I have been so heavy in my spirit lately. The battling has been fierce and relentless. There have been many personal trials. I felt far away from God. I felt too drained to seek that quiet shelter of His love. This morning I woke up, and I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but there was some kind of renewal. I decided to play “Breakthrough” by Eddie James, and the kids started singing along because we may have played that song a time or two in our home. I felt the anointing and began to sing with them. I played the song again, and then later again and was singing it in my head throughout the day. I heard the kids singing it later too. There’s something about praise. It breaks an atmospheric stronghold. It breaks that web of lies the enemy has been laying out. It pierces the atmosphere and reminds all of the glory of God. It exalts God, and in turn, your struggles begin to fade into the background where they belong.

I began packing for Texas. I had been holding off, because my husband doesn’t like when I start packing too early and then no one can find anything. But my husband is away for a week or so, and I figured, he didn’t tell me NOT to pack while he was away.. haha. But there was something powerful in that action. It’s an act of faith, and a deposit towards our destiny. I kept thinking, why didn’t I start this sooner? We still don’t know many of the details about our move, or the timing, but this feels like one big step forward. I’m still not sure exactly what we are bringing or how much stuff we will be able to bring, but I let that keep me from doing anything for far too long. So, I’m just going to do whatever I can and not let that hinder me any longer. There’s always something I can do.

Making art has been a bit of a struggle lately. I have been hitting some serious creative resistance, which after some reading, lends me to believe that breakthrough is on the other side. So bring it on! I will persist and I will get there. It’s too important not to.

Often when I feel a bit of a block, I will do something less challenging. So tonight, in preparation for making myself paint, I made some more collage fodder for my art journals. I had the idea to sew on bits of paper and ribbon so I can add more texture. I had a bit of a time because I was using thicker thread than I normally do, which was great for the textural aspect, but I realized I had to swap out the bobbin thread for normal thread because otherwise it would just keep jamming up. I was so happy it was such an easy fix. I still had a few jams along the way, but in general it went MUCH more smoothly.

I have only finished probably around 20 of my paintings for the 100 paintings on paper. There’s no time limit on it but I really would have liked to be farther by now. So I’m trying to do at least two per day. I was going through a suitcase of old photos while packing and found some vintage mountain scenes that my mom had likely photographed, and the compositions are great, so I may use some of those as inspiration photos for my next paintings. I really like when art comes together with a story.

Below is one of my favorite art journal spread in my sewn journal.

Thanks for stopping by!