A Passion and a Hobby

I remember as a little girl spending hours and hours at a time at this fabric warehouse with my mom. They had bins and bins of fabric to search through. They also had this floor scale I remember. It was HUGE...okay, huge in a 5 yr old's eyes. I remember my baby brother falling asleep in the bins of fabric as mom continued to search through the bins for all of the perfect pieces. Then I remember my mom sewing for hours and hours. I was amazed at how fast her machine would move. She has an industrial sewing machine that is huge and runs like a champion. This machine, by far, is still my favorite, even though mom has only given me the privilege of using it a few times.

I bought my first sewing machine, a Singer, from an antique shop for $15. It was the kind of machine that is attached to a cabinet and it drops down into the cabinet and then becomes a table. I have a bit of a confession...I have 5 sewing machines, three of them work and three of them are the kind that come in the table. One of them is an old Singer with a peddle foot. I am in love with sewing machines, especially antiques. With my first Singer, I made all of the decorative pieces for our wedding and had a marvelous time with it too. I don't use this machine anymore. I have moved on to bigger and better! Ha! I have a Brother sewing machine and a Husqvarna that are now my two main machines. I love the Husqvarna and how easy it is. So, my hobby of sewing occasionally when I was unmarried, has become a passion since I have my own kids. I must admit, I don't sew as much for Josiah as I do for Bethany. I have made many pairs of pants for Josiah, and he has worn them out, but for Bethany I have made pants, hats, dresses, aprons, and blankets for her animals. I love to sew! I especially love to sew little girls clothes, especially dresses. There is just something about a little girls dress looking so sweet and pretty on her. I must admit, it almost makes me want to put dresses on Bethany all of the time!

I have a desire to sell what I make, but have either not hit the right venue as of yet, or have no marketing abilities [this much is true!]. I have tried to sell things on etsy.com to no avail and I have sold a couple of things over facebook, but I am not sure I want to have a facebook account for business. So, right now I am praying for the right thing to come along and trying to think about how to market the items I make. I have received much encouragement, as of late, to try to start selling things again, so this is something I am praying hard about. Anyway, I leave you with my two latest creations.

It's a hit!

As I stated, I use pinterest for a lot of ideas and I saw these chicken and spinach flautas/taquitos and it looked so good. Of course, I didn't follow the instructions to a "T", but then again, I usually never do. Here are the changes I made:

I took the chicken thighs and I cooked them in the crockpot on high for a couple of hours, then shredded the chicken. I did not cook them in beer and water [never had beer, can't imagine this tasting good...].

Instead of the baby spinach, I used one package of frozen creamed spinach. I mixed it in with the shredded chicken.

Then I added:
garlic
chopped onion
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
paprika
cumin
crumbled queso cheese

I mixed these altogether and used whole wheat flour tortillas and cooked for about 12 minutes on 450 degrees. I put olive oil on both sides of the taquitos and they came out extra crisp and just wonderful.

My DH kept saying that this was a hit, you'll have to make it again, but a lot more of it, and you ought to take it to church. I think he likied it! I will be making this again and thankful to pinterest for the idea!

Pinterest Interest

What's all the buzz about Pinterest do you say? Well, I am the kind of person that LOVES to be crafty. I love to sew, especially bags and little girl's clothes...especially girl's dresses...I also love to be crafty and do kids crafts. I love to try new recipes...the easier the better. BUT, I am terrible about coming up with ideas on my own. If I see something I like, it gives me the idea to go for it. So, when I want to make Bethany a dress, where is the first place I look for an idea [if I am not going to use a pattern]? I look at pinterest. If I want multiple recipe ideas, pinterest is my first stop. What I love about Pinterest is that "it's all there"...I can t ype in "little girl's dresses" and up pops a myriad of choices to look at an get ideas from. I can "pin" things to my wall and go back and look at it later and go back to it whenever I want.

So, a friend posted a challenge of sorts today..."52 Weeks of Pinterest". Basically, the goal is to make or do something you see on Pinterest at least once a week. She had a good point...if you look at pinterest all of the time and never do anything you see, then you are wasting your time, and I agree! So, I will try to write once a week about my pinterest inspired creations. Until then, happy pinning!

Spring has sprung!

I put on shorts for the first time today and headed out into the glorious sunshine and springtime weather. This time of year makes me want to do all sorts of things. I want to spring clean, organize, sew, prep the garden, go for walks, and sit on the front porch watching the kids enjoy themselves, just to name a few. Right now, I have two sewing projects on my plate for others, then I plan to make both of Josiah and Bethany's shorts and Bethany's dresses for this next season. I am not happy with the little girls shorts that are out on the market today. They are either too short or too low cut and that is not what I want for my daughter. Also, Josiah is in a big growing season, so it will be easier for me to make his shorts for this spring/summer/fall rather than investing money in them. Then, I desperately need to clean out cabinets, drawers and closets around the house. I think I will start with the kitchen next. My desire is to get rid of anything we don't use or haven't used in a very long time. Time to purge! Then, onto the garden! I have big plans for the front yard. I would like to do a lot of flower planting around our birdbath in the front yard, put up some trellis' [sp?] for my beautiful roses. We also plan to put rocks or mulch - can't decide which yet - down around the flower beds. Then, Danny and I have always wanted to grow all of our own herbs...as Danny says, on an industrial scale...I really want some oregano, basil, lavendar, rosemary, and thyme to start with, maybe a few others. It's also time to start exploring our greenways and parks here in Roanoke. We have so many! This was something we started doing last year with the kids almost every day. Josiah has created his own names for the parks we go to and sometimes we don't know which parks he is talking about because he doesn't call them by their proper names. Amongst his favorites are "the creek park", "the park where the man built the bridge", "the line park", "tarpley's", and "tennis park". He is so cute, and loves our exploring as much as we do. Happy Spring everyone!

Do I do that?

We don't have cable TV, nor do we want it, but sometimes I do watch a few things on the internet. I saw something about Jon and Kate, Plus 8, which I have never really seen a full episode of, but I got to wondering what the first few episodes were like. So, I had a few minutes and pulled up the very first episode and watched about 20 minutes. I was kind of in shock and horrified. It was not how the kids act, how the parents parent, how the house looked, but my goodness, Kate treats her husband like a huge punching bag. She is rude, hateful, condescending, two-faced and just awful to her husband. Kate seems to be a very organized and in control person, but the way she goes about it is just astonishing to me. She never asks her husband to do things for her. She orders: "Do this..." or, "Do that...". Do it now, do it the way I want it, do it faster, or do it neater. If the poor man fails to do all of her bidding to meet all of her rigid expectations, she yells at him, berates him, belittles him and embarrasses him in public. They do very many on camera interviews together throughout the day and she even tells him what to say and how to say it. She is very concerned about what is said in front of others and how it is said and how she appears and how what her husband says appears to others. It is really just astounding to me, really.

It made me start thinking about how I treat my husband and how I act with him. MOMENT OF TRUTH: Watching this show for just 20 minutes convicted me to my core. I am much like the woman in this show. I like things to be very organized [not often is it like that way, however], I like to be in control, I like things to be done my way, because, well, it is the only way, right? Well, this is not the way we are to be as wives to our husbands. Since watching that episode, I have been eager to go back to God's Word and remind myself of the wife I am to be to my husband.

God's Word gives us much insight on this subject:

Ephesians 5:22-23: We, as wives, are called to submit to our husbands because to submit to our husbands is submission rendered to the Lord Himself.

I Corinthians 11: It is clear in this passage that God has called the husband to be the overseer of the wife and the family. This is to bring glory to God.

Proverbs 31: 10-31: We are all familiar with this passage explaining the beauty of the virtuous woman. She is a blessing to her husband. Verse 11, 12 and 23 speak mightily to me:
The heart of her husband safely trusts her. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Her husband is known at the gates,when he sits among the elders of the land.

So, the verses above speak about how we should be as a Godly wife, but what about how we SHOULD not be...the Bible is clear on that too. Here are some of the most frequently used verses that should warn women of their conduct with their husbands and within the family:

Proverbs 19:13b
…the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping

Proverbs 21:9
Better to dwell in the corner of a housetop,
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Proverbs 21:19
Better to dwell in the wilderness,
Than in with a contentious and angry woman.

So, when I think about the "Jon and Kate Family", I don't know much about them except I do know that they are now divorced, or separated with that intention. I wonder how much of the wife's attitude towards her husband turned the husband away from her and the family [I don't know any of what is going on with them, or why they are not together anymore, so this is just a musing on my part). I know that when I act towards my husband in ways that are not glorifying to God, I don't draw my husband near to me, but instead, I push him away.

So, what should you do instead? Well, I think that bathing yourself in the Word of God is always a good start. I also like a website that goes through 31 Days of praying for your husband. You can find that list here:

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/articles/31-days-of-praying-for-your-husband/


I just want to encourage wives everywhere to love your husband, treat him well, build him up, support him and love him as you should.

Where have I been?

I have been here all the time. I just haven't felt the inspiration or motivation to keep up with our family blog. I feel like *maybe* a little desire is creeping back in for me to work on my blog some more. It has been well over a year since I have posted anything, and I feel like maybe it is time to catch up and start posting again.

So, let me give you a few highlights from 2011:

January 2011 - Bethany had eye surgery for strabismus repair [crossed eyes]. The surgery was wonderful, and even though the DR said that it would not improve Bethany's eyesight, it really has. Her depth perception has increased and she sees better with her new glasses rx and without her glasses even.

February 2011 - Took Josiah to the Circus for his 4th birthday. It was just time for me and him and he had a fabulous time! He talked about it so much that we took him again this year, for his 5th birthday.

March 2011 - We flew kites for the first time with the kids, and we began to explore all of our wonderful parks in and around Roanoke.

April 2011 - Dyed eggs with the kids for the first time. They had a lot of fun!

May 2011 - Visited Amazement Square in Lynchburg. We had a great time of learning and being with friends!

June 2011 - Baby Caroline, our cousin from Memphis came for a visit. She is such a sweetheart.

July 2011 - This was a trying month for us. Josiah was diagnosed with High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. This threw us for a loop, but it has been so much fun trying to learn how my son's wheels turn and learning how to work with him in ways that will help him. We are blessed to be going through this experience.

August 2011 - Josiah started Pre-K! Wow, I was so nervous to put Josiah on the bus that first day, but since then, Josiah has been dubbed the bus mascot and he LOVES school!

September 2011 - We went to GA for a special wedding. My mom married a wonderful man named Tyson. It was a bittersweet time for all of us, but he is a wonderful man and I am happy for my mom.

October 2011 - We spent several days playing in the rain, watching rainbows, and playing in fallen leaves.

November 2011 - Thanksgiving in VA and in GA - best of both worlds, except Daddy didn't get to go with us to GA :-(

December 2011 - Christmas in VA and in GA - Also, my Granny's husband John passed away, so we went to GA for the funeral.

So, this is just a highlight of 2011 for us. It was a great year, and now I am happy to be in 2012.

So, as I take up blogging again, don't be worried if the posts are few and far between, but I will say this: I want my blog to be glorifying to God, helpful to others and fun. See you at my next post!