My big Dream!!!!

What is your dream? I mean your BIG dream from the Lord??? Do you ever feel like it is so big that it is ridiculous? I do!!!!! We moved into our house 15 years ago. It was such a blessing....it was owned by a drug dealer who went to prison...it was trashed but we could see the potential! We worked hard to restore it and we love it! We knew from the time that we moved in that it was not ours....we have always viewed our "stuff" as the Lords. Really from the very beginning Eric and I have known that we are supposed to give this house to our church(right across the street). Our church has a couple of amazing ministries...one is to provide furlough homes for missionaries and another is to provide homes for pastors who are hurting and need a place to come for healing hearts. Here is a picture of our house.

Then comes the second part of our dream. There is a piece of land here in Woodstock.... 87 acres right in the heart of Woodstock....and it is in foreclosure:) Here some pictures of it. It is way too long of a story to write here...but the Lord started burning a Big dream into our hearts. We would love for Driven To Encourage to own this land.....with several uses....one is that it is already set up as pasture land....we would love to have horses and a place for equine therapy(which is actually Emily's BIG dream) for mentally and physically handicapped children. Secondly we would have facilities for the kids that Eric mentors. And last...and dearest to my heart personally....we would have a large unit......for around 30 couples to live. Marriages are falling apart!!!! My dream is to have a place for newly weds to live for a year under the agreement that they will attend marriage classes and put themselves in a place of being mentored. They would continue to work or go to school and they would pay some sort of rent. We would open the classes up to any married couple who wanted to attend but we would focus intently on those 30 couples.

So what do you think??? What is your BIG Dream?????

What is under my bed?

What is under my bed??? Well the reason that I am answering this question is that our house is really small for 4 people...much less 7:) So I have to constantly declutter and make sure that I am making the very best use of my space! Under the beds is a great place to start. First I start with these great risers...I love high beds and these are great to give that look and it gives more storage space under the bed. They are inexpensive...I bought mine at Wal-mart but you can get them at Home Depot.
I have several different clear plastic containers in varying sizes.

One is filled with gift bags(dollar store has great bags!) for all occasions. The box is complete with tissue paper, scissors, ribbon and tape. I save bags that I get gifts in as well. This keeps them all together and it saves me from running to the store when I need one.

Another is filled with extra free drugstore stuff that I might use as a hostess gift or a birthday gift. make-up, lotion, body spray, room spray, candles, tea towels.....

Another is filled with seasonal clothes....small house...small closets:) So now all my sweaters and sweatshirts are under my bed and at the end of summer I will switch them out.

All of my kids have these boxes under their beds for a variety of things...my little boys have most of their toys under their beds....leggo's, cars, GI Joe men, guns and swords...all in separate boxes.....easy to pull our and easy to clean-up!

New Coffee Table

This coffee table is made by Laura Ashley and it costs $600....I love it so I have been looking for one to recreate.

I found this very beat up coffee table at the Thrift Store for $20. It was solid and in great shape. One leg was wobbly...nothing a few nails didn't fix.

I washed it down and then rubbed the surface with steel wool.

I bought black stain for $4 at HomeDepot. I pained it on....it only took 1 coat.
After it dried I used this handheld sander and distressed the table...this is the funnest part to me. I ran the sander over edges...stepped back and looked at it and then sanded it again. Because the table was so worn from previous owners I decided to distress it further with a hammer and a few other random tools that I used to swing at the table. I love it!!!

Emily's Party

When our kids turn 13 we have a special party for them. We bring in friends and special mentors to speak into their lives and encourage them and then we take a trip. Emily LOVES horses so I found a farm in Florida that raises Freisian horses and off we went. The owner of the farm was so very gracious and we had a blast. I think that Emily could have stayed for days! Then off to the beach for a few days. We had an awesome 3 days away...lots of laughing and talking and playing! We drank enough tea to drown a person! We made lots of memories.