"Dents"

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13 NIV

Wow!!! Do you ever have those devotions when you feel like God just gave you a Holy Spirit butt kicking?!!?? Well today's quiet time with God was one good swift kick in a good way:) I am kinda embarassed to even blog about it, but here I am...I signed up to get emails from this Proverbs 31 ministry and todays email was titled "seeing beyond the dent".  It started out with a verse from Thesselonians 5:11 "encourage one another and build each otherwise up..." When I first read the verse I was like well duh...I am great at encouraging and building others up. Then I read the story  that followed the verse and that is when I felt HORRIBLE!!! This gut wrenching feeling that I sat there and thought that is sooo me!! Ugggggg, I am not fan when I am correctted on things!! Who is...I mean do I really have to be encouraging when I don't like what someone is doing or saying!! I don't know about you but sometimes ivket my mind go on spin cycle(like the washing machine) and I let one little sent turn into one gigantic dent, when all I could've done is looked past the dent and looked for the good!!! Ok Lord...I get it!! :-)
I will let you read the story for yourself(I encourage you too) but the just of it was that too often when  "dents"  are present in situations or in people ,we are more likely to be critical or judgemental of that person or situation. So, instead of just seeing the "dent" to look past it and encourage or build up the situation you are in!!!  Whew!! I am thankful that God DOES see the good in me and He is not critical or condemning, instead He celebrates the progress I make. Lord give me Your strength to look past the dents in life and to be an encourager.

Valentine Fun

Happy Valentine's Day!!
My morning started out with waking up to beautiful flowers and a cup of coffee waiting for me...my husband is AMAZING!!

After breakfast and a little play time, Addison and I got all dolled up for our Valentine Parties with our friends

the first party was at her friend Adry's house. They had so much fun!! We made crafts, played with lots of fun toys, exchanged Valentine's and of course there was SNACK TIME!!

the second party was at our friend Cassidy's house. There were more fun toys to play with and Valentines to exchange, oh ya and don't forget the good food... Pizza and Cupcakes!!!

After a morning filled with parties we headed over to Gramma and Grandpa's house to give them their Valentine and play for a few hours!!

(this is gramma and Addison at the zoo)

We ended the day with a yummy dinner,

Broiled Halibut with Lemon & Herbs and Dijon Roasted Potatoes

and for dessert....

Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Cake...mmmmm and a glass of wine!!

Finger Painting made EASY!!!

Hi my name is LaDonna, and I am a Pinaholic!!

Yes I jumped on the Pinterest band wagon and it is so ever addicting. It is quite fun actually, not to mention all the way cool ideas you find on there. One of the most "popular" pins lately has been this no mess finger paint. It looked fun so I pinned it on my Craft Board. (I figured if you are going to pin things you should at least try them!!) So I set off to find an "easier" recipe for finger paints. There are numorous ones out there and with a 1 year old who has more energy than I can keep up with the easier the recipe the better!! It literally took me 5 minutes to measure, mix and color. I also wanted to find one that if we decided to do a finger paint session with the mess that I should find one that if my daughter decided the paint would be better in her mouth I wouldn't have to worry that she would digest something she shouldn't (I did taste test the paint and it tastes like bland pancake batter;-) ) and a fun time of messy finger painting would turn into a not so fun for mom finget paint session:)

 Easy Finger Paint

(this is where I found my recipe)

I googled "finger paint recipes" and almost every mom out there has come up with their own version  and blogged about it, so it wasn't hard to find one that I liked and copied it. 

All you need is 2 cups flour, 2 cups cold water, and food coloring! Once I stirred the flour and water together I separted it out in my little mixing bowls and added the food coloring. So Simple!!

Then I found some gallon Zip Lock bags place a piece of paper in it with a few globs of the colors

AND.....

           

Walaaa! No Mess Finger Painting!! Maybe after nap time I will let her get messy with the paints.

CHEESE!! (waiting for mom to make paint)

Mo...Cookcaa...MOooo

While my parents visit to New York to see my sister, on a an outing one day they ran into Addison's FAVORITE Sesame Street Characters:)  Elmo and Cookie Monster. (pretty sure if we had a name that Elmo tune contest, I would win. I could sing you his songs forwards and backwards...oh ya I could sing them in my sleep!!) I showed her the picture they took standing next to them and she was sooo excited to see Mo(elmo) and Cookcaa(cooking monster) 

Bella

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