1.28.2012

Pinterest Inspired me to do it myself!

It is no secret around our house that I am a Pinterest addict. It is the most amazing website for all things crafty, along with so much more! I love browsing their DIY (do it yourself) section to see what I might could actually do myself!

I have posted before about the birth stats art I have been doing but just wanted to share a few pictures of some orders that I've had. Can I tell you how excited I get to see people putting these up in their homes?!?!


 This was not a birth stats obviously but one very dear to my heart. This is Harrison, who is the 10 year old son of one of JR's favorite seminary professors. If you follow the blog you remember me asking you to pray for him because he was diagnosed with Leukemia in December. I found out that their family was praying Psalm 126 over and over and so I wanted to make them something that represented that exact thing they were praying. Harrison got the greatest news this last week.... HE IS IN REMISSION! Praising Jesus for sure :)

 Being on a very tight budget this year for Christmas caused me to use Pinterest in a real way. After searching for just the perfect gift for all the grandparents I realized there wasnt much to choose from for grandparents who had very unique names. And after my Mom said all she wanted was something with "Cici and Pipper" on it... the decision was made.
 personalized grandparents frame made by the Cricut and myself!
 I am also big on any other way to have pictures as decor and in your home so Pinterest also inspired this idea of photo coasters. I am so thrilled with how they all turned out and I finally did a craft for myself too! These wonderful photos that Stacey took of us are now all throughout our home and used daily as coasters!
 I ended up making about 10 sets.... and the grandparents LOVED them! Another point for Pinterest!
 I was on the lookout for yet another personalized gift to give and ran across some ornaments. These were so fun to decorate!

 This one is difficult to tell because of all the BLING but it says "She said YES!" for my brother and his fiance :)
Last but not least, this frame really ended up being my favorite thing yet. Cant wait to make many more of these!!

I am happy to take orders! Please email me at lgriffi2@gmail.com

1.26.2012

Disobedience

This past week has been one like any other. Our sweet little 2 1/2 year old has mastered the term disobedience. He has had other times where he would get in trouble for things, but nothing like this week. Literally EVERYTHING I tell him to do, he does the exact opposite. Very uncharacteristic of his usual self by throwing things, screaming at me, hitting his brother and doing everything he can to push the limit. I know that he is learning to test who is boss and just what he can get away with. We have spent more time disciplining him this week than all his other days combined. Every time he disobeys I bring him in front of me and ask him what he just did and he already knows; "Disobey, he will say. We talk about making the right choices and doing things that please Jesus. After his spanking I pray with him and we ask Jesus to help his heart.

Though this process has been EXHAUSTING to say the least, it has also been pretty humbling to me. In wanting to show him grace, just as I have been shown, it truly hearts my heart every time he does it. All of that to say, imagine how much I disappoint God every single day too. As my Father in heaven, he wants whats best for me and loves me more than anything. There are many times during the day that I deliberately choose to disobey what He has asked of me. I let me own desires or selfishness get the best of me... and yet He continually gives me grace.

I have been taken back by the book, The Gospel, that I have been reading for the past few weeks. The author spends several chapters engraining in us that, "there is nothing we can do to make God loves us more, and there is nothing we can do to make Him loves us less." That is really a hard thing to realize. So often as Christians we think, well if I go to church this week or if I choose to love my neighbor today then God will love me more and I will find favor with Him. That is true that He will love us... but He already does. He loved us first.

I am incredibly grateful to have a Father who loves me more than I can comprehend, no matter what. And I only hope I can be the kind of mother who extends that same grace.

1.25.2012

Happy 30th birthday my love!

JR, Wishing you a Happy 30th birthday today and so blessed by your life in so many ways. I would have never imagined when I met you over 16 years ago that God would give us so many incredible blessings in our life together. Even when we were dating or when I said, "I do," I truly had NO idea! God has used your life in a powerful way these last 30 years. To watch you follow Him with all that you are and now dedicating your life to see others know the truth of His gospel is such a beautiful thing. To see the way that you love me as your bride, with all my blemishes, with a love that is greater than I have ever known on this earth. To look at the way you look at your two boys and make the comment, "I LOVE being a Daddy... its my hobby!"  To see how determined you are to make your life count for Jesus, no matter the cost. To watch you wake up before any of us to have time to be intentional for our family as the leader of our home. To see you comfortable in your own skin, all of your Papaw ways and all! To hear you say you truly want to be my best friend. To watch you wrestle in the floor with our boys and in the same second give them more hugs and kisses than they can handle. To see the way you love your friends and minister in whatever way you can to those around you because you simple want them to love Jesus.  To hear your determination to make your next 30 years count for Jesus. To be able to be your partner through this incredible life on earth. To know without a doubt that you will finish well. For all of these things and so much more... I am truly blessed to be your bride!

Happy birthday to the most incredibly awesome man I know... I love you :)


To continue the theme of 30... here are 30 of my favorite pictures of your life through the last 30 years:



























Happy birthday Daddy!

1.04.2012

Just for fun

I saw this on Pinterest via http://studerteam.blogspot.com and had to share!
 
 
25 Rules for Moms with Sons




1. Teach him the words for how he feels.
Your son will scream out of frustration and hide out of embarrassment. He'll cry from fear and bite out of excitement. Let his body move by the emotion, but also explain to him what the emotion is and the appropriate response to that emotion for future reference. Point out other people who are feeling the same thing and compare how they are showing that emotion. Talk him through your emotions so that someday when he is grown, he will know the difference between angry and embarrassed; between disappointment and grief.



2. Be a cheerleader for his life
There is no doubt that you are the loudest person in the stands at his t-ball games. There is no doubt that he will tell you to "stop, mom" when you sing along to his garage band's lyrics. There is no doubt that he will get red-faced when you show his prom date his pictures from boy scouts. There is no doubt that he is not telling his prom date about your blog where you've been bragging about his life from his first time on the potty to the citizenship award he won in ninth grade. He will tell you to stop. He will say he's embarrassed. But he will know that there is at least one person that is always rooting for him.


3. Teach him how to do laundry
..and load the dishwasher, and iron a shirt. He may not always choose to do it. He may not ever have to do it. But someday his wife will thank you.





4. Read to him and read with him.
Emilie Buchwald said, "Children become readers on the laps of their parents." Offer your son the opportunity to learn new things, believe in pretend places, and imagine bigger possibilities through books. Let him see you reading...reading the paper, reading novels, reading magazine articles. Help him understand that writing words down is a way to be present forever. Writers are the transcribers of history and memories. They keep a record of how we lived at that time; what we thought was interesting; how we spoke to each other; what was important. And Readers help preserve and pass along those memories.




5. Encourage him to dance.
Dance, rhythm, and music are cultural universals. No matter where you go, no matter who you meet - they have some form of the three. It doesn't have to be good. Just encourage your son that when he feels it, it's perfectly fine to go ahead and bust a move.



6. Make sure he has examples of good men who are powerful because of their brains, their determination, and their integrity.
The examples of men with big muscles and a uniform (like Batman and LaMarr Woodley) will surround your son from birth. But make sure he also knows about men who kick a$s because of their brains (Albert Einstein), and their pen (Mark Twain), and their words (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and their determination (Team Hoyt), and their ideas (The Wright Brothers), and their integrity (Officer Frank Shankwitz), and fearlessness (Neil Armstrong), and their ability to keep their mouths closed when everyone else is screaming (Jackie Robinson).


7. Make sure he has examples of women who are beautiful because of their brains, their determination, and their integrity
The examples of traditionally beautiful women (like Daphne Blake, Princess Jasmine, and Britney Spears) will surround your son from birth. But make sure he knows about women who are beautiful from the inside out because of their brains (Madame Marie Curie), and their pen (Harper Lee), and their words (Eleanor Roosevelt), and their determination (Anne Sullivan), and their ideas (Oprah Winfrey), and their integrity (Miep Gies), and fearlessness (Ameila Earhart), and their ability to open their mouths and take a stand when everyone else is silent (Aung San Suu Kyi).


8. Be an example of a beautiful woman with brains, determination, and integrity.
You already are all of those things. If you ever fear that you are somehow incapable of doing anything - remember this: If you have done any of the following: a) grew life b) impossibly and inconceivably got it out of your body c) taken care of a newborn d) made a pain go away with a kiss e) taught someone to read f) taught a toddler to eat with a utensil g) cleaned up diarrhea without gagging h) loved a child enough to be willing to give your life for them (regardless if they are your own) or i) found a way to be strong when that child is suffering...you are a superhero. do not doubt yourself for one second. Seriously.





9. Teach him to have manners
because its nice. and it will make the world a little better of a place.





10. Give him something to believe in
Because someday he will be afraid, or nervous, or heartbroken, or lost, or just need you, and you won't be able to be there. Give him something to turn to when it feels like he is alone, so that he knows that he will never be alone; never, never, never.



Source: theberry.com via Chris on Pinterest


11. Teach him that there are times when you need to be gentle
like with babies, and flowers, and animals, and other people's feelings.





12. Let him ruin his clothes
Resolve to be cool about dirty and ruined clothes. You'll be fighting a losing battle if you get upset every time he ruins another piece of clothing. Don't waste your energy being angry about something inevitable. Boys tend to learn by destroying, jumping, spilling, falling, and making impossible messes. Dirty, ruined clothes are just par for the course.



13. Learn how to throw a football
or how to use a hockey stick, or read music, or draw panda bears (or in my case alpacas), or the names of different train engines, or learn to speak Elvish, or recognize the difference between Gryffindor and Slytherin, or the lyrics to his favorite song. Be in his life, not as an observer but as an active participant.





14. Go outside with him
turn off the television, unplug the video games, put your cellphone on the charger, even put your camera away. Just go outside and follow him around. Watch his face, explore his world, and let him ask questions. It's like magic.


15. Let him lose
Losing sucks. Everybody isn't always a winner. Even if you want to say, "You're a winner because you tried," don't. He doesn't feel like a winner, he feels sad and crappy and disappointed. And that's a good thing, because sometimes life also sucks, no matter how hard (as moms) we try to make it not suck for our kids. This practice will do him good later when he loses again (and again, and again, and again, and again.....) Instead make sure he understands that - sometimes you win - sometimes you lose. But that doesn't mean you ever give up.



Source: None via Emma on Pinterest


16. Give him opportunities to help others
There is a big difference in giving someone the opportunity to help and forcing someone to help. Giving the opportunity lights a flame in the heart and once the help is done the flame shines brighter and asks for more opportunities. Be an example of helping others in your own actions and the way your family helps each other and helps others together.




17. Remind him that practice makes perfect.
This doesn't just apply to performance-based activities (like sports and music) but also applies to everything in life. You become a better writer by writing. You become a better listener by listening. You become better speaker by speaking. Show your son this when he is just young enough to understand (that means from birth, folks - they are making sense of the world as soon as they arrive), practice trick-or-treating at your own front door before the real thing. Practice how you will walk through airport security before a trip. Practice how you order your own food from the fast food cashier. Practice, practice, practice.


18. Answer him when he asks, "Why?"
Answer him, or search for the answer together. Show him the places to look for the answers (like his dad, or grandparents, or his aunts/uncles, or his books, or valid internet searches). Pose the question to him so he can begin thinking about answers himself. Someday, when he needs to ask questions he's too embarrassed to ask you - he'll know where to go to find the right answers.





19. Always carry band-aids and wipes on you.
especially the wipes.



Source: babyhold.com via Katie on Pinterest


20. Let his dad teach him how to do things
...without interrupting about how to do it the 'right way.' If you let his dad show and teach and discover with your son while he is growing up, some day down the road (after a short period of your son believing his dad knows nothing), he will come to the realization that his dad knows everything. You will always be his mother, but in his grown-up man heart and mind, his dad will know the answers. And this will be how, when your son is too busy with life to call and chat with his mom, you will stay connected to what is happening in his life. Because he will call his dad for answers, and his dad will secretly come and ask you.





21. Give him something to release his energy
drums, a pen, a punching bag, wide open space, water, a dog. Give him something to go crazy with - or he will use your stuff. and then you'll sorry.





22. Build him forts
Forts have the ability to make everyday normal stuff into magic. Throw the couch cushions, a couple blankets, and some clothespins and you can transform your living room into the cave of wonders. For the rest of his life, he'll be grateful to know that everyday normal stuff has the potential to be magical.




Source: None via Tabitha on Pinterest

23. Take him to new places
Because it will make his brain and his heart open up wider, and the ideas and questions and memories will rush in.




Source: None via Anne on Pinterest


24. Kiss him
Any mother of sons will tell you that little boys are so loving and sweet. They can be harsh and wild and destructive during most of the day. But there are these moments when they are so kind and sensitive and tender. So much so that it can cause you to look around at the inward, reserved grown men in your life and think, 'what happens in between that made you lose that?' Let's try to stop the cycle by kissing them when they're loving and kissing them even more when they're wild. Kissing them when they're 2 months and kissing them when they're 16 years old. You're the mom - you can go ahead and kiss him no matter how big he gets - and make sure he knows it. p.s. (this one is just as important for dad's too).






25. Be home base
You are home to him. When he learns to walk, he will wobble a few feet away from you and then come back, then wobble away a little farther and then come back. When he tries something new, he will look for your proud smile. When he learns to read, he will repeat the same book to you twenty times in a row, because you're the only one who will listen that many times. When he plays his sport, he will search for your face in the stands. When he is sick, he will call you. When he really messes up, he will call you. When he is grown and strong and tough and big and he feels like crying, he will come to you; because a man can cry in front of his mother without feeling self-conscious. Even when he grows up and has a new woman in his life and gets a new home, you are still his mother; home base, the ever constant, like the sun. Know that in your heart and everything else will fall into place.