Our Mantel

In all honesty, our mantel needs quite a bit of help.

See...

it's a bit bare.  

I envision a large, beautiful piece of art on the brick area, and some sort of long candle holder type piece to take up that middle part... one day, one day.  

For now though, there are two pieces on the ends that are pretty special to me, both made by yours truly.  

The frame on the left looks like this: 

 

This is a frame that originally held newborn pictures of Selah, but once Owen joined our family I wanted to use this frame for a new purpose.  (P.S. We still don't have ANY pictures of Owen up in this house...so very sad...I'm working on it.)  It is a little hard to see, but the words are from the verse: 

"As for me and my house, 

we, [the Treibers], 

will serve the Lord." --Joshua 24:15  

This verse sums up our vision and purpose for our family.  We want to serve God in whatever way that may look like for us, depending on His plan.  Plus, whenever I see this, I get to bust out the "God Is In The House" song by Hillsong.  Oh yeah.  

If you're curious, I just used scrapbook paper and letter stickers to make this.  I found both items at JoAnns.  I bought several different packs of stickers, but each pack was only a $1!! I was pretty excited! 

On the right side of our mantel is this: 

   

I got this idea from my stepdad when him and my mom were down for Christmas.  It is a "Blessings Jar" that starts out empty and gradually gets filled with slips of paper throughout the year. 

Here are my slips of paper:

Just scrapbook paper, construction paper, and foam sticker.

On these pieces of paper we write the big and little blessings that occur throughout the year (prayers that have been answered, people who God has brought into our lives, activities we have been able to participate in, issues that have been resolved, etc.), we date it and stick it into the jar. Then, on New Year's Eve, we plan to dump out all the slips of paper and read through all the ways God has blessed us this year.  It will help us start the year off right and put life into perspective!  

Here is our jar getting fuller and fuller:

 

 So thankful tonight to have so many reasons to pick up a pen and fill out a slip of paper, God is so good!!