Monday miscellany

I've been rather melonchony* lately.

(You may have noticed from my way-less-enthusiastic-than-normal birthday post...)

I think all of the busyness (which still isn't over)

has caught up with me.
Or maybe all the (delicious) junk I've been eating.
Or both...

*have you seen MegaMind?
I no longer feel melancholy, I feel meLONkunee.
Which is a much better way of feeling, I think.

~

I am so far behind on e-mail,

responding to blog comments,

and visiting my favorite blogs

that I fear I will never catch up.

I think,

instead,

I just need to start over with a clean slate.

(If you've e-mailed or commented,

and I haven't gotten back with you;

please forgive me,

and know I've written you back about a dozen or so times in my head...)

I'm not quite sure what to do with the 4,716 messages in my mailbox, though...

~

It was so nice to have Tyler home last week.
It was hard to let him go back to work today,
but,
we need his job...

~

We left early for the Christmas Eve service on Thursday
so we could photograph my final finish of 2015,
but it ended up being too dark to take pictures
since it was so overcast.

Last night,
when plugging in my Kindle
(I've been reading Uncle Tom's Cabin)
I discovered that my camera charger was still plugged in.
And the battery was still in the charger!

It's a good thing the light was bad;
I would've spent the evening being so upset with myself and my stupidity.
I had even left my camera on the bed,
so that it'd remind me to grab the battery.
Sheesh.

~

I'm considering
(only considering, mind you)
joining Instagram,
mostly because Tony and Kacy are on Instagram
and I don't want to miss a single Hadley picture...

I'm afraid it'll turn into a big time suck though.

~

Have you seen all the options out there
for adult coloring books?
(not 'adult', just advanced...)
I kinda want one,
but then
I think I'd rather spend my time making pictures out of fabric,
than coloring them.

~
Stephanie nailed it - the 'why I make things for people'.

Just substitute 'sewing' 

(or whatever form of crafting and creating you do)

for 'knitting':

Knitting is, I have often said, a container for love. 

We work hard to make something for someone, 

pouring our time and energy and love into a tangible thing. 

When we hand knitting to someone,

 we’re hoping they’ll hear what we’re really saying, 

which is

 “I love you. 

I think you’re wonderful. 

I value your happiness, 

so much so

 that I’ve spent this time on you.

 My love is in this.”

She always says things so nicely, that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

photos were all taken about a month ago. when it was still pretty outside.

orange explosion

I've been at this quilting thing for almost 7 years now,

so I figured it was high time I made my mom a quilt!

I started this One Block Wonder 

way back in July,

using Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Roses in Citron.

I choose this particular fabric 

because I thought the colors would go well in Bill's TV room,

which is decorated sorta aztec-y.

I figured, even though the design didn't match,

the colors, would...

I choose the OBW design,

because I thought my mom would love all of the different flowers that were created.
And it just seems fitting;
when you start a OBW,
you have no clue exactly what your quilt will end up looking like.
And so it is as a mom.
You really have no clue
what all that love and hard work you pour into your children
will turn into.

The 'flowers' went together quickly,

but turning the flowers into a quilt top
took
for.e.ver.
There was lots and lots (and lots) of pinning

and still I had some points that weren't perfect.

Ah well.
Nobody knows I'm not perfect
better than my mom!

Once I had the triangles all sewn together,

I trimmed the top and bottom edges

and added the border

(my first mitered border)

then made the backing.

I spray basted the top to the batting (bamboo - it's quickly becoming a favorite)

and then proceeded to quilt,

(without the back)

in the ditch,

every. stinking. diagonal seam.

(I'd read that this was very important for OBW quilts, especially)

Then I added the quilt backing

and stitched in the ditch every-other vertical seam,

before proceeding with my real quilting,

a huge spiral

that began in the very orangest block

and moved outward.

I sprinkled in sections of hand quilting where it seemed right.

Like a good girl,
I knotted and buried the threads at all of my starts and stops..

I had a lot of starts and stops...

Then I added the binding

and alternated between stitching it on the back,

and hand-quilting the 1 inch ivory border.

I'd hoped to have it finished, except for the orange border,

(which I hadn't yet determined how I was quilting)

before I went to California,
but with my earlier departure,
that didn't happen.

I considered bringing it with me,

but I didn't want to feel pressured to work on it

instead of snuggling Hadley,

and even though it's just a throw size,

it's kinda big to be working on

on a plane.

After getting back home,

I only had 3 days to get it finished,

because my family's Christmas celebration with my mom

was the Sunday before Christmas.

We watched a little more Netflix than normal ;-)

and I finished the hand stitching late Saturday morning.

Then I pulled the machine back out and

did two rows of machine stitching in the orange border.

It needed something more,

but I didn't think just another row down the center would cut it.

Plus,

I kinda wanted something triangular

in the border,

so after much debate and testing of stitches,

I used the triple zig zag.

I'm normally not a fan of the zig zag,

but I think it worked well here

to help frame the quilt

and pull it all together.

I tossed it in the wash Saturday afternoon,

a full 13 hours before we'd be giving it to Mom and Bill :-)

I love you Mom (and Bill)

I hope you love your quilt,

and even though you likely won't actually use it,

maybe somebody will snuggle up with it now and then...

linking up with Amanda Jean and Lee :-)

twin scrappy hearts

The Christmas party I mentioned?

We were supposed to bring something 'creative and cheap' for the gift exchange.

that poinsettia was a gift from Melba last year! 

I had a vison of what I wanted to make,

but it was one of the things that didn't get done before I left for CA.

Seeing that we were going directly from the airport

when I returned,

to the party,

well,

it wasn't something I could put off  'til I got home.

So I packed the bag of scraps from Simply Luscious,

along with a spool of light grey 60 weight thread,

black perle cotton and a needle,

and a scrap of canvas

left over from covering the cushion on the bench in the LEM.

I figured whoever ended up with the gift

could choose whether they wanted it made into 

a little picture for their wall

or a zip pouch. 

Over the course of a couple of afternoons,

I cut and glued tiny scraps into a heart shape,

then, with Kacy's sewing machine,

went around and around the heart 

with stitching about 1/8" apart

'til all the scraps were secure.

Then I outlined the heart with the perle cotton thread

and stitched the word love.

I added the french knot period because 

love.

is everything.

During the 'dirty Santa' game, 

Melba got the (unfinished) canvas

and chose to have it made into a picture for the wall.

But at the very last minute,

Mac stole it from her

for his mom.

Melba made all sorts of threats, 

and he was very apologetic and didn't want to take it from her,

but 

Mom won out over Melba.

(The whole thing was quite hilarious, but you had to be there)

Amy (Mac's mom) chose to have a zip pouch made,

I decided 

(since it was sort of my suggestion that Mac steal the gift for his mom)

to make a second heart canvas

so I could make Amy her bag,

and Mac could give Melba (back) her picture.

Because, 

really,

that was the loving thing to do ;-)

linking up with Amanda Jean

Happy Birthday, Jesus

3 flocks of chickens

1 dairy goat

5 adorable stuffed lambs that play 'Jesus loves me'

(samaritan's purse)

mosquito nets for a family

$396 worth of warm clothes

6 insect shield blankets

10 fruit trees

seeds for 3 families

5 ducks

(world vision)

and from 

Heifer International,

bees with beekeeping supplies and training 

and

an investment in an alpaca project in Peru.

That's what we gave to Jesus today

in honor of His birthday :-)

I got smart this year, and instead of my fake money being life sized,
I made it so I could fit all of the bills for each person
on one piece of paper.
The blank 'bill' was used to write in the amount that each person earned by doing
extra chores for Christmas cash.
Now, I'm going to be super smart, and save my original for next year :- )

Fancy; I know...

(Josiah got the pickle this year)
(I never posted our party last year.
I saved all the envelopes for months,
then finally  tossed them in June or July during a cleaning spree,
after admitting I was probably never going to get the post typed up.
I regretted it almost immediately.
but not soon enough to rescue them from the trash.

Previous birthday celebrations for Jesus can be found here:
2010   2011   2012   2013)

We love you, Jesus!

Thank-you.

she's here!!

I have all these thoughts swirling in my head,

but no time to properly process,

or compose them here.

Since I am already at risk of being completely disowned by my family,

for failure to post in a timely manner,

I have to get something down 'on paper'.

So here goes.

Hadley's first bath

Our sweet little Hadley was snug as a bug in her mum's tummy

and had no desire to leave

of her own accord,

so Kacy was scheduled to be induced on Dec 9th.

Knowing that labor is reported to 

be more difficult when induced,

Kacy begged very nicely asked me 

to hop on an earlier flight than my Dec 11 ticket called for,

so I could be with her during labor and delivery.

Knowing that babies sometimes surprise their mommas,

I opted to wait until the last possible minute to change my flight,

concerned that I could spend a bunch of money to do so,

but still miss out on the blessed event.

Hadley's first nap with mama

This decision proved

 to
first of all, be unnecessary,

but it also provided me with a sort of false sense of security,

and allowed me to

- up until 11pm Monday night,
when I purchased a ticket for a flight the next morning -

continue to think that I was not leaving town until Friday the 11th,

and therefore still had plenty of time to accomplish all of the many things on my 

-before-I-go-to-California' list,

which led to much scrambling.

Nevertheless,

I made it to California with hours to spare

 before we all (Tony, Kacy, her mom, and me)

arrived at the Naval hospital to begin the induction process.

I say 'begin',

because, bless Kacy,

it was a long 

long

process

which lasted from 7:30 pm Tuesday the 8th

until Hadley (finally) arrived at 4:08 am on Thursday the 10th.

What happened in between those hours

is not my story to tell

(hopefully, Kacy will write that  post... hint hint ;-)

but I will say that Kacy was an absolute trooper

and I was so very proud of both her and Tony!

And I was so honored and grateful to be there

and play a small supporting role

in the story.

I got teary eyed on more than one occasion,

watching the two of them labor together

to bring this precious new person

into the world.

their first moment together, as a family of 3

~

not their first nap together ;-)

I so enjoyed my hours of holding Haldey each day

(and miss her terribly, now that I am back home!)

It was such a treat to be able to snuggle a baby

and not feel

even one time

that I really needed to be doing something else,

and should just.lay.the baby.down.

I was reminded

again and again

over the past few days,

just how much I loved every bit of caring for my babies

(even though every single one of them cried way way way more than Hadley...)

I spent my time in Cali

doing the best I could to love on 

and serve

all 3 of my sweet loves there,

all the while,

missing my entire gang back home.

~ 

Seeing that I left earlier than I'd anticipated leaving,

I never did finish all those things on my 'before I go' list,

and I didn't leave them as prepared

as I would have liked.

Rumor has it

(and evidence - once I got home - supports the rumor)

that Brandon was a total rock star,

holding down the fort here.

I had absolutely nothing to worry about.

(but still felt bad that I didn't leave them in better shape..)

~

My plane got in at 5:40 last night.

Knowing I hadn't had much sleep,

My Love (and the rest of the fam)

met me at the airport with a steaming hot cup of coffee - yum!

then we went straight

to the church

for our 242 group's Christmas party.

It was fun, even though I was completely exhausted.

I do love our people!

~

Oh! 

I almost forgot!

I took the train (a first!) from Oceanside to San Diego,

where I was supposed to find transportation to the airport.

When I got off the train,

I saw a row of buses

but couldn't make sense of the routes;

there was nothing that said 'take this bus to the airport'.

Taking a bus was out.

There were no taxis in sight,

even though there had been the Friday before, 

when Kacy's mom made the same trek,

so

 I set off walking.

I was a bit nervous petrified,

(I am a small town girl from Arkansas, you know...)

I soon came to an intersection 

and across the street, there were a few taxis.

whew!

I waited at the light for the sign that it was okay to cross,

wondering how, exactly, I was supposed to decide which taxi to take...

The sign to cross never appeared, so I moved closer to a lady that was also waiting to cross

(or so I thought)

and asked if she'd pushed the button.

It turns out she hadn't.

She wasn't waiting to cross;

she was waiting for a car to pick her up.

To take her to the airport.

And she invited me to join her!

I can't tell you how relieved I was!

This sweet lady took me under her wing.

She let me ride with her (for free!)

then once we got there,

told me where to go 

(I had checked in electronically - another first for me, 

so I was nervous about doing something wrong)

and also invited me to wait for my flight in the Admiral's Club with her

(a lovely, quiet spot in a sea of noise and rushing that is an international airport)

I had started out the morning

on very little sleep

(we'd stayed up irresponsibly late

 playing cards, 

trying to cram as much 'being together time' in as possible)

and I  was super nervous,

knowing that I had all kinds of little 'firsts'

that were waay out of my comfort zone,

and then

out of nowhere,

this angel lady appeared.

An hour or so later,

with a hug, 

we parted ways at gate 25.

And I wasn't nervous 

anymore.

~

I didn't really have the luxury of easing back into life today,

(Christmas is only 8 days away!)

but I took it anyways.

Life can get back to crazy 

tomorrow.