Sew Thursday!

Well, the foxy boy quilt is completely finished...and all tied up ready to be delivered!

I made Felix here as a bonus surprise.  He's made from parts of an old sweater...and I especially like his tail...an old tie!

Hodgepodge No Foolin'

1. What are two or three expectations you have of yourself?

I try to hold myself to God's standards.  I want to please Him by meeting His expectations written in His Word and give Him glory in what I say and do.  1.  I am working on not complaining because that's basically telling God He messed up.  This applies to head colds, lateness, and the weather.  2.  I'm working on being a submissive wife and grace focused parent.  3.  I'm working on completing this course of study in biblical counseling so I can help my sisters in Christ at church.

2. In what way does your outdoor space need sprucing up this spring?

We have plans to put new black shutters on our house.  We also plans to hang more outside lighting and paint the screen porch and fence.  I need to add and remove plants from my flower beds too.

3. According to this site (Roadtrippers), six of North America's most wondrous waterfalls are-Webster's Falls in Ontario, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina, Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, Multnomah Falls in Oregon, The Lower Yellowstone Falls, and Niagara.  Have you seen any on the list? Which one on the list would you most like to visit? Prettiest waterfall not on the list that you've seen in person?

The only one of these I've seen is Niagara.  It was amazingly powerful!!! 

4. Looking back, what's something you wish you'd done as a teenager?

I wish I'd been braver about sharing my faith in Christ.  I'm not sure what bad thing I thought was going to happen but I never said much until my Junior year...then I moved and didn't really establish new friendships.

5. Ham...yes please or no thank you? If you said yes please which of the following do you like best-baked ham with all the trimmings, a ham and cheese sandwich, prosciutto with melon, a ham biscuit, a bowl of split pea and ham soup, or a slice of pizza topped with ham and pineapple?

Yes please.  I love a good pea soup with ham!  Yum!!!

6. Are you typical of your generation? How so?

My husband and I are not typical of our generation.  Most are very sports focused and anti academic.  We are very settled...total nerds and bookworms.  We get along best with people at least a decade older than us... or more.

7. April rolls in at the end of the week, and in keeping with that theme...'act the fool', 'nobody's fool' 'a fool's errand', 'could have fooled me'...which foolish idiom most recently applies to you?

I'm going with 'act a fool'....I'm slowly learning it's better to just keep your mouth shut and let people think whatever they want.  I'm not sure this is so much me acting the fool as it's just letting fools think what they want. Makes me think of "Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." Mark Twain

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Due to a new perpetual school calendar our Spring break has gone from one to two weeks off.  It is long.  They are currently slap silly on the couch bugging and loving each other.  It's all good fun until somebody cries.  Sigh....I visited family and I have outings planned...but it's still long.  They miss their friends and teachers.  I'm glad they're good friends most of the time.

Reading Aloud...

I simply adore reading aloud!  I learned to love it as a child...and have fond memories of many road trips and quiet evenings spent reading as a family.  My parents modeled great reading and helped hone my read aloud skills as I learned about speed, inflection and volume.  Then, as a teacher, I learned to enjoy it even more!!!

My own two Sweet Boobahs are now both avid little readers and I'm trying to pick some great read alouds.  It is challenging, even for an adult reader, to animate books.  Much of comprehension is based on my reading as often the vocabulary is right on the edge of their current reading level.  I LOVE this challenge and the widening of vocabulary.  I comply with their gleeful pleas for 'just one more chapter' until I'm quite hoarse.

Per my Sweet Loverbrains request we are reading The Hobbit aloud.  Although, The Lord of the Rings movies were very enjoyable I could never get into Tolkien's books...but I am amazed at how very fun this read aloud has been so far.

We've enjoyed many Roald Dahl books and Richard Peck books...our favorite being George's Marvelous Medicine and A Long Way From Chicago.

On our current list are:

The Voyages of Dr Dolittle

Pippi Longstocking

The Borrowers

The Last Of The Really Great Whangdoodles

Five Children and It

The Twenty One Balloons

Do you have any favorites you'd like to suggest!?

Sunrise Song

This song is still pounding through my heart after church yesterday....

Creation sings the Father's song; 
He calls the sun to wake the dawn 
And run the course of day 
Till evening falls in crimson rays. 
His fingerprints in flakes of snow, 
His breath upon this spinning globe, 
He charts the eagle's flight; 
Commands the newborn baby's cry.  

Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,  
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;  
Tell the wonders of creation's King.  

Creation gazed upon His face; 
The ageless One in time's embrace
Unveiled the Father's plan 
Of reconciling God and man. 
A second Adam walked the earth, 
Whose blameless life would break the curse, 
Whose death would set us free 
To live with Him eternally.  

Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,  
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;  
Tell the wonders of creation's King.  

Creation longs for His return, 
When Christ shall reign upon the earth; 
The bitter wars that rage 
Are birth pains of a coming age. 
When He renews the land and sky, 
All heav'n will sing and earth reply 
With one resplendent theme: The glories of our God and King! 

Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,  
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;  
Tell the wonders of creation's King.  

Words and Music by Keith and Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townsend 

WORD: schedules of reading

I noticed one of my last posts before my long hiatus was about how I was reading through the Bible without a true schedule.  Yes, for 2015 I used a simple list of all the books of the bible and chapters and went about it at my own pace.  For this chick, who's a little too driven by rules and "to dos", it was very freeing.  It kept Bible reading from being so much a duty and changed it to be more of a delight.  

Now, that being said, I'm not sure I'd encourage people to go all loosey goosey...It was harder to stay disciplined without a true schedule pushing things along.  I prayed for God to help me desire His Word...a lot.  Thankfully, I believe He truly delights to answer this prayer...even if He has to put hard times in your way to make you dig into His Word.  

This year, 2016, I'm being ambitious.  Through my studies I've realized more and more that no good human writing about God's Word is as good as God's Word itself...and I REALLY need to be in it more.  I saw the need in biblical counseling, and life as a whole, to get better at knowing where things are located...and quickly.  I'm not terrible at this...I can usually nab the right general area and I'm a wicked fast googler but...then someone suggested using Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading Schedule.  

Each day you read one chapter from each of ten lists. That’s right -- ten chapters per day!!! I use Olive Tree and they actually have this reading plan and it just electronically bops me from book to book...but sticky notes would work just fine too.  In fact, there's a neat printable set on Pinterest.  Since the lists vary in length, the readings begin interweaving in constantly changing ways. You will NEVER read the same set of ten chapters together again! 

Every year you’ll read through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the OT wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the OT History and Prophetic books about 1 1⁄2 times. 

Since the interweaving is constantly changing, you will experience the Bible commenting on itself in constantly changing ways -- the Reformer's principle of 'scriptura interpretans scripturam' -- 'scripture interpreting scripture' IN ACTION!  I'm loving it!!

So, that's the WORD for today.  Hope ya'll are getting into it!  

"The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple;The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple;  The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul;

the testimony of the LORD is sure,

making wise the simple;"

Psalm 19:7

St. Patrick's Hodgepodge

1. What do you think about luck?

I know some would say I'm splitting hairs but...I try not to use the word luck...I prefer Providence.  It is beyond comforting to rest in the hands of a good God.  I don't give credit for good, or bad things, to some unknown power.  I believe that there's no other will like God's sovereign will because God alone has the means to carry out whatever he wills.

2. Not counting your own backyard, what's a favorite green space in your town, city, or state?

My family enjoys a park close by called Eagle Creek Park....they have lots of interesting trails and an ornithology center overlooking a huge lake!  We are bird lovers so it works for us!!  This year we're planning to visit a few parks with waterfalls.

3. How do you make your life more complex than it needs to be?

Whenever I become a slave to my 'to do' list and set a bunch of 'self imposed deadlines' life gets crrrrazee and complex.  I probably don't say NO enough.

4. I read here the three places you should visit with friends. They are-New York City, Hawaii, and Amsterdam (rent a bike, walk along the canal, visit one of their world class museums). I felt the need to expound on that one. Moving on...Of the three places listed which would you most like to visit with friends? What's one place not on the list you think should be visited with friends?

Well, I'm game for anywhere.  Who wants to pay for my tickets?!  Hahaha!  NYC I might be able to pull off...the others are way out of my price range.  But, if wishes were dreams...I'd go with Hawaii!

5. What's the last live performance you saw? On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best) how would you rate it?

Last live performance I saw was a high school production of Alice In Wonderland and it was wonderful....I'd give it an 8 up against the pros.  It was my kids first live performance experience and they loved it too!

6. March 14th is National Potato Chip Day. Are you a fan? Your favorite flavor? Besides potato, what's your favorite chip type of snack?

I love Lays Potato chips...and my newest discovery and favorite are the dill pickle chips.  Besides potato my favorite chip type snack is Combos...the pretzel cheddar ones.  I try not to buy them!

7.What rule is most important in your home?

First time Obedience

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I'm happy to be merrily blogging along again.  It's been awhile.  I took an unplanned hiatus...life got busy...yada yada...Happy Spring!

Sewing Sabbath

It's so restful to sew...especially with my tiny seamstress sewing in her room right across the hallway!

I was messing around with scraps...seeing if I can come up with an idea for an eye spy quilt in the future....I don't love it.  I wanted it to look like one of those ticker tape quilts...so, I think they all have to go vertical and rectangular.

I positively reinforce good behavior...aka getting half the baby fox quilt top done.  If I finished half of it I got to make some tiny pinwheels ... 

So cute....I see a mug rug coming in the future!

Are you sewing anything fun?  Maybe you're just not giving yourself the right reward!  Maybe you need a little sewing friend!!  

A blogging I will go...

So, I'm going to take another go at blogging along.  I've been asked recently, by family and friends, if I'd completely given it up...and although I said I'd been too busy to even miss it...as I thought about it more...I do miss it.  It lacks much in the feedback dept but it is a good way to preserve collective memories.

So, an update is in order....our family has been busy.  Loverbrains has travelled many miles for work per his usual...and has also been taking a class at church that's kind of like a Bible minor.  A lot of reading but he's really loving it and growing a lot.

Caleb has an adorable toothless grin and is busy busy busy.  He still struggles with his GI tummy issues but has been making steady forward progress.  He's very into tanks...and even made one for his valentines box this year.  He loves school...and has enjoyed learning programming as a special extra.

Emma has blossomed this year.  She's an American Heritage Girl and, as a Tenderheart, has learned many new things.  She's embraced reading and sewing as her two favorites....with cooking being a close third.  

I'm keeping busy too.  I'm working diligently towards biblical counseling certification.  As an academic I didn't anticipate the truly sanctifying aspects of studying God's Word so closely and applying it so directly.  I've learned a lot...mostly that I must trust God's perfect timing and rest in Him.

I've recently starting taking pictures again...avoiding Facebook more (politics overload, ugh)...and sewing a lot.  Several close friends are expecting....so "a baby quilting I will go."  With Emma getting her first sewing machine I really have to be close at hand anyway...and I'm glad...I actually get things done!!

No promises Dear Void...I want to log my collected memories and write out more cathartic thoughts...but we shall see how the time works itself out.  And how well I can make this blogger app work from my iPad.