God cares about the details…

It is amazing to look back over this very difficult week and see the goodness of God.

One thing that God has taught me is that he cares about every detail of our lives.

God knew my mom would be in the hospital last Sunday night, and he hand-picked a nurse to care for her.

He didn’t pick just any nurse. He picked a nurse that is passionately in love with Him. He picked a nurse that would passionately love my mom.

Our lives were changed by this sweet nurse.

She came to mom’s visitation Thursday night.

Our lives will forever be intertwined.

I just discovered she had a blog and I read this post about my mom. Please go check it out. I hope it blesses you as much as it did me….

It's Not About the Medicine

I have so much to share about this past week.

I have so many to thank.

I’ll be back soon…

Her battle is over.

Mom’s battle with cancer ended at 2 a.m., September 22, 2009.

She did not lose her battle with cancer.  She won!  She now stands whole and victoriously at the feet of her Savior.

We sang hymns in her ears and read scripture to her.  We kissed her beautiful face a thousand times.

The room was filled with her family.  And filled with God’s love.

A few weeks ago, I stood in the kitchen with Mom and I told her how strong she was being through all of this.  I told  her how amazed I was to see her faith so strong and her mouth so full of thanksgiving.

She said, “Traci, I have tried my whole life to be an example to you kids of how to live for Christ.  Now I have to be an example of how to die for Christ.”

Oh mama, you were!  You continually blessed others when they were trying to bless you.  You changed our hearts.  You showed us how a heart in love with Jesus is greater than any trial we face on this earth.

I hear God now saying, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.”

And mom, you are healed.  You’ve wanted to be able to walk on your feet for weeks.  Dance, mama, dance!  Dance with Jesus.

 

I held her sweet hand as she drew her last breath.  I’ve never known an honor so great.

She was so beautiful.

I love you, Mom.

 

For all of you wonderful people who have prayed for my mom and my family during these difficult days, I share with you my mom’s very favorite verse that she has clung to all the more before she passed away…

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.    John 14:27

(Before Mom got sick, she tried to start a blog.  She was able to write a few posts.  I wanted to share it with you. http://wandawalkingwiththelord.blogspot.com/)

For you, Mom…

There is none better.

It’s Monday morning, and I am sitting with my mom in the hospital.

My sister and dad brought her to the hospital in the middle of the night because she was experiencing extreme pain in her abdomen.

They have given her morphine for the pain, and we are waiting for results from an x-ray.

She is very much out of it, but will sometimes speak out of her head. The words she has said the most are, “I love you, Lord.” and “You all are wonderful.”

It reminds me of the scripture,

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

Luke 6:45

My mom’s heart is overflowing with love for her Lord!

Here is a picture of my family that we took on Dad’s birthday, September 4th.

That’s my brother, Blake, in the middle.

He is Mom’s pride and joy.

He recently wrote down some words that had been laid on his heart. I think he did a great job describing our mom.

He said I could share them with you…

There is None Better!

I hear people brag about their moms, but if they ever met mine they would know. There is none better.

You think you know a Christian that talks the talk and walks the walk? Well let me introduce you to my mom. There is none better.

I always thought the best way to describe a Christian is “Servant.” You should meet my mom. There is none better.

Do you know someone who is unselfish? Puts everyone above themselves? Would give you anything they had? I call her Wanda Faye, she's my mom, and trust me, There is none better.

I've known her 37 years. I've seen her faithfulness. I've gotten up at 5 in the morning and found her reading her bible. I've watched her prepare to teach bible studies. This isn't just a bias. I'm telling you. There is none better.

She's fighting cancer now. She even does that selflessly and gracefully. I can't tell you how many cards she has received. What does my mom do? She uses all the energy she has to try and write everyone back. Do I really need to do any more convincing? There is none better.

If you've been fortunate enough to meet my mom you know what I mean. If she's touched your hand, smiled that sweet smile, told you she loved you, told you she was praying for you, well consider yourself blessed…she meant every word. There is none better.

If the Lord does decide to take her home before we are ready. I can't say I blame him. He knows what I do. There is none better.

****************

Please pray that Mom would be healed. Pray that the doctors would have wisdom and discernment in caring for my mom.

Pray for my dad, his heart is breaking.

God bless each and everyone person reading these words right now…

Making a Mirror for the Den

When I moved my furniture around in my den this summer, I had a huge wall space above the couch that I needed to fill.

I didn’t have  money to buy something, but if I did, I would have bought these mirrors from Ballard Designs….

But these are two for $199.00 !  That would be $398.00 plus $38.90 in shipping costs!  For a grand total of $436.90…Not gonna happen!

Lowe’s has mirrors in their store almost exactly like the Ballards ones for a cheaper price.

They are only $79.00 a piece and they are beautiful.  Plus, you don’t have to pay for shipping!  That will save you about $117.00.  If you like that look, you may be interested in these.  However, at $320.00, these were not an option for me either.

I needed a mirror for like…hmmm…..nothin’!

So I decided to use an old frameless mirror that used to be in our bathroom before we remodeled it.  (Very GREEN of me, don-cha-think?)

My handy husband framed it out with 1 x 4’s.

I stained the wood with Minwax, Dark Walnut.

Painted it white.

Then glazed it with Valspar Mocha glaze.

(I’m sorry, but I dropped the ball when it came to taking pictures of each step.  I was in  a hurry.)

Here is the mirror at this stage…

I bought some decorative pieces from Lowe’s for less than $4.00 to add to the frame.

I did the same paint treatment on these pieces and added them to the frame with wood glue.

Then I sanded all the edges to let the dark stain show through.

Here it is above my couch.  I am hoping to get a new couch someday too.  :)

And here it is since I’ve added a few (and I mean a few!) fall touches.

I got the sconces from Southern Living at Home.

So the only thing I bought to make this large mirror was the little decorative pieces for the corners.  The rest of the mirror was made from supplies we had at home.

Even though it doesn’t look like the ones from Ballard Designs, it fills up the big space above my couch, and it saved me about $430.00!  Guess I can’t complain!

Blessings,

 

Update on Mom: 

She is feeling  better this week.  She is scheduled to start back on her chemo next Tuesday, but it will not be as strong of a “dose” since the last treatment caused her to spend four days in the hospital.  Her potassium has been dangerously low this week which puts her at risk for cardiac arrest.  So the past three days she has had to go to the doctor to get her potassium through an IV.  It’s about a six hour process, and it is very exhausting. 

If you would like to know how to pray for her specifically, please pray that the swelling in her legs and feet would go down.  It would help her be more independent and get around much easier.

Her spirit is strong.  She’s making the best of all the trials she is going through.  She keeps saying that she is just so thankful for each day she has with us.  We are too!

We are all living “one day at a time.”  Which is actually a great place to be.

Thank you for all of your continual prayers.  We have felt them.

Thank you for praying for Eli too.  His feet are doing amazingly well.  We went to the doctor today to get them checked and make sure they are healing well.  The doctors said they are looking great!  I am so thankful.  He’s one tough cookie!

New Dishes for my Hutch

I just had to share with you some wonderful new dishes I got for my hutch…for FREE!

My Aunt Lois, (my dad’s sister), started reading my blog about a month ago, and noticed my love for white dishes. 

She just happened to have been storing some white dishes in her garage for quite a while that she had been trying to give away.  (They used to belong to her daughter.)

But lucky for me, there were no takers.  She asked me if I would want them, of course I said “yes.”

One thing you need to know about me is I never say “no” to anything that someone offers me.  Especially if it’s free!

I figure that if it doesn’t work for me, I can just pass it along to someone else.

Now my Aunt Lois could have brought me a big box of the ugliest white dishes you have ever seen.  (Though I highly doubted it because she has exquisite taste, and her house is decorated beautifully.)  Or it could have been a box of white dishes that just weren’t my decorating “style”.

You can imagine my surprise when I opened the box and saw these beauties…

The back of the plates read:

Fine English Tableware                                                                                      by Johnson Brothers                                                                                         Made in Staffordshire, England

I love the scalloped edges.

It was a complete set including some cute little bowls.

And look at the adorable sugar and creamer set…

They look absolutely wonderful in my hutch.

Aunt Lois is also the blessed mother of  four,  like me.  (Although she got a daughter in the bunch…3 boys, 1 girl!)

Her youngest son, Darrin, is the head basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. 

Any Gamecock fans out there?

I shared with many of you that we had a family reunion at my house in August, and we were so excited that Darrin and his family could be there.  It had been a long time since we had all been together.

We celebrated by wearing our South Carolina gear.

Here is my oldest son, Jonathan, with Darrin.  Jonathan LOVES basketball…just like his daddy!

This is Darrin with my dad and his sisters.  Aunt Lois in on the right of Darrin.

I didn’t know what all the fuss was about.  Everyone seemed to only want pictures with Darrin!  

But I knew better….I KNEW that my Aunt’s wanted a picture with me too…so I obligued…

Okay….I admit it …I wanted a picture with Darrin too!  I’m proud of my cuz!

Now all the “cousins” have children too.  Boy, do we have a lot!

I love the “crazy” pose!

And my sweetie gave all the great grand children a ride in the wagon.

They loved it!

To thank me for hosting the family reunion, Aunt Lois gave me this great personalized basket.

How cute is that?!  I absolutely love it and have already used it many times.

Thank you so much for everything, Aunt Lois! (And Uncle Ed, too!)

You blessed my socks off!

Emergency Room Visit!

No, not with my mom.

My son, Eli.

Yesterday while I was at Mom's and the boys were at home with Dad (a fact I just had to add…) he stepped in some hot embers from a bonfire we had on Saturday.

He has second degree burns on the bottoms of both of his feet!

We were at two different ERs for over 6 hours.

He was quite the trooper. Once the Lortab kicked in, he started feeling much better. We even got some smiles.

These pictures were taken close to midnight.

He can’t walk on his feet for the next five days.

Today he has felt really good, and you wouldn’t even know that he has burns on his feet except that he’s not running around the house!

Please pray for a quick recovery.

Blessings,

(And yes, he should have had shoes on.)

Kitchen Curtains

*****This post was edited to add to Funky Junk Interiors' Saturday Nite Special. Go check out the fun!

I spent several months this summer trying to find some curtains for my kitchen windows.

I knew that I wanted floor length panels, but I wasn’t sure what type of material I wanted. I thought about black and white buffalo check, but was afraid that would be too bold.

I wanted something more subtle.

I had in the back of my mind some curtains I had seen in blog land. They were made of drop cloths, and I thought they were beautiful.

The first ones I saw were at Layla’s blog, The Lettered Cottage. You can read about her curtains HERE.

She got her inspiration from a picture she saw in Pottery Barn…

Then I saw them appear again on Judy’s blog, Gracious Southern Living. You can see how she made her beautiful curtains HERE.

Don’t you love the black detail on the bottom?

So I decided to give them a try and see if I liked them.

I made many trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot to find just the right drop cloths (yes, I have analyzed drop cloths!), and you can read about my discoveries HERE.

One of the many things I learned was that not all drop cloths were alike.

See the difference between the top drop cloth and the bottom drop cloth in the above picture? I got these at the same store!

Many of my followers asked me which drop cloth package to get? Honestly ladies, I found that drop cloths wrapped in the exact same packaging were sometimes still made of different materials.

So I spent about 20 minutes in the store comparing the drop cloths, holding them up to the light, opening the packages, etc. The Home Depot guy must have thought I was CRAZY!

I could hear him thinking, “Come on, lady, pick one already! It’s just a drop cloth!”

I liked the drop cloth in the bottom half of the picture best. It had a lot more texture and beautiful brown flecks in it.

But YOU can choose whatever type you like best! (The variations are very subtle.)

Here are the things I love most about drop cloths…

1) They are 6 feet by 9 feet,which means they are super long and perfect for curtains to go from the ceiling to the floor.

2) All four sides are hemmed. Saving you some time when making your curtains.

3) They are a super heavy canvas material which requires no lining. Saving you another step!

4) And most importantly…They are Cheap! About ten dollars a piece. That’s a little over 3 dollars a yard!

Now, I chose the simplest way possible to make my curtains.

I have made window treatments before that were a lot more time consuming. These are the curtains and roman shades I made for my previous home. (It was Christmas time…)

But for my drop cloth curtains, all I had to do was hem the top and bottom of each panel, and I was finished.

I simply ironed the top of the panel down 2 inches, and sewed a straight stitch all the way across.

I did the same thing for the bottom of the drop cloth because I wanted mine to puddle in the floor.

If you didn’t want yours to puddle, you could do a bigger hem.

To find the correct length, create your two inch hem on top first, hang the curtain up with the rod and clips that you want to use, then let the drop cloth drape on the floor. Next, pin the bottom up to the length you want it. Take the curtains down and iron the hem the length you chose, then stitch. No cutting required.

If you do not own a sewing machine. simply hem your drop cloth using an iron and some hem tape. You can get hem tape for a few bucks at Walmart or just about anywhere.

It looks something like this…

I bought my clips and curtain rod at Hobby Lobby.

Though I love the “look” of the clips I chose, they are not as strong as the ones I got for my den curtains. The drop cloth is very heavy and has slipped out of the clips.

Then I took some black ribbon from Walmart and a couple of tassels from Hobby Lobby to create my tie backs.

To attach the tie back to the wall, I got real fancy and used a curtain clip. Could this be called a Window “Mistreatment”?

I love the finished look!

I had a very difficult time getting a good picture of my curtains. During the day, the sun is so bright that I get a huge glare in the picture. And of course at night, the picture quality is not as good.

Here are my curtains through my buffet mirror…

I also made drop cloth curtains for my den…

And a drop cloth slip cover that I will be sharing in a future post…

I am linking this post to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Stop by there to check out some really great posts!

Blessings to everyone,

Traci