The Motivation of Company

Company . . . an excellent motivator for all sorts of good general cleaning and organizational projects. :o) In my mid-week preparations for dinner with our pastor and his wife on Friday, I took a look at the dining room window and determined it needed help. (We still had the rope and flags hanging from Indepence Day!) After considering multiple ideas, I finally decided to see if I could make use of the 1/2 yard of floral fabric I had bought as a sample earlier this spring. Combining that with some fabric remnants from former curtain projects yielded the following:

It's not done yet--we need to buy a decorative brushed nickle curtain rod and I need to look at some manufactured back-tab curtains to figure out how the tabs work, but masking tape and an old curtain rod are quite acceptable for now. :o)

Oh, and here's the cutest part--I made them Thursday evening, and Friday morning when Peter went in the kitchen with Daddy, he immediately pointed out the curtains. Daddy suggested that he should "show Mommy." So Peter came to the bedroom, took my finger, and led me to the dining room to show me his discovery. :o) I asked him if he liked them, and he simply smiled and said, "Uh-huh." :o) Now that's what I call success! :o)

P.S. - When the Lord fixes something, He really fixes it. Oh me of little faith--I fully expected that I'd need to take my sewing machine in for repairs to get it to sew evenly. I thought Saturday evening's blessing was just a one-time blessing to help me get over the hump in finishing Hannah's dress. It never crossed my mind that whatever change took place between last Saturday afternoon and evening would be permament. However, my machine continues to sew beautifully even stitches! Praise the Lord!

Evidence of Rain

We left for church Wednesday evening with just a few sprinkles hitting the windshield. We returned home to the same--just a few sprinkles. However, our creek bore ample evidence that it had rained a good bit harder in between times.

Homemade Baby Wipes

Here's a random "how to" article--feel free to skip it, but it might be of interest to some, so here we go! :o)

We use homemade baby wipes at our house--the home nurse who visited after Hannah was born told me about them, and we've been hooked ever since. They're considerably cheaper than storebought wipes, and there's no chemicals or anything to make little bottoms sting. I've given the supplies as a baby gift at lots of baby showers, but just the other day I had someone else ask me how to make them. I decided to take some pics as I went through the process this morning.

Supplies:
- 2 quart plastic container
- 1 roll Bounty Select-a-Size paper towels
- 2 tablespoons baby bath (any variety)
- 3 tablespoons baby oil
- 2-1/2 cups boiling water

Instructions:
1. Cut the roll of paper towels in half. If you have two containers, you can make two at once, otherwise, save the other half for the next batch.
2. Place towel roll in container (cut side down).
3. Drizzle baby bath and oil over top of towels.

4. Pour boiling water over towels.

5. Once cooled, remove core from towels.

Wala! Simple homemade baby wipes! (And as long as you keep the supplies on hand, you never have to worry about a run to the store when you find that you've used the last one--just make a new batch.) :o)

First Day of School

It's been a rather busy week all around--mostly just getting adjusted to a new schedule with a few meetings thrown in for good measure. :o) School started on Monday, and here's our big girl ready for K4! :o)

It's hard to believe our little girl is in Kindergarten! It seems like just a few weeks ago we brought her home from the hospital! Time flies!

The Oil Change Pit

All of you car mechanics out there will appreciate our new home's oil change pit . . . Chris most certainly does! :o) Here it is in action . . .

The trash can is just the right height to hold the pan.

Ah, it's nice not to be on your back for such things! :o)

The Finished Product

Thanks so much for all of the kind comments about Hannah's dress! :o) Here she is wearing it Sunday morning . . .

Mission Accomplished!

Kudos to my wonderful husband who not only significantly improved the operation of my sewing machine, but took the lion's share of "kid duty" today to allow me to sew.

It has been a very long day, but praise the Lord, the mission is accomplished, and Hannah's dress is finished! :o)

I have learned much today.

1. Sewing the second sleeve is 10x easier than sewing the first sleeve.

2. It will be worth the investment to have a professional cleaning/tune up of my machine so that it will sew even stitches. (It's on its second generation of school clothes!) :o)

3. The Lord cares about little things. I worked all morning and afternoon and by dinner I had one sleeve left to sew on and the hemming. I was exhausted though. Not only has it been a very long time since I've sewed clothing, but my machine was being very cranky--it refused to sew even stitches. After dinner, we attended an icecream social at church. We returned refreshed, and after the kids went to bed, Chris volunteered to do one of my yet undone normal Saturday chores so that I could sew the last sleeve. Not only was it MUCH easier sewing my second sleeve than the first sleeve, but my machine sewed even stitches. That may not seem like a huge deal to you, but it was to me. The difference between before dinner and after was profound. Maybe the Lord commissioned an angel repair service, I'm not sure, but I was so thankful and so very encouraged! Encouraged enough to plug on and it's now ready for tomorrow morning! (A late night bathroom trip gave me an opportunity to have her try it on, and that's when I modified the pattern to include the ribbon--it was quite a bit too big without it.)

Anyway, just wanted to share my blessing. :o)

A Special Evening

With a promised reward of three M&Ms, Hannah happily dressed up in her new outfit from Grandma H. so that Mommy could get a special picture for the living room shelf.

Gulp.

Our little girl is growing up!

And here she is ready for her K4 Open House.

However, it was an absolutely beautiful evening . . . low 80's! So we combined the Open House with a thoroughly enjoyable pizza picnic and fun at the park!

And away we go!

Weeeee!

Peek-a-boo! :o)

Yikes! Your big sister taught you that?!? Who said 2-yrs-old was big enough to dangle over dangerous precipes without a care in the world?!?!?

(Another picture, closer up, of this same activity was abundant reminder of the very good reasons that little girls wear shorts under their skirts!) :o)

Ah yes, a lovely special evening! And the Open House went very well, too. Hannah's excited about her first day at K4 on Monday! :o)

Mommy's working on it. :o]

Happy Playtime

It's so fun watching our kids play together! Yes, we most definitely have the occasional squabble, but it's not the overriding characteristic of playtime, and for that I am very thankful! :o) As it has been very warm over the last week (think at least high 90's), we've enjoyed indoor toys, and Little People and cars have been the favorites. Thankfully there's enough pieces that they can play "together" on their own when necessary. :o)

But amazingly, it often really is "together."

Ah, so nice and neat!

Sadly, it does not propagate itself! :o)

Sharing our afternoon's adventures with Daddy . . .

And showing off our very neat car showroom . . .

Have fun playing! :o)

Our nice little creek . . .

changes a good bit after a storm . . .

Mommy's plans for an evening romp in the creek had to be changed this particular day. However, I am not complaining, for we were thankful for both the rain and the break in the heat! :o) It was incredible watching the water though--it's such a small creek, but even at that, there was no mistaking the incredible force of the water rushing past.

Officially Started

I have officially "started." I haven't gotten any farther than this, but after hitting six different stores yesterday for a combination of grocery & school shopping, there wasn't much energy left, and I'm too tired this evening to trust myself with scissors and fabric.

So . . . first thing tomorrow . . . scissors and sewing machine, here we come! :o)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Uncle Bryan & Aunt Janie!

We love you guys!

~

We were awakened last night to realize again the precious gift of both life and family--given daily by the hand of blessing from our Lord. Bryan and Janie were in a very serious car accident last night which could have had consequences the mind can't really comprehend had there been but a few seconds difference. By the Lord's grace, neither were seriously injured.

We are so thankful.

Hug your family today!

~

Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?

It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time,

and then vanisheth away.

James 4:14