Tackle It on Tuesday: The Craft Room

I have a love/hate relationship with my craft room. What a blessing it is to have the space in our home to have a room dedicated to be filled with many craft supplies, tools, and books to complete the many craft projects that I love to work on.

But unfortunately, I am a Queen of Unfinished Projects! Which leads to piles of projects all over this room, well, because there is room in there to pile them up! Since our trip to Mexico in January, I have really been thinking about how much unused stuff we have in our home.

I love to cook and bake, but when I have two shelves of cookbooks in my home that I haven't used in years, should I keep them?

And as much as I love to sew, do I really need to buy all those patterns just because they were a dollar each? I mean really, how many jumper patterns for little girls does one mom need?

In all of my decluttering tasks, I found these treasures that were printed at least two years ago. Rather than enjoying these photos of my children up on my wall, these have been hiding in one of many piles in my craft room. Really sad, isn't it...

Now don't get me wrong, I do really love my craft room. Knowing that I can go in there and find craft paint, felt, scrap fabric, and many other craft supplies keeps me out of the store spending money that I shouldn't be spending. But when I look at the piles of projects that have not been finished, or some even started, it makes me uncomfortable. As my daughter would say, that money could have been spent on a Compassion child. 

Thankfully, most of the items I have been clearing out of my craft room are still in really good condition, and I am hoping to sell a lot of stuff at an upcoming yard sale with the money to be used toward my upcoming trip with Compassion to Colombia. 

So what am I going to tackle this upcoming week? Getting those precious photos matted, framed, and hung up on the wall, so I can enjoy the blessings that God has given me here.

What will you be tackling this week?

August Compassion Share & Tell

After writing the Letter Writing Inspiration post for the Compassion blog last week, I knew I wanted to write some encouraging words to my Compassion kids this month, but at first, I wasn't really sure what to write. Then I remembered, I had seen some encouraging quotes in my Twitter feed from the Global Leadership Summit over the last couple of days. Godly leaders encouraging with powerful words. Just the words my Compassion kids need to hear. Here is my letter to Felix:

Hola Felix!

"Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken." - Psalm 62:2

Today, I want to encourage you to trust in God in all things. Sometimes, there are things that happen in our lives that may cause us to doubt God's love for us. But I want to remind you  that He loves you so much, and He has great plans for your life.

There is a big conference going on in our country right now, and a lot of godly leaders are sharing powerful words. Here are a few to encourage you:

"God made you on purpose for a purpose." - Bill Hybels

"Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles." - Wilfredo De Jesus

"If God has called you to do it, He will qualify you for it." - Jim Mellado

I pray you continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus, study hard at school, and know that I am praying for you each and every day"

Love always, Yvonne

With my letter to Felix, he is also receiving a birthday card! His birthday is in November and he will be turning 7 years old. At our local Walgreen's I was able to find a birthday card in Spanish for him!

Another thing I am mailing with all of my letters this month is the photo with the scripture pictured above. The photo is from a recent day trip to one of the lakes in our area. I took the photo with my iPhone, so I imported it into one of my photo editing apps and added the scripture. Then I uploaded the photos to our local Walgreen's and had them printed for each of the kids. The photos are 8" by 8", so they were a little more expensive than just a 4" by 6" print. But I love the way they turned out and hope the kids are encouraged by the verse.

Would you like to share this photo with your sponsored children? I have uploaded the photo to my Google Docs, and I am giving my blog readers the opportunity to download this photo and share it with their own sponsored children! Click on this link to access the photo.

Be sure to take some time this month to write to your Compassion sponsored children. They love receiving letters from their sponsors!

Taking Gifts to your Sponsored Child

One of the benefits of going on a Compassion Sponsor Tour is the ability to take gifts to your sponsored child and his/her family. Before our trip to Mexico in January, our family went shopping to find gifts to fill a backpack for Felix. Here is a list of some of the items we brought with us:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible in Spanish
• picture books in Spanish
• t-shirts
• deflated soccer ball and pump (it is much easier to pack a deflated soccer ball!)
• Hot Wheels cars
• photo albums with photos of our family
• various school supplies

We also brought items for his family which included:

• flat sheet
• wash cloths
• toothbrushes and toothpaste
• bars of soap
• couple pairs of flip-flops
• bag of candy
• reusable bags
• gift bags for his two siblings

We ended up pulling this all together in just a couple of weeks before our trip. The other thing you should know if you have the opportunity to go on a sponsor tour to visit your Compassion child, Compassion does a wonderful job of giving you ideas in your pre-trip information packet you receive a couple of months before your trip.

In preparation for my trip to Colombia to visit Lina in February, I have already purchased a couple of items for her.

Since Lina will be turning 16 just a couple of months after my visit, I thought she might appreciate a messenger bag instead of a backpack. I found this one at IKEA, but you can find these types of bags at many places, especially this time of year with school starting again.

Unfortunately, I missed Old Navy's $1 flip-flop sale earlier this summer, but they did have a buy one, get one free sale over the weekend, so I picked up a couple of pairs of flip-flops for Lina. Are they going to be the right size? I don't know. When shopping for items like this for your sponsored child, just take your best guess. There is no use stressing over whether things will fit or not. If they don't fit your sponsored child, they may have a sibling or friend who can use the items which will be a blessing to them.

We also found some fun bracelets on clearance at Payless Shoe Source. With so many of them, I am thinking that Lina can share these with her friends that she writes about in her letters.

Another thing to consider when shopping for items is your luggage space. There is a limit. Although I have heard that some people will bring an extra suitcase to fill with all of the gifts, then they will leave that extra suitcase in the country they are visiting for a family who may need it. Definitely something to consider!

In the upcoming months, I plan to share with you some of the other items I will be bringing along with me to help you in planning for your own Compassion Sponsor Tour.

July Compassion Share & Tell

Things have been a little (okay, a lot!) quiet here on my blog over the last few weeks. I needed a bit of a blogging break because we had a lot going on in real life. Next week, I hope to share with you about our trip to Colorado. But today, I wrote to my Compassion kids and want to share with you what I wrote to them this month.

This month, because things have been so busy, I decided to use Compassion's online letter writing option. In order to write a letter online, you just need to sign into your Compassion account. Once you have signed in online, you should see an option on the left side of the page to 'Write My Child'. Click on that link, then a new page will come up showing your current Compassion kids.

One nice thing about writing to your child online, there is a 'duplicate this letter' option. By choosing this option, you can basically write the same letter to all of your children, and just make minor adjustments for name, gender, and any specific things you want to add for each child.

Here is my letter to Lina:

Hello Lina!

I hope you and your family are doing well! I have been enjoying your letters with the details of your neighborhood and the details about you. In fact, you and my daughter are the same height, 5'2" tall!

Here is a verse I would like to share with you:

Psalm 1:1-2 - "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."

Do you have a favorite book of the Bible? I really like the book of Esther, but right now, I have been reading through the book of Psalms. I love being reminded to praise God in all things, and to remember to spend time reading the Bible.

Have you done anything fun during your summer vacation from school? My kids and I were able to take a trip to the state of Colorado. We even took a train ride to the top of one of the highest mountain peaks while we were there. The mountain is called Pike's Peak. I have included a picture of us below.

How is your family? I think about you and your family often, and I pray for all of you often.

I want to remind you that you are a special blessing to me and my family, and that God believes you are a special young lady. Continue to do well in school and learn as much as you can about God and His plans. He has a special purpose for your life and I pray you know how much He loves you.

Sending my love and hugs!

Next month, I will be sure to do handwritten letters to the kids because I keep finding great ideas on Pinterest and fun stickers to mail to them.

Have you written to your Compassion child this month?

June Compassion Share & Tell

Have you gotten caught up in World Cup fever? We usually don't spend a lot of time watching professional sports, but with six of Compassion's countries having teams competing in this year's World Cup, we are just a bit interested in following along. And we have children in three of those countries!

My mailing to my kids this month includes quite a bit about the World Cup. Let me share with you what I am mailing:

• World Cup trading cards we found at Target
• World Cup stickers we found at Walgreens
• World Cup word search I found on Compassion Canada's World Cup Pinterest board
• World Cup coloring page, also from Compassion Canada's Pinterest board
• World Cup world map, with a listing of the countries competing this year
• And for the girls, I found some fun stickers in the Dollar Spot at Target

This month, I decided to keep the content of each letter the same. I typed up the letter on my computer, and as I was printing out the letter, I made sure I changed out the child's name and number on each letter.

Here is what I wrote:

Dear Victor,

"For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." - Psalm 100:5

How are you and your family? Are you enjoying a break from school yet?

One thing we have been doing recently is watching some of the World Cup soccer games. Are you familiar with the World Cup soccer games? There are teams from 32 countries around the world competing in Brazil for the world championship of soccer teams. We have enjoyed watching the team from your country play.

With this letter, I have included some activity pages about the World Cup that I thought you would enjoy. On the map, I have colored in the country where I live and the country where you live.

Do you like to play soccer? I used to like to play soccer when I was in school.

Is there a sport you enjoy playing?

I love you and pray for you and your family often. I pray you always know that God loves you very much and He has a plan for you and your live ahead.

Sending my love and hugs to you today!

Have you had a chance to write to your Compassion sponsored child lately?