Sunday Meanderings....

FOOD FOR THOUGHT - A DEVOTIONAL

A New Sense of Joy

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
because I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

~~ Matthew 11:29-30 ~~

Even the most inspired Christian women can, from time to time, find themselves running on empty. The demands of daily life can drain us of our strength and rob us of the joy that is rightfully ours in Christ. Are you tired or troubled? Turn your heart toward God in prayer. Are you weak or worried? Take the time -- or, more accurately, make the time -- to delve deeply into God's Holy Word. Are you spiritually depleted? Call upon fellow believers to support you, and call upon Christ to renew your spirit and your life. When you do, you'll discover that the Creator of the universe stands always ready and always able to create a new sense of wonderment and joy in you.

But while relaxation is one thing, refreshment is another.
We need to drink frequently and at length
from God's fresh springs, to spend time in the Scripture,
time in fellowship with Him, time worshiping Him.

~~ Ruth Bell Graham ~~

A Woman of Prayer - 365 Daily Devotions, Freeman-Smith LLC, Publisher


THE WEEK IN REVIEW

The vitamins are working! Hooray! I don't feel nearly as tired today as I normally do after a full week of sewing, cooking and taking care of grandchildren. Two weeks ago I bought a big bottle of Centrum Silver, just to get started taking a good multi-vitamin. I plan to do a little research into the whole vitamin thing, but for now, I just needed to start the habit and seriously, after only two weeks, I feel better. I'd say I feel 56 instead of 58! :-)


What's this?

If you're a day over 50, I'll bet you know what this is. I learned how to do this back in my (drug-free) hippie days. My tomato plants doubled in size this week and I got so excited, I decided to continue growing food by starting this. That's a clue. "Food." But I have to tell you, if this produces food here in western Colorado, it'll break some kind of a record, I'm sure. LOL


BIG FAT DRESSES, GONE WILD

So you'll remember I made this green big fat dress a few weeks ago. I really like it. I like it so much I actually wore it out in public. Once. I like it so much....


....I made another one.

And when I backed off and took an honest look at this one, I realized, this pattern is supposed to be a cute dress. But it's too short and it's too fluffy.

Clearly, I needed to make some changes.


So I lost the sleeves and added six inches to the length. I should have known better than to make a knee length dress. I haven't worn knee length dresses since I worked in an office and still had cute knees. :-)

This dress I like. It's comfortable and although it's not as fluffy as the other two, it still has those great big pockets (my favorite thing). And...


...because I didn't make the big fat sleeves, I had enough fabric left over to make Avery a little dress. Sweet, huh.

As promised, here we are in our matching summery yellow dresses:


Avery wouldn't cooperate.
She didn't want me holding her.

Note: It is absolutely shocking to me how much I look like my mom in this picture.


Artsy fartsy with the flower planter stuck right in the middle of the lawn didn't work out too slick either.


I finally decided to show you this one because if nothing else, you can see that I did my roots yesterday morning. :-)


And here's the matching bloomers.






Now that I got the big fat dress thing and the matching dress thing out of my system, I think I'll start a felt Advent calendar kit. LOL


LAST OF THE LAID BACK DAYS OF LATE SPRING

It's going to get hot here any day now. This is western Colorado. We live eight miles from the Utah border which is about as west as you can go in Colorado and this is desert country. We're having some unusually mild, overcast but warm and breezy days and we're making the most of them. When it finally gets hot here, it's relentless, until late September and we'd just about kill for a little breeze.

So yesterday Cameron and Avery came down to play (Krissy had to work a special event and Andy's gone fishing in the aforementioned Utah). We threw open the doors and windows and it was the perfect day to....



....listen to some Beach Boys!

What? You don't have the Beach Boys' Greatest Hits? Really, you should do something about that. Amazon.com? eBay?


Right up until yesterday, Avery's favorite song was Free Credit Report Dot Com and I'm not kidding. She starts dancing the minute one of those commercials comes on TV.

I'm pretty sure her new favorite song is either Surfin' Safari or Little Deuce Coupe. You should have seen her - it occurs to me that yesterday was the first time I've ever put the sound system on when she was here. She LOVES to dance and how can anyone not dance to The Beach Boys?

If you can sit still while listening to Kokomo by The Beach Boys, there's just something wrong with you.


Even Cameron danced and let me tell you....


....I was shocked.
Because he's about as laid back as they come.

(Is it just me, or does Chelsea's face look
too small for her body in this picture?)


SOME LAST THOUGHTS

I'm going to bake up a storm today. My niece Sarah and my sister Bev both mentioned this week that they like to spend a whole day stocking the freezer with baked goods. I'm not sure why I've never done that. So today I'm making lots of pumpkin bread and Amy Grant's grandma's banana nut bread and freezing them. Then I'm looking through my cupboards to see what else I can bake and freeze because I'm just in one of those moods, you know? Once it gets hot here, I lose my desire to bake much.

For the first time in ages, I don't have any one particular project lined up. I'm honestly not sure what I'll do with the upcoming week, although I'm sure I'll stay busy because I can't stand to not be busy. I'm not sewing frantically for my shoppe since I downsized it all. It was getting completely out of hand, taking over my life, and making me sad. I'm perfectly content to keep burp cloths in stock and stop to make a sock monkey from time to time.

I started my little shop to help me and Rob pay our bills. Quitting smoking did more to help us pay our bills than Santa stars and sock monkeys and burp cloths combined.

Yesterday was our four month anniversary. The last time I woke up with a morning cough was when I had a head cold, back in March. Life is about 100% better in every way imaginable, when you don't smoke cigarettes. Quitting is the smartest thing I ever, ever did.


A LITTLE WISDOM FROM ERMA

Who, in their infinite wisdom, decreed
that Little League uniforms be white?
Certainly not a mother.

On vacations, we hit the sunny beaches
where we occupy ourselves
keeping the sun off our skin,
the saltwater off our bodies
and the sand out of our belongings.

Have you any idea how many children it takes
to turn off the light in the kitchen? Three.
It takes one to say, "What light?" and two more to say,
"I didn't turn it on."

Just some offbeat Erma. I love Erma. And I hope you have a really nice new week.