Friday From the Heart: He Will Hold Me Fast

Is it weird that I find peace and calm sitting out on my front porch listening to and watching the traffic go by on South 11th street in Marion? The wind is blowing, the sun is shining, the iced tea is refreshing. I watch as the evening "coming home from work" crowd drives past and I am thankful. Thankful for my life, and that I am sitting on this porch.

Time flies and it is hard to believe that we will be celebrating being in this house in Marion for FIVE years this coming Thanksgiving. Wow, was it ever an act of God that brought us here, no doubt. An answer to prayers and HUGE distraction during a very LONG recovery season for me. I think FIVE years and some days it still feels like I am recovering.

He Will Hold Me Fast was a blessing to me this week. I was at worship practice at church and this is a new song we practiced. I get the question often now "so how are you doing now?" I never really know how to answer that question. I will be honest, it is hard to get back into life when you aren't at the same physical level. I need to pace myself and not overdo things. For example, when I decide to go walking I need to ease back into longer distances. Not like last week when I walked for a couple of hours my first time out of the gate in a few months.

What I wrote above was actually started about 3 weeks ago. Since then I have sung this song many times and heard it in my earbuds, or blaring out from my computer. He does hold us fast. I was getting ready in the paragraph above to complain some about this chemo drug I am on. I stinks. Suppressing my estrogen and forcing my body into menopause stinks. But you know, it is not the important things of life.

I learned something on Wednesday that broke through a little bit of the "firstborn rule-follower" stereotype that is actually pretty dead on for me. My boy (my "baby" boy) is home sick. Wednesday he was at the doctor and tested positive for walking pneumonia. Thanks to a conversation with my mom when this same boy was about 5 days old, I remembered "First I am a mom..." You see, I was supposed to sub yesterday and felt TERRIBLE to have to cancel.

When I say I am going to do something, it is ingrained in me that I do it. I obsessed about it so much on Wednesday that I actually set up a back up with Mom to stay with him so I could be in that classroom. Truth is, My first job is being a mom and as my van load of kids went off to youth group (driving themselves), I realized that before I know it my "baby" will be out the door with the keys too. I remember like it was yesterday when the triplets were nine. It was a blink.

So, while he is watching a show, I type these words. And I plan for some snuggling and movie watching, Payday playing and reading together for the rest of my day. It is my job, and this job is one I move on from, someday being promoted to "empty nest Mom" and then eventually "Grandma". And the absolute truth is: I am gonna miss this!

Friday From the Heart (on Thursday)...

Brushing the dust and cobwebs off of my keyboard and my writing brain, I sit here and feel so blessed that it has been so long since I have posted. Blessed because such a gap in posts means that so much life was being lived that there has been no time to document. And, that is okay. I have actually gotten to the point that my brain no longer starts the first paragraph of a post while I am in the middle of one of life's amazing moments. I am finding myself less and less thinking "ooh, that would be good on the blog".

There is so much good. So much. We have also been living in a few months of terribleness too but isn't that the stuff of life? We experience the good and the bad and we grow stronger. Stronger alone, stronger in our relationships and stronger with God. Life means something. It isn't a specific purpose made only for me that I am trying to find somewhere along the way. It is in the everything and everyday that we find ourselves in contact with the Sovereign God. In the middle of yuck, whatever it may be (and boy can it come from every direction sometimes),  He knows and He is sovereign. I have a list of people who I know need to KNOW that right now. They are on my list, and so I pray.

Life's a dance they say (and sing), but much of it can be in a minor key. I think of how the music changes when we watch movies and then we know...this isn't going to be good. So many are experiencing the minor keys right now. How can I help, what can I do from the sidelines? There are others who have asked that question too. I don't know that there is a correct answer to that. There are actually many different things to do on the sidelines. (and if you don't count prayer as one of the most important things, I hope that you can open your eyes to this most important thing). My hands tend to get busy in times like this. Some run to their kitchen and whip up freezer meals or scrumptious baked goods. How do I know? Because I have received some of the yummiest meals and baked goods when I have needed them. Some write beautiful cards and letters of encouragement, some stop by unannounced with hugs, some may also anonymously send money in the mail, or maybe a bouquet of flowers.

Most of the time, just being present and not running from the uncomfortableness of listening to some dark thoughts or fears coming from the people we care about is huge! That is what helps the depressed and the hopeless ones in the world. Not backing down or bowing out until the waters are calm again. Nobody needs people like that around in bad times, or in good for that matter.

I was looking for a good image to go along with my blog today and found these bleeding hearts. I have loved bleeding hearts since I was young. I would like to challenge my friends who may not be as comfortable in the adversity. There was a day when I certainly wasn't. Run toward those who need you. If you don't know what to do, ask God for a good idea. We often think of prayer for the people who are hurting, sick or dying but what would happen if we also prayed "Lord help ME to be a light and a help and a support when I am so unsure of what to do." God helps the one in adversity as well as those who want to help. So, if you don't know what to do, ask God. If you are looking for a special purpose, that is yours. To love, not in the good times but in the adversity and always seek Him when you are unsure.

Back to School Season...

and we are tackling one last project in the living room! As I pop onto my FB feed every so often this past week I have enjoyed seeing my southern friends and their first day of school pictures. I personally am glad that there are still two-and-a-half weeks left of our summer. At least the school-less summer. Two are at marching band camp this week during the day and my summer traveler is home taking drivers ed.

She and I along with the younger ones took a trip to Menards last week. We decided as others may be shopping for back to school supplies, clothes and shoes, that we would go pick out a new color of paint for the living room. Why not? I mean, there are still 2 1/2 weeks left of summer break and we certainly could eek out one last project before we get serious about school.

Yes, that is how we roll here and today we have washed walls, taken off switch and outlet covers, taped all of the woodwork and puttied all of the holes in the wall. Oh, and we did finally agree on what color we will be painting which is called "DUSTY TRAIL".

It seems in the last few years when I haven't been involved in much of the painting projects here at our current house that there hasn't been very good care given to cleaning the brushes. So, it looks like I will be treating myself to some new tools for the job.

We will see how long the actual painting takes and when I will be able to show the after pictures. I didn't take a before picture, at least the picture before Stacey moved everything away from the wall. The question remains how we will get behind the fish tank but we will address that problem when there is nothing left of the project to do.

We are sprucing up to welcome something new to our living room decor. We can't wait to show the after pictures (four hours into the project and we are dreaming of the end!) So far it has gone well, prep is tedious work!

Sugar Bowl...Cross and Crown...Oh Susannah...Double 2 and the Ohio Star

The Sugar Bowl Block...I decided to use two medium fabrics instead of using teal for this. It added more color and I placed to to break up some of the heavy teal blocks. It is always tricky to sew those curves together and I wasn't sure how to quilt it so I just started in the middle with my free motion attachment and did a whimsical spiral. This one I just jumped in and didn't draw it first and I think it turned out pretty cute.

The Cross and Crown Block...To me it looks similar to the Bear Claw but with the cross through the middle. I used teal for that and looped with my free motion up and down the crown. That is all the quilting I did because I didn't want to take away from the colors. I did do a flourish in each of the teal corners. I have to admit, I did draw my swirls so it wasn't so stressful.

Oh Susannah Block...is a variation of the Pinwheel which I can show next time. I love that with adding the half square triangle in on one side it give the look of the teal square in the middle. I used simple quilting for this one and kept it geometric with the triangles.

Double 2 Block...is what this one is called. I tried this with no templates at all. I have to admit I had some help with some of the first blocks I made. My mom had a "learning to quilt" book with templates for some of the blocks in the book Michelle gave me so that is where I started. There were no templates for some of them and I was getting more and more confident so I thought I would try to come up with my own measurements and make this one. It was not turning out. I had to take it apart and rework my math. Quilt math...I am not good at quilt math! I realized that most of the blocks I had done to that point were 9 patch so the block is divided by threes. Some of the ones I wanted to do were four by four. This was one of these. Thankfully all of the squares I had made were too big and it was easy to cut them down to the right size. This quilting is a little geometric with the triangles and a little whimsical with the flower.

Ohio Star Block...most quilters know this one and it was fun and easy to follow the measurements that were in my moms book. I decided to do squiggles in the teal area and then fourishes in the four teal triangles.

The Hollisters Are Back!

I found myself this evening digging through bins downstairs before bedtime looking for the second volume of the Happy Hollisters. There are 33 books based on the fictional family the Hollisters whose books were popular in the 50s and 60s, the first four books released in 1953 and the last one in 1969 (the year before I was born).

Zach has had a hard time sleeping these last couple of weeks and so I introduced him to the first book and gave him a booklight in hopes that reading a couple of chapters would get his eyes to feel a little heavy, aiding in sleep. It has worked on the nights that he gets to bed at a decent time. Summer sleep habits are well, terrible around here. We all seem to be night owls.

I read some of the Happy Hollister books when I was younger. I was not a fast reader and so I lost interest in books that were long. These chapter books were great for me because they kept my attention and as a result, kept me reading. When eBay was first a thing I spent much of my first auction bids on nostalgic items that I remembered from my childhood. It took me awhile, but I was able to get a copy of all 33 of the books in the series.

We didn't have kids back then. In fact, we weren't sure if we were ever going to be parents and I think it helped me to search for some of these things that I knew I would love to share with my children when or if they would come along. I had purchased up through volume 32 ...the Monster Mystery when I was noticing that 33 was a little out of my price range, in every auction I found. I just couldn't find myself spending $75 for one book. I did some researching and found that there weren't as many published of 33 because it was the last one. They were worth a little more. My mom surprised me one Christmas with number 33 ...Mystery of the Midnight Trolls which completed my set.

I read through number 15 (...Mystery of the Totem Faces) with the triplets when they were little. I picked up from there when Zach and Matt were little and read through 18 (...Mystery of the Little Mermaid) with them. My favorite has always been ...Scarecrow Mystery #14 but I love the very first one too. All of them are entertaining and the adventures are at different places and the kids learn a lot about different parts of the world. They are super-fun to read aloud too!

Zach finished the first book last night. He asked this evening if I could find the second one for him. I could and since Zach will only read them in order I figured I should probably print out the list so when he gets done with the next one I will know which one to find next. (Not all of them have numbers on the dust jackets)

Imagine my surprise when I found this AWESOME website. I had no idea that somewhere in the middle of raising my kids, they have brought back the Hollister gang and have republished some of their books! To find out more information, just click THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS. There are even some ready to download in Kindle editions! I have to giggle when I see the tab "talk like a Hollister". It explains the different words that they used back then.

I am so happy that he has taken an interest in the Hollister family. They are solving mysteries for the next generation and I am thrilled! So thrilled, I may have to save up my money and buy a Happy Hollister t-shirt!

Rail Fence - Shoo Fly - Shoo Fly Variation - Card Trick - and the Bear Claw

First up, Rail Fence. Pretty straight forward with four strips sewn together and then cut to the squares and arranged to almost look like they are going around the block. When it came time to quilt, I chose to do a free motion flower. I bought these awesome pens from Nancy's Notions that write on fabric and iron off with heat. No water needed. It worked so well. With the quilting I used some geometric design and some were drawn out first. Others I tried without much planning at all. I used a variegated teal on the whole quilt.










Shoo Fly was next. To be honest when the pieces all fit together and the block was done, I was a little less than impressed. I am not sure but I think that my preference is more than two colors in my blocks. But, using the geometric design in the quilting made me really love it in the end!













The third block I put together is a variation of the Shoo Fly block in that the corners are the same but changing the side squares to include a third color and keeping the middle square teal it looks totally different. I mixed some squiggles and some geometric quilting for this one. Once again, the quilting makes it pop!








Wow, was this one ever fun! It was serious concentration and when you put together the Card Trick block you really need to pay attention or like me, you will have to take out and move around and re-sew A LOT! It won't be as hard the next time though. It was totally worth the extra effort because this is one of my favorites. I quilted with little stems in the teal triangles. I thought about a little stitch in the ditch which might have been good to keep the middle tacked down.







Presenting...the Bear Claw. Matthew can identify this one anywhere. He was in the living room past bedtime one night not wanting to go to bed. I turned on YouTube and looked for some instruction on a few of the blocks I was ready to do next. Figuring he would get up and head to bed, my plan backfired and he stayed up a little longer watching tutorials for each block with me! A week or so later when I was laying all the blocks out he was naming them as I put them down on the floor! I think it is cute. For the quilting I squiggled down the teal stripes.

Totally Out of the Wheelhouse

There are things that I have learned only because I acquired a husband. Not just any one mind you, but my husband. He is the best in every way and I wouldn't change a thing. However, there are things that have changed me as a married woman. Here are just a few that come to mind...James Bond, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate. Yes, my level of enjoyment of certain shows has grown as I have watched with my husband who enjoys different genres than I was used to before I became his wife.

There are other things too. Like, I can cut a man's hair. I can, but I won't. In the early years I cut David's hair. I could do it and did but never felt like I really knew what I was doing. I was still only "girlfriend" when I started hemming pants for him. It felt domestic as we were in college to pull out my machine in my dorm and hem my boyfriend's dress pants. I am pretty good at it in fact. Which leads us to last week.  David needed a suit. He hasn't had a new one for many years. In fact, the last two suits he got were before children. I had a 30% off at Kohls coupon a couple weeks back and there was a sale on top of that, so I picked him up pants and a suit jacket and thought we would start with that. Only thing is, the sleeves were too long. I have a husband who needs things shortened and a son who shops for tall. The gene pool is wide in our family. Surely I could take up the sleeves in a man's suit coat. I seem to like to tackle more and more difficult tasks in my sewing room these days.

AHHH! What have I done?!

BREATHE...just BREATHE!

No turning back...this is more taken off
than ANY of the YouTube videos showed!

 And before you knew it, the shortened sleeve was  complete and looking great! I surprised myself because there were a couple of times I kept rolling around in my head that "I REALLY don't want to be doing this!" It was a little stressful when you think of cutting fabric from a suit coat but I think it turned out pretty good in the end. Maybe it wasn't too far from the wheelhouse after all!