Times Sure Have Changed.....

I have had the awesome privelege of teaching my children at home. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I hear the question, "Did you do this in school?" Most of the time I am amazed by how little I actually remember about what I learned in school or what I did. And, from day one of becoming "teacher mom" I have been relearning or learning, maybe even for the first time, so many things!!! I cannot believe how uneducated I have felt at times!!! - Or how completely humbling it is when your child teaches you something that you know you should know!

Today has been one of those days, that I can say- "I do actually know a few things they do not!" But! only because I am from the now "STONE AGE" compared to them. We are waiting for our new curriculum to arrive any day now. So, we have been filling in the gap with some fun brainteasers, checkups and reviews. I pulled out a crossword puzzle worksheet today on "which references should be used." I had no idea how funny this was going to end up being. Basically, my son came up with a one word answer for it all....GOOGLE! While I am obviously fond of the latest tools to find information, this actually made me feel like this exercise was quite useful. Now the kids would learn how us ancients located things. Like- how did you locate a book in the library-"What is a card catalog!?" Or "How do you determine the distance between two cities- "What is a map?"- How did you find out the cost of a bicycle- "What is a catalog?"-

Teaching my kids will be one of the most precious and worthwhile tasks I will ever have in my life! It will stretch me further than I could ever have imagined in every way-mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. It will keep me on my knees before the Lord-because the only way I can accomplish this is with Him!!! Philippians 4:13 The difficulties will never measure up to blessings! I will remember the laughter, the "I GET IT" moments, and the times at the table when each child first reads an entire sentence after the hours of repeating sounds, the tears of frustration, and the feelings of "Will it ever happen?" finally come to fruition. But one of the important lessons for me will continue to be that the Lord will use my children to teach me probably more than I teach them!

The Rescue of My Wedding Quilt.....

A few years ago we decided to get a dog. We had finally bought our first home, we had settled in, we thought we were done having wee ones, and it seems quite perfect to add a dog to family life!! So, that is how Max came to be in our family. We rescued him as a puppy, he was a beautiful husky lab mix with quite the character!!! He was already housebroken and crate trained-could it get any better! We found that he would be much quieter if we laid a blanket over his crate at night. It just became routine. Then life took a drastic change of course for us. We found out we were expecting our fifth wonder!! This news for us was awesome! But also very scary-as I have hyperemesis with my pregnancies and it had increased in severity with each one. I quickly became bedridden and had a home nurse to help care for my needs. We, as a family struggled, but have always been amazed by the Lord's grace and blessings through such a difficult time. But, our poor newest member Max didn't get the best end of the deal! This energetic pup, spent a lot of his time in the crate because I was unable to spend time training and playing with him, and my amazing husband was playing Mr Mom and Dad to our four other kiddos. Max dealt with his boredom in ways like eating everything in sight or reach even when he was crated! One dreadful morning I had come down to get him out of his crate and had discovered that our wedding quilt had been eaten!!! I honestly could not even tell you who put it on his crate-most likely it was me, simply being to tired and sick to even care what I grabbed when I tucked him in for the night. But, my heart was crushed and for at least a year I am sure, the thought of what happened to the quilt would leave a huge knot in my stomach. The quilt was from my Husband's Grandma who has passed away now, and I had always looked at it as an heirloom. Well, I gathered it up and folded what remained and put it awya on a shelf in my studio. I just couldn't part with it and had a vaque hope that I would someday find a way to repurpose it. Well that was over two years ago, alot of life has happened in our family. We had our little Noah-who I always new I had yet to meet. Our oldest son is now not the only brother of 3 sisters! We sadly passed Max on to another family who could enjoy his energy as we began again with the newborn stage in our home. And just this past weekend, I finally repainted our kitchen in a sunny yellow after collecting blue dishes for 3 years!! Little did I know when I picked out the colors for our kitchen 3 years ago, that our wedding quilt would be the cherry on top! I finally pulled my beloved quilt off the shelf today, grabbed a pair of sissors with my heart thumping and made the cuts! The quilt now lays lovingly on my island as the centerpiece and brings with it a wonderful bundle of memories!!! Most of which, I can now smile at.

Springtime Quilts

One of my favorites to create is a quilt. I have more designed in my head than I will ever have time make. It all began with the birth of my first child, there was nothing like wrapping that fresh new little wonder up in a cuddly quilt. I have gone through many different styles of quilts and have come to be quite fond of making my quilts out of reclaimed bed linens. They are softer than any quilting fabric you can get off of the bolt, the prints are unique and striking, and it is a wonderful way to use the endless resources already available to us-perfectly eco friendly and wise.

I am now quite addicted to free motion quilting. I cannot believe it took me this long to learn this!! I went a bit crazy once I got used to this new technique and as a result, I have 4 new shabby chic cottage and springtime baby quilts in the shop!!! You will have to take a peek!!!

Comfort Food, Need I say More...

So, our family has a new favorite in the comfort food arena. Last year while we were on one of our treasure hunts, we came across a church rummage sale. The church was sending each person home with their cookbook. That was the best treasure yet!!! I have found that any church cookbook is plump full of yummy recipes. No mystery ingrediants! Lots of love and memories to pass on. So, last weekend while I repainted our kitchen, I decided to try out some new recipes from this cookbook. See, I can cook well as long as I never leave the kitchen! If I leave those four walls, I end up distracted with some new project and my masterpiece burns! In between paint coats and peeling wallpaper, I found this new recipe and have now made it twice in less than a week at the request of my kiddos. It is a Chocolate Chip Struessal Coffeecake . It is more like a desert than a breakfast, let's just say brunch.

Where to Begin.....

This is a difficult task to begin because I feel as though I have been writing all my thoughts in my head for so long, how can I possibly begin to sort them all out in order to share them! So, have patience with me as I learn a new trick! There are so many of you I want to talk with...my kiddos, my best friend who I am married to, my family, my long lost friends who I miss so, my new friends, our students from church who I wish i could spend more time with, my amazing customers who continually inspire me, and anyone who may be encouraged by the words the Lord has given me.

Instead of trying to go back and capture who I am and what i do, I should probably just take it a step at a time. Hopefully over time, all of that will begin to come together. The most important thing to know about me though, the thing that all else flows out of is that I have a loving Saviour, Jesus God who has saved me from death. My life is set on that truth-THE TRUTH. All else is a result of that, and what an adventure he has given me!!

In this journal, I am hoping to share the simplicity of my life, my family, my work, my days. So many days have passed by in which I wished I had had this little nitch to simply share about the song that encouraged me and changed my heart back to the Lord, or about the funny thing one of my kiddos said, or about the pile of fabric my kids where buried under in my studio, or about the room I just painted with my daughter, the article I just wrote for a really cool magazine, the new things in my shop, or the heartbreaking news that just came over the phone.....

Well today is a fresh start for that!