Musings

Happy Monday everyone :)  My day of work was actually good after a refreshing weekend and good talk with a friend from training.  Sometimes it just feels good to share the insecurities and have a friend help you work through them.

This post is three-fold which is the reason for the post title.  These are my musings and a recap of the happenings in our lives right now.  Read on if you want a glimpse of my crazy mind or don't.  This post is for me.

First, remember the post from last week where I introduced you to some amazing flea market finds?!  Well I am happy to say that they are up and making my kitchen happy :)

I was immediately thrilled that I had a place to display some of our favorite mugs and organize the pens in the kitchen, but the area was lacking a little color so I set to work incorporating bright turquoise.  I just mixed one part paint that I had in my craft drawer with one part water and washed it over the "mugs" cup hanger.

It is subtle but I love it and I wanted to share :)

I also wanted to tell you that I have a really fun diy project coming up that involves beautifying this:

We are working on a few finishing touches so hopefully I will be able to share the finished product as well as a couple of tutorials from the process later this week!

The final reason for this post, and by far the most important, is to share what God has been working with me on over the past week.  I have shared on here a few times that I do not love my current job, but I have never shared the reasons behind my dislike.  It is not a dislike of the job that I am doing, because I am a talker and love to meet new people, but it is the way I feel while doing the job.  The devil has used this job to stir up self-doubt, make me feel worthless and weak, and encourage me to tell myself that I will never succeed at this job or any other one that I pursue.  I reached a point before the Christmas break where I broke down in heaving sobs because I did not want to face another day where I was a failure.  The first day back to work after break I cried again because for two glorious weeks I was surrounded by family and friends and felt like me for the first time in months.  

I have shared these feelings with a few people, but mostly I fought the battle by myself because I felt that I should be able to handle it.  Last week Thursday I was driving and a song came on the radio and the one part that stuck out to me was "you were made to fill a purpose that only you can do".  I just started crying and began to see for the first time that the devil was really at work in my hatred toward my job, and that I had the power of the Kingdom of God on my side.  I shared my struggles for the first time with our Financial Peace University class at church, and was so encouraged by the outpouring of support from everyone in the group.  I felt such a huge weight lift off my shoulder, because I knew that God had placed warriors around me that would help me fight the battle.  They are praying for me, encouraging me, and working to remind me that my identity is in God and God alone.  

Now I am working on having a healthy relationship with my job as well as putting in the time with God each day so that I go out into the world with the armor of God on me.  Most mornings when I get ready to leave the house I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I am trying to rely on the word of God and pray to Him to help me through the struggles.

Thank you for letting me have a post for "me" where I can really put into words what I am battling and solidify my resolve to battle it with God on my side.

2012 Goals

Happy New Year!  To start 2012 off right the hubby and I have been enjoying a wonderful date day together :)  We went to Starbucks for coffee and crocheting, followed by a trip to the antique mall where we found some really neat things!

Fun coffee mug shaped wall hangings that I plan on putting pens in to help our kitchen become a bit more organized:

A "mugs" holder for displaying our favorite coffee mugs:

And an adorable tea cup pin cusion:

I am so excited to try my hand at making these pin cushions as gifts for other people.  I love all of the ideas that I gain when I go to the flea markets and antique malls.  Some of the booths are so creative!  When we perusing the booths I came across one where the booth owner had made recipe card holders out of candle sticks, a wood plaque, and a clip.  I will be making one of these!

Now we are home making lunch and gearing up for an afternoon of crocheting and movie watching :)  I love my husband!  He seriously is the best match for me :)

So enough of our fun day, the real point of this post is to share with all of you some of my goals for 2012.  I have been reading a lot of goals of bloggers that I read on a regular basis and it has been so inspiring!  My thought is if they are written out for everyone to see I not only have a reference for the goals that I made, but I also have some accountability ;)

2012 Goals:

*Write more blog posts and get on a consistent schedule.  I love my blog and I love writing and sharing what is going on in my life, my marriage, and my craft room.  Writing each post is fun for me, so I do not know why I have slacked since the wedding in writing consistent posts.  My goal is to throw more of myself into the blog this year!
*Sew a dress.  I have done a couple small sewing projects since I got my sewing machine, but this year I want to tackle a dress and I want it to include a zipper :)  I live in dresses most of the summer so making a piece of clothing that I would use hopefully will serve as motivation to accomplish this goal.  I even have an inspiration dress that I found on Pinterest:

*Really get into crocheting :)  Anyone that is my friend on facebook has seen my updates lately as I have restarted learning how to crochet and I am having so much fun!  In 2012 I want to learn more about crocheting, try different projects, and do a project based off of a pattern (which will require me to learn the crochet lingo)

*Take lots and lots of pictures and have fun editing them!  My wonderful hubby and in-laws bought me a Canon EOS Rebel T3 for Christmas and I want to learn what it is capable of doing and just have fun developing a new hobby :)

*Find a volunteer opportunity that is fulfilling and related to children and families.  My job is not the career that I want to have, but right now it is a blessing that I need to appreciate and work at becoming better at.  In the meantime I have begun to realize that I need to find fulfillment in other areas related to my passion for children and families.  I will keep you guys up to date on volunteer avenues I am pursuing.

*Get into the word more.  I started a plan to read the Bible in 40 days, but got off track over the holiday season.  I want to get back on track and allow the 40 day plan to create a habit of being the word and coming closer to the Lord.

*Work-out on a consistent basis.  I used to love to work out, but after I hurt my knee last spring and had to have surgery I let it fall to the wayside.  Cameron and I now have a gym membership and my goal for this year is to be consistent with going and working out as well as expanding my horizons of fitness activities.

*Join a couples Bible study.  We love our church a lot, but one area where it is lacking is group opportunities for young married couples who do not have children yet.  We have a few couples that we are friends with that we absolutely love hanging out with, but I would also love to find a group of couples that we could study God's word and grow spiritually with.  Maybe we could even start the group...

There you have it folks!  My goals for 2012.  2011 was an interesting year with a lot of ups and downs, and I am VERY excited for what this new year will bring :)  One of the blogs that I read on a consistent basis, Fitnessista, shared a really cool way of making your goals for the new year physically visible to you year round.  She makes and inspiration board each year that has pictures and a list of a her goals for the year and places it in her closet so that she can see the commitment she made to herself at the beginning of the year and hold herself accountable to the goals she set.  I am going to work on mine today and I encourage any of you that are looking for a way to remind yourself of your goals to do one as well :)

Love you all and cannot wait to see what 2012 brings!