DIY post?? What???

Ok guys...I'm getting trendy here and writing a do it yourself blog. Why? Only because I'm so proud of my mom and myself for what we did!

So my mom has hated her refrigerator for a long time and I've been addicted to pinterest for a short time now. So I had the brilliant idea to convince her to paint the fridge with chalkboard paint. It may sound weird considering there's no little kids in the house or anything but if you think about it it's very practical. You can easily keep track of what's in the fridge, what you need to buy, make to do lists...whatever you need to use it for! So I'll walk you through the steps to this super cheap way of upgrading your fridge.

First, you should know that our refrigerator is not made with that thin shiny plasticy stuff they seem to make them with lately. It's an old one so it has this thick textured exterior. I'm not sure how well it would stick to the plastic stuff.

For this project you need:
Chalkboard paint
Small roller
Angle brush
Small paint brush (like for water color type painting)
Paint tray
Painters tape

Yup that's it! Tape up the rubber at the door hinges and any trim you don't want painted.

Paint around the edges and trim using the angle brush and fill in with the roller. Let the paint dry before starting your next coat because going over it while wet seems to make it peel right back off. We did 3 coats and still had plenty of paint left over.

After it all dries peel the tape off and go over any small imperfections with the small paint brush. Unless you're a good painter and don't have any imperfections.

And voila! Did I spell that right? New updated fridge you can write on! And it only took us about 4 hours and 15 dollars. Here's ours :)

When He calls

Ever felt like God was asking you to do something, but you were so scared to do it you weren't sure how to react? Maybe you'd been praying for God to show you his power or his sovereignty. Or maybe you asked to be taken out of your comfort zone. And then he did just that and you thought "oh shoot".

Yup that's where I am right now. But then on my way home as my wonderful phone read Mark 1 to me tonight, I read (or rather, heard) the story of Jesus calling his disciples. Ever realize it says these fisherman left everything immediately to follow him? Immediately. Talk about convicting. When you think about it, we have so much more of an idea of who Jesus is than they did. We have books of history telling of his teachings and his amazing works. They had nothing but faith. And yet Jesus calls us to maybe leave one thing behind and we can't do it. We stop. We get stuck. All of the sudden we need to weigh the options and decide if this crazy thing he wants us to do is the responsible choice or the best one in the long run. As if he doesn't control the "long run". Meanwhile these guys just dropped everything with no questions asked and followed Jesus Christ. Yeah, oh shoot.

So where does that leave me? To be honest I still am scared to death. I'm still weighing the pros and cons. I'm trying to let go and let him do his thing while I follow his lead but it's so hard. So if your reading this, can you pray for? Pray that I can clearly hear God's voice and that he will provide a clear way for me to do what he is asking. And pray for courage!

I need to trust he's got it all under control.

When your plans fail...

It's amazing how God works sometimes. Actually all the time but some things stand out more than others.

We had our high school youth group tonight. It's always an awesome time. I love seeing kids learn about God and have meaningful discussions. This summer we're watching a video series that's basically a reality show where teens discuss major life issues. Then we break into small groups and discuss those issues further. There have been some great conversations following these videos and I've absolutely loved every week of it.

But this week disaster struck.

Or at least that's what it felt like for a while there. The DVD was scratched and kept skipping and eventually we had to turn it off. That meant doing small groups without the video. That meant trying to fill and hour with small group time. That meant more than we were prepared for. But God didn't disappoint. Despite our prayers the DVD didn't work, but clearly He had other plans.

I heard so many stories of amazing conversations that might not have happened if we didn't have all that time. People learned what it really means to have a relationship with Christ, not just follow a religion. It's funny because praying before the night started I told God I trusted His sovereignty. Guess He had it even more covered than I realized. Plus the worship team got to put together a few songs last minute and they did an awesome job of closing out the night in a way that allowed us to praise God for being in control and for wanting a relationship with us.

Wow what a great night. I'm just so encouraged by what happened and how I saw the Lord move. Definitely a night to remember.