Saturday, January 31, 2009

Laundry

Psalm 51:10, 12, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." (NIV)

This verse was in my devotion today. It was a simple message from Proverbs 31 about laundry. Like the the author, Gina Parcells, the laundry in my house never ends. I swear I think that it breeds! With six of us now laundry is a daily chore and it seems that no matter how hard we work to get it all done, as soon as that last piece in taken out of the dryer, folded and placed in the basket, a new load of dirty laundry is ready to be washed. Gina talks about how laundry is like our sin. It seems to always be there, always reminding us that we are not yet done. Like Gina, I too neglect to give all of my "laundry" to God like I should. I also have some sins in my life that are "like favorite shirts, that I am resistant to take off". I hadn't really thought about it that way before reading her devotion. I wonder if God gets as frustrated with watching me wear my sin over and over without washing it as I get when I see my children wear their favorite clothes to school day in and day out.

Does God ever want to just say "Hey! You wore that yesterday, look at the stains on it and just smell it! It stinks! Take it off and put it in the wash!" I know I have said that to my kids about their favorite clothes. It is an interesting analogy for me. God stands there, waiting for me to give him my dirty laundry, wanting to clean it but unable to until I am willing to take it off and give it to Him. I tend to go through the day focused on everything else. I thank God for another day, for blessing me with more time with my husband and children. I ask Him to find a way to use me that day. I thank Him for the food, the shelter, for providing a new job for my husband, for a wonderful church family, and so many other things. I don't however ask him to cleanse my heart of everything. I don't take off my favorite shirt and give it to him.

That is my only difference with Gina, I don't want to ask for God to clean my favorite shirt, I want to be able to give it to Him for Him to keep - I don't want it back. I want to be willing to give up my sins, to turn away from them. If you didn't read the devotion, you can read it by clicking here What is your favorite shirt that you don't want to take off? Maybe it is time for you to take a moment and talk with God also. I know it was for me!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I give U my Heart bookmark

It's a snow day today, again. The kids are loving it! Yesterday they were sledding in our front yard making the best of being forced to stay home from school due to weather. Can't you see how upset they are?


We also brought baby A out to play in the snow for the first time. Here she is with her very handsome daddy.

So today we get a phone call at 5 am saying school was yet again cancelled...more snow fell overnight. I have tried to talk the kids into building a snowman for me. No such luck! Today they ventured to the neighbors house to sled on the "good" hill. My hubby had to venture out in this and travel about 4 hours away for a physical and drug test to start his new job. That left me and baby A in the house and me trying to stay busy so I don't worry too much about the road conditions.

In an effort to stay busy I decided to whip up an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a few days. I am a reader. I have two bookshelves full of books not to mention 2 or 3 boxes of books hibernating in the garage waiting for me to read the books on the shelves so I can pass those along and move the box books in. That being said, I also like bookmarks. I once took part in a bookmark swap and got LOTS of bookmarks. One can never have to many. Well, long story short I had been thinking about things to make for Valentine's Day. Why not a bookmark? So I sat down today and after many frogging episodes I came up with this. Hope you like it. I am thinking about maybe creating a gift tag to go with it. If I do, I will post it for ya!




I Give You My Heart Bookmark
small amount size 10 bedspread crochet thread
1.65 mm steel hook (size 7)
Stiffener of your choice
tapestry needle

chain 2
R 1: work 6 sc in first chain. Join to first sc
R 2: ch 2, work 2 hdc in same sc and in each sc around. Join to first hdc (12 hdc)
R 3: ch 2, dc in same hdc, 2 dc in next stitch, dc in next, 2 dc in next stitch, dc in next, 2 dc in next stitch, sc in next, 2 dc in next stitch, dc in next, 2 dc in next stitch, dc in next, 2 dc in last stitch, join to first dc. (17 dc and 1 sc)
R 4: ch 2, dc in same stitch, hdc in each of next 2 stitches, (hdc and dc) in next stitch, dc in next, (dc & trc) in next, 3 trc in next, (trc & dc) in next, hdc in next, sl st into sc of previous row, hdc in next, (dc & trc) in next, 3 trc in next, (trc & dc) in next, dc in next, (dc & hdc) in next, hdc in each of last 2 stitches. join to first dc.
chain 70
beg small heart
3 trc & 1 dc in 3rd chain from hook, 2 dc in next chain, sc in next chain. Turn so that you can work in the opposite side of the chains you just worked in. Sc in same chain as previous sc, 2 dc in next chain, dc &3 trc in last chain. Ch 2 and join with a sl st to last chain. Finish by weaving in ends. On the small heart end I used the tail to sew up the gap in the center.
Stiffen the hearts using your desired method. I left the chain loose but you can stiffen it also if you would like. This would also look cute if you added some ultra fine glitter when stiffening.

heart bookmark
Creative Commons License
I Give you my Heart Bookmark by Sunflowers at Home is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.






Monday, January 26, 2009

Lazy Bones

Okay, confession time. I have accomplished very little this past month. I don't know where it went but here I am on the 26th of January (my 12 year anniversary with my wonderful husband) and I realized that I have not done my diet or exercise program, I skimped on my I Corinthians Challenge, I really haven't done much of anything. In my defense, I have had a sinus infection for the past two weeks. Still, I feel like it has been about 5 steps back and 0 steps forward.

I have started on some of the homemade Christmas gifts for the family this year. I started on my sons blue and green afghan he requested. I also began a pink and brown rasta style knit hat for one of my daughters. I have 3 eyeglass cases and 3 baby hats ready to donate to a group on Crochetville, just need to make 2 more of each and send them out. I also have 2 items done of the 24 I have committed to for God's Tiny Angels. It just seems that I haven't found or made the time to work on me. Let me be honest here, I didn't want to start working on me yet.

Seriously, who really wants to diet? I like eating brownie overload ice cream, I don't want to give up the occassional snickers bar and Dr. Pepper. At least I don't want to until I go to put on clothes and yet again realize I have to pull out the fat clothes that I had boxed up to give away. It wasn't so bad last time. Actually, after a few weeks I didn't really even think about what I had given up because I was so excited watching the numbers on the scale go down. I felt better, I looked better, I set a better example for my children. So what am I waiting for?

February will be a new beginning for me. DH should be back to work then, which means hours at home with just me and the baby. I can work in some exercise and crochet work, maybe even find a mommy group so I don't go stir crazy with all of the baby talk.

So what are you waiting on? Do you have a few pounds to lose? Do you read God's word every day? What do you need to work on? Why not start working on the new you with me? Let me know what your plans and goals are.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Year, New Me!

It's a brand new year, and time for me to start improving my life one step at a time. There are many things that I reflected on when coming up with New Year resolutions, I am overweight, adjusting to being a SAHM again, I will have to adjust to my wonderful husband going back to work soon, and I am currently struggling with a bad situation with my oldest daughter's grandparents and trying very hard not to be bitter towards them. Money is really tight, but honestly I can't remember when I was happier with my life. God has definately blessed my family and provided for us in 2008, I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in 2009.

So, what are my resolutions you ask. First, I am going to work on getting healthy again. I had lost about 35 pounds before we found out we were being blessed with another addition to our family. Over those 9 months and the 5 months since her birth I gained every bit of it back and then some. So, it's back on track in 2009. As I said before money is tight, which means no Curves membership, no Weight Watchers meetings or Jenny Craig. However, there is SparkPeople! I love SparkPeople! It is a free online community that helps with nutrition plans, exercise plans, accountability and tracking. There are many Christian groups at SparkPeople to provide moral support too. If you are looking to lose weight in 2009, why not give SparkPeople a try?

Join me at: SparkPeople.com

So that takes care of physical me for 2009, but wait! There's more! Today in my email I recieved an email from the Christian Stay at Home Mom group talking about the 1 Corinthian 7:5 Challenge. For those of you that don't immediately recall what this verse says (I sure didn't) here it is:

5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent
and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.
Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you
because of your lack of self-control.
(NIV)
This verse is for husbands and wives. Now, I don't know about you, but after a long day of taking care of the baby, checking homework, cleaning, cooking dinner, running errands etc, this is definately the verse I think about when I finally get to crawl into bed at night! However, maybe all of us married ladies should be. So I figured I would give the challenge a shot and see how it goes. After all, the worst case scenario is that I get a bit more nookie! What's so bad about that?! So I invite you to join me in the I Corinthians 7:5 challenge Just click the button below to learn more
Between the two of these, 2009 should be the beginning of the New Me! Hope you decide to join me in at least one of my resolutions. If so, please post and let me know which one. If not, let me know what your resolution for this year is!