Since Halloween is coming upon us on Sunday I thought I’d share some spooktacular ideas. They are all courtesy of Martha Stewart. If you would like to find more information about a certain project just click on the picture.
These jack-o-lanterns look so warm. I wish I had made the time to carve a couple this year.
I guess I’m really liking the jack-o-lantern this year. Maybe tonight I will pull out the ol’ carving knife and whip up a glowing beaut of my own!
18And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. Isaiah 30:18 KJV
Does it seem like you have been short on patience and time? And the waiting is never ending? I know that’s how I’ve felt recently. But what a joy it is to know that if we wait for Him, we will be blessed. We must focus on the goal at hand, serving the Lord and doing what is in His will for us right now. And everything in the future will fall into place at the right moment. It’s just a matter of having the patience to wait and to not force something to happen when it’s not God’s time.
I found this awesome recipe on Better, Homes, and Gardens. It’s called the Upside-Down One-Bowl Apple cake, it only requires ONE bowl!!! That means only one bowl to wash! Did I mention it only requires one bowl?!I will definitely have to try this recipe out this weekend! And doesn’t it look pretty?
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Place the 1/3 cup butter in a 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Place in oven about 5 minutes or until butter is melted. Halve apples; remove stems. Using a melon baller or small spoon, scoop out apple cores.
2. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter; stir to combine. Spread evenly over bottom of pan. Arrange nine of the apple halves, cut sides down, in butter mixture. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until butter mixture is bubbly.
3. Meanwhile, peel and coarsely shred the remaining three apple halves; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, ginger, and cinnamon. Add shredded apple, milk, the 1/4 cup softened butter, the egg, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Gently spoon batter over apple halves in pan, spreading evenly (some apple may still be exposed and some butter mixture may come to the surface).
4. Bake about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
5. Using a sharp knife or narrow metal spatula, loosen edges of cake from sides of baking pan. Carefully invert onto a serving platter. Spoon any butter mixture remaining in pan onto cake. Cool for 20 minutes more. Serve warm. If desired, serve cake with ice cream. Makes 9 servings.
14Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 (KJV)
Be of good courage, what does that mean to you? To me it means have faith, soldiers going into battle must have faith in their commander. We should have faith in our commander, the Almighty. We must also wait on Him, to wait on Him takes a great amount of faith. But as the psalmist says, “…He shall strengthn thine heart…”. So, if we have enough faith to wait on the Lord, then He will give us that strength we need to fight the good fight. All we have to do is wait.
This year it seems that my neighborhood is celebrating that impending spooky holiday more so than in years past. Well, in the two years past since I’ve lived in the ‘hood. Anywho, while browsing through Better Homes and Gardens I came across some pretty spooky but sweet ideas to Halloween-ify my front porch. Maybe I’ll even venture out into the yard with the Halloween cheer! *GASP* As always, feel free to click on the picture to find out more information from the original source, bhg.com.
I’ll start off with my favorite idea they had to offer.Witches Parking!!! Who doesn’t feel like they deserve a broom to ride around on every once in a while?
I know I shared some spooky sillouhettes yesterday, but I like this idea so much more. It seems a bit easier than painting a shape on to a white curtain. And the good folks at Better Homes and Gardens are even giving away the templates for these cute shadows!
These ghosts look easy to make. With just a few cheap bed sheets and maybe some old broomsticks you could have a ghostly trio of your very own!
In the background of the above picture you can see a garage door all decked out for the most ghostly of holidays. They suggest using some 2in to3in black cloth tape to make these shapes. It could work, but I wonder what happens in it rains and the stick wheres off. Maybe they are just meant for one time use???
I really like the idea of these window webs, but after reading the instructions it seems a bit too complicated and time consuming for me. Anything requires straight pins is out of the questions for me. I always poke myself on those things. But I wonder if a couple of wooden dowels pained black and some black yarn wouldn’t do the trick?
It’s time to hit up the dollar store for some spooky supplies. We’ll see how my spooky crafting goes!
20“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,” Jude 1:20 (KJV)
There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.-Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest”
Don’t be impulsive, sounds easy enough right? Not so much. Sometimes we allow our human-ness to impede the development of our “disciple-hood”. Think about it, actions and words, when taken impulsively, can cause a lot of hurt to those around us. That’s why it’s so important to think and pray about what we do and what we say before we do it or say it. We must allow God into those actions and words for them to be truly used for His glory. As Mr. Chambers mentioned, we must allow Him into our ordinary everyday lives. Because isn’t that what our lives end up being, a lifetime of everyday? Why not put God into everyday, so in the end you’ll have a lifetime that was spent giving every minute, hour, day and year to the Lord. How wonderful would that be?
Planning a wedding has become so much more time consuming than I could have ever imagined. So, needless to say (and I’ll say it anyways), my Halloween and Fall decorating ideas haven’t been done. I really don’t forsee them getting accomplished this year, but at least I can blog about my favorite crafts ideas this year and dream. So, thanks to Martha Stewart I’ve found some pretty cute craft ideas for Halloween. Feel free to click on the pictures to find out how to do these cute little projects for yourself.
These cute tin pumpkins are so sweet. With just a few cans of left over paint, a hammer, and an awe, you’ve got some pretty AWEsome pumpkins. And the best part about these is that they can be used year after year. That is, if they don’t get lost in the garage.
This jar idea is cute, and I bet you could even implement this idea for other holidays. For Christmas you could paint your jars red and green with cute little elf faces. At Valentines Day they could be red and pink, at Easter you could have happy pastel bunny jars. And they don’t necessarily have to have faces. But I think those smiling faces are just too adorable not to use!
Good ol’ Martha Stewart called these “funkins”, and they could be fun to make. Glow in the dark powder and inexpensive fake but carveable pumpkins and a black light is all you really need to make these. Since this project sounds so easy and quick it might be something I could actually complete!
This project seems a bit time consuming for me, but I thought they were creepy yet understated. Which is what your Halloween decor should be right?
If you’re going to dress up for Halloween why not dress up your candles too? This little craft only requires some tissue paper, tape, an exacto knife, and of course a candle holder with a candle. I really like this idea, because for one it’s not permanent, and you won’t have to worry about storing a season specific item all year long.
These ideas definitely got my crafty wheels turning! If I try any of these projects I’ll be sure to post about it. But don’t keep your fingers crossed, the headless horseman might come and make chocolate bars out of them! MAHAHAW….
Patience
By Ruth Harms Calkin
Lord, as I read Your Word today
I underlined these words:
“Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act.
Keep traveling steadily along His pathway
And in due season He will honor you with every blessing.”
I know I need more patience Lord.
But I simply cannot create it.
I plead with You to do it for me.
And, Lord could You hurry a little?
“22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
Patience is such a fleeting thing for people today, myself included, one moment I have it and the next minute it’s gone. Or maybe I never had it in the first place. Like Ruth mentioned, patience is not something that can be created by us. It’s a gift from God. In our culture today, everything can be bought or found instantly. But when it comes to the fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians, we can’t be find those up for auction on Ebay. Those fruits are things that we must wait for God to bless us with as we walk along the path that He has set before us. It does us no good to cross our arms and tap our toe, and ask God when? How? Are you listening? Because we cannot know the when or the how only the Lord knows our “due season”. The only thing we can do is wait, listen, and keep walking.
I know, my posts about fall decorating are coming in a little late and few and far between. But I am working on some totally gourdge ideas to inject that harvest spirit into my casa. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the pun!
A couple weeks ago, I went pumpkin shopping for real pumpkins. If you remember from this post I went crazy with the fuax pumpkins from our local handy dandy dollar store. Well, this time, I finally gave in and brought home some real pumpkins to put outside. You know the, the kind that won’t blow away! Here are a few of the small ones. Aren’t they cute?
But they looked a little plain to me, so I thought I would brand them with a couple monograms. I decided to use the first initial of mine and the sweetie’s first names, A and J. So, I took some stencils, some black paint, and a sharpie…
I ended up forgoing the V and replaced it with an &, which I thought was a lot cuter. And much safer so that we don’t have all of our initials hanging out on the front porch.
So, i began the process by taping the stencil to the pumpkin:
And then using the sharpie to outline the letter:
Then filling in the letter with my black paint, using dollar store water color brushes. I really do love the dollar store, there are so many treasures to be had there!! If I had remembered to take a photo of my pumpkin at this stage, you would see a photo here. That’s what I get for watching the late show while doing a craft.
Here are my sweet little pumpkins all done up and displayed on the front porch:
They look kind of sad there, sitting next to a naked pumpkin. I think I’ll have to do some more dressing up on the front porch. My poor pumpkins need something to sit on. I’ll have to go shopping around the casa to find a “free” something to use up here. What do you suggest I add to bring in more pizazz? Maybe a mini scare crow? Some autumn leaves?
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world” —John 18:36
The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation . . . . For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.
We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.
It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.
I must admit, this entry from Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) found in My Utmost for His Highest really humbled me. So often, I find myself searching for things to do, and end up rushing from here and there to do those things that really aren’t all that important. It’s this overactivity that takes me away from being fully immersed in the Lord. We as Christians need to set aside time to just be with God, to listen to His still small voice. And to allow ourselves time to soak in God. He is there at all times why not enjoy His company instead of being so busy “being busy” we forget that He is there?
Semi-Seasonal 