That's All?

I really thought I'd be to the end of my recent line up of sewing projects by now, but I've only finished one of the 4, and the one that was to take the least amount of time, to boot. Where does the time go?? Maybe I need to spend a little less time looking at all of the great projects on other blogs for awhile...but there are so many great ideas out there!

 Anyway, these are the shoe bags I made for a friend returning to the Philippines.

The window treatment is next....

THAT Peace

I was caught off guard yesterday when my mom said to me, "I wish I was perfect like you." My first reaction was to quickly tell God, "She didn't mean that, LORD!" and "I'm SO sorry for conveying that to her! Please forgive me!" And then it was totally the Holy Spirit who intervened and said, "No, no, that's what He wants her to see!" What?? "He wants her to see THAT Peace in you (His Peace), because that is what she is so desperately wanting and that's what she is missing. Tell her."
Yesterday had been an especially stressful day for my mom. Her Care Giver who comes to take her to get her hair done was rude and unkind to her and told her she's not coming back. Mom is 92 and has dementia and greater and greater difficulty with speaking. Since accepting Christ 2 years ago, she has stuggled with self-centeredness, still trying to do everything on her own as she did her whole life. She forgets to say please and thank you, and to pray, and battles with focusing all of her thoughts on herself and things she doesn't like. So I guess I'm saying that I can see what a thankless job taking care of her can sometimes be, but...the Care Giver crossed the line and fell over the cliff by telling mom that she's the worst client she's ever had, the most ungrateful, and nobody likes her because of it, and she's not coming back.
Looking back on it now, I can see that this was probably the Lord preparing my mom's heart. After piecing much of what happened together since I wasn't getting full sentences out of her, I thought about what to do.
And then the Holy Spirit filled me with words that could have only come from Him. I was able to explain to her about what she see's in me is God's peace, not perfection, and if she truly wants that peace, the key is to place God first and to focus on Him. Pray to Him and give Him thanks for who He is and all that He does for her, instead of focusing on what she doesn't have and what she can't do. I reminded her that everything is about God, not about us. The peace comes from keeping ourselves in that relationship with God and letting Him be in control. It doesn't take away our problems, but we can feel calm and secure in the midst of them. I especially reemphasized how it takes our effort to keep that relationship.
Well that was the gist of it, and I wasn't sure what was getting through at the time. Later that night she called me before going to bed and said that she wanted me to know that she was feeling THAT Peace and thanked me and was even laughing in our conversation. I still couldn't understand all of what she was saying, but that woman has always had a great laugh--one that doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to.

The Line-Up

The projects are starting to line up on my sewing table.... Looks like there's definitely a red theme going

 on, but none of them are related.

The first is a window treatment for the playroom, the next is shoebags for a friend headed for the Phillipines, the third is a cover for a beanbag (loooong overdue!), and the fourth is that beautiful serger machine at the end of the table that I have NOT A CLUE how to use, but I'm really excited to have it. It belongs to my mom, who has made some amazing things with it, but she no longer remembers how to thread it. Anyone know how? It's a Juki MO-34. My plan is to Google the directions, but I'm forcing myself to finish all that I showed in my last post that I dragged out of the closet. IF it was just pictures that I was trying to organize, I might be enjoying it. But mixed in all the boxes are also many misc. papers, both mine and my mom's. Oh I would so rather just put it all back into the closet and go play with my new toy....

But I did manage to sneak in making a quick embellished towel. Ahhh, that feels better!

A Revamped Workspace

I've been wanting to redo my workroom for quite awhile and finally the process has begun. It's shaping up quite nicely. But I say "process" because there are definite stages involved. It began with moving the daybed into what we've dubbed "the playroom", as opposed to the usual label of guestroom. So these are the before pictures:

The daybed was next to my sewing table, but instead of looking like this, most of the time it ended up looking like this:

or this:

But now in place of the daybed, I've moved the table from another wall, added shelves on the far side of the sewing table, cute thread racks and a "God is Good" magnetic banner given to me by dear friends and family for my b'day. Isn't it great?!!

I left it this way, feeling all spacious and neat, for about a week.

 I remember when I was younger (yes, I can still remember that long ago...) and I longed for a space to call my own and organize it for all of my projects. I was SO creative in finding places to stash everything. But each time I started a project, lots of "stuff" came out of hiding and was soon in the way.

Well, admitedly, that stashing syndrome is stilll with me. I've worked on it over the years (thank you, Flylady!  Check her out if your own "stuff" is overwhelming you! flylady.net ), but I'm definitely not to the point I'd like to be---yet.

As I was saying, I left it that way for about a week, and then decided to start the next step, as planned, and add another table for pulling out and organizing all of my pictures from the nearby closet.

Uh oh, I think it's going to take setting up another table. This isn't nearly all of the pictures. What have I started??!!



Cade is Three!!

Cade Michael turned three today!  I called to wish and sing Happy Birthday to him while he was at Disneyland. He was so excited that he didn't hear much of what I said after the song. He just kept right on talking! Every so often I could hear something about his birthday. I can't wait to hear about their day and see pictures tomorrow.
These are some pictures of his family party on Saturday:

 

Jill did a great job making Cade's baseball cake and his other sports-themed cupcakes and cookies. They were yummy!

And this was Sydney's favorite part:

Happy Endings

This was a week of "happy endings". Isa finished her last days of Kindergarten and her Spring season of soccer with FUN (Faith-Unity-Nurture) Sports. Can this little girl really be in First Grade now?  On the day before school was out the kids had a Sprinkler Day. I think they all tried the sprinklers, but not many of them stayed in the water for very long. Mostly, you would see them run through the water and then head for the blacktop where their towels were spread out, and then lay down huddled to the ground to warm up. Who ever heard of 68 degree weather for the last week of school?? In Bakersfield??  But the kids still loved it--especially with popcicles.

Isa's Saturday morning soccer games have been fun to watch. The kids have really improved their skills since they first started. They mostly kick the ball to the right goal now!

Fun on the sidelines, too....

So Peaceful

When I laid Sydney down in her crib a few days ago and saw how she stretched and left her arms above her head, I knew I had to run and get my camera. Then I was sure I could find the similar picture of Isa and Marcus asleep in the same poses and I was going to post them together. But...the photo wasn't where I remembered. If Jill can find it, I will repost it later. So sweet and peaceful!

                                                                    Sydney Lee