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Piano Photos

March 24, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I spent Spring Break working on photos around the house.

I made these scripture photos of the kids for the hall of our last house.

They looked great there in their red mats and I love reading the verses over and over,

but ever since I hung them over the piano in our new living room

I’ve been very unhappy with them..

The frames looked dirty next to my builder’s paint wall and

although I love red, most everything in this house is green.

I re-matted them in some scrap charcoal-gray mat board, and still didn’t like them.

Then I saw some similar frames painted my favorite color green

and was inspired to buy some paint a few weeks back.

It took me a while to get up the courage to actually try painting them.

Before and Afters

It was a cloudy day and my picts could have turned out better.

I watered down the paint quite a bit

then wiped off the bronze highlights so they would show through.

They don’t quite look like the ones I saw but I like them much better now.

They go better with the wall and I think the pictures stand out more now.

I may regret painting them if I ever get around to painting some color on my walls.

I bought these glass frames for a dollar each last week.

I used as many pictures as I could find with a music theme.

I used Savannah’s fb picture matted with this verse:

More house picts to come…

Spring Snow?

March 22, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

My poor little tree heard a rumor that it was spring and began it’s job of budding in the nice 70 degree weather that we had Saturday. Now it’s snowing again.

Spring Break Fun

March 19, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

My precious girl is making as many plans as possible

With her new found friends this Spring Break;

Nights over, bowling, youth group hopping, ice skating and movies.

All music to her soul.

High pitched voices travel across wood floors and through

Paper thin walls very well in our new house.

Sure wish I could find a place to sleep.

:-]

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Me

March 14, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

I am not sure I get how to play the game.. but here are 10 things about me that you might not know.

1) Everyone knows just about everything about me.. because I so rarely get to talk to people that when I do I tell them everything. I think I am easy to read too. If someone asked me something and cared to know what I thought they’d be able to read it in my face.

2) The one thing I think only Mike knows about me is that I can’t sleep naked.. because when I do I have those dreams where you’re naked in public places.

3) My family enjoys watching me cry during sad moves.. they don’t even pay attention to the movie they just look at me to see if I am crying. Today we watched “My Sister’s Keeper.” I almost ran to my room to sob into my pillow.

4) I admire my sisters. Tell everyone I meet about them. Wish they lived closer and I could see them every day. I get jealous when my sisters and my parents get together without me which is a lot since they live in the same state and I live a couple of states over. I am happy for them too and I am starting to get over being jealous. I think they need to appreciate their time together a little more.

5) I cried for a week when I found out we were moving away from TX because I so enjoy being an aunt and I was grieving over not getting to be involved in my nephews’ and niece’s lives.

6) I’ve always wanted to send $5 to my nephews and niece for their birthdays but haven’t because I didn’t know how. Seems kinda silly to send a check for such a small amount and I know I wouldn’t want to go to the bank to cash it. I recently had an idea: I could get them a gift card to Walmart and their parents could buy it from them so they could spend the cash where ever they liked. What do you think?

7) I only dust once a year. I’d like to clean my bathrooms weekly, but more often it’s whenever guest are coming. I haven’t had guest in a long time. I won’t tell you how often I wash sheets. Mopping.. humm.

8) I homeschool for many reasons. Here are some selfish ones:
a) I love my kids and I want to spend as much time with them as I can before they start lives with out me.
b) I love the books we read together. If it wasn’t for the great books we’ve read, I may have quit. I love the discussions they inspire.
c) I love the art and music, too. I love learning new things with them. They make Spanish, Math, Science and every other subject fun.
d) I love shopping days with Judi.. if she was in school 8 hours a day we’d miss out on all that girl time together.

9) I have no idea what I am going to do after Judi graduates. If I think about it for too long, I become a nervous reck. There are so many things I think I might enjoy doing including going to college, getting a job, starting an Etsy shop, or volunteering. But I want to do the right thing; the thing God has for me. It’s hard being patient and waiting for God to tell me. I keep thinking it must be something that’s going to take a lot of faith or He would have already told me.

10) I love God more than I love anyone else. It hasn’t always been this way. But I learned to ask Him to help me love Him more.. to increase my hunger for Him whenever I feel like my desire for Him is fading. He LOVES to answer that prayer. Almost immediately when ever I pray it I am overcome with longing for Him. So much so that it almost makes me physically ill. I think it must be the way He feels about us. The more I see that He loves me unreservedly the more I love Him. He is passionate about us. Sometimes I feel so passionate about Him that I don’t know what to do with it.

Did I leave anything out??

December, January, February, March Attire

March 2, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

It’s taken me a while to adjust to the weather here.

After five years in SA and four and a half in FL, my blood is pretty well thinned out.

I actually enjoy 90 plus degree weather especially when it’s humid.

I won’t complain about the snow. I love sitting next to the fire.

When we told the kids on Saturday that they were predicting

more snow this week they replied, “Again?!?”

I think we are getting all the snow this winter

that we’ve missed over the last nine years.

We’ve lost count.

The ice and I had a run in our first day in the new house..

I came away with a scraped knee,

and quickly learned to avoid the sidewalks.

I’d just hide inside all day, but we have a dog.

This is the first house that we’ve had no fence at all

and I’ve had to take take a “walking Sally” shift.

Part of the reason I agreed to adopt a dog was to force myself to take daily walks.

Now, nine years latter, I am finally having to do more than open the back door.

I am being super nice, too, by taking the 7AM shift so the kiddies can sleep in a little.

Meaning that I usually get the coldest shift, too.

It’s taken me a while to discover what I need to keep warm on my shift.

Until a week ago, when I finally started wearing two pairs of gloves,

my hands were still freezing.

I started out wearing a coat and gloves over my regular clothes.

Some days I wasn’t sure I’d make it all the way around the block.

It was so cold!

Then I started wearing a hoodie, and Wendy’s leather coat.

That was better, but the wind was whistling through my pants and around my ears.

I decided to buy some of those valour pants.

Once I doubled those up and knitted myself a scarf

to wear with my hat over my hoodie I was finally on my way to being warm.

The weather warmed up from 14 degrees to 24 and I saw for the first

time a neighbor while out on my walk.

You’ll never guess what THEY were wearing:

workout pants and t-shirt.

I tried to console myself a couple weeks later when

I saw a pair ladies out walking dressed more like me.

They are probably not much more than 20 years older than me.

I not sure how much further they walk than I do.

I plan to start walking 45 minutes a day instead of 25 –

once the weather warms up a bit.

On days like today, when it’s 36 and snowing,

it doesn’t seem like I am as over dressed as it does

when it’s 24 and sunny. How is that?

Here is the kicker – to make sure I keep up my walking routine through

the snow, rain and sleet – we are adopting a puppy this summer.

I have a friend that’s offered to give me one of her mini beagle puppies.

I had to make a deal with Mike to get him to agree.

He gets a kitten.

So much more fun than a treadmill.

Josh’s Birthday

March 2, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I’ve been making lots of chai spiced tea to keep warm lately.

My pot was steaming right in the middle of the 4 minutes

I was supposed to be beating Josh’s cake batter.

So I tried letting go of my mixer to see if it could keep going

while I went to get my tea… and to my surprise it stayed balanced!

I love my new convection oven.. it does wonders with cakes and cookies!

Here are Josh’s many faces during the birthday song.

We are so happy to have had him these 22 years.

He spent his day hiking and pet sitting. We had a nice lunch out at Rosie’s.

Kinnor in the Mornings

February 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I’ve been enjoying playing my Kinnor early in the morning. I worked on improving my first song and I’ve been learning a couple of other songs.

This is my attempt at a song by Hillsong called “Healer”.

My harp only plays in two keys (D and Bm) so I was glad to find a real song I could play.

It took me forever to learn how to play “I trust in You, I trust in You.”

Then I had to write down the cords so I could remember the whole song.

Here are the words:

You hold my every moment

You calm my raging seas

You walk with me through fire

And heal all my disease

I trust in You

I believe You’re my Healer

I believe You are all I need

I believe You’re my Portion

I believe You’re more than enough for me

Jesus You’re all I need

You hold my every moment

You calm my raging seas

You walk with me through fire

And heal all my disease

And I trust in You

Oh, I trust in You

I trust in You

I believe You’re my Healer

I believe You are all I need

I believe You’re my Portion

I believe You’re more than enough for me

Jesus You’re all I need

For nothing is impossible for You

Nothing is impossible

Nothing is impossible for You

You hold my world in Your hands

I believe You’re my Healer

I believe You are all I need

I believe You’re my Portion

I believe You’re more than enough for me

Jesus You’re all I need

His Banner Over Me is Love

February 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I wanted to do something special for Valentine’s Day this year.

I didn’t used to be a big Valentine’s Day girl, but years of faithfully being

unconditionally loved by Jesus and Mike has brought me around.

I was inspired by a collection of cards and letters that I’ve kept since before I was married.

This move I decided that it was time to up grade from the

three overflowing shoe boxes I had them in to something prettier.

I wanted a couple of those large decorative cardboard boxes to store them in

on the top shelf of my closet, but I couldn’t find one that I liked for a good price.

So after weeks of searching, I bought this tin chest for $14 at Marshalls.

So many sweet letters and cards

It doubles as a side table and almost all my letters fit in it;

meaning I needed to go through them all and weed out a few.

The ones I like best are the ones that are about everyday stuff

that was going on in the lives of my friends and family.

I carefully read all the ones with Bible verses, too for their rich encouragement.

I was so inspired that I really wanted to send all my friends and

family a Valentine’s Day letter. I spent hours looking for the perfect verse to share

and trying to think of something to say.

I decided that Song of Songs 2:4 was the perfect verse.

Then I ended up playing on photoshop and learning some new tricks

with some free brushes and made this banner.

Here’s a link to the brushes I found..

if you google “free photoshop brushes” you’ll find tons more.

http://www.easyelements.com

It’s my very first Valentine’s Day decoration.

It says, “His Banner over me is LOVE. Song of Songs 2:4

I wasn’t quick enough to print out and mail the banners to everyone,

so I uploaded a pdf file of it for you to print and make your own

I printed mine on card stock, cut out each heart with different fancy edged scissors

and used a large needle to tie the hearts together with ribbon. Here’s the link:

His Banner is Love

Happy Valentines Day!

Enjoy!

Love Jenny Quilt

February 11, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

The very first thing I learned to sew in homemaking class was this quilt.

It’s made with two sheets, batting for the middle, and yarn to tie it together.

I embroidered “Love Jenny” on the corner and gave it to Mike

to remember me by before he left for CFNI.

After just one year at CFNI, the quilt had worked its magic;

Mike came home to court me, and we married the following June.

The quilt is now over 26 years old and has lived a very full life of miracle making.

It kept us warm in our first apartment, through four babies,
many camping trips, and has now made it to our newest and hopefully last house.

When I was unpacking this time, I noticed that when you hold it up to the light
you can see right through it and decided that it’s time for it to be put to rest.

Good bye, old quilt. Thanks for catching me such a wonderful man
and for the many years of love and warmth.

BIlly Bob’s Gone to Pieces

February 9, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

Billy Bob’s fame spread quickly through the neighborhood yesterday.

Passers by stopped and waved and even got out to take photos.

As the hours pasted by and the temperature rose we prayed he’d make it till the evening hours and have the opportunity to greet Mike when he got home.

We’d stratigically placed him in a shady spot, but

around 4 PM he succumbed to the heat and this is all that’s left of him.

And all poor Mike was greeted with was two broken solar lights.

So sorry.