Sunday Reflections

Have you ever sat through a sermon, conference, or guest speaker and thought: "hey, they are talking to me!"? That was me yesterday during our Sunday morning sermon at church. I always look forward to going to worship services. I went to the same church my whole life growing up. So when I moved almost 6 years ago, I was nervous about finding a new church family. I had never experienced visiting other congregations in hopes of finding one to worship with. I visited 2 congregations and both ended up being my place of worship during different times in my life. My current congregation is one I visited when I first moved here; however, at the time it was too far away. My husband and I began attending this church when we got married 3 years ago. Since we bought our house, we live less than 5 minutes away!

Now enough of the back story, on to the purpose of my post: sermons speaking to me! Yesterday's sermon was about Thankfulness. Every now and then our preacher will preach on "Questions Jesus Asks." This question came from a reading in Luke 17: 11-19, with the specific question being in verse 18: "Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" This is taken from the context of Jesus cleansing the 10 lepers. Out of 10 people being cured of Leprosy, only one came back and gave thanks to Jesus. Now, the preacher went on to make the point that being thankful is easily forgotten. Did the 9 lepers purposefully forget to thank Jesus? Probably not! They were overcome with such joy that they went on their way rejoycing, possibly going to reunite with their families. This got me to thinking....How often do I forget to be thankful for what I have? We should be thankful in all circumstances. As a society, we have been blessed. Yet, most only turn to God when tragedy strikes. What about turning to God when we receive blessings? I like to think that I spend time in prayer other than just asking for things or when things are going bad. The truth is, I could spend more time being thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 says we should pray without ceasing and to give thanks in all circumstances. We have countless blessings. Yet, we seem to be focused on all the things we do NOT have instead of the everything we DO have. I'm guilty of this as well. I'm also guilty of impatience. I really struggle with wanting things on my time when I know that all things are on God's time. Those that know me, know I'm a planner and like things to run on a schedule, usually one of my own making. However, that is not what happens the majority of the time, especially with life changing decisions. I like to sometimes stop and remind myself that when God closes a door, he opens a window. He has something else in mind for me, or he is blessing me in a different way. He knows what I need when I need it.

First real life example: I've been trying to get a job close to home for a while. My husband and I are ready to try to start a family, and I would like to be close by when that happens. I've applied to many schools at every position I am certified for, but doors just aren't opening. Even one promising lead turned out to be another door closed. Then I find out that in September my husband and I are both getting raises! And I will have a new team to work with this year at school. I also have the opportunity to go to New Orleans with my team in a few weeks for a Math conference. Doors close, but windows open!

Second real life example: This one doesn't necessarily have doors closed and windows opened, but this is more the example to be thankful for what you do have instead of what you don't. It's time, or so we think, to make that next big life change. However, things are proving difficult. As mentioned previously, I want things on a certain time table and it can be difficult for me to accept when things don't follow what I have planned. So naturally, you can imagine that I am going crazy right now! And my poor husband bears my craziness with a grace and ease that no other man would. I truly am a lucky woman. I'm trying so hard to not focus on what's going wrong and why things aren't happening when I want them to. I need to step back and look at what I do have: and that's a husband that would forgive me anything. He treats me better than I have a right to be treated sometimes. We continue to pray together and ask for our next big life change, but we also remind ourselves to be thankful for what we do have and all the blessings He has bestowed upon us.

So, I'll leave you with some scriptures from yesterday's sermon that I thought were great to go to when you need some reminders of what to do to demonstrate thankfulness:

• Philippians 4: 6-7 *this one is one of my favorites
• Psalm 28:7
• Matthew 6:25-34 (especially 33-34) *this one was not part of the sermon, but it is one of my all time favorite verses that I like to go to when I need comfort and reminding about who is really in control

Weekend Projects

As a teacher, sometimes you tend to take weekends for granted during the summer months when you are "off." I had a very busy and productive weekend that went by much too fast. My parents came up for a visit (these don't happen nearly as often as I'd like), but with 315 miles between us, there's just no avoiding it. I had a main project in mind this weekend, and I wanted to use my mom's crafty abilities and my dad's handyman skills to assist me. I do, however, feel a bit guilty that I put them to work while they were here. But I also think they enjoyed it too:) Not to mention I fed them two AMAZING meals while they were here (more on those later). Now bear with me because while I may post pictures from time to time, I don't always do the process part of the pics, just final products. I promise I will attempt to get better at this as my blogging ventures continue.

So I've basically already admitted my addiction to Pinterest! Well this craft project hails from that exact location, along with my food ideas....
If you are a craft person, you should be familiar with modge podge, a craft glue/sealant agent. This is  DIY modge podge wall decor.

• First, I had dad go with me to Home Depot where I purchased a 4'x4' piece of plywood. We got this sheet for about $20.
• When we arrived home, he sawed the sheet into 12 pieces of 12"x12" squares. Now I would keep in mind that after the sawing gets done, they may not be "perfect", but they were close enough.
• At Hobby Lobby, I purchased 2 bottles of glossy modge podge at $7.99 each (I didn't even finish one full bottle, so 1 should be sufficient). Since I didn't have any brushes, I purchased the foam brushes for $1.99 for a pack of 6 with 3 different sizes. My mom showed me a great coupon app that has many stores that offer coupons. I believe it was called coupon sherpa. I found a 40% off coupon for one item at Hobby Lobby. Now, this is also where I would buy scrapbook paper for this project, which can be $.59 a sheet for a 12x12. However, my mom is a HUGE scrapbooker, so she brought several books of paper for me to choose from. I was able to knock this expense from my budget.
• I also needed to purchase wall hangers for the back of the boards. I found a pack of 5 at Target for $1.94. I bought the hangers that have the jagged teeth. I bought 3 packs since I was making 11 pieces. 
• Another expense you may need to factor in is the paint. We bought our house almost 2 years ago and I still had paint left over. You would only need a small can for painting the sides of the boards.
• After the boards were sawed, we sanded the edges smooth and painted them with brown paint. Since it is June in Texas, it is ridiculously HOT! They dried rather quickly.
• We put an old sheet over my dining room table and placed the boards on them. I know where I get some of my OCD with organization and precision...my mother. She laid the pattern of the paper out and changed her mind about 7 times before she found the perfect layout for the squares. After that, she insisted that we don't get them out of order when we begin to modge podge the paper on there.
• Put a good amount of the modge podge on the board and stick you sheet on top. Then we used a straight edge to smooth it down to prevent bubbles. Let dry before applying the top coat of modge podge.
• After it's dry, we made sure we smoothed out all the bubble and applied to top coat of modge podge to the paper on the boards. Then we placed them outside to dry.
• Once dry, we sprayed an acrylic spray to top coat it to make it shiny.
• Then my dad, precisely measured where to put the hangers on the back and where to place the nails in the wall. We did a 3x3 pattern on the big wall with 1" between all boards. We started with the middle board and worked our way out. I used 2 additional boards to place on each side of a big front window. Here is the finished product!

Now, this dining area is a work in progress. I am still planning on adding more decor as time and money allows. I will definitely keep you posted!

Actually Doing This!

Ok, so the last time I "blogged" was during the myspace era, circa 2005-ish. Even then, it was just rants and raves of a young adult spurned by boys, getting through college, and eventually moving away and becoming a "grown-up." This blog will NOT be anything like that. I've titled it "Actually Ashley" for a reason: things posted on here are things I actually do, think, feel, believe, etc....
My goal is to limit the negativity and try to encourage and uplift when possible. Everything else will be about cooking adventures, teaching/classroom projects, funny student stories (when applicable), books I'm reading, places I go, and other interesting tidbits that I feel need sharing. I'm also toying with the idea of trying my hand at writing children's poetry. For a while now my mother-in-law has been encouraging me to write. She says she has dreams where I am a children's author. That sound FABULOUS! I'm a reader by trade, but writing has always been fun for me. I never once remember complaining about a writing assignment. In fact, I looked forward to it. My only downfall in writing is getting started. I often find myself in need of some assistance in finding my initial idea. After that, I tend to take things and run with it, sometimes a little too much.

I know many people think that as a teacher I enjoy the whole summer off completely done with anything and everything school related.....WRONG! As many of my teacher friends can identify, we do spend quite a bit of our own personal time dedicated to our profession. That being said, I attended a writing professional development earlier this week. It was designed to help us first grade teachers become better at teaching writing to our students and being more intentional with teaching writing. It was at the end of that workshop where some of my teammates and I were able to write a short poem; thus, inspiring my continuing efforts to become an author of children's literary works. Of course, I feel the need to share what we came up with:

Summer Fun

By: A. Browning, T. Johnson, V. Williams, and L. Barnett

 Hot days, ice cold snocones.

Soft sand, hard shells.

Big waves, little boards.

Play all day, camp out at night.

Run through water, walk on sand. 

Bright Sun, glowing moon.

I fell in love with this as it was finished, so I just had to keep it. I just love the way we took a theme and then each line used opposite adjectives to describe the theme of our poem!

I've also been inspired to write due to friends at church who share the same literary interests as I do. I look forward to reading their works and gaining feedback from them as I begin my own.