Archive for the ‘Following Jesus’ Category

Have you heard about the wonderful things happening over at Hopeful Threads? Kristy has such a heart for people in need, especially children, and she is doing a fabulous job of encouraging those of us who love sewing and are blessed with much to take a few minutes each month to give back. On the first of every month, Kristy posts a new charity sewing project on the Hopeful Threads blog. Participants from around the world join together in contributing their time, talents and fabric to help those who need what we can give.

Last month, I set aside a day to sew up a dozen bloomers for the January project. Annabelle’s Wish had a special request for bloomers to go with the many dresses that are donated during the summer months to the little girls in China’s orphanages. One day of sewing time and a few yards of fabric was an easy thing for me to give even on a tight budget. This month, Kristy is encouraging you to find a fundraising project that you can contribute to, whether it’s by creating a handmade project to be auctioned off, bidding on an auction or by skipping that latte and giving the dollars instead. (That last suggestion was not really from Kristy. It was all me, and really for me.)

Also, this month, I’m joining in as a Hopeful Threads supporter! (Kristy and I are working on a really exciting plan for a project that we’re hoping will happen in a few months, too, but it’s a secret for now. Shhhh . . . ) In addition to asking you to skip over to Hopeful Threads and start using your sewing talents to give back, I’m giving something to you: three chances to win two of my patterns! You have to go read Kristy’s post to find out how to enter: FD Giveaway.

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that He has given you. Deuteronomy 16:17, ESV

Quiet Sunday Afternoon with a Good Book

Dash!

Summersaults are So Much Fun!

Winding, Winding, Winding . . .

Monkey Business

More Love for Katie!

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!

From 2012 Project 365

I’m having quiet, reflective day today, and I’m not feeling very talkative.  Do you have those days?  I feel like I should write down some resolutions.  It’s what we’re supposed to do today, right? Instead, I pulled out my new quilting journal and planned out a new quilt.  Honestly? I couldn’t have possibly imagined a year ago today everything that would have come to pass in a year’s time.  It was a year full of blessing and amazement and uncertainty and faith.  Definitely faith!  I did a whole lot of stepping out in faith.  I have a list of decisions to make over the next few weeks . . . business decisions, family decisions, little and big decisions.  Today, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with not knowing what’s ahead.  It would be nice if we could know how today’s decisions will affect tomorrow, wouldn’t it?

One of my Christmas gifts from my sweet husband was this book, which I’ve wanted for years:

I’ve been enjoying flipping through and reading while sipping my morning coffee. This quote seems perfectly appropriate for the end of a old year and the beginning of a new one:

Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sort we are still.
C. S. Lewis from The Allegory of Love

It is true, isn’t it, that everything we are today is a result of the decisions that we’ve made, the experiences that we’ve had and the people that we’ve interacted with? I’m excited to see who I am, where I am, what I’ll be doing this time next year!

This picture warms my heart so much . . . from the shiny new sewing machine to the the happy babies worn close to their mamas to the joy on the faces of the whole family. This family received this sewing machine through Gospel for Asia’s Christmas Gift Catalog. This simple $85 treadle-operated sewing machine can make a huge difference in this family’s ability to make a decent living. Within no time there’s money to purchase food for the children and to send them to school—with new clothes to boot! And, the giver has the joy of knowing that they’ve shared the real meaning of Christmas with a family on the other side of the world.

Happy Thanksgiving! Do you have exciting plans today? We’re enjoying Thanksgiving dinner this evening with our whole family and a few dear friends. The morning and afternoon will be spent cooking and preparing and munching! I’m starting the day with my morning coffee and a piece of Chocolate Pecan Pie shared with my sweet almost-2-year-old. The rest of the house is quiet still.

The quilt block above is one that I pieced last week to join others in a quilt for a grieving mother. My online friend, S, lost her unborn baby boy last month just a few weeks before his due date. My 12-year-old, Allen, prayed on Tuesday night, “Lord, help us to all be thankful, especially for those things that we don’t think matter very much.” That was a simple, beautiful reminder to me to be thankful for my husband’s smile in greeting from across a room, my oldest daughter dropping by with her little one just to hang out, my oldest son wrestling in the family room with his little brothers, my youngest daughter cuddling up and reading a story to my youngest son, my middle son pouring out praise in a song sung as loud as he can sing, my preschool son’s cuddles in the mornings and goodnight kisses every night, and my little guy’s “Side? Me? Pease?” when he wants to nurse. It’s the little things that we sometimes miss everyday that I want to be sure to be thankful for today. I should be more careful to be thankful for them everyday.

I pray that each of you has a beautiful Thanksgiving Day today, shared with those you love and filled with the joy of being thankful for the little things that we don’t think matter very much!

Have you been over to the Create Hope Designs Store yet? The Create Hope designers have created a selection of lovely pdf sewing patterns that are available for only $5 each. All of the profits made go directly to China Little Flower Orphanage to assist in the wonderful things that they do day in and day out.

My contribution to Create Hope is The Watered with Love Layette Set. This new layette is designed for simple, comfortable dressing in those early newborn days. Included in this pattern are a cotton knit snap-shoulder raglan gown and top in both short and long-sleeves. The long-sleeve version has those great fold-up cuffs that keep baby from scratching himself. (They’re really easy to do! Once you sew one, you just might find yourself adding them to all of your newborn sewing!) The pattern also includes a simple knotted hat. All patterns are sized from newborn through 6-9 months.

The name of this pattern has a really special meaning. I really wanted the name to reflect the selfless way that the caregivers at China Little Flower give to the orphans entrusted to their care. They pour an unbelievable amount of love into those tiny souls. Like beautiful fields of wildflowers are watered with spring showers, these little flowers are watered with their love.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, my husband left our home at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC, well before dawn for his Air Force intelligence job at the Pentagon. Still sleeping, I’m not sure I even said, “Good-bye,” much less, “I love you.”

I had a busy day planned. I’d made arrangements to stop by a friend’s home on the base around 8:40 to pick up a few things and chat for a minute or two before running just off the base for a quick follow-up dentist appointment at 9:30. My oldest daughter, Morgan, was 11 and had recently completed the babysitter training which allowed her to care for her siblings in our home for up to two hours. I would be easily be home in two hours. Sean was 8, Samantha 3, Allen had just turned 2. They were supposed to have breakfast and watch cartoons on PBS until I was back to begin our homeschool lessons for the day.

I was ready to walk out the door at 8:30. Did I hug all my kids and tell them how much they meant to me before I left? I really can’t remember.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Not a single cloud in the sky. Fall was in air.

I arrived at my friends home and visited for about 20 minutes. We never turned on the TV or the radio. We had no idea what was happening outside of our quiet fellowship.

At around 9:05, I drove off the base. I remember noticing that my gas tank was close to empty, and I had forgotten the car charger for the cell phone which was nearly dead.

At about 9:15, I arrived at my dentist’s office. I thought it was odd that the front desk clerk was trying to tune something in on the big TV which usually played kids’ movies on video in the waiting area. I remember her words almost exactly when I asked what she was doing, “A plane crashed into the World Trade Center tower in New York. I heard there might be a terrorist attack on DC later this week.” I remember, too, that I instantly began considering packing up the kids and visiting my in-laws for the weekend in West Virginia.

I was taken back to the dentist’s chair a minute or two later still having no idea of the magnitude of what was taking place. I just thought–small commuter plane side-swiped the Trade Center tower, surely an accident. I was barely seated when I heard screaming from the waiting area and what seemed like a hundred feet running behind my chair towards the window at the end of the hallway. I jumped up to see what was happening. From that sixth story window view I could clearly see smoke pouring into to the sky from the direction of downtown DC.

Things are a bit of a blur from here. A plane has just crashed into the Pentagon! My kids are at home alone! I’ve got to get home! Stop! Wait! Call first and send them to a neighbor’s house. My cell phone is almost dead. Can I use the office phone? Time and time again I hear, “All circuits are busy. Please try your call again.” Finally, the phone rings on the other end, and Morgan answers, and I can barely control my hysteria, “Grab the babies and go Ms. Kim’s house right now! Just go!”

My cell phone rings, and my husband’s number is displayed on the screen. With only a few seconds of of battery life, I hear him say, “I’m fine,” and a female voice booming, “Evacuate the building! Evacuate the building!”

At that point, of course, I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. As I was heading out the door, I heard someone in the office mention that military installations were on lock-down. My babies are home alone! My panicked call to base security went something like this: “Yes, Ma’am the base is locked down. You can not return here.” “But you don’t understand! My children are home alone!” “I’m sorry Ma’am, but I have way more important things to worry about right now.” Click.

I had no idea then where to go or what to do. The dentist office received a phone call from their building management advising everyone to evacuate the building. Then news came of at least one more highjacked plane. No one knew where it was or where it was heading. I called my friend, Kim, to check on the kids, and she suggested going to her church which was just a few miles from the dentist office.

At the church, they were warm and welcoming, but a huge TV in the office broadcasted the images of the attacks live, and I had to turn away from the horrible images of people jumping from the top floors of the World Trade Center. I asked for a quiet place to make some phone calls, and a Bible. At some point in our conversation Kim had told me to read Psalm 91. (Years later, I heard someone call Psalm 91:1, the 911 verse.)

I knew I had a calling card number, but I had no idea what the number was. I called AT&T and explained everything. The incredibly kind and understanding operator gave me my calling card number so that I could start contacting loved ones. I had no phone numbers with me, so I spent the next hour or so calling information and tracking down my mom, Ray’s mom and old friends whose calm reassurance I really needed.

Then there was just waiting and calling occasionally to the base to ask when I’d be allowed to go home. Finally, at around 2:00, I was told that people who lived on the base would be allowed to return, but that I must be able to not only show proof that I lived there, I would be asked a series of questions before being allowed access. I jumped in the car and set off toward the city. It was one of the eeriest experiences of my life, driving back into Washington, DC that day. I was the only car on my side of the road, but traffic going the opposite direction was bumper to bumper. I remember giggling a little to myself because I felt like the crazy person in a disaster movie driving back into the danger zone.

Finally back at home, it felt like we’d gone to war. There were barricades set up everywhere. Marine helicopters circled close to the ground with sharp-shooters hanging out, guns pointed at the ground. Smoke filled the air. The atmosphere was so completely different than the peaceful morning that I’d awakened to just a few hours before.

Ray arrived home very late that night. He’d never left the Pentagon in spite of the booming “Evacuate” voice. Like so many of our incredible service men and women do everyday, he had an important job to do, regardless of the danger, and he kept doing it until someone arrived to take over.

It seems odd to stop the story here. This is where the day ended, but the story of how my life was affected continued and to some effect still does today. What is your 9/11 story? Someone told me a few years ago that I needed to “get over it”. I disagree. It’s important that we remember.

There’s something pretty amazing about watching any of your children work hard at something and then accomplish it successfully. Our older kids all know how to swim, but they learned over a period of years growing up in Florida where everyone has a pool and the beach is minutes away. Now that we live in Dallas, we just don’t spend much time near water, and with Jamie nearing school age, I really felt that he needed to know how to swim. A swim teacher who teaches in her private pool here in our neighborhood was highly recommended on our homeschool list, so we jumped right in. I’m so glad because Ms. Kathy has been simply amazing!

In the first two weeks of swim lessons, Jamie went from jumping out of the pool to run for a towel every time a drop of water hit his face to spending nearly his whole time in the pool yelling, “Mom, look at me hold my breath!”

And, watching Jamie really swim for the first time might have made me cry as much as watching him take his first step. What a blessing!

It’s almost bedtime here, but I wanted to stop in and say Happy Easter to my wonderful readers. We enjoyed a lovely day of celebration today. I pray that each of you did, too!

We had five of our six children here with us today, and our son-in-law, as well. We snapped a few quick pictures in the backyard after church (just before the clouds and storms began to roll in) in our Easter attire. (Our church is really very casual, so we don’t dress up often!)



Our youngest two little ones are wearing shorts that I made for them. I’ll share about them later this week. And, Morgan (our oldest–you can see her little baby belly above) and I spent a few hours after lunch this afternoon sewing up a little dress for the new little girl that she is expecting. I promise to blog about our sewing time later this week, too! Right now, I’m heading to bed where it looks like I’ll be cuddling with several little ones who are not happy at all with the thunder and lightning that are still flashing and banging outside our windows.

Praying that you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas overflowing with joy in the celebration of the birth of Jesus and the hope that He brings to those who believe!

We were blessed with a Christmas that was filled with love, laughter, fun, food, family . . . and one very happy little boy with a box full of green scary monster teeth.