Such a Time as This!

Good Monday.......I mean Tuesday!!  Boy, that's going to take all day to get used to!! LOL  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!  For some, the last trip of the summer with the kiddos before school starting.  Here, where I live, school had already started, so we couldn't take days off to go anywhere in particular, but we did have a nice weekend with Monday off from our labors to enjoy.

Today I want to share a journal page spread with you that had been on my mind.  As we get older, time seems to march on and on.  Especially when I look at my girls. I know they will be gone before I know it and I want to savor the moments all I can.  Sometimes I get too busy being busy that I forget to spend those moments with them that I should.  My youngest, being so in tune to everything around her, will remind me from time to time, "mom, do that later, lets have mommy/daughter time!"  Boy, if that's not a wake up call! So, my page today is to remind me of how precious life's moments are and how we should collect and cherish them and hold them dear to our hearts!

I started this page with Dylusions sprays in Squeezed Orange and Lemon Zest.  I added some Distress Stain in Vintage Photo on the outside.  I then put some Liquitex Gloss Gel through Jaime Echt's Numerals (TCW200) stencil and because I am impatient, hit it with my heat gun!  I then took some Distress paint in Peeled Paint through Dyan Reaveley's stencil Dotted Flowers. I also took Dyan's stencil with a baby wipe and lifted some spray through the dots, just to add a little something else to it.  I then took some more Dylusions in Post Box Red and watered it down and dripped it down the page along with some splatters here and there. 

I had a stamp in my stash that I knew I wanted to use from Lost Cost Designs (if you've never checked out Lost Cost Designs, I encourage you to. They have great stamps!) so I stamped it on regular 110# card stock with Staz-On.  The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to do more with it, so I beheaded the poor gal and placed her head on a clock face from one of Tim Holtz's emphemera packs. I colored her head and body using my Staedtler colored pencils and stamped a Unity Stamp "moments" on some card stock and sprayed it with the Dylusions Squeezed Orange and finished all those pieces with Distress Ink in Vintage photo.  I also added some Tim Holtz tissue tape and then adhered them all to the page with mod podge.

On the opposite page, I took a one of Tim's tags and covered it with his tissue paper and then sprayed it lightly with Dylusions Post Box Red.  I wanted to make sure the word "memory" stood out so I went back over it with my black pen and then still wanted more texture on the tag, so I put the same Distress Paint in Peeled Paint through my Tim Holtz Burlap Layering Stencil. I then took a another sentiment stamp from Unity Stamps and stamped on card stock, cut it down and added the same Dylusions Squeezed Orange spray to it.  Finally I used some more emphemera and distressed them all with Vintage Photo and adhered to the page with mod podge.  I shadowed all with one of my fave's, Faber-Castell's Big Brush Pen in Nougat. At this point I still felt like it needed a little more so I added touches of color here and there with Inka Gold Greenyellow through Rebekah Meier's Mini Specimens stencil (TCW 454) and put a final spritz of Heidi Swapp's Chartreuse on top! Tada!

Time is so precious and I think I did this page more for me to remind myself that's it's ok to let that laundry go for a bit or it's ok that that dish is in the sink.  My OCD cries "NO!" but my spirit says you have been purposed "for such a time as this!" (Esther 4:14)  Esther was definitely purposed for that time in history and made such an impact for the Kingdom!  Just think if she had not obeyed the Holy Spirit and His call on her life.  Laundry and dishes aren't so impactful, but my children are!  I was purposed for this time and so were they!  I want to be just as obedient to the Holy Spirit for this time on earth and collect ALL those moments and keep them precious and near to my heart.  I want to make sure my children look upon them in the same way and in the future will look back upon them with the same fondness!  These moments are "fixed or definite" periods in time, they are kairos moments!  We need to always be available and ready in kairos moments to hear the Holy Spirit and obey His nudges!  Those moments are making an impact in the kingdom!  I'm getting better at it, but I want to be even better!  What about you?

Be blessed as you grab a hold of supreme moments of lasting importance in your life!  Have a great day!