Transformed

True Joy

2012-01-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Throughout my life I have struggled, like many people, with all sorts of different things. I have been abused by people, neglected, ignored, abandoned. I have wallowed in self destruction and anger.

But, I find myself here in this exact place in my life filled with pure and true joy.

I want to shout it from the mountain tops!!

Where do I find my joy you may ask? (or maybe not, but I'll say anyway) Jesus Christ!

Jesus has always loved me. He has stood firmly by my side when I continuously abandoned Him, ignored Him and denied Him.

He has blessed me with a job that I truly love. And it's not the mundane tasks that I love, it's the people He has purposefully set in my path, in my days, in my line of sight that I love. It's the fact that God has healed me from the blindness of disbelief and faithlessness. He has opened my eyes and healed my heart and my family. He has re-made me!

He has blessed me with new eyes in which to view my family and people around me that allows me to find joy in them and not have unrealistic expectations of them.

I love having faith in Jesus and seeing Him work in my life and the lives of people around me. He is a comfort to me every day.

I have a little plaque on my desk that reads "Trust. 'trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.' Proverbs 3:5.

Seeing this everyday helps me to remember that relying on myself for joy or other people for joy will always lead to disappointment and dispair. True joy comes from Christ and His ultimate sacrifice for my salvation. Not from the pain He suffered, but the unimaginable love He has for us. It's beyond my minds capacity to understand the depths of His love. My heart swells as I think of that.

I hope this encourages you too, to lean not on your own understanding, but have faith in God. Only He can bring you true joy.

May God bless you!
Aubrey

It's not you....it's me!

2011-04-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

I love reading blogs on Blogger! I truly do. I also love doing things that are "post worthy" and trying to be witty. Unfortunately I'm finding myself not making time to post. So, I'm having a great Saturday at home, which is new, so I thought I'd post.

Now, don't get me wrong, I really don't have anything that is really interesting to post, just an update to feed my narcissism I guess! haha

I probably should be exercising, or like, doing laundry, but...oh well. Life is short and sometimes its nice to do something that makes you feel good. (Not at the expense of others, I do not condone that!)

Some things I recommend you check out:

Mark Driscoll, Preacher at Mars Hill Church in Seattle (great teacher, shoots from the hip, but always the hip of The Word!)

Sugar Pie Farmhouse (Oh my goodness...this blog makes me feel warm, fuzzy and feminine every time I read it!)

Life in Rehab (this gal cracks me up and is so creative)

Churches Helping Churches

Please pray for the people of Japan that they would find comfort and that the individuals working on the reactor would be given wisdom and guidance.

That is all for now, thank you.
Much love,
Aubrey

Update

2011-02-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Friday we had a chicken tragedy. :-( My dachshund somehow figured out how to dig out and pull the chicken wire open and we had 2 of our four chickens were terminally injured. Unfortunately he didn't finish the job, so my husband had to. We are pretty much city folk so this was a pretty hard for everyone. Especially my ten year old son who saw the state of the two birds, who were named 'Caramel' and 'Snowflake'.

I have to remind them that some dogs are instinctual hunters and they cannot help themselves. I think we're all doing a little better today, but it's still a pretty tender subject.

On a happier note, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Unfortunately for me, I have come down with a flu or something, my ears are plugged, my glands are swollen, my throat is raw. I'm a hot mess! There goes a romantic evening with my hubby. Instead I'm hoping to have a date with my doctor today.

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentines Day and is able to spend it with someone they love. Remember to tell people you love them EVERY DAY! You can never have too many 'I love you's' (grammar?)

Lesson in humility

2011-01-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer that God's hand is at work in everything. EVERYTHING!

These past few weeks have been extremely challenging for me at work. I have been at this facility for 4 months and have submitted my resignation. This was a very tough decision to make because I have never in my professional life put so little time into a company, but this particular culture just wasn't right for me.

Things are hectic, one of my key staff members was let go without my involvement and another key staff member is like days away from giving birth to her second child. So, there's a lot to balance, which means stress. I'll spare you the mundane details, but I was trying to close the month of December this past week. Friday comes up and I have a report to audit and balance. I start at noon....by 5 I haven't balanced and I'm starting to get upset about it. I try different methods, I re-look and re-look at all the details I know to evaluate and I'm not getting it. I work in a financial aspect of business and balancing is pretty much the nuts and bolts of what I do. By 8pm I was tearing up a little bit. I found my mind reaching out for something...some worldly crutch. "I need a drink", "I need a cigarette" (I quit 1 year ago this week!) "I need some chocolate".

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...I don't need any of those things. I need Jesus! At that moment I stopped everything and closed my eyes and prayed, nothing beautiful or specific, just "Jesus help me, help me, help me". I began crying. I ended up having to close the month out of balance because it had to be closed by Friday night, no exceptions. I have never done this and left feeling like a complete failure.

I went home at 9pm I went and had a bloody mary with my husband and some guacamole and chips, which hit the spot. The next morning I woke up I felt completely relieved. God conveyed to my heart that it was my pride that was keeping me at work that many hours, my pride that was torturing me all week. Because, Jesus is my number one boss and sometimes I will be wrong and I do not know everything I think I may know and I am not perfect. But He loves me! No matter what, He loves me and embraces me, even when the world doesn't, even when I do wrong or fall short. I don't need to reach for anything other than Him for comfort.

I hope for everyone around me to feel this type of love down to their marrow. God is so good and He truly does make all things work together for my good.

Wishing you a great week!
Much love,
Aubrey

Cookie sheet magnet center

2010-10-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

First of all, I am probably one of the worst people to come up with cute and fun names for crafts. I'm the person who puts 'thing-y' after the exact name of projects. For example, I was going to call this project "the cookie sheet and bottle cap magnet thing-y." So, with that lovely disclaimer, here is the fun project I worked on for my friends birthday.

Supplies:
Craft paper (scrap booking paper is what I used...I just love all the gorgeous designs...but I'm not a scrap-booker)
Paint, color of your choosing
1 small cookie sheet (Dollar Store)
Ribbon (scraps I had on hand)
bottle caps (for some reason I saved these for several years, just knowing I'd find something fantastic to do with them.)

Mod Podge
I used "Dimensional" something-or-other by Mod Podge, but I belief the original tutorial I read for this called for resin....in hindsight, I think next time I'll try the resin...I got a lot of bubbles in the dimensional magic stuff.

Jewels/gems, glitter, charms, beads or whatever else you would want to stick in your bottle caps to decorate them.

I tried to pound some of the bottle caps flat...that was kind of a bust, so I recommend just leaving them 'as is'.
I painted the backs of them green....which I had on hand. They needed a couple coats.

Once they were painted, I used a 3/4" hole punch and punched out some circles from my craft paper. I used Gorilla Glue to secure them, but, hot glue or mod podge would probably work just as well. After I was done, I kind of wish I had used Mod Podge because not sealing the paper gave it a look through the clear dimensional magic that made it look a little wet. I was probably the only one who could tell.

After the backgrounds were in, I places my charms.

Once I was done placing my charms, I filled the caps with the dimensional magic liquid. I had to pop a few bubbles with a tooth pick. Some of them dried with big empty parts where the charms were so, next time I am going to try it with resin and see if I get a better result.

Once I was done with the caps, I left them to dry and moved on to the cookie sheet. I simply cut a piece of scrap book paper slightly smaller than the back of the sheet and mod podged the back to adhere it to the back of the sheet. I ~~drilled~~ pounded holes into the top of the cookie sheet to run my ribbon through. I had a tough time with this. If anyone has better ideas on how to do this, I would love suggestions.

I added some burlap and buttons for decorations and waited for my caps to dry.

Once the caps were dry I glued magnets to the back with Gorilla Glue (the magnet strip I bought at Hobby Lobby was pretty weak so I had to raid my fridge for yucky magnets that had a strong grip, note to self: buy stronger magnets next time).

I thought I took a picture of the whole thing finished and I didn't....got to get in that "blogger" frame of mind!!! This was a fun and easy project that will probably be a definite Christmas gift idea!

I wish you all fun crafting and many blessings through the Lord!
Love,
Aubrey

Hooray Fall!!

2010-09-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Fall!!! It has so many warm and wonderful connotations to me. Fall means that the weather will start to cool off. Here in Arizona, its not as much as I would like, but, that's what weekend road trips are for! Fall is a great creative time of the year in our home!

It means, Halloween decorations and costumes. It means baking and brainstorming Christmas present ideas! It means spending more time outdoors and enjoying nature. Summertime here in Mesa, AZ makes it difficult to spend a lot of time outside unless you are in a large body of water and even then, you risk 3rd degree sunburns after 20 minutes.

I welcome Autumn and look forward to it all year long. I'm so excited to start decorating the house. I make myself wait until at least 10/1....just to keep the anticipation going and not to seem like a total wack-o to my friends and neighbors!

I hope you have a delightful and joy filled Fall season!
Many blessings to your home!
Aubrey

Updates and Substance Award

2010-09-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Boy, I have missed my blog! Since my last blog I have been a very busy girl! I've moved, started a new job, started serving as a group leader for 6th grade girls in a mid-week bible study. I miss spending a few hours reading blogs and updating mine!

God has blessed us tremendously and is working in our lives to challenge us. My new job keeps me very busy and is challenging. It also takes me out of my comfort zone and into new groups of people. The Lord reminds me that as long as I keep my eye on Him, he will help me through all these challenges. This is one of the first high stress times in my life where I've been able to smile, laugh and be grateful every day! God is GOOD!

Surprisingly, yesterday I received the "Blog with Substance Award"! from Becky at My Walk from Flab to Fab. I think that is very kind of her to read and acknowledge my little baby blog!

Receiving this award means that I need to do the following:

1. Explain my blogging philosophy, motivation and experience in five words.

2. Give the award to ten other bloggers.

Here I go...

Explain my blog in five words: Honesty, Gratitude, Creativity, Education and Praise

(I try to include each of these attributes into each one of my posts)

Give the award to ten other bloggers: I look at a lot of blogs...I mean a lot! There are many super blogs out there, I tried to chose ten that come to mind for there genuine feel, honesty and inspiration for creativity, organization and/or risk taking. These are in no particular order:

1. Alisa Burke Redefine Creativity (Alisa's work is amazing and truly inspiring)

2. Life in Rehab (super great ideas, hands on..amazing skills!)

3. Be Different Act Normal (so many great ideas!)

4. Brown Paper Packages (super creative, a regular read)

5. Fireflies and Jellybeans (creativity galore!)

6. Flower Patch Farmgirl (inspiring, genuine)

7. I am Momma - Hear me Roar (so creative...I envy her skills!)

8. Made by Nicole (great sense of style, amazing artist!)

9. Not Just a Mommy (excellent party ideas!)

10. Tales from the Coop Keeper (because I dream of keeping chickens and a simpler, more organic way of life out of the city! I day dream when I read her blog)

Thank you all for your creativity, genuine love of family and inspiration. You each impact my ideas and family in ways you will probably never realize. Thank you!

Blessings through Him,

Aubrey

Give your best friend a hug today!

2010-07-19T12:00:00.001-07:00

For the most part I am a pretty strong individual. Sensitive? Yes. But pretty strong and independent. Today I am having one of those days that I really need a girlfriend. I don't need any problems solved, I don't need a shoulder to cry on, I just crave that nurturing relationship that comes from having a good friend who shares in the same struggles that I do.

My husband is a GREAT best friend, he's my go-to man! There is something wonderful to be said about a great friendship with a fellow lady. I admire women who have close relationships with their sisters or have a best friend who lives right next door or really close that they can see everyday! If you have that, appreciate it, that is a fantastic gift that God has given you in your life. What a joy!

Some of the happiest memories I have are spent with great women. Laughing with them, crying with them, sharing hopes and dreams with them. It's wonderful and today, I wish I had more of that in my life. I'm feeling a little weak today, a little envious....

Hug your best girlfriend today!
Much love,
Aubrey

Silhouette Give Away!

2010-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

I found this fun give away opportunity at Tatertots and Jello for a Silhouette cutting machine. It looks so awesome and you can make your designs online which is great...no cartridges! I'm giddy thinking of all the fun and gorgeous projects I can make!

The designs are nicely priced at like .99 each! Wow!

Check it out and enter today!

Blessings and prayers!

Aubrey

Awesome Giveaway!!

2010-06-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Check out this super-duper give-away from Flirty Aprons on Sumo's Sweet Stuff!

You can enter to win the cutest aprons! Like this...

So many cute designs! I can't decide which one I love the most!

Best of luck in your entries!!

Aubrey

Potpourri of catch-up

2010-06-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while. I was spending some time attempting some of the fun crafts that I have been reading about on the different blogs I subscribe to. And then I got sick...ugh!! So here are just a few pictures of some things I worked on...they are so-so, but I'm trying new things and figure that practice truly does make ~~perfect~~ better!

I got the idea from Under The Table and Dreaming, here. I found the frame for $1 at Goodwill on a tag sale day! Spray painted it black, hot glued the burlap on (I think I used a little too much and need to trim some off the back) and cut out the letters with an Exact-o knife. It was fun and my kids look forward to checking the menu for dinner every night. I even put "leftovers" on there some nights!

The second thing I made was this cute sign for a friends birthday.

I got the wood from a broken pallet in the parking lot of my workplace, sanded it, had some paint from the clearance section at Lowe's ($2.00) and got the lovely vinyl from a sale that Shelly had at Wonderfully Wordy. I really loved it. I nailed a small hang-y thing (which the name escapes me) so it can be wall mounted.

Next, my daughter and I spent an afternoon together and fumbled our way though this bracelet and headband craft with some scraps of fabric, a couple of hair bands and some thread. My skills have much to be desired, but it was fun to do with her and she enjoyed them.

I suppose this is probably on the "10 Commandments" of the blog world, as in "Thou shalt give proper credit to other bloggers for their ideas" BUT....I cannot find the blog I got this idea from. So, here's a link to another one with a great tutorial.
Lastly, in honor of my husband, for Father's Day, we made some candy sushi! His favorite food is sushi (mine too, that's part of the reason I love him so much!) and since we were all sick and couldn't go out for sushi, I thought the kids and I could make him the next best thing!

See how here.

Well, I have to make soup for my daughter, who now has strep throat!! Only weirdos like us would save our flu season for summertime!

Blessings to all!

Aubrey

The consequences to a one vehicle family, finally realized!

2010-06-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

We have been a single car family for about 5 or 6 years now. The thought of almost 900 or more for car payments makes me cringe! The only way we have truly managed to make this work, pretty much without a hitch, is because my husband has a work vehicle that he drives during the week. Oh....the other thing that's helped us is God's GRACE!!!

Last night we finally were hit with the biggie! Our car died when we started coming home after dinner!

There was something wrong with the power steering or some such thing ( I don't even pretend to know anything about cars or how they work) so we called the tow truck!

The cab of the tow truck didn't have enough room to fit the four of us so we got to sit in our car, the kids thought that was really cool! We could see the tops of everyone's car! The most fun was when the car was being taken up and then taken off the tow truck, we pretended we were in a rocket ship!

Luckily a good friend my small group through church was able to give us a ride from the mechanic once we got our car towed. Thank God for kind people!

Today I had to take the day off of work, since my office is about 27 miles from my home! Hopefully the car will be back in working order by the end of the day! Please pray for that with me!!

Have a blessed day!
Aubrey

Just another manic...Saturday!

2010-05-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

Boy, this was a busy Saturday! Hasn't stopped since about 6 am this morning. And I thought weekends were for relaxing?? Not in our house, weekends are the time when we cram in as many things that we love as possible!

This morning started out with my weekly Bountiful Baskets fruit and veggie cornucopia!

We got a lot of beautiful goodies, including 2 coconuts! This is the first time I've ever had a chance to work with a coconut from the beginning of it!

We got two, one really big one and one smaller one. My son really just wanted the shell so he could do his 'Monty Python' horse noise all over the place...and I'll admit, I was doing it too!

It took me forever to get the meat out of the small one, so I haven't started on the big guy just yet. Then it was on to the coconut juice...which I thought was called 'milk' but was swiftly corrected by a 10 year old...learn something new every day...the milk is squeezed out of the meat apparently. So, don't mind my label...I felt no need to correct it.

Then we shredded the cleaned meat in my food processor, which I froze and will find some yummy use for it soon....perhaps coconut cream pie!!!

Yesterday I picked up 'Deceptively Delicious' by Jessica Seinfeld at Half Price Books. We don't have any difficulties getting our kids to eat veggies, but the recipes looked really interesting and healthy so I wanted to give it a shot. Plus, sometimes the food we get from the co-op is stuff that we don't necessarily care for or have time to prepare so I've had to ditch some veggies without using them because I just didn't know what to do with them (I cut them up into small pieces and give them to the lady who sells us free range organic eggs, goes right to the chickens and back to our kitchen!).

So I spent most of the rest of the morning and afternoon steaming, par boiling, mashing and processing fruits and veggies to freeze for the recipes in this book! I can't wait to try them out.

Later I went to my Grandma's house so she could give me the beginners sewing lesson. I have had a machine she gave me, an old one of hers, for years without using it. Recently I've tried some easy hems and edging but really didn't know anything about what I was doing. She gave me a lot to absorb AND...she gave me some of her homemade organic tomato soup..Mmm mmm good!

So here I sit, in bed with my laptop, listening to my sweet husband snore beside me. It was a great Saturday!

I'm blog slow...

2010-05-20T10:46:00.001-07:00

So, I just realized today that I have comments on my first blog! That is awesome! Thanks for checking it out!

Let's see, so, I love to cook and I also belong to a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets

Last week I had an abundance of these mini mangoes and pineapple. I love both, but am not too comfortable working with them. They are both difficult to work with and aside from mango salsa...I'm not really versed on the way of the mango! So, I went to 'old faithful' -- Allrecipes.com-- and found a recipe for a Pineapple Mango pie. Now, I am a pie lover...so much so that when my husband and I were looking for a little piece of land to call our own, we bought it in Pie Town, NM (no lie!). It wasn't just the name that sold me, it is gorgeous and isolated out there, I love it.

I digress...

So, I tried the Pineapple Mango Pie and (another side note, cutting pineapple is NOT my forte, it's never pretty, but always tastes good and that's what matters)followed the recipe to a 't', which is new for me, I'm typically a recipe adjuster/corrector/add-er/changer. I tried it last night and although it wasn't bad, it was a little too tart for my taste. Ugh....tonight I'll try it on the kids (they went bowling with Daddy last night so I could have some quiet time!) and hopefully they will like it.

I need to remember to take pictures of things for my blogs...I love to see the pictures of what's going on when I read other blogs.

Have a fantastic day.

Beginning

2010-04-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog. I have always been pretty open and ready to share my experiences, opinions and discussions with people around me. I recently became totally engaged by some craft and homemaking blogs and so, here I am...at the beginning of my own.

I come from a fractured background filled with much sadness, but I know that I am certainly not in the minority. God has always been in the back of my mind and my heart pulling me along, keeping me alive, no matter how much I resisted His love. Recently I gave up my fight against happiness and righteousness and gave my life completely to Christ. I have never felt so much joy, peace and completeness as I do with Him in my heart, everyday in every way!

I have two amazing children who have helped me survive also. If it weren't for them, I would have given up all hope long ago and let life beat me. They challenge me, humble me, love me and make me so proud...I am very thankful for them.

My husband and I have been married for 10 years, many of those filled with trial, but we are best friends and through everything are held firm by the foundation of our family.

I work full time and am currently tossing around and trying to figure out what we can do to allow me to quit working or go to part time so that I can spend more time on our home and children. I admire many of these home makers who put out their great ideas and share with the rest of us.

I kind of doubt that anyone will really see this, but, if by chance someone reads this, thank you for your time and blessings to you!