Lots of sewing has been accomplished

My wonderful husband got me a sewing machine for Christmas last year. I felt guilty for getting such an extravagant machine (to me), I was frustrated by something new....for many months....but finally once I learned some valuable advice about some of these temperamental machines....like using "good" thread, not just Wal-mart thread and changing the needle between projects (I never use to change the needle, unless it broke and almost hit me in the eye).

Once I learned these things.....I've had that baby just a hummin. The latest project to be finished was a lap quilt that started with blocks given to me by my neighbor. She had purchased them at a garage sale years before for 50 cents and now they were in her sale. So being they were blue snowmen...I set to work trying my "quilt as you go" method I had just learned this summer. And I can't believe I actually finished it before Christmas. I can't believe that I finished a lot of things before the end of the year..... Baby quilts, aprons and pot holders, bookmarks, and now this quilt. Maybe spring will include focusing on Amy's quilt before her next birthday rolls around....I only have about 40 more blocks to make....eeeks!

Here are some of the other things that met the completion stage and were shipped off.

A quilt for my sweet and growing great niece. (Jeremy was my photographer...he has a pretty good eye. can you see the control freak on my face....like...are you sure you're getting the whole thing in? )

aprons...Left one for my sister and the other one is mine. I'm hoping my other sister will send me a picture of herself wearing hers. (hint hint) This pattern was soooo easy and I think they turned out cute. I also made potholders to match them.

I like sewing most of the time. When all is going well....although there were an infamous pair of slippers that I tried to make that didn't turn out so well....because I didn't follow the teachers suggestions. ;-) live and learn. have a good day all.

Christmas Memories

Well it is that time of year again. I never really look forward to all the work it takes to keep all the family traditions we started...as far as the tree and all the decorations. But after they are up, it looks pretty and makes winter just a little more bearable.

One extra special tradition, is our Christmas village. To just your average "joe" on the street it doesn't look all that spectacular but to me it is very special. You see when I was just 9 years old my Daddy past away from Cancer. My brother and I were the only children still at home. He being 9 years older than me usually had the obligation of caring for me while my mom went to work....so, how do you keep a 9 year old busy on long winter nights when life will never be like it was and take her mind and probably yours off the events of the past year or so? This was what he did.

I'm not sure where he got the idea, but he constructed buildings out of 2/4's...gluing them together and cutting other pieces of wood to make the chimneys and things. He also made cardboard roofs. He gave me the task (with supervision) of painting the buildings. He painting the stained glass for the church windows and the more tedious things.

we made a tiny wreath out of styrofoam and put in the window of one of the buildings. He painted a Christmas tree in the window and cut out little velvet letters that said Merry Christmas, on the post office. We made the school where all my siblings and I attended. I'm not sure how long it took us, but I'm sure it must have taken some kind of patience. We use to set it up on the mantel of the fireplace on the farm and now it has graced my mantel for many years and has become a special treat for my children. They get so excited to watch it go up.

There is another hidden memory in that Christmas scene. They are little painted clear plastic skaters and sledders and horse drawn sleighs, lampposts and snowmen. They are stuck in little pieces of styrofoam to make them stand.

My grandmother use to set up a little skating scene on her table. I was always fascinated with them, so she passed them on to me before she died. They are getting very fragile after all these years because they are made of clear plastic and the plastic is getting very brittle. But they always remind me of the dreamy days I sat staring at the tiny figures imagining I was there with them in that time of long ago.

So, it is so nice to see the two elements combined together again as they have been for many years and remember the days gone by of love and life, together as a family.

Thank you Randy and Grandma S. what special memories you created for me. I love you both ♥

The modified Envelope system

I should have taken before and after pictures of this deal....

Before, my purse looked like an envelope factory blew up inside, with all the flaps crinkled and folded every which way and envelopes turned this way and that so you didn't know which was which....You know what I'm talking about, surely some of you have been on this financial pinching system... ;-)

Well I couldn't stand it anymore. I went to different places trying to find a wallet that I thought would work, but wasn't going to pay $8 for a wallet when....HELLO, there is no envelope for buying wallets....

so...I sat down yesterday morning and started scribbling on paper trying to figure out what size I was going to make this "prototype" and low and behold, it worked out so well I think it's actually going to be the real thing... I sketched out a 1/2 inch wide border around a dollar bill and then went from there.... one thing I found out is that receipts are not the same size as the money.... What is up with that???? They really need to change that for all of us who are suppose to save the receipts to see if they add up to what was in the envelope. Scott was even shocked to find out such a thing.

The envelopes themselves are business size envelopes cut down to be just a bit bigger than the bill and then covered with duct tape to make them sturdier....(good ole' Duct Tape) ;-) I also fusible webbed two different kinds of fabric together before I sewed them, to give it a little more thickness and to make it look lined. We'll see how long the whole thing lasts.

I think if someone had more time to fuss with the thing....it could look a lot nicer.

like using a label maker to label each one.....and actually getting to take your time with the duct tape to make it look nicer....or you could use contact paper. But for my crunched time schedule, with people demanding my attention all through the day it's the best I could muster at the time.....it really only took me a couple of hours from the beginning design stage till the end. Oh as you can see....I also dug out one of my Grandma's cool buttons for the front and stole one of the girls hairbands for the button "hole"....I think I will be changing that part as soon as I find a nicer looking hairband....that one has seen it's day..... eeeeks!!!

visiting

I miss the old days....even though I didn't live in those times, I miss them. I read so many books that describe them to me and they sound so nice.

You know the ones I mean.....the ones where you were at home all day because town was too far away to walk and you had no car, only horses. You had chores to do, but basically you stayed home to bake bread and keep the fire burning and people would stop in periodically and you would put the tea pot or coffee pot on and sit and have some with your visitor, along with some fresh baked pastry, cookies or bread. You would sit and chat relaxed and if it was close to supper time you wouldn't worry if there would be enough for all of you, but you would ask the person to stay to supper and it would be a lovely time of visiting.

Doesn't sound too familiar to these times though....run, run, run....go here, do this.....run run run......clean the house, what am I going to make for supper???? will there be enough???/ and if anybody stops in, what am I going to do???? let out the dog....go go go...Don't forget to let the dog back in or bad things happen to him.......heh hehhh.... I'm out of breath and energy.

Does anyone Else's life feel this way. I so enjoyed the last week off.....no homeschooling, just trying to keep the house somewhat clean and get some projects done. It was awesome. And now I'm looking forward to Christmas vacation already... :-) But for now, it's back to school. Although one thing I'm thankful for is that we only have one co-op to go to between now and January 12th. woo hoo!!

I think even though we are doing school today....that I will make a pie or some bread....build a fire in the fireplace and keep it burning......try to relax. Have a cup of tea. And pray my children will oblige me with not arguing with each other over trivial things.

Have a good day everyone and I hope the few of you who read this aren't going into shock because I wrote twice in one week.....I'm sure it won't last.... hee hee :-)

Joy

I realize lately that I'm lacking joy....why is that?

I know the Bible says to "rejoice", "be joyful"....why can't I seem to hold on to it. Is it everyone that struggles with it or just me. I think the everyday....monotony can wear on you after a while. I'm trying to change my outlook or uplook :-) How can I make each day more than the "normal" school and chore day? hm? I need to appreciate my children more. Like the one that has an endless imagination and keeps the other two thinking and creating. The one that is so happy and cheerful no matter what is happening. The one that is thinking and processing things and is always in the mood to cuddle. How can I look past all the aggrevating behavior and have tunnel vision on the "good"? I'm thinking maybe a service project to get their focus off of themselves is in order. It would be good for me too.

"You will show me the path of life;

in Your presence is fullness of joy

at Your right had are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11

"For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5

"But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have

My joy fulfilled in themselves." John 17:13

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." James 1:2

just a few little nuggets to keep us going through another day.

"Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice."

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday I think. I love the food we have. I love having family around. I even like the weather. We finally get a break from all those hot and humid days and it's not snowing yet (usually). I remember Thanksgivings back on the farm. Usually my married sisters would come home with their families. My grandparents would be there and maybe an uncle and aunt or two. I remember always having this bowl that looked sort of like wood, that held the mixed nuts (still in the shell). There were also little places in the dish that held the nut crackers and pickers. I didn't really enjoy eating the nuts, but boy were they fun to crack. My mom also had this reddish-orange, glass dish with a black base that she put a fruit "bouquet" in....at least that is what it looked like to me....draping grapes and bananas, beautiful fragrant oranges and shiny red apples, a bountiful looking thing. We would usually make a fire in the fireplace with those special color logs that I always got so excited about, but they never really produced the colors that I had imagined them to. I remember one year after I had been saved, I made all the place cards and had spent hours looking up a different "thankful" verse to put on each one. My mom had gotten the idea one holiday to put an older white cloth tablecloth on and have everyone write their names or greetings on it. Later on we were to embroider it and applique fall material on in the shapes of leaves and turkeys. One of those 1980 something tablecloths is still in the basement "in progress". I love all those memories. My only regret is that we live so far away that we can't use those tablecloths with family. I have always longed to have that kind of thanksgiving again. The kind where you set the table with your prettiest and fanciest dishes and silverware and glasses....everything is sparkling in candlelight and you "sit" down with all your loved ones and share a prayer, conversation and a beautiful dinner. I'm losing my energy bit by bit to do such a thing....fibromyalgia is starting to take it's toll.

For the last 17 years we have been involved in a different version of thanksgiving, which has it's good points, but also it's bad. The good points are eating a Thanksgiving dinner, a bit of fellowship with family and looking at the black Friday ads. One time a couple of us actually left and went shopping....that was different and entertaining. There use to be a football game in the front yard, but that generation is getting older and more fragile. (me included) :-)

I've been reading a historical fiction series by Jeanette Oke and I realized that we can get caught up in the whole tradition thing and we need to just enjoy the holidays for what they are at the time. In these books when they are stuck in the middle of nowhere in the early 1900's, no turkey, no fixings, no family.....eating biscuits made out of bear lard and beaver on their plate...it makes me appreciate the foam plates, warm house, plenty of traditional food and family.

I am thankful that I have family and that they are for the most part healthy even though they are far away. I am thankful for the family we have here although it is not the same. I'm thankful that God has blessed us with a family, a warm house, food, clothes on our backs and the ability to have people over for dinner whether it be for Thanksgiving or just dinner.

What do you do for thanksgiving? What are your traditions? Make some new ones, enjoy the old, cherish the memories and be thankful........maybe I should remind myself of all the thankful verses :-)

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Self Reflection

Who are we? Why do we react the way we do to things? What makes us happy go lucky or angry and bitter? Was it the way we were brought up? Was it the things that happened to us in life? Was it simply the way God made us? These are the questions that are going around and around in my head.

I was reflecting on the object lesson (or whatever more educated people want to call it) about the mother who had three pots of boiling water. In one she put a carrot, in another she put an egg and in the last pot she put coffee. She and her child went back later to find things changed. The carrot which had been rigid in the beginning was now soft. The egg which had gone in fragile, came out hard. The last pot contained the coffee and it wasn't any different, but it had changed the water. Now if you haven't heard this before, the water represents trials or hard times we are going through. How do we react? like the carrot who went in strong but when it was all over with, it was a squishy thing or the egg who went in fragile but came out hardened, or the coffee that actually had an effect on the water by changing it into something good.

At first I was thinking I know someone who is the egg. I didn't know what I was....I didn't want to be the egg, but I also knew that I wasn't the coffee. It wasn't until I made that statement aloud at the dinner that my wise husband said...."I think we are all of them at times." I guess he is right. I wish I was the coffee all the time.

Another one that has been going through my head is the one where we are like a cup. Whatever we are full of, is what comes out when we get "bumped" (trials). I know that at times the things that come out are not very pleasing to God. I have tried to empty myself of me...to have God empty me of me,k but to no avail. I believe that constant thought has to go into every reaction we have....we have that split second before we react to make a conscious decision whether or not we are going to please Him or not. Apparently my flesh wins that split second battle ......a lot. :-(

I don't want to grow up....(sounds funny) to be bitter and angry like people I know.....I don't want to growl all the time. I don't want people to frustrate me at every turn, but they do. I want to be pleasing to Him at all times. James wasn't kidding when he said that "No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. with it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse men. Who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."

So......which are you? the carrot?, the egg?, or the coffee? What is your cup full of?