Archive for the ‘Following Jesus’ Category

I’m so behind! I know I said I was going to blog our trip as we went, but I had some internet connection and laptop issues. I think those have all been resolved now, so it’s time to catch up a bit.

I know a lot of you come here to see my sewing and information about my patterns, so a quick word of explanation is in order. Sewing and pattern-creating are my really my part-time hobbies. My husband, Ray, and I actually serve as full-time staff missionaries with Gospel for Asia at their U. S. home office in Carrollton, Texas. Unlike some ministries, GFA does not take out a percentage of donations received for administration, instead, 100% of all donations go to the area where they are designated. As staff members, we raise our own prayer and financial support. Our list of supporters includes churches, family and friends. Each year, we travel to visit with our supporters, to encourage and pray with them, and, prayerfully, to add new supporters to our team. If you’d like to find out more about supporting us in our ministry, just drop me an email, and I’ll pass on all the information that you need.

We started out our trip traveling from Dallas to Panama City, Florida where we stayed with our friends, Mike and Kelley. On Saturday night, Ray shared with the senior high youth about GFA’s School of Discipleship.

On Sunday morning, Mike and Kelley’s church, Eastgate Christian Fellowship, invited us to share during both services, and we enjoyed having the opportunity after each service to share individually about what we do and how church members can help.

We originally met Mike and Kelley when Ray and Mike were both in the Air Force, and we were all stationed in Washington, DC, quite some time ago. We figured out that we haven’t seen each other in over seven years. We’ve added two little ones to our family since then, and they’ve added one. Both of our families now have six children. Even without the oldest two from each family, the house was full of activity. Just before we pulled out on Sunday afternoon, we thought we’d have a neighbor snap a picture of the whole group. Being the experienced parents we are, we even asked that he take several shots so that we could pick the best one. I’m pretty sure that he laughed and said something along the lines of reading an article about how you should take half the number of pictures of the number of people in the picture. Apparently, the writer of the article was not taking into consideration the possibility of the picture including one very vivacious six-year-old girl because when I pulled the pictures up to look them over on the way out of town, here is what I found. (For the record, I actually love these pictures. I’m still laughing everytime I look at them again!)




Hee-hee! Can you tell how much fun she is?

On Sunday evening, we drove into my hometown of Sneads, Florida, where we met up with my best friend from high school for a late night dinner. We attempted to have some pictures taken, but there was a bit of a language-barrier between us and the wait-staff at the Chinese restaurant, and my camera was a little too hard to understand . . .

Monday afternoon, we arrived in Jacksonville, where we stayed with my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Larry for a night. The kids had a blast running around on Uncle Larry’s farm, checking out the cows and chickens, feeding the fish in the lake, swinging on the rope swing and climbing trees. It was such a blessing to spend some time with my Grandma while we were there, too. Charlie got to meet her and enjoyed being showered with her attention. This picture of the two of them just melts my heart.

We’re now at our home church in Melbourne, Florida, and we’ll be here through the end of next week. I have lots more to share, but this a good place to stop for now. Tomorrow, I’ll share a little about how we celebrated Veteran’s Day yesterday.

With no time to spare, here are pillowcases #36 and #37: Pirate Bears & Sea Turtles . . .

. . . #38 and #39: Buggies & Froggies . . .

. . . and last, but certainly not least, #40: Apples & Pears!

This project was such a blessing to me, and I honestly feel a little sad that it’s done. Each of these pillowcases represents a child and his or her family in what is surely a very difficult time in their lives. Much prayer was poured out over these pillowcases as I sewed. I hope that this gift given for my 40th birthday brings comfort and joy to those who receive them.

I need that reminder so very often. It’s really been too hot here to play outside lately, so I’ve been letting Jamie put a little water in the sink to dive his Lego guys in and out. As he has every day this week, he asked if he could play in the sink this morning, and I was busy trying to finish up a project, so I said, “Sure.” He knows that he’s only supposed to put in about 2″ of water and then turn off the faucet. I could hear him happily splashing away while I worked. Suddenly, though, he came running out yelling, “Mom! The pretty rugs are getting all wet!” And, here, my friends, is one of those moments where I had a decision to make . . . do I choose to get frustrated with the mess, fuss at the little guy who made it, throw down some towels and clean it all up . . . or do I stop for a minute, smile, grab the camera and capture this moment in the life of a preschooler who before I know it will be grown?

All too soon, my carpets will always be dry and those sweet little toes will be attached to size 11 feet with no desire to hang out in my bathroom playing in the sink with little Lego guys. For today, though, he’s three, and this is so much fun!

I love spring! It leaves me in awe every year watching creation, barren after months of cold weather, burst forth with bloom. I took my youngest four to a park yesterday to enjoy the green grass, the wildflowers and the beautiful weather.



They’re all growing so fast. Sometimes I just want to freeze time. Jamie showed us that he can climb across the monkey bars!


Charlie slept in the stroller while we played, so I’ll share this picture that I snapped of him last night. We like to start the sci-fi love really early around here!

I finished two skirts for the Sewing Seeds for Haiti project this afternoon! These are just simple 6-panel skirts with elastic waists, sized at about a girls 12-14. 12-year-old Samantha is modeling them in these pictures.

A nine-year-old little boy from the local church where we’ve worshipped for the last several years passed away a little over a week ago. His name was Montana. Although we weren’t close friends with the family, we worshipped with them and our children went to Sunday School together, and my heart breaks for them. I can’t even begin to imagine what a difficult time this is for them. Montana had a four-year-old little brother who’s left to grow up without his big brother now, and I really felt the leading to craft something for him–something that might bring him a little comfort.

  
I’ve posted before about the I-Spy Quilt that I made for Jamie and how much he loves it. Collecting all those different blocks left me with quite the collection of blocks leftover, and I knew right away that would be the perfect thing.

The finished quilt measures about 40″ X 50″. A good lap-quilt or nap-quilt size for a preschooler. I like that the I-Spy blocks make it fun, too. In fact, Jamie and I played “Can you find the race car, dinosaur, football . . . ” with it before I threw it in the wash when it was all finished.

I left out batting and backed it with minkee. I love the way this makes a nice drag-around-the-house quilt that’s easy and compact to fold, but still feels soft and warm.

I also added a label to the back to remind Dooley of how very much he’s loved by family and friends.

I’ve always loved the idea of having an Advent Calendar with an activity to do each day of December up to Christmas, but I’d never found just the right one. Early in November this year, I saw and fell for this one on the Sew Mama Sew Blog: Advent Calendar. I modified the calendar slightly (I really am planning to practice free-motion machine quilting one of these days). Overall, though, I followed the instructions there, and the result is exactly what I was hoping for.

It actually took me more time to come up with the activities than it did to sew up the calendar. I really wanted activities that were centered around spending time as a family and giving to others.

Here’s my list of activities–feel free to use any or all of the ideas! In fact, I’d love to hear what you think!
1. Make button wreath ornaments.
2. Color pictures for troops overseas.
3. Visit a relative (or a friend) for lunch. (We’re driving out to visit our oldest daughter at college.)
4. Go see a family Christmas theatre production. (Our local playhouse is doing A Christmas Wizard of Oz.)
5. Walk in (or you could just watch) the city Christmas parade.
6. Buy gifts for a needy family. (We choose one from the Angel Tree at our church, but there are many organizations that you can give through.)
7. Have a family game night. (Board games and popcorn! Our favorite family games are Mexican Train and Speed Scrabble.)
8. Buy canned goods and deliver to a local food pantry. (You might want to call ahead and ask what they are specifically in need of. Our church’s pantry actually told me that need meat and bread more than canned goods right now.)
9. Watch Frosty the Snowman (or any other classic animated movie).
10. Make jar mixes for our Christmas dinner guests. (Jar mixes are nice gifts to have on hand for expected or unexpected Christmas guests. They’re fun and easy for kids to put together, too.)
11. Attend company (or ministry or other group) Christmas party.
12. Visit a living nativity. (We have a local church that does a beautiful one each year.)
13. Make Christmas card ornaments.
14. Make cards for Nana and Papa.
15. Make cards for MawMaw.
16. Bake cookies.
17. Take cookies to the local firestation. (We’re actually going to invite some other local homeschool families to join us in this one.)
18. Go out for dinner. (Enjoy a special night out at your family’s favorite restaurant. I’m not sure whether it’ll be Italian or Mexican for us.)
19. Go Christmas shopping for siblings. (We give each of our children a budget and let them shop for each other.)
20. Watch A Christmas Story (or another live-action Christmas movie).
21. Drive around to see Christmas lights. (You could drive around your neighborhood or go see a big light presentation somewhere close by.)
22. Make playdough and play with Christmas cookie cutters. (This is one of my kids’ favorite activities, and we don’t do it often enough. We like to make Kool-aid playdough. I thought this one would be a great calming activity for just before Christmas when things can get a little overwhelming.)
23. Visit and take pictures with Santa Claus.
24. Make a birthday cake for Jesus. (This a traditional family activity of ours that helps us to put the focus back on what the Christmas season is really about. We even gather around the table, light candles and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.)

I have a two back-up ideas on hand in case something doesn’t work out, too: string popcorn to hang outside for the birds and plant an indoor herb garden. My husband also suggested that next year we see if we can ring the bell for the Salvation Army one day.

Here’s our calendar hung on the wall and ready for Tuesday:

The kids are really excited about finding out what each activity is going to be. (We’re keeping them a secret until they open the envelopes each morning.) I’m really excited about getting started, too!

Thank you so much for all your prayers while we were traveling!  We arrived home yesterday afternoon and are busy getting unpacked and settled back in.

Our second week in Melbourne was packed full. We were blessed to meet with multiple friends for meals and swimming and fellowship.

We have some exciting news to share. We found out on our trip that we are expecting a new little one early next year! We took all the kids out to dinner last night after we got home to share the news with them, and they are all so excited!

Thank you so much for your prayers for Carri!  I praise God that she is showing slow improvement.  She remains in critical condition, however.  Please continue to lift her up as she will likely have a very long recovery ahead of her.

Our first week in Melbourne has been busy with meetings, visits with friends and supporters, even a radio interview! It was such a joy to sit down with Patti Spangler of WRDJ and share about what we experienced when God called us to serve at GFA and about our work at the home office. The interview will be edited for time before being broacast, but I’ll be sure to post the link when it’s ready. We pray that it will touch someone’s heart and encourage listeners to follow where God is leading them.

We have quite a bit more on our schedule before we load up the Suburban and begin our drive towards home the end of this week. Thank you for lifting us up in your prayers!

I managed to sneak out for a little alone time this morning to a little local quilt shop. It was so quiet, and it had such a lovely selection of fabrics. I wanted to spend all day. I came home with this really sweet Moda Dinosaur print.

I’m doing a Toddler Clothing Swap with an online friend this month. She has a 2-year-old daughter who loves dresses, dinosaurs and purple, so I matched up the dinosaur print with the purple and green dots. I’m going to turn them into a dress with matching bloomers. I’m thinking I’ll add a ruffle at the bottom, too, just to add to the girly-ness.

I also thought I’d share these two skirts that I whipped up before we left Texas for The Sewing Seeds Project. These will travel to Costa Rica this summer where I pray that they’ll be a blessing to the little girls who receive them.

You can read more about the project and how you can contribute, too, by clicking here.