Blessings and Burlap

Praise God from whom all BLESSINGS flow ...

Let me tell you how the blessings have truly been flowing over the past week through this blog. I have only posted twice (I guess this makes 3) and I have truly been blessed through your comments - both online and on the phone or in person. Everyone has been so kind and encouraging about my posts ... so far :) ... and I'm so very grateful. I felt very vulnerable starting out, writing about what's on my heart, but I feel so much more comfortable now that I know you are enjoying it. Not only that you are enjoying it but that the Lord is speaking to you through it. Some of you have told me how the Lord is blessing you through it and I'm so thankful for that. That was my hope for this blog - that is exactly why I risked the vulnerability - but what I didn't expect, what I didn't hope, was that I would be blessed as well. I guess I was thinking more about the readers, and not as much about the writer, but you  - the readers - are truly blessing this writer. Praise God!

He is also blessing me - well teaching me and through the learning, I'm definitely being blessed. I just LOVE it when the Lord shows us his sense of humor and He was showing it off in my life this past week. If you read my last post, I talked about trying my best to place more focus on the nativity scene in my house and less on the Christmas tree. Well ... I had a very clear "Will you practice what you preach?" moment after writing the last post. To try to  make a long story short (but still explain it well) we now have a decorated tree at our house - after 2 attempts. I was so excited when my hubby told me about the online deal saver (through the state paper) for cutting down your own tree at Harmon's tree farm. I loved the idea of our little family venturing out to the farm to find the perfect tree and cut it down ourselves, especially because this is the same tree farm where my parents took my brother and me every Christmas when we were growing up. And Harmon's is closing after this year so it would be our last chance to experience such a fun (and nostalgic) family outing. We made it to Harmon's, after lots of looking, finally found a tree that seemed to fit our family, had fun cutting it down (sweet Hub might not describe the actual cutting down part as all that fun, it looked like really hard work :) and took it home to decorate. Well ... the poor tree wasn't exactly the right size for our stand and in the process of trying to make it work ... we lost what proved to be a very important piece of the bottom of the tree. We thought taking some out would help it to fit in the stand but apparently it only helped it to stand totally lopsided and still not sit correctly in the stand. Poor tree! We decided to give up on her and my precious servant of a husband went to Lowe's at 9 pm because he knew how much I had been looking forward to decorating it the next morning as a family. He picked out a beautiful tree and thankfully she sits perfectly in our living room (and perfectly in her stand)! So ... we still had a wonderful experience and we now have a wonderful tree. But I was once again reminded that the tree should not be my main focus ... that I need to continue to fix my eyes upon Jesus. Praise God!

I also told you in my last post that I love all things burlap these days and that I'm trying to incorporate burlap into my decorations this Christmas, so I thought I would share a couple of ideas with you.

Wanting to spice up our mantle (without breaking the bank) I created a burlap "garland". I had already purchased some wide burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby (half price) so I layered the lights in the burlap and used it on the mantle. The great thing about burlap is that I could push the lights right through it to shape the garland.

I was trying to come up with a creative way to display my family's past years Christmas cards so I decided to carry on with the burlap theme. I placed another piece of burlap ribbon over the back of a door and used small clothes pins to display them. I actually used this piece of burlap in a fall wreath and made an "M" out of buttons, so I decided to reuse it and keep the "M".

Lastly, in hopes to not over due the burlap, I used a small piece of the ribbon around a large mason jar. In the jar is a little piece of our first tree attempt - I just couldn't let her go to waste.

So again ... Praise God ... for His many blessings ... and for helping me to finally finish my decorating!

Thanks for reading friends - May Your Cup Runneth Over!