Good Monday Morning Everyone!

Thought I'd share a few of my creations from my scrap=night with Adrienne on Friday. It was so funny, because she could NOT find her scrappy mojo and ended up cutting out patterns. And I didn't do really much traditional scrapbooking (with photos), but instead made these two creations...which fit in perfectly with a few things I wanted to share with you all anyway! (Imagine how that worked out so well!)

Last week we started the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday (Lent consists of the 40 days--excluding Sundays--from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday), when we have one of my very favorite services at church. We have the "imposition of ashes" on our foreheads (if you ever see people out on Wednesday with sooty crosses on their foreheads, that's what it is!), which reminds us of our mortality. It can kind of be seen as a morbid service, I guess--you know, "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust"--but I'm always totally revived by it. It reminds me to keep things in perspective...to not think of myself too much...to enjoy the little things in everyday life...and to remember, in the grand scheme of things, that I need to store up the sort of things that have lasting meaning.

We are also challenged at the beginning of Lent to think about our plan for the forty days. You know? What you want to give up (chocolate! caffeine!! television!! yikes!) OR what you want to "take on." I really like this second approach because it focuses on the things I can change in my life to make it a better life. I was really challenged to do some things differently from now until Easter... with the hopes that it will translate into my regular schedule, becoming a habit.

So...for Lent, I am going to do a couple of things. (1) I'm going to try and be better about reading my Bible everyday, (2) I'm going to try and do at least one "service" activity each week (whether this is actually going up to church or out into the community and doing a hands-on project, or whether it's just consciously doing a "random act of kindness" as I go about my days), and (3) I'm going to journal everyday about my journey through Lent.

So, those two pictures up at the top of my post are of my little journal I created on Friday night. I've been journaling everyday...about what God is teaching me, about what life is teaching me. It makes me happy to have such a cute little notebook to write my thoughts down in (and maybe it will inspire me to do more of that kind of "sit down with a pen on the couch at night and really think about stuff" writing).

And then we all know that February is also the month of LOVE, so I had to create something kind of Valentine-y (is that a word? lol) and my creation (that thing up at the top of the post with hearts all over it!) really ended up going along well with my whole Lenten attitude too.

I had found this idea on Ali Edwards' blog; it was to use repetition of a design to create some artsy-project. I decided to make a heart design that I could display in my house (I was gonna frame it and hang it on the wall, but it's made its home on my hearth and I am liking it there!).

I just cut out hearts from different fun patterned papers; stamped a mat board, and placed them on a background sheet of patterned paper. And then--my favorite part--I wrote individual words on each of the hearts that represent the kinds of things I want to have more of in my life. So I wrote words like...

love
joy
peace
contentment
romance
simplicity
spirituality
friendship
knowledge
adventure.

Those are the sorts of things I want to aspire to during Lent this year...and really all times of the year, throughout my life!

And speaking of love--which I was!--I'm very excited that this is the Week of Love. (I know that Valentine's Day is a totally man-made, commercial holiday, but I still can't help but love it.) We started our week off great with a fun party on Saturday night with great Italian food and fun dancin' music. And I love to get Valentine's goodies for the girls. And it always gives Gary and I an excuse to go do something totally on our own (which is always a good thing!).

So, you know that I will be doing lots of Love-Related activities on my blog this week. Some fun quizzes, maybe some poetry, maybe even some photos of decadent Valentine-y treats! (Make sure to come back and enjoy it all! lol)

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend, and that your week ahead is looking good! Talk to ya again soon!