Frills

So, I've never really been a frilly girl myself. Sure it's fun to dress up sometimes, but mostly, give me my jeans and a well fitting t-shirt (by the way, I'm in the process of constructing my own pattern so I can make the perfect-for-me t-shirt.) Janie is a different story. We fight every morning about getting dressed, unless she gets to wear a skirt. She doesn't like me doing her hair unless I put a bow in it. I just acquired some bows from my neighbor, and apparently I need to make more because it saves a lot of argument in the morning. I made some tutus for the girls' Halloween costumes, and she loves to wear hers around, she calls it her 'ballerine.' Too bad I don't know much about ballet, then I could teach her something. The word is still out on Leah, but I gave her my name so maybe she'll be more like me?

The Carpenter of Nazareth

In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.

And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.

The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plow, or yoke,
Said, “Can you mend it, Carpenter?”

And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.

So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:

“O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that’s broken past repair,
This life, that’s shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?”

And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation--”all things new.”

“The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!”

George Blair

Heart Swelling

Recently my husband and I were talking about how wonderful it is to be parents. Our daughters are so precious to us, our hearts swell when they smile and laugh, talk and play. We also decided that the reason they whine must be to stop our hearts from exploding. I mean, if they were sweet all the time, we might go crazy and lose track of reality. Crying is just a way to bring their parents back down to earth, really, we should thank them.

Creativity

Some of my recent creations

Matching dresses for the granddaughters. (they look a lot better with shirts underneath)

Janie's birthday cake

And of course, technically, these are my creations too

Pictures

So when it comes to taking pictures, I'm very fired. I have a great digital camera, I am very good at remembering to bring it with me but not so good at taking it out and getting pictures. We recently spent a week in California, we went to the beach several times, Disneyland, Six Flags, the pool, and we had lots of hanging out with Benjamin's family. Guess how many pictures Christina took the whole vacation? 5. That's right. Luckily, my sister was with us most of the time and she got a lot more pictures than I did. Hopefully, I will get them from her sometime. Below is one of the pictures of Janie in toon town.

Also, we've been trying to get a family picture with all of us and this I'm pretty sure this is the first picture of all of us.
Nice huh

Learning

Well, I've recently learned some valuable things.

1st My mother brought me a late birthday present of a sewing machine!


I have been wanting to do several projects but it's hard to get going when I have to pack up the kids and go to Mom's and try to entertain the children while I finish my project (or not feel guilty while someone else entertains the children). So, the first thing I did was buy fabric to fix our futon cover. The giraffe fabric is very sturdy but the black is very worn, the whole front piece ripped away from the other fabric. Kind of tacky, but I really like the giraffes. So, I sewed a new piece on to the front. Of course, the whole time I was thinking about the parable of sewing new fabric on the old. I knew it wasn't the best idea, but we're looking for a quick fix. When I was putting the cover back on, the cover ripped in a couple of places in the back. So, I guess the scriptures are true. However, you can't REALLY tell, at least it will last for a little while. Yay, I'm actually a homemaker!


2nd When I was younger I would get sick to my stomach on the first day of school, when anything exciting or different was happening really. I'd been feeling very proud of myself that I haven't had that problem since high school. But, I'm not as over it as I thought. Ben is in Turkey for two more weeks and the old friendly stomach ache is back. I'm doing much better than I was at first, at least I'm not constantly on the verge of a breakdown. No thank you to being a single parent, that's all. However, I'm very glad that he's only gone for two weeks, he's not gone for months on end, and he doesn't leave very often. I am learning to be very grateful for the time I do have with him. And learning how to have more sympathy for people who are depressed all of the time.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure my mother was divinely inspired to bring me the sewing machine when she did, I needed more things to do to fill my time. She brought it the morning Ben left and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it through that first day if it hadn't been for some project to try and keep me occupied.

Oh boy, I'm so glad I get to do hard things because it helps me learn. (That was only partially sarcastic too)

Also I'm learning how the heck to put the pictures where I want them in my blog posts.

Haircut

Yes, I cut my daughter's hair. All by myself. No, I have no official training except that I cut my own bangs back when I used to have them. Her hair was all mullety in the back so I trimmed it. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Good job me.