She's crafty

So I kind of have a thing for matching... it's a bit OCD really. So today I finally did a project I've been wanting to do for a while cause it's been driving me crazy. Stellan's room is the only room in the house that I'm actually happy with, the rest are a work in progress (and will be for quite some time). But there was one thing in his room that didn't really go with the rest of it. And you'll totally laugh at me, but it had to be fixed. :)


Yes... his baby wipes container. His room is blue/green/yellow, and this was the closest thing I could find to matching, but the brown & beige has always kinda bothered me, and the green is totally not the right color (see... OCD). So I pulled out the leftover scrapbook paper that I used to decorate the letters above his crib, and of course you can't do crafts without Mod Podge. (I LOVE Mod Podge... every time I think of a project to do, my first thought is "I wonder if Mod Podge will work...")

This isn't a tutorial, so here are some pictures of the end result. :)

I didn't have enough of the blue to do the whole thing, so I did the sides with yellow and front/back with blue.

SO much better!

The color scheme.

In it's place. :)

I'm still amazed how well the paper matches the fabric of all his bedding... the paper was bought 4 years after the bedding (it was Read's too) and I didn't even have a sample of the fabric when I found the paper. This is the diaper stacker that hangs off the end of the changing table.



So there ya go. :) Yes, I know I'm silly and weird but this was my major accomplishment for the day, and I'm pretty proud of it. :)

-Autumn

Aunt(ie) Autumn

I have 6 nieces, and 6 nephews. And niece #7 is on the way... we just found out last week that she is a girl. :) When I really stop to think about it... that is a lot of kids! I have 2 younger sisters (who each have 1 boy and 1 girl) and Ben has an older sister (2 boys, 2 girls) and an older brother (2 boys, 3 girls). My oldest nephew is 15 and my youngest niece is 7 months (not counting the one still in utero). ;)

I love being Aunt/Auntie Autumn (Ben's side calls me Aunt, my side calls me Auntie). It is a very special relationship... one that's really hard to describe unless you've experienced it. I was an aunt before I was a mommy... little miss Madelyn arrived and changed MY world too. Being the go-to babysitter is something I've always loved, and it's been a blessing to live close to both my sisters so our kids can all grow up together.

Ben's brother and sister live out of state, but I have really enjoyed getting to know all of their kids and they each have a special place in my heart too, even though I don't get to see them as much. I love hearing them call me Aunt Autumn... if you know me and Ben's story at all then you might understand why. It is just another testament to God's redemptive work in my life. Being accepted as their Aunt is a big deal to me, something I don't take lightly at all, and I really hope to cultivate a relationship with each one of them so they never question whether or not Aunt Autumn loves them.

All these thoughts started swirling because we got to have one of our out-of-town nieces over to spend the night this week. Haley is 11 and is here for a month visiting from Texas, staying with Ben's parents. It was great to spend some time with her and watch her interact with my boys... It made me REALLY wish they lived closer cause she is so great with Stellan! I'd let her babysit anytime!

It was a sunny morning in Seattle, so we decided not to waste it and headed to a park. I must admit, I really wasn't sure what to do with an 11 year old girl... even though I was one at one point, that was a LONG time ago and I am very much in boy mode nowadays. Hopefully we didn't bore you Haley. (And if anyone has any good ideas, she's staying with us another night next week...) ;)

Cousins posing on the playground (Read cracks me up!)

Spider Haley

Throwing rocks in Lake Meridian

She's a natural :)

Stellan's turn to pose

He likes her. :)

CHEESE!

First time playing on grass! He didn't know what to think.

There are no words for this cuteness.

Can't wait to have you back next week Haley! And I love and miss the rest of you... Gabriel, Sydney, Ian, Mahari, Caleb, Nora, Timon, Madelyn, Holden, Hayden, and Savannah! ;)

-Aunt(ie) Autumn

Psalm 107

Yes, I changed the look of my blog entirely. And I may do it again before my next post, so don't get too comfortable. ;) I really am just playing around with it and figuring out what I like at this point, I imagine it'll take awhile before I'm totally happy with it.

But that is not what I came here to say. So on to the good stuff.

This post is actually the reason why I decided to start a blog. I've been randomly reading in the Psalms lately... and by randomly I mean I pick a number between 1 and 150 and turn there. I like to think that the number that pops into my head at that moment is somehow divinely inspired and that God is going to tell me exactly what I need to hear that day. It sounds kind of silly, but it does happen on occasion. Like last week, when I found myself in Psalm 107.

I love this passage so much that I would type the entire thing out for you to read if I didn't think that might bore some of you. So I'll stick to quoting and summarizing. And you can always look it up and read it yourself. ;) Seriously though, my heart has been stuck on this and I found myself really wanting to write about it and tell SOMEONE. Or perhaps everyone... no one in particular, I just wanted to say it and put it out there for someone to read. So here you go. You're welcome.

 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
  whom he has redeemed from trouble
(Psalm 107:2 ESV)

After I started reading, I realized that this is the verse that Angela Hurst kept going back to during her talk at the Mars Hill Women's Training Day, which was the Saturday before last (amazing day, more on that later perhaps). Our stories are very different, but a lot of what she says really resonates with me. I have been through some junk. Some serious, serious junk. If you don't know my whole story, and have 3-4 hours with absolutely nothing to do, I will gladly lay it all out for you. It would make a good soap opera. Drama, drama, drama.

But... I am redeemed!! And because I am redeemed, I can shout my messy, soap opera story from the rooftops because God has taken something ugly and made it into something beautiful. Or I should say He is *making* it into something beautiful. That is the other huge take away that I got while reading this. I have come SO far from where I was. My bad days now are nothing compared to my bad days 6 years ago. But... I still have SO far to go.

This psalm is about God's steadfast love... a love that never stops, even when we turn our backs on God and don't deserve to be loved. He is always there, waiting for us to cry out to Him.

 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
  and he delivered them from their distress.
(Psalm 107:6 ESV)

All we have to do is ask! Why is this so hard sometimes? I look back at my own life and clearly see all the distress He has delivered me from, but when a new problem arises, my flesh struggles to turn to Him for help first. I think I can handle it... it's not a big deal. Right? Oh how much I still need to learn! This exact verse shows up 4 times in Psalm 107. Do you think I maybe needed to hear it more than once? Well played, God.

 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
  for his wondrous works to the children of man!
(Psalm 107:8 ESV)

This verse also appears 4 times. Cry to the Lord, thank the Lord. Cry to the Lord, thank the Lord. Cry to the Lord, thank the Lord. CRY TO THE LORD. THANK THE LORD. Yup, 4 times seems necessary. I am so very thankful for how far the Lord has brought me from where I used to be. It is so easy to only focus on how far I still have to go and not stop to just be thankful for what He has already done. It is truly amazing and a complete testament to His amazing grace.

His work on the cross is finished, but His work in me is never-ending. At least not on this side of heaven. So I thank the Lord for his steadfast love, and I anticipate the next time I get to cry out to Him in my trouble (probably tomorrow). And yes, I said *get* to... because it is a privilege, one that I certainly don't deserve.

Okay... who made it to the end?? Congrats! ;)

-Autumn

I did it.

I started a blog. Ta-da! I apologize for the cheesy background and overall boring-ness of the looks of it, I promise I will make it better. After someone shows me how. ;) For now I was going for something a little more "Autumn" than plain white or pink flowers.

(Fact: I am not a fan of pink. I even feel weird wearing pink. So I don't. Maybe that will change if I have a daughter someday...? Not likely.)

(Fact: Saying "fact" makes me think of Jim & Dwight on The Office. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica.)

But seriously, which of my amazing blogging friends wants to help the new girl?? I hate feeling like I don't know what I'm doing, which is one of the reasons why I have put this off for so long. I can do the writing, just not so big on the cutesy-appealing-looking-website skills.

A warning up front... I am a rambler when I write, so I do not promise short posts but I will try my best not to bore you. I will also try to have a topic so I'm not just randomly talking, like I am right now. ;)

One last thing then I'm done for now. I had to come up with a name for my blog before I started writing, so I thought about it all day. For those who may not know, Starr is my middle name and I've always liked it and been a little obsessed with stars, so I knew that had to be part of it. I was trying to avoid being too cheesy or too serious though... I needed to find something a little cheesy and a little serious. Like me.

One of my favorite things to do is to look at the stars. They are beautiful... mysterious... humbling. They make me feel very small, and very at peace. This is what my blogging is all about... finding my place, and finding my peace. Gazing in, then gazing up.

I read a great C.S. Lewis quote earlier... "God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created." I love how the stars make me feel small because I realize how petty and fleeting my problems are. I am NOT a big deal. And then there is a sense of awe and amazement when I realize that even though I am a very small speck in this world, God knows me as if I was His only child. It is amazing, and oh so humbling.

Just like the stars. :)

-Autumn