Love...

It's valentines season...and you know what that means. The stores are full of stuffed animals, chocolate and plenty of other red, pink and white items intended to set your heart swooning. Not that any of that is a bad thing. I love chocolate. I love...love?? I love letting the people I love know that I love them. I love feeling loved. Pink and red aren't two of my favorite colors, but they are festive, and I enjoy eating things that are pink. All the baked goods are right up my alley.

But, I do have a problem with this sign hanging in a particular superstore that shall remain nameless...

Folks, are we serious??

We as a society have totally forgotten what love is and what love means. I forget in my day to day life.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years" Genesis 1:14

God intended for us to have seasons, and ways to mark time. Later, he commands the Israelites to celebrate several specific festivals as a way to remember things God did for them and pass those things on to their children. Let me be clear. Valentines day was not one of those festivals. :) But, what is wrong with taking holidays celebrated by our culture as a whole and using them as an opportunity to remind ourselves about God, teach our children about God, and share God with those who may not know Him? What if we took a holiday primarily about chocolate and pink- and tried to intentionally make it about Love- and God? After all,

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16b

We can never know what love truly is until we know God. Because he IS love. He doesn't just love. Love is his nature, character and person. It covers all He does and is. It's amazing. And we were made to know Him, and know his love. Until we find it, we turn to candy, men, movies, cupid, flowers, and all manner of pink and red things to try and fill the void. And it will always let us down. There is only one true Love...and one true way to find it.

So, this Valentines day, why not join me in celebrating the God who loves and made all our other loves possible?

Idea posts to come.

New Table

We have a section off our back hallway that just screamed for an entry table. It needed exact dimensions, which made it hard to find. Searching on craigslist led me to Paul Nooks, who builds custom furniture. I emailed him a picture of a table I liked from Crate and Barrel, and he built one to the dimensions I needed. Highly recommend him, if you live in the Atlanta area and need furniture. Or, even if there is something at pottery barn or another store you really like, he may be able to build something similar.

Without further ado...here is the table.

We like it.

Wrestling matches

I'm posting at Planted again today. What do you wrestle with?

The finished product

The result of the chandelier adventure.












Aaron gets husband of the year for being the "professional installation" as well as unwrapping and unpacking the 216 glass links. They were amazingly easy to hang. (my contribution.)
I love it.

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The other half

While a lot of the "decorating" decisions around our house are mine, I don't want you to think my husband has no input or contributions. He does! I'm concerned with the appearance of things, he's concerned with how well it actually functions. Thanks to him, our house "works".



We recently cancelled our cable so we could save money and spend less time watching junk just because we could. We now have Apple TV, which let's you purchase the shows/movies you want in iTunes and then watch them on your TV. Aaron found Apple TV, researched the actual amount we would probably spend on shows we already like, and did the math to decide if it was worth it. Also, once we got rid of the bulky DVR, all our cables were showing and it looked a mess. So, he spent several hours finding shorter, cheaper cords one night. The result is a much neater media system! Not to mention it's thanks to him that we have the user friendly media system we have. Our technology makes our lives easier, not more complicated. That is all due to him!



Most of our picturesque old books are his.


This is not so picturesque, but it's my favorite. These sticky notes are just stuck on the wall in our guest room by the desk. It's Aaron's outline for the bible study "Tapestry" he's currently writing and teaching. The greatest contribution Aaron makes to our home is his willingness to serve and follow the Lord. My home and life would be considerably emptier without him.

Where to find me

I'm posting over here today. Come drop by and say hello!

Practically since we moved in, I've wanted to change out my chandelier in the dining room. It's not awful, but just not my style. I couldn't find anything I loved to replace it. My number one decorating rule is if you don't love it, don't buy it. I found this one this past fall I think.

I thought about it, and thought about it, and dreamed of it. It was a pretty up there price point- but I finally decided, after searching and searching and finding nothing even close to it's equal- I bit the bullet and bought it.

After thinking about it for so long you can imagine that I was waiting in anxious anticipation for it to arrive. It was supposed to arrive today. We got home from dinner and there it was! I couldn't wait to open the box. I knew we couldn't hang it today, but I just wanted to see it in all it's beautiful glory in person.

You can imagine my surprise when this was what I found.

Yes, those are the individual glass links for the chandelier. There are 216. The point on the website that says "some assembly required" doesn't quite cover it. In their defense, since the links pretty much just hang on one another and the frame, there really was no other way to ship it. I guess I was just thinking they were somehow attached to each other....silly me right?

Mom, to answer your question, to dust/clean it I will simply pull off all the links and put them in the dishwasher. There you go.

So, to enjoy my chandelier I'll have to just wait a little longer. Pictures to come when it's (ahem) "assembled". Plans are for Friday. Meanwhile, Tabby thinks it's pretty cool the way it is. Boxes and tape are two of her favorite things.