for mummu

The other Sunday I was able to join in showering the lovely mother

of these twin cherubs with gifts and good wishes.

 

Aren't they just the cutest ever?!

Loretta snuggles right into Graham,

at one point trying to take a nibble of his elbow.

He really didn't care.

 

Life is a whole new kind of busy at their house.

Along with a whole new kind of blessed.

 

 So precious!

34.52 motivational monday

When you finally go back to your old hometown,

you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood.

- Sam Ewing

 

 

 Childhood.
Oh, the memories that are wrapped and neatly tied in our childhood homes,
or the hometowns we grew up in.

I was thinking about this week's blog post, wondering what I could do with it.
Then I thought of this beautiful painting that we had commissioned this summer.
Lavona Keskey is an artist who captures life.
To me, her art has always breathed life.
For our parent's 50th wedding anniversary we had Lavona paint our childhood home,
complete with the living that went on there, as a gift for them.
Memories were collected from siblings and added to the piece,
including the shoe kicking contest which some of you who visited
probably participated in once or twice.

The completed piece of art captures the quote for this post.
It isn't the house we long for,
it is the childhood .....

that we keep going back to.
 

Linking to Gloria

alphabet crafting

I have been crafting again, but there are some problems with the sharing.

Don't judge me, but I actually wrapped several Christmas gifts the week before last.

Kind of hard to share those things here when I know the recipients pop in to check.

This one I can now share!

 

I was looking for a baby shower gift that wasn't the usual and

found one on Pinterest or Etsy or somewhere.

I actually hit the purchase button at Etsy once in a while, but not if I can help it.

This was one of those.

 

I went about making some hanging letters with little tags on them.

 

First I layered fabrics with the backing, a piece of cotton or felt, a crinkly scrubbed up chip bag and the top fabric ... owls this time.

 

 I found a font on my computer that I thought would work.

This is not the one I used, but you get the idea. This paper is 8.5 x 11.

I wanted them a little smaller, so the letters I printed weren't quite so large.
 

The letters were cut out, placed on top of the stacked fabric and pinned in place.

Next came the cutting.
 

 Third coffee refill.

Don't ever forget that!
 

 Collect ribbons of every desirable size, color and design.

By the way, these spools were purchased from JoAnn Fabrics.

Handy with multicolored stuff on one roll.

I have enough to keep me going for a very long time.
 

 I cut tags of different lengths and inserted them into my layered alphabet.

No rhyme or reason. Just willy nilly.

Make sure they are pinned in place.
 

 Now for the fun part.

I have a cheap sewing machine and obviously have issues sewing straight lines

as I go around curves.

The first line I sewed was the innermost line.

I then trimmed the crinkly foil paper as closely as I could with the stack of material.

The second line was then sewn a little closer to the outer edge.

The goal of that was to avoid anything that baby could scratch him/herself with.
 

The tag at the upper side of the letter was left a little longer than the others.

To it, I attached a few of those hookie things that can be hooked together

and attached to a car seat or diaper bag ... or wherever your heart desires.
 

 And there you go!

One for Loretta. One for Graham.

The size of the completed letter (not including the extending tags) is about 6.5 inches.

I think they turned out rather cute.
 

 I didn't take any photos of the backs of what I'm calling the alpha tags.

However, I used some of the extra fabric to make some burp cloths to match.

So, one of the tags is chevron print on the back.

The other polka dot.
 

This crafting business is nearly therapeutic as gardening!



33.52 motivational monday

Your talent is God's gift to you.

What you do with it is your gift back to God.

-Leo Buscaglia

How apropos that this week's motivational monday quote should be this particular one,
when the theme for this week's Bible text is
Faithfulness in caring for God given gifts.

It was my turn on the organ yesterday at church.
Thanks to Mom, and those endless Saturday mornings bringing me to organ lessons,
I've been able to give back in one small way.
Caring for that gift, as in practicing, is a bit more challenging.
Maximizing the potential of this instrument is something
I need to devote some time to ....
giving back the gift that God has given me.

Linking to the incredibly talented Gloria ...

closed doors that might just open

While I was walking through one door,

with the road map highlighted with the path to the next doorway ....

they were preparing the lock on the door.

When the time came for me to walk through that door I was aiming for,

I walked up to it, tried the latch and found it locked.

 

This particular lock can be opened, however, the opening of the lock carries a price.

A price that must be weighed against the benefit.

This time the price is too high.

 

A long time ago (at least it feels like it!), after I finished nursing school, I took a class to learn treatment for eliminating allergies in a natural way. It was absolutely fascinating. I've seen tremendous results from it and it has been a life style saver in the lives of some people. While I still continue to treat my family, and myself, I wasn't comfortable treating others without again going through the classes. It helps that the classes are held in California and are a nice little getaway as well!

Life happened along the way. A door opened and presented an opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree in nursing at no financial cost to myself. Serious. My financial burden for the piece of paper I now hold cost the sum total of about $38 or whatever I paid for PERRLA to write my papers in APA format. So I got busy with family celebrations, moving households and finishing a degree. Now I am done with that piece of life and was ready to move on to the next.

Sometime in the past year and a half, the state of California has changed its requirements and I can no longer take the class that I wanted to. I was hoping to mix and balance my present working situation with a complement of alternative healing therapies ... at some point moving away from the land of pharmaceutical, politically motivated, corporate healthcare and on to that of holisitic therapies.

I started looking for a class and found that things had changed. Last I looked (and it was while I was completing my BSN) I needed to take a 2 day class in acupressure. Doable. Totally. Now I need to be a licensed acupuncturist in the state I practice in. That would be a great big SLAM!
To be a licensed acupuncturist in the state of Arizona, I need a Masters Degree from the Phoenix Insitute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture. That means a 48 month program at the tune of $62,500 plus another $4,800 for books. Or, I can always pursue a degree as a Nurse Practitioner and that takes the place of the acupuncturist. As an NP, I could take the several day acupressure class and be considered good to go. That isn't happening either. I enjoy my family too much for that business.

At the moment, I see myself in a maze. Wandering around looking for a door that isn't locked solid, has something interesting and fulfilling behind it, and doesn't require a financial debt load. It's out there somewhere ... I just have to find it.

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

Well .... whodathunk it ....

I wrote this last weekend I think.
And then I kept it to myself. I sorta do that once in awhile.

I spent the week in a humdrum mood.
While I sent out feelers, in the form of email, to see if I could sneak in the door without this extensive extra education that I really don't want, I spent a disappointing week.
It is rather disheartenting to have the rug yanked out from under you.
And while this yank wasn't the size of the living room carpet, rather a throw rug size, it was still disappointing.

But after a three or four day pity party, I got back on the bus.
Thursday I started researching classes for a real estate license.
Okay.
Maybe I have a problem.
My rationale for the real estate deal was really rather simple.
Hubby and I could do this together.
In all that spare time we have just waiting to be filled up.

Then Friday came.
I was busy doing fun and crafty kinds of things.
My world was quiet ... filled with the sounds of a great book in my ear and the sewing machine humming in front of me.
At some point, my fingers meandered over the mailbox on my phone.
(What on earth would my grandmother think about that handy little phone contraption?!)
And just like that .....

the closed door opened.

 

No accupressure needed.

No acupuncture needed.

I am in.

Can you feel the excitement?!

I'm hoping for November.

 

So much for real estate.

32.52 motivational monday

A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me
when my memory fails.
-Pioneer Girls Leaders Handbook

Linking to Gloria .....

color in a world of brown

The world can be a very stark place.

For some, the world is a seemingly endless path of the same brown.

An endless stretch of time with tiny bursts of color

that occasionally brighten a day.

The eyes cast downward,

watching the slow trod of feet in the same direction.

Gentle inclines and curves go undetected.

Delicate changes in scenery are indistinguishable.

From the current vantage point,

the path is endless.

Time is endless.

The brown is endless.

Yet, far ahead, down this seemingly endless path lies a corner.

Every path has its corner.

The path that is lush with green and vibrant with life has a corner.

So, too, does the path that is stark and brown.

The path that is lonely or achingly filled with loss.

The path that is seemingly forever.

Every path has its corner.

 

To this day, I have been fortunate.

 

It is for the others that I grieve.

The ones who are laying their loved one to rest in the next days.

The ones who are struggling to deal with loss on a daily basis.

The ones who are struggling with health issues.

 

Rest assured, we will all live in a world that is stark.

For loss in inevitable.

It is a part of living.

I, too, have lost friends who were most beloved.

God saw fit to carry me through those losses.

He carried me to a place where the grass was green again,

though perhaps a different shade of green.

He will also carry you.

He has promised.



31.52 motivational monday

Friends are those rare people who ask how we are

and then wait to hear the answer.

-Ed Cunningham

 

... whether over a cup of coffee or sharing a coke ...

Linking to Gloria.