Anything

My wonderful sister-in-law recommended the book Anything by Jennie Allen to me, and I am so thankful!  In this book, Jennie talks about how she and her husband, Zac, came to a place in their faith and their life where they decided that they were done with their safe way of doing things...they were willing to do anything for God.  Anything.

Think about it.  That is pretty scary, and absolutely amazing.

The book is so inspiring.  It calls us to step out of our comfort zones and to move beyond our pat answers and "reliance" on God...and to move to a place where we have nothing to hold onto except for God.  For some of the people that prayed this prayer with Jennie and Zac, anything looked like adoption.  For some, it looked like a career change.  For others, it looked like using where God already has them to impact those around them.  But for all of them, their lives were changed.  Irrevocably.  Beautifully.  Dangerously.

This book calls you to live a dangerous life, to reject normal, and to live for the bigness that each of us has inside of our souls.  We are made to be adventurers.  And the greatest adventure possible starts with us agreeing to do ANYTHING God calls us to do.

I highly recommend this book!!!!!!

You can also head to her website here to learn more about Jennie and her journey to giving God anything.

Haircut!!!

I decided to get some more inches cut off, and I was inspired by this look that I found on Pinterest!

I think I got pretty close, especially considering that this is air-dried, and until the past two years, my hair has been stick straight!  I am still getting used to the look and the length, but I do really like it.  And this is definitely the closest that my hair has gotten to an inspiration picture, so I am definitely going back to this lady again!

Bottles N Brushes at home

In our town, there is an adorable little shop called Bottles N Brushes, where they serve drinks and teach you how to paint a certain scene.  I had been DYING to go, but when we looked up the cost, thinking we would do a double date there with our friends, we were shocked. $35 each! I don't know about you, but on our music minister and medical student budget, that was just not going to happen. So we got creative!

We decided to do Bottles N Brushes at home! I had some canvases in my closet because I enjoy painting for fun every so often, and we got some more brushes and paint to use.  Our friends brought the wine, while we provided dessert.  And everyone had a great time!!!

Here was the process:

The girls decided to attempt some crafts we saw on pinterest that required some prep, so the night before we painted backgrounds, etc.

Then on our official painting night, we all got to work! The nice part was, since we weren't in the official class that the shop offers, we could each do what we want!

Eryc painted a fish.

Jennifer did an adorable teal and gold design.

Jen's sister, Mary Elise, made a couple of paintings for her classroom.

Mikey painted our dobie.

And I did a couple plain paintings over puffy painted words.

Jen's final product...it will go great in her hallway!

I used my artwork to decorate our guest room.

It is hard to see in the pic, so I added a few close-ups below.

We had such a great time, and the total cost was only about $10 all together!

I'd call that success :)