Safari Themed Birthday

This is our first attempt at planning and setting up a birthday party!  Not bad for our first one, I must say. The table design was created by Sarah Stephensen and myself, Mandy Estes. The alligator cupcakes were created by the birthday boy's aunt, wish we could've claimed that one! :) If you like what you see please e-mail firefliesandcattails@gmail.com and let us know what you think. If you're interested in hosting a party and could use a little help contact us. 

Better Late than Never

Finally, some pictures from our Corn Maze excursion. :) Enjoy!

Samantha and I taking pictures. :)

He's excited!

We went to our local corn maze; as far as I know it was new this year. I've never been through one before but apparently they're supposed to give you a map to follow (which we didn't get). We creepily followed the family in front of us but I think we made it unnoticed. :)

Fabric Flowers Really Get Me Excited!

I get excited about the littlest things lately! Tomorrow I'm going to get materials to make fabric flowers. I found a bunch of awesome tutorials on Tip Junkie. The pictures above are from the site. They're so adorable! I can't wait! A side note: I started this blog thinking I would make a lot of items for boys after I was disappointed to find the craft fairs were lacking (I have one boy). Alas, it seems as though we need to add a little girl to the family because I just can't help myself with the girly crafts. Not to worry, I still have a few things in mind for the grimier of the sexes. :)

I still haven't pulled the corn maze photos from my camera. I'll get them posted someday. Bye for now.

Noah Will Be 1! ...in January =)

I'm so excited for Noah's 1st birthday! I can hardly wait. I've decided on a Cowboy theme and have created this inspiration board using google images and photovisi. We're going to have such a blast preparing for the party as well as on the big day. Just look at my little sweety...he deserves the very best 1st birthday party!

'Tis all for now! I have photos from a recent trip to a corn maze that I have yet to upload. Perhaps they will appear on my next post. I'll leave you with this...

Life, It's What You Make Of It!

Life really is what you make of it. I've been learning all about that lately. You have the power to CHOOSE whether you're going to be happy, sad, annoyed, angry...etc. I struggle with perfectionism. I expect things to go perfectly and when they don't it is very easy for me to choose to react negatively. Expecting perfection in life is like waiting for pigs to fly. Pigs are never going to fly! There is no point in waiting! Instead I should choose to look for good in situations and expect good things to happen in my life (this is a reasonable perspective) but for a lot of people; myself included, it's easier to fall into negativity.

Why?! Because we are human and fall into our old man nature (our flesh)! Galations 5:17 says that the desires of the flesh and the spirit are opposed to one another. Verses 19 & 20 speak of the works of the flesh. I challenge you to find one positive thing about them...you can't. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, and things like these. Now think of the opposites of those words (hate, sadness, turmoil, impatience, cruelty, evil, unfaithfulness, harshness...) and you have the flesh. I run into these words often in my life!

The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, it does not submit to his law, indeed it is unable to. And it can not in any way shape or form please God. But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace! What fun is it to be impatient, to think evil of someone, or to be harsh with others anyway? To live in the flesh produces death but to live in the spirit produces life...

Here are just a few examples from Proverbs:

Proverbs 14:30 "A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot."

Proverbs 17:22 "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Proverbs 11:3  "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them."

Proverbs 11: 8 "The righteous are delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it."

Proverbs 11:17 "A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself."

Proverbs 11:19 "Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die."

Proverbs 11:27 "Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it."

Proverbs 12:18 "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

Proverbs 12:20 "Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy."

Proverbs 12:21 "No ill befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble."

Proverbs 12:28 "In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death."

Proverbs 12:3 "No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved."

Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life."

This next part is information I gathered out of "Sparkling Gems From the Greek," by Rick Renner.

"But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

Galatians 5:16

The word walk in this verse is the greek word peripateo. Peripateo is a compound of the word peri and the word pateo. Peri means around, something encircling, or concerning. Pateo means walk, movement of feet, step, stride, tread, or trample. Put the words together and they mean to frequently, continually, or consistently, walk around the same area. So instead of walk by the spirit the verse could say live in the spirit. Do it so  consistently and continually that it becomes a habit; your way of life.

If we are of Christ Jesus we have crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24) and we've been set free (Galatians 5:1)!  Let's choose life! And make a concentrated effort to walk/live by the spirit.

Yummy Black Bean Burrito!

Have you had the veggie black bean burrito from Taco Bueno? It's my fav!! And I've learned to make my own! Here are the ingredients...

Can of Bush's seasoned black beans
Tortilla
Steamed white rice
Kraft Authentic Mexican Style cheese (it's white...queso, asadero, manchego..shredded cheese)
Any kind of salsa you like.

Cook the beans up and smash them with a potato masher. Put a little bit of rice on the tortilla, then the beans, cheese, and salsa! Enjoy with chips and salsa. Be careful to not over stuff the burrito or it can get messy!

The Importance of Words

Proverbs 10:11
"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life..."
Proverbs 10:21
"The lips of the righteous feed many..."
Proverbs 10:31
"The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom..."
Proverbs 10:32
"The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable..."

These are just four verses in one chapter about the importance of our words. When I read them today they all stuck out to me more than the others because this is something I have been thinking about the past couple of days. I don't know about you but sometimes I let my mouth run wild. In James 1:26 it says, "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless." Wow! I think this is really important to think about! Seriously, we can be praising God with our mouths one minute and then gossiping about our brother the next. How can we utter blessings and curses out of the same mouth?! James 3:9-10. (James chapter 3 has a lot of wisdom about the tongue.) I know that I, for one, need to meditate about what it means to bridle my tongue! James 3:2 basically says that if you can control your mouth you can control your whole body. If we actually think about what were about to say we can examine the heart behind our words. If our hearts are thinking evil then we can find where it is stemming from and once again grasp the right perspective, the truth.

Psalm 15:1&2
"O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart."

Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brothers, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

I want my words to give life to others, be sweet to the soul, and healing to the bones. (Proverbs 16:24)

Keep Marching!

I was reading in Sparkling Gems today and was blown away and truly refreshed by what I learned. If you don't own a copy of this book and you're a Christian who loves getting deep into the word but don't have a lot of time I highly recommend it! It's great! It is comprised of 365 greek word studies for every day of the year to "sharpen your understanding of God's word." I'm here to tell you it does!
Anyway, I read the study for March 25th and the verse was Romans 16:20 "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet..." The Greek word for crush is suntribo which is used to refer to the act snapping, breaking, and crushing bones to the point beyond recognition (to pebbles, basically). The word soon or shortly is actually a military term used to describe the way Roman soldiers marched. They marched in formation lifting their feet high and stomping loudly to warn people they were there and if they valued life they would get out of the way. Even if people refused to move the soldiers we're instructed to keep moving forward on their path. The interesting thing is the soldiers had nail spikes on the bottom of their shoes meant for crushing, snapping, breaking, or demolishing opponents or obstacles under feet.

So God is telling us to keep moving forward towards our goal. When Satan tempts us we refuse. When he feeds us lies we put on the word. When we feel like giving up, well...we don't. We do not move our way around something awkward for us, we push through it. But we don't do it alone, no, the verse says God, not me, will crush Satan under my feet. I just have to keep marching.

Beautiful Day!

So this is my first post of hopefullly many! Right now I'm sitting on the couch at my parents' waiting for the little man to wake up from a nap. Then we're going to stroll over to great grandma's and see if she has any pretty flowers set out yet.

It's so nice out today! Makes me so excited for the beach! And my birthday! I'm hoping for a really nice digital camera.

Ok...enough with the first post. I'm only blogging right now because I'm bored!!