Family Misson

I wish I could have written this a couple weeks ago but we have all been sick for a little over a month now. Just this weekend I was commenting on how we are all finally better, then Blake woke up Yesterday with swollen tonsils. All that being said, we were not able to build as often as we would of liked. But this weekend we finally finished our favorite model for the tables. It also took a while because there were different styles of tables we wanted to try out and the one I am about to picture is going to be our standard children's picnic table and or craft table that we have decided on. This process has been quite the adventure for our family. Especially the labor that it entails and living in a small apartment in a major city! I am the creative /visionary side and Blake is the muscle side ;) Which is very important for working with pallets. Blake and I love having something to work on together. It teaches us a lot about each-others personalities, helps us learn to work through our personality differences and gives us a sense of accomplishment as a couple. As I mentioned in the previous post we have taken on this hobby in hopes to have it be a small business; but not just a business: a giving fund. In the midst of coming up with something our family could do for our community; we also have been contemplating our family's mission statement. It was something that Blake and I really wanted to put a lot of thinking into, and we have changed it a good number of times but we have finally come to the final product. I am sure over the years it will evolve but for now this statement represents us and what our family lives for. While coming up with the statement the thing that lacked the most was reaching out to our community and thats what gave us the idea for the picnic tables. This past Sunday in church our pastor was speaking on the issue of widows and orphans and how they make up a huge population of not only our Nation but the World. It was a message of encouragement to notice (orphans and widows) around us who are in need and to help them in whatever way we are able. It made me think about how being followers of Jesus is all about love and taking care of people. And thats something Blake and I (and we hope to instill in our children) are very passionate about. We have been praying about how this Holiday Season we could be more of a Blessing. We have had tons of fun ideas but most of them will have to wait till our kids are a tad bit older. After the message was spoken at church Blake and I agreed that we needed to go with our original plan being: We find a family(single mother and children) who is need and for 12 days leading up to Christmas we will bless them in different ways with out them knowing who we are or where it came from. These picnic tables are going to help us make this possible. I am so excited to do this my artsy brain is going crazy! If you know of any particular family in need please email me at Bethany.Blakemckay@gmail.com and let me know their story! Here are some pictures of the process of building the tables and yes, I did help make these but I was always the photographer ;)

Yes, Barak had to "help, help" as he put it as much as possible.

Our First day learning how hard it was going to be to drive those nails out of the pallets. You can tell by him not wearing shoes we didn't know it was going to be so hard. We did a lot of trial and error and have come up with a technique since then.

Barak is sanding what is the top of the table

What is cool about these tables are it is only 3 pieces so we can ship them and have them be self assembled in the future.

And here it is!! It is made entirely from two pallets and recycled nails! Now this is just the style. They will be custom made upon order. Some will be painted some will be stained. All will have a protectant sealant. This little guy is going to have the Chicago City Flag painted on top( I will post pictures when it is done). Blake and I have ideas of staining maps and disney themes and pretty much whatever you want on it even branding maybe! 

 If you are interested in maybe purchasing one let me know at the email above. They would be great Christmas gifts! When you do purchase one we will be documenting it on this blog along with a picture of you and or your family(with your permission of course) and what your $ is going towards for our "Twelve Days of Christmas Fund". Keep following our story as we learn what it means to be givers.

Last but not least here is our Family Mission Statement:

We, the McKay’s, believe that our purpose as a family is to be followers of Jesus Christ. We will accomplish this by:

·    -Valuing faithfulness and living above reproach as our main guiding principals


·     -Making our home a place of security, love, and hospitality.

·     -We nurture, support, and celebrate each other’s ambitions, dreams and missions

·         prioritizing Godliness, over selfishness


·     -We live a healthy lifestyle, and maintain order and cleanliness in the home.

·     -We raise up children in the way they should go; making learning together an integral part of daily life with knowledge and enriching experiences.

·     -We protect our home for the Spirit dwells here

·     -We are wise in the way that we use our time, talents, and money, we establish good habits.

·     -We contribute something of worth to the community that we live in.

·     Love is our anchor and our compass 

What you see is what you get

Hello we are the McKays'. We are a family of four at the moment. My husband is Blake, I am Bethany our almost two year old is Barak (pronounced Bear-uk) and our four month old is Brooke. We are a young family thriving to be the best people that we were created to be. We have a special story and want to share our life with you.
I swore I would never be a stay at home mom type blogger and here I am creating a blog. But we McKay's feel like we have a special mission as a family here on earth to live out. Just recently we had an epiphany that we need a family mission statement. Too often do we find ourselves trying to figure out our purpose, and we felt like creating a mission statement would bring clarity. Its a lengthy process that involves a lot of prayer and thought but once it is complete I will be sure to post it. I know that statement will grow and evolve over time but at least it gives us a sense of direction in which we need to be heading towards. Through all this sifting, growing, and self examining God has done a lot of transformation in our lives. Being married at just 20 years old Blake and I had a lot to learn about marriage and growing up together. We still have a lot to learn but being so young with already two kids you could say we had to grow up fast. No, it was not an arranged marriage, nor was it for religious reasons..we actually won a wedding( I will have to write our story out for you sometime its too beautiful to try to simplify). Through all that Blake and I have gone through together in the last three and half years one of the most impact-full life lessons we have learned is on the topic of giving. We as a family want to be givers. When we die one of the things we want people to remember us for is being a blessing to all those around us. Unfortunately, our past financial means have not allowed us to be able to bless people as much as we would like. We have taken a lot of financial hits lately due to ignorance of city living here in Chicago.
We have been praying as a couple for a while now to help us figure out how we can continuously give even when "life" so to speak happens. We believe there are some Faith principles that we are learning through all of this. Through seeking, God has given us the idea of a business: building children's picnic tables out of pallets. Sounds really creative now doesn't it? Ha not.. but we do feel like its a calling that we have in this season of our life. And trust me when you see these things you will want to get one for every child you know ;) So your saying to your self. " this is what this whole blog is about?... Picnic Tables!!??"" and the answer is yep! But these tables represent something more then just wood and a place for parents to sit their kids on. 10% of every SINGLE table sold is going into our "giving fund." We will most likely raise the percentage as the business grows. We will then document on this blog how we built each table, how we designed each table, who we sold the table to and what the money made on it is going towards/to. It could be a charity, it could be a neighbor, a friend, a stranger, wherever we feel led to give really!  This blog is intended to be a business, a story, an encouragement, a witness, and hopefully very impact-full. Come along side with us as we experience life through picnic tables!

This is the day we began our journey as one together

And then God blessed us with these two to help us live out our calling