Room tour

Yay!! I have finally decided to redo the carpeting and walls in my bedroom. In this post I will share photos of my room how it used to be; later I will follow up with updated photos.

A little bit of history...
My mom grew up in the house our family is currently living in. My mom's father built the house about 45 years ago. When we bought it ten years ago, very few things were "updated". Everything was very nice, but it surly wasn't up to date. The linoleum in the main entry and the main floor hallways, the carpet in the kitchen, the never ending wall paper, and the wood paneling in the basement all proved that. We have done many things to improve the aesthetic of the house. We removed the wallpaper, linoleum, and carpeting in the kitchen from the pain floor. We've painted the paneling in the basement, and the main floor hall that lead to upstairs.
When you walk up the stairs to the second level, there are four bedrooms and two full bathrooms. all the rooms are actually really nice, with at least 2 closets. My room is the one that has been most recently updated. New carpet, clutter free, and new paint on the walls and desk.
Before I redid everything, it wasn't a horrible room. Actually, since I put so much time into it, It looked pretty great. But now I'm even happier with it.



This is a before picture... looking back on it, I can't believe how small the room feels. In this picture, you can see the desk (which was garbage picked, it only had that spot on the top), the bed (which I received through inheritance), my little feature frame wall, and my "art" above the bed (which was made out of a dress). So, as I mentioned, the desk was a garbage treasure! A house down the street from me had an estate sale, and I walked through the house and didn't find anything that I felt like I needed. But, come the next garbage day, this beautiful desk was on the side of the road. The hardware was actually what grabbed my attention, but the desk ended up being great, since I had just sold my old one.

Gotta love auto focus, which thought I was taking a picture of the tree through the window... But you get the idea. All these frames (plus more) were "rescued" from thrift stores, attics, and estate sales. The top one, I found in the attic of our shed at our vacation home. Just sanded it and stained that one. The green one under that was a thrift treasure, I'm pretty sure I paid 25 cents for that along with the one next to it. The big one at the bottom was 75 cents from a thrift store, and the white-ish one was also from the shed attic. The things inside of the frames are all random things I found around my room. I discovered I had a lot of R's so I hung those up, the stick frame, is getting more sticks eventually, and the bottom right frame will have some kind of "native American" feeling. I'm going to hang feathers and shells and other old things. The top frame just had a dollar store sticker in it that said, "with God all things are possible." That actually isn't hanging there anymore because it refused to stick, so it was replaced by one that says, "in a world where you can be anything, be yourself"

Here's another of my frames. I had actually painted this one an aqua blue color, but I wasn't happy with how it looked so I just repainted right over the blue. Then I made this chalk board! (link to how I made it will eventually be here...)

Thank you for averting your eyes from the super ghetto curtain-hanging skills. The window pane chalk/magnet board was a thrift store treasure. And I am literally so proud to say I got it for less than one dollar! The deals are out there if you're willing to look around and stalk thrift store inventories.

This chair was picked up on the side of the road, it does have a crack in the seat, but I didn't want to touch it, because I really liked the way it looked. Eventually, I will do something to it, but for now I like it how it is. The beautiful globe was handed down form my great grandfather.

And then my never-ending pile of old books, which just add so much charm. Each of them comes with a story, not just the one written on the pages, but also of how I got them.

Thanksgiving

   THANKSGIVING is a highly celebrated holiday in America. It provides a time for reflection on the many blessings we as Americans enjoy. Whether sitting around a large table surrounded by loved ones and homemade food, or simply having a quiet night alone, we should use the time we have to be thankful. This year's Thanksgiving was a quiet one in our household. We traveled to our vacation home a few days before Thanksgiving and enjoyed a quiet week. Usually, the extended family joins us up there, however, this year everyone had different plans, and for that I am somewhat thankful. It was great to prepare food with the family and enjoy each others company. Our favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner is the marshmallow rolls (recipe at the bottom). This year, even though everyone wasn't coming up, we decided to still make the same amount of the marshmallow rolls, so that we could each have as many as we desired. Once the food was done cooking and the table set, everyone was ready to sit to dive into the wonderful looking food. However, I quickly stopped everyone from sitting down (truth is I actually made them get up) so my picture would be prettier. I didn't remember to pack my camera, so I had to use the camera on my phone...

   After everyone was done complaining about having to get up, we thanked our God for the blessings of the past year and the blessings that we know we will receive in the years to come. Everyone should be able to think of at least one blessing... if you can't, just keep thinking.
   Food tends to be a big priority on this last Thursday of November, let's not forget to be thankful for that food, and the people who slaved away to make it something anticipated throughout the entire year.

Marshmallow Rolls:
(Great for Thanksgiving, Easter, and just about any other day.)
 
I didn't put any amounts here on purpose. You can make as many or as few as you like. It takes approximately 1 tablespoon of cinnamon sugar, 1/4 tablespoon of butter, one crescent roll, and one marshmallow per roll.

Ingredients:
   Cinnamon sugar
   Butter
   marshmallows
   Crescent rolls (Aldi has them for a reasonable price)

1. heat oven to 375*F
2. Prepare a station to make the magic happen. You'll need two bowls, a cookie sheet, and parchment paper. I don't buy cinnamon sugar, if you're the same way, you should mix some ground cinnamon with sugar (I have not tried using any sugar substitutes, but if you aren't into sugar, this is probably not the best treat for you.)
2. To Start, melting butter in a bowl and place it at the beginning of the line. Then put the bowl of cinnamon sugar next, followed by the crescent rolls, and lastly the parchment-lined cookie sheet.
3. Take a marshmallow, cover it in butter, then in sugar. Next, completely cover them in the crescent. This step is important, because if there are any small cracks or holes, then the marshmallow will escape in the oven. After the marshmallow is covered, repeat the butter and sugar process again. then space them evenly on the cookie sheet.
4. cook for 12-15 minutes, or until the crescent is golden brown.

who do you show devotion to?

    Yes! I just got my first very own Study Bible! One of the sweetest couples in my church blessed me with it. Now I can start blogging about Devotions, bible study "hacks", and other bible-related topics. I did of course have a bible (two if you count the glitchy app on my phone) but it was one I grabbed out of a "free box" at a church. As I pealed back the plastic that was protecting the delicate pages, I thanked God for the gift of His son, and the gift of His word through the Bible. It struck me really hard that God protected His word for us today, even at the cost of faithful servants. As with a lot of things, the more of the bible your read, the more you want.
    May as well start off with a description of the Holy Word. Many of these things you may have learned in Sunday school or AWANA, but lets refresh our minds together. First off, the Bible is split into two main parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Each of those can be further divided into books, chapters, and verses.
    The Old Testament (O.T.) is generally divided into 5 sections, The law, History, Poetry, Major, and Minor Prophets. The New Testament (N.T.) is also commonly split into 5 sections, the Gospels, History, Paul's letters, General letters, and Prophecy. (I searched for a helpful diagram, but turned up empty handed.)
    Back to the reading the bible daily discussion... (my intention here is not to point fingers just to point some things out). How often do we jump on Facebook or Instagram in the morning right after we wake up? I know how that goes all too well. I wake up from an alarm on my phone, so how easy to just click over to check the feeds of our social media accounts. By doing this are we placing God below social media? clarification, are we glorifying our social media more than God? In Psalm 119:147 it says, "I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your word." Time to be honest... I don't always want to get up before day to cry for help. First of all the whole "before the dawn" kind of turns me off (sad but true). Secondly, I don't like to admit I need help. The other day I did actually set my alarm for 4:50am with the intention of starting off the day in God's word. The alarm was faithful but unfortunately I can't say the same about me. I hit the snooze button and rolled over and went back to sleep without a second thought. How disappointing, that I slept during the time I had given to God.
     I will leave you with this thought, Who are you showing devotion to? Who is getting the bulk of your time? Who greets you in the morning? negative social media updates or a loving Father who wants everything good for you?



 

Intro to the Haiti Misions tirp

      In October I was privileged to go on a trip to Haiti. The weeks before the trip, I was preparing. Spiritually, emotionally, and physically. However, I was not prepared for what I was going to encounter.

      I acquired a book on what to expect on a missions trip to Haiti (convenient), so I was reading that to be prepared emotionally. I had done several presentations about the politics and history of Haiti. Also, (I help lead a class for special needs adults) I explained to them what I was going to be doing down there, so I felt like that would also help me be prepared.
      To cover being prepared physically, a month or so before my departure date I amped up my exercise routine. I wanted to be able to do any task they asked me to do and I felt like I was not physically to that point. On top of that, I got serious with healthy eating. I have pinterest boards that can prove that, or at least to prove I was thinking about it.
     I felt like it was most important to be ready for this trip spiritually. And I was reading chapters of scripture every day for a few weeks leading up to the date of my departure. I've heard accounts about of people going on missions trips and their lives are totally and utterly changed. I wanted that. I'm always up for an attitude change for the better. I've felt God's presence before, and that changed my life (good or bad I don't know) but I wanted a bigger encounter with God. Something life changing. Little did I know...
     This time, the presence of God was not "warm, fuzzy, and comforting." God used my time in Haiti to open my eyes to see, first hand, the daily struggles of my brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the evenings I was down there was particularly difficult. Earlier that day, our team had visited a hospital and saw the lack of technology and equipment. The equipment in that hospital was out of date and probable here in America, being carelessly tossed away. Yet, the work of the medical teams were using the out of date equipment to save countless lives every day.
     Also that day we visited an Orphanage. This particular one was for girls only, however, they did house two young boys, who the orphanage adopted into their family.

(Mike)

The girls sang us a song that said, "I have shoes on my feet, a roof over my head, good food on the table and a place to lay my head, and I am blessed." I'm sure you could go to a Christian school in America and hear a choir sing something with the same theme, yet, it wouldn't have the same impact. These girls literally only had the pair of shoes that were on there feet and that roof over their head, equivalent to a piece of tin nailed onto some walls. As good as the food may be, there isn't much of that, and that place they're laying their head wouldn't pass any inspections in America. That said, why would they think they're blessed? Living in the American culture, if we had to live in those conditions for a day we would consider ourselves "roughing it" or camping. The tears of our team could've been joined together to form an ocean. How can you sit through that knowing that in a few days, you will be back living a comfortable life and back in the routine of the busy American lifestyle.
    God used these experiences, along with others from the week, to probe my heart and soul. "How much is enough" was a question that kept and keeps wandering into my head. How much is enough? How much is enough? How much should we, should I do to further the kingdom of God, to help these orphans and widows in Haiti? To help the widows in Africa? To help the orphans in China, Europe, India, Brazil, and America.
    The other day I was talking to a friend and I said, "Why can't God just write everyone a letter, and tell them exactly what to do and when to do it, and how long to do it for, everything in the form of a camp schedule?" My friend wisely pointed out that a letter with specific details as I had been describing would take away a whole lot of the faith we need to place in God. If we knew what was around the corner and didn't have to prepare for the unknown, it would be very easy to turn our backs on God. Also, God did indeed write to us about what we are supposed to do. In a book, that is truer than any other thing can be. The b-i-b-l-e.
    I thought that I would be able to prepare for this trip to Haiti. In a lot of areas, I think I was able to. However, there is no possible way I could've been prepared to see the amount of poverty and feel so much of God's sorrow when it comes to seeing His kids suffer. I did have my life changing experience with God, I'm just not sure what He wants me to do with this knowledge yet. I don't have any great revelations to share at this point. I have no answers that have not been heard already. I am only a baby in this walk of life. I am willing to grow, even if it is painful, for I know in the end I will be a very pure gold.

Intorductions need to take place

I don't shower every day. My hair doesn't always look great. My outfit is rarely on point. Hi! I'm Rachel Lynn, and my life is not all put together. I have unanswered questions, and I would not consider myself to be the sharpest tool in the shed... However, the days I do shower, tend to be better overall. When I actually do my hair, I'm happy with it, and when I try to have a cute outfit, I'm not too shabby. I play the roll of a big sister to 3 siblings. Usually, we get along pretty well, but not always. This is my senior year, and I am so excited to get on with my life! I was privileged to go on a Missions trip to Haiti and that has changed my thinking a ton! Seeing and experiencing the poverty first hand was life altering. I'm not sure what I am going to be doing in the years to come, but I know to listen for God's voice and he will be sure to direct me.