Another Challenge from Dawn

It's been months!
Went through Dawn's challenge -- just didn't do any journaling or blogging. :(
She has started a new one -- 21 Days of Prompts in June. We're on day nine today. I have been journaling, some in a journal, some on my computer. But today I was inspired to do a scrapbook page. Our prompt was to choose a favorite Bible verse -- well I did a whole chapter, Psalm 8. The flowers & leaves came from the Carefree kit by Booland Designs; the rest are from Silvia Romeo's Picture Perfect kit. Here's how it turned out:

Day One in Whispers of Hope

Over at Dawn's blog (Enthusiastically Dawn) I have been challenged to join in a 70-day journey on Whispers of Hope. We are using Beth Moore's book of the same title to enter a journey in our faith walk with Christ. I have been hesitant to get start, in fact I'm five days behind everyone else. I'm not sure if I'm fearful, if I'm just letting my procrastination get the best of me; or if satan is working hard to keep me from this. In other words, I'm just not sure what is going on. Today I'm taking my first step on this journey. I know not what to expect & I know that it is scary. But I know that the Holy Spirit is with me all the way; I know that where He leads me I will follow. I feel His presence as I go and that is good.
While I was getting ready to write an entry in this blog of mine I laid my eyes on a post by Kathy in our Face Book group, it is a quote by Joyce Meyer:  "Quitting is not an option for the confident woman. She must decide what she wants to do and make up her mind that she will finish her course." Lord, I need to be that confident woman that Joyce writes about. I want to be that confident woman! I beg of you to take my hand & be my guide. Open my ears to your whispers of hope.

 

After reading & journaling the first chapter, I went to Photoshop & did a scrapbooking layout for another way that I journal. I don't know if I'll do one every day, but when we're done with the book, I hope to have a faithbook ready to print of my layouts.

Let's dance!

Do you like to dance? It's not something that I do personally, but there are times when I feel like my inner self is dancing; like when I see a beautiful sunset; like when I feel God near to me; like when I step outside at night & hear an owl's "who-who"; like when I am in awe of the birth of a new grandson -- yes, there's many times I feel like I'm dancing.
But what about times that you don't want to happen? What about when you are angry with yourself for doing something stupid? What about when you get a call in the middle of the night with the news that your son has died? What about during the storms in your life? Do you still feel like dancing?
Yesterday I ran across this quote by Vivian Greene: "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain!" And that my friend is called trust & hope & faith; faith that God is in control and that He will work all things out for good if we trust Him.
That quote inspired me to do this scrapbook layout:

 

Think about it! Is your faith strong enough for you to dance in the rain?

It's About Time

My last post has been a while ago, it's about time I got around to blogging again. :)
I've really been doing lots of commenting at Gotta Pixel, the major part of my job as a Praiser there. Plus feeling the need to do some learning I signed up for The Art of Blending at Digital Scrapper. This is just week one, but it's got my mojo working overtime! The class was a bit expensive in my book, but it's for 10 weeks which breaks down to less than $10 a class. I have forever access to the class materials -- this week we got over 200 textures to use in our blending (the class is for Photo Shop & Elements users). Here's what I did for my first assignment:

 

Isn't it amazing the difference a little blending can do? This isn't my first class on blending, I had one at Scrap Girls several years ago, but this class is an advanced class, so I'm hoping to learn lots more. Linda has gone into taking photos with the intention of blending them. Lots of good tips right in that first video - there were two others & an introduction video as well as some pre-class videos. I'm totally impressed with her teaching methods. The only thing I miss is that there doesn't seem to be a chat room at this website -- bummer. But Linda is very quick to answer questions in the forum set up especially for class members.

I had a little time yesterday to do another & used my blended photo in this layout remember our trip to Brazil in 2008:

 

 

This is so different from the flat lands where I live that it is always something special to see so many hills & mountains -- really fascinating to me, if not a little scary. Don't get me too close to the edge please!

 

Then there's Dave, he's hurting so badly that I just want to take away all of his pain. He has a pinched nerve in his back & has been laid up for several weeks now. Just when he thinks he's getting better, he goes & twists & has to start all over. I think this time he has finally learned that he needs to take it more slowly when he starts feeling better. It's really not his nature to sit around day after day & is anxious to be outside working in the yard. In reality thought, he can hardly make it from one side of the house to the other. Please pray for him that he will finally realize some relief from all this pain.

 

Lastly, there's this Fruitful Congregation Journey that we are trying to decide if the church is going to participate in. I'm still feeling called to join if we do. And I've pretty much determined that the Emmaus Walk will be on my agenda for October. Again, continued prayers for these decisions.

 

May God bring you blessing after blessing as you journey through your walk in the world.

 

New Arrival

At last our grandson has arrived! He was born last Friday & chaos ensued for several days after that.
Here's a layout I did Friday evening:

If you're on any websites I frequent then you may have already seen it.

Well, lots of other things have been happening in my life as well. I am seriously considering doing an Emmaus Walk later this year. An Emmaus Walk is a 72-hour spiritual retreat offered to committed, church-going Christians who have a personal relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is something I have thought about & prayed about for a number of years & now the time has come to make the commitment.

Our church is also considering a "Fruitful Congregation" experience. This takes about three years to complete & is a huge commitment, but one that I really think is part of God's plan for the Howe UMC.

I would like to ask you to pray for me & for our congregation as we make these decisions. We need to do this prayerfully & look to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

And there's one other covenant that I've made & that's being involved with Kathy Carter's Project Faith-Book. It's similar to something I did a year and a half ago. I don't know quite what to expect, but our first assignment is to do a layout about who we are. Hope you go very deep Kathy & we get to the depth of our souls. I feel God is really pulling me to do something that will make a difference & dig deep within as I cling to His promises & develop my relationship with Him.

Here's my first layout (I decided to do this in 8½x11 size instead of my usual 12x12).

Thanks for listening.

Ahhhhh -- Peace & Quiet

But it may be short lived! Looks like another storm is rolling in.
It's been chaos around here for most of the day. Julie & the girls came over for breakfast before her doctor's appointment. Then  Kalei & Jenny arrived. Kalei had made plans to spend the day working on her 4-H poster here. The little girls were just here while Julie was at the doctor. That took most of the morning. It was time to fix lunch when they finally left.
Kalei's project didn't get started until after that -- and it took two trips up to the church for things I had in the office there. But she did get it done.
All that on top of a very stormy night. Janessa had spent the night & she's a little afraid of storms, but nothing like the dog. I have scratches & bruises from where she clawed at me. For some reasons she thinks I'm her great protector when it's storming. We ended up with over 3" of rain during the night. And I was right about it looking like another storm was coming -- it's really pouring again.
I did manage to do a layout about the river rising....

Yesterday there was a sand-bar in the river behind the house. Today it is gone & the log back there is pretty much covered up. Amazing! I can't imagine what it must be like in Calgary where they have had to evacuate thousands of people.

I think there is electricity in the air here. What with the stormy weather, the humidity and to top it all off, Julie's doctor is putting her in the hospital Friday morning to start inducing her labor. It's all very exciting though.

May you see rainbows in the sky in spite of the storms of life & have a blessed day!

PS. I forgot to report that I did not make it to round 4 in my contest, but that is really a good thing because of my new spot at Gotta Pixel. It was fun creating the layouts & getting to know the other contestants!

Learning the ropes & more

Wow, learning all that a praiser does has kept me hopping! Busy, busy, busy.
To top it all off Dave hurt his back & I've been trying to do extra things that he normally does & playing nurse for him. When it rains, it pours!
I've been having so much fun learning my new job at Gotta Pixel & loving every minutes of it. I think I need to get out my thesaurus & learn some new words before I start sounding like a record with my comments on layouts there. LOL!
I have done a little scrapping too, including using the kit provided for the GoDigitalScrapping contest -- My Main Man Bundle by Seoule2Soul Designs. It is a great one for scrapping that special man in your life, but I struggled with this one. The first one I did was so cluttered looking that I just started over with a blank page.
Here's the first one I did (I really liked the little heart I made with the quote marks in the alpha set with the kit!):

And here is what I posted in the gallery for my entry in Round 3:

 

We find out Tuesday evening who made it to the final round.

 

May God's blessing pour out to you all day long!