Swimming against the Current

It's been a pretty awesome week studying Stressed-Less Living: Finding God's Peace in Your Chaotic World  with Stephanie Clayton (thanks girl!) over at Melissa Taylor's Online Bible Studies.  Honesty moment here.  The first half of the chapter is a blur to me.  Not because I didn't read it, or because there wasn't some awesome insight there.  When I got to "swimming against the current" I felt like my heart stopped and God whispered, "pay attention".

I'm a momma of four pretty awesome kids.  My oldest turns 18 this coming Friday (Happy Birthday!), my son is 15, and two more daughters ages 13 and 4.  Yep, three teenagers and a preschooler!  When Tracie wrote, "When children are little, the demands they place on a parent are physically exhausting...but as they grow into adolescents, the physical exhaustion is quickly replaced by emotional exhaustion in the highest form" my head was bobbing up and down as fast as it could.  Teen drama mixed with preschool temper tantrums quickly add up to S.T.R.E.S.S.!  Especially with teens who want to do what everyone else does and parents who just don't always think like everyone else.

But you know what?  I wouldn't give it up for anything.  God entrusted my husband and I with training up these children in the way they should go and I figure that if He thinks we can handle it then we probably can.  I think this holds true for a lot of relationships in our lives.

God places people in our lives for a reason, and sometimes those relationships stress us out.  Ever been stressed out by your parents?  Your best friend?  Your boss?  Your spouse?  "It's hard being a Christian in a lost and broken world..." and that is true in any relationship.  It's hard to chose to honor your mother and father sometimes, especially in a world that tells us it's all about us.  It's hard to tell your best friend that you disagree with their actions but you still love them.  It's hard to works as if for the Lord when your boss acts like he has horns.  And it's hard to remember that your spouse is a part of you and you need to treat them with love and respect when you don't feel loved and respected yourself sometimes.  But when we remember that a relationship is not just between you and that person, but between you and Jesus and that person, it's a little easier to to do the right thing.  If we can remember Matthew 25:40, which paraphrased says what we do for others we do for Jesus, then maybe we can stop stressing out about the situation and relax knowing that God's already involved.


Until next time,

The Ugliest Doll Ever pt. 2

I just wanted to share with you what a little TLC can do.

She may still be missing an eye, and every time you take her hat off she looses a little more hair (as I write this she is down to one long curl on the back of her head, and her face is still kind of blue, but I have to admit I can see what Princess saw in this doll.  She really is kind of cute once you add some TLC.

Until next time,

The Ugliest Doll ever

Meet the ugliest doll ever!

For more than 6 months every time Princess and I go to the craft store she has picked this doll up and carried it around with her.  When Princess first found her she was ugly.  She had a blue tinged face and wiry hair, naked other than shoes.  She was in a box with other dolls - pretty dolls - dolls that I felt were much better than this one.  But Princess was drawn to this one.  Princess named her Cinderellabella.  Over time the doll had lost most of it's hair and one of the sleepy eyes is missing.  Still, Princess would seek her out every time we went in and I always warned her that perhaps she would not be there.  Cinderellabella always was.

Yesterday she finally asked if we could bring her home.  My first instinct was to say no way, the doll wasn't worth paying for, it was broken, used up, defective.  But I saw the love in her eyes and couldn't say no.  What I did say was that she would have to ask what the price of the doll was and she would have to pay for it herself.  If she wanted this ugly doll then she would agree, and she did.

The store owner told her it was a dollar.  My opinion was that it wasn't worth it.  The owner would never be able to sell this doll in it's current condition to anyone other than my daughter, but my sweet 4 year old agreed and brought Cinderellabella home.  This doll goes with her everywhere now.  Cinderellabella is her prized possession.  She rushed to show her off when Little Man and Big Princess came home.  When dad arrived home this was the first thing she told him about.  I didn't get it.

Until I did.  This morning God showed me something special about this situation, and I am sure you have already seen it.  I'm a little slow sometimes.  While I saw only an ugly doll, my daughter saw something of worth.  Much like God sees the worth in each of us.

All of us are less than perfect.  We have our versions of an off color face, an eye that doesn't see, we are less than beautiful, even if only on the inside.  We are flawed.  Many may view us as less than desirable, only seeing our flaws.  Jesus however sees our worth, much as my daughter saw worth in this doll.  He seeks us out at every opportunity and loves on us.  He values us so much that he paid a price that was much to high just so he could give us a home.  Jesus is proud of us and loves us unconditionally.  While the world may see the ugly doll, Jesus sees a beautiful treasure.

It's days like this that I wonder if God gives us children so we can teach them, or so they can teach us.  I learn so much about Him through them!

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst,  a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.


 

Until next time,

Spring!

I am finally beginning to think that spring has arrived to my little section of the world and that it is safe to pack up the bulky winter coats and sweaters.  Spring and Autumn are my favorite seasons - I love all of the colors!  Here is a peak of spring around my house

I planted some peas along my fence line this year.  The fence had been overgrown with Virginia Creeper, so Little Man and I spent an entire afternoon clearing it and trying to untangle and save a honeysuckle that had been growing as well.  I hope to plant some sunflowers along the fence later this year too.

These are growing along the side of my house.  I wish bleeding hearts stayed in bloom all year and not just spring.  The little delicate flowers are beautiful and I love to see them all in a row.  The carpenter bees seem to like them too as well as the butterflies.  

These wild violets sprinkle the hill in my backyard giving it a splash of color.  I have heard of people using them to make jelly, but I don't have enough of them to try it.  Besides, I think they are to pretty to pick.

These have been at the top of my hill tucked into a cluster of trees since we bought the property.  I have no idea what it is, but it comes back every year. Thanks to a Facebook friend posting a picture of her flowers in bloom I have discovered that this is Dogwood!  

My Stargazer lillies are starting to crop up, a gift from my oldest daughter last year for Mother's Day.  The get the prettiest flowers on them and I keep this pot on my back porch.  When the flowers are in bloom the porch smells so sweet.

And the true marker of spring are the little, blue Robin eggs.  I used to keep bird feeders in the yard, but last year our cat, Nibbler, decided it was more fun to hang outdoors than indoors.  She also discovered that she could catch the baby birds when they were learning to fly.  It wasn't a good thing.  Many days I spent chasing the cat away.  This momma bird wasn't to smart when she created this next.  It is only about 2 feet off the ground!  Momma is a feisty one though in that we often see and hear her chasing Nibbler away from the tree!  These babies might have a chance if momma keeps it up!

I have some garlic, lettuce and celery growing in the garden.  I started some tomatoes and cucumbers as well.  What has me most excited is the little, blurry seedling you see above.  I am hoping it is a carrot.  Now carrots are supposed to be the easiest thing to grow, only I can't ever get them to grow!  A few of these little seedlings have popped up on the carrot row this year.  Maybe I will get lucky!  

And while I tend to spend more time outdoors this time of year, my hands are still on my knitting needles in the evenings.  I am trying to finish up a sunflower toddler sized afghan I started quite some time ago.  I want to give it to Princess for her birthday.  Will post pictures of it next time.

Until next time,

Frog Prince

Just a little something I whipped up for my hubby.  I have taken to calling him my frog prince.  It's a long story but it ends with me married to my prince charming.  I actually began working on this cutie in the middle of my 40 hats in 40 days series but it ended up in my UFO (UnFinished Objects) basket.  Finally finished the little guy.  I think he turned out pretty cute.  How about you?

This cutie was designed by Meridith Swartwout and the pattern can be found on her blog Frog vs. Fungus here.  I used Sweet Delight Baby by Baby Bee in colorway baby camo #126.

Until next time,

40 hats in 40 days weeks 7

I can't believe that I am finished.  To be honest, part of me is glad in that I can devote some serious time to an afghan I am knitting for Princess for her birthday.  At the same time I hate to see it end because I have so enjoyed working on these baby hats.  The rest of the year it is so easy for me to put my charity crafting at the bottom of the list because the demands of daily life have to be done, but I don't want helping these little ones to get pushed off the list completely.  That is one of the reasons that I give myself this challenge every year.  And hopefully it has inspired you to donate some items yourself.  Here are the last 6 hats of the challenge.

Day 35 - the Best Baby Cloche by Anneliese.  I worked this hat in cotton yarn.  It worked up quick and would be a cute spring hat.  You can find the pattern on her blog, Aesthetic Nest or by clicking here.

Day  36 - Heart on a String designed by Susan B. Anderson.  I used Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn and a size 6 and 9 needle.  You can find the pattern on Spud and Cloe or at this link.  I followed the directions for the baby size and I didn't hold the yarn double.  This gave me more of a newborn size hat.

Day 37 - is the Flowertot Hat designed by "Fuzzy Fingers".  The original pattern can be found here.  I modified the hat though.  I followed directions through round 4.  For round 5 I did 3 dc (pattern calls them trc) in each ch 1 space. Ch 1 between these clusters.  I repeated round 5 six times or until hat measures approximately 4 inches.  Then worked 3 rows of sc and fastened off.

Day 38 - is the Diamond Trellis Toddler Hat designed by Kendrea Beers.  The pattern is available as a direct PDF download here.  

Day 39 - is the Little Sister designed by Linda Permann.  I also used Lion Brand Pound of Love for this hat also.  Since this was not a DK weight yarn as the pattern called for I began with 5 sc.  Otherwise I followed the directions for the baby sized hat.  The finished hat has a 12 inch circumference and is about 4.75 inches tall.  You can download the PDF here.

Day 40 - is the Candy Puffs Beanie designed by "Unfuzzy Boutique".  Although the pattern can be altered for newborn to adult, I really don't think this makes a good newborn hat.  The pattern calls for us to work with two strands of yarn.  I really felt like it was to think using Simply Soft yarn (which the pattern calls for).  This is worked with a single strand of Red Heart Super Saver yarn.  I began with 10 hdc in the magic circle.  At the end of round 2 there are 20 and at the end of round 3 there are 30.  I began the clusters on round 4 and worked 4 rounds of the clusters before working 3 rounds of sc.  I ended up with a newborn size hat (11.5 inch circumference and 4.75 inch height)

And that is it for this years 40 hats in 40 days, but not the end of my charity crafting.

Until next time,