I'll bring the caramels, you bring the floss.

Does anyone remember these chewy chunks of gold? I made them exactly two years ago to pass out to friends and neighbors. I decided to try them again, this time with confidence!

recipe from Mica's blog (her blog is always so spunky!) if you would like to have a go at 'em too. They will not disappoint, I can guarantee it! See my husband's face below? Caramels make him happy.

Here is the

This is us celebrating 11 years together at Cannon Beach.

It was snowing!

God bless us everyone!

Love to all,

~christa jean

The Opposition.

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you make up your mind to change something or implement a new, good habit, there seems to be an opposing force?

Take my last post...
I seem to have such passion and zeal for teaching my children to listen to the Lord's promptings in every day life, but when I actually try to sit down with them to "Pray & Listen" the first 10 minutes seem fraught with distraction. Someone's whining, someone's jumping around like a jumping bean, and someone's got a stinky 'tude (wait, that may have been me). I start scolding, then we have to pray harder. It would just be easier to not do it.

But, when we decide to push through the fog and distraction, knowing that there WILL be opposition, then we get beautiful glimpses of insights from the Lord.

My oldest wrote out what she was "seeing" from the Lord, here it is, exactly how she wrote it:
"I feel like our whole life is a big knot and we keep trying to unravel it and we keep trying and trying without the Lord and it only gets thighter and thighter and we finely ask for the Lord and He helps us and our life goes in a strate line."

My middle daughter saw a vision in her mind's eye of a big gate with lots of people trapped behind it and the Holy Spirit came and opened the gate and they were freed.

My youngest daughter usually has a difficult time paying attention to what we are doing when we are trying to listen with our hearts, but she does get dreams. She dreamt recently that there was a bad house with people in it that were being fed through a hole in a door. We were all in a good house that flew up to the sky with a parachute. The bad house called out to us and said, "I'm good now!" and then it had a family.

I love the thread that runs through all these pictures. To me the thread looks like freedom from bondage.

Back to the opposition. We have a very real opponent and unless we become aware of his schemes, tactics, strategies, we will be more easily defeated.

There are times when I really struggle to hear anything from the Lord. Here are a few things that seem to happen in me head:
1. To do lists floating in and out of thoughts.
2. Doubts that I can even hear, or clearly, at that.
3. I'm hearin' nuttin' honey.

The first on the list can be dealt with by "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" {2 Cor. 10:5}

The second on the list can be dealt with similarily, but with one more step of recognizing who is the father of lies. When I use the Word against a lie, I come out from under it's influence. "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” {John 10:3-5}
I desire that last line to be true of me.

Now the third is a tricky one. When I am not hearing anything, I pause to evaluate. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." {Ps. 139:23-24}

The amazing thing is usually I know right away what is hindering me from hearing. The Holy Spirit is sweet like that. Whether it be unbelief or unforgiveness...

Unforgiveness. Ooooooh, that's a nasty beast. I have lots to tell you about that stinker, but let's wait til January, kay?!

Here is a superb article that I have read and re-read and highlighted and underlined and re-read again. It's not really about unforgiveness, but it is about purposing to pursue our enemies. I will leave you with my favourite quote from it:

"I will tell you a solemn truth: we either pursue our enemies or our enemies will pursue us."

{Francis Frangipane}

There is no neutral ground.

~christa jean

Taste and See.

We've been busy! Remember in my last post (over a month ago, sheesh!) I told you that I might tell you what we've been doing the last few months?
Here's a small snapshot:
We were asked in July to prayerfully consider becoming leaders of the Children's Ministry at our church. We did prayerfully consider it, for, like, a minute. We knew right away that this was what Jesus, the lover of children, wanted us to do.

We prayed for direction. We liked the curriculum that was being used, but we were feeling nudges to go in a different direction.

In August we hosted our first informational meeting and had record numbers attending.
In September we held our first training meeting for teachers and assistants with record numbers attending.
In October we kicked off our new "program" (for lack of a better word) with a song and a dance (literally) and much fanfare.

Does it sound like I'm boasting? I hope not! But have you ever known that you were in the right place at the right time? That you were born for a certain something? Well, this is just a small piece of that certain "something" and definitely an opportunity that is for us for such a time as this. As we stepped forth in obedience, all the pieces began falling into place. He likes to bless us that way when we obey!

The cooooooolest piece of it all was a tiny little children's book that revolutionized my thinking. As I read through it, I cried and instantly sat down to "practice" some of it's principles.

The book is called "Children, Can You Hear Me?" by Brad Jersak. It is, in essence, a guidebook for kids to learn how to hear His voice daily. It has become a guidebook for me as well. The phrase that struck me the most, was this, "Children hear the Lord easier than anyone else. Virtually the only block that I encounter in them is their parents' own unbelief." Oof, ouch.



Here are some snippets I captured from the description:* Children, Can You Hear Me? trains kids to practice God's presence in their lives.
* Imagine raising an entire generation that hears God's voice every day!

I love that last line. I want that to be true for my children. I want them to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I want them to need to hear from their Creator, Saviour, Healer, Counselor every day. If they catch a glimpse of Him now at this young age, they will never want to turn away. As they begin to taste and see that the Lord is good and that He cares about every detail of their lives, then they will get a genuine knowledge of who He is. He is real. He is LIVING. He is not a dead or dead-beat God.

The following is a portion of one of my blog posts from our ministry website...

"You are the light of the world. You are children of light.

'For all of creation has been eagerly awaiting the day

when God will reveal who His children really are.'

{Romans 8:19}

The time is now.

Whether you are a child by age or a child at heart, you are a child created by God. Created to know Him. To know Him fully and to make Him fully known. How do we get to know our God? We communicate with Him, just as we would a dear, dear friend.

Friend says: 'How are you today?'
We reply: 'Well, ... ' and tell Friend all of our struggles, our hopes, our worries, our dreams.
Friend listens. Friend loves. Friend encourages.
Now it's our turn.
We say: 'And how are you doing, Friend?'
And He replies...
And we listen.

His words to us are life.

We believe God is calling all of us "kids" to be children of His Word.

WE DESIRE: To know the written Word deep in our hearts (it is mighty powerful, ya know!), through weekly memorization.
To know the spoken Word deep in our hearts (it is our lifeline!) by listening to His voice every day.

I know it is one of your greatest desires to see your children walking in His truth. How do we make that desire real? By helping them see that HE IS REAL! He cares about every little detail of their lives! Doesn't He know the number of hairs on their heads?!

His words to us are food.

'Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good

Blessed is the man that trusts in Him.'

{Psalm 34:8}

When our children get a genuine taste of a genuine friendship with Him, they will never hunger for anything else.

Let us daily seek together. Don't forget our challenge to you... Please seriously consider finding one evening a week that you gather with your family and pray, worship, and listen together.

The time is now.

All creation has been waiting for the revealing of the true sons and daughters of God.

It's time for a revolution.

You are the light of the world."

Let me tell you, we are putting this into practice in our family and it is changing us. When your children begin to see visions and pray scripture and dream dreams, then you know that He is on the move. We've also implemented a "Pray & Listen" time in our church kids classrooms. He is not silent, we were just not listening!

I could go on and on about what we've been seeing, but it's almost midnight so, I'll save that for another post. I don't want to be a grump in the morning!

I pray that you would be inspired today.
Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening...

~christa jean

The seasons change and so do we.

If you haven't totally given up on me yet, and still come peeking by to see where I've gone, I thank you! Maybe I'll try to summarize what my life has consisted of in the last two months... or just leave you guessing, ha ha ha. ;-D

I'm gonna try to ease back in, real slow-like, starting with this light and fluffy post!

Do you receive the Pottery Barn catalogue? I do! I hardly ever shop there, and I don't always LOVE their style, but I do draw inspiration from their pages. Especially whenst flipping the pages whilst sipping a cup of tea.

I took this picture (flip to pages 8-9 in the online catalogue) and tried to re-create it for our own table.

Well, all my beautiful apothecary jars are packed away still, but...

Here is our version...

This is a super fun project to do with the kiddos! We gathered up as many pretty and unique leaves and acorns and pinecones and moss and... you get the point, that we could find. Then rounded up lots of random shaped jars and candle votives (and even some mini juice glasses) and anything else that looked intriguing!

Then we used a simple glue stick to affix the leaves to the jars. When lit, they really glow! The only down side is that the leaves crinkle up and dry out with all that heat.

Sweet and easy and a chance to spend time tying heart strings.

Don't make the mistake of being too perfectionistic about crooked leaves or too much glue and such. That just sucks the joy right out of this project. Believe me, I know.
But thankfully, I caught myself before my kids all ditched me and left me to do it alone!
Happy Fall!
~christa jean

Changing Faces

Don't they look so intelligent?

{christajean}

p.s. I giggle at baby cuz he looks like a mini version of Ralphie from

"A Christmas Story"!

FREE is a very good price!

In honor of my sister's birthday, we are doing FREE Shipping over at

HookableDesigns!

I won't tell you how old my sis almost is, but suffice it to say, she's "younger than springtime."

If you know her in real life AND you end up inviting yourself to her house, you and/or your children could end up as "famous" models in our shop too!

Here is KK of LoveWinsPeriod and her darling gals sporting some of the funky new glitter headbands.

We thought it would be fun to throw in an extra incentive for my readers only...

We are offering 20% off ALL jewelry till Friday, July 23rd!

Just type "christasaidso" in the message to seller box when you are checking out. And don't forget the code for the free shipping also...

Your message to seller should look like this:

"FREE SHIPPING SALE" "christasaidso" and then whatever other comments you'd like to add.

Here's a helpful hint: it will seem like you have to pay full price anyway when you go to check out through PayPal, when in truth, you do pay and then we refund the percentage off back to you. We're not trying to trick you. that's just the way etsy is set up.

Thanks for supporting this two mom shop!

~christajean

My Sweet Petite!

Happy Birthday to my precious Olivia!