a settled place

This was to be an eventful day for the travelers. They had hardly been walking an hour when they saw before them a great ditch that crossed the road and divided the forest as far as they could see on either side. It was a very wide ditch, and when they crept up to the edge and looked into it they could see it was also very deep, and there were many big, jagged rocks at the bottom. The sides were so steep that none of them could climb down, and for a moment it seemed that their journey must end.      "What shall we do?" asked Dorothy despairingly.      "I haven't the faintest idea," said the Tin Woodman, and the Lion shook his shaggy mane and looked thoughtful.      But the Scarecrow said, "We cannot fly, that is certain. Neither can we climb down into this great ditch. Therefore, if we cannot jump over it, we must stop where we are." (The Wizard of Oz) As I listened to the children's librarian read aloud this morning about the complex pr

We all desire to be good stewards - of this life, of our time. I'll be the first to admit that when my iPhone started sending me weekly screen time reports I was a little appalled and decided that, perhaps, I wasn't being the steward that I should. I was just reading an article in the Daughters of Promise "Expectant" issue about taking advantage of the pockets of time throughout the day - the little, ten-minute or one-hour segments where you have the opportunity to choose if you're going to be productive with that time or waste it. So anyway, I have this pocket of time right now where it happens to be 45 degrees in the middle of winter break and the kids are all outside playing. There's a lot of things that need to be done but I'm feeling the nudge to write and that's so unusual lately that I decided I better sit down and see what comes out. Yesterday during Christmas morning church services, we looked at this verse from Luke 1, where the angel ca

It was still pretty cold in April of this year - I distinctly remember because we closed on this house that we planned to remodel and rent out, and then we walked in the door and I set an infant car seat down on the floor and realized that none of us was wearing enough layers to stay warm, and the place did, in fact, still smell like cigarette smoke. However, the previous homeowner had left a gift for the kids, and I was moved to tears by her generosity and thoughtfulness. Truly, what a gift from her and from God - to realize that this was exactly where He wanted our family for this period of time. The dust started to fly and the overwhelm did not abate but the grace abounded and with lots of good help and expertise from many sources, 2823 W. Main St was transformed into a habitable place. We're honored and excited to be renting it to three sweet girls who keep it sparkling clean and photo-worthy at all times... and since that's the best way to tell the story, here a

School days have begun for us... Ivory started kindergarten several weeks ago! By now she is enjoying her class and friends, loves PE, and generally eats all of her lunch that I send... which is better than I could say through the summer! :) Honesty is always my goal, though, and if I'm being completely honest, sending my first child to kindergarten has been much harder than I thought. I wish I could say that by the fourth morning of kindergarten, we flawlessly completed our morning routine including quiet time, protein-filled breakfast, plenty of clean clothes in the drawers, no arguments about hair or shoes, no nerves, and no fits by little brothers. But I cannot say that. In fact, the fourth morning of kindergarten proved how quickly you can go from being "on time" to "late", and also showed me the extent to which the weather forecast will dictate our methods of getting and from school from here on out. "Heavy rain" is not ideal walking conditi

Yesterday morning after we finally got Ivory to school in the rain, Laura came over to watch the boys so I could go over to Edelstein and work on painting at the rental house. It was so kind of her to offer, because she just as easily could have done the painting, but I really appreciated the opportunity to walk into a project space, drop my keys in the silence, and pick up some sandpaper and a bucket of primer.  I expressed to Grant not that long ago that I cannot take progressive steps forward in any given area of life without help, at this stage. I can go over to Edelstein and paint, but someone has to watch my children. I can take one child to a special event, but I need help with the others. I can care for my children and meet all of their needs, but then it's likely someone else will have to pick up my slack in other areas - cleaning my house, helping me can my peaches, bake my cookies and bars for church lunch, etc. And so, I'm very grateful for our village. There

Awhile ago I was searching for a good women's top pattern and ran across this tutorial by The Sewing Rabbit . I've used her resources before and loved them, so I decided to give this one a try. And then I actually ended up making it three more times, in different variations! Her instructions are clear and the concept is simple, so there's lots of room for creativity and modifying. I made three shirts and a dress using her tutorial. One of my shirts didn't really turn out which is why you're not seeing pictures of it here. I even tried to redeem it, and it still just needs to go in the garbage. It's still sitting on my sewing cabinet for now, hopefully if I give it a little time, throwing it away won't be so painful. :) Jess's tutorial is a crop top but I added length for both of my shirts and it worked really well. I'll maybe try to post some pics of me wearing them at some point in the future, but for now here's this: Fabric Sources: c