Showing posts with label our church. Show all posts

Monday, October 7, 2013

the thing that stressed me out the most - day 7

Okay, so I told you that I would share what stressed me out the most in all of this . . .

scroll down to see

Cora's clothes!

Isn't that crazy???

This is a picture of her closet before she was even born. We have been HUGELY blessed with clothes for her. Hand me downs brought to church, mailed from Texas and Alaska, vintage items pulled out of storage from both my mom and my sister-in-law's mom's house on loan, gifts from wonderful, thoughtful friends and family, things I picked out and bought because it is fun to get to shop for your very own little girl, things I bought before I was ever even pregnant hoping I would have a little girl one day. (Am I the only one who has done that??? Please tell me I am not alone!)

When I began to consider doing a "clothing fast" and narrowing down each of our closets to seven items, I decided not to include Cora's.

The most practical reason was that between diaper blowouts, spit up, etc., babies can go through a lot of clothing.

Another reason was that she had *so* many outfits in the 3-6 month size range (at one point I counted 60!) that she could hardly wear them all if she wore a new outfit every single day.

Also, I just plain didn't want to because this is my chance to dress a baby girl and I wanted to indulge in all of the cuteness I possibly could.

And you know what? Before, during and after "clothes month" I have felt stress over Cora's closet at times. It is not that I have not enjoyed dressing her and being blessed by all of these things at all because I certainly have but at the same time there have been multiple times that I have stressed out that she might not "be able" to wear everything before she outgrew it or the weather turned cold. I felt bad if someone gave us something and I didn't get it on her. I have felt stress in my being over these sorts of things.

What sense does this make???

A quote from Ann Voskamp:

“Stress isn't only a joy stealer. The way we respond to it can be sin.”

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

I don't need any joy stealers in my life, do you? I don't need things that help to tug and pull my gaze off of God.

I am not quite ready to chuck everything in her closet out. I am so, so very thankful for all that we have.

I did take a stricter inventory of what she already had before I went on my bi-annual fun girls' night/shopping trip with my sister-in-law to the Just Between Friends kids' consignment sale and tried to stick to reduced numbers of things (I still bought two more pair of pajamas than I had written down that I thought she "needed" for the winter because they were cute and I wanted them but I did underbuy in a few other categories - to be honest, not virtuously but because I didn't find something at the sale in those categories) but it's at least about acknowledging and taking baby steps, right?

And, all of this is changing the way I look at the things we are done with. I guess at least one perk of her having so many things is that they are very gently worn!

It was a joy to go through the things she has already outgrown recently and to sort them into piles for hand me downs, for the pregnancy center, for babies in Zambia - it was awfully fun for me to imagine little African babies wearing some of her things - very few things to save sentimentally, things to return to their owners, etc.

I am not saying this to say "look at me, see what good things I'm doing". I am just learning, taking baby steps into this whole thing.

I do not know the answers but I would love to process some together in the comments.

First, do please tell me that I am not the only one who has bought clothing for children not even yet conceived. :)

Also, is there an area in your life where you are blessed with excess but that it stresses you out? How do you deal with it?

What other thoughts does this post bring up?

How do you decide what is "enough" in various areas of your life?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading my gut level honest here.

Kelly

Thursday, December 20, 2012

ten on ten - ten days late! December 2012

So here's the scoop, I took pics on the 10th, left town on the 11th and never got a post done.

BUT, now we're home and here's my ten:

all dressed in his snow bibs and flannel shirt for going outside but distracted by trains

I love seeing the things he puts together in play these days!

new mittens!

(I was going to save them for the Christmas stocking but to be perfectly honest, I didn't feel like going out to the cold car and hunting down other mittens that might or might not end up being there - it was easier to dig in the gift drawer)

playing in the snow!

a special Christmas mug from my Grandmother, my dad's mom

making eggnog coffee cake I'd seen on pinterest

a very good little kitchen helper - he's going to be baking *for* me before I know it!

another case of laziness in one day - so see that back beater? It wouldn't snap in all the way, I fiddled a while then gave up deciding it would work fine. Well, then my little helper and I got a spatula jammed in between the bowl and beater and before I knew it this beater had completely "mangled and tangled" itself (as David said over and over) beyond use. Bummer!

The space program is alive and well in our house!

(and no it wasn't cold inside but someone enjoyed wearing his winter gear all the way until naptime)

an afternoon treat of a video - I don't remember which one but probably Boz or Chugginton

I was really enjoying this book I got via interlibrary loan but I had to return it before our trip without finishing it. Bummer!

Ready to go into the oven! (It had to chill for 8 hours) I took it to the second annual sock exchange party with women from my church and it was yummy if I do say so myself. I have another one and a dairy free one for David in the freezer waiting to be pulled out for breakfast one day this week with our company here. First I have to get past my glucose test tomorrow. Uggh!

Daddy's off work, let's drive trains over his head!

Hope you are having a lovely December. I'd love to hear your comments and what you're up to.

Kelly

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

just a little something fun

Back when we were in Dallas a group of women from my church and I helped host a dinner.

Maybe you need a simple, inexpensive dessert sometime soon but want it to appear fancy.

Here's what we did:

Start with a fun clear plastic rectangular plate (we got ours at Party City). Of course you can use any kind of plate, this is just what we chose.

Bake triple chocolate brownies from the boxed Ghiradelli mix from Costco but before you put them on the plates . . .

Grab a bottle of chocolate syrup (or even another flavor if you like) and make a fun little swirly.

It was so much fun to do these on all the plates and kind of made me feel like a pastry chef.

Plop your brownies on next.

And in my humble opinion, you can never go wrong with some of this added to virtually any dessert.

Add a strawberry or some other type of garnish and

ta da

simple, fancy, yummy dessert!

Happy cooking!

Do you have any occasion coming up that you could use this idea for?

Kelly

Sunday, January 15, 2012

two friends

You know what?

I'd like to ask you for something today.

I'd like to ask you to consider something.

January 12th marked the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti.

I'll be honest, I don't think about Haiti a whole lot.

I am so thankful for a couple of my blogging friends who keep me on my toes and open up my eyes.

When I began reading blogs on the 12th late (really late) in the evening. I was excited to see this fundraiser that The Adventure Project is doing.

It's called You+Me.

It's all about the ripple effect.

"We want to turn the second anniversary of the Haiti earthquake into a day of record-breaking impact.

It's a simple idea. We are each finding 2 friends. Two friends who will recognize the anniversary by sponsoring a $20 charcoal-efficient stove for a family in Haiti. And the movement begins when those two friends reach out to their 2 friends.

These stoves are revolutionary, allowing families to breathe easier, cook faster, and increase their income by saving on fuel costs. The money saved is money used to send their kids to school, start small businesses, and eat more nutritious food. The stoves are produced locally in Port au Prince and sold by women entrepreneurs. It's a sustainable business model providing a life-saving product.

So we are marking this anniversary with a ripple movement of friends.
2 years, 2 friends, 2 stoves.

Buy your stove. And find your two friends."

So back to what I'd like to ask you.

Will you please consider finding $20 this month to use to buy a stove for a family in Haiti?

I would really appreciate it.

I have already bought my stove by being one of another fundraisers "two friends".

I really believe in these stoves. They are saving the lives of babies who will not be dying from the toxic smoke of the fires that are their other cooking alternative.

I would love for you to check out this post that really explains a lot about the stoves from Jody who has seen them in use with her own two eyes.

Technically the goal is to each find two friends so I'll be REALLY happy if I have two friends who take the challenge.

I set my sights kind of high though.

Last week 164 of you visited my blog. 70% of you were returning visitors - my friends, either in real life or just here in this space.

If just 50 of you will buy a stove for Haiti then I will reach my goal.

(told you I set my sights high)

But 70% of 164 visitors in a week is 114 people, 114 stoves . . . I think we can reach 50, don't you?!

You can make your donation for a stove for Haiti through the Adventure Project by clicking HERE

This is exciting! We are going to change lives!

THANK YOU!!!

Kelly

Thursday, February 17, 2011

paper vs. fabric

You guys are truly the greatest, greatest, greatest!

Thank you for all of the great comments, encouragement and advice on sewing yesterday.

Keep 'em coming!

Your comments, e-mailing with my grandma and a phone call with my mom have me set to try to adjust the tension. I had e-mailed Erica back after her comment asking her how to adjust the tension but after talking it through with my mom on the phone I do believe I at least have a starting point having identified that other knob on the front of the machine. (I was so proud of myself for figuring out the first knob could take me from straight stitch to zig zag stitch!)

I did not actually sew anything on Wednesday. Just blogged about sewing.

This little bag was one of my projects on Tuesday though.

We will be taking dinner to some friends soon who recently had the sweetest new baby.

When they brought dinner to us when David was born there were cute baby napkins and baby blue tulle wrapped utensils in addition to the amazing quiche. I decided that a cute bag to bring the food in would be a fun project for my sewing experiments. Plus I know my friend will not be judgmental of my less than expert attempts.

I used a straight stitch on the lavender card stock to sew it onto the purple origami paper. As you can see I have a section where I have holes and no thread . . . um? . . . and a piece where I got carried away and didn't think ahead about the width I wanted my border to be. Oh well.

I think the top zigzag sewing the origami paper onto the red card stock (to cover up the store logo on the paper grocery sack) turned out cute but the bottom one (which also turned out blurry in the photo unfortunately) leaves some to be desired.

I then just glued the red card stock to the grocery sack because at least I did think ahead on that one and realized that it would sew the grocery bag shut.

**************************

You may be wondering why I am sewing on paper rather than on fabric.

You see, paper and I are friends. We have been friends for a long time. I am used to paper. I know how it works. And it doesn't slip slide around and you don't have to pin it.

I must admit I dread pinning. Do you pin when you sew? I'm sure it is the best thing to do but it just seems so time consuming and I'd rather just try to hold the fabrics together to be honest but I'm sure that would probably cause a big giant mess-up.

So tell me, do you pin?

Kelly

p.s. is sewing on paper going to dull my friend's machine's needle all up? Can I buy a new needle for her? How does that work?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

bearing gifts

Yesterday I blogged about how I was going to make a gingerbread house out of graham crackers last night. Well, the best laid plans . . .

It seems that *everyone* is down with the stomach bug.

We already had our share in October so we're really hoping that we don't get sick again.

Out of the six girls who were supposed to get together, four had the bug I think and one's kids did. Oh my.

We decided to call it off and reschedule a cookie swap for the new year.

Cookies aren't just for Christmas, right?

Anyway, I had stained glass cookies ready to go so I decided to add them to the hot chocolate mixes we'd already made for gifting to our neighbors.

Last night I decided that I needed to treat myself since I hadn't gotten to have girls' night so I put aside the to do list and when my little munchkin was in bed I broke out the supplies for my Christmas scrapbook.

I made a Christmas scrapbook for my mom several years ago with one layout for each year of the Christmases of our family.

I was excited to start one of my own and my mom gave me the album and pages for Christmas when we celebrated with them after Thanksgiving so I was ready to go.

Last night I was able to complete the cover page, 2007 and get 2008 well under way.

It will be fun to look back at our Christmases through the years as our family grows.

Anyway, getting out the scrapbooking stuff reminded me of some Christmas stencils I've had since childhood and I had a good time transforming some plain brown paper gift bags into something more festive for bearing gifts to our neighbors.

Thank you Jacquie and Julie for both making this possible! I'm sure I wouldn't have managed to accomplish gifts to our neighbors on my own and it's something I'm glad to be able to do.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

gingerbread house

This is my very first gingerbread house to ever make although I was quite fond of sugar cube castle making when I was young. I got to make this house with my friends Emily, Sarah and Rachel and Emily's parents for her birthday several years ago. Her parents made these yummy houses and the extremely yummy icing (I could have eaten that stuff all night!) to put them together. We had lots of fun.

Tonight I'm making graham cracker houses with a group of girls from my church. Anybody have any great tips or ideas for me to use on mine?

When you make a gingerbread house do you eat it?

Kelly