Christmas Decor at the Brooks Household

So, it has been a busy while. Since my last post we've been in the process of redoing one of our bathrooms, working working all the time, celebrating thanksgiving with family, and wrapping presents like crazy. Much has happened, yet I haven't felt there has been much to blog about, though I am excited to share my bathroom with you once it is completed.

Usually by the first week in December I am basically finished with Christmas shopping, but this year has been a whole new ballgame. I still have yet to receive many presents in the mail, but I think they are at least all bought by now. I think. I didn't do much DIY-ing this christmas, but I will be happy to share with you all our Christmas home this year.

From our first year of marriage we have gone for a white tree, though our first one was only about 2 feet tall :) Now we have graduated to a 6 foot pre-lit tree.

Our first tree, isn't it cute! 

I don't think you can really go wrong with a Christmas tree, but there is something about the white lights with the white tree that appears so etherial and captivating to me. I also like how colorful ornaments really pop on the white tree as well. We go for the look of mix-matched ornaments rather than a themed tree. I think it's a little more personal when every ornament has a little story.

Above: This ornament was one my in-laws brought us back from their cruise to Jamaica.
Below: Our alien ornament was one of the first ornaments I didn't buy at a thrift store. I can tell through the blogosphere that you are jealous.  The 3 wise men beside it was one of Josh's favorites on his mom's tree growing up.

 This embroidered Mary and baby Jesus was made for me by my mom. When I was growing up, she had a full nativity scene that she made in High school. My sister and I expressed one year how much we loved them, and now we receive a few handmade pieces from the nativity each year.

I bought these shadow boxes at our Alco (RIP Alco :( ) a few months back, not really sure what I wanted to put in them. I decided to make them a piece that I can change out with each season. I used Christmas printables that I found off of Pinterest glued onto a thin sheet of foam, glued onto scrapbook paper and embellished with random baubles I've found at thrift stores. Here are the ones I made for Fall:

I'm not particularly fond of this retro light fixture, but for now I decided to dress it up for Christmas. I had seen versions of this on Pinterest (of course) and had some snowy branches I wasn't sure what to do with- thus, this light accessory was birthed. 

Once again, I had all of these little wooden ornaments that I collected from the thrift store. For some reason I find them adorable, so I was happy to find a unique way to display them. 

We don't have a fireplace mantle to decorate so I make pretend like our TV and entertainment center is the same thing.

I made this banner using this printable, scrapbook paper, and ric rac... that I probably got a thrift store...

We haven't reached the Christmas decorating expanse that say my mother and father have (6 christmas trees people!), but I think it all comes together nicely! I have fond memories of not just looking at decorations, but doing the decorating for the Christmas season with my family. I remember my sister and I would argue about who got to put up the Christmas village and who got to do the nativity scene. I love that I now have those memories with my husband as we argue about who gets to hang which ornament (hehe) and I'm excited to make those memories with my future chillens. 

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas tour of our home and are enjoying this holiday season! 

In His hug, 

Molly

P.S. - Patch's favorite Christmas decor is the tree too, it's the perfect spot to sleep under. She has also taken up a part time job as an elf for Santa this year. Here she is to show off her uniform. 

These are a Few of My Favorite Things: Fall Break

Next week is the infamous fall break! For some, it means a break from school. For my family, it means campfires, fishing, s'mores, frito chili pie, and lots of board games. Since I can remember my mom's side of the family has gathered at some lake in our campers and tents to spend the break together. When I was in middle school I would often extend my fall break and skip school on Wednesday so I could go early. With my parent's permission. Obviously.

A lot of my grandparents friends would join as well (in truth they started it and my family just joined in). Myself and the other grandkids would ride our bikes around the lake exploring and then return to someone's camper for trail mix and a juvenile poker game. It was awesome. And it still is awesome.

Sure, we've skipped a few years here and there, but magically I somehow managed to be off work for fall break in my first year as a working girl. God knew I desperately needed fall break. Thank you, God!

I think I'm progressively looking cooler in these pictures. 

We started out going to Canton Lake every year. One of my favorite things to do was to go into Canton with my Grandma and go in all of the little stores and buy useless things. I remember specifically buying one of those little velveteen bears that matches your birthstone and one of those add water and it grows into a larger dinosaur and claiming it was basically the same as catching another fish.

Miracles always happen over fall break. One being the time I caught to fish on my fishing pole whilst sleeping in the back of the boat. Another being the many times someone had to be rescued from a sinking boat, but I won't go into those stories. One more was the time a friend and I thought we discovered the longest snake ever on a beach where the water had collected from the lake being low. We hurried back to show our families our discovery only to bring them and discover that the water was just full of walleye's that had gotten trapped there when the water went out.

The past couple of years we've had to congregate to different lakes because of the tornado that went through Canton. This year we are gathering at Ft. Supply and sad about the family members that can't join, they will be greatly missed.  Now who will bring the peep's for roasting?

I love s'mores. I love to spend those days in jeans and sweat shirts. I wierdly love the memories of washing off the day in the communal showers with a bunch of spiders. I love the smell of campfire smoke with a cold nose. I love the feeling of being all snuggled up in a tent while being aware of how cold it will be when you take your blankets off. I love walking along the lake shore to see what oddities you can discover. A dead fish was always a score as a kid. I love that Josh now partakes in this tradition with me. And by the way, I love getting to spend that time with family. I LOVE FALL BREAK. 

In His hug,

Molly

Have I Told You About the Time I walked on Water?

If you follow me on Facebook at all or even reading my last couple of blogs, I think it is pretty evident that God has been a-workin on my faith life. My husband and I have discussed it lots and just how growing up, sure it was easy to talk about how "you just got to have faith, man! God will get you through this if your just obedient with Him!" And while all of that is all well and good and I really do believe that with all of my heart, it is much harder to put that into practice when real struggles actually occur and your faced with real decisions with real possible consequences, I have found.

The hard truth to swallow is, that while God WILL get you through it and He DOES work all things together for our good, it may not be at all how we thought the good was supposed to be. It may take years to "get through it". It may take years to "see the good" or to look back and see what the good even was. It may not have even really been for your good, (besides reaping the heavenly benefits and feeling the joy that comes with obedience) it may have been for the good of His kingdom which is ultimately for your good. Confused yet?

Most people know the story of Jesus walking on water, and then His disciple, Peter, also walking on the water out to meet Him. If you don't know the story, read Matthew 14:22-33 (if you don't have a Bible you can very easily google it).

When I was little, I imagine a toddler to five-ish year old, I learned this story and thought to myself, "hey! I really believe in Jesus and I really believe he can do anything and I can do anything with Him!"
So I decided to give this a try in my bathtub. I would start out by standing on the sides, saying, "I have faith Jesus that I can walk on water", and then taking a step. I knew I couldn't just half do it or that wasn't really faith. And what do you know, I could walk on water!

...

Obviously, that's not what happened. I will let you envision little curly headed Molly taking a plunge into the bathtub for yourself. However, falling on my hiney never made me question God's abilities or He, Himself. In fact, I tried it several times, each time giggling at myself and picturing Jesus laughing too.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, don't be discouraged when a faith filled intention doesn't exactly turn out like you thought it would or thought it should. God has a plan in everything and sometimes living by Faith is not just living out in obedience, but also accepting the outcome, that that wasn't God's intentions for you or for His kingdom.

I remember questioning my own faith. Maybe I really didn't believe that Jesus could do it through me. If I just believed better I probably could've walked on water. In my bathtub.

But the truth is, it just wasn't in God's eternal plan for me to reach the world by walking across my sudsy bathtub water, as cool as I still think it would have been. It's not that he couldn't have done it, or that I didn't have enough faith. It's just that sometimes having a strong faith in God's will for your life, is also having faith that slipping and falling on your hiney was part of His plan all along, when all you wanted to do was walk on the water.

Let me take this moment to reiterate-hello! Being a Christ-follower is really hard ! But, when you do finally see what the good was, and see a little glimpse of God's imaculate plan, it's completely worth it. That's another thing you just have to have faith on!

I hope these posts have been more encouraging, than discouraging. Sometimes it's equally hard to spit out the hard truths of Christianity than to sugar coat things. (On another topic) that's why it's so important to spend daily time with God as well as to refresh yourself by spending time with your church family, and if you don't have one, find one! Tomorrow is a great place to start!

Jesus said, "in this world you WILL have trouble,  but take heart! I have overcome the world!"
-John 16:33

In His hug,
Molly

Purple and Orange Kitty-Cat Tigers

This week I helped lead music at our church's VBS (Discover, decide, defend!). I can't help but laugh at all the silly things that little kids do and say. I miss having that innocence and imagination, which is probably why I strive to hold onto it through hours of Disney movie watching and taking advantage of bouncy houses as a 22 year old. I deeply regret not taking Peter Pan up on his offer to stay in Neverland and to never grow up.

When I was little, I was obsessed with the colors orange and purple. I mean what better of a color combination is there? And on top of that, I was obsessed with Tigers. Thus the purple and orange kitty-cat tiger was created in my little imagination. I talked about it all the time, colored them on everything, my mom even made me a purple and orange quilt for my dolls.

 

Because of this obsession I began praying to God that He would send a momma tiger to leave it's baby tiger in the tree in our backyard. I'm not sure why I thought that a momma tiger abandoning her cub was such a good idea, but I just knew that I would be such a good caretaker of it. Though this obviously never happened, I continued to pray and really and truly believed that someday it would happen.

I wanted this to be my life, but with tigers...

Now I am aware of all of these conservatories (this link is to one in the great state of OK) that let you come and play and pet baby animals INCLUDING baby tigers. I am still waiting on someone to gift me with this (hint, hint).

What were some funny things that you thought of as a child? What are some funny things your kids do?

 In His hug,

Molly