I’ve been thinking a lot about the big picture. About how sometimes we think we see it all, but we really don’t. One of the things that we’ve been talking about at church is the big picture. The long exposure. About how God sees everything even when our eyes can’t… especially when our eyes can’t. I’ve been thinking a lot about how sometimes God doesn’t let us see the big picture. Because there’s things we don’t need to know yet.

I’ve been nannying for coming up on two years now and I’m really amazed at what I’m realizing. I’m realizing that I’m so blessed to have the families that I’ve had. For the friends that I’ve made through this type of work and the connections I’ve made. I’m blessed to have learned so much from each family – About the world, about myself. And I realize that I don’t know what God has in store for me, I don’t know what the big picture is. But I know that I have to take the steps. That I have to follow God in helping to raise these babies and to work with these families. Because God has a bigger plan for all of us, but we have to take the steps in order to achieve that.

I think that if we saw the entire picture than me maybe wouldn’t go through the process that we need to in order to come out the other end. It’s like if you know that everything’s gonna work out, are you going to try as hard as you would if you didn’t. If you know that your bills are going to get paid at the end of the month, are you going to work hard to make sure that happens or you going to float because you know its already taken care of. That’s something that I’m struggling really hard with right now because I like to know what the end result is, but I don’t. And I’m learning to be OK with that.

There’s an old saying that it’s not about the end it’s the journey. And I feel like that has never been more meaningful to myself than now.

Okay, so crafty time! With all of the talk of big pictures, I thought it only fitting that I post about this DIY Picture Frame project. I made these with the kiddos this week and they absolutely loved them. With the older ones, they loved filling the spaces with the gemstones and the littles were just really excited to be allowed glue. Ha! Once all was said and done, we went out to the yard and did a mini photoshoot to have a photo to add!

DIY PICTURE FRAME:

Wooden Craft Frame – I got mine from Walmart for around $2 a piece
Acrylic Paint – any color
Foam Brush
Gemstones that match your chosen color (or whatever you have on hand) – I got mine from the craft section of the dollar tree
Rubber Cement or White School Glue

Start by painting your frames. I let the olders do this themselves and helped the youngers. The key is to make sure the entire surface of your frame is painted your base color.

Once your paint is dry, set the kids to work adding their sparkles to the frames. With the youngers, I poured the glue into a paper cup and let them work with a paint brush. This is a really good craft for fine motor skills too! You can also paint the area with glue and then have the child place the gemstone where they want it. There are so many ways to work with children on this project!

While your frames are drying, take some photos and print them out for each frame.

Tie it up with a bow and give directly to Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunts and Uncles! Or, if you’re doing this without kiddos, DISPLAY YOUR BLING!