Brown Paper Bag Scrapbooks

Those brown bags aren't just for lunch anymore. And since school is out what do you do with all those left over brown paper bags??? Let's turn them into scrapbooks, they make great gifts that you can mail off to the grandparents;) This is also a great first time scrapbook for you new scrappers! It is very inexpensive and looks great.

Supplies: You will need 2 brown lunch bags, a hole punch or a 3 ring hole punch works better, a tape runner, 2-3 pieces of ribbon, embellishments (buttons, flowers, staples, stickers,etc.), scrapbooking paper.

Step One: Take both bags and fold them together to make a total of four pages. Hole punch the end of the bags to make 2 holes (if using the 3 ring hole punch, add 3 holes with the hand held punch) and tie them together with the ribbon.

Step Two: Add the scrapbook paper using the tape runner. Purchasing the 8x8 size scrapbook paper is easier to trim around versus the 12x12. (Be sure to save the leftover scraps of paper to use on future scrapbook pages)

Step Three: Add pictures. This is the best part. Feel free to add your embellishments around your pictures, this is a cute and fun way to dress them up and to add flair to your page.

Enjoy your paper bag scrapbook;)

The Bread Of The Presence

10 years, that was how long we had our kitchen table, 10 long old years. I'm sure many of you saw that old glass table in our kitchen, the chairs were stained, the thread was pulling up, and the black paint was chipping away but that was our family table and we gathered their for many family dinners. But the time had finally come to say goodbye to that table, oh happy day, and that happy day was today. The new, sturdy, wood, Merlot table arrived today but it could not have come at a worse time. I had looked forward to this day for probably 10 years. Okay, maybe more like 8;) I was so excited I even started decorating the walls around the table so the whole kitchen looked better. But it was also a special day for CJ, it was his last GMS (Good Morning Slaughter) of the year and as a Kindergartner and they were going to transition them over to First Grade. How exciting. We arrived to the gym just in time for the Pledge of Allegiance. He took his seat with his class as I sat with the other excited parents in the bleachers. I decided to check my phone just in case, but surely the furniture delivery people don't come before 5pm, they want you to waste your whole day waiting on them, right;) But, NO, 3 missed calls "Mrs. Cook we are at your house waiting on you with your new table please give us a call at 1-800..." I made a mad dash for the door in the middle of the ceremony. Needless to say I did make it home in time, but I felt so sad, and so down. I missed CJ's, my one and only, probably my lasts, Kindergarten ceremony. When I picked him from school later on that day he told me he cried after the GMS because he couldn't find me and I didn't tell him goodbye, that was more icing on the cake. Kindergarten was the best ever and I'm sure First grade will be even better. It's just so hard watching them grow up, especially when there is only one of them, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything in the whole wide world. We gathered at our new table tonight for what was probably the best spaghetti dinner I have ever made and we thanked Jesus for His Presence at our table and for being the bread of life:)

Bible vs Cell Phone

I first received this email over four years ago after finding a joining a new church in Geneva, Illinois. This was the first email forward that I loved and deleted by accident. If you know me, you know I hate forwards, especially the kind that tell you that if you really love Jesus or if you really want to see Heaven one day then you will forward this to 10 people you love, yes I hate forwards. Well, my mom knows me pretty well, and she knows I hate forwards but she sends me them anyway, but on May 27th she sent me one that I have been searching for for over four years, Bible vs. Cell Phone. This forward asks the question of what if we treated our Bibles like we treat our cell phones??? I tried to paste it on here but it won't work:( Another thing about me is that I am obsessed with my cell phone. Its not just any cell phone, its the I-Phone, and I think Apple is just genius to create such a phone. I mean who could think of such a phone with thousands of apps full of games for my whole family, budgets, coupons, lists, facebook, pictures, it does practically everything. But the sad thing is that I am not as obsessed about my Bible. This summer I want to get more obsessed about my Bible then my cell phone. I want to turn back around if I forget my Bible at home, or carry it every where I go, or treat it like I can't live without it, or go to it for all my answers first, and use my Bible in case of emergencies. When you see me this summer please help me be accountable to my Bible;)