Whatever it is...

It's in The Plan.

Even when my socks are blown clean off, God is NOT surprised.

And I'll confess, I've had a hard time with this. Some of the stuff in my life just hasn't made sense.

"Um, excuse me, God, but how could that have been on purpose?" I've asked more than once.

I'm fifty, and it was just a few years ago that I had my first really big take-my-breath-away "Aha!" moment. A moment when our faithful God allowed me just the slightest glimpse into a previously unfathomable situation. It was a peek "through a glass darkly" (and via yet another painful episode), but one day, while crying my heart out again on the porch swing, I realized with a start that all along His hands were all over this thing. Mind you, it's that kind of thing that makes non-believers muse, "How could a God of Love...?" And still, I saw His fingerprints.

Whoa.

And just like that, my bitterness and anger dissolved into gratitude. I still feel it.

Understand, of course, that seeing that glimmer of purpose doesn't diminish one whit how horrible that thing was. It was bad, and in some ways, it still is. But suddenly, gratitude was possible, and gratitude is freedom.

Even so...

I have my days. Or, my years. Years when it's one thing after another. Big things and small, it seems it's always something. We've had two or three of those years, back to back to back.

So, I made this sign for my kitchen, a touchstone if you will.

Not because I need to believe it, but because sometimes I need a nudge to remember that I do.

Maybe you could use the reminder yourself. It's free for your personal use, or to share.

All That and a Bag of Chips

It's teacher appreciation time around here!  I usually send a variety of tiny treats so there's not too much of any one thing. This year,  I decided to include a small jar of my homemade salsa and some tortilla chips in the goodie bag for the high school teachers and support staff this year.

Which, of course, led me on a mental scavenger hunt for something yippy skippy to put on the card. (That's the  name of my publisher's writing preferred writing style!)

And here you go.  Enlarge the photo to fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock. (Or go here and print the .pdf file.)

Don't forget to write that nice note inside. Speaking from experience, the BEST gift ever is for a parent or student to name something specific they'll always remember, so do that, ya hear?!

Free for personal use.

Hello, Sunshine Gift Tag

Tag for my skin soothing and super easy grapefruit-lemon hand scrub. 

Print, cut, fold, write a personal note inside. Sweet!

Need a bunch? I did, so I'll share.
Here you go!

Hello Sunshine Gift Card Set

Circumstance

The attitude the recent circumstances have woven for me....

Praying the Scriptures: Ephesians3

Open House Printables

(To see all the printables I've made to share, click here.)

I'm planning to leave a little treat on each teacher's desk on the way out of Monday's Open House.

I'm sharing the word art with you so you can do something with them, too. If you plan to make the same little gift, be sure to measure the bottle of liquid soap or waterless hand sanitizer and re-size the image accordingly. We have 14  15 (!) teachers to buy for, and as the project grew from doing the teachers we already know to include all but the JrROTC leader, I grabbed sanitizer wherever I happened to shop. Though they're all GermX, it seems they are all different sizes. Go figure.

Free for personal use, please don't sell, repost, or alter these images.

Practical Inspiration

Since getting my male child to take a gift to his teachers is somewhat, erm, difficult, I have taken to slipping a little something onto the teacher's desk as I leave the classroom at open house.  These are specifically for science, technology, English, and geometry, in that order.

Please...

• DO use these for PERSONAL gifting only and NOT for sale,
• DON'T alter them (including my byline)
• DO give credit and link.

If you want to see MY project with more details, click here.
And boy, would you make my day if you linked or otherwise shared how you used these inserts.