Always be thankful...

Well friends I thought this day would never take place.  Back in the day when Steph started this Blog she told me (the hubs) that I could post if I ever wanted to and tonight it sounded like something I would consider.  So here is my profound thought of the day....

Friends as you begin to settle in for the night take a few minutes to think of all the blessings God has blessed you with, here is the small list of things I am thankful for tonight.

1. A heavenly Father who will never abandon us
2. Forgiveness from all the earthly sins I have committed
3. The most amazing and beautiful wife
4. A silly puppy that always keeps us on our toes
5. A great internship where I have the blessing to step into one of the most intimate parts of a persons life.
6. A job that helps pay the bills and provides for our many needs
7. The ability to pursue a masters degree
8. A house that keeps me warm and dry
9. TV shows to watch on-line when the desire to complete homework has vanished
10. A warm and comfy bed to rest in after a long day

I don't know about you but I take many things for granted, hopefully this note helps you stop for just a minute and think of the many things you have but do not deserve.

alive. alive!

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.  The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:1-10)

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

Christ is risen from dead, trampling over death by death. 

Come awake! Come awake! Come and rise up from the grave! 

Christ is risen from the dead. We are one with him again!

it's coming.

Sunday is coming. Can you hear it? It sounds like crowds jesting and soldiers sneering. It sounds like a hammer pounding and wood splitting. It sounds like a loud cry and a last breath. Silence.

[Matthew 27] As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.  And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. 

Can you hear it? It sounds like thunder rolling and rocks shaking and curtains tearing in two. It sounds like people gasping, realizing, knowing. Truth. 

Can you hear it? Sunday is coming...

homework night.

It's been awhile. Life has been busy with tons of homework (taking two classes right now), work, school, internship and all sorts of other things. And let's not forget about spending a week in Florida. I'll make sure to recap that soon, too!

Tonight is homework night. Rob is at a MOSES Board meeting and I'm trying to stay on top of what feels like one million assignments. But, there is something that eases the homework pain a little bit.

Nothing like a cute, sleeping puppy at your feet to put a smile on your face.

Now, back to Introduction to Classroom Dynamics and Developmental Psychology.

keys and paint.

Our latest project was a long time and coming. When we first moved into our house, we had the uncanny ability to lay our keys down and forget where we put them. We don't have much counter space in the kitchen - and none that is close to the door - so we didn't have a prime location to consistently put our keys.

In our apartment, we had hung little hooks right inside the doorway to hang our keys on and it seemed to work out well for us. We hardly ever lost our keys or had to hunt them down when we were trying to leave for work or school. So, when we moved into our house, we did the simplest thing possible. We put two nails in the wall in our stairway which is just inside our main entry door in an attempt to recreate the hook situation we had in the apartment.

This worked for awhile...until the nails started falling out of our silly cement-board walls. Our keys would fall down the stairs, the nails would fall down the stairs, the dog would find the nails, we couldn't find our keys - you get the picture. So, to solve the problem, Rob asked if I would make my next craft project a key hanger. I had all sorts of creative ideas but couldn't find the right supplies to make the ideas work out. Then it happened.

I found these letters for 99 cents each at Hobby Lobby and had the perfect idea to add a little bit of color (and some much needed key hanging space) to our stairwell.

I decided to attempt the project while Rob was at work one day (I don't work on Thursdays) in order to surprise him when he got home. I don't typically use power tools by myself. Bet you'd never guess that! Right?

I had a leftover dowel laying around from when I made my mom's birthday present and I found an old piece of trim in our scrap wood box in the basement. I cut three pieces from the dowel to use as hooks. The best part was that I remembered what my handy boyfriend always tells me about pre-drilling with a smaller size bit so I don't crack the wood when using the larger bit. It's ok, you can be impressed. I don't mind.

In fact, I was so impressed with myself I had to take a picture. I've taken better pictures. Oh well, you get the idea.

After I had drilled the three holes, I used a hammer to pound the dowels into the trim. I was left with this:

The whole process took a little longer than expected but I at least had the general concept together before Rob got home from work. He was very impressed with my [lack of] power tool skills. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided to spend the evening painting the stairwell in preparation for hanging the new key hooks when they were finished. I set-up shop at the dining room table to paint the letters while Rob tackled the paint in the stairwell.

Before Rob started painting, we were convinced the stairwell ceiling was white. HA! Guess again.

I don't know what color it was before, but it definitely wasn't white. We have really poor lighting in the stairwell so the picture doesn't do the colors justice, but you get the general idea. The ceiling got a nice new coat of white paint and the walls were spruced up with a light gray - the same color we will eventually get around to painting the basement with.

Last night I put the finishing coats of paint on the letters and the hooks so that we could hang them today! I chose pretty bright colors - the blue is the same blue we are in process of painting our exterior doors, the orange is the same colored I used to paint the snowman's nose for my mom's birthday present and the green is "Grass Green" that I picked up from Hobby Lobby...on sale for 34 cents. Perfect!

This morning, Rob hung everything up for us. I decided it might be better to hand the power tools back over to him at this point. He pre-drilled holes so that we could use toggle bolts to hold the hook with. We didn't want to deal with any of that nails-slipping-out-of-the-wall-every-time-we-hang-our-keys-up business again.

Mr. Beacon often likes to watch Rob work. He's like a little kid. Rob will work on a project and Beacon will sit quietly next to him and watch every thing he's doing. We'll probably let Mr. B use the drill next time.

After Beacon gave his final approval on the placement for the letters, I hung them up and [drum roll please]...

A brand new, colorful, useful key and leash hanging space! We knew we wanted three hooks because we each have a set of keys and Mr. B's leash and harness are always just laying on the first step because we don't know what else to do with them. It conveniently works out that the letters spell our initials AND give Beacon a hook too! (I didn't even plan that!)

And so, I think we officially like it. The keys and leash have been hanging on it for about an hour now and I haven't heard anything come crashing to the ground so I think we're in business. Not to shabby for a $3.31 project, if I do say so myself.

What projects have you worked on lately?

lucky day.

Looks like a certain [spoiled?] dog in the Bergman house hit the jackpot this week!

A 10 lb. box of Milk-bones and an almost empty peanut butter jar all in one day!

Hmm...I wish someone would bring me a 10 lb. box of M&Ms and an almost empty [er...full?] jar of ice cream. Beacon! Bring me M&Ms! You can't eat them anyways!

If you could have someone bring you a 10 lb. box of anything, what would it be?

saturday.

It's Saturday. If you visited our house today, here's what you would find:

My good-looking husband painting our entry way.
Here's to an entry way that is all one color instead of the five colors it's been for the past year!
(Yes, I realize it's a really small space. And yes, there were five colors in that space.)

Me working on a five-page study guide for Legal Issues and Ethics in Counseling.
(What is transference and counter-transference? A gold star will be awarded if you know.)

And a puppy. Tuckered out from running around outside in the snow all morning.
(He sure does love the snow.)

Happy Weekend, from the Bergmans.
Whether you're home-improving, studying, or napping - we hope you're enjoying your Saturday as much as we are enjoying ours.