Yesterday was a very special day for me. Usually on Sunday mornings I'm very busy with singing and practicing and generally running around in my happy place. But yesterday was different. The youth took over church. Not really, but they did lead us in worship (oh, MY but we have an awesome youth band!) as well as served the Lord's supper.
For those of you who aren't familiar with that, it's the ordinance that we observe reminding us of the sacrifice Jesus made for us by giving his life for us. Only recently did I connect what Jesus said at the Last Supper to the sacrifice God told the children of Israel to do at the first Passover. But that's another post...
Back to our day. Since my Kiddo will be in 7th grade this year (WHAT??? This can't be happening!), he was asked to serve the Lord's supper with the other youth. Oh, how that made my heart happy! Seeing him standing there with his funny cafeteria-lady gloves on, handing out pieces of unleavened bread...it almost made me cry. I normally do during the Lord's supper, but I guess I was focused too much on Kiddo. He was supposed to say something like, "This represents the body of Christ, that was broken for you," and if he had, it would have been all over for me. He said he did during first service, but since the boy handing out the juice didn't say his part, he felt too much peer pressure to say it second service...sigh....anyway, it was enough that my son served me the Lord's supper.
Then, that afternoon, we had what we called iServe Volunteer Training, where we took people who were interested in serving ANYWHERE in the church, from nursery to technical stuff to greeting to missions to...well, you get the idea. We also gave people the opportunity to rehearse with the worship team and sing in a huge choir that evening in a celebration service. We included any and all youth who wanted to come, even if they weren't old enough to be in the adult choir. We will be having a youth choir every few months and wanted to let them know we value their gifts as much as the adults'.
Since Kiddo is now a youth (again...WHAT???), he wanted to be a part of that! He was excited (and not a little nervous!) to be learning a specific part for the first time. He can sing alto with his momma like nobody's business, but learning the tenor from someone other than his mom was going to be brand new, and he was almost sick with anticipation. But he persevered, and by the time the whole choir got together, he was still nervous about singing the right part, but he was up there with all the adults and the other youth.
At the time, I didn't have time to focus on the fact that my son was singing with the worship team that I was directing. But then, as the service started and we were singing great songs like "God of This City," and "O The Blood," it hit me...my son was singing in the worship team...I was directing that team, and my husband was helping run sound for that team. All three of us in the same ministry, doing different things, serving the Body of Christ.
And it was almost more than I could stand. I just stood there, with my hand raised in the air, huge smile on my face and tears streaming down my cheeks, thanking the Lord God that He saw fit to bring not only myself into this ministry of leading worship, but also my husband and son.
What grace He has poured on me!
If you'd like to read other stories of Grace Imparted, Richella at Imparting Grace would love for you to visit and even share your own story. I'd love for your to share a story in a comment on this post, as well!
In my last post, I recapped what's been going on with my health, and told you about having to go to the same cancer clinic Momma had gone to. Memories I just didn't want to revisit, even if I wasn't going there as a cancer patient.
I decided instead of dreading the visit, I’d make it therapeutic. I had wanted to do something special for the waiting room where Momma had spent so many hours. Since I don’t knit or crochet like my sister does (she is planning on making a blanket for the chemo room), I decided I would make a tassel for the waiting room. Just something pretty for people to look at and maybe take their minds off the waiting for a bit.
I realized that this trip was going to be a journey of sorts. The first one since Momma's death...and my heart was a mess.
But as I worked on the bird tassel, my heart became more focused on what I was doing for the people who are still where Momma was this time last year.
It became clear to me that if I focused on the hurt that place symbolized, I was going to stay a mess...but as the tassel took shape, I could see how beauty could come of it.
It got to the point where I was actually excited to be able to go and give this to Momma's doctor, one of the most well known and respected oncologists in the South, if not the country. I chose a bird because of the Wings Foundation volunteers...cancer survivors who come to the clinic and serve patients in the waiting room and chemo room. They are so precious, and Momma got to know several of them.
I wrote a card and stuck it in the bag with the tassel, explaining what it was and where they could hang it (I told them my preference would be one of the lamp switches in the waiting room). I meant to take the camera with me to take a picture of the finished product, but forgot in my anxiousness of the morning. Plus it was 6:00 a.m. when we left the house. I am not a morning person. Heh. I gave it to one of the ladies in the office who promised to get it to Dr. Tauer and his staff. She seemed as delighted to get it as I was delighted to give it.
Since I didn't take a picture, this is the inspiration tassel...I just put a pretty burgundy ribbon on the back instead of the champagne and brown ribbons in the picture.
I put one of my business cards on it with a little note on the back saying it was in memory of my beautiful mother. I hope they do hang it where others can see it and know her name.
Some good news that I just found out...my test results came back okay! I will have a follow-up visit on the 24th of August. I still don't know why my heart rate went up so high on the treadmill stress test, so I will discuss that with him.
Thank you all who have been praying for me. I cannot express my gratitude enough.
Hopefully my next post will be the third post about my craft room. When all these tests took over my life, I forgot where I was! :)
So many of you have asked about the tests I’ve had lately on my heart, so I thought this was the best way to fill everyone in...
For those of you who don’t know, I went to the doctor a few weeks ago to get checked out. I was feeling yucky and had been having some chest pains. I finally had enough and decided it was time to go. The doctor ran some tests and determined I was anemic and my thyroid was still out of whack. He still wanted me to go to the cardiologist to have him look more closely at my heart to make sure there wasn’t anything else going on.
I went to the cardiologist Monday a week ago. I had no idea I wouldn’t leave there before I had done the treadmill stress test (which was definitely STRESSFUL! My heart rate went up to 170 and I almost passed out!), had an echocardiogram, and walked out with a monitor hooked to me for 24 hours.
The echo test results were normal (praise Jesus!), and I haven’t heard back from the monitor test, but my treadmill test resulsts were “abnormal.” Of course, I’ve always known I’m abnormal! *snicker*
So, the doctor wanted me to have a CTA of the coronary, which is a CAT scan of my ateries, to see if I have a blockage anywhere.
The biggest problem I had with it...I would have to go have the test done at the cancer clinic where Momma was treated. The heart clinic and the cancer clinic are owned by the same group…I looked at the woman as she was telling me this and just said, “I DON’T WANT TO GO THERE.” But I knew I’d have to put on my big girl shoes (as my precious friend Dawn says) and just do it.
Tomorrow I’ll let you know how that went…I decided I wanted it to be therapeutic instead of dreading it.
We got there at 6:40 in the morning. I had had to take a pill to get my heart rate under 70 bpm. When they took my blood pressure and lab stuff, it was still 81. When I got back to the radiology department, they gave me more medicine through my i.v. and it still didn’t go down. I waited an hour and it still didn’t get down consistently below 70.
The doctor had told me if we couldn’t get it below 70 we would have to cancel the test. Well, THAT didn’t help my heart rate! But I knew if the Lord wanted me to have the test done, I’d have the test done. If not, then I wouldn’t. I tried to keep thinking about that instead of how upset I’d be if I didn’t get it done.
After a while, he finally decided to try it, hoping that once I lay down it would go down further. So, we went ahead and tried. After waiting a few minutes, they went ahead with the test…and it went fine! I don’t know the results yet, but will keep you posted.
I know so many people were praying for me…for the test, for having to go back to the cancer clinic…saying thank you just doesn’t sound like enough…but that’s all I can say. If you’ve prayed for me…thank you.
And keep praying! Until I know I’m out of the woods, keep praying! : )
In the fall of 2010, I was introduced to one of the coolest blogs around...the M.O.B. Society. In case you haven't heard of it, that would be Mothers of Boys. Since I are a mother of a boy, it was right up my alley.
Today we are hopping around the blog world of other M.O.B.'s, and if you're here from that par-tay, I'm excited to introduce myself to you!
I won't go into why I call myself "Heathahlee" because you can read that here, but I will tell you a bit more about myself and why I love the M.O.B. Society.
This is my Kiddo. He is our only kiddo, much to his dismay most of the time. He feels like we have deprived him by not having any siblings for him, but I try to tell him that we really didn't have much to do about that and that evidently the Lord knew he was enough for us to handle. Heh. He rolls his eyes. He's eleven...'nuff said.
We homeschool him, and it's as rewarding as it is challenging. He is an extremely bright boy who sometimes has to be pushed to do his best. I can't wait to see how God uses him as he matures. My Momma always said he was going to be the next Billy Graham. Hmm...don't know about that, but maybe the next Chris Tomlin! :) (He has a gorgeous singing voice and has a natural talent for the acoustic and bass guitars.)
My blog is about my life...the good, the bad, and the crafty! And I throw a homeschool post in the mix every once in a while. Along with my Kiddo, I talk about my husband....
(He ROCKS!)
my dog,
(Isn't he cute?)
my ministry,
(I'm the alto section leader of our choir and direct every other time we sing. I'm also on the Praise Team. I adore what I get to do each week!)
and my tassels. You can see more of them at my Etsy shop, Butterfly Genes. I lurve making, giving, and selling these pretty things for your home. 
Among other things like recipes, reading the Bible in 90 days (yes it can be done!), and other random stuff.
Brooke asked us to share what our sons' favorite books were, but that would take three forevers to put on here! I'm blessed to say that Kiddo is a reader. He will read almost anything you put in front of him, but his favorite authors are Chris Fabry (any of his young adult stuff!) and Frank Peretti (his youth fiction in particular, but he also loves This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness). He also loves The Chronicles of Narnia books. He also likes to read biographies, his favorites being C.S. Lewis's and Tony Dungy's. I know, two totally different people, but that's how my kid rolls.
I love being able to connect with other M.O.B.'s! To know that I'm not the only one who has a child who sometimes makes me crazy, but other times makes me want to hold on to him forever.
Thank you, Brooke and Erin, for creating this place for us boy moms to get encouragement, prayer, and laughter!
Yesterday I shared with you the beginnings of my new craft room. You can let your breath out now, 'cause I know you've been holding it until you could see the finished product. Or not.
Let me finish the story. I left you with my guys holding my hands and making me close my eyes. They led me to the guest room and then told me to open my eyes. Trust me when I say I screamed like they do on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And of course I cried. I loved it.
I looooooooooove the color. It looks different in almost every one of these pictures. It is the prettiest blue and I am in love with it (Thank you, Tonya!). But not more than I'm in love with my hard working men who worked ALL weekend to pull it off. For the longest time afterward, Kiddo would ask me every once in a while, "Do you really like it Mom?" And would ask me about specific areas that he had worked on..."What do you think about the baseboards, Mom?" No, they're not perfect but I wouldn't change a thing because my precious son did them.
Now, don't be expecting a Martha Stewart room. This room suits me just fine without being magazine worthy. And the pictures don't do it justice. So, without further ado...
My craft room! And...a dog tail. What can I say...everywhere I go I have a "helper"...
If he really wanted to help he'd get the vacuum out. Slacker.
You'd think I'd have cleaned up the room a little before inviting the world to see it. Nope. 'Cause that's how I roll. And because I was too tired to clean anything when I was taking these pics. Anyway, the above picture shows my craft table area. On the wall to the left my husband hung a rack so I can hang the things that seem to walk away (or get lost on the table) like my scissors, glue sticks, wire and wire cutters, and my awesome $40 pinking shears I got for $8 with a JoAnn's coupon.
And see that sign in the back? The "Tassel It" sign? A couple years ago The Nester decided she was pretty much done with tasseling and sold me most of her stash of fringe, toppers, ribbon, etc, etc. I was THRILLED to get it all...and in one of the boxes that came was that cute little sign.
Um...I really should dust more in there. Actually, I think that may be stray hot glue strands.... Anyway, Kiddo decided that it needed to go above the craft table. It reminds me to stay at it even when I'm discouraged. I love that kid.
Just to the left of the table is my ribbon dresser. Four drawers filled with nothing but ribbon. It's one of my happy places in that room. It looks a mess, but it's really organized. Each drawer has it's own color or combination of colors. Top, blacks, whites, browns; second, reds, pinks; third, blues, greens; and bottom, yellows, golds, and twine/string.
Just left of the dresser is my stash of fringe. This is another of my happy places. Oh, what pretty fringe I have in here! Some I had bought on my own, some was from the Nester stash, and ALL of it makes me smile. These are also in drawers according to color.You can see that on top of the fringe drawers I have a mishmash of stuff I use for decorating. The painted twigs I've used for Christmas parties (I love how those came about!), my Life to the Full plates (on sale now for 50% off! Woot!), and a few other little things that I'm just holding there because I know I'll need them later.
To the left of the drawers is my tassel grid. It's not very full right now but you can see how great this will be when Christmastime is here and I'm working my fingers to the bone (or burn, as it were. Heh). This is so much better than the set up we had before (If you click here you can see it in the first picture of the post).
Moving further left past the door, you can see my HUGE stash of toppers. More about that tomorrow (or maybe Monday). Please excuse the blurry picture, giant bear in the middle (he's a leftover from Christmas) and the very dusty, very old Singer sewing machine (I have no idea why that's sitting there).
And moving left past the closet, the bay window with my Mimmie's chair in it. And a giant snow-leopard-that-I-drew-and-pretend-it's-a-tiger. And some birds. Oh, those birds.
That Kimba. She started it. And they multiplied. But now they are manageable and will find new homes come Christmas. Right now the ones who are left are keeping my sewing machine company. Its table is still in the mud room waiting to be dug out. Poor baby.
So, there you have it. My own creative space. Thanks for sharing my joy.
Next post, I'll share about that huge stash of toppers. And give you a sneak peek at something I've been hinting about for a while. Stay tuned!
I have been taking forever to tell you about my "new" craft room. It's new to y'all, but it's been finished since the first weekend in April. And it was a surprise.
Let me give you a little bit of background for this room. It was our guest room for as long as we've been in the house...15 years. Here's a memory that I will treasure from this room:
This is Kiddo reading to our brand new puppy Jonathan in 2008. He was in this room because he and Sound Man were still working on his loft bed. He was afraid Jonathan would get lonely without his brother and also wanted to make sure he got to know his voice. You can see in J's crate he's curled up asleep...I think Kiddo had a perfect idea.
Now who's curled up asleep? : )
We've had several guests in this room, but the one person who spent the most time here was Momma. This was her room no matter when she came up here. When I was on bed rest for three months (pregnant with Kiddo), she would come and stay for days at a time to wash clothes and clean the house. Then, after she got sick the first time, she stayed with me so I could take her for her radiation treatments. And as her days came to a close, she was here with me. As I remember the good memories, the bad ones come as well. This was the room Momma left earth to meet Jesus face to face.
It was time for a change.
So, Sound Man and I started talking about moving out all the junk that somehow had accumulated over the few months since Momma's death. But we never really acted on it. It was a little overwhelming for me to think about.
After I saw a post by Tonya at Love of Family & Home, I fell in love with a blue color she had used as an accent color in her kitchen. I commented about how much I loved it and she sent me a paint chip in the mail since it was from a smaller home-improvement store and wasn't sure I'd be able to find the right color. When I got it I couldn't wait to get working on some stuff (which still hasn't happened...at least not finished products), but retreat was looming and all my thoughts were focused on that.
My husband had casually asked me what color I wanted to paint the guest room, and I said I would love to see it painted that gorgeous blue. I wasn't sure what he was up to, but I made sure he knew where the paint chip was before I left for the weekend.
When I got home on Sunday, my men stopped me in the hallway and made me close my eyes, then took me by the hand...
And I'll show you what they showed me tomorrow! ; )
But first, here's some "before" and "during" pictures that Sound Man took with his phone since I had the camera at retreat! : )
When we moved in 15 years ago, I LOVED this wallpaper. Not so much now. 
See that rectangle on the wall? We live in a high tech house, let me tell you! intercom system/radio throughout the house! Oh yeah, baby! Trust me, this was the height of home technology in the 60's! And the system still works! We love blasting KLove throughout the house!
Since the wallpaper was still in great condition and didn't have any noticeable seams in it, he just painted right on top of it. We had already talked about this and I for sure wasn't going to peel all that wallpaper off!
Kiddo working on the room. He was so precious when I came home, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow.
I love my bay window!
Sound man built a grid with the same stuff I had my tassels hanging from originally.
A view from the door. That window lets in so much light! That chair was my Mimmie's and 
is still in there because I don't know where to put it. It's holding more stuff that I don't know where to put. Heh.Tomorrow I'll share my new room with you.
See the rest of the story...
It's Tuesday again! Which means it's Tassel Tuesday! Yippee!!! Okay, maybe it doesn't make you jump for joy when I show off one of my tassels, but it makes my heart happy. So, here you go.
This week's tassel just makes me long for the beach. With 100+ temps outside, I would LOVE to be at the beach right now. Even if it's hot, you can take a dip in the water, whether in the Gulf or just the hotel pool. Aahhhhh...
Oh, sorry...where was I? Oh, yeah...the beach. Well, I don't know of any lighthouses at the beach I normally frequent (which is not frequent enough, let me tell you), but this tassel still invokes thoughts of the coast.
I love the little details of this lighthouse. 
I love that little staircase and little house where the lighthouse keeper lives. Or would live if this weren't a minuscule model of a real lighthouse. Work with me, people.
The greens and golds don't overpower the neutrality of this tassel, and would work in just about any decor style.
I have over a dozen lighthouses in different styles, so if this isn't the one for you, I'd love to do a custom tassel for you! Of course, I can do a custom tassel for you no matter what topper you'd like.
A couple of years ago,The Nester decided she was getting out of the tassel business, at least for a while, and she sold me her ginormous stash of toppers, fringe, and ribbon, so I have plenty of stuff to work with. I'd love to work with you on whatever idea you have. You can email me at butterflygenes(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Or visit my Etsy shop and if you like something there, you can grab it or let me know if you'd like something similar.
And, like I say every week, repeat customers get free shipping! So if you buy something now, you won't pay shipping when you're buying gifts this Christmas! A definite money saver!
