Encouragement.

Our mailbox is on the very top of all of the

mailboxes at the end of our cul-de-sac.

It is so fun to stand on my tiptiptippytoes

to see encouragement brimming from the

mailbox.  Years ago, our Christian radio 

station had a ministry that would provide

an name and address for listeners to send

encouraging cards and letters.  I wish I

did not speak from experience, but I do ...

these tidbits of encouragement can literally

change the entire day.  Our family does not

take it lightly those who take precious time

from their busy schedules to write us an

encouraging word and send it on its' way.

In turn, it also gives our family a chance

to pray for those who encourage us.

My support team . . . COULD NOT

make it without them!!!!!

The Light.

Fancy, isn't it?!?  Our schoolroom, office,

sewing room REALLY needed more light

for all of our projects.  What a better light

than our Dad's light that he used constantly

in his workshop.  I was on the hunt for a 

really cool shabby chic chandelier for our

room.  Not now. Never.  I have located 

the.perfect.light!!!  Every time I click that

light on, I think of all of the projects that

our Dad used that light for . . . all of the

nights he went with short sleep to help

the boys on pinewood derby cars, Scout

projects, and helped them learn to change

the oil and maintain their cars.  Yep, I 

think that I now have found the perfect

light that our room needed . . . a 

conversation piece . . . a reminder . . .

a momento . . . just another testimony

to what a great husband and Dad our

Dad has been to us!!!

"I have told you these things, so that in me

you may have peace.  In this world you will

have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome

the world."  John 16:33

Yeehaw!

 Vintage fabric, oh how I love thee!!!  One of

our youth pastor's wives is having a sweet

little baby boy this week.

 A quick trip to the fabric shop provided us

with the.perfect. solution for their baby

gift.

These fabrics remind me of when our boys

were little . . . Oh, how I miss those days

in so very many, many ways.  Sam and 

Luke are excited about this quilt for their

pastor.  Needless to say, the fur will be

flying tomorrow as I try and whip this

baby up in time for youth group on 

Wednesday.

Ish.

Knowing every single moment that my

loving Heavenly Father has this whole

deal under.control, things seem to be 

just "ish" . . . 

*okayISH

*cuteISH

*funISH

*yummyISH

*goodISH

One of my sweet beasties sent me a 

text this evening, "I am praying the

ISHes away . . ."  My little crew and I 

know just how blessed we are to have

each other.  We are so thankful for each

other and I am so very grateful for the

love and devotion each one of them

displays for me as well as their brothers.

I am grateful that we have those who

care so very deeply for us and are

willing to spend time on their knees

for the "ishes".

This pic is one of Sam's very favorite

of our boys and wonderful Dad.

I wish there were a way to 

click those heals and wish it

all away . . . 

Stitches.

Rainy days in Las Vegas can only mean one

thing . . . MORE quilting.  Susan was so

kind to come over tonight to babysit hangout

with me tonight while the boys went to a

birthday party around the block.

I was excited to almost finish this quilt top!!!

There are five quilts in the hopper that need

backs, binding, and batting!!  I need to get 

on that!!!  

Before quilting time, the boys and I were

busy working in the shed and garage.  We

conquered several large chores including

putting a blanket on our hot water heater,

tidying up the shed, tidying up the garage,

and cleaning out shelves and two file cabinets!

. . . just more blessings to count as I

get ready to put my head on the pillow!!!

Encouragement.

Mike's Aunt Alice just has to be one of my

very most favoritist people on our entire

planet.  She.is.amazing.  I loved her from

the very moment that I met her thirty-six

years ago.  Aunt Alice is EVERYTHING 

that I want to be when I grow up.  In my

book, she has many gifts from our Lord, 

one of them is definitely the gift of 

encouragement.  I think it is so very 

amazing how our Father works.  I do so

love and NEED to hear from my sweet

husband's family.  You guessed it . . . 

When we opened our mailbox today,

there was a special letter from Aunt

Alice.  I read it over and over and over

again along with the sweet reminders

that she included in the letter.  That

letter just felt like a HUGE GIANT

hug!!!  Just another blessing that I

can count today!!!!

Banner. Done.

 If you know me . . . You know I love

productivity.  I also think that it is great 

fun to work, work, work, and toss, toss,

toss making a huuuuuge big pile in the middle

of the room showing JUST how much I

am getting done.

 Such was the case today as I whipped up

our new Valentine's Day banner.

 Love, love, love my fabric.

Tada. She is up!!!  My sweet wonderful boys

are already in planning mode deciding just

what we are going to do this FIRST 

Valentine's Day . . . 

Words of wisdom from a sweet friend:

"There is a purpose to your pain and if you can

trust Him with it and in it, your misery will

become your ministry."

Memories.

 The shelves in our closet are lined with

scrapbooks of all shapes and sizes.  

 While it is difficult for me to even peek

at the bindings of these books containing

a bazillion memories . . . I am EVER so

grateful that we have them.

 The boys pull them out on their

own from time to time.  I can hear

lots and lots of laughter as they

make their way down Memory Lane.

 . . . naked pics . . . not.so.much.

 We are so grateful for our memories

and how God allows us to hold them

in special places in our mind.

It is so very painful to allow myself to think

about too many of them at one time . . . It

seems to work best to savor and treasure them

in small increments.  According to experts,

there is just no "getting over this".  All I can

assure you is that I have never, EVER, never,

EVER been through ANYTHING that even

comes remotely close to comparing to losing

my amazing husband and the father of our

wonderful boys.  Why did God chose me?

I cannot wait until that part of my journey is

revealed.  It is so very difficult to fathom all

that the reality of this brings . . . so I 

take it, as one of my sweet friends said,

"One breath and one step at a time".  At

times that is a wee bit difficult.  You see

I have been breathing and walking with

someone mighty special for a very long

time.  Doing it on my own is so very

foreign . . . and at times seems almost

impossible.  So for now, I cling to what I

know best and that is my Jesus does not

make mistakes.  I hug and kiss those boys

way too tightly at times.  And . . . make

lots and lots and lots of quilts!!!!

My Eli Whitney.

 What do Legos . . . homeschooling . . . and

Luke have in common . . . 

 experiments, of course!!!  Our sweet Luke

has never met an experiment that he did

not like.  In fact, he spends much of his time

creating his own!

This latest experiment actually was the

brainchild of spending a day in the Springs

Preserve during a Merit Badge College for

Scouts.  This is an automatic plant waterer

complete with a timer that turns lights on

automatically at night.

Love that Luke. Love that he loves

learning sooooo much.

Breakfast ala Luke.

Luke loves strawberries.  Luke loves whipped

cream. Luke loves syrup.  Luke loves waffles.

Tada. Today we whipped up a batch of waffles

topped with everything that our guy loves!!!

Sausage completed the fare for the morning.

Our brothers were only to excited to join in.

Happy Holiday Monday.

He.Said.Yes.

 Sadie Hawkins season is now in full force.

The youth group kiddos are a flurry with 

all of their exciting plans for the big night.

 Anyone who knows our Sam knows

that he LOVES Taco Bell . . . 

 What a better way to ask him to the Sadie

Hawkins dance????

 We took Sam out for a little treat and joy

ride, only to come home to a trail of a

bazillion taco sauce packets and a bunch

of cute girlies hiding in our kitchen.

 "Why Say No When You Can Say Yes" was

the question of the hour . . . 

Sam said, "Yes".

Keepin' Up.

Too many posts on quilting?!? Never! As

I wait on final approvals for my dissertation,

wait for kids to come home or be escorted

to and fro, or wait while Luke works on

school assignments . . . 

 Quilting has become a wee bit of an obsession!

 This quilt is from the fabulous fabric

that my sweet 4 gave me for CHRISTmas!

 We have really been working hard around

our home to keep up with all of the 

millions and millions of chores that our

awesome Dad used to do . . . Holy cow!!!

Did you know that there are about one 

million lightbulbs to be changed every two

or three days? Air conditioning vents

actually have pads that need to be replaced

monthly? Lightbulbs all around the outside

of the house go out? Leaves fall from all of

the trees and have to be blown, swept, and

hauled away? The garage and shed must be

tidied up about every 30 seconds after 

someone takes something out and leaves

it anywhere they please forgets to put it away?

The garbage cans must be pushed to the 

curb twice a week and brought up the

very moment the trash man comes or the

HOA will have a complete heart attack?

The walkways need to be broomed? The

trees need to be trimmed . . . Yep, we are

certainly learning more and more about

all of the bazillions of things that our

Dad did that he never even mentioned!!!

Special Delivery.

You know I heart my mailman!!  Yep, he has

done it again . . . 

FIVE yummy yards of fabric . . . I already 

have big ideas for this dreamy yardage.

So grateful for our many blessings, especially

my sweet family and friends who are so

kind to call, text, pray, check up, and keep

encouraging us!!!!  You are one.very.special

group!!  I love you all dearly!!!  It SURE

isn't easy, but with supporters like you guys

and the Lord on our side we are so

incredibly blessed.

The General Store.

 Oh me, oh my.  I do so love my brand

new General Store quilt.  I have been

wanting to make a quilt with retro 

fabric for THE longest time.  Here she

is!

 The quilt top is done, done, done.

I have the binding ready to go.  I

need to purchase fabric for the back,

put in the cozy innerds and she will

be ready for our couch in the front

room.

Love my fun quilting hobby, although

I did have to glue three of my fingers

with superglue this morning . . .

On Pins and Needles.

 Susan to the rescue for my Wednesday night

entertainment.  So far the besties have been

coming over on Wednesdays while the

boys go to youth group.

 We are quilters by day and pin cushion

makers by night!!!  We had so much fun

making our projects that are not only

pin cushions, but scrap bags as well.

I am one blessed lady to have such wonderful

friends!!!!! (And a really cute pin cushion

as a bonus!!!!!)

Here's to Wednesday nights and great friends.

Big Return.

Not that I couldn't or that my family hasn't

encouraged me, but I really do not feel the

need to stray too far from our goings on 

within our own home.  Tonight we had

Bunco.  My little Bunco group of sweet

ladies have been so majorily terrific in

every.single.way possible. I decided to

go to our monthly Bunco game tonight.

I borrowed ten dollars from Luke and

was out the door.  I was excited that I

won five dollars and Luke reaped the

rewards on his ten dollar investment.

I am so proud of my little crew.  

Maintaining a big home and the 

boys' cars is a.lot.of.work.

Our Dad was WONDERFUL at it!

My guys REALLY help me around

here keeping the air conditioning

filters changed, light bulbs and other

appliances in working order, they

paired the garage door opener for me

in my car, rewrapped the pipes outside,

put a blanket on our water heater . . .

I could not make it without all of their

help!!!  I am so thankful for them!!!

God sure knew what he was doing

when He gave us all of these 

strapping boys!!!!

Today's Numbers.

 10 new pair of sox!!

1 new pair of pjs.

21 new blue cards filled out for merit badges.

7 hours in school with our Luke.

9 squares I am short on my new quilt.

8 hours and 29 minutes since our Tim's ship has been at sea.

4 people left in our crew of 7.

1 27-pound turkey . . . cooked and eaten by 3 boys.

1 boy scout meeting.

3 BIG donuts, eaten after scout meeting, per Dad's tradition.

About 107 . . . the number of times that I made that

crazy blow in and blow out sound when you really,

really, really cannot believe something.

1 keyboard moved into Tim's room.

7 loads of laundry done.

3 chapters in the Bible read by Luke and I.

17 times that I stopped and really stared at our

family picture as I went up and down the staircase.

About a 1,000,000,000 times that I counted our

many, many blessings.

The Nest.

My feathers have been rumpled and

my nest has been shaken up a bit.

Yes, our sweet Tim left on American

Airlines this morning.  He is quite 

the young man.  He is strong and

capable. He has been one of my right

arms the past weeks and it is most

definitely going to take quite a bit

of getting used to with him not around.

My compass desires to have 

EVERYTHING go back to the way

"it should be". . . you know "the

way it has always been", "the way

that I want it" . . . Unfortunately, this

is not to be.  The Lord knows what is

best for me and I know that for a fact.

It just takes my heart a while to get

used to it.  In the meantime, our home

will be a little bit quieter . . . the middle

room will be a whole lot neater . . . All

which I would trade in a second.

Our guy is off for some pretty exciting

times and while banking some pretty

awesome cash as a bonus!!!

We.miss.you.already.

Super Saturday.

All I can say is holy.cow.  My sweet sis in love,

Michele spent a bazillion hours with me the

past two days cooking up a storm for Tim's

GOOD-BYE DINNER.  The day has come

and our sweet Tim is heading back to

work.  We were soooo incredibly blessed to

have him here for almost six entire weeks.

Sometimes the six weeks seems like a 

blink of an eye, at other times it seems

as though he got here about 10 years ago.

Anyhow, he is headed back to Ft. Lauderdale

where he will be playing on his cruise ship.

He will be doing 10-11 day Eastern and

Western Caribbean runs, two Panama

Canal trips and then to San Diego, where

we will rendevouz in March before his

15-day crossing to Russia where he will

stop in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam,

and Ireland.  He will then be based out of

Copenhagen, Denmark.  That is all too much

for me to think about now.

All I know is that we had a way too terrific

sending off bash . . . way too much fun to

even take pictures.  Friends stopped in

for yummy food as well as well wishes and

hugs and kisses.  Tears were plentiful as

our loved ones said a short goodbye to 

our dear Tim and we shared sweet

memories about our Dad.

Our lives will change again . . . in a very

big way . . . tomorrow when our guy

heads out.  We have been thinking,

talking, and praying about this day

for many weeks now.  We knew that

it was inevitable and he is prayed up

and ready to roll.  What an awesome

opportunity for our talented Tim!!!

Me . . . more time on my knees.  That's

where I belong anyhow!!!  

Winter Retreat.

 Really?!?  How did this happen?

Did our Sam grow up when I wasn't

looking?!?

Our youth group's winter retreat began

today in California.  It was snowing

outside!!! Sam's and his amazing friend

Jamele rode together to the church

to get on a bus to go to the retreat?!?

 Say what?!? Where I am I in this

scenario?!? This is the FIRST time

that I haven't personally driven my

Sam to a camp, retreat, getaway,

weekend . . . 

 Who just did the growing up here?!?

These two amazing guys are going

to have a wonderful weekend away!

I must say that I know that the

cute guy on the left needs it!!!!

Yep, Jamele and Sam are over a

foot different in height . . . 

Away they go . . .  I must really

love that Jamele!!!  I think our Sam

is a pretty special guy also!!!

"Train up a child in the way he should go;

and when he is old, he will not

depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6