions about anything feel free to ask!

Also, I'm linking up with Kara for Look What I Made!!!