I have changed the name of this blog three times now, but I have settled on the name that my sister and I use to present our jewelry and art:  Sweetart Sisters.  She has gone back to work and does not have as much time to create - right now, wink wink - but I am home for the summer till a new school year starts.

Creating is something that keeps me balanced while I am teaching, and in the summer I have to watch myself so that I don't get a little tilted on the creative side.  I mean, I do have to clean my house and feed my family! :)

I have made tons of jewelry lately and am considering putting them on Etsy.  I have sold quite a bit just off of Facebook.  Here are some of my best pieces:

And this is not all!  Check out my Facebook page for more: Sweetart Sisters

A Few of This Summer's Crafty Projects

One of the best careers for a mom is that of teacher. I look forward to summers so that I can spend them at home with my children, but I also enjoy the time to make stuff. I have become addicted to pinterest this past year, so I couldn't wait till summer to try some of the things I pinned. Here are some of them:

I have also painted some picture frames that had a cheesy gold finish, painted some candlestick holders that have been in need of change for quite some time, and painted some pictures for my new craft room (whenever it gets finished...). 

My pinterest boards include organizational pins as well because I am not a naturally organized person.  I pinned this because I thought it was a cool idea for all the zillions of bottles that wind up in the shower:  http://pinterest.com/pin/155937205818197746/ . 

Lily and I have also made a preschool activity book based on the ideas from the website in my previous post:  http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com. 

Alas, my summer will end soon, so I must cram all the fun and craftiness I can into the time left.  And we still have a beach vacation to take...

Found a Great Blog!

Okay, this is short for today because Lily and I are making games today that we found on this blog:  http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com.  Love it!  I have used up all my paper and all my cardstock.  I had to resort to cutting the tabs off of tab dividers to use as card stock for printing because I just could not stop making games! 

It is now time to play some of the games, so I must go.  Lily is being so patient...

Teaching Doesn't End with Summer Vacation

I absolutely love summer.  As soon as the last student leaves the classroom for the school year, as much as I love my students, I am in summer mode which usually means craftiness explosion and cleaning extravaganza.  This is the time that I finally get around to some sewing and painting projects, clean out and rearrange rooms in my house, and PLAY with my children! 

Now that my house is finally spic and span, I am working on teaching my daughter Lily to read.  Both my boys learned to read at the age of 4, and it is time for child #3 to learn to read.  At first I had the urge to buy all sorts of learning games, but then I thought, "Wait a minute!  I'm crafty!  I'll make some games."  I have learned to adapt some of her other games for learning beyond the scope of the game's intended objective.  For instance, the classic matching game has endless options for teaching other skills besides matching.  We have played, "Find two things that..." (you can eat, for instance), "Which Object is Different?" out of a set of 3 or 4 objects, and now I want to make another adaptation for phonics.  I am going to add to our matching game a dry-erase board on which I will write a letter of the alphabet in both upper and lower cases.  Then after we have reviewed the sound it makes, I will ask her to find pictures of things that begin with that sound.  I'm sure this will be interesting because playing the "Find two things that..." has been fun to see her interpretation of each picture's appropriate category.  Eventually, we will work into writing out the words for the game pieces.  When we've mastered that, we will use the pieces to create stories.  And you just thought it was a matching game!

Did I mention that I love summer?  The creative juices just flow so smoothly in the summer.  Sometimes I can't sleep at night because I'm thinking about something I want to paint, sew, or write.  Thank goodness I can sleep late if I want to!

I will post pictures later of some of this summer's fruitfulness.  It is late, so it looks like I'll be sleeping in tomorrow!

Of Desire and Yearning

Aching, painful yearning is how we would describe the desire for things we cannot have or that we have to wait long periods of time to obtain. How, then, do we describe the feelings when we do obtain those "things"? Exhilaration? Utter joy? Does it last? No, because tomorrow the aching returns but for something else. It is a hunger that is never satisfied. A beast that devours only to devour again. I am reading A. W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God and am amazed that a book written in 1948 so aptly describes our current culture. Even in our Christian circles, yes even in our very service to God, we long for what will make us feel good and satisfy our need to share our talents with the world. I am not immune. Today as I read, I felt ashamed of my misplaced longing. Yes, our talents are gifts given to us to be given away, but they are not to be our first priorities. If God stripped us of everything we had, even our very talents to serve Him, would we still desire Him? If I physically had nothing at all, would I praise Him just the same? Does my soul long for God and only God? How do I become poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3)? When I think of someone who is poor, I immediately think of someone who is struggling for the basic necessities of life, someone who does not have money for the "fluff" of life, someone who is stripped of everything but what it takes to exist day to day. A poor person may have to make do with whatever he has. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? If we think of being rich in spirit, do we mean possessing great knowledge? Excessively talented? Privy to God's plan? If "spirit" is the part of our being that connects to God or the part of us that is stirred to act, decide, live, and love, then what does it mean for that part of us to be poor? I think to be poor in spirit is to be stripped of everything that makes me want to elevate myself so that there is room to be filled with only God. It means my motivation is to elevate Him in all that I do. And what is my reward? The Kingdom of Heaven, a relationship with God that transcends any other relationship I could ever hope to have so that my earthly relationships are God-built and blessed. "When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel, Levi received no share of the land. God said to him simply, 'I am thy part and thine inheritance,' and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principal here, a principal still valid for every priest of the Most High God." - The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer. How wonderful to be able to say I have God, and I have need of nothing else! My prayer today is that God reveal to me the stuff of life that stands in the way of unity with Him. I want to know Him, to be filled with Him so much so that I exude His very essence. When I meet someone new, I don't want them to walk away and think about me but about Him. When I die, I want others to glorify Him and rejoice that my earthly shell has released me to bask completely in His presence. Oh, sweet Lord Jesus, I have a long way to go!

Message in the Web, Becoming the Charlotte

As the parent of a 2-year-old, I have the pleasure of watching children's movies and cartoons over and over again. The one story I do not mind repeated viewings is Charlotte's Web. The more I watch, the more I begin to understand that the underlying message of the story is that of Charlotte, selfless promoter of others. She is an example to me as a teacher, as a mother, as a person, of how celebrating others is a true measure of your love for God. While the story is about a message in a web that saves an otherwise plain little pig from becoming sausage links, it is also the story of a beautiful soul, one that risks her own life, her own notoriety, to save another. Charlotte is SOME spider, terrific, radiant, and humble in her own rights. She uses her creativity to promote, not herself but another. Others first.

Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others." Humility is difficult for the best of us but is ultimately the most rewarding. Acts 20:35 says, "In everything I did I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" In the story of Charlotte, she left a legacy: not only was the barnyard blessed with 500 little spiders the following spring (to rid the barnyard of other pesky insects, mind you) but also a humble, radiant, terrific pig to share her "message" of putting others first. Often we do not see the results of our labor. If we only do things for others so that we can enjoy the outcome, then we are really putting ourselves first. Charlotte did not survive to see the results of her labor. Nonetheless, her message lived on.

Maybe E.B. White never meant for me or anyone else to see Charlotte as an example of Christ, but isn't it amazing how God can take even a children's story to teach you how to live? I have found that if we fervently seek Him, He is there. Wherever and in whatever mode or fashion. I was reading on Wikipedia that a literary critic said that White failed by opening the story as he did, not focusing on the "human dimension" and "obscuring any allegory to humanity, if one were to view the animals' story as such." If that is true, how then should we view Charlotte? Was she merely an intelligent spider who spun fantastic webs? Maybe so, but I want more than anything to be the Charlotte.

Ramblings...

I just heard from a college friend this morning by e-mail. She and her husband adopted two girls from Ukraine. I was reminded of how blessed we are to have all of our children. I often look around at families who cannot have children but desperately want them and ask, "God why did You choose to bless us? Are we worthy?" It makes you stop and ask yourself if you are a good steward with what God has given you.