Blessed at Home #9: I Found Freedom

Thank you for stopping by our 9th week of Blessed At Home.  We sure appreciate everyone who has visited and shared our articles on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Please visit the Contributor Page to read more about this excellent ministry from some of your favorite homemaking bloggers.

Today's featured contributor is Judith, WholeHearted Home:

Hi!! I'm Judith Kowles, and I am so blessed to 'meet' you!! I was saved as a young girl and have been learning to daily abide in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as I draw closer to Him. I have been married to my sweet husband, Tim, for 34 years, raised and homeschooled seven children from 1988 through 2012, and now caring for twin grandbabies keeps my nest from emptying too fast.

I am an ordinary gal, born at home in Japan, raised in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong (now China), lived in Hawaii during high school, went to college in California, and since then have been enjoying an extraordinary life at home with my family. I love homemaking, and having a clean kitchen floor under my bare feet is ultimate satisfaction. I have found the whole purpose of having children was for me to see my own sin and learn to walk in an increasing amount of grace and love. I have learned it isn't me but God who changes attitudes and hearts, mine first!! Now that my children are raised, (youngest is 18) I am ready to be a mother. I have learned, through the anvil of motherhood, the trials and victories that have molded me into the woman I am becoming for God's glory.

Some of my favorite things are: baking from scratch (especially with chocolate), cooking up a storm of yummy meals, hot chocolate in the winter and a glass of ice tea in the summer, exercising, walks along the river, biking, hymns, the trombone; but my passion is the Lord Jesus Christ and learning to live a holy and godly lifestyle because He lives within my heart.

Today's topic is, I Found Freedom

Misty, Simply Helping Him

As a mom, there are so many things pulling us a million different ways...
Along with all these things comes a hot to do list we're "supposed" to follow. 
The problem is that we are all different, so what might work for you may not work for me. 

Sometimes we're trying all kinds of things to figure out how to balance it all.  In doing so, we can find ourselves frustrated when systems and methods don't work for us. 

One particular thing that requires our attention is cleaning our home.   I've tried many methods, schedules, systems, etc. Some of them worked ok and served their purpose for a while, others I didn't get beyond the first step.  I finally came to realize that my mother never had a schedule for cleaning. She just took care of things when they needed to be taken care of.  I knew that I could do the same thing! 

I can look around my home throughout my days and see what needs my attention.  The freedom to not have to follow a strict schedule for yet another thing is absolutely freeing for me.  You probably find freedom in different areas of homemaking than I do. 
You might even like a cleaning schedule! Good for you!

The beauty in homemaking is finding peace and freedom in Christ, running your home the way He has designed for you!  Follow His direction and guide, not anyone's particular advice, method and schedule. 

There you will find the freedom you so greatly desire in homemaking! 

Christy

I grew up in the 70's! Burn your bra, woman's lib, etc. I have been finacially independant most of my life. I was the wife who supported my husband at 18 years old when he got layed off from his job. I did take a few years' break from working when my kids were little, but I always ended up back at work and built a successful career. I spent many years with a higher income than my husband.

Last fall, after a year of advice from my daughter, (she could see how tired and unhappy I was) and a lot of prayer, I decided to come home. My husband was nervous about being able to support us; but at the same time, he thought we should try it. He could also see that I was craving the homemaker lifestyle.

We are both so happy and comfortable with our new roles in our marriage. He is proud to work for us and I am proud to keep a happy home for us. We don't spend our money on hose, heels and fast food any more. We really didn't need a second income. What we needed was time together. Whe he gets home from work, he has a relaxed, peaceful wife to greet him. We are finally a family unit, instead of two people going our separate ways each day.

I found freedom as soon as I realized that trying to be free and independant was confining me!

I thank the Lord for showing me my place is here, at home, at this time in my life, and for giving me a wise daughter and a responsible loving husband.



Most of our Blessed at Home team is taking a summer break this week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to find out what topics our readers would like to see covered in future editions of Blessed at Home.  Do you have questions you'd like answered or things you'd like to see discussed here?  Let us know in the comments below!

Linking with:
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe
Home Link Up at Raising Arrows
Homemaking Party @ Hope In Every Season
Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop 
Desire to Inspire @ A Royal Daughter
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
Open House @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 
Share Your Cup Thursday @ Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Inspiration Friday @ Dear Creatives
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Farm Girl Friday @ Let This Mind Be In You
Fit & Frugal Family Friday
From the Farm

Make Bake Create #14: Painted Bamboo Utensils

  

Welcome to this week's Make Bake Create Party! 5 hosts...5 blogs---SWEET! Meet your hosts:

We would love for you to follow us on Google+!

Bubbly Nature Creations

Hope In Every Season

Mommy Hates Cooking

The Creative Princess

The Rookie Seamstress

This week our featured host, Brandi, shares these super cute Painted Bamboo Utensils.  Visit her at The Creative Princess to see how they're done!  I want some!

There were lots of great ideas and yummy food featured last week.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  If you're featured, make sure to grab a "featured button" for your blog!




<a href="http://www.bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDRn09kU2RemU6LsKqKpqOxSc8lLCH9RDGzDVK164-4hJaY289rNS0LDGtgG6gOHfZ3qztHJIBAyR85U5zoDA-wpv7s0wvCPwTpE9Enlgg7f-zlcNbDGukTGMhU6Vz15YkqBkjpsBcl5Vl/s240/MBCFEATURED.png " border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

Artsy VaVa shared this adorable Suitcase Table.  Isn't this so awesome?  I have everything I need to make one of these...I can't wait!

I love this Coconut Honeybee Lip Balm from JES at Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth.  Such a great tutorial---thanks for sharing it with us!

Fellow host, Kristy at Mommy Hates Cooking, linked up her Flag Cookie Cake---a tasty and super easy treat for the 4th.  It's so easy to make, you could definitely grab the ingredients for a last minute dessert.  Enjoy!


Follow our Make Bake Create Party Pin Board where we will be pinning the projects linked up here!  

* Be sure to include The Make Bake Create button or text link to in your linked post; this is recommended in order to be featured!




<a href="http://www.hopeineveryseason.com/" target="_blank"><img src=" https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYn1UUMpAzaGe_3JUer40CRLomsJ8W_qJq-_fEujrdlbIDZnn3aQ4sVuaSAkTSTFAOOvWicE_8TQIhUSwc5Lp_Wa43i8lNKKj2Kt6d9tnTTuRuBB7zUYJTERT9Ryz7Xtz3er0eFuAc035o/s220/makebakecreate.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

Now Ready... set... Link Up!!!

Hope In Every Season is on Facebook!  If you like what you've read here, please follow me and keep up with the latest posts.

Linking with:

Feelin' Tulip! Totally Tulip! Techniques for Creating a Splatter Paint Team Shirt

When I was about nine years old, waaayy back in 1988, I absolutely loved to use puffy paints to create "gorgeous" pieces of designer apparel!  My Dad's white t-shirts weren't safe at all if I'd happened to have received some extra spending money to buy a couple bottles of my favorite neon colors---or if someone wonderful had gifted me some for my birthday. Today, my daughters also love to make their own creations using Tulip Soft and 3D Paints.

I can remember squeezing every last drop of paint from bottles just like this:

An almost empty bottle made the best splatter paint projector!

Here's an example of one of my bodacious 9-year-old creations:

Never mind that it was a t-shirt for my little brother---hot pink was great on dudes and dudettes alike in 1988!  (Thanks to my little Liam for modeling the duds).

This week I had the opportunity to play around with a whole box of Tulip products!  Check out some of these nostalgic images and tips from Tulip's Blog.  Thanks so much to Tulip for sending me these great paints and stencils to review.  All opinions are honest and are my own.

For me, the 80s were all about fitting in.  Since my kids are homeschooled, I'm not really sure if kids these days still deal with "cliques", but when I was in grade school, there were the "Preppies", "Jocks", "Nerds"---and then all the other nice kids who didn't really fit into one of those three categories.  (Isn't that horrible??)  My goal was to fit in with the Preppies. I never really made it because I couldn't give up certain things:  hot pink Spandex pants, sideways ponytails with ratted-up curly bangs, and New Kids on the Block.  (Yes, in the early days we actually said the whole thing. Once they became NKOTB, I'd sort of outgrown them.  Sort of.)

One thing that distinguished a Preppie from the other groups was ownership of a "team shirt"---one of those that had some random college name on it in blocky, sporty-looking letters.  It didn't matter that we had no idea where this college even was---let alone what the letters stood for (it's just yesterday that I figured out UNLV was the University of Nevada Las Vegas and not "Un Love").  What mattered was that a shirt like this meant we were in with a crowd---even if that crowd was three states over and didn't know we existed.

When Tulip sent me a set of those exact same blocky letter stencils that I remembered, I knew immediately what I was going to make! (Too bad I didn't have those 25 years ago---my ticket to Preppiness would have been much cheaper to come by).  My daughter Lynzie, a very artsy and individualistic teenager, was thrilled to have the chance to experience an updated version of Mom's old fashions!

I started out by buying her an oversized men's t-shirt.  Very important---had to be a men's one like my Dad used to wear.  I placed a piece of cardboard underneath to give me a firmer, flat surface to work on, since I'd be using a paint brush for the first part of the project.  Even though we have no plans to send her off to a public college, I tried to imagine what a university for Lynzie would be called.  I thought, Artsy Univ. was fitting!  I used Tulip Fabric Stencils and a paint brush to paint the words onto the shirt with Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Ebony.  I let a little get on the shirt around the edges of the stencil to make sort of a "stamped" look.  I also let the letters sort of jump up and down a little for that "quirky" feel---it's an artsy thing!

Next came the super fun part---splatter painting with Tulip Dimensional Fabric Paints (otherwise known as "Puffy Paint"!)  I started out making a few "paint blasts".  This technique is done with a toothpick.  Just put a drop of paint in the right spot (I did about the size of a popcorn kernel or bigger for mine) and use a toothpick to pull out the splatter marks in different directions.

Next I started squirting random splatter marks all over.  If you start out making the longer lines and swirls, you'll use up some of the paint and leave room for the next technique:  the "airy splatter".  Once your bottle is emptied a little, tap it on the table until the paint runs back down.  Then hold it sideways and squeeze it in short bursts.  Tiny droplets of paint will come out, along with a bunch of air, and you'll get that, I-just-got-flicked-with-paint look.

A third technique you can do with the Dimensional Fabric Paint is the "marker scribble".  Hold your paint nozzle flush with the fabric with no space between.  Lightly squeeze as you make your design.  You'll get just enough paint to "draw" with, without having the paint actually puff up.

Once you've finished your creation, let it dry for approximately four hours.  It will be wash ready in 72 hours.

Make sure and visit the blogs below for more awesome projects inspired by 80s styles.  Whether you're feeling nostalgic or wanting a 21st Century look, Tulip has a great assortment of products to help you achieve the perfect style!

Are you ready for some great summer tie dye tips, as well as a giveaway from Tulip?  Check out their Tie Dye Your Summer campaign and enter to win some great products!

Want to learn more about Tulip's Totally Tubular products?  Visit them here:

Tulip's Blog
Tulip on Facebook
Tulip on Twitter
Tulip on Pinterest
#totallytulip

Linking with:
Teach Me Tuesday @ Growing Home
Tutorial Tuesdays with Hope Studios
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good 
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
Tuesday Link Up Party
Make Bake Create @ Hope In Every Season
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz 
Watcha Work-Up Wednesday 
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe
Home Link Up at Raising Arrows
Homemaking Party @ Hope In Every Season
Vintage Thingie Thursday @ Coloradolady
Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop 
Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits @ Stone Gable  
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
Create It Thursday
Thrifty Things Friday @ The Thrifty Groove
Inspiration Friday @ Dear Creatives
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Family Fun Friday @ Happy and Blessed Home
Farm Girl Friday @ Let This Mind Be In You
Fit & Frugal Family Friday
From the Farm