The place where God speaks

I'm in a weird spot in life these days.

My absence from blogging lately is mostly because although I want to be real with you, I want to be an encouragement of sorts. There has been a whole lot that I could have said, but I desperately don't want to be a sinkhole of negativity. Nobody really likes a Negative Nancy, right?

Overall, I think I'm learning that life is spent more in "weird spots" than in normal, perfectly happy ones. You grow more when you're uncomfortable than you do when everything is flowing along smoothly. I never want to be okay with not growing and becoming stronger.

That being said, I'm extremely happy in my unhappiness. Clear as mud, yeah?

There is something I've been praying about for a long time. I'm not ready to share exactly what it is yet, but it's something that has caused me much discomfort over the last couple of months. It has robbed me of sleep and made me cranky at times. I've cried and I've wanted to scream out of frustration. And I've prayed. A lot.

The last several days, I've been trying to pray about it but just feel like I don't even had the words anymore. How do you pray when you've prayed everything you know to pray? When you're so tapped out mentally that you don't even want to think anymore?

Throughout my life, I've always had a place I could go to just be still and listen instead of blabbing away. To sit down with my prayer journal and just spill my heart out without holding back. To listen to music and just worship my Creator. In the past, I've been close enough to the edge of town (or lived in a small enough town...) that I could get in my car and just drive until there were no more distractions. Just me and God.

Since I've moved to the DFW area, I have realized that it is impossible for me to drive like that because I would have to drive for hours (literally) to get away from the distractions of the city. Also, there is a good chance I would wind up getting myself lost, and that totally defeats the purpose of having a quiet retreat. :)

There is a small "canal" across the street from our apartment complex. If you follow me on Facebook at all, I've referenced the canal and a certain doggy of mine taking a Superman dive into it after a duck the other day. *sigh* Well, they have planted cattails and scattered large rocks along the sides of it to try make it look nice, instead of just a drainage ditch. Much to my delight, one of the rocks hangs just over the edge of the water, and is a nice flat spot for sitting. I spent quite a bit of time there the other night. Despite the fact that they're building another apartment complex on the other side of the canal, and the fact that we basically live on the DFW airport runway (...or at least it sounds like it) I had the most amazing quiet time there.

I wrote in my journal a little bit, but mostly I just sat and listened. Have you ever experienced how calming the rippling of water is? How healing the wind is as it brushes tears off your cheek? How amazing it is to sit and observe the presence of a MIGHTY God, right in the middle of His creation?

I sat down on the rock that night feeling like a mental and emotional wreck, and stood up to leave feeling refreshed and peaceful. How thankful I am for my walk with the Great I Am!

So this is my place, where is your favorite spot to experience the presence of God?

~SMurph~

Crafty Cone Trees

I am totally in love with those cone-shaped decorative trees that you see everywhere. So I set out to create them myself instead of forking over big bucks to buy them!

Like most craft projects, I started out at Hobby Lobby to buy the styrofoam cones to decorate the way I wanted. Have you ever seen how expensive they are??? Just the foam cone alone ranges from like $7 to $15 (ish) EACH!!!

I really don't get it. Isn't part of the point of crafting things yourself to help you save money? Aside from the fact that it's super fun, of course. Anyway, I wanted a set of 3 cone trees and there was NO WAY I would spend around $30 just for the base of my project.


Enter Pinterest. I know you've all heard of the site, because you are probably just as addicted as I am. Most of the time I don't even get around to pinning stuff because I get so enthralled in what I find there. Anyway, I found the idea on there to actually make the cone base for my trees using cardstock and a plastic cup instead of buying styrofoam. Brilliant! Eureka! Voila! You get the point.

I just happened to have a bunch of Red Solo Cup Blue Solo Cups in the very back of my pantry.  Cost: $0, essentially (The song which is now stuck in your head is just a bonus. You're welcome!)

During the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, several holiday card catalog sources sent us (my office) card samples a couple times a week. Naturally, I pulled all the samples out to keep before I threw the catalogs away.  Cost: $0 (Thank you, Galleria!)

Over a year ago, I was re-painting a room in our house, and bought a roll of "painting" paper. It was supposed to serve as sort of a drop cloth edger thing, I guess. Not really sure. Anyway, I thought it would look cool as the covering for my cones. Cost: $0 (for this project anyway)

I will warn you, doing the cones this way is NOT a project for the faint of heart! I did all three cones on different days, several days apart, because my fingers got so sore. It probably took about 2 hours just to make my paper "ropes" and then another hour or so to glue them on the cone form. Definitely well worth the effort, but not a quickie project by any means.


The cups I used were a little smaller than normal. I think the normal ones would probably be too big for this project.

I started by cutting the paper into approximately 1-1.5 inch strips.

Then painstakingly twisted each strip as tight as I could, without ripping the paper. I didn't want it to look completely uniform.

I used the cardstock to form a cone shape, then fitted it over the cup.

Once I had all the strips twisted into "ropes" I simply started as close as I could to the bottom of the cone and glued the rope around in small segments. This part takes quite a while, because you have to make sure the rope stays twisted and that you glue close enough to the previous row that you don't have any white space in between.

When I got to the top, I went around one more time, then tucked the end of the rope down through the hole in the top and glued it into place. This is what gave it the "finished" look on top. Then I took a brand new rope and went around the very bottom edge of the cone one more time, to give it some more sturdi-ness and to finish that edge as well.

And there you have it - Crafty Cone Trees! (They're really not crooked, it's just the way I took the picture. Photography is not my strong suit.)

At some point, I think I'll make another set that has a few more embellishments on it. For now, these go perfectly in my living room and I love them!

~SMurph~

Sidewalk Poo and a Mudpuddle

Over here at the Murphy house, we're trying to get a little healthier. And when I say "we" that means ALL of us. Our babies are not excluded.

I often tell people that we don't have wiener dogs. We have a bratwurst and a little smokey. Bless his heart, Oscar is a little husky.

Not "A" husky. He IS husky.

He really likes to eat. Since Lu is afraid of her food dish (and everything else in the world... *sigh*) he often polishes off her dinner before I can catch him and tell him no.

So, the healthy revolution has started and we have started to walk/jog after I get home from work at night. They crack me up so much that I decided to take along my camera tonight and try get some pictures.

First, I tried to capture the moment when I asked the babies if they wanted to go for a walk. This first one made me laugh so much! It definitely captured what I was hoping for. Pure excitement right there, ladies and gentlemen!

Since I walk them both by myself while Matt is at the gym, I have to have a system to keep control of both dogs and hold the doo doo bags. 

And the camera, of course. Because everyone who is walking two extremely hyper dogs should stop and take pictures periodically. 

I think I'm crazy.

"Let's GO mom!" 

I was trying to get all three of our shadows, but Lucy moved at the last minute. Bad dog!

Kidding of course.

This right here is a woman on a mission. Thankfully, she likes to run ahead, because the girl stopped to "tinkle" no less than 17 times during the course of our walk.

Then she decided to poop in the middle of the sidewalk. What kind of silly dog does that??? I quickly looked around, locked their leashes, then fumbled around with the doo doo bags. 

And grabbed the camera. 

Priorities, people!

Okay, actually I cleaned up the mess THEN grabbed the camera. But only because I couldn't get the doo doo baggie open with one hand, so I had to improvise with my leash holding. When I realized how silly I must have looked, I just had to take a picture.

As I was bent over to clean up her mess, a lovely little couple came walking up the sidewalk behind me while I had my back end sticking up in the air. Um yeah, I got some strange looks from them.

What do you even say? Lu doesn't like the pokey grass, can you blame her? 

Oscar was embarrassed.

"Are we almost done yet?"

When we finished our walk, I noticed that the dog park inside our apartment complex was empty (that never happens!) so I took them over there to run free for a while. In typical boy fashion, Oscar found a nasty stinky mud puddle to play in, so when we went home he was carried straight upstairs and put in the tub.

Call me a crazy dog lady if you want, but I do love my babies!

~SMurph~

Superpower: Supporter

Have you ever taken a personality analysis? I've taken a few over the last several years, and I've always been so surprised how accurate they sometimes are!

Last night Matt was telling me that he found a free personality analysis online through Crown Ministries. He started reading his "results" to me and we totally cracked up. Let's just say they NAILED it! His personality type is "Driver" according to this specific test. In a nutshell: he's a leader, easily makes decisions and sticks with them, and can be assertive. If you're familiar with the animal personality traits, he is almost 100% Lion with a little bit Golden Retriever.

Naturally, it made me curious to see what the same test would say about me. I love it when we both take the same analysis because it shows us areas where we are similar and different, and opens discussion about how we can communicate with each other more effectively. We are SO different from each other in so many ways (you know what they say...."opposites attract"!)

I took the test this morning, and here's what it had to say about me:

Sandra - your profile type is Supporter


General Description
As a Supporter, you naturally thrive when given the opportunity to help, encourage, or cooperate with others. You make loyal friends and employees and gain fulfillment by helping make others successful.


Typical Areas of Strength
Supporters, like you, typically are excellent team players, at home or at work, due to your desire to cooperate, help others, listen, be patient, loyal, steady, and support the efforts of those in charge.


Typical Areas of Struggle
You may sometimes undermine your effectiveness by compromising too much, vacillating on important decisions, being too passive, resisting change, or compromising quality to protect the feelings of others.


Your Preferred Activities
Because you work at a steady pace, you demonstrate an excellent ability to follow through on projects. You cooperate well with others in order to complete activities.


Your Communication Style
You communicate best by using your superior relational and listening skills to convey care and compassion to people in need

It also produces a graph of your personality traits. Not surprising at all to see that when you put Matt's chart and mine together, they are almost completely opposite of each other! My animal personality trait is mostly Golden Retriever with a little bit Beaver and a little bit Otter.

So interesting, right? I love that Matt and I are so different, because it gives us an opportunity to truly be "one" together. To rely on each other's strengths, which are typically our own greatest weakness.

If you're interested, take the assessment for yourself by clicking here!

~SMurph~

New Look!

Well....I'm just about finished with my re-design so I guess time to ask, "What do you think of the new look?" Yes, it's extremely simple and kind of plain, but it fits me better that way! : )

Also, check out the new tabs across the top!

~SMurph~

***Caution: Construction Ahead***

I have severe ADD when it comes to the layout/design of my blog. For a long time, I've been wanting to take the time to completely design and customize the look and feel of this, so it is completely "me." Know what I mean?

Well I'm happy to say, the time has come!

Therefore, if you check in at some point during the next few days (or week...who's counting?) and things look a little "off" please take heart I will get it fixed! :)

See you on the other side, hopefully with a new fresh look!

~SMurph~

Recent Events

It's finally Friday again!! Does anyone else feel completely different on Friday than any other day of the week? Since there's a party going on in my brain and I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts, I'm just going to give you a random run-down of recent events (in no particular order) for your reading pleasure.

Humor me, okay?

1. We joined Gateway Church last Saturday! I was excited, but had NO idea the sense of "belonging" we were missing out on without being an official part of a church. So thankful to be part of the body!

2. I'm headed to The Fabric Yard with Kari tomorrow, to look for fabric to re-cover my kitchen chair cushions. Just being in that store makes you feel all crafty. Love it!

3. We recently got a new kitchen table! It has a glass top with iron legs and iron chairs with a cushion. Right now the cusions are white, but I'm thinking re-covering in a bright pattern would be a fun way to brighten up our white kitchen. (Um, told you this was in no particular order. Please see No. 2 above...)

4. TOMS are the best shoes ever. Period.

5. FPU has started up again. If you haven't heard of the class or aren't sure if it's for you or not, I promise you that it is! Whether or not you have debt, this class is life changing and I can't express that enough! We are hoping that we can continue to be involved in this great ministry, and are looking forward to being small group mentors in the fall!

6. I think God is going to do something amazing in 2012. I can just feel it, can't you?

7. Please see Number 4 above.

8. I was able to go to the women's event at church last night. Big bold step for me, because I didn't know what to expect. Thankfully I was able to meet a friend from our last FPU small group, so there was a friendly (and familiar) face expecting me. It was an amazing night and I am SO glad I went!

9. It's Friday!!!!!

10. We paid off our first debt last week. You would have thought we won the lottery, we were THAT excited. So excited, in fact, we took a picture of the check before we mailed it! (now.....what do you do with a picture of a check???)

~SMurph~