My Very Long Hiatus

It's been three months exactly since my last blog post!  Yikes!  But things have been busy, busy, busy and I just haven't had much time for blogging.  Besides, most of the things I've been up to couldn't be written about because they were gifts/surprises for some of my (very few) readers!

So this is going to be kind of a catch up on the last 3 months.

We celebrated my oldest son's 16th birthday by going to a motorcycle museum.  My son requested Grammy's bread pudding as his birthday treat.  He's not keen on sweets anymore and it'd been a long time since I'd made the bread pudding. 

 

I was attending Every Woman's Grace bible study and had signed up to bring a bread to share.  I tried a new recipe for pumpkin scones and they looked delicious.  However, they were quite dry and heavy but my hubby really liked them.  IF I use the recipe again I will tweek it.

 

My older sister and honorary mother-in-law (my youngest sister's actual mother-in-law) worked together to give my younger sister a surprise baby shower the weekend after Thanksgiving.  My sister and her family live out of state and wouldn't make it back for our Christmas get together since she's due right around that time so we wanted to make the most of the time that they were here for Thanksgiving.  We had a preChristmas celebration as well as the surprise baby shower.  After our meal my two sisters went for a quick walk and that's when MIL L and I quickly set up the shower decorations and such.

These are just some of the receiving blankets, bibs and wash cloths that I made for my new baby niece.

These are the cute little Ugg-like boots that I crocheted for her.

I put together a cute little cardboard oven for the shower.

 The refreshment table at the shower.

 All the gifts for baby niece.

 Not a great picture but these are the tissue pompoms I made for decoration.

 MIL made the cutest pennant banners for the shower.

 This, if you hadn't already guessed, was our theme for the shower!

And this is li'l sis L with her bun in the oven and her now middle daughter miss T.

 

Our church has an annual event for the ladies every December called the Candlelight Christmas Coffee where we decorate 35 tables, all differently, and get served coffee, tea and cider by some of the men in the church and listen to a special speaker and special music.  It's a wonderful evening of fellowship and spiritual encouragement.  This year I co-hosted a table with my friend C.  The theme of the evening was Celebrating Hope and featured Linesa Keith and the International Princess Project.

 Our Christmas Coffee table.

 We celebrate hope in knowing that God is Sovereign and He holds tomorrow!

My co-host and I.

 The decorations were amazing for the event!

 Our pastor's wife Kris Goertzen shared her testimony and Linesa shared music from her album Greatest Mystery as well as some of her life story and how the International Princess Project began.

 The women in India who have been rescued from sex slavery are taught a trade in sewing and they make the most beautiful "punjammies".

 

There's been a lot more than this going on but it would take too long to write about it and I didn't take pictures of the various things I did during these last three months.  That's been my blunder but I've been so blessed during these busy months!

Pocket Garage

A very special little boy recently had a birthday and I wanted to give him something that I thought he would love.  This little boy loves cars and trucks!  I remembered that I had seen a tutorial on Pinterest for a cloth car caddy and so I decided I would make that for this special guy.  The car caddy from the tutorial used velcro but I wanted this one to be able to go to places that he needed to be quiet too so I scrounged around in my bits and pieces drawer of my craft dresser to see what I could come up with.  I found some red elastic cord (probably from a gift box or pair of shoes that don't come in a box) and a button from some old fatigues that my husband used to wear to work when we were first married.  Do I keep too much stuff?  Um, yes, probably!  But sometimes it comes in handy.
I used an old pair of my husband's work jeans that were in the scraps pile and cut out the pieces I needed from it.  I found a piece of canvas drop cloth I had used for outdoor curtains and cut out the pieces I needed from it.  Following the tutorial I sewed the pieces together and sewed the elastic to it all.  It didn't look very neat so I cut out a small piece of striped material from the scraps pile and appliqued it over the stitching for the cord.  I need to work on my applique stitching.  But it did look better than just the plain stitching.  The tutorial called for felt but I just used more denim and yellow thread to make the road.  And then, of course, I couldn't give it to him empty!  I filled it with 6 cool cars and trucks!  With the heavy duty material used for this it should last quite a while.  And I've been told that he loves it which was my goal! 

 

The Blessing of Routine.

Today both my boys are back to school! They aren't too thrilled but I'm happy to have them doing something other than watching tv, goofing off or swimming. Even though it's early mornings for us all, I'm so glad to be back on school schedules! The oldest is driving himself for the first time (mom is dealing with anxiety over this!) and the youngest is riding the bus for the first time (nice to not have to drive so much this year!). Both are in sports this fall so I'm still driving a lot to practices and eventually games/meets. And now my nephew is staying with us while he finds a job and saves for his own place. I'm enjoying the time with him, getting to know him better and feeding him (he's so thin!)!
I finished the ball gown for my little niece who turned 5 earlier this month and my sister has sent pictures of the beautiful birthday princess wearing her gown.

Little niecey with gown, fingerless gloves, headband and choker on.

Niece added a tiara and sis put a tutu under the skirt to fill it out more.

Lord, help me!

It's a blunder kind of day, or week really.  So many things have been going on to make me feel down.  I've been reading verses about God's promises, grace and mercy and that helps for a while but I find myself thinking about all the negative things going on.  I've been attacked in so many ways lately that I just feel like I almost can't catch my breath.  I'm needing lots of prayer right now for strength and wisedom to keep my mouth shut.  I won't stop speaking the truth but I need to know when to keep my thoughts to myself.  The bible says in Proverbs 20:3 "Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel." and Provers 26:4 says "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him.  Proverbs 29:11 says "A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back."  I want to be a wise person not a fool!  State the truth once and if it is not received don't keep saying the same thing over and over.  I struggle with knowing whether I am feeling righteous anger or prideful anger in these situations and have to take a moment to evaluate the situation.  If I'm mad because my character is being attacked that is prideful but if I'm mad because they are twisting God's word to say what they want it to say that is righteous anger.  I don't want my pride to be a stumbling block to anyone knowing the love of Christ!  And I want to continue loving them despite their negative treatment of me because that is what Christ commands me to do.  But I am a sinner and my flesh wants to hate them.  Thank you, Jesus, for paying for my sins and giving me the strength to overcome my fleshly desires!

Royal Treatment

One of my niece's birthday is coming up and she will be turning 5.  I recently got a new sewing machine and wanted to make something pretty for her.  She and her big sister love to wear dresses and since I have two boys I don't have many opportunities to make dresses.  I found a tutorial here to follow easy to understand instructions for a beginner sewer like me.  First I hit the thrift store for fabric.  I found a white sheet, a light blue sheet and a pair of light blue knit pants.  I cut the pants along the seams for the bodice pieces.  The pants also had a tulle material overlay that I used for the center of the bodice.  I used some lace trim I already had in my crafting supplies for the bodice as well. 

Then I cut out the material for the skirt from the white and blue sheets.  I started with the white puffs on either side of the dress.  Then I stitched on the blue skirt and hemmed it up.

A Cinderella dressup ball gown for my princess of a niece!  It doesn't look as nice as the one from the tutorial and it didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped but I am a perfectionist with less than perfect sewing skills.

Coffee House Chats

This week I was doubley blessed to have two "coffee dates"!  Tuesday I met with my friend CH at The Metropolitan Coffee.  It had been a long time since we'd been able to get together to visit.  We talked about what we had been reading and, as per her request, I brought "show and tell".  It was a sample booklet of Seeking Him: Experiencing The Joy of Personal Revival bible study workbook by Nancy Lee Demoss and Tim Grissom.  The sample only has 5 days (one week's worth) of the 12 week study.  It is really good!  My friend CH is studying to be a counselor and she shared some of what she had been reading for her studies.  It really is very interesting and points back to God's plan for each of us and how merciful He is to us.
My second "coffee date" was with my bestie DW at Cool Beans.  We met for brunch after picking up my oldest from cross country practice.  She took an early lunch break and my boys and I met her at the train depot where Cool Beans is located.  I think both of us were pretty tired (this heat wave is zapping the energy right out of us) as we didn't really chat as much as we usually do!  That and we were hungry so we got busy on our food!  We talked about attending the free live music concerts all the coffee houses have (usually on Friday nights) and other fun family things to do before the summer is over.  School will be starting before we know it and we'd rather not spend the rest of the summer on the couch watching tv!  
I am so blessed to have such good sister-friends to get together with, talk about what God is doing in our lives and pray for one another!  Thank you, ladies, for your friendship!

Bestie DW and me at Cool Beans.

Making Memories

Since I blogged about our Mother's Day adventures, I wanted to share about our Father's Day outing as well.  My older sister and I conspired together again to do something special with our Dad.  We made sure he was free on June 20th and I picked him up and met up with sister in a nearby town.  We drove to a shopping center to stop at a Starbucks for coffee drinks, then hit another store for some Krispy Kreme donuts after a little browsing.  Donuts are kind of a special thing between us sisters and our Dad.  We have precious memories of going into town after a trip to the dump with our dad and picking up some donuts to snarf on the way home.  Mom wasn't too keen on us being so sugared up but it didn't happen often and it was great father/daughter time!  So we wanted to indulge in that special time again but our stomaches couldn't handle all that sugar so we stopped at a grocery store for some fruit and yogurt to try to balance it out a bit.  Dad knew of our plans for coffee and donuts, however, the next part of our adventures were a complete surprise for him.  He has always wanted to teach his daughters about gun safety and to take us shooting but most of us just weren't too interested in it.  My older sister and I have recently become a little more interested in learning to shoot a gun and knowing how much it would please our daddy we decided to take him to a shooting range for some target practice.  As we parked, my dad's face bore a huge smile!  This was going to be great!  I also had both my sons with me as well and they were super excited about shooting real guns as opposed to the bb gun, paintball guns or nerf guns they've shot in the past!  We got all paperwork signed, geared up and headed into the range.  Dad did a little review of what to do with each of us as we took turns shooting our targets.  We all did really well!  I think Dad was just as pleased watching each of us shoot as he was in shooting.  He had that proud daddy/grandpa smile the whole time!  As we were turning our gear back in and leaving the store the owner came out to talk with us.  He asked where we were from and how we'd heard about them.  He was very nice and we told him we'd love to have a range even closer to us so hopefully in the near future we'll be able to just go into town here to go shooting as a family!  We had such a good time together with our daddy and even though he didn't walk away with any typical Father's Day gifts, I think it means so much more to have spent that time together and made such great memories as well as strengthened our relationship as father and daughters and grandsons!  Love you, Daddy-o!

Grandpa giving instruction to his grandsons.

Proud Dad with his oldest daughter.

Daddy shooting.

Daddy looking on as I shoot at my target.

Blessings, definate blessings!

 My older sister and I worked together to plan a great Mother's Day get together with our mother the Friday before.  We wanted to have more of a quality time experience with her rather than to spend a lot of money on something she really didn't need.  She enjoys watching birds and wildlife so we got her a birdfeeder stand with a little birdbath and a pretty glass birdfeeder with seed.  My sister also brought some of her homemade vanilla oatmeal soap and I crocheted a soap holder body scrubber for her.  Oh, and I brought her some red roses from my rose bush.  After setting up the bird bath and feeder we headed to a nearby town where we toured an old mansion then headed to a grill house for a late lunch.  We had a lot of fun and got to spend some precious time with our mother!  The only thing that would have made it even better was if our younger sister could have joined us!  She did call before we left Mom's house for a short phone visit but we did miss her company for our afternoon adventures.


Mom with her new bird bath and feeder.

My momma laughing!  I love to see her this way!

On the staircase of the mansion - Me, Mom, and Sis.

Mercy

This post gets filed under the "Blunder" heading.  Six months have gone by since my last post.  I only have 2 followers anyway but the point of this blog was to "share" some of my life with people and I haven't been doing very well with that.  I won't try to play catch up.  I'll just go from here and hope I can make posts more often.
Besides letting my blog get forgotten I've also let my quiet time with God get pushed out of my routine.  I let excuses of being tired and/or busy get me out of it.  And I'm seeing the consequences of it.  My anxiety level is much worse, my relationships are struggling, my thinking is not what it should be, etc.  I really want to get back on track and get back to a close relationship with God.  Afterall, He is why I am here and He is who I should be living for.  Yesterday I just opened up my bible to a random page and it opened to Lamentations 3.  I read the whole chapter and each verse had something in it for me.  But the verses I want to share with you in that chapter are 22 and 23.  "The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness."  Even though I've been off track, out of His word for quite some time, He has never left me and accepts me back.  I don't deserve that but I am very grateful for it.  And rather than letting shame keep me back, I want to share my heart and my life with my Savior.  He died for it and it's the least I can give to Him.