Grateful to the Lord

Life and school have really kept me busy lately, but I had to come and post about how thankful I am. Friends and I were talking about how much life as homeschool mothers, or mothers in general!--can really make us feel pulled and spread thin. One friend in particular said how there are SO many needs--how is one person supposed to meet them all? We are individual women with TWO hands each. We have so many responsibilities from the raising (and educating!) of our children and all that that entails, the other duties we love to claim as our own--wife, student, cook, housekeeper, activity planner, counselor, friend, child of the King, etc. I had been thinking this morning before our conversation about how thankful I am for my life. How thankful I am that it is full and keeps me busy. See, one can take "overwhelmed" and make it "full and purposeful" with a change of perspective. How often I wish I would remember this very important principle. How good it would be if I could remember it *before* I started yelling about some relatively unimportant offense. Once my attitude changed, I just started listing everything I was thankful for to the Lord. He's so good in every way to me.

26. I am thankful for my life--the craziness of it and the sweetness of it.
27. I am thankful even for the trialsbecause they work patience. I have seen the evidence of that in my life.
28. I am thankful there haven't been MORE trials. :) More will come, but I thank the Lord He does not give me more than I can handle.
29. I thank the Lord for surrounding me with SO much love. My GOODNESS am I unworthy! Lord, please help me to *live* like I appreciate the love you've surrounded me with.
30. I am thankful for perpetually blue skies. They are beautiful and make me really thankful for the rare day that we have cloud cover.
31. I am thankful for an emerging young lady in our house. Her presence has really challenged me to look at life differently and be very introspective.
32. I am thankful that, at least for now, said young lady tries hard to keep her outlook sunny. Makes life much easier on her and her family.
33. Baby rolls make me happy. :) I am even thankful for baby spit up. It means I have a sweet chubby baby to snuggle.
34. I am thankful for mind-stretching online school. I'm even thankful for the class I hate. There are so many in the world who have no opportunity for an education.
35. I am So SO thankful for 70 degree weather--finally!

Grateful For This 3 Year Old

I thought I'd dedicate this post to 10 or so reasons I am thankful for our little 3 year old. Can't list everything, of course, but it'll be nice to take time out to list things for which I am REALLY grateful to have all the little people God has entrusted to my husband and I.

16. She is SO tender hearted.

17. She really tries her dead-level best to be obedient, even though sometimes (okay many times) her mischeivousness prevents that.

18. She wants to be just like mom. This is both SO endearing and extremely humbling. Not sure I really want any of my girls to be JUST like me.

19. She loves to help.

20. she loves to be in the kitchen and seems to love food and cooking as much as I do. I am praying that she will be as un-picky as I am when it comes to things she will eat.

21. She looks like me. This is a little embarasssing to list as something to be thankful for, but her curls and green eyes are very reminiscent of my 3 year old pics and it makes me feel....I don't know, like I actually PARTICIPATED in the whole process of bringing these children into the world. Most of my kids are a carbon copy of their daddy! lol. I LOVE him and them, but come on--can't a girl get a gene in here and there? :P

22. She loves to snuggle. She's kinda stingy with her kisses (which as her mother, I say is GREAT! Don't kiss those boys, either! ), but she freely hugs and snuggles--really breaks down the chilly exterior I can have.

23. She has POTTY TRAINED (okay, months ago, but I am still reveling in the fact that for the first time since our first child was born, I have ONE baby in diapers)!!

24. She is an unashamed girl.

25. She can sing the continents song because she comes to school just like the other kids and INSISTS on learning. I'm not a big fan of preschool, but hey--when a kid WANTS to learn, they will!

More Taxi Totes and Gratitude

From Anna Maria Horner's "Seams To Me" book. This pattern is called "Taxi Tote", and it is SUPER easy. I've made 4 patterns of bags now and this is by far the easiest. It's only my 3rd one and I have the pattern memorized.

As you can see, the bags hang a little low on my girls, but that makes them perfect for their being able to wear them across their chests, thereby making ME feel better about how secure their belongings are.

I enjoy making these fabric covered buttons. I used to do these for my mom's projects when she was sewing clothing for us. It's so satisfying to be able to make buttons with the exact look that I need for any given project.

I also enjoyed using the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. Can't see this one too well, but the one above has a bolder stitch.

Fabric is from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line. This line is now out of print, and that always makes me want to buy it up. This is the first line I fell in love with when I first picked sewing back up 2 years ago.

And so now for the related gratitude:

11. I love sewing and am thankful that I had the chance to start again. My husband makes this possible with his generosity when he can.

12. I am thankful I have sweet little girls on which to hang my wares. Not too much sewing I can do for my boys, unfortunately, so I am thankful I have an outlet and models in my girls. But boys, look forward to your PJ pants this year for Christmas! ;)

13. I am incredibly thankful for my low maintenance boys. As much as I LOVE sewing for my girls, I am equally in love with the fact that my boys are content with legos and dirt. Ahhhh....

14. I've had a hard few weeks lately, and I am thankful that my sweet husband makes time for me. He is busy, so he could ignore my needs for his attention, but he doesn't.

15. My parents are coming to keep me company next week and that will be an unbelievable relief.
Thanks to the Lord, we have much to be thankful for!

Easiest Skirt Ever!

front

back

I finally got around to making myself something to wear (besides an apron). I bought this pattern http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=1ede14f3-b661-411f-8443-95cf2034ddcd a couple of years ago, but never made it (or wanted to) because I was not happy with how I looked. Now that I have lost 25 lbs, I thought I'd try to save us some money and try a skirt for myself. I'm not done losing weight, but one cannot go on forever with no clothes! I was SO happy with how easy it was. Yes, cutting out the 8 panels was a bit obnoxious, but the actual sewing was quite easy. There are about 4 steps to this skirt! I really encourage anyone wanting to try making their own clothes to make this skirt. Besides being easy, this skirt is comfortable and modest too! There are also 2 other skirts in this pattern, which makes it quite a bargain. I really think it could be a first project for a beginner. You could even ask me if you have a question about it and I could try my best to answer!

I used a fabric from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain line. I like that it's reminiscent of flowery fields, but still very appropriate for fall. Forgive the wrinkles--we took these pics after church today after I had been sitting for a couple of hours. And remember, the camera adds 10 pounds! lol. ;)

Gratitude

Erin over at

http://afullheart.blogspot.com/ has a blog post about how she is involved in a gratitude project, where she lists 1000 things she is thankful for. Knowing that thankfulness keeps our attitudes right, I thought I'd join her. So, I'm thankful for....

1. being able to decorate for my favorite season, fall. There have been years I was not able to do this due to finances or moving, so it's always a special treat when I get to.

2. my 6 little pumpkins--all their sweet little hearts and rotteness, I'm thankful for it all (even the bad stuff teaches us things).

3. the fact that baby number #5 LOVES baby #6. She thinks the baby is the funniest, cutest thing ever.

4. baby smiles--no explanation needed.

5. trying like mad to get a good picture with my love. It almost never works, but we like trying. :)
6. My honey's heart--he has such a heart for me that it's quite endearing, and makes it so much easier for me to fulfill my role. And Lord knows I need "easy" when it comes to that role. Thank you, Lord!

7. Along the lines of praising my husband--I LOVE his eyes. Amazing.

8. cooler weather

9. chocolate

10. being able to sign up for school. My husband's service makes this possible, and that's something else I'm thankful for.

What are the things you're thankful for?

It Must Be Fall.....

Because I can't stop sewing. Something in the air changes and I come back to life every year at this time. I am SO thankful for seasons--the upcoming one in particular.

Here's my little girl in a scrappy skirt I threw together in less than an hour. It really is the easiest thing in the world. I love reusing fabric too small to cut for anything else, and fabric that might just sit in my sewing armoire until I am 75 and finally have the patience to learn to quilt. lol.

Happy fall to you all!

LOVE This Bag!

This pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. Fabric is a home decor weight fabric by Joel Dewberry.

http://www.amazon.com/Seams-Me-Reasons-Love-Sewing/dp/0470259264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253201133&sr=8-1Finished with a Bavarian brooch from Germany--I love the juxtaposition of the ultra modern print with the old fashioned-looking brooch.

The sun really got to this pic. Oh well. :)

As far as the pattern review goes--I always take such a long time when I first try a pattern because I have a hard time transferring what I am reading to what I am to be doing with my hands. But looking back on this bag, it was SO easy to make! The book shows 32 steps, but I hope no one is intimidated by that. The steps can really be broken down into, like...six maybe: cut the fabric, sew the little corners for the gussets, put on interfacing, sewing outer bag together, repeat for lining, sew lining and outer bag together, sew on bias strips. Oh, and sew on button or affix brooch. Okay, so that was 8 steps, but it's just as easy as it sounds.

There were a few things about the pattern that were either not clear to me (but once again, I have trouble with that), or were too detailed (like how to sew up one side of the bag and down the other. The directions included how to turn the corner and pick up the presser foot, which I think is probably unnecessary), but by and large, the patterns in this book tend to be much less annoying than the ones I have used from Amy Butler, although I love the results from both pattern makers. I also used ready made bias tape because, well, I just don't think I have the heart to make my own right now, only to have it not be right. I have visions of myself throwing fabric and sewing machines out my front door. Not good.

So all in all, my girl Anna Maria did a great job with this little bag! I foresee many being made for my relatives and friends for Christmas.