Happy…A Story of Pain and Healing

Same blog…

Same focus…

New name!

Now that I've cleared the air, let me proceed with my story.

It begins with a girl.

Let's call her Happy.

Happy lives life full of hope. She wakes up with the sunshine and chases the sounds of her angels'  laughter. She explores the world with her angels and always carries with her Trust and Love. Together, they breathe in the fresh air of Promise and rest under the shadow of the wings of their Maker. 

One morning, Happy woke up and felt different. 

She felt something new…Pain. 

This new feeling was not welcome and as she tried to run away from it, she noticed it caught up to her and found her. She later discovered that Pain would not leave and wanted to stay with her always. 

Happy did the only thing she knew how to do. As she succumbed to Pain following her into the night, she embraced her angels, climbed into her tower of faith and rested under her Maker's wings, as she did every other night. And as she did, she found Peace. And Peace reminded her that Pain was not going to stay. She smiled, closed her eyes, and believed.

He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5:34)

I share this story NOT because I want anyone to worry or wonder. I share it because I believe we all go through our own share of discomforts and diseases. I was recently diagnosed with a skin disorder but am thankful it is secluded to only one small part of my body. I'm thankful for healing and hope. I'm sympathetic to those that go through much more serious conditions that encompass their whole life. I pray for your peace and comfort as you navigate through it and find refuge and peace.

xoxo In love…

MG

I'm baaack!

(Image from Patheos)

Hello my lovely butterflies! I am back after a year hiatus. Do you forgive me?

Let me explain.

I never left. Physically I've been here.

Mentally and emotionally, I've been everywhere.

I have continued living a holistic(ish) life with my husband and two kiddos. We have continued learning and growing together as a family. We still have a ways to go but isn't that what life is all about? Being a continuous journey?

I kept feeling a tug in my spirit to start writing again.
I
miss
you.

I miss writing my thoughts and sending them off freely into the universe hoping that it may somehow bless someone.

So I'm back.
And happy.
And thankful.

Thank you for lending your wonderful eyes to my site and for letting me share my stories with you.

xoxo,
MG

Love Heart Centerpiece, Perfect for Valentine's Day

Aahhh, la 'amore.

Love inspired this centerpiece I created recently.

I was inspired by my three biggest loves, my hubby and two children. I wanted something that they could look at every day leading to Valentine's Day that would remind them of how much they mean to me.

Yes!
       I    am     a       sap.
                                      Sooo sorry.
Please bare with me. I promise I will snap out of it on or around February 15th.
Promise.

Any-who, I used some branches from our yard, a few extra touches, and a little imagination to create this.

You will need:

1. vase - I'm sure you have plenty collecting dust
2. red confetti paper  - purchased from the Dollar Tree
3. red plastic hearts - Dollar Tree
4. thin ribbon - Michaels
5. Loveable decal (optional) - leftover from a scrapbook project
6. embellishments - I had small letters and crystals leftover from a scrapbook project. (Michaels)
7. branches - picked from the yard
8. white spray paint/paint (optional)

This step is optional. I feel like this would look just as lovely unpainted. 

But I painted our branches white. 

While the branches are drying, grab your ribbon, scissors, hot glue and plastic hearts.

Cut your ribbons about 5 inches long.

Fold the ribbon in half and hot glue onto one side of a heart. See the first heart below. 

Once dry, add an  embellishment to cover the point where the ribbon meets. 

I used small letters to spell love on some and used crystal dots on others.

Arrange your branches in the vase and fill the bottom with the confetti paper. 

Hang your hearts on your branches. 

You can add ribbon or decals as you like!

Display and show your lovies! xoxo

Make Your Own: Red Heart Headband

Incase you haven't noticed yet,
I'm a bit of a holiday junkie.
                                               Looove them!

It is the perfect excuse to get creative, have fun, and most importantly celebrate with your loved ones!

So of course, today - February 1 - marks my official count down to Valentine's Day. 13 days and counting...

But what exactly are we celebrating? Personally, I celebrate loving my kiddies and hubby by doing some extra special things for them. Some historians say Valentine was an actual priest in Rome while others recognize him as a saint.

One legend tells of a heroic, romantic who was appalled that Rome decided to outlaw marriage in the third century when the Emperor decided that single men made better soldiers than those that were married. Valentine secretly performed marriages despite this law. Another story suggests that Valentine was imprisoned after trying to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons. Valentine fell in love with the jailor's daughter and left her a note signed "From your Valentine".

Whether you like the history of holidays, or simply like the celebrations that go along with them, it's always fun to dress for the occasion. So I got to crafting to make Mia a Valentine headband.

I went to the Dollar Tree (love that place) and picked up a bag of heart foams on a stick, a bag of colorful plastic hearts and a pack of headbands since I needed the red one. I pulled off the foam hearts from the sticks and then hot-glued my hearts onto the headband. This took all of but 5 minutes and will make an adorable accessory on V-Day!

xoxo!

Make Your Own: Sock Puppets

Are you counting down the days until Spring like me?

Don't get me wrong. I love the winter holidays and the first fall of snow...then...

.....I'm over it.

I want it to end. And I want Spring. Stat! To no avail, I must wait like everyone else. 

To help combat cabin fever, I find myself looking for new craft and game ideas to do with the kids. 

Then, I came across some of Daniel's old clothes that I had been meaning to donate or throw away and thought we could use the socks for puppets! We were inspired after reading one of Daniel's favorite authors, Laura Numeroff. In her book, "If you give a Moose a Muffin", the Moose makes puppets and the book provides a simple tutorial on how to make your own. 

So we got to it! We picked out a few of Daniel's old socks. He colored his orange with black stripes and I colored mine green. From there, we just let our imagination take over. Here are some of the steps we took to make our "Tigre" and "Sapo" as Mia lovingly named them.

You will need:

1. Old socks

2. Scissors

3. Markers

4. Pompoms/Googly-Eyes

5. Pipe-cleaners or other decor (optional)

Here is "Sapo". Read below to see how we made him and his friend "Tigre".

1. Find an old sock and color your heart out. Daniel colored his orange and black.

2. Flip it over and cut out part of the sole. You may want to try it on your hand first and mark approximately where you will need to cut.

3. Take the piece you cut and lay it on top of a piece of cardboard. You will need to cut the cardboard to about that same size. The cardboard will act as a mouth. We used an old cereal box.

4. Place your cut cardboard onto a piece of felt or foam.

5. Cut the felt/foam slightly larger than your cardboard.

6. Glue the edges of the felt/foam to the cardboard. I used a hot glue gun. Doesn't have to be neat. 

7. Fold this in half.

8. Glue the felt/foam piece into the cut-out part of your sock. You should place it behind the opening of the sock. We then added a foam tongue for fun.

9. Then decorate! We added two white pom-poms and googly-eyes on top and a green pom pom for the nose.

The kids put the puppets to work right away and put on a puppet show! 

(And yes, Mia is wearing an elephant costume. Don't ask. Ha!)

xoxo!

Bargain Baby...Thrift Shopping

Once upon a time...

I
used
to
care
about
brands.

Then one foggy day, the thrift fairy knocked me over the head with a stone. She called the stone "Frugality" and vowed I would never be the same again.

She
     was
            right.

Some time in between having my first child and my second, I began exploring thrift and consignment store shopping for the kids and have been sort of hooked ever since. Especially since it seems they outgrow their clothing at lightning speed! Why not get it at a bargain?

Up until now, I haven't had to worry about buying clothing for Mia, except for the random special occasion dress. Lucky for her, she was blessed with lots of wonderful little girl cousins who love to share and has been wearing most of their hand-me-downs. Recently though, I've had to start shopping for her and have found some great bargains at a few local consignment shops.

So although, I will bargain buy most of the kid's clothing, I've found that periodically, the thrift fairy will lead the way to some really great clothing at really great prices!

Dressed in their Sunday best, their entire outfits were consignment finds.

Daniel:
Top is Gymboree - $4
Bottom is Cherokee - $3

Mia:
Top is Gymboree - $3
Skirt is Gymboree - $3

Happy Shopping!

Valentine's Day Cards for the Kiddies

If you've been in any retail store recently, you can't miss all of the Valentine's Day decorations and candies EVERYWHERE! The bright pink and red colored candy bags with red chocolate this and pink candy that. It's pretty hard to avoid.

It got me thinking about what Daniel can give out to his classmates this year when they have their Valentine's Day card exchange.

I knew I wanted to avoid the artificial candies and chocolates, although I would be lying if I said I didn't like the way that they taste on occasion. But the bottom line is that they're not so good for us. They're full of artificial dyes and sugars. And truthfully, my son doesn't even care for them. It's a miracle, I know! I would love to take credit for this one, but he has never had a sweet tooth.

So, candies are out.

This year, stores are full of "non-candy" options for us mommas. I recently walked into a Target and found at least 10 options of Valentine's Day cards and non-candy goodies that were very inexpensive. Some included stickers, tattoos, pencils, erasers, notepads, and stamps. Love that! Most of the boxes were in the range of $2.50. Love that even more!

Not bad, huh?

But before my Target discovery, I had already ventured into our local dollar store and bought several packs of toy mazes (6 in a bag for $1) and made little treat bags for Daniel's class. So if you have some time, and want to make your own, here is what we did.

You will need:
1. small paper or plastic goodie bags
2. small toy mazes
3. fun sticker to seal the bags (we chose Daniel's favorite- Lightning McQueen)
4. gift tags (optional, but cute if you want to include a play on words like "You are an a-MAZE-ing friend.")
5. confetti, to sprinkle in the bags (optional)

 Found these at the Dollar Tree. They also had heart shaped ones (12 for $1), 

but Daniel thought those were too "girlie". I thought they were adorable!

Optional confetti to sprinkle in the bags and Cars stickers to seal the bags. 

My gift tag puncher and red craft paper to make the tags. 

(You can purchase the tag puncher or already pre-made tags at a craft store like Hobby Lobby.)

I used these foam traffic stickers to adhere the tags onto the bags. 

They were left over from Daniel's birthday party. 

Enjoy! xoxo