DIY Magnetic Chalk Board Calendar!

As 2015 came roaring close to us, I decided as part of my going green, less waste, and all of that; I was going to make my own magnetic chalkboard calendar instead of replacing our paper one.

This was our first DIY build project of any sort, so as you could imagine it came with its own set of oops. But it was fun, we did it together (Ben and I) and we got it done in about two days.

Before I continue I have to confess that I accidentally deleted some of the pictures of this project… so please forgive me. I promise to be less, um, efficient in my posts to come.

Let’s get started!

Here is what we pulled together. Your supply list could look a lot different depending on your desired measurements but we planned on the calendar being 24” x 20” to fit the space next to the fridge.

Supplies:

* 2”x1”x8’ Furring Strip- Pine {Home depot$1.97}

* 24”x36” sheet of Sheet Metal {Home depot$20.00}

* ½” sheet metal screws {Home depot $3.98}

* Picture Hanging Kit {Home depot $4.00}

* Chalkboard Paint {Wal-Mart- Disney $10.00}

* Primer Spray Paint {Wal-Mart- Zinsser $5.94}

* 4x1” long left over screws

* Stain- Had

* Chalkboard Markers {Amazon- $24.99}

We had the guys at {Home Depot} Cut our furring strip into two 24” pieces and two 20” pieces. That left us with an 8” remnant, Thank goodness! (You’ll understand way in a bit)

Ok, all our supplies in hand, we set up shop in the garage and started to assemble our frame. Here is where our first oops happened. I thought; “Hey this is a pretty small piece of wood, we should be able to staple it together.” Yea, well we tried, and tried again, and tried again!

Needless to say my father (if not across the globe right now) would laugh at me, probably out loud. Those stapled frames were not going to work. We spent a split second thinking; “Well once we screw the metal to the frame it should secure it right up.” We let go of that immediately and took to the 8” scrap to test another theory.

Ben pulled out the tiniest drill bit I have ever seen and I proceeded to pilot a very small hole into the scrap piece. We then screwed in about a 1” long screw we had laying around. (Thank goodness we had 8 of them.)

After making sure we wouldn't split the wood, we proceeded to pre-drill the holes on all four corners of the frame. The screws went in beautifully (Can I say beautifully?)

 Once the frame was secure, our first frame ever by the way, I went to my new favorite stain {Minwax Jacobean} I love this color. Super easy we just wiped on and wiped off.

On a side note, a very good friend of mine made me the work bench you see in the pic from a set of plans I got from {Shanty to Chic}. It’s huge and mobile and awesome. I am now, currently, making a mess of it- but I love walking into the garage and seeing the paint, or over spray, or stain drippings all over the top…. It looks like a well loved work bench.

Once the frame was stained it was time to cut the sheet metal to size. The sheet metal was 24”x36” and we needed it be 24”x 24”. So we marked our cut line after measuring twice.

 Then, my awesome husband went to work cutting the sheet metal. Also, our first time doing this- and it wasn’t terribly easy- but it was quick. 

After he cleaned up a couple rough (and very sharp)

edges and I cleaned the metal, I shook up my {Zinssers PrimerSpray Paint} can and started sweeping sprays on the metal. Something to note; the can says it should not be sprayed in under 70 degrees. It happened to be in the 40’s and the paint came out, at first, kind of rough. So there is a bumpy rough edge along the bottom, but I kept going till the whole thing was covered.

We let the primer dry over night…. And this where my missing pictures should be. The next morning I mixed up our Disney Chalkboard paint and started to paint the sheet metal. This paint is awesome. Its thick and it does a really great job. With the first coat down we moved it to the BBQ outside to dry in the sun, it was cold, but there was sun.

After a couple hours we were able to do a second coat.  Once that dried I took a piece of chalk and primed the sheet metal. I rubbed the chalk all over the piece and wiped it off! Dang it, I wish I didn't delete the pics! This was awesome and kind of complicated.

 We had done some pretty detailed measurements for the calendar part of this. I took a piece of chalk and measured out my grid lines. I will be honest, we messed up somewhere along the lines but eventually I just took the plunge and drew the lines with sharpie paint pen.  When that was dry, Ben screwed the sheet metal to the frame using the sheet metal screws – three per side. He then added the picture hanging hardware to the back And Voila! Magnetic Chalk Board Calendar. 

I had to wait a couple days for my chalk board markers to arrive from {Amazon.}

After shaking them up and switching out the tips- I got to work on filling in my calendar. This was fun! These neon colors aren't exactly our color pallet but its like family marketing! 

We are very happy with how this turned out and I plan on making some more, getting pretty good at it and then selling them or giving them as gifts- with the markers!

Hey I hope you enjoyed and are inspired to create a project like this of your own!

*I was not paid or reimbursed for any of the products or blogs that you see featured in this post *

10 Steps to a Simplified Life

I don’t always make “New Year’s Resolutions” because, well quite frankly, the passion and sincerity that exists somewhere between the 6^th of December and the 1^st of the new year fades quickly when kids get sick, or the dog ate something… you know, life kind of interrupts the dream of being a better version of myself.

There is a pastor who we know and love very much who says; “God loves us just as we are, and loves us too much to let us stay that way”. I have always loved that because it always gave me hope that not only could I change, but that I was meant to.

This year- 2015 I have major changes I want to make in my life and in my home and family life. This year I have 12 resolutions. I thought about filling up my blog in January expounding on each one, but as this is my first post of the New Year- the official launch of “Bowl full of Blessings ”- I thought I would narrow down this post to just one of my resolutions. SIMPLIFY OUR LIVES!

Ha, narrow it down huh? When I got into my plans to help simplify our lives, there are over 10 things to do to accomplish that and in those 10 things, another 10. Wait! This doesn't sound simple. I read somewhere that simple doesn't mean easy, it means simple to do. That’s what I have pulled together.

I think we could all use some simplicity in our lives so I am very excited to say Hi there! Welcome to my blog and here are 10 ways we plan on simplifying our lives.

#1: UNSUBSCRIBE!!!!

I don’t know about you but I have hundreds of emails everyday from all over the place. Ya know that one website I wanted to look at but had to give my email address to get in? I have lots and lots of those emails. It makes it harder to find the emails you want to get. So, numero uno on my list to simplify my life… unsubscribe.

#2: DITCH THE ELECTRONICS!

Ok, clearly I am not suggesting to make a run to a recycle place and dump all of our electronics, but rather I am suggesting- unplug. Everyone! Maybe it’s after dinner and before breakfast. I don’t know when the best time is to do it as a family, but I do know- most nights of the week you can walk into my house and you will find Ben on the couch on his phone, Tristan in his room on his DS or IPod or WIIu, and I am somewhere in between watching YouTube videos on homesteading or how to milk a cow. We spend our evenings separate… when we spent all day separated. So for us, it’s taking a breather- and breathing together. I found some really great blog posts on this topic at the Shabby Creek Cottage blog She also talks about 10 ways to simplify…. It turns out when I was done with my list, I too had 10 things.

#3: SCHEDULE DOWN TIME: 

Doing tons and tons of reading on this topic almost every single article I read mentioned or suggested “schedule down time” in their list of ways to simplify. Hey, I agree- how do you schedule down time? Well… I have already kind of done that on my own. I get home from work about an hour before Tristan gets out of school. I could get a lot done in that hour, but instead I make a conscious effort to stop thinking for 30 -60 minutes. Let my brain rest, watch part of a movie, and lay down- something. I know not all of us get the opportunity to stop moving until we hit the pillow, but to allow room to take a breath- I support the idea that is good for both your physical and your mental health.

#4: FIND A MANTRA

While trolling pinterest the other day I came across this saying, it’s the minimalist mantra:  I love this from "The Motivated Type" on Etsy. . Though I have no intention of becoming a true minimalist… I would like to embrace the mantra on a more regular basis. This doesn't have to be your mantra but besides the Bible, we all need phrases or words or songs that remind us, reinforce us, and challenge us to stay the course we are on… or in fact, choose a new one.

#5: LIVE WITH LESS

I have been trying to throw out, donate, and keep our “stuff” to a bare minimum. But do you know what moving shows you? It shows you that you kind of suck at bare minimums. I love this post in " Young House Love" (by far one of my most favorite blogs) about {Living with less}.  Look, the guys have one bottle each that acts as their shampoo, face wash, and body wash. What do I have? Um…. 5 or 6…. something like that.  My make up…. Though it’s pretty organized…. There is a lot of it. At this point I am going to use the whole “living with less” excuse to buy the {Urban Decay} Naked Pallets 1 and 3…. I think that will about cover my need for eye shadow- at least. But really…. Where can I cut down??? That is part of the process for us.

#6: PRIORITIZE OUR LIFE let go of what doesn’t matter

Such a great piece from imperfect homemaking.com- I love her advice for getting things in order and getting rid of that which doesn't fit into our order is stellar and right on.  For us, it might not be so much “things” as it would “acts” or “behaviors”. There is a good amount of griping, yelling, and fighting that happens here over all kinds of silly and unimportant things. I think that taking a look at our lives and identifying the priorities - and making those the things or people or actions that we put our energy into is going to be very eye opening and has the potential to grow this little family even closer together.

#7: GET ORGANIZED

For those of you know me, and even more so- those who know me well, I am a fairly organized and detailed person. However, there are many areas of my life and my home that leave something to be desired. Keeping a calendar- which we do, having spaces in your home that are organized and put together so that clutter doesn't have a chance to take over- everything has a place to go. During this month I will be posting some projects I am working on, like our magnetic chalk board wall calendar and the re-do of our command center. These are just two of the many organization projects I have on the docket for our home. Also getting my planner more organized, my blog planner, closets, drawers, the refrigerator, even the garage. I believe having these things and spaces more organized and purposeful will lend to the strength of simplifying our lives. Check out these projects: {My Organization Pinterest Page} { Cre8tive- home- decoration.com} { A Bowl Full of Lemons. net }

#8: CASH BUDGET (Work towards becoming financially free)

This is always a work in progress but we have been pretty lax in our budget keeping and cash only living. I have read {“Total MoneyMakeover” by Dave Ramsey.}

It’s pretty inspirational but will take a great deal of sacrifice and dedication. We haven’t done much since reading it in terms of taking steps to move forward and upward but that’s part of our 2015 Resolutions. We are “resolute” to becoming free from the burden and chains of financial issues. Part of this is also working towards us being able to buy a small plot of land and home in the near future- as I desperately want to homestead on a farm. I stumbled upon   { Fun cheap or free.com} and found this post…. {“How we are managing our cash budget this month.”} They have some really great pointers- some I may even snatch up.

#9: IN THE WORD and out of the world

I am a 36 year old woman who was raised in church but who never got a full understanding of who God is until I married my husband. Over the years we have experienced our ups and downs, like everyone else, some lower and higher than others- but we have also experienced a real and present God in our lives. It’s unfortunate that we don’t spend the time we should in the Word and in prayer unless of course we’re standing on the cliff and don’t want to taste the dirt again. So part of my plan to simplify my life is to stay connected and grow daily in my relationship with God. My sister bought me a yearlong devotional by Joyce Meyer called {“Trusting God Day by Day”} for Christmas. I am excited to start it… oh wait; I already have as you are reading this on the 1^st…. I promise it’s the first thing I will do the morning of the 1^st.

#10:  MORE FAMILY TIME TOGETHER

As part of step 2 and step 6- family time together is precious for us. Our 9 year old is growing fast and I am afraid that we all too often waste that time we have together for our own personal ventures or plans. Another great blog {Double the Batch.com} has a great post {“HOW TO LIMIT SCREEN TIME AND HAVE FUN AS A FAMILY”} besides cutting back on individual electronic time; we are also making a commitment to eat dinner every night together at the table. Look, this is a national movement but I was raised that no matter what- when dinner was ready, we were at the table. Ben and I swore and swore that we would raise Tristan that way. Have we? Um, no!  Sometimes Ben and Tristan will eat at the table and I will be in the living room…. Or we will all be eating in separate rooms. It’s a terrible habit we all have that I mean to break- ASAP! Tristan got a lot of board games this Christmas, adding to our impressive board game collection. We have already cracked open “Sorry” and “Clue”…. Family game time is a great way to spend time together. We laugh, sometimes cry, and just have a great time trying to beat each other at which ever game were playing, where undoubtedly Ben becomes the villain.

These are the 10 things I will be attempting to accomplish this year to help simplify our lives. I would love to hear what you do to help keep your lives from over running you! Please post! Would love to hear from you!

Looking forward to 2015 here at bowlfullofblessings.com

** I have not been paid or reimbursed for any of the blogs or products I have featured in this post. All are just my suggestions and favorites**

Bullies with a Mission

Sanders!

My family and I have tried our best to be supporters of our local pit bull rescue, Fresno Bully Rescue, for years. In fact, we were in the midst of adopting a puppy from them but with all my health problems during July and August we had to put it on hold, and he was adopted into another loving home in the mean time.

We were so happy for him, but we were all very sad. Losing the baby then losing Sanders broke our hearts, but that’s where Spots came into the picture. 

Spots!

We bought spots from a family here in town whose pit-bull had 8 puppies. The sign posted said pit-bull puppies for $40.00. It sent shivers up my spine. Only two kinds of people, in my mind, buy pit bulls for $40.00. That’s people like us that love the breed and then there are people who buy and did buy 4 puppies at time for other purposes. We feel like even though we didn't adopt him through Fresno Bully Rescue we still saved his life.

Regardless, we are still huge fans of Fresno Bully Rescue. 

They have done amazing things towards the education, awareness of the breed as well as the rescue, rehabilitation, and re-homing of these amazing animals. Most of who were rescued once already from high kill shelters. Most pit-bull breeds in city and kill shelters are euthanized for no other reason other than that they are pit-bulls or pit-bull mixes. Fresno Bully Rescue does everything they can to swoop in and become super heroes, pulling these beautiful dogs from life threatening situations and taking them to their very well maintained facility or put them up in foster homes until forever homes can be found.

Like most non-profit dog rescue groups, this one is not immune to the lack of funding, food, toys, bed, and even people.

Today, Ben, Tristan, and I headed up in the morning to the rescue facility. The current location is about 30 minutes or so away from us, but it was nice morning and beautiful drive. We attended our first volunteer orientation. I had been trying to do this for years, things just came up and or I never made it a real priority. Today, however, was the day and I had been looking forward to it for weeks.

We, along with about 40-60 new volunteers were taught about the rules of the rescue and the facility. They educated us on the reality of the volunteer situation and the needs of the program. We were then taken on tour of the facility and were introduced to and educated about every dog there. I have to tell you, that was the hardest part. I was ready to take home at least 4 of those beautiful loving dogs!!!!

Pete @ Fresno Bully Rescue

We didn't walk anyone today because it was long morning and my guys were hot, but we are going back next weekend, or I am…. And we are so excited about making this a regular part of our lives.

Before we attended today’s orientation, we knew that in about a year when spots had been through his training we would go back to Fresno Bully Rescue and adopt and older dog…. Man, I am looking forward to that.  All in all, we love dogs. Do we love pit-bulls? Yes…. Are we pit-bull people? Yes, only because of our experience with Kenya. Because of her and our research about the breed when she was a puppy, we have since become advocates for the breed and when people see a scary pit-bull beast in a dog, we oooooh and aww and coo at their cute bully faces. That’s how we got to where we are with this breed.

Fonzey @ FBR

We wonder if we really are “pit-bull” people as we are now training new pit-bull puppy that is ALL pit-bull…. No matter what we discover what I know be to true is, these animals deserve loving homes- and your life will never be the same after you have fallen in love with a precious pity. Take a minute or two and check out Fresno Bully’s Web Page. Go visit and or go volunteer! Meet some handsome and lovely pities! You will be forever glad that you did!

Cuz I love em!

I have every intention on posting about our love of the pitt bull breed. I have a desire to educate and inform people about the truth about this misunderstood breed. But in the mean time, here are some cutie pics of my crazy dogs!
More to come!

This is Spots... Our Currently 3 Month old new addition!

Look at that sweet face! Don't let him fool you- he is a terror!

This is River. River is a 9 year old Lab Mix that we adopted three years ago! He is Big, Hairy, and 100% Kenya's Dog!

Here they are together! Kenya and River pre Spots! Love this pic

And this... this is Kenya. We adopted Kenya 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Tristan. She is the best dog ever and she is who started our love of the pitt bull breed.

Family! The Best Medicine

So it’s a widely known truth that family can be the best part of who you are and also the driving force to your journey into insanity. That being said, I am so thankful to have the family that I have. Of course there is “my” family. My parents and my sister, her kids and her husband and his family and then there is my husband’s family, which is also now my family. There is also family that is not family genetically but is family because we love them so much there is no other place for them in the categories of our lives other than, family.

Today Ben, Tristan, and I headed over to Ben’s aunt Kristy’s house for his Cousin Jonah’s 15^th birthday party. We walked in and in a split second, our little family of three grows by 20. It’s awesome. With all the stuff we've been dealing with this summer, the love and embracing of our “families” has been the best medicine.

My relationship with Ben’s family has not always been wonderful. There were always lots of different personalities and immature ways of dealing with relational situations. But we've all grown up and have our own babies and now our time together is pretty much exclusively fun and cathartic.

I just felt compelled to share what I was feeling. I feel really blessed that not only I have this wonderful group of people in my life but that my son has them as well. He has an amazing relationship with my sisters kids and he absolutely loves hanging out with his 2^nd cousins (or something like that) on Ben’s side. It’s wonderful to grow up with family. 

Project House: Living Room Plans

As you know, one of things I love and hate so much about this house are the entire list of projects that it needs to feel more like us. Things we have decided not to change are the stained concrete floors.

 That’s mostly it. We will do a deep cleaning and re-sealing on them when the weather is a bit better. But that’s it until we buy the house.

So, first project! The Living Room. 

We already have two of the pieces we need to work on. The two side tables.

In addition we need to paint. Ben and I have not officially decided on a color but we are leaning towards a light grey blue for the three regular walls.  

On the dark brown panel wall we want to do a pop of color, some accent color- which we are not 100% on yet.

 What we are sure about that wall is closing up the weird shelving thing. This will give us more room in the entry hall closet and allow us to build floor to ceiling book shelves along most of this wall. 

These are some of my inspiration builds. 

Pregnant with Power Tools

Thrifty Decor Chick

Just a Girl DIY Built In Book Case

 However, with the new financial set up in this house, I will have to be incredibly budget minded. Meaning, the most expensive thing in this room will be my new couches. These are not them.

On the TV wall, we will be redoing the photos in white frames and new pics. 

My 8 year old son is demanding more updated pictures of him. LOL ok!

I agree. In addition we were planning on building this massive media center to house our antique water jug lamps. They are huge. However, this plan is going to cost too much so I had to do a re-think. So here is what we are going to do!!!!

We will take the table that is currently acting as our media center and refinish it. It will go behind the love seat and will be the new home of the giant glass water jug lamps.

 For the media center we will find…. Somehow and some where a dresser that is big enough to take up some massive wall space but is cheap enough that I can take and do what I want to it. I did see a cute dresser at a shop here in town but funds are not in our favor right this second, so this is going to be a slow moving process.

As you can see this room is wrapped in windows.

Three floor to ceiling on one wall and a weird long short window on the other.  This is the hottest room in the house and those blinds; they do little to stop the sun and even less to stop prying eyes as at night when the lamps are on you can see straight into our living room from the street. I have a good feeling that diy grommet drapes will be a first project in this room for those two reasons.

We need to make two more lamps for the side tables….

Or take the ones that are there that I won on e-bay 12 years ago and re-wire them and paint them. That seems to make more sense.

I also plan on making a couple floor pillows, adding a cool re-finished or upholstered side chair, figuring out a rug and adding throw pillows.

All in all there is a lot to do but I am anxious to get started. I am hoping to at least get the windows dealt with before the end of August!

Wish me luck! Thanks for following

Understanding Loss

I have sat down to write this post about a dozen times since three weeks ago when we found out we were going to miscarry. It’s been harder for me to write about than I thought it would as I have had countless miscarriages in the past. I couldn't figure out why this was so hard to talk about or to be honest about how I was feeling. Today, after church and visiting with some friends- I felt a revealing spirit come over me and I was ready to put it to paper or to the wide world of internet as would be.

To go back to fully understand the history of our journey with pregnancies we need to go all the way back to 2002. Ben and I were married in October and began trying for a family almost immediately. Three years later when there had been nothing happening we went to see a fertility specialist. We discovered then that I had poly cystic Ovaries. Meaning I had cysts on my ovaries that could be preventing ovulation. 

 After some oral medication to help move the process along, and still nothing- our Doctor told us this very phrase; “I am afraid that without extraordinary measures, you will not be able to conceive and carry a child.”

That was devastating to hear as we didn't have “extraordinary” funds to pay for such measures. And to be quite honest, we had watched some very close family members go through all of those measures and the struggle it put them through.

After a couple months Ben and I decided, well if we aren't going to have children- we will continue to work in children’s ministries and get a dog. A week after Christmas in 2004- one week after picking up Kenya, our now 10 year old pit mix, we found out that we were 6 weeks pregnant.

Now, our Doctor tried to claim some ownership of this miracle, but we told him. “You said that a pregnancy would not be possible without extraordinary measures- We serve the King of Extraordinary and you don’t get any credit!”

My pregnancy with Tristan was without issue. Aside from my stubborn gallbladder and pulling a uterine muscle… it was an event-less pregnancy and he was born healthy and happy and we were beyond blessed.

When Tristan was 2 we started trying for a second baby. This is where our journey became more of a roller coaster. For 1 almost 2 years I had somewhere between 7-9 early miscarriages. This happened so often that I stopped telling anyone about it, sometimes not even my husband. It destroyed us every time even though we never knew we were pregnant until I began to miscarry.

So, that brings us to now…. 5 years later, I take a pregnancy test in late June because I was late… and to our complete and total surprise a second, very faint line appeared.  You have to understand we haven’t had a positive pregnancy test since Tristan. We were shocked and in

complete and total disbelief. I sent pictures of my 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 12^th test to friends and family to get some help on the test results.

Soon thereafter I scheduled a Dr Appointment. My test there was also light so they were just kind of watching to see what would happen. A week later I started cramping. My doctor took me out of work and put me on modified bed rest. We kept watching and waiting. I know they were waiting for me to miscarry but I never did. My HCG numbers kept rising, not doubling but rising. Around what they thought was 9 weeks they did an internal ultra sound and found the gestational sack only measured 5 weeks. So again, watch and wait we did for three more weeks.

This is where things got really difficult. I took my son and my mom with me to see the growing baby for our 2^nd internal ultrasound. However, when the image came up on the screen and I saw the gestational sac, nothing in it and the same size it was three weeks earlier, I knew in my heart something was wrong.

I sent my son with my mom to the lobby. I wanted to be the one to explain this to him, not a doctor.

So, the diagnosis was a blighted-ovum. There never was a baby.  I’m not going to get into the details of this medical term, but the bottom line is…. It’s considered a chemical pregnancy. I suffered morning sickness, a swelling uterus, food craving and aversions as well as supersonic sniffer.

That day, when I arrived home I began to miscarry.

I find that I have been battling myself in mourning the loss of, perhaps not a baby because a baby wasn't there but the hope and the desire … that was real and that truly is what I was mourning.

I haven’t screamed out WHY? It hasn't been that kind of sadness.  I trust my God implicitly and know He has a plan for our lives and our family. I am not going to begin to try to decipher the message in this…. Because I know for sure, I probably wouldn't understand it if I had it.

I will confess, however, that for Ben and I both, what this pregnancy did was open up our hearts to having another baby or bringing into our home another child. We had been pretty closed to the idea. I mean, we aren't getting any younger- we are both in the worst shape of our lives… and our son is turning 9 in less than a month.

So, in all where we are now is simply- faithful. There are three verses that have stood out to me during this time.

Psalms 138:8

 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The title of this blog is “Understanding Loss”. The most I can offer to this is that it’s not about understanding the why to the losses in our lives. It is truly instead saying…. “OK God. I trust you, I believe your purpose for my life is perfect and I love you.” If we all who lose people or dreams in our lives could or were at all able to go to our knees and declare this truth…. I am not saying it will make the hurt in our hearts go away but I have experienced the healing and peaceful settling that comes with giving it to God. After all, it belongs to Him in the first place.

Thank you all for staying connected and I look forward to new and exciting postings as we amp up for Bowl Full of Blessings 2015