#MaybellinethePuppy Takeover: Guess What I Ate? Vol. 1

Note from Melody: For those who remember that my tiny puppy Maybelline (“Maybe”) used to sometimes take over my Facebook feed, know that I have locked her out as best I can! However, there is definitely no stopping her from posting on my blog, because she is definitely a puppy that will not be silenced. So here she goes again…

Hello, my name is Maybelline, but you can call me Maybe. I have done it again, and everybody is flipping out for NO REASON.

 

No one seems to understand that it is my life’s mission to chew up anything that will fit into my mouth. Tonight, while the lady was taking things out of her art “she shed” doohickey so she could take them to “the studio” (wherever that is…), I noticed a lovely new toy that was clearly left inside there just for me.

 

It was SO beautiful – shiny, black, and it beckoned to me. Because it was made of plastic, I delighted in hearing it go crunch-crunch-crunch. I surreptitiously carried it inside so I could joyfully chomp it into smithereens.

 

But NO. The little guy narced me out to the lady! He hollered, “Maybe is chewing up a little black thing!” The lady came to the sofa, where I was enjoying every bite, took it away from me and… ugh.  Folks, she SMOOTH FLIPPED OUT.

 

The lady was hollering, “It’s an ant trap! Maybe ate an ant trap!!! Gahhhhhh!”

Delicious! I LURRRRRB shiny plastic things! -Maybelline

 

 

And then suddenly everybody’s hair is on fire and they’re washing my tongue in the sink. They’re WASHING MY TONGUE IN THE SINK, Y’ALL. #Rudeness.

 

The lady completed chewed me out, but all I heard was, “Blah, blah, blah Maybe. Blah blah BLAH!”

I just wanted to know what she did with my new toy. I totally wasn’t done with it, yo.

 

Everybody eventually calmed down after the lady typed into “the Google” and found out I was going to be OK. She said I could have an upset stomach, but you know if that happens the only downside is she gets to clean that carpet again, and that’s on her. What do I care if that happens? I’d eat that plastic thing again if they’d give it back!

 

She has NO idea the magnitude of the things I’m plotting… Bwa-ha-ha-haaaa! -Maybelline

OK, I’m going to bed now. Nobody is flipping out anymor, so I guess I can relax now. I’m trying to decide what’s next on the “toy” list – her favorite shoe, his flip-flop, or maybe the little guy’s Chaco. He did narc me out, after all.

 

Live in fear, little guy. I am still basically Voldemort in canine form. Bwa-ha-ha-haaaaaaa….

 

Love always and hugs and kisses,

 

Maybe Baby

This is my best side. No autographs, please.

Getting “Psalty” With My Book Club Besties

I recently tried a little Bible and art journaling experiment with a group of girlfriends. It was especially awesome for us in part because we weren’t all regular “Bible journalers”. In fact, the four of us could be called an unlikely group of friends, as we are all very different.

A few years ago, the four of us led a women’s Bible study together at church. And this was no regular Bible study. (Meaning we weren’t exactly polite ladies sipping sweet tea and smiling over tea cakes.) It a group of women who got realover a period of months. We got personal. We got raw. We got vulnerable. And we got close. And we’ve stayed that way. It’s glorious.

We call ourselves The Book Club.

That’s why I wanted so badly to start this what I’m calling my “Get Psalty” experiment with this group… We are so close yet so different, and some of us love to get creative more than others! (And at least one of you just started laughing reading that sentence…)

My immediate reaction was: all the heart eyes for this journaling psalter!

And I thought to myself: The girls will love these!

Maybe, I thought, it would be cool to exchange them with each other. I knew it would be a great way to lift them up. It’s the exact opposite of a “Mean Girls”-style “burn book”, and it could really help us celebrate each other.

But would they try it?

So I brought the idea to my Book Club girls. I suggested we each have a Psalter and do a little work in it ourselves, then exchange them and work in each other’s.

The idea is that we keep exchanging them over a period of weeks, months or years, and in doing so we end up studying the book of Psalms together and celebrating each other and our friendship in the process. And we come away with a treasure for each of us – a keepsake with words from our girls that we will treasure always.

 

The Book Club girls showed immediate (but brief) excitement, followed by some apprehension and maybe a teensy bit of terror:  We love it! How awesome! But wait… what if we make a mistake? What if my page looks stupid? What if it isn’t as good as hers?!? What if completely ruin it? What if I’m not good enough at this!?!?  What if what if what if…?!?!?!?

Isn’t that how it so often goes for us as women? There’s excitement about something new, followed by that fear of failure… the comparison to others that makes us feel we don’t measure up… that (no-good, conniving, lying) voice inside us that says to us, “You can’t handle this. You aren’t good enough.”  (Except we are. And you are.)

 

So we did it anyway. And I’m so happy that we did!

We had to speak the words out loud that we would have grace for ourselves and for each other. “Mistakes” do not exist… only happy accidents (thank you, Bob Ross, for that phrase!).

Now, we exchange psalters about once a month or sometimes a bit more often. We take someone’s (not our own), do a page as a tribute to or prayer for each other, and then we return them a week or two later. And each of us fights the urge to cry. Every. Single. Time.

Flipping through one of our psalters, you’ll find things like:

• “You inspire me to be a better person. You are truly my sister.”
• “Love you, my friend with the infectiously amazing smile.”
• “God, you continue to pour out your love through her life and friendship…”
• “God, thank you for… she is truly a gift for me and I love that you use her to show me who You are…”

 

When my spirit has been weaker than my day has been long, flipping through my psalter and reading what my Book Club sisters have written legitimately changes my spirit. Quickly.

It’s glorious. And I will cherish it always.

 

Soon, at my Bible Journaling studio called Flippy Doodle, I’ll be hosting a “Bring Your Besties and Get Psalty” workshop for those who want to try it out. Bring a friend, your sister, daughter, mother, neighbor, bestie, colleague, or even commit to try it out with someone you don’t know well yet. I assure you that you’ll cherish the result!

For more information on upcoming Flippy Doodle workshops, check out our Facebook page events, FlippyDoodle.com, or see the upcoming events at Rogers Experimental House (where the studio is located).

 

For supplies and more Bible Journaling content, check out the Bible Journaling supplies page on DaySpring.com.

 

 

Note: Some links on this site are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. No pressure to purchase, ever, and opinions expressed here are always just mine.

 

#LegacyBible

My first #LegacyBible.

My grandmother passed away when I was 17. Days later, when family were going through her things and dividing up each of the items she had kept for years, my mother asked if there was anything specific at my grandmother’s I really wanted. I could think of only one thing – her Bible.

See, my grandmother’s Bible was many, many years old. The outside was quite worn, and the inside was even more lovingly used. This was not a Bible that had collected dust on a shelf; it had been used, and used heavily.

My grandmother was a firm believer in making notes and her Bible. Notes sometimes included the names of people for whom she had prayed and the dates, or sometimes the events about which she was praying. A note and a date on a Scripture in grandma’s Bible was a glimpse into the depths and breadth of her prayer life.

I was so grateful that my family allowed me to have this treasure. It was indeed a valued family heirloom. It was her “legacy Bible.”

Years later, I discovered something called “Bible journaling,” thanks to my friends at DaySpring. I believe it resonated with me so deeply because in a way it was already part of my family’s faith history.  And while she wasn’t using paint or stickers or drawings, my grandmother had spent years making notes and her Bible – meaningful notes – notes that had a lifetime impact and touched us many years after she had already departed this earth.

This page from Daniel was originally in Grandma’s Legacy Bible but was a picture she cut out (!) and pasted into a notebook for me. Forty years later, I carefully removed it from that notebook and mounted it on archival card stock and made it a permanent part of my #LegacyBible. A cherished part!

Now, as I’m documenting my faith in my own Bible, my hope and prayer is that this Bible will become a family heirloom as well. Maybe some of the words I write or draw or’s even scroll in my Bible will be read years after I’m gone and maybe make an impact on someone years down the road.

If you read through my grandmother’s Bible, for instance, you might find a verse labeled Melody and Sharon with a date from the early 1973. The Scripture refers to the Potter and the Clay. My belief is that what my grandmother was praying about was that I would have a relationship with my mother.

See, during that time in our lives, my mother was suffering with serious mental health struggles. Her health was very poor. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, and I know her greatest fear was that I would never be close to my mother. I know that she prayed fervently against that and prayed bravely and boldly for my mother in for me and for our future together.

Those prayers are most certainly answered, as I grew older and found great redemption in my relationship with my mother despite all of her troubles. My mother was a believer, a very faithful woman, and I came to be a woman of faith as well.

Another great find in my grandmothers Bible or notes from February 1987. She had underlined Psalm 121:3: He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

That scripture was so tremendously important because during that period of time my grandmother had an aneurysm in her leg. Doctors feared it would cause her death and were prepared to amputate her leg. My grandmother, a very independent woman, feared that amputation much more than she feared death. And she prayed fervently for that surgery not to happen.  What’s most interesting about that passage from her Bible is that it was the very night she passed away. I believe she breathed a prayer to God to take away the need for the surgery, underlined that beautiful scripture, closed her Bible and placed it at her bedside, then slipped into bed and peacefully went home to meet Christ.

That Bible is so precious to me.

These days, I spend a lot of time Bible journaling (and now even working in my own little Bible Journaling Studio called Flippy Doodle), and my most precious entries are in the leather-bound journaling Bible I lovingly refer to as my #LegacyBible. It includes lots of underlined scriptures, dates and names of family and friends, references to important events in my life and the world, and photos and mementos that I treasure. I pray it’s the one our little guy will hold onto long after I’m gone. And I especially pray he will read it and get even a tiny sliver of the sort of joy I’ve found in flipping through my grandmother’s Bible.

It’s history. It’s family. It’s legacy.

One of my Legacy Bibles.

Psst: Friends who are preparing to make the next (incredibly beautiful) version of the Illustrating Bible your new #LegacyBible, head over to DaySpring.com at the link below and sign up for “back in stock notification” on the Illustrating Bible page. You’ll be the first to know when it’s available for preorder AND when it’s officially back in stock!  Enjoy!
XOXO,
Melody

Disclosure: Some links on this site are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. No pressure to purchase, ever, and opinions expressed here are always just mine.