Last One

Okay, this is the last of the lapbooking posts for today. ;0) This one is combining a letter lapbook on the letter "N" They used Noah's Ark for N, but they incorporated colors, numbers, water cycle, clouds, etc. I thought this one was really cute. Their website has some free lapbook designs for the Bible just like the one in the video.

Lapbooking video

Here is a video on lapbooking that explains it a little better than I did. ;0)

Lapbooking

Yesterday I was invited to get certified in CPR and First Aide. I jumped at the chance, as I have always wanted to learn, especially with so many of us here at home. It was originally offered to the teachers from our church school, but the invitation was extended to the Sabbath school teachers. YAY!! I learned so much. I learned how to perform CPR on an infant, a child, and an adult. I learned how to clear blockages in the throat. It's one of those things that you are happy to know, but just hope you never have to use it.

About a month or so ago I was cleaning in the garage, sorting through some papers(papers are my arch nemesis). I found a large sheet of paper that Kayla had worked on when she was younger. The paper was divided into sections. Some of the sections were vegetables, fruits, proteins, and grains. Judging by the looks of the picture, I had Kayla cut out pictures from a magazine. Judging by the ripples in the pictures, she must have glued them on herself. ;0) I found it so cute, but at the same time it saddened me. It saddened me because I feel like I am missing out on doing some of those simple things with the boys. They probably wouldn't get a kick out of doing something on fruits and veggies like Kayla did, but I'm sure they would love to do anything animal related. I had been fooling around with figuring something to do with them, and I came across some lapbooking sites. I now realize that lapbooking could be done with any age.
I have mentioned what curriculum I am using with Kayla. This is just a sample of her health section.

I was thinking it would be great to do a lapbook once she is done with each lesson book. So once she is done with "The Heart" she will do a lapbook on the heart, etc.

Aside from that, I am thinking of doing some lapbooks with the boys on their interests, which will most likely be lizards and insects. The last time we went to the library we checked out 63 books. Out of those 63 books I would say 58 of them were on insects and lizards and marine life. It would also give me some much need alone time with the boys. I feel like Kayla gets a chunk of my time with school. Britney gets another chunk of my time with therapy. This will help me carve out a chunk of time to just read, color, and spend some fun time with them. I still want to keep it fun at this point. They have more than enough time to learn the nitty gritty stuff like reading, math, etc. I have seen some cute lapbooks on the letters of the alphabet for those of you that feel your children are ready for it.

Here are along some links that I came across while doing my search. I found a whole bunch more, but I don't have a lot of time to link to them now. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking/

http://www.makingbooks.com/freeprojects.shtml

http://www.kizclub.com/craft/alphabetsnake1.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hme/k_5/shapebook/toc.html

http://www.techknowassociates.com/tips/layeredbook.htm

http://abcteach.com/free_shapebook_form.php

http://www.makingbookswithchildren.blogspot.com/

Here is the shell of a lapbook that I put together quickly, just to see if it was easy to do. I believe this is called a double one, because I attached two file folders together. Some people make them very nice with colored file folders. I have a box of about 500 file folders in this beige color, so that is what I am using. My goal is not to buy anything for this. I have a lot of cardstock in various colors, so I am sure we can dress it up with that.

It closes up very neatly. It's also a nice way to do a portfolio, for those of you that need to keep track of what your child is learning for your state.

Are any of you, my dear readers, into lapbooking? It seems like a great way to get what they learned, cemented in. Do you have any opinions on it? Pros? Cons?

Sew Crafty Friday

Hello there. I can't believe another week has gone by. I am so happy to see that we have some new participants. Keep spreading the word. ;0) It is inspiring to see what you all are working on, even if it is a work in progress. Your project doesn't have to be completely done.

This is where I am up to on Micah's fish. I'm losing hope that it will be done by his birthday. I only have about two weeks. I will be happy if at least the fish gets done. The border and lures around the border can be added later.


This is how I finally have everything set up. It's the easiest way to grab everything when we(my beloved ;0) or I ) are ready to cross stitch. In the vinyl pages on the right are the colors that I will use for this project only. I just punched holes in a snack size baggie for the metallic thread, as it is sort of wirey. This little binder has all sorts of pockets to hold needles, a highlighter for marking what has been done, etc.

When I cut a piece of floss for a section, I put the left over strands in these tiny little baggies. The number of the floss is on the baggie. So when I am going to do a section, I check to see if there are any cut pieces in the baggies first, if not I go to the vinyl sheet. I also just punched a hole at the top of the baggie and put it through the ring.
Behind the floss sheets I keep the rest of the project sheets. I still have so much to go. Every time Micah sees it, he gets so excited and comments how beautiful it is coming out. I can't wait until he can see the fish actually taking shape. ;0)
The binder itself closes up nice and flat.


I have gone back and forth with what to do with the floss, do I use the bobbins or the baggies. From what I have heard and read, they both have there pros and cons. The floss leaves a slight crimp in the floss, and the baggie doesn't allow the floss to "breathe." Some have said if you wind it on the floss loosely there is no crimp until you get to the end. Some even slightly moisten their floss to get the crimp out, but that supposedly makes the floss weaker. Who knew the drama surrounding embroidery floss. Since the bobbins is what I already had on hand, that is what I used. These are the ones that I have wound up already. So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, cross stitched, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Just leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, or are making a gift for someone and don't want to post it on your blog, just email me your pictures and I will post them here. Happy Crafting!!

Homeschooling Records/headache update

I wanted to ask all you homeschool mothers out there, what do you use to keep track of what you do for homeschooling? Do you use some sort of software like Edu-Track Edu-track or Homeschool Tracker? Do you use some good ole pen and paper? A planner? Since I do therapy with Britney, I am currently really homeschooling(book wise) Kayla. Micah up and decided he was going to start writing last week. He wrote his name by himself without any help, and he's been labeling all of his pictures. He will ask me how to spell it, but he's forming all the letters on his own, which was kind of a shock, being that I haven't taught him any of it. ;0) Whatever he colors, he will then write his name on the top, and label it on the bottom, ladybug, etc. Even though I have a while to go before I homeschool him book-wise, I realized I would like to get a better handle on everything, like when it comes to keeping track of subjects, books, etc. I currently own Edu-Track. It does help you to produce report cards, certifications, transcripts for the high school years, etc. It worked great for her Math, as I just put in to start at lesson one, how many increments to go, at what lesson to stop at, and it set up my entire year for me. I can just print up her daily assignments, and run weekly reports, etc. There is a place for grades and notes. There is a area for unit studies as well. Aside from English and Math, the rest of her homeschooling is not textbook/workbook oriented, so I don't know if I want to input all of that information one day at a time. There is no incrementing it, as each day the pages and work is different, they are not regular lessons. ;0) It got me to thinking, what do my fellow homeschool readers do? I would love to know.
Also, do you test? I have gone back and forth on this, to be honest. If you respond on your blog with a post, please let me know, I would really like to read it. If you just just want to share a quick answer, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

Thank you to those of you that have been praying for me and asking me for an update. I have seen my regular doctor, a neurologist, an ear, nose and throat doctor, and an emergency room doctor and no one could tell where the headaches or migraines are coming from. They scheduled an MRI for next Thursday, Nov. 1st. I got a urinary tract infection yesterday morning, and I tell you, it was a God send. At first I complained to the Lord wondering why He would allow me to have one now on top of everything else. I went to the Urgent Care center first thing in the morning. I figured I would mention the headaches to the doctor. I mentioned to him that I had strep throat in the beginning of September, and that my throat has not felt the same since. I told him the same exact thing I told every other doctor. He was the only doctor to really listen to what I was saying. He checked my throat again and said it still looked irritated. He checked my nose, my left nostril was fine, but the right one he said had a drip or discharge. The weird thing is that I don't feel congested, I don't have a runny nose, a stuffy nose, or anything. He thinks it might be sinusitis. It would make sense, as the nostril that has the internal drip is the same side that the headaches are on, and the same side that my ear hurts. That wonderful doctor was able to get my MRI moved to today. I had one this morning at 9:00. I should have the results by tomorrow. I wrote him a thank you letter and also to his superior. The Lord did bring the story of the lady with the blood flow problem to my mind. The story is in Mark 5:26-34. I can't imagine what she must have gone through, for 12 years not knowing what was wrong. I'm only going on day 25 and I felt like I was going crazy. Does anyone know of any natural remedies to get rid of sinus issues. I'm going to try to check my books and online in a little while, as I'm still have major headaches.
I put the Bible story below, just in case someone is not familiar with it.
25And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
30And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Just Happy To Be Up And Moving

There really is no rhyme or reason for this post. I'm just so happy to be in an upright position.
It’s so much fun to see the way boys and girls play so differently. I was about to call Britney to start doing her therapy activities being that the headaches/migraines seem to have let up a little bit this morning. I walked into the family room to find Britney, Micah and Elijah playing doll house. I wish my camera was working, but alas you will have to go by my description. Britney had set up the mom in the kitchen, one of the children in the bathroom, etc. Next to every “person” was an animal. There was a shark in the living room, a seal in the bathroom, a sperm whale on top of the house, a tiger in the kitchen; and the list goes on. How could I possibly interrupt them. I love when they play together even though they are so different.
I have been thinking about Micah lately, as his birthday is in a few weeks. Micah is at an age that tickles me to no end. You can really see the wheels turning in that head of his. The other day we were driving, and he saw a police car. He asked me, “where do police officers live.” I told him “they are regular people just like us. They live in a house or an apartment, and they have families and do normal things just like us.” He said, “so do they have little police children?” I said, “no.” I was really trying to keep the giggles in. He said do they have little police children that turn into police men?” ;0) Another time we were driving and he told me that truck drivers don’t have families. I asked him why did he say that, and he said “because I never see any children in the truck with them, they are always alone.”
Well I better get moving, Britney is asking for help because the elephant is eating the cookies the mom made. I will update later on to let you know how the appointment went. It feels so good to be up and moving. My tendency is to want to do it all being that I feel a little better. As soon as I woke up I scrubbed the toilets, mirrors, and counters down. I washed three loads of laundry, swept and mopped the entire house. My beloved on the other hand is of the belief that I need to lay down and relax being that I am feeling a little better. My day is going a lot better than I thought it would after this mornings start. This morning my beloved had a phone call to take so I had to let Butch(our older Boxer) out. I went to pick up his poop and didn't realize there was a tiny little hole in the bag. What are the chances that the tip of one of my fingernails would fit through that little hole. Yep, I got a nail full of poop. EWWWWW!!!!

Our Prayer Lives

I have recently realized that I don’t spend enough time in prayer. To tell you the truth, a great day for me would be to get up nice and early, 5:00 or so, and have my personal worship. If I got a good hour or so of reading in, I felt like I could get on with my day. Yes, I would say a quick prayer right before I started reading my Bible, but the majority of my personal worship would be spent in reading. Knowledge does not equal spirituality or closeness to the Lord. Satan knows the Bible inside and out. Don’t get me wrong, if someone has a prayer request, or I felt lead to pray for someone I would do that without a problem. What I am talking about is really opening up to the Lord in prayer, heart wrenching honesty as you would talk to your spouse, or your best friend.
Today makes day 21 that I have been suffering from headaches/migraines. They started the day I got my mammogram. The headaches have been a consistent 24/7 annoyance for the last three weeks. I then have a migraine thrown in every day or every other day for a couple of hours. With the headaches I am able to function. I function poorly, but I function nonetheless. The migraines swipe me right off my feet. This morning I was telling my beloved how I feel guilty when I don’t get my reading done in the morning. I feel like my day is just going to go down the toilet. I feel like I can’t even come to Him in prayer when I don’t read my Bible. I have a feeling of unworthiness of myself. I can pray for anyone else at any time, but I have a hard time praying for myself when I know I haven’t read.
My beloved and I continued to speak about it back and forth, and we have come to the conclusion that those thoughts and feelings of guilt do not come from the Lord. . I liked my beloved’s analogy. He said if someone is reading your blog. They read every post you write. One day they meet you in the street and say, “Hi, Shereen.” blah, blah, blah. My answer would be, “excuse me, and you are?” I mean, it’s nice that the person read my blog, but if they never tried to communicate with me through comments, email, or whatever, I would have no idea who they were.
The verse that came to my mind is Matthew 25:12. “But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” The virgins called out to the Lord saying, “Lord, Lord open to us.”(they ran out of oil for their lamps, and were late for the wedding) the Lord’s response was, “I do not know you.” I can read all I want, but if I don’t spend time communing with the Lord, He will not know me. If I spoke to my beloved about myself as little as I tell the Lord about myself, we wouldn’t have a very good marriage. Yes, the Lord knows everything about me, even the number of hairs on my head, but we need to have a good relationship with Him. It has to be a back and forth conversation. I need to listen to Him as much as I talk. It can’t be one-sided. I can’t yap, yap, yap, and call it a day. I need to also listen to Him. Imagine my beloved just talking to me all day long, and when it came time for me to talk, he just went about his business.
My beloved was telling me that in the beginning he would pray for 2 minutes and it felt like such a long time. Now when he prays he doesn’t realize it, but he will have been on his knees for 20 minutes and it felt like such a short time. That’s the way it should be. The same way when a good friend calls us on the phone, you don’t realize that an hour went by. You enjoyed your conversation so much that time just flew by. ;0)
I will say that there is a sister in church who is true prayer warrior. This lady prays for every situation. It’s just beautiful. I once called her to relay a message from the pastor when they went to Peru on a missionary trip, and she was on one line and her beloved was on the other. Just as we were about to get off, she said “do you mind if we take turns praying for them.” I was caught off guard, but it was great. Her son(in his mid 20’s) came over for dinner not too long ago, and we realized he has the same spirit of taking it all to the Lord in prayer. What an incredible job we have as parents.
Does anyone have a prayer life that you would like to share? Do you spend more time in prayer than anything else in your spiritual life?

p.s. I have an appointment with a neurologist tomorrow to see why I am having these headaches/migraines. My ears checked out fine. No fluid. I'm sorry if there are a lot of errors in this post. I have to do it without looking at the screen. ;0)

Sew Crafty Friday

I can't believe another week has gone by already. I have some posts that I really want to start writing about; homeschooling, family time, etc. I will start those next week. I don't want this blog to become a Sew Crafty blog. ;0)
Elijah and our digital camera seem to have gotten into an altercation this week, and my camera lost. ;0( Hopefully I can figure something out for next week. When I looked at the pictures already downloaded this was the latest picture I had of it. This was taken last Sunday. As of right now, I have about doubled the amount of stitches that you see in this picture.

In the picture above my beloved is working on the border. I figured it would be easier to give him something that wouldn't have him constantly looking at the chart. The border is just two rows of stitches all around. After about five stitches, all he said was, "Wow, Mona....." and we both commented how giving a cross stitching project as a gift is definitely a labor of love. ;0)
I never thought of offering this, but Milehimama emailed me this picture this morning. This is a blanket she is crocheting for her sister. It will be a baby blanket. Since it is a gift she doesn't want to post it on her blog. So please do not leave her any comments on her blog about the blanket. If you want to tell her something about it, feel free to leave it for her in the comments section. This is what she wrote with the picture, "I'm winging it on the pattern so I've started it twice already - it will be a shell pattern but since I'm using an F hook. I thought the shells were too close together, so I started over using a slightly different type of shell. So far I've only kept the border!" I can't wait to see her progress on this. So if you are working on something that is a gift and you do not want to share it on your blog, feel free to email me the picture and I will gladly post it for you here.

So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, cross stitched, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Just leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here, like I do for Jude. Happy Crafting!!

One Big Family

Thank you to those of you that praised the Lord with me for keeping Elijah safe.
During the month of September the Lord allowed my beloved to preach. He was asked to preach three times out of the five week month. For one of those Sabbaths he was asked to preach at a “French” church. My beloved asked me if I could please go with the children to hear him preach. The reason he asked me is because I would have to teach Sabbath school at our home church, wrap everything up, get all the children in the car and zoom over to the church he would be at. Just as I was about to leave after Sabbath school, our SS director said we had a quick meeting. Yikes!! Thankfully she was right. ;0) The meeting lasted about 15 minutes. However, that put me 15 minutes behind. I followed the directions my beloved text messaged me perfectly. As we pulled up to the church, I noticed all the regular parking spots were full. There was a sand/gravel lot next door, which I realized was the overflow lot for the church parking lot. I was really trying to rush at this point, as it was getting later and later. All I did was step out of the car and it went downhill from there. I stepped right into an ant mound. I was trying to get Elijah unbuckled from his car seat when I felt a stinging sensation on my feet. Not only that, my heels were sinking right into the sand/gravel. Even though it was incredibly sunny, guess what happened? It starts pouring rain. It came out of no where, people. I am attempting to run with four children across this sand parking lot. We had to run around a gate, onto the street, to then get to the church. I don’t know if this is proper thinking, but I believe that the children and I are a reflection of my beloved. If we look dirty, for example, it reflects on him as a provider, leader. When we left the house that morning I made sure everyone was neat and tidy. Everyone’s hair was properly brushed, undershirts tucked in, etc. The boys even had matching socks! ;0) For those of you that don’t know, my hair is relatively curly. That morning I washed my hair and dried it straight with the blow dryer. Do you know what happens when it’s humid and rainy out and you have curly hair? Yep!! It looked like I stuck my finger in an electric socket. My hair frizzed right up. I ran into the church with the children. We were soaking wet, and my feet were itching. I assume the ants fell off with the mad dash we made. As soon as we walked in, the greeter at the front looked at us and said, “you are the preacher’s wife?” LOL I thought, how did he know? Do we look that horrid? A kind lady bought us some toilet paper to wipe the water off of our arms and face. They told me to please wait in the foyer while they looked for five seats for us. As they walked us into the church I realized how they knew we were the preacher’s wife. Everyone there was from Haiti, hence the “French” church. They walked us right up to the front pew. My beloved was already up in the pulpit. The song service was about to get underway. It was nice to be so close to my beloved, as he was only about 4 or 5 feet away, and 3 or 4 steps up, directly in front of me. The prayer and announcements were in French. The first two songs were in English, and then they sang the last song. For the last stanza of the song, they switched to French. It was so beautiful. The feeling of being a family in Christ even though we spoke two different languages was overwhelming. I looked at my beloved when that feeling overcame me, and sure enough, my beloved had his eyes closed and his head down. He was feeling the same exact way. He had to look down in order to fight away the tears. We spoke about it later on, and we both thought how wonderful it is to feel that unity as brothers and sisters in Christ no matter how we speak or look. To think that there are so many people around the world who love the Lord from so many different cultures, backgrounds, testimonies, countries…...Amazing!! They invited the “preacher” and his funny looking family to stay for lunch. We got to partake in some Haitian cuisine. I’m sure pretty sure the majority of the lunch wasn’t vegan, but that’s okay, we got to break bread with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thank you, Lord.

Wow, I hadn’t checked my blog since early Friday. I didn’t realize so many of you participated in Sew Crafty Friday. I see we also had some new participants. How exciting! I need to stop by for a visit and check on all of them soon.
As I sit here trying to figure out what to write, my mind is drawing a blank. I know I had a few posts swirling around in there not too long ago. ;0) Until they pop back up, I guess I will just share what has been going on in our household lately. Exciting, huh? ;0)
On Sunday afternoon my beloved took the children for a bike ride. Being that I have been having such horrible headaches, he told me to stay home and relax. The house was spotless, all the laundry was caught up. I had cleaned everything up earlier in the morning while my beloved was at an Elder’s meeting for church. With the house so clean and not much to do(a rarity, I tell you), I decided to cross stitch while listening to a CD. I listened to The Refiner's Fire from one of my favorite ministries, Restoration International. Anyway, it was an eye opener. He spoke about trials, and how they really do refine our characters. He spoke about how every time we go through a trial, it’s as if the Lord Himself is chipping away at us with a hammer and chisel. Each and every blow of His chisel is so precise, that not one little chip will come off needlessly. In reality, we should pray for the Lord to send us trials, if every time we get through a trial we will be closer to the Lord’s character. I mulled over the trials in our lives right now, wanting to move, etc. My beloved and the children got home about 10 minutes after the CD was over.
The following morning my beloved gathered all of us for prayer/family worship. We all took turns praying, and then my beloved had to go walk the dogs. He took the boys with him, which gave me a jump start on Britney’s therapy activities. Fifteen minutes later I heard the front door open and then I heard the boys crying. Neither one of them could muster up the words to tell me what happened. Three minutes later my beloved came in and asked me if I could please pray. He asked all the children to leave the room and told me to please thank the Lord. He proceeded to tell me that Elijah almost got hit by a car. When I say almost, I mean like a hairline almost. My beloved said he wouldn’t be surprised if Elijah had a paint mark on his head from the car. The boys are always looking for bugs, frogs and different critters. If they are two or three feet ahead of us, we always tell them to stop in front of the upcoming driveway. They are not to walk across it. I have always had a fear of an SUV or something zooming out of a garage. They were up to the driveway next to our house, our neighbors, and Micah mentioned something about racing. He took off, and went right across our neighbor’s driveway. Elijah was chasing Micah, and did the same exact thing. At this point our neighbor, without looking, zoomed right out of her driveway. She reversed out of the driveway. It wasn’t until she did the half turn in the street that she saw my beloved standing right there. Everyone on our block knows if my beloved is walking outside, he has either the dogs or children with him. At that point fear came across her face and she realized what she had done. She rolled her window down and apologized. My beloved said for some reason when Elijah was running across her driveway, he did like a little side step. It was that sidestep that allowed him not to get hit. Well, obviously the Lord, but you know what I mean. Needless to say, the children have not gone to walk the dogs since then. It always brings to mind first time obedience. I don’t know if they thought they were so close to home that it was okay to run without listening to our “stop before you get to the driveway” rule or what. My beloved did scold them, which is why they both came in crying. My beloved tried to pray outside, which is why they came in ahead. All that would come out was, thank you, thank you, thank you. After we prayed, we called the children in and we all prayed as a family. It has really shaken all of us up. Just last night Kayla reminded me of something. Right before they went to walk the dogs, we had all taken turns praying. My beloved was the last one, at which point he prayed for each of us individually. When he got to Elijah, he specifically said, “Lord, please keep Elijah’s little body safe. You know he is the baby of the family, and he seems to want to keep up with his older siblings”….. I’m so thankful that the Holy Spirit touched my beloved to pray for him like that. Yesterday I was thinking of the Refiner’s Fire CD that I listened to the day before. What if he would have gotten hit by the car and was injured or died. How would I have made it through that trial? Nothing that happens in our life happens without the Lord’s permission. That is something that I need to keep in mind, whether it is a small trial or a large one.
On another note, my beloved was outside walking the dogs this morning alone, and could you believe that same lady zoomed right out of her driveway again. He said she literally slams her foot on the gas pedal to come out of her driveway, which already has a slight natural downward slope to it. It was 8:30 in the morning, at which time there are a lot of children in the neighborhood walking to school or the bus stop. Well, I guess I better post this before it gets any longer. It has taken me 3 days to write this. This lesson has really shown me what is really important in life, and how I should go about my days. My computer time has decreased already due to Kayla’s school and Britney’s therapy, but I am realizing that I need to take more time out to just play and enjoy my children. Yesterday I closed my eyes to the dishes and laundry, and the floor that was desperately calling my name to be swept and mopped. We went to the park for an hour and just enjoyed ourselves. Could you believe that school, therapy, and all that housework was patiently waiting for us when we got home? When we got home my beloved called, and I told him he had perfect timing, as we had just gotten home from the park. He said, “I’m so proud of you when you do that. It makes me so happy.” Hmmmm, a beloved who likes when I leave dirty dishes, a pile of laundry and a dusty, sticky floor waiting to be cleaned. He is definitely a keeper, huh?

Sew Crafty Friday

I can't believe a week has gone by already. That was too quick. Britney is joining me this week for Sew Crafty Friday. Micah will be 5 next month, and Britney has decided to embroider a peacock bass for him. This is her first time doing this, and I thought it would be great to help strengthen those muscles in her fingers. ;0) My beloved drew a peacock bass on a piece of muslin, and she's following his pencil marks. She's so happy. She's not good at keeping secrets, so for her to work on this after he goes to sleep in the evening is a big deal. lol
Here is what I am up to on my cross stitching project from last week. As you can see the male cardinal is almost done. I still have a few 1/4 stitches, which I don't really like doing. ;0) The backstitching needs to be done as well. However, I took a break to work on another cross stitching project. Bad, I know. I just learned how to do this, and I already have a UFO(unfinished project)

Micah has been enamored with seeing the cardinal come to life. He kept coming to check on it. He was amazed with how the cardinal came to life with each little stitch. He liked it so much that I decided to make him a large mouth bass for his birthday. I wasn't going to tell him, but seeing how happy he was to see it come to life, I figured he would like to see the progress on it. I shared with him this morning my idea, and the first thing he said was, I don't want to look at it until it's finished. lol ;0) I guess I missed the boat on that one.
The top part with the green on it has some metallic thread worked with the regular floss. URGH!! Working with metallic floss is no fun. It gives it a nice shiny look, but it's not as quick to use. I got a little frustrated with it, and decided to work a little further down on the project, which used regular floss.

Here is a close up of the metallic floss.
I have a cross stitching program which is able to convert a regular photograph into a cross stitching pattern. They also have a nice library to choose from. I found this one to be the best. Those are different types of lures in the border. I'm not sure if I will have time to do it, as I only have a little less than four weeks. My beloved has offered to help me, so it should move a little faster.

Jude and I had a little email discussion about how to store floss. I found the bobbins look so nice, and everything is nice and neat. However, it is a lot faster to have them in the floss bags. It's easy to just put the four remaining strands when you separate two for a project, etc. The only thing I don't like about the bags, is if you want to take it on the go with you. They are so bulky. So for those of you that cross stitch, how do you store your floss. What works for you? Pros and cons. My beloved wrote all the numbers for me on the little bags, which was a big help. This is only about a quarter of the entire set of colors. I still have a lot more to go.
So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Just leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here, like I do for Jude. Happy Crafting!!

Hi Stranger

Do you smell that? That's me stinking it up in the blogging world. I seem to have a lot on my plate lately, and blogging seems to be the spaghetti noodle that is hanging half on the plate and half on the table. Hopefully it won’t fall to the floor. ;0) I don’t know why I feel the need like I need to blog every day or not blog at all. I need to let go of the guilt and stop apologizing if I don’t get on every day. Does anyone else feel that way? Do you feel the need to explain why you haven’t been blogging if you miss a few days? Lol

There is so much that I want to share and write about, but time seems to be slipping by me these days. I’m thankful that the Lord allowed me to get a short therapy schedule for Britney this time around, as Kayla’s schooling is taking up more time than other years.

Thank you to those of you that prayed for my beloved’s call the other day. Okay, here is a brief explanation. You all know that we have been wanting to move for a while now. For the last couple of months we have been praying fervently. We have been praying together as husband and wife, and also as a family. My beloved has been applying for jobs in his field here and also out of the state. As of right now there are two main open doors, one here locally, and one out of the state. We really just want to be in His will. We don’t want to do anything in self. The phone call he had on Monday was a phone interview for the job out of state. My beloved properly prepared for the interview, writing up answers to potential questions, and questions that he himself had. The phone interview was sort of weird in that no questions were asked on either side. lol My beloved and this person have met 1 or 2 times on other occasions. He told my beloved that he is comfortable with him, and would like him to speak to one other person. He gave him a challenge question. Sort of like, “what would you do in this situation” type of question. My beloved needs to email him the answer and they are to speak again a week from tomorrow. He wants to hire someone by the end of the month. If he does get this job, it was all the Lord, as my beloved didn’t even really interview for it.

Well, I better get going here, as this got a lot longer than I anticipated. Sorry if there are a lot of errors in this, as I’m trying to not look at the screen because of my headaches. I’m praying that the fluid just naturally comes out so that I don’t need those tubs. Let His will be done!!

If you don't see me as often as usual, maybe it's because the spaghetti noodle fell on the table and I'm trying to get it back on the plate. ;0)

Follow-Up Appointment

Thank you for those who prayed for my follow-up appointment. Thankfully the preliminary report for the mammogram came back fine. I also went for a sonogram for some little bumps I was feeling on the left side near my ovaries. lol It looks like they just might be my intestines. She said normally you don't feel them, but since I am thin, I was able to feel the little bumps. All my blood work was perfect. YAY!!
On a stinky note, I asked her to please check my ears, because I have had really bad migraines on and off for the last week, with nausea. Sure enough, I have fluid in BOTH ears. Last time I just had it in one, and it was SO painful. They put the tube in to drain it out. The tube fell out a few months ago. Now this. ;0( I'm praying that the fluid comes out on its own. The fluid might be there as a result of the strep throat I had a month ago. It seems like my health is being attacked.
If you feel lead to pray, I ask that you please pray for a very important phone call that my beloved has today at 1:30 eastern standard time. Hopefully I can share more later on today. I'm feeding the children lunch now so that we can go the park. I figured I would take the children out the house while he has his call. ;0)
I know I am so backed up on responding to emails, Sew Crafty Friday, etc. I'm really not trying to be mean. ;0) I will try to respond as soon as I am able. I know I have one or two more people to send the sermon link to as well. I'm so sorry. I will do that later on today.

Pattern For Mesh Dishcloth

For Sew Crafty Friday, please scroll down.

Here is the pattern for the mesh dishcloth that some of you crafty ladies requested. ;0) I just added the picot edging. If you need specific directions for picot edging, just let me know.

Sew Crafty Friday

Since I had some doctor's appointments this week I had taken my first cross stitching project with me to do. Let me say that this is very addicting. This is all that I have gotten done so far. It's pretty relaxing, and great to do while listening to the Bible on tape, or a CD, etc.
This is the chart that I am going off of. So far I have done the post that the male cardinal on the left is standing on.
I originally started to keep my floss in these little baggies.
I find that winding them up in the bobbins make them look so much neater. The only problem is, is that I have over 400 colors of floss. I won't get obsessed with doing all of them, but it's in me.
I am doing the pictures in the bottom. It's really four pictures in one. I am working on the one on the right hand side. Cardinals are our favorite birds, as they mate for life. ;0)
I appreciate Jude's cross stitching project and Mona's and Mrs. T so much more. It really is a work of patience that moves slowly. ;0)
I wanted to take a moment to thank those of you that have been participating in Sew Crafty. I know lots of you thank me, but in reality I'm not doing anything, it's you all that are making this fun.
So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Just leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here, like I do for Jude. Happy Crafting!!
After I wrote up the post I found that Jude had sent me an update on her project. She has really gotten a lot done since her last update. YAY!! It's coming out great.

My Personal Worship

This morning during my personal worship time I was impressed to read a section in Chronicles. Chronicles isn't a book in the Bible that greatly draws my attention. After all, it's exactly that, chronicles. A lot of the information is repeated from earlier books. I started reading Chronicles 21. It starts off at verse 1, "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." I kept reading through, and that first verse kept sticking in mind. I don't ever remember reading the word "Satan" in the beginning of that verse. I went back and looked to see what it was chronicling(is that a word?) I went to 2 Samuel 24:1, and it reads "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." Now I know that the Bible does not contradict itself. There is a reason that there is a difference in those verses. I started doing some research, and I now know why the Lord lead me to Chronicles this morning. Although Satan is the author of all evil, there isn't anything that he can do apart from the permission of God. How fitting is that after my little scare earlier this week? Amen!!

Another thing that stuck out from that verse is that the numbering(census) of Israel in itself wasn't bad, it was David's motive behind the census. It made me stop and think of the motives I have for doing things sometimes. I need to make sure I am filtering it all through the Lord.

Thanks for all your prayers. For some reason I have had a severe migraine and I'm in a constant nauseated state ever since I had the mammogram. I called the doctor yesterday to find out if that is a common side effect. I figured maybe the low dose of radiation from the mammogram might have caused it. They said they had never heard of that. ;0) So I'm going to wait a few more days, if not I'll go back in to make sure the fluid in my ear didn't return. The last time I had a migraine like this I had an acute ear infection with fluid trapped inside. I had to have a tube put it. However, the tube fell out back in May(which it was supposed to), so there is a possibility that the fluid might have come back.

My Wife The Card Shark

Shereen is by no means a little innocent guppy. She is a ruthless shark, a card shark to be exact. You see, we have been playing cards for years, since we were dating. We play a game called Rummy 500. After compiling a very impressive won / loss ratio over the last 17 years, I made the mistake of making an innocent comment to needle Shereen after winning last week. I said, "Why do you even bother playing?" She said, rather innocently, "You really mean that?" I have lost every game since. Not only has she won the last few games we have played, she actually has achieved Family Card Shark Hall of Fame status by beating me 600+ to 100 something. I am thinking about quitting this game altogether, wondering why "I even bother playing this game" anyway. Hope you guys enjoy the post, and don't let her vegetarian, Proverbs 31, homeschooling ways fool you, she is a shark just waiting for the right moment.

Don't Forget To Go For Yours

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To kick that off, I went for my first mammogram today.

I actually didn't plan it that way. ;0) I hadn't gone for a physical in about 10 years. Every time the Lord blessed us with a child, they did a slew of blood work, urine samples, etc., which I guess I thought was sufficient. I finally decided to get a physical, due to my beloved's prodding. When they took my family history, they thought it would be a good idea that I get a mammogram done. My aunt (my mom's sister) and both my paternal and maternal grandmother all had mastectomies due to breast cancer. My aunt was only 35 at the time. The rule of thumb is that you start getting a mammogram 10 years before the family member was diagnosed. I should have started at the age of 25, so I guess I was 9 years late.

I was the youngest one there. Everyone else looked like they were in their 50's or older. After the mammogram they send you back out to the waiting room until the doctor reviews the results. I took some cross stitching supplies to try and get started on something. However, sitting in an inner waiting room with other half dressed freezing women in those ridiculous gowns, I couldn't seem to muster up the energy to pull out my cross stitching. I did get called in again, as the doctor wanted to "clarify" something. This time they took me into the sonogram room. Before and after the sonogram, the tech proceeded to tell me not to worry, it was just to get a better look at "something." They then told me I could leave. I do have a follow up appointment with my doctor next Monday. We'll see. It's all in the Lord's hands, right? I will say that we have been making changes in our home. We have been revamping our prayer life as husband and wife, and also as a family. I know the enemy must be "hopping mad" like Kayla always says.

I did want to post earlier, but after being poked and prodded, the feeling of nausea still hasn't gone away.