Brene Brown

Here's a clip from Brene Brown.  She talks about vulerabilty and she says it very well.

Every Child

Every child wants to please dad.  "Am I ok?"  But if dad isn't there, the child faces abandonment and rejection among other things.  "Dad left because of me.  There must be something wrong with me.  I am fatally flawed."

Transfer that to God:
 -God is angry with me.  -God is absent/distant.  -We become works oriented.  -Feelings of self-pity  -I don't deserve (good things).

Every child needs the softness of mom.  "Am I lovable?" But if mom isn't there, the child has no safe place to be comforted, to relax, to be "me", to talk things out, no place to feel "unjudged".  "I am not ok.  I have to be strong.  No one is safe, I'm not safe.  Work, work, work."

Transfer that to God:

 -God is judgmental.  -God is not safe.  -God is angry.  -God is not soft, comforting.  -God punishes harshly.  -I have to perform to get God to 'love' me.  -God doesn't want me.  -God doesn't even like me.

So many people grow up without one or both parents.  It's sad really because God created the family unit to have BOTH parents involved in the child's life to create wholeness.  The masculinity of the male creates confidence in a child.  It creates the "go-get 'em, Tiger" we all want to hear.  We NEED dad to push and cheer us on.  We need him to teach us to be confident in ourselves.

We need mom.  She is the tender side.  She calls to us in the quiet moments to talk to us gently.  She holds us and comforts us.  When we lose the game, she's there to give the "it's ok, I still love YOU" talk.  And we need that.  There's nothing wrong with me, I just didn't quite make it... this time.  She enjoys time with us.  She listens to our hearts and loves what's in it.  She  doesn't condemn us for what's inside.  She's the safe place.

Then, when we know we are safe, and we can trust the family unit.  We listen, again to dad's "Go get 'em, Tiger!  Knock 'em dead!"  And we will get up and try again.  Why?  Because that's what we're really made of.  Trust.  Love.  Expectancy.  Rest.  Safety.    LOVE.

God is all of these.  He really is.

Unfortunately, many of my friends are not experiencing these.  O how I long to be able to help them understand.  But not in their heads.  In their entire being.  What fun it is to just KNOW who you are and WHY.

That's what we call  PURPOSE.

This song is by Kelly Clarkson.  It's very touching, very true.  I'm glad she spoke out because so many people feel this way about divorce.  It really breaks the heart to hear what little children feel.  And still feel as they get older but the feelings never go away.

School again

We started school again yesterday.  We had the longest, most amazing Christmas Vacation ever!  It's not that our Christmas was amazing or our New Year's.

My parents asked if my oldest daughter (13) could go with them to Colorado to go to my cousin's wedding and to be my mom's companion while my dad worked.  My husband and I thought and prayed about it and gave her a "thumbs up".  My daughter was ecstatic.  She spent 1-on-1 time with Grandma and got a breakfast date with Grandpa.  She saw the Garden of the Gods and went to Focus on the Family's Whit's End.  She even got to drink a world famous chocolate soda which the call a "wo-fam-choc-sod"  (hyphenated so you can read it).

My other daughter (12) stayed home with us.  I told her to write down all the things she wanted to do and we'd do them.  We marked off everything on her list (except horseback riding-$) even the ones we, her parents, added.  We painted ceramics, organized her room, bought her nice clothes, got her a new haircut, checked out Barnes and Noble, drank hot chocolate from Starbucks (very popular out here), took a trip to IKEA, went bowling, played some games at a video arcade place called the Boardwalk, got a chocolate dipped cone from McDonalds.

Plus my friend, who is currently living in Germany due to husband's job, came out and we got to spend time hitting all the thrift stores by my house.  See, we don't have garage sales out here in San Diego like they do in other places.  How I wish we did!  I could find all kinds of goodies....muuah ha ha.  For creative purposes of course.

So, everyone's back to their normal habits.  Yuck.  I really prefer not having everything being so mundane.  But, what do you do when your husband has a job and kids need school!

I found a headboard sitting out on my neighbor's curb about a month back.  I'm finally getting around to antiquing it.  I'm going to turn it into a bench, if I'm successful.   Otherwise,  I don't know.......

figuine

I painted the girl figurine last night.  She's turned out quite cute!

And here she is!

The yellow is actually glittery, but with the light and the camera shot, you can't really see it. 

Anyway.  It's my first shot at doing a paper mache figurine.  Ta-da!  

Not bad.  Not bad, at all.

Christmas presents

I bought some shoes at Payless and I made these.

I saw a tutorial here.  They were pretty easy to do.  I found the comics online, googling Mickey Mouse comics.

I also made glitter flats.  I will have to show them to you later.

She art figurine raw

She art figurine raw, a photo by LoveRenewed on Flickr.

I'm taking an online class called "She Art 2".  It's put on by Christy Tomlinson.  This is one of the things I am making from that class.  When it dries, I'm gonna paint it.  It's going in a Christmas gift basket.  I have to make 2 baskets for gift giving.  One will be art things and the other will be baked goods and homemade items that are usable.  

I'm also going to be making these for gifts...

and these...

But it won't be Superman and Batman.  Mickey Mouse or something more cutesy than superhero stuff.

Yay!!! So fun!

Pictures of Christmas things

Totally in the mood to create prettiness!  

I've been wanting to find Christmas-y stuff that's not really Christmassy. (Is that a word?)  To be able to turn it into really anything.

This is what I found...

These sparkly metal "trees" are at Target, or they were.  I can't find any more.  (pout)  I would love to be able to find another set.  The pinecones are from my neighbor's tree that's been dropping on our driveway.  The wine glasses are from the local thrift store (so many finds!) and in them are battery operated candles (from the dollar store).

This is a cupcake holder from World Market/Cost Plus.  My mom was looking for cupcake holders for my dad's 60th birthday bash back in June.  She bought 3 and I bought 1 because I think it's so darn cute!  I added granny smith apples, more pinecones from my neighbor's tree and pomegranates.  The table runner is from Target.  The white tablecloth is from my grandma, she found it at a garage sale.  The words on my dining room wall are from Uppercase Living (vinyl lettering), Michael's (wood letters) and Joann's (metal words).  The lazy susan is from IKEA.

This is an advent calendar thing I made in February or March, I think.  I made 4.  My mom bought them from me to give to my siblings.  This is called 3D peek a box and it comes with the numbers.  I bought the paper online.  I filled mine yesterday with candy and the kids get to open one each day!  So cute!

My husband pulled out the boxes full of Christmas stuff.  I realized we don't have much-4 boxes.  One for the tree including our stockings, one with all my nativity scenes (4, I think), one with random stuff that I place in our bathrooms.  The last box has my Willow Tree nativity pieces.  I have Mary and Joseph and the shepherd sets; both given to me as gifts.  (Nothing better than receiving Willow Tree figurines as gifts!)  I'm also going through the boxes to find what things I want to keep and things I think are totally hokey (and cheap ie Oriental Trading-ish) and shopping for something to take their places.  The above centerpieces are examples of what I've found so far.  (Big, content smiles.)