Happy Thoughts and Faces

Today is Baby #4's due date eve! (though I don't have a strong feeling that he/she will come on the due date) Anyway, to celebrate and keep my spirits and energy up I bought some flowers from the grocery store.  So happy, just like this coming baby!

I think Aria is having an identity crisis.  She doesn't know if she should be like Cadence or Finn.  So, she turned into a hybrid and became...Aria the Fairy Knight!  I don't know if I should give her a hug or run in fear as she tries to slay me with her sword.

Finn enjoys riding and playing on the Smart Cycle that a lady from church bought the kids.  He is video game crazy already.

Look at this pretty girl!  Don't you just want to zurburt her belly?! 

Such a sweet pug face.  A pug hug always makes you feel better. 

At my mom's group, yesterday, some ladies came and talked to us about "Faith Art Journaling".  It is the idea of spending time with the Lord in prayer and asking Him if there is anything He's trying to reveal/teach/ or just talk to you about right now.  Then, you take that image that He placed in your head/heart and figure out a creative way to transfer that into an image.  It's journaling with pictures more than words, which is right up my alley because I don't like to re-read my words, but I love to look back at pictures I've drawn to capture a moment in my life.  MomPom already does this a lot with her journaling, I think.

We started with a piece of water color paper and painted a background.  After that dried, we added our image.  I felt led to draw this daisy surrounded by busy little bees.  The bees are my family buzzing all around me.  Sometimes it feels a bit chaotic and overwhelming, but I love them and it feels happy (see their happy faces).  The daisy is me.  The petals display characteristics I need and my family needs me to have, in order to best serve them, which is why I need Christ to be my center.  Without Christ as my center, I cannot posses those characteristics successfully.  After painting all that, I had the vision to add fallen petals, which have words on them of things I need to let go, that aren't from Christ and are not edifying to myself or family.  All that to say, it was a fun exercise!  I don't know that I would be able to keep a consistent faith art journal, just because it is a bit time consuming, but I love the concept and venue for creativity while focusing on Christ.  I was thinking that maybe, in the fall when Cadence starts homeschool, we could have a "faith art journaling" time once a week and then we could both keep a journal.  I think it would be a good introduction for Cadence into learning different ways to have a devotional time with the Lord.  We'll see.