playing catch up

We are back to being a three vehicle family again!

It was a little rough there for a few weeks.

We've had two vehicles out of commission,

and we found out that our mechanic of 22 years

closed up shop.

sadness.

I'm sad we don't have Barry as a mechanic anymore,

and I'm also sad for him to have to have a boss again.

I expect that's a little hard

after being your own boss 

for a few dozen years.

It's a wonderful gift to have a mechanic that you trust,

and now we've got to start all over again with somebody else.

I'm holding off on forming an opinion just yet

of the new place,

but let's just say that the first vehicle we had in there 

had to go back,

and the the second one 

cost almost $100 more than he'd told me it would.

so things aren't looking super just yet.

~

I sold my quilts!!!

All three of them!

I happy danced and cried, 

both.

They went to a super sweet gal in California

who plans to use them as art

and treasure them,

and pass them on to her daughter.

💚

It was an excellent reminder to me that God does things in His time.

A few weeks ago,

after getting an e-mail from Etsy

telling me that I needed at least 10 things in my shop 

in order for people to find my stuff,

I sent an entire Sunday afternoon

making some chapstick holders to put in there.

It didn't go real well.

They took waay too long, 

and I ended up trashing 2,

and giving 2 that weren't in what *I* considered sale-able condition

to Josiah and Lexi

and all I ended up with after several hours

was 4 little lip balm clip things

that I could sell for maybe $3-$4 a piece.

It hardly seemed worth the time to take and edit pictures

and list them.

Plus,

we all know about me and the post office....

Did I really want to have to make a trip

(or - let's be real - send Brandon)

to the post office 

for what will end up being

maybe $1.50 to add to  a sewing machine fund??

I don't think so.

So then, they sat there taunting me.

"how is anybody ever going to find your quilts 

with only 3 items in your shop?"

But God showed me

He's got this.

~

Work has been super crazy for Tyler,

so we aren't getting in as much work on the house as we'd like,

but - we finally have everything primed,

all ceilings are painted,

and we have color on the walls in Brandon's room.

so -yay!!!

~

My sewing machine is still in Fayetteville,

though it is finally ready for me to pick it up.

I guess I will do that Monday,

since we'll be painting when they are open tomorrow,

and they're closed on Sunday.

While waiting on the machine,

Lily helped me baste the two quilt tops so they'll be ready to go

when I get my Juki back.

She's actually getting to be a great basting helper

(but I still have to repeat an awful lot,

"smooth it from the middle out...")

Since any wonkiness in Sojourner would be especially obvious,

I wanted to make sure it stays nice and straight,

so in addition to spray basting,

I ironed it also,

and then thread basted with tailor tacks

for good measure.

(but not as close together as if I hadn't sprayed)

Lil' threaded all of the needles for me,

which was another huge help.

~

I miss coffee.

Having not noticed any improvement from the absence of it,

I've actually had a couple of half cups,

which I've thoroughly enjoyed.

~

Lexi will be teaching her Sunday School class this week.

She has spent hours working on her lesson,

and enlisted the help of Lily and Josiah

to make a couple of games,

then got Brandon to take her to the store to buy snack 

to go along with it.

(She's doing Ruth and Naomi, and got 100% wheat bread,

which she was very excited about.

She was also quite excited that it came with it's own twist tie!

which made me think,

my children should maybe get out more ;-)

~

It seems like I had more stuff to record,

but I can't remember at the moment

and it's time for me to start fixing dinner soon

(BLT salads, since one of Tyler's friends gave us some garden tomatoes.

yum!!)