Baby Gifts, Hems, Hems, Hems, & Mending

The most fun projects of the month were certainly the baby gifts. I made this dress for my expected niece.

I finished the sloth lovies and I made some whales.
 

I used velvet for their bellies. I am really excited to see how the babies like the velvet. I am thinking the texture will be intriguing to them.

It has been a long time since I had made a big whale. (Blog post about big whales) It was fun to work with an old familiar pattern. I stuff these with beads in addition to polyfil. The weight of the beads make this whale more interesting.

On to the hemming projects. These were not the fun projects of the month.

We had these brand new khaki pants for our boys. The only problem was that they had cuffs. What's the problem with cuffs? We are old fuddy duddies that can't wear anything resembling modern fashion fads. So my options were to donate the pants or hem them. And since my boys needed church pants I hemmed them.

The pants were a size larger than my boys needed. Taking off a couple inches means they can wear the pants now instead of next year.

A lady from church had two skirts for me to hem. I have finished one. I plan to finish the second one this week.

I have done hand mending projects this month. 

Starting with this coat.

This pile is next in the queue.

Two dresses with rips.

And a hole in my husband's jeans.

I am looking forward to a fun project next month. Stay tuned to hear about it towards the end of March!

Winter Sowing

 

Last Saturday I started my winter sowing seeds.

The weather patterns in our area have been confusing. The first week in February robins showed up! I have never seen them in Illinois this early in the season. We had days in the 60°'s. We went bare foot and flew our kite.

The warmth was a treat, but being February, it is still winter, and.............

Five inches of snow! I was so surprised in the morning to find this snow. Just the prior afternoon the children were running around in the sunshine at a playground. 

I decided it was time to start my Winter Sowing seeds. I have been saving plastic milk jugs for this purpose.

I cut the milk jugs. I poked drainage holes in the bottom. Then filled them with a few inches of potting soil. I watered the soil just until it was slightly damp.

I pulled my seed box down. It is so exciting to pick out seeds and make plans for the coming garden!

I numbered each jug and wrote down on a list what type of seeds I had planted in each jug.

#1 & #2 - Roma Tomato

#3 & #4 - Rutger Tomato

#5 - Sunflower

#6 - Snapdragon

#7 - Bell Pepper

#8 - Jalapeno

#9 - Basil

#10 - Hibiscus

#11- Parsley

#12 - Cosmo

#13 - Black Eyed Susan 

Then I taped the seam closed and placed the jugs outside. The seeds will germinate when the soil temperature is warm enough to trigger that process. The jugs serve as miniature greenhouses. They warm the soil to the appropriate temperature a little ahead of the real ground temperature. That way I will have seedlings to plant in the garden with minimal effort on my part.

I started seed with this method last year (See Here) and I was very pleased with the results. I recommend it for anyone. 

I Finished Reading The Bible Aloud!

 

I have committed to reading the Bible aloud to my children. I don't always get finished in a year. I just want to encourage you all not to quit if you don't hit your goal. Keep going. We didn't finish reading the Bible before New Year's Day this time. That doesn't bother me. We kept going and finished in February. 

There have been times when my life has been jumbled up and it took me two years to read through the whole Bible. That's fine. I am in this for the long game. I don't understand everything in the Bible. I believe that the Bible, as God's word, has supernatural effects. I keep reading it and hoping to absorb it's contents, looking to the Holy Spirit for help. I don't believe I can explain everything to my children that I read to them from the Bible. I don't want them to have the illusion that I have all the answers. God can help them understand the Bible and figure out what to believe. I'd rather my children have the actual Bible read to them than teach them a Bible curriculum or catechism. These tools all have to be tested against the Bible. The way I see it, testing these tools against the Bible is an extra step. I prefer to start and end my spiritual instruction to my children with the Bible and the Bible alone. The Bible is the standard. I want them to come away with a love for the stability that the truth offers. The Bible is true. They can count on it for the rest of their lives to remain, unchanged, because God who gave it will remain, unchanged, forever. 

They will come to challenges in their lives. They will come to circumstances that make them question everything they thought they knew to be so. I know I did. And what kept me from going off the deep end? God's Holy word. Even when I wasn't sure that God was real or that he was who I had thought he was. Even when my certainty of eternity was ripped from me and I was left in the deepest most hopeless despair. All that I had known was true turned out to not be true. Even when I thought God hated me and I really didn't want to read what he 'supposedly' said. I was in termoil and sharp emotional pain. I wanted to feel safe again. I opened my Bible and read to myself. It didn't matter where I read. It could be anywhere in the Bible. My storms inside would calm. I felt comfort. I felt familiarity. I felt that constancy that I needed. I could count on the surety of the Bible. At the time I couldn't count on the wonderful things I read there to be written for me. I wasn't willing to believe it and risk being wrong again. The Word of God kept me from going off the deep end, though. (Eventually, I came back to God the right way. I didn't have a great quantity of faith, but I placed it all on Christ. It was a simple faith. But, that is all that is necessary. What a sweet relief poured over my soul!)

All that to say, if my children come to a place in their lives that they need something to anchor to because their whole world is upsidedown, I want the Bible to be that anchor for them. Reading it aloud to them in these formative years can build that foundation, I hope. The Words of God are powerful in supernatural ways. I can't comprehend how, but the Words of God change people. They carry with them the power of the Holy Ghost. I feel that this (reading the Bible aloud) is the most important thing that I can do for my children. 

In closing, I am leaving you some verses that popped in my mind over the course of writing this post.

Word shall not return void

(Isaiah 55:11)

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: 

it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, 

and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Words shall not pass away

(Matthew 24:35) 

Heaven and earth shall pass away, 

but my words shall not pass away.

Wisdom for the asking 

(James 1:5) 

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,

 that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; 

and it shall be given him.

Unction of the Holy Ghost

(1 John 2:20) 

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, 

and ye know all things.

Need not man

(1 John 2:27) 
But the anointing which ye have received of him

 abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: 

but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, 

and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,

 ye shall abide in him.

Peace be still

(Mark 4:39) 

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, 

and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. 

And the wind ceased,

 and there was a great calm.

Faith comes by hearing the word 

(Romans 10:17) 

So then faith cometh by hearing, 

and hearing by the word of God.

Powerful two edged sword

(Hebrews 4:12) 

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, 

and sharper than any twoedged sword, 

piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, 

and of the joints and marrow, 

and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

My words are Spirit

(John 6:63) 

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: 

the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, 

and they are life.