Home Sanctuary

June Points!

I've gotta tell you, I did not expect to be tallying points from a hotel room in west Texas, but here I am.  Our graphics installation is taking longer than we anticipated and so our stay is being extended.  I've never spent much time in this part of the country but it is fascinating.  This town of Big Spring has gone from a booming stop between Dallas and El Paso Texas to a depressed ghost town when industry and a military base left in the 1980's.  The population literally was cut by 50% almost overnight.  But thanks to people like Clint and Kami Collins at Life Church, there seems to be new life coming back to this dusty town. Shadows of its hey day are beginning to come back.

Life Church purchased the old high school and is renovating it into a church campus. 

The sanctuary will be in the old gymnasium (which was built after this photo was taken) and the transformation is almost complete.  This week, the finishing touches will be put on the gym so that their first Sunday service can be held on July 6.  We have designed HUGE graphics that will cover 3 entire walls with images and scripture that brings their vision to life.  We've taken a ton of pictures of our progress, but I don't have any way to upload them until I get home.  I can't wait to show you all what we're working on!

Here's a photo a friend took with her iphone.

One panel up, 47 to go...

In the meantime, Tom and G.T. (14) and I will be working 12-14 hour days to try and get this all done before the grand opening.  One slight snag in our plan could be that there are no hotel rooms available after tonight....and we don't know where we will be staying.  Would you mind saying a prayer that we will find something without traveling an hour down the road to Midland every night?  At the end of a long day, we're pooped and need REST.

Now, enough chit chat!  It's time to talk about point tallies for the month of June.  I'm astounded that we've gone through 6 months of Small Things already.  I'll admit that I'm not as organized as I'd like to be yet, but I love the way getting a Small Thing done each day just buoys my spirits!  YES!  I'm NOT a loser!  I'm making progress every day and it's just wonderful to have you girls along with me.  Thank you so much for being a part of my life and for the encouragement you give me to keep pressing on.

Today's Small Thing is a TWO-STEP process:

1.  Email me your point tally privately.  My link is in the upper left hand corner of this site.  Even if you aren't keeping track of points but you've participated at least 5 times, go ahead and email me so I can enter you in the random drawing.l

2.  Leave a comment letting us know what your favorite Small Thing was or how doing them is helping you create your own Home Sanctuary.  I love to hear what you enjoyed the most and it get my little brain a-working toward more fun things in the future.  And I want anyone who is just thinking about joining in to be encouraged to go ahead and take the plunge! 

POINTS: 30 points for the two steps, to go toward your May score.

PS  If you had trouble accessing my site this month and weren't able to do the Small Things on the assigned days but caught up somewhere along the way, go ahead and count those points.

PPS  If you are a new Company Girl and haven't gotten an email from me, please forgive my slowness. This crazy project is really crimping my blogging/emailing style and I am SOOOO behind.  Please consider yourself a Company Girl, put the button on your blog if you have one and start earning you some points!

Don't forget to turn in your points on Monday!

Can you believe that June has flown by?  Monday will be the last day of the month, and the day to tally up those points if you've been keeping track!  You could get a jump start on Monday's Small Thing by adding them up early....just like I wrote about in today's post!  Oh, I love how things dovetail sometimes.

And I am still out of town on the "remote" job site and am behind in responding to emails and new Company Girl requests.  Please bear with me until I get back to real life next week!  I hate to not answer emails but I don't have internet access during the day.  I'll catch up soon...Have a great weekend!

Rachel Anne

Mis en Place

I stopped in at a new client's house one Thursday evening to discuss a faux finish in her dining room.  She came to the door, wiping her hands on an apron and apologizing for the mess in her kitchen.  I stepped inside and surveyed the "mess" she was describing.

Lovely, fresh food was being washed and prepared...piles of colorful vegetables, cooking ingredients and glass bowls of all sizes met my eyes.  On the stove simmered something that smelled wonderful.  My client's husband was shelling shrimp over the sink.

"We're having a dinner party," she explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to have come at a bad time!" I said, and turned to leave.

"No, no.  The dinner party is on Saturday so you are fine," she reassured me.

"But it's only Thursday!  Wow!  You really get prepared early!"  I thought of my own hastily thrown together dinner parties and how many times I'd just be getting home from the grocery store an hour before my guests were to arrive.

"Oh, it's just a little something I learned in culinary school," she shrugged as if it were nothing.  "It's called "mis en place," and it means you get everything assembled ahead of time so when you start to cook, it goes quickly and easily!"

Mis en place!  The term I've been searching for all my life!  I sped home and immediately looked it up.  Pronounced "meez on plas," it literally means "put in place."  

With mis en place, Recipes are reviewed, to check for necessary ingredients and equipment.Ingredients are measured out, washed, chopped and placed in individual bowls. Equipment such as spatulas and blenders are prepared for use, while ovens are preheated. Preparing the mis en place ahead of time allows the chef to cook without having to stop and assemble items, which is desirable in recipes with time constraints.

Since then I've tried to incorporated the concept of "mis en place" into my cooking habits and in many other areas of life as well.  It's amazing how much easier it is to accomplish tasks when you don't have to stop down to look for a tool or find an ingredient.  Having things assembled beforehand makes me feel organized and efficient.  I like the way that feels.

Do you use mis en place?  Maybe you do without even knowing you were so high falutin'!  You've been all "French cuisin-ey" and you just thought you were naturally organized!  Or is it something you could start to incorporate into your everyday life?  

Today's Small Thing is to take your level of classiness up a notch and learn a new French term, "mis en place."  I try and say it with the correct accent so I sound just as classy as I feel. "Meez on plas." Do you have a task that requires several steps and many tools or ingredients?  Try getting everything ready and assembled before you begin and see if you aren't the most clever thing around!  

POINTS:  40 for finding a way to use "mis en place" in a task

BONUS: 10 for impressing someone with your newly acquired French vocabulary...share your new term and enjoy your heightened mystique.

More than just a great band name

My daughters have been in a couple of bands, made up of talented young people who just love to play and perform.  It's been fun to see them perform (mostly for youth groups) and grow in their skills. I could listen to those girls sing all day long and never get tired of it.

I remember several discussions of band names and how all the good ones are all taken.

"Just Google any name you think is cool and you'll see it's already gone!" they would say.  Their bands had names like Morning Side Drive and Rayleen, chosen mostly for their availability.

I always insisted that the best band name was as close as their pockets.

Loose Change.

I don't understand why they always rolled their eyes at me when I suggested it.  C'mon, people!  Don't you get it??

Loose!  CHANGE!!

It sums up what every band is about....but I was always alone in my love of that band name.  

Well, loose change is what I found in every. single. drawer I opened in search of my missing ipod while getting ready for this trip to Big Spring.  My goodness!  Imagine if we actually used cash instead of checks and debit cards all the time....we'd have MOUNTAINS of loose change.

Today's Small Thing is to gather up loose change around the house.  You might find that coinage is lurking under sofa cushions, in jelly jars, on dresser tops, inside socks (yes, someone at our house has a sock "purse" for change), and in the cup holder in your car.  In this economy, you never know when you will need every last penny to buy a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread.

I'm going to take my change to one of those machines that you dump it all in and for a little fee you get actual dollars back.  I don't even want to guess the amount, but I'm thinking it might pay for a small car.  I could use one of those.

POINTS:  40 for handling the coins today

An Out of Town Small Thing....

Hi Girls!

I'm out of town today and didn't plan this very well!  I thought I'd have more time once we got to our hotel but we are pressed for time to get to our job site.  Argh!  

So I don't have a Small Thing "prepared" for you today!

But I'll bet you have a thousand Small Things you could do from your own list...so for now, how about if you take JUST ONE THING and make that your Small Thing??

It can be something easy or fun, OR something you've been putting off for awhile.  Don't think too hard, just jump in and get 'er done!

I'll check back in late tonight and get my act together for tomorrow!

Love to you all,

Rachel Anne

Frame It

The Small Thing for today is something really, really easy.  You hardly have to do anything at all to earn your points.  No heavy lifting, no breaking a sweat....it's a perfect little job for a Tuesday.

Today's Small Thing is to dust the picture frames in your house.  The ones on the walls are the most easily missed and you might be surprised at the amount of dust that settles on them.  You can take a soft cloth and wipe them down, or use a feather duster or even a vacuum attachment to remove the dust.  Just get them looking spiffy and your home will start to sparkle!  Easy.

POINTS: 30 for getting framed today

FREE Company Girl Points!

How about some FREE points today?  Right off the top of the morning, you get to have 50 points (that's 5 of these cute coupons!)  Yippee!  WOO HOO! Hurray!

But wait, there's a catch.

The free points are part of a game we're going to play today and I hope you'll join in with me.

The foundation of any home sanctuary is an atmosphere of peace.  But peace evaporates when there are attitudes of discontent and grumbling...two of the most common pitfalls in family life.  Children are very adept at finding the glass half empty and it can really wear you down when nothing seems to meet their level of satisfaction.  They're natural connoisseurs of excellent service and perfect appointments of things like drinking out of the red cup, not the blue cup, having their cereal bowls filled to the exact height and eating sandwiches that are cut into triangles, not squares.  Of course, that takes years to work out some of those demanding behaviors (because they ARE unacceptable, after all), but I've noticed a real trickle-down effect that starts with my own attitudes.

I find myself grumbling and complaining about things throughout my day.  Sometimes it is done inwardly, but often it spills out of my mouth and into my home.  I don't really mean anything by it, and sometimes it's just part of a conversation, but it starts to affect the atmosphere around here and I can see it reflected in my children.  It takes a conscious effort to speak positive things and leave the negative complaints alone.  I have to adjust my own attitudes first.  And then consistently help my children see the glass half full.

Today's Small Thing is to start the day with 5 coupons for 10 points each.  Print off this Download Points coupons5 if you want to make it a "real" game.  For each verbal complaint or negative comment you make, deduct 10 points (1 coupon).  The challenge is to try and hang on to all your points!  Sometimes just being aware of what comes out of my mouth is enough to help me speak positively throughout the day.

POINTS: 50!  Keep 'em all if you can!

Just for fun: try this game with your kids.  Print off 5 coupons per child and see how long they can hang on to them.  If you have Company Boys, here's one just for them:

This Little Piggy

Now that I've shed my tennis shoes for sandals and flip flops, I'm glad that I spent 10 months growing out my damaged toenails.  I don't know if I had a fungus or not, but my toenails were looking weird and I thought I ought to go without polish on them for most of the year to let them breathe.  It was tough on my feminine soul, but I gritted my teeth and resisted the temptation to cover them up.  Remember the cause...remember the cause....

I simply HAD to put a sheer coat of pale color on them before my big romantic anniversary.  I then slapped some lotion on my feet and called 'er done.  In the flurry of the past few weeks (months) I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to my feet, but I've suddenly realized that summer feet are hard to maintain.

Mercy!  My feet look like HOBBIT feet!

Today's Small Thing is going to be a challenge for some of us martyrs who struggle to do nice things for ourselves.  I often feel I need permission to take a little bit of time or spend a little bit of money on frivolous things like lotion and nail polish.  Well, I'm all for self sacrifice and serving others, but this Hobbit foot problem is beginning to hinder my ability to think of anything other than how I can hide them.

"No!  I can't make your dinner because my feet are HIDEOUS!"

Whether you are a sandal wearer or keep your tootsies covered up all year long, I'll bet that those peds could use a little bit of attention today.  Somehow just knowing that your feet are as cute as buttons will make you feel like giving and serving and cheerfully loving your family today. 

I hereby give you permission to do Today's Small Thing, which is to pamper your feet today.  You could give yourself a home pedicure, polish your toenails, get someone to rub them or just put them up for a little while.  It doesn't have to be a long soak or expensive professional pedicure, but just do a small SOMETHING for those feet that work so hard to move you around all day.

I've only had two professional pedicures in my life (once for a Mother's Day gift and once for my daughter's wedding.)  But these Hobbit feet are so far gone that I think they require professional help.  I'm going to take my daughter to get a real deal pedicure today, but just so you know.....

I'm doing it for the family.

POINTS: 40 for a bit of foot-pampering!  Hey, Momma deserves some of her own Sanctuary treatment!

Fresh Water

I've been thinking a lot about water lately.  The project we are working on right now is with a church in Big Spring, Texas, and our theme is all about water.  We're creating an atmosphere that speaks of refreshing, living water in a dry and dusty place and we're doing it through graphics, paint colors and even carpet choices.  It is so exciting to see it start coming together!

I began researching references to water in the Bible at the beginning of the project.  My eyes immediately went to Revelation 22:1-5, which is a description of a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God.  It courses down the center of the main street and on each side of the river grows a tree of life, bearing fresh crops each month.  The verse says that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  What a sumptuous description!  It was the spring board for our theme.

We began collecting photos of water.  Trees.  Leaves.  Streams.  Rivers.  Waves. Ripples. I tell you, if you start looking at pictures of water you start getting very thirsty.  I've drunk more water in the last few weeks than I have in my whole life.  I just can't get enough.

It's like the more I see it, the more I want it.

That's the mood we want to create for this church.  Jesus explained something about living water to a lady at a well who was living a pretty rough life.  "People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water," He said as He motioned to the well.  "But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether.  It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life."

He was telling her that the only thing that can quench our spiritual thirst is found in Him.  And the more you see of Him, the more you want of Him.  Jesus used water as the perfect illustration for a spiritual truth.  Just like our bodies can't live without water to drink, our spirits within us can't live without "drinking deeply" of Jesus.

Today's Small Thing is all about water.  Think about the water you drink.  We don't buy bottled water very often, because we have filtered water in our fridge.  I can't remember the last time I changed the filter, but I'm sure it's been too long.  Before we got this fridge, we used a Brita jug with filter cartridges.  I changed those pretty often, but probably not as often as I should have.  You really can tell a difference in the taste of cleaner water.

Do anything with water today.  Drink your recommended 8 glasses.  Or change your water filter.  Or clean out your water jug.  Or rinse your water glasses with vinegar so they sparkle.  Play in water if you want.  Meditate on water.  Find verses that talk about water!  If you look at your day, you'll probably know which activity will work for you.  Most importantly, have fun with it.

POINTS: 40 for doing something with water

BONUS: 20 for getting someone else to join in some water activity with you

What are you doing with water today?

Cool Customer

There's one appliance in your home that's just cooler than the rest.  With an air of indifference and and ability to compartmentalize his feelings, he stands tall yet slightly square in the world of electric household devices.  He lights up as he opens up to new friendships and he gladly takes whatever is given to him.  His crisp drawers and his slick exterior give you the impression that he's cold hearted, but the truth is coiled up where no one can really see what really makes him run.  He'd give all the condiments in the world to let you know how much he appreciates being right in the middle of your family life, tirelessly serving in that aloof manner you've come to love.

Of course I'm speaking of your refrigerator.

I was talking on the phone in my kitchen yesterday, and my eyes wandered over to that strong, silent appliance I'm so dependent upon.  He's a white boy, but in his soul I do believe he'd rather be an appliance of color.  Stainless would be his first choice because it's just so....cool, but I think he's rather jealous of my Harvest Gold oven because of its 60's James Dean aura.  But he doesn't let it get him down, he just keeps humming along, hanging out with the milk jugs and butter sticks.  He's a good influence on the fruit and vegetables and really keeps them from going bad.  I appreciate that because there's nothing worse than a bad apple to spoil the whole bunch.

You've got to hand it to a guy who takes abuse all day long and then lets children decorate him with neon letters without complaining.  The grocery lists and photos of family friends that hang off his face cause him some embarrassment, but he's pretty proud of the children's artwork that he gets to hold.  He just wishes you'd respect him enough to remove the old magnetic calendars from 2004 and give his shoulders and head a good rub down every now and then. 

But he'd never tell you that, because he's too cool.

Today's Small Thing is to tidy up the outside of your refrigerator.  If you have photos that are curled up and falling off, maybe there is another place to display them.  I personally like a clean cut look on my guy, but I know that some of you prefer the rugged look that only a couple dozen magnets can give.  Regardless of your fridge's fashion preference, spruce up his look by giving him a nice wipe down with a damp cloth, paying attention to the handles and top.  Since I'm too short to see the mess that collects up top, that's an area I forget to clean.

POINTS: 50 for giving your fridge's outside a good cleaning...but don't expect a big show of gratitude in return.  Cool gadgets like refrigerators don't wear their hearts on their sleeves.  They'll just stand a little taller and act like they don't care.  But they do.  Oh, they do.