A very crafty week

Most weeks will not be this "crafty" but this was a bit of a different week. Tomorrow is a joint birthday party for one of our nieces and nephews. After just going thru all the Christmas shopping (and making a goal to make more gifts) I decided to make the birthday gifts. All of the patterns for these projects can be found at this site

Purse for my niece (the flower is from another project so it is not the one
in the pattern)

Crocheted cars (this was my first attempt at toys and while they came
out "okay" I can definitely see much room for improvement)

I also finished this sweater for our new little guy on the way and sewed the fleece hooded scarf for Hailey (although I forgot to take a picture)

Lessons from Peter's failure.

This week I am "between" Bible studies (I'm waiting for two new books to arrive in the mail). So I decided to look thru some "random" books on our bookshelves. Of course, nothing is random and God know just when we need to read or hear something.

I picked up the book "Out of the Saltshaker & Into the world" by Rebecca Pippert (a book on evangelism). In the very last chapter of the book Mrs. Pippert discusses Peter and how to our human eyes he looks nothing like the "rock" that Jesus describes him as. He faltered, he failed. Although Peter greatly loved Christ he made many mistakes. In the end Peter denies Jesus, not once but three times. When Peter realizes what he has done he is distraught:

"The last contact Peter had with Jesus was the scene of his own betrayal...
A few days later Peter was told that the Lord has risen... How did Peter feel now?....
On one level he would be ecstatic, but on another afraid and ashamed.
Maybe the Lord had given up on him...But God knew how Peter felt."

In Mark 16:7 the angel specifically tells the women to "go tell his disciples, and Peter". Jesus knew how Peter felt and wanted him to know that he was forgiven. Later Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him. Peter answers "Lord you know everything, you know that I love you"

"Peter realized that Jesus knew who he was, his fallibility, his limits, his warts.
And yet Peter loved Jesus. Jesus knew that too. He had known Peter's faults
long before they ever dawned on Peter."

Jesus knows all of our failures and weaknesses yet He has entrusted us with being his ambassadors. He knows we will make mistakes and fail. He only asks that we will serve, in love for Him, using whatever talents or gifts he has given us. He is our strength and guide, our help we need only be a willing vessel.

New Year and some New Goals

Wow, it's hard to believe that 2009 is over already. The past year went by so fast! Looking back it is nice to see how God has worked in my life and my family's lives. I'm very thankful for all that He has blessed us with and all that He has taught me.

I'm not usually one to set New Year Resolutions/Goals because honestly I don't ever think I'll keep them so I figure why bother setting them. However, this year is different. There are two things that I really have as goals for this year.

1) To be more consistent in my Bible Study/Quiet Time. As part of this I am planning to post here once a week to share something that God has shown me during the week. If you notice that I haven't posted PLEASE say something. I could really use the accountability.

2) To complete 1-2 (depending on size of project) craft projects per month. This is so that I can get some Christmas gifts made. I always seem to think of making gifts when it gets to be around October; by then I don't have the time to complete them so I end up just buying gifts. With 14 (16 by this Christmas) nieces and nephews to buy for that can get quite expensive, plus I really want to be able to personalize the gifts we give. I am planning to post at the end of each month what projects I have completed and the ideas for the next month.

This month my crafting goal is to finish the sweater I'm crocheting for our new baby boy and to make the hooded scarf that Hailey asked me to make (I made one for her cousin for Christmas and now she really wants one too! ).

I know that two goals isn't much but I really want to be able to focus on these for this year. Feel free to post your goals/resolutions.

Summer & Fall Fun

Keira and I at the Orchard

Hailey at apple picking
Ethan with his pumpkin

Keira's 1st birthday celebration

Playing at a state park with friends

First Pony Rides

Outfits from Thailand

Grammie B with 7 of her 9 grandchildren

Busy summer/fall

Wow, I can't believe it has been since May that I have sat down and blogged on here. In all honesty, I tend to keep up with everyone on Facebook now so I don't make it over here very often.

Our summer was busy, beginning with a trip to Virginia. We had a lovely time visiting with my sister-in-law and her family. Two of my nephews graduated from high school so we had a graduation party for them. My mother-in-law was also visiting from Thailand so we were able to spend some great time with her. Speaking of my mother-in-law; she came to our house and stayed with us from Mid-June to Mid-July. A lot of great memories were made.

This summer was also busy for me as I decided to do more canning than I normally do. I made several jars of blueberry jam, zucchini relish, bread & butter pickles, three bean salad and just a few weeks ago I made applesauce. It's nice to have all the jars on the shelves and also nice to have all that work done. :)

One rather scary moment occurred a couple of months ago. I had given Keira her breakfast and then walked into the kitchen to fill out some paperwork. She started screaming so I went back in but didn't immediately see anything wrong. I thought maybe she needed a diaper change so I took her upstairs to check that. As I was checking her I noticed her lip swelling. As I watched it kept swelling and she kept screaming. I had my neighbor come over and decided to call for the ambulance as her eyes were looking a bit puffy too. As soon as the ambulance got here they said it looked like an allergic reaction and that she needed to go to the ER immediately. After a visit to the ER and her pediatricians the next day it was determined that she most likely has an allergy to apples (she was eating an apple when this happened and had just started having them). So thankfully it was not a reaction that affected her breathing but we do have to carry an Epi-pen JR for her as a precaution.

As the summer started winding down we prepared for the start of Ethan's first day of school. He was very excited, although a bit apprehensive also. One thing that really helped him to be "okay" with going was a park day that was organized by one of the other moms. She invited all of the incoming kindergarten kids to meet at a park for snacks and a time to play and meet each other. It was also nice for the moms to be able to meet each other.

Ethan loves school and is really enjoying being around the other kids. I have started being active with the Boosters club at his school which is the volunteer program for parents to help with tasks the school needs help with.

As for the girls, Hailey keeps busy helping me with things at home and practicing her letters and numbers to try and keep up with Ethan. Keira is very busy and has started walking and climbing. It's hard to believe she'll be a year on Wednesday. Time has certainly flown this year.

Recently I have started preparing for the holidays. Every year we have a Christmas party at our house and I like to include some sort of homemade item with the invitations so I am about 1/2 way thru making those.

As I close this post I did want to share our most exciting news of the summer. We found out in August that our 4th blessing is on it's way. I am due April 28th and now that I am thru the first trimester I am feeling a bit better. I still get tired easily but I am hoping that over the next few weeks that will get better also. The kids are very excited about having another baby in the house and it's been a lot of fun seeing how involved they want to be in everything.

I know this is long and only skims the surface but I did want to update and will do another post with some pictures from the summer and fall.

Happy Birthday Hailey!!

Yesterday was my older daughter's birthday. She turned 4 and was VERY excited about not being 3 anymore. It was a very busy day but she had so much fun and it was encouraging to see her grateful attitude. Last night I went in to tuck her into bed and she crawled into my lap and said "mama, I had such a good day today. I've never been 4 before but now I'm 4!!" She's my most expressive child which can be a challenge at times but it's those moments that make the challenges worth all the work. I love you my big girl.

For her party she had decided that she wanted a "Lightlings" birthday. What is "Lightlings" you ask...it's a wonderful allegory tale written by R.C. Sproul. He has 4 of these allegory books all written to help children understand the attributes of God. This particular book explains why some people are afraid of the Light and prefer to live in darkness. The end of each book has a clear explanation of the allegory and 3 of the books have a parents section where there are discussion questions. My son also loves these books too. I bought them all from Amazon and got a pretty good deal on them.

So, when she said she wanted a "Lightlings" birthday I had to figure out what to do (there are no "Lightlings" themed party items :) ). The characters in the book look like woodland sprites/fairies so we went with that look for the party. I thought I would share just a couple pictures from yesterday. All the party items were purchased at the dollar store; the total for decorations, favors, and tableware came to just under $35 dollars (had to add sales tax for everything so it wasn't an exact dollar amount).

The Birthday Girl:

The Cake:

Some crocheted "oven mitts" for her play kitchen (her present from her baby sister ;) ):
Everyone waiting patiently for cake (There are 12 cousins that all live within 45 minutes of our house so birthdays are always very "kid-filled"):

A Homemade Life

Today I thought I would share a few things that I've done over the past two weeks. Something that has recently come to my attention is that it is extremely difficult to find casual dresses for little girls that are modest enough (i.e. well below the knee). My 4 year old loves to wear dresses but I have a hard time finding ones that are appropriate for running around outside yet long enough so she is still modest in them. I have done some sewing but definitely am not an accomplished seamstress. I decided to try my hand at making a dress for her, without a pattern, out of some fabric I had on hand. I did some research online and got a few tips from some friends who have done sewing without using a pattern. The dress came out okay. The material is not something I would normally use for a dress but it is what I had on hand and I didn't want to spend money for new material when it very well could have ended up a total disaster. Here is the final result. She loves it and now has one more "everyday" dress:


This next item was actually a joke between my younger brother and I. He loves coffee...correct that..he is a coffee addict. While looking thru some crochet patterns one night I came across the pattern for a toilet paper cover shaped like a mug of coffee. I joked to my husband that I should make one for my brother. The next day I happened to talk to my brother and told him about the TP cover. He thought it was great and asked me to please make him one and send it to him. I shouldn't have been surprised that he wanted one :-D

I have also done the usual bread baking and I also made some homemade granola this week. One last thing I wanted to share is a new blog I found called Little House in the Suburbs. She has so many ideas for homemade products that I wanted to pass the information along. Also be sure to check out all the other homemade ideas over at Life on a Back Road.