Spiritual Sunday ~ What God Sees

This devotional was written by Leslie Snyder

Do You See What I See?

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." —1 Samuel 16:7

According to research at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole.

Give the theory a shot, and see if it’s true:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Isn’t it amazing? I love this illustration of how the mind works to put words together. It goes against everything I was taught in grade school and totally ends the need for spell check! It’s the perfect example that confirms what you see may not be what you get.

Here’s a reminder: God is searching our hearts. He doesn’t care about our outward appearances. In fact, many of us have gotten so good at hiding who we really are that even we don’t recognize our true selves. And, it’s often Christians who put masks on so quickly, fearing that if other people really knew them, they would be rejected, condemned, or cast aside like yesterday’s paper.

Today, if you are hiding behind a mask, afraid to reveal your true self, allow God to peel back the layers in order to find your true self…the one that was made in the image of God.

Child's Pink Vanity Makeover

I've posted about it and talked about it for so long now...

The old wooden child size or doll vanity. An elderly gentleman in our neighborhood gave it to Dear Hubs after the man told him he was going to THROW IT OUT. Can you imagine? He was going to throw it out.

Well Dear Hubs knows I love these kinds of things...PLUS it was pink.
But it needed serious help.

And last summer I gave it a coat of white paint. I was preggers and guess what. I didn't get around to finishing it because well, Dear Bebe arrived four weeks early and well, you probably know the rest.
Then I blogged about it again a couple months ago and said I was going to do it. So, for Pink Saturday we have the reveal!

But first a couple of "behind the scenes" shots. I knew we were in deep doo doo when Dear Hubs needed this bad boy to fix it. The man who gave it to us said it was his mother's and HER father made it for her when she was a girl. I'm guessing it may have been made in the 20's or 30's.

It needed some serious TLC after all these years. Who knows where it was being stored before we received it.

I was hoping to find little pretty knobs but I decided if I waited any longer we'd never get around to working on it!

The mirror also had issues but now it's fine!

Here is the pink paint we used.

Ta da! Kind of sweet and pretty now, don't you think? I then added a pink rose:





I'm also thinking of shabbying it up a bit...what do you think? Yay or nay?

Definitely a great save...it was destined to get the 'ol heave ho. So glad we brought it back to life!

For more pretty pinks...see Beverly's blog at How Sweet the Sound. We're celebrating the one year birthday/anniversary today! Be sure to check out the pink "parties" going on today....

And I was also told to sign up for METAMORPHASIS MONDAY, hosted by Susan at Between Naps on a Porch...so I have done that as well. I'm amazed by all of the neat things posted today by some creative women! WOW! Fun fun fun.

And stay tuned while we work on my next project (who knows when that will be) :

I think this one will be a shabby white. . . but you never know! The doll vanity was supposed to be white and it ended up pink!

Gettin' Together

Monday Dear Hubs had off from work for the holiday weekend and we spent it working around the house and going to another family's house for a barbecue.




This fun couple has two girls...here's their newest....so cute! She's only three months and the other is about 2 1/2. It was so nice to get together with another family with young ones, they understand our situation.

Dear Bebe loved getting attention from my friend (who also has red hair!) and playing in their baby's exersaucer. Those toys are amazing...and so glad they had one!

Here is their sweet sweet daughter. She is soooooo cute. I snapped her picture while she was giving everyone plates on the table. Already doing chores. Adorable! I'll have to find out what the secret is and teach Dear Bebe. Ha!

While Dear Bebe was occupied in the exersaucer, dinner was grillin', and we were chillin' with HOMEMADE salsa and a guacamole dip. Where did she find the time with a 3 month old and a two and half year old?????? I was obviously so impressed I took a picture. Must get the recipe.

Dear Hubs is a great Dad! Bebe loved the slide. They had all kinds of toys in their backyard.

So of course we had a great time. The dress she is wearing is from my Sister, her Auntie Tuneful. The front has a tag that reads "Miss Independent." Hope she does not keep this motto for too long! But thank you, Auntie we loved it!

In one of my next posts I'll show you the doll vanity we worked on earlier in the day...it's about ready to go and looking cute. Here is an old photo of how it looked in it's earlier state:

I think I posted about this last summer when I was pregnant and then again a few months ago. Projects go a lot slower now that we have Dear Bebe but that's okay.

She's well worth it!

GREASE Fotonovel

It was the late 70's. I was about 10 years old. And GREASE was the word.

Not only was it the word, it was also a movie. And I was obsessed.

I loved it so much I had the record album and a "Fotonovel" like the one seen in these pictures. It was great because I could have the whole movie right at my fingertips. I thought whoever came up with this book was a GENIUS! Ha! Makes me giggle now...

I listened to that album and recited the words from this book for years. I'll bet I still know most of it. Today I looked up GREASE Fotonovel online and someone wrote a piece about how the FOTONOVEL has made a comeback. Apparently it died out after a couple of years. Guess it wasn't as genius as my little 10 year old mind thought.

Either way, I'm impressed to find copies of it selling online for $50.00. I still have mine! I wouldn't sell it .... the memories are just too precious.

Do you still have any "pop culture" items from your youth? Tell me about it!

Memorial Day Tribute

Today is the perfect day to pay tribute to our soldiers.

And many of you know, we have a soldier right here in the Jillian's Pages family. . . my Dear Step-Son!

Thank you for having the courage and fortitude to join, for making it through bootcamp, and for leaving us all in the good 'ol USA to live overseas!

(He is pictured here with his big sister on the day of bootcamp graduation last summer.)

We love you and miss you.

~Dad, Jillian, and Dear Bebe

Pretty in Pink

Somebody is 8 months old today!

When I'm not in my stroller I'm trying so hard to crawl. Almost there...

I'm getting some of my teeth too! Ow!

But now I just like to ride around in my pink stroller.

And get my picture taken.

Memorial Day: What Have We Forgotten?

Recently I received these in an email ...

Sure helped me think.

Let's take time this weekend as we gather around the burgers and the barbecue to remember. . .the real heroes who paid a huge price for our freedom.

Thank you.

It's a Sign....Language!

Awhile ago I wrote a post about my seeing a Mom using sign language to communicate with her baby. It was something that caught my eye and I immediately wondered if it was something I "should" do for Dear Bebe.

Well, help is here! Jillian of Jillian, Inc., sent me this really neat book which includes flash cards.


Thank you so much, Jillian! It was very sweet of you to take the time to send us this book and to think of us.

The cards look easy enough to do and it looks like we could have some fun.
Although I have to admit I think these two signs are going to be my favorite! Ha! Which is actually what I am going to do now since I just put Dear Bebe down for a nap. Mommy is tired today! Be back soon.

Who Me? ~ Golden Heart Award

Recently I was given a "Golden Heart Award" from Ms. Daisy of The Daisy Chain. How sweet was that?

But even sweeter were the words she used to describe why I received it:

"Jillian's joy in her new baby and motherhood plus her spirituality come shining through her blog pages. She has a heart for God and willingly shares it on her "Pages."

Thank you, Ms. Daisy! What a nice description. As Dear Hubby always says "How do I rate?"

I'm supposed to pass it onto five other bloggers but in the short amount of time I do get to blog...I don't have that much time....so Ms. Daisy let me off the hook. (Thanks, Mom!)

Over the River & Through the Woods!

This past weekend we were off on a road trip to Gramma's house!
And we literally had to:

Go over the river....

And through the woods!

Here was Dear Bebe mid-way through the ride...still happy!

Even though the skies were not too sunny...we still enjoyed the sights along the way. Look at this big ol cowboy! What is he doing way out here on the East coast????

Oh! It's a fleamarket! Too bad it was closed this day. Dear Hubs was just itchin' to get in there to check it out. He loves fleamarkets.

And we finally made it to visit Gramma Daisy! She wanted to take us out for a pizza and a stroll near the ocean ...so we got back in the car and headed to the sea!

Here's the boardwalk. See how misty and overcast it was? I didn't mind. I LOVE going to the beach and boardwalk.

In my early twenties I actually used to live up in the apartments there where you see the tower. It was fun, but noisy.

Here's our favorite place to get pizza! Mmmmmmmmm. There's something special about what they put in their recipe and one of these days I'm going to figure it out.

Here is a vintage salt water taffy store. It's so cool! They have a room in back with a glass window where you can see them making taffy.

This looked like a great place to relax.
Dear Bebe thought so too and needed to get a nap. So, we all got back in the car and went to Gramma's house again. It was a great afternoon!

Then Dear Hubs and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary while Gramma babysat for us. Yay! Thank you Ms. Daisy!