God's Peace

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. This verse came to me this evening as I sat during a band concert at the high school. God gives us such peace if we only seek it from Him. It isn't something that we have to work for, it is freely given. It is something I can find in the stillness of my soul when I sit quietly and listen. I believe that God answers prayer. It isn't always in a showy manner. It isn't even always a prayer you know you are praying or that someone is praying for you. But prayers are answered. Recently we have been through a lot of health issues with my husband's father. I have asked for prayer for him and for our family from many sources. I have asked for peace and understanding in my soul. God has answered all the prayers. My father in law is still dealing with health issues but is on the road to the recovery that his body will allow. The rest of the family is prayerfully and quietly accepting the new order of things. It is going to take time for everything to be sorted out but I believe there is a more peacefull acceptance of the way things will need to be handled. I talked with a friend last night who informed me that he had been praying for my father in law as well as the rest of the family. I mentioned to him in passing something else that was weighing on my mind but not heavily. Today the item on my mind was answered. I hadn't even begun to pray earnestly about the issue but the silent wish in my heart was answered. I called my friend and asked if he had lifted that in prayer last night and he stated he had lifted it but not specifically. God answered it anyway. It relieved me to know that even when it isn't an earnest prayer, God knows the needs and wants in our lives and He answers appropriately. May you have peace and joy in your hearts and quietness in your minds, knowing that God cares for you as much as He cares for His Son.

God's Beauty

I believe that God gave us flowers and plants to remind of us the beauty in His world. He wants us to remember that there is always warmth after cold and spring follows winter. That there is a regrowth and joy after sorrow. I find all these things when I am working in the gardens I swore as a child that I would never have. Amazing how He changed my mind when I was able to see the beauty of His creation.

Family photos

It has been six years since we had professional family photos taken. The last time was as we were moving into the home we had just signed a mortgage for. My daughter was just entering junior high school and now she is a junior in high school. It doesn't seem possible that so much time has past. I have had photos taken of the kids and we did a family photo with my husbands family, but we hadn't done one of just the four of us in that long. Yesterday we made an appointment and went to Walmart for a family photo. We ended up having about 40 pictures taken. I was amazed and thrilled at the same time. We did so many different combonations of the four of us and it was so very nice. Many of them came out so well. I was thrilled with the ones that we were shown. I didn't like the ones of just me and I didn't like my smile but I really liked the pictures. As the photographer showed us the pictures and then showed us the cost of the different packages, I began to wonder if we could do what I wanted and take all the pictures home. She began with the most expensive package and I knew that we weren't going to purchase that. The next two packages were more in line with what I thought was a feasable cost. They were still expensive but we would get the copy rights to the photos so we could use them in any means we saw fit. One package gave us the copy right and a disk of all the photos plus 2 10x13 family photos and 20 other sheets in whatever combonation we might want. The other package gave us all the same as the one except for only giving us 10 sheets in whatever combonation we might want. I looked to my husband to see what he would want to do. I was ok with the smaller package since we would have the copy right and could make whatever copies we might want. He chose the middle package that gave us more professional pictures. He also added one other special photo to the package. I look forward to picking up these photos and passing them out to family. I am glad that I will be able to give my grandmother and Mike's grandmother the photos they love to display. It has been so long since they have had any individual photos of either of us let alone any that are family photos.

..... Don't say anything at all

To continue on the rant from earlier about not saying anything at all, I was reading a blog the other day by a very sweet lady who is educating others on her experiences of life growing up Amish. Apparently someone took it upon themselves to post a nasty comment anonymously. I didn't read the comment as it was removed prior to my reading the blog that day. It did however cause me some anger that someone decided to hide behind the computer and dish out something mean. When will people learn that just because we can't see them, doesn't mean that they aren't seen? God sees what is in our hearts and minds and He will be the final judge. Someday this mean person will have to stand before Him and account for the reasons behind their behavior. If only for their own sake they should have lived by the rule and not said anything at all.

If you can't say something nice.....

I was recently reading some posts online about one of my favorite teachers. Someone decided to ask a question and spread some gossip she'd heard. I refuted the message but it made me think again of what my mother had taught me growing up. "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all." Maybe what that woman said was true, but to what purpose was it to say it? This teacher passed away and is not around to dispute what was said about him. It makes me sad that someone felt the need to say something that could have ruined the reputation of a good man. I wish she had held her tongue and lived by that simple rule taught to me.

Piecing a Quilt

After learning to stitch on a "cheaters quilt" I was even more desirous of learning to make an actual quilt. For a time between high school and college, I lived with my maternal grandmother. Gram was alwasy making something with fabric or yarn or lace thread. Once again I brought up my wish to learn to make a quilt.

Gram took me into her craft room and let me dig through her fabric scraps. We had decided to make a simple quilt for my first one. It would be made of three inch squares for fabric sewing four of them into a larger square. Each of the larger squares would have two solid and two printed squares.

I wasn't going to make a quilt with a set color pallet. I wanted to use an assortment of colors. Gram's scrapbag was the perfect place to start. Some of the scraps were just big enough to get 2 four inch squares from, some were big enough I could take all the squares I could want.

I ironed the material I selected and took them to the living room to draw my quilt pattern on. It was tedious to draw the patern and cut out the squares, but then I got to sew. I hand sewed the squares together in the four square larger piece, then the piece was set aside as I started my next four square larger piece. Finally I deemed I had enough of the four square pieces to begin to lay out my quilt.

Gram and I pushed the foot stools away and got on our hands and knees to lay them all out. Once we had everything laid out, we stood and looked at what was laid before us. After a few tweeks and shifts the colors were laid out the way I thought looked best. I sewed all the larger squares together and finished the top of my first quilt. Sad to say 20 plus years later, that quilt remains just a top.

learning to quilt

By the time I was a teenager, I had learned to hand sew, to crochet and to embroider. My mother and my grandmother both created quilts during that time and one Saturday, I begged my mother to teach me to quilt. My mother had a different idea. She brought me a printed panel, batting and a piece of material for the back. She stated that when I could make the stitches on the front and back match then I would know how to quilt.

I put the three pieces together and placed them in an embroidery hoop to keep it taught. I began to stitch around the printed picture, but no matter how much I tried I could not get my stitches on the back to match the smooth, small, even stitches on the front. I decided not to pull them out but to make a quilted pillow out of the panel instead. With that in mind, it didn't matter if the stitches didn't match up.

I worked diligently on that square. As I got near the end, I burst into tears. All my hard work and I couldn't finish it without putting a major crease in it. In order to do the pillow I wanted to make, I was forced to pull all my stitches and begin again. My mother patiently explained to me that I needed to begin stitching from the center outward instead of from a corner. And so, I began again.

Over time I made many "cheaters quilts" as I called them. I learned that if I kept the materiel out of a frame or hoop and just pinned my corners and parts of the centers, I could get my stitches even on front and back. Because of the pillows I made, I also learned how to hide the closing when they were stuffed. This helped me when I made an actual quilt and was putting a border on it.

While I didn't understand that initial idea of giving me a printed panel to sew at first, my mother knew the stitching wouldn't be the only lesson I learned. Patience and quality control were in the lesson plan as well.