It's Springtime!

I absolutely love Spring. Spring decorations just brighten my day. Especially Easter decorations! I think I can blame my Mimi for this. She has always decorated her house for Easter and it is one of the highlights of spring when I am able to visit her and see all of her adorable touches around the house. She almost didn't decorate last year, so I had to go over there and make sure she didn't slack off :)

To go along with my love for Spring decorations, I have come to love making wreaths! There are so many easy ways to make a wreath that I never even thought about. Thankfully, Pinterest has helped me find several wonderful craft blogs that have wonderful tutorials on how to make easy, yet adorable, wreaths for all seasons.

Today I made a spring wreath to go our front door! I haven't done well with keeping a wreath on the door since Christmas because we have been so busy, but I finally had time today to make our door look a little Springy!

The wreath I made today was inspired by a fall wreath that I found on Linda's Blog. She has some very helpful tutorials on how to make simple wreaths and other crafts! The neat thing about this wreath is that it is interchangeable. The flowers clip on and off so that you can change them out for each season while still using the same wreath! I actually used two of her tutorials to help me out today and you can find those here and here. Using both of them helped me understand a few of the steps that I was a little hesitant on!

I took a few pictures of the process so that I could provide a few helpful hints if you want to try this wreath too!

Materials Needed:

Any type of wreath form you would like

1/2 yard of burlap {Here is a very helpful hint on how to cut burlap in a straight line!}

Three different colors of felt {Linda used burlap for her fall wreath, but I wanted to have spring colors for this one, so I used felt! I works just as well!}

Three dome craft buttons

A small amount of fabric to cover your buttons, or you could paint them

3 Alligator clips

Hot glue gun

See the three extra burlap loops with the alligator clips?? I love that the flowers can be changed and I can still use the same wreath body! So clever!

Linda has a picture of a template on her blog for the petal pieces, so I just free-handed these and cut them out. You will need a small, medium, and large petal template.

To make it easy, I pinned each template to the felt, cut around it, and then removed the template to do the next petal!

Your flowers will need 6 petals in all. I did 3 small and 3 medium petals for the blue and pink flowers. Then, I did 3 medium and 2 large petals for the yellow flower to make it stand out a little!

The petals are so much easier to make than they look! This is what they look like after they have been glued together, but before the buttons are put on! I think I am going to attempt to make some headbands for my niece using these flower designs. They are so easy to make and would be so cute with a stone in the center on a headband!

I did not realize how easy it was to wrap buttons with fabric! It took about 2 minutes to wrap all three buttons with fabric. Then, I hot glued the buttons onto the flowers and the flowers onto the alligator clips. All I had to do to finish was clip the flowers onto the burlap strips!

I know this wasn't a step-by-step tutorial, but I had to give Linda all the credit for this one! I am excited about making different flowers and decor to clip onto this wreath in the future!

The Rock and The Sand

I am sadly missing school today because of my first sick experience since the beginning my teaching career! I am very impressed with how well my immune system has held up so far. I had to leave school half-way through the day yesterday and was impressed that I made it through the first 8 months of teaching without getting sick! I guess it was bound to come sometime.

Rest is always good for me because I usually am going 90 to nothing constantly. However, after being in bed for 24 hours, I am ready to be up and going again. Thankfully, the Lord knew I needed this time with Him.

This week I've been reading through the book of Matthew. It's one of those books I honestly do not frequent because it is full of the familiar stories you grow up hearing about. I suppose as I've gotten older I have come to think I know everything ;) Oh, how wrong I can be! God has definitely been setting me back in my seat this week as He has revealed himself in new ways through familiar stories about Jesus preaching, performing miracles, and calling the people around Him to come to Him. My husband likes to remind me often that this is the process of sanctification. What a beautiful process of sanctification it has been this week!

Since I have been stuck in bed for the past 24 hours, I was able to pick up Matthew and continue rereading again today without having a reason to stop. It has been nice to have no reason to look at the clock and no reason to rush. With this free time I stumbled upon such a familiar passage in a brand new way. I was overwhelmed with joy at the way the words jumped off the page in such a new, brilliant light. You are probably also very familiar with this passage. It is a popular one in Children's church. There is even a catchy song to go along with it that will stick to your brains and never let you forget. You know...

"The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came tumbling down! Oh, the rains came down, and the floods went up! The rains came down and the floods went up! The rains came down and the floods went up and the wise man's house stood firm!"

Today, however, instead of the passage causing my mind to dance around in glee, singing the song that never leaves, I was struck with a much more urgent and serious feeling. 

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."--Matthew 7:24-27

We all know this parallel, we have all sang the song and performed the motions in children's church, we've all come to a basic understanding of this concept: build your life on a firm foundation, not something that will fail. But reading it again today revealed something a little deeper to me.

Jesus offers Himself to every person on this planet. Scripture tells us in 1 Timothy that God desires to see all saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Sadly, there are two groups of people in life--the group who accepts, believes, and trusts Jesus and the group who denies, ignores, and tries to live independently of Jesus. However, these verses in Matthew paint a picture of a promise for both groups: the rains will come down, the streams will rise and try to overtake, and the winds will blow and threaten stability. It's going to happen for both groups of people. Both groups will experience the storms of life. The person who accepts, believes, and trusts Jesus will not be exempt from the storms simply because he has chosen Truth. The difference between the two will be the outcome. One will stand and one will fall. Both will experience struggle, heartache, and difficulty. But both will come to different ends. The one who trusts will be protected, he will be sustained, he will be showered with grace, he will be held up by a power far beyond understanding "because [he] had [his] foundation on the rock"(Matt. 7:25). The other will endure similar storms and hardships, but will be crushed under the burdens he was never intended to carry. Amazing. Horrifying, yet amazing.

Why do we intentionally face that crushing? Why do we intentionally choose to ignore when we already know what the outcome will be? It's like looking into a magic ball and being able to know the future, yet not doing anything about it. I am so guilty of this. I know what my life will look like if I do not spend my time earnestly seeking and chasing after Jesus--dark, gloomy, and destroyed. Yet many times I choose to run after other things rather than build up my firm foundation. The Lord filled me up today with this reminder--the storms of this life are always coming. The clouds are filling and the thunder is rolling. Will I stand or fall? Will you stand or fall? It is our choice to make.