a critic's voice

If you are looking for a negative opinion on someone/something, you will surely find it.

There are critics everywhere, some build their lives on writing articles de-facing or de-valuing others. To some it's more like a hobby, spread their negative words on to everyone they come in contact with. There are things that leave a bad taste in our mouths, I've had my share of experiences that I wouldn't wish on others, and I've even shared those experiences before to try to save someone else the trouble. Not gonna pretend I've never shared a negative opinion before in my life, but that's not quite what I want to write about.

When/if there is a subject or a person that you don't know directly or aren't sure quite where you stand on something, I would suggest that you not begin building the foundation of your opinion on the voice of critics. This may be difficult. The critics are often the ones who shout the loudest, who want most desperately to make their case known and heard. You might have to block them out. But the only way to truly know what you think of something is to see the heart of it. And the "heart" of something is most likely not going to be accurately represented by someone who is criticizing.

I have read articles where someone takes one single sentence a pastor or leader said and builds an entire theoretical debate over how heretical that statement is and how, due to that one error, everything else they say for the rest of their lives should be discredited. (And often times that one sentence is taken completely out of context.)

What if God did that to us? What if we said or did one thing wrong and therefore the rest of our life was discredited, meaningless. Scary thought. God can and will use imperfect people. The entire Old Testament shows us that.

All of this is not to say that you should turn a blind eye to something that doesn't line up with the Word. Please, PLEASE, continue to test what you hear, take it to the Lord, compare to Scripture, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. There are legitimate things out there that should not just be swallowed without question.

But be wary of starting out forming your opinions based on the voice of the ranting critics out there.

And that is all.

[Ok, that is not all... I just hit publish two minutes ago and I feel the need to explain myself better. As believers we are called to a standard, there are ways to go about confronting someone on issues, there are things we are to speak out against. That is not what I am defining as "critical" here. What I would call a critic is someone with a personal vendetta against someone else that is not built on truth or love or bringing people back to the gospel, but rather on spreading their own agenda and dissention among others. Hope that clarification helps...]

Living Room Inspiration Photos

I love the verse in the Bible that talks about how "Without vision, the people will perish..."

Shaun and I were talking about that before we fell asleep the other night. About his vision for his business, about how God told him once to "never stop building." I talked about my vision for photography some, but what I feel like I have vision like crazy for right now is my house. Any other girls out there hear me?? :) Our homes are our own personal canvases, our place to experiment, discover ourselves, our styles and personality, a place to make our family feel loved and comfortable and taken care of, a place to create a little haven, a place to make beautiful. Now cleaning is not always that fun to me... But I've found that if I take the time to beautify a space, I am more motivated to clean and keep it looking pretty.

The other night I couldn't sleep, and I spent an hour or so down in our living room flipping through magazines in the middle of the night. By the time I went back to bed I had re-designed our living room in my head, knew exactly what finishing pieces I need, what wall color I want to use, some architectural elements I want to add... Now I am dying to make it a reality, but I think realistically it's going to have to wait til after baby, there are too many other things I need to focus my energy on right now.  But here are a few images of inspiration.... (and this is me full blown dreaming as if money wasn't an object.)

First, I'd re-paint the living room a creamy grayish oatmeal shade of white. 

Second, I'd add wood planking to one wall. The one behind our entertainment system with the collage of family photos on it. (And I'd actually love to continue the planking around the corner and onto one wall of our kitchen) 

(Oh, and this picture is of our living room about a year ago, decor has changed but layout is the same. That's the wall I'd add the planking to) 

I'd do horizontal planks so it would look something like the image below:

Third...

Here's our front door now... And because they're not expensive or anything, 

I'd switch out the front door for something like this: 

Fourth, I'd add a light fixture to the currently unused spot in the center of our living room ceiling. Probably something like this: 

Fifth, because I have several other collages going on in the living room, I'd replace this grouping of mirrors over the sofa with one larger mirror. (I already know where I'd use the smaller ones elsewhere in the house)

Probably a mirror like this: 

(But instead of it being from Pottery Barn I'd look for something similar at HomeGoods.) 

And sixth, just because I've wanted something like this for forever anyway, I'd get this giant woven basket to hold all our cozy throw blankets in: 

(Again, this is from Pottery Barn, but I'd look for something similar at HomeGoods.) 

 So, there's my imaginings for what I'd do to our living room if I had the time (and money) right now. Maybe someday I will be able to post some pictures of it becoming a reality on here! 

A girl can dream.... don't wanna be without vision, right?? 

Rearranging

The bedroom situation in our house has been in full blown transition mode the past few weeks (or maybe months).

You might remember that Drew & Isaiah slept in our bed for the past year and a half. Well one of my goals was to transition them to their own room before baby comes. This involved moving Isaiah into Drew's room, setting up a double bed, buying a new box spring and matress and sheets for the bed, and then getting them to want to sleep in there. It has gone much more smoothly than I thought it would. It just so happened that we painted our bedroom and got the final piece for their new-to-them bed (the boxspring) on the same day. So we all slept in Drew and Isaiah's room that night since our room smelled like paint. I think having this little sleepover in there helped, but besides that we basically took our same routine but did everything in their room instead of ours. Teeth brushing, pajama changing, bed time story reading by lamp light, a fan, soft music... And for now I stay in their room with them for about twenty minutes until they are both asleep. Another unplanned thing that seemed to help was the fact that Drew no longer naps (not by our choice) but this means he's so tired by bed time that he falls asleep really quickly without even thinking about putting up a fight about where he's sleeping. The first week or so I usually got up about three times a night because one of them would wake up crying, or stuck between the side rail and the matress, or one had rolled on top of the other, etc. Now the only time I wake up is if Drew comes into my room in the middle of the night and asks me to come snuggle in his bed with him. Occasionally we wake up in the morning and Isaiah has come into our room sometime in the night and is sleeping in between us. But it has been SO NICE to have some time to ourselves in the evenings once they are asleep. I will never regret the family sleepovers, but I'm ok with moving on when it's time for a new season, and it was time. :)

It makes me feel good that they still have another 10 weeks or so to adjust to this chance and for it to become our new normal before baby gets here. Now I'm working on the nursery (previously Isaiah's room). Isaiah still naps in there, but the next change on the list will be getting him to nap in him and Drew's room. We moved our rocking chair and Drew's old bed into the nursery besides already having the crib and changing table in there. I'm rearranging the wall art/photos etc and just starting to go through my infant boy clothes. Today I took apart the bassinette and washed all the blankets and sheets that go with it. So slowly but surely we're getting there. Here are a few pictures of the changes we've made :)

 The old iron bed frame is from Shaun's grandparents. I bought new red sheets that feel like soft t-shirt material, and I was able to make the single quilt that I already had from pottery barn fit the double bed. It's short on the sides but that works perfectly with the side rail needing to tuck in between the matress and box spring anyway. I'll always love that vintage license plates clock I found on Amazon. 

 And this is what the room looks like when it's actually in use. (Always trying to remind myself as a mom to see their creativity instead of their mess... Here they were using their toy box as a boat and fishing with the cords on the ends of their pretend microphones...) 

Here's a peak at our new wall color in our bedroom. It was called twilight gray, but looks much more blue-ish in real life... it's exactly the calming color I was hoping for and I'm so happy with how it came out! 

My bedside table: 

Shaun's bedside table. See that little green sticker on the corner? It says $24.99 on it. I found this sitting in the front of goodwill when I specifically went there looking for a table for Shaun's side of the bed. It was brand new from target with the tags still on it. There is a tiny scratch on the back side that faces the wall. I looked it up online and it is normally $89.99. I just absolutely love it... There's a little tray that slides out above the drawer, and there's a shelf along the bottom. Here's the link to it at Target. 

 I plan on showing our whole room with before and afters (and the boys whole room) once I finish up a few more projects (including a new jewelry storage system for me made from pieces we already had) The only new thing I bought for our room (besides the paint) was that little palm tree over on Shaun's bedside table. $2.89. Not too bad... 

It feels good to have all the furniture moved that needs to be for now, and just be working on the smaller details. :)