Counting the Omer Project

Hi.  It's me again... back... finally.  Yes, I do want to blog more, I've just been too busy living life and doing projects.  In fact, projects pretty much make up my summer.  Hubby & I are DIYer's from the get-go, although somehow he manages to finish his BIG projects much faster than I do my little ones.   There's always another project waiting in the wings around here, although a lot of that comes from home & farm ownership as many of you well know.

 

As far as projects go, I can't say I'm a crafty person really.  I have a creative side and I'm a DIYer, nothing more.  I rarely have an original thought (afterall, there's nothing new under the sun); most of my creations were an inspiration from some truly creative person, but then my eclectic side takes over and I always have to embellish upon it and make it my own.  But after I make one for myself, it's time to move on to the next project.
 

Anywho, today I'm more than a little excited to share one of my latest projects (of many) that is FINALLY completed and ready to use ... next year.  It is somewhat of a follow-up of the last post on our Passover and the Spring Feasts.  For those of you that aren't super familiar with the Spring Feasts, as a quick review, they go like this... in quick succession...

 

Passover/Pesach (Seder "The telling" of the blood over doorposts/Messiah shed His blood for our salvation)

Unleavened Bread (starts next night/for 7 days, leaven=sin, eat matzah, Jesus was pierced for our sins) 

First Fruits (Resurrection! Dedication of Harvest/Christ is our Firstfruit I Cor. 15 (some call it easter))

Counting the Omer (the 7 wks from the wave (sheaf/omer) offering to Pentecost; a time of repentance/sanctification) 

Shavu'ot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost) (Conclusion of Passover; remembering the giving of the Torah exactly 7 weeks after the Exodus; spent in Bible reading/study/rededication) 

~~~ 

I know, it can seem complicated, especially if one doesn't grow up observing the mo'edim (holidays); and what made it even more confusing for me when we first started celebrating the Feasts is that most of these observances go by more than one name and overlap. oy!  I'm not going into detail here about them.  You can read my last post for a little more clarification or do your own research, but today I want to focus on a little project I made for Counting the 50 days of the Omer from Passover to Pentecost.
("Omer" is a Hebrew term for "sheaves" of a harvested crop -- think "wave offering").

 

Counting the Omer
 

And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto Yahweh.
~ Leviticus 23:15-16

 ~~~

Over time, I have been gradually getting rid of our former traditional holiday decor and gathering a nice collection of decorations to make the Feasts of Yahweh far more special (as unto the LORD) than anything this ole world could offer, but I didn't have anything for Counting the Omer.  I often see cute ideas, similar to things used to count down the days to Christmas, but most are geared towards preschool/elementary-aged children.  I wanted/needed something our whole family of young adults and less-young adults could enjoy.  Then, with the inspiration of an online friend and with the help of something I saw on another website, the creative juices began to flow -- I could envision it all....

 

Tada!!!

It's kinda like a flip calendar, only with 50 scenic devotional pages (+ 2 more pages - a cover page, & a page with Lev. 23:15-16 & the daily blessing)

 

INSPIRATION for this Project

Inspiration came from my very-creative online friend, Brenda Tipton, who was posting beautiful daily "Counting the Omer" graphics on her FB timeline at the time as well as giving detailed instructions on her blog of the neato devotional box she made for her family. 

 

 

The original frame design of the flip calendar I stumbled upon here.

 

Thanks to my amazing hubby, he quickly constructed the wood frame!

 

My flip calendar frame is...

Base: Oak 6" x 3" x ¾" thick (scrap from the barn)  

Side Dowels: ½" Oak, 6½" tall

Top Dowel: about 4½" long (tucked in wide dowels)

Stain: Golden Oak (2 coats)

Satin Polyurethane

(I only had to buy the inexpensive dowels, the rest I already had around the house)

 

Each of my cards has the following:

 

"Counting the Omer"

 

"Day 14" (or what ever day it is)

 

That Day's Devotional Scripture Reading Reference

 

Most of the cards have a portion of a verse from that day's reading

 

Each card's background is a pretty picture, mostly scenic nature scenes, a couple photos from home, animals, scrolls & shofars, and scenes from Israel (pictures that have meaning to our family) -- most graphics I chose from googling the daily Bible reading (more about that below) and would look up that day's Scripture portion and see what images I liked best that correlated with the day's Scripture.  Some pictures have nothing to do with the day's Scripture, but I liked the picture and perhaps that day's Scripture didn't conjure up any pretty images.

 

Here is another page.  I chose this scene since my hubby loves canoeing in the Boundary Waters (BWCAW).

 

The Daily Counting the Omer Scripture Reading Ideas are from the book

"Celebrate the Feasts" by Martha Zimmerman

 

Day 1 – The Law of the Lord Psalm 119:1-8

Day 2 – Obedience to the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:9-16

Day 3 – Happiness in the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:17-24

Day 4 – Determination to obey the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:25-32

Day 5 – A prayer for understanding Psalm 119:33-40

Day 6 – Trusting the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:41-48

Day 7 – Confidence in the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:49-56

Day 8 – Devotion to the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:57-64

Day 9 - The value of the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:65-72

Day 10 – The justice of the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:73-80

Day 11 – Prayer for deliverance Psalm 119:81-88

Day 12 – Faith in the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:89-96

Day 13 – Love for the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:97-104

Day 14 – Light from the Lord of the Lord Psalm 119:105-112

Day 15 – Safety in the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:113-120

Day 16 – Obedience to the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:121-128

Day 17 – Desire to obey the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:129-136

Day 18 – The justice of the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:137-144

Day 19 – Prayer for deliverance Psalm 119:145-152

Day 20 – Plea for salvation Psalm 119:153-160

Day 21 – Dedication to the Law of the Lord Psalm 119:161-168

Day 22 – A prayer for help Psalm 119:169-176

Day 23 – True happiness Psalm 1:1-6

Day 24 – Confidence in the Lord Psalm 11:1-7

Day 25 – What God requires Psalm 15:1-5

Day 26 – The Law of the Lord Psalm 19:7-14

Day 27 – A prayer for guidance Psalm 25:4-10

Day 28 – Longing for God Psalm 63:1-8

Day 29 – A song of thanksgiving Psalm 67:1-7

Day 30 – God and His people Psalm 78:1-16

Day 31 – God and His people Psalm 78:17-31

Day 32 – God and His people Psalm 78:32-39

Day 33 – God and His people Psalm 78:40-55

Day 34 – God and His people Psalm 78:56-72

Day 35 – God the King Psalm 93:1-5

Day 36 – God the judge Psalm 93:12-23

Day 37 – A song of praise Psalm 95:1-7

Day 38 – God the Supreme King Psalm 96:1-13

Day 39 – God the Ruler of the World Psalm 98:1-9

Day 40 – God the Supreme King Psalm 99:1-9

Day 41 – The love of God Psalm 103:1-22

Day 42 – God and His people Psalm 105:1-11

Day 43 – The Lord’s goodness Psalm 106:1-5

Day 44 – In praise of the Lord Psalm 111:1-10

Day 45 – The happiness of a good person Psalm 112:1-10

Day 46 – The reward of obedience Psalm 128:1-6

Day 47 – A prayer for help Psalm 130:1-8

Day 48 – A call for the universe to praise God Psalm 148:1-14

Day 49 – A prayer of thanksgiving Psalm 138:1-8

Day 50 – Praise the Lord Psalm 150:1-6

 

After I selected an image, I would save it to my photo files and then edit them using GIMP, adding wording in complementary colors and fonts.  Once I was done with all 50+ images, I copied them to Word Doc, 6 per page and printed them on photo paper (cardstock just didn't give me a very brilliant image).  Then, I cut out each image, eliminating all white photo paper boarders.  My images are 3" h x 3¾" w.  Next, something has to be done with the photo cards or they will curl (Trust me, I know this one).  So next I laminated them and cut them out leaving approx. 1/8" boarder (just eyeballed that one).  The laminate gave them a nice clear/durable window and a very stiff/straight weight.  Btw, my laminating machine cost just under $20 at Walmart which I think is a good investment since I want to redo all of the recipe cards (another project). 

 

Lots of cutting!

Lastly, I had purchased (Sams Club online $5.38/25) some "HOLDit! Ring Binder Insert Strips" that have multiple holes and an adhesive strip to easily attach it to the back of each photo card (one can eliminate this step if they leave about ¾" margin at the top of photos to punch holes or not print to the tippy top of the photo cards and just hole-punch through the image).  Then attach cards to the horizontal dowel with metal rings (package of rings was $1.88 at Walmart).

 

and, wala...

 

  a rather impressively-thick photo flip thingy.

 

 

Praise the LORD!!!

(I can hardly wait to use it -- next year!)

 

and now on to my next project...