youth

We volunteer with the youth at church.

JT sometimes comes with us. It makes for interesting adventures for a toddler.

Tonight got a little bit messy.

Can you imagine... when he graduates from high school, he'll have been with the youth program for 18 years?

He better learn to enjoy getting messy.

loving well

I attended my first Bible study tonight: Beth Moore's Loving Well. I actually missed the start of it last week because I couldn't bear to spend the evening away from JT on his birthday. So I chose ice cream over Jesus. Wrong, I realize.

So tonight I am thinking about God's love and how I love. On the way home I was thinking about the time I visited the psychic. And then I thought, hmm, God probably doesn't mesh well with "psychics". lol. I'm going to tell this story anyway.

It was the fall of 2000. John and I had been dating since February. He was my first boyfriend, we were in love, there was no talk of marriage at that point... it was just fun. I think there were two evenings that I visited the psychic with friends. John and another one of the guys had their fortune told the first trip. I think it was another visit to the psychic with some girlfriends that I had my future read. I think she used Taro cards to find out what she needed to know and maybe looked at my palm, I can't remember exactly.

She asked if I had any questions. I asked, "is there travel in my future?" She looked at the cards and firmly said, "definitely not within the next year." I said, "Are you sure because I'm planning a trip to Ireland in March." Her advice was something to the effect of "you can plan it, but the cards say you aren't going anywhere."

I ended up going to Ireland and having a great time. But in getting there, it did seem that the cards were stacked against me. Hoof & mouth disease invaded the British Isles and threatened to close down all tourism in Ireland during the time we visited there. And I got a horrible flu about a day before our flight. I was very worried that our trip would be canceled or that I wouldn't be able to go.

Then I asked her if my boyfriend and I would stay together. She studied the cards and told me he was not "the one for me," but that he was the "one who would teach me about love." I often wonder how my life would be different if I had taken that psychic reading to heart. Would I have altered my course? Did her words have any effect on decisions I made? Did her predictions have anything to do with God's plans for me?

Certainly in the 7 years years since I saw that psychic John has taught me plenty about love. We have learned a lot about love together... different kinds of love, too. We have learned about romantic love, mature love, family love, love of a child, love of mankind, etc.

I do think the psychic captured something of our relationship, though. John is a special person. He has an amazing love for me that he is very good at expressing. Even if I love him the equivalent of how much he loves me, I will never be able to show it the same. Every day he teaches me what it means to love openly, honestly, out loud, with all your heart.

We dedicated our little guy at church on Sunday. We dedicated ourselves to raising him to know Jesus and God's love. And we are so thankful to have our family, friends, and church to help us do this. We are blessed to have these folks help us teach JT about love.

That was my last trip to see a psychic. I just don't think they get it. Plus, it's much more fun to discover God's plan for me on my own. Now, I need to answer some journal questions God's perfect love. I will probably leave the psychic out of my answers...

Can scrapbooking really save the world?

Haha... my week of blog subjects as news headlines is coming to a close. I think I'm running out of steam with it anyway.

Yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day (NSD). Did you celebrate? I celebrate it every day, really. But yesterday it happened to coincide with needing to make some flyers for a scrapbooking night I'm putting together for the gals at church. The make-n-take I'm going to do that night will be a quick coffee sleeve book. So as part of the advertising for the event, I made up a few little books to stash in high-traffic spots at the church. In order to save time, I designed them digitally and printed. All I had to do then was put them together.

You've probably seen these little books before... but I did add one thing that is worth pointing out. I wanted these little books to have tear-out pages that ladies could take with them to remember the event details. To make sure they knew to tear out a page, I perforated near the binding. I used my Basic Grey Notch and Die Cutting tool to make the perforations. But really, there are a number of ways to do it... such as with a ruler and paper piercer or x-acto knife.

This would be a great way to make a coupon book as a gift. Or... a coupon book/gift card combination. If I get time to make one up, I might make a sample coupon book for the event. It would have to be tailored for the recipient, but I'm thinking coupons like "free hug", "ride to the airport", "dinner delivered to your door", "free night of babysitting", etc. Oh, the possibilities.

I'm very excited about the event... and hoping that the ladies at church will join me. I would love to have the opportunity to help others learn to explore family, creativity, and faith through scrapbooking.

The pretty flowers and other elements on the page are from an old Two Peas free kit. This little project is about as pink as I ever get.