Sometimes dreaming big can be pricey, right? Even for the DIY creator, dreams take some dollar bills.
From the moment we first walked into this house, I have loved the fireplace. It’s dual sided, so we enjoy it in the living room and our four seasons room, which I lovingly call the “snow-room”. It has seven windows and three door ways so you can watch the snow from every angle. It’s beautiful.
Although I love the fireplace, I do not love the tile work. I have dreamed of covering the whole wall with brick tile. We plan to do it ourselves. After learning that the tile costs over $500 (and will take some legit labor), we thought we better hold off on ordering that brick for now.
You know I love color and every wall in my house has art or something on it, so this blank wall has been driving me crazy.
I came up with an idea to let the kids have fun with it, while we are in the transition phase of our room. Why not let the kids paint one of our favorite Bible verses on it? Kids handwriting is the best. Plus, I don’t need to worry about sanding down the stroke marks when we are ready for a change. I will literally just brick over the artwork, when the time comes. It sounded perfect and now we all love it so much….I may never want to brick. Here is how we created our kid’s wall art:
I printed the words off the computer with the actual amount of words I wanted on each line, so the kids could get an idea of spacing. I used a yard stick and level to draw lines on the wall. I then taped the printout onto the wall and let the kids start copying.
My boys alternated line by line who was in “charge” of that line. I wanted both of their handiwork on the wall. Reagan wanted to get in on the fun, so we adapted and let her add some hearts. Her touch completed the piece.
After the words/hearts were in pencil on the wall, we used simple craft acrylic paint to paint over the words. My oldest was able to hold the bottle and paint on his own. My younger two liked me standing there holding the bottle while they steadied themselves on the wall with one hand and painted with the other.
They did an amazing job! We did space this project out over two days so they didn’t get burned out. The pencil writing was the first day and the painting was on day two. They were so proud and excited to be painting on the wall. My oldest was a little more timid at first saying I could do a better job and he was struggling with it not being perfect. It was a beautiful teaching moment, and I just adore kids hand writing. I wanted it in all the little imperfections and quirks. That is what made it beautiful.
The wall was really dirty after pencil being smeared all over, as you can see in this picture below. I came back once the kids were all done and erased my pencil lines and as much of the smears as I could. What I could not get up with an eraser a Mr. Clean sponge was able to erase. Since we are covering these walls up someday, there was not pressure on if we were ruining them. We literally can’t.
We had so much fun creating this little focal point. What a fun way to get some truth on our walls as well. It is now one of the first things you see when you walk in our house. It’s perfect.
I may never want to brick. My little artists won’t be young forever, but I love capturing their art with where they are…whenever I can.
Would you let your kids paint on the wall? What is a way you have temporarily decorated a space that you would love to update more eventually? I know there are so many ways?! Here is one more to add in your deck of cards.
I hope you have a great week and get to create in some creative way!
Although it is again one of the hardest things I have had to do, these are lessons I never want to tire of learning. I want so badly to teach my kids patience. This includes my foster son. We need to show love by being patient with our words and actions. We say that often, as you may remember from reading this 
Love is patient. I will be patient with allowing myself to be a never ending piece of clay that needs molding. I can admit I don’t have it all together. I need Jesus. I need his grasp on the bigger picture in all the hard moments. I need him to speak truth to me, through me, and around me. I can’t do this, but I know the one who can. I call him my Savior. He has not forgotten us. He will sustain, and we will be his hands and feet to the hurting in our home. It is the mission field we prayed it would be.
We can all experience love in different ways. Gifts, actions, words, and time are a few ways we can feel love.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Are the first two things we hear about love in this passage.
I wanted to create some kind of reminder for this phrase. We knew it held a powerful message. One that has been used largely in shaping our lives. And to be honest, is still shaping our lives as we are trying to be patient with the sale of our house.
This message needs to be heard from the tree tops. We all need to be reminded to truly live love.
I don’t know about you but I need all the reminders I can get. I am one call away from my realtor asking me to leave the house (after we just started school) for a house showing, from losing my cool. Patience is not naturally in my blood, yet I desperately want to love well.
Yes, it is very hard to live day in and day out with such raw, heavy emotions, but it can be beautiful. Let me explain. When we said “yes” and brought a child in crisis into our home, we were bringing brokenness, hurt, pain, lies, bad habits, etc with him. It is a very trying experience to walk day in and day out with love in the midst of these circumstances. Not to mention having three other children in the home, who are little sponges. It was a constant balancing act of our hearts to care for everyone well.
There were many days where I was exhausted and cried. I couldn’t do it on my own. I learned that from 
This sweet, sweet boy was used to change me. He made me see Jesus in a desperate way. Jesus is real, he is alive, and I saw him move. He moved my heart. I went from wanting a 1-year-old girl to saying yes to a 4-year-old boy. I went from wanting to help him to loving him like my own flesh and blood children.
Even in this moment, I type through tears as I hear one of my son’s saying “where is _______” and another eating his granola bar the exact way our FS always did. He has parts of our heart and we will always love him.
I feel like we have been grieving him leaving for a while, so now that the band-aid is officially pulled up, it is a mix of emotions. In sorting all these out for a few days, I have felt scared. Not scared for our FS, because I believe he has an amazing team around him to watch over and make sure he is safe and he is in the palms of our mighty God, but scared for our hearts. This boy was used to move blinders on my eyes and rocks in my heart. I needed him just as much as he needed me. But, laughing with my family, hanging on our bed all cuddled up together till we all crashed, and waking up today knowing and believe that God is still with me, I have a peace. God has never left me. We have hope. We have faith. God is not through with us yet. This was just another beautiful part of our story and the journey God is taking us through in this world.
We will miss this sweet boy, but we will see him again. Looking back now I feel like when we said “yes” to that phone call five months ago, we were largely saying yes to God having the controls of our life in a raw, trusting way. It should be that way daily no matter what is happening or who lives in our home. I want to still wake up today and say “yes” to Jesus. We gave of ourselves, but really in that giving…we were blessed and changed far more than we could have ever expected.