Through the Laundry...

I had a thought this morning that helped me see things from a different prospective.  One thought led to another, which led to another, and then to another.  And it all started with a pile of laundry.

This morning I walked into the laundry room and was immediately disappointed to see a big heap of dirty laundry, just sitting there, begging for my attention.  My first thought was, my work is never done.  I felt a little annoyed that even though laundry gets done most days, a new pile seems to mysteriously reappear every morning.

I walked away from it thinking I would come back to face it later.  I started washing the morning dishes and as I stood there it all became clear to me.  

I am that dirty laundry. I am a big heap of blemishes and flaws.  But my heavenly Father doesn't give up on me.  He doesn't lose his patience and throw his hands up in the air and walk away from me.  He's right there with me every morning.  He keeps on loving.  Keeps on giving.  He probably looks down from Heaven and sees the mess that I am but he keeps on working, shaping, and molding.  

I stood there thinking about that for a few moments then I walked back into the laundry room to start a load only this time with a better attitude and a blessed heart.

While I am doing the laundry, God is working on me. 

And that, my friend, should lift anybody's spirit.

♥♥♥

Speaking of blessings, hubby was gifted some football tickets by one of our church members.  It's for our local college team.  Looks like hubby and I have a date for Saturday night.

Happy first day of Fall!

Lately...

Hola mis amigas!

September started off with a flurry of things to do and places to be.  Here we are already halfway through it and I haven't made a single post.  I haven't had time to take any pictures and I can't make a post without pictures.  What fun would that be?

I have a couple of things I'm working on at the moment.  

I'm trying to finish up this shawl I started on a year or so ago.  It's a granny stitch shawl that I was going to do with just those little balls of remnants that always seem to hang around.  Now I'm trying to finish it with whatever yarn I have on hand whether it's a remnant or not.  So far I'm liking the way it's taking shape.  All I lack is the edging. I can't decide what to do.  

This is a knit baby blanket I started on recently.  I'm following this pattern.  I really should get some stitch markers though because I'm having to backtrack a lot to correct a stitch where I knit but should have purled.  Ugh.  Beginner knitter problems. 

I haven't picked this up in a couple of days. 

 I'm making it for my future grandbabies so there's no rush.

 I had to skip my morning coffee a couple of days ago because hubby and I had to fast for a physical we had scheduled for that day.  We both had caffeine headaches all day.    It's amazing how much our bodies miss our morning brew.  My coffee tasted extra good the following morning.

  I'll give you an update on my breast biopsy.  I had a breast biopsy done on  my right breast two weeks ago at a breast cancer center.  I had a lot of anxiety about it but I got a call last Wednesday and they said the microcalcifications were benign. No cancer cells were found, thank the Lord.  I have to go back in six months to get another mammogram so they can take another look at it.  Hopefully all will be well then too.  

The news was a big relief to me.  It's amazing how much something like this can send you into a spiral of worry.  Even though you try not to, it's inevitable.  Your mind starts to think about the what if's and you start preparing yourself for the worst.  Thank goodness it all worked out for the best.  Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers.   I feel very blessed.

My Grace is Sufficient For Thee

August roundup.

Another month has come and gone.

Farewell sweet August.

Thank you for the encouraging words from my last post.  I will keep your kind words in my heart as I  prepare for my biopsy today.  I hope I didn't come off sounding weak or whiny.  What some of you may not know is that I am already a uterine cancer survivor.  My father passed away last September of gastric cancer.  The thought of being diagnosed with cancer once again is a little frightening.

I've had this verse in my heart since yesterday.  It's God's still small voice comforting me.  Letting me know He is with me and walking along beside me all the way.

The Mounting Anxiety of a Breast Biopsy

I have an upcoming biopsy scheduled for Thursday on my right breast.  I can feel the anxiety building up within me.  As hard as I try to stay positive and calm, the anxiety is mounting and I can feel the burden I carry as my chest feels tight and my muscles feel achy.  It's tension and stress and all those other emotions that come with this kind of worrying.

I'm usually a calm person.

I don't get frazzled easy 

but waiting to find out if I have a highly deadly disease 

growing in my body has me a bit worried.

I went in for my very first mammogram on July 11th.  I received a letter in the mail a few days later that they had found something abnormal and they needed to do a diagnostic mammogram and possibly an ultrasound if needed.   This is not what I expected from my first mammogram.  Although other ladies I talked to said it had happened to them once or twice over the years.  

They scheduled me an appointment for Aug. 22, a whole month later.  I was a little nervous but my husband reassured me it was merely precautionary.

I went in for my appointment last week where they took six more images.  The radiologist told me he couldn't tell what it was either way other than it looked suspicious and a biopsy was the way to go.  They sent me home with a cd of my images to take to my biopsy at a breast cancer center two hours away.  

I am a Christian and even though I have peace in my heart and I trust the Lord, the fear of the unknown is always unsettling.  

I was walking through the grocery store the other day and saw this.  An appropriate message for me.  Just what I needed.

 I ask for your prayers and if any of you have gone through something like this let me know.   I'm sure your words of wisdom will be of some comfort to me.

In the mean time, I'm knitting.

August Inspiration Board

A few beautiful, share worthy images...

because sometimes it's fun to just sit back, look and be inspired

I'm on a bit of a boho kick.  I'm fully embracing the southwest New Mexico style, and loving it.  It only took three years to take the "Texas" out of me, so to speak.  There will always be a special place in my heart for Texas but New Mexico is growing on me more and more every day.  

Here's a few things that I've pinned.

I NEED one of these.

photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

So perfectly pretty!!

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to Etsy

This one would require a lot more thinking and dedication but the end

 result would be totally worth it I think.  

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

I love everything about this shawl.  

Photo source Pinterest
Traced to this website

Drool...

Photo source Pinterest

And who can resist Baby Groot?

Photo source Pinterest
Traced back to this website

Hubby and I are probably too old for this movie but I talked him into taking me to see it a few months ago when it first came out.  By chance I had just watched the first movie at home on cable tv and liked it.  My kids informed me that there was a new one coming out so I checked our local theater and it happened to be playing.  The second movie was good too although the ending dragged on too long but even so I enjoyed it.  Hubby thought it was funny too.

I may have to make ones of these.  He makes me smile.
:)

Hope you're as inspired as I am.

♥♥♥

Bouquet of Sharpened Pencils

"Don't you love New York in the Fall?

It makes me want to buy school supplies."

(Joe Fox in You've Got Mail)

Gaaawww I love this movie.  It never gets old.

As we've been scrambling around these last couple of weeks buying back to school items, this movie has been playing over and over in my mind.  I want to say I've watched this movie at least a hundred times over the years but I don't know if that's true.   It's definitely been several, several times.

 We only have one child left in high school.  Today is the first day of her junior year.  It's a little sad that the summer break is over but it's also a little exciting to start a new school year.  

She got her license over the summer and drove herself to school this morning.  She's getting all grown up and independent.  I awoke early this morning worrying about the school traffic.  I knew it would be crazy this morning and this being her first day to drive among the early morning madness.  She had a little anxiety as well but she texted me a little before eight and said she made it alright.  

I think I'll pop in my favorite movie today.  I'll let it play in the background while I do my household chores.  She took my car to school so it's not like I can go anywhere anyway.

I might as well enjoy it.

:)

Bible Journaling

And so it begins,

a new hobby for me.

I started coloring in my new Bible.

Can I just say how enjoyable this is.

Who says coloring is just for kids?

I sat down last night to color my first page.  I left everything out on the table and this morning when I went to grab a cup of coffee I saw it sitting there waiting for me so I sat down and colored my second page.  Now I'm thinking I need to buy more colored pencils in a wider variety of colors.  

I added the swirl on my own.  Not very adventurous I know but I wanted to give it a personal touch even it was a small one.  I think it adds the right amount of flair.

When my father passed away in September of last year, the only thing I ever asked for was his Bible.  I didn't care about the material things.  In fact I never received any of his material things.   The only things I have in my possession that belonged to my father are two pairs of his shoes and a garbage bag with a few of his clothes that my sisters and I divided up shortly after his death.

My mother hasn't turned over his Bible to me yet.  Who knows why.  I know it's not for sentimental reasons.  My mother is not a sentimental person.  The morning after my father passed away she was going through his closet bagging up his clothes for "donation", which is how each of my sisters and I ended up with a bag of his clothes.

I, however, am the sentimental kind and I would have loved to have my fathers Bible. Maybe someday she'll go ahead and give it to me.  I can only hope.  

So I've been very conscious about personalizing a few Bibles to leave behind for my kids someday.  I have a couple of the traditional Bibles but I thought these journaling Bibles might be something my daughters might like someday after I'm gone.

I take pleasure in working on my Bibles.  Not just drawing and coloring but I intend to write many notes as well and personalize it as much as I can over the years.  

 There's no time like the present to prepare something special.  The Bible has special meaning to me because of my faith but even a sketchbook or a writing journal would be a beautiful legacy as well.  It's something to think about anyway.

(This post contains affiliate links)

                      

Church Nursery Schedule Printable for August

Hello and Happy Monday!

Some of you may know that aside from being a crocheter, knitter and domestic homebody, I am also a pastor's wife.  And with that role come many, many responsibilities.  It's been in my heart for a while now to share some of the things I do for our church in hopes that it might be of some help to someone else out there who is also working in the same ministry.   

 

I am the nursery coordinator at our church.  One of the things I have to do on a regular basis is make up a schedule for all of our volunteer workers.  I have tried different methods over the years and this is the one that works the best for me.  Keep in mind that we live in a small town so our church is small.  We don't need anything more elaborate or complicated.

Simply download the pdf and print.  Write in the volunteer names by hand and you are good to go.  Or if you'd rather, click on the calendar image and save to your computer.  Open it up in any photo editing software like Photoshop or you can use Picmonkey for free and use the text tool to type in the names.  Easy Peasy.

Download the pdf here.

I hope this will help other nursery workers out there.  Keeping the nursery organized and running smoothly is a lot of work.  Hopefully this will make the job of writing out a schedule a little bit easier.  Us nursery workers have to stick together and help each other out.

Happy Birthday to Me ♥

This is my birthday month.

Another reason to love July.

Birthdays seem to come around quicker and quicker every year.

I've reached the point where I have to pause for a few seconds to figure out hold old I am.

I do math in my brain.   I subtract my birth year from the current year to be sure.  Does anyone else do that?  

I remember as a kid thinking people in their forties were horribly old.

Now I'm in my mid forties and let me just say...

...it's not so bad.  It's actually pretty good.

:)

I bought something for myself.  My family gave me some lovely presents but these last few years I've been giving myself something too.  A gift to me from me.  I've been wanting one of those journaling Bibles I've seen all over Pinterest so I went online and ordered me not one, but two of them.

Only one has come in.  The other one was a pre-order and won't be shipped out until August.

I'm better at coloring than drawing so I am thrilled that it comes with a few of these cute illustrations already in place.  

I also ordered these other two coloring books.

They were on sale and a steal at 3.99 each.  

Coloring books aren't just for kids anymore.  They are supposed to be good for you as they relieve stress.  Plus it's like art so it's a win win.  Now I just need to buy some good coloring pencils and I'll be set.

On the day of my birthday, hubby took the afternoon off and we all headed to the zoo.  I hadn't been to the zoo in years and it was quite relaxing and enjoyable.  The best part was spending the day with my favorite people.

Here's one of those rooster ornaments I managed to finish.  The body was a breeze to make but it was all those finishing touches that made this "small" project take forever to finish.

This is a favorite blouse made even better with a little crochet.  I really don't like wearing tank tops under my shirts.  I feel I am already bulky on top I don't need an extra layer of clothing especially in these summer temperatures.  I whipped this up and it did the trick.

I know I'm late finding this out but I just recently discovered the Wish app.  I've ordered a handful of things but these acrylic crochet hooks were the first to come in.  I didn't expect much for the price.  The smaller hooks are flimsy and none of them have a size marked on them.  Probably the thicker ones are usable if I file off the rough edges.

 At least they look pretty in a jar. 

That's worth three bucks right?

:)

Happy birthday to all my July born readers out there.

Hope this month has been a blessed one for you too.

My First Mammogram

I went in and got my first mammogram yesterday.

I'd heard several stories about what all was involved and I was a bit anxious about it.  Yes it was everything I expected it to be but considering what it helps prevent I suppose it wasn't all that bad.

 I actually went in last week for an annual exam.  With my history of uterine cancer and my father having passed away last September of gastric cancer, I've been a little concerned with my health.  I've been feeling alright.  I just wanted to get a proper check up.  We did all the other female tests too.  None of those are very pleasant but I'm glad I had them done.  We have to take care of ourselves even if it's invasive, inconvenient, and sometimes embarrassing.

We're worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July so far...

This is the only thing blooming in my yard at the moment.  

Beautiful orange marigolds.

These are my favorite flowers because they are so easy to grow.

They are supposed to be annuals but the seed spreads so easy they come back year after year.

Love, love, love that cheery pop of color.

My creative project at this time.

These little chicks are the cutest things.  Pattern is here.  It's taken me longer to finish them than I thought it would but I only work on them for bits at a time here and there.   I always think in the summer break I'll have more time to do stuff but it never turns out that way.

A photo of the family last week on July 4th.  We picnicked at a local state park that we had never been to.  It was actually very nice.  I don't know why we hadn't ever visited.  It's only about five miles outside the city limits and it has a small lake that local residents use for fishing.  It was very peaceful and quiet.  There wasn't very many people so we had a lot of privacy too which was nice.

  There was a roadrunner that stayed nearby and kept running from here to there which was fun to watch.  You can see the rustic dry landscape which is typical in New Mexico.

I've gotten used to it and I've grown to love it.  There's beauty in everything if you look for it, as is the case with everything in life. 

Don't you agree?

♥♥♥