Wish list...

My amazon.com Wish list is almost a joke! Almost.... except for the fact that I really DO want the books on it.....but then, like the mouse who wants the muffin, Papa would have to build me some bigger book shelves to house all the books, and with bigger books shelves, I would have to get a house with an empty room to put the shelves, and with a new house I would have to move from my current one. And to move, I would have to pack, and to pack, I would have to get rid of some of the books I already have, and if I get rid of some of the books I already have, I would have some empty floor space (my shelves are already full, so not empty shelf space) and with empty space, I would think I could get some more books without moving, but then ....

see.

But I DO, I do, I do, I do, I do, (Can you hear that in the tone of the cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz)...love books and truly need their leaves to feed my soul.

Formerly, before the learning-to-live-in-the-real-world-frugality-enlightenment, I use to see a book I wanted and go to Amazon and do a "Buy with 1-click". So convenient, easy and ...well quick.... Until a book came in the mail, that I could not for the life of me remember WHY I thought I had to have it, and my bank balance was super, mega, how-in-the-world-did-that-happen, lower than I could ever imagine. {I like hyphenated phrases that pretend to be adjectives...if you haven't noticed. :)}. {I also like curvy bracket more than parenthesis.}

So I quit 1-click. Most often I buy from Amazon's used booksellers {which you cannot do with 1 click}, and I first put the book on my wish list and let it simmer a while. Then with my few little "spare" dollars, I make choices. Fabric, yarn, food, or books? {Notice Starbucks is not on that list anymore. Gone the way of frugality, reserved for special occasions.} Recently, {two days ago} I went through my wish list and cleaned it up. I had books on there from 8 years ago that again I thought, why did I ever wish for THIS??! And I put my current heart-throbs {yes a book can make my heart throb} on HIGH priority, and some on medium and some on no priority....just in case the book elves when to my list. {Christmas is coming tra la tra la}.

I did a V-8 head smacker yesterday afternoon, {you know, the oh, I could have had a book!}.... I received a goodie drawer award at work, worth $25. You redeem it by going online and choosing from various vendor's gift cards, or movie tickets...etc. So when I went in to redeem it, I found out I actually had received 3 awards that I had never redeemed {blessing} and had $75 of spare money! Wheeeee ! And I started drooling over movie tickets. See, I have not gone to a movie in a theatre in months, (since my frugal-reality awakening) and have wanted my kids to see Where the Wild Things are, and the new Scrooge movie, and the Princess and the Frog... not to mention a momma-night-out movie perhaps, so before I came to my senses and remembered the books calling me, I redeemed 9 "free" movie tickets! Yah! Fun to come. As soon as I was done, I heard my cubicle neighbor say, hey I redeemed my award for an Amazon.com gift certificate. What???!! Huh??? Why didn't I think of that? {Smack!}

So...on to the wishlist, (as if anyone is still reading the post, except for my mom....)

Just to tickle you about on some great books, and in the spirit of fall reading, here are the last 5 books I added to my wish list... and then the highest 5 priority. ....

Last 5:

1. Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places by L. L. Barkat (Author)
   
2. Cute Stuff: Let's Make Cute Stuff [CUTE STUFF] by Aranzi(Author) Aronzo (Author)


3. Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects by Salley Mavor (Author)


4. Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Author), et al.


5. Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Author), Jane Dyer (Illustrator)
   

And the top 5 priorities:

1. Embroidered Effects: Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching (Sublime Stitching) by Jenny Hart (Author), Aimée Herring (Photographer)


2. Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners by Aimee Ray (Author)


3. Amy Butler's In Stitches: More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects by Amy Butler (Author), Colin McGuire (Photographer)


4. Believing God Devotional Journal (Moore, Beth) by Beth Moore (Author)


5. Get out of That Pit: A 40-Day Devotional Journal by Beth Moore (Author)

Yea, there are some novels on my list, but not in the top 5. I have tons of novels in my at home waiting pile, so they wishlist novels are a lower priority right now.......

What are YOU reading, or wishing to read? {mom}

"Sheep Bleat"

The best article/post I have read on practicing the presence of Jesus, since I read Brother Lawrence's book by the same name. Ann says it well, and beautifully and stirs my bleating soul!

Worth the read: 3 ways to keep company with Jesus.

Stephanie.....

My heart is full, spilling out through my eyes. I have spent the past hour looking through 10 years of photos. Today is my dear, precious friend's birthday. And I just feel so blessed when I take the time to pause and think about her.

Our entire friendship has been two or three states away. IM's, Emails, business trips, phone calls.


Yet who did I tell my "labor" story to first, when I had my Tadpole. Who did I send my first referral picture to for Mary Beth, and for Olivia. Who did I call first on the day I found out my husband was no longer mine? :)

She has been there for each joy, each tear, each challenge, ....talking it all out, praying it all over, laughing out loud and even some cool shopping. She is real, authentic, honest. A wonderful, loving momma, who can pull her hair out just like me, and just like be chagrin over a snappy reply. And, she is a sister....a believer of God. We have shared Beth Moore studies together, and Beth Moore Conference apart, texting pictures and impressions. We have hashed out our thoughts re: men, friends, church, work, school, parents, siblings and what's for dinner. She is my next door friend who just happens to live over 800 miles away. I even talked her into the torture of getting our Master's degree together while we were both working full time and raising two children! Now that is friendship!


I just cannot say enough about how much she means to me. What an orchestration of a blessing God had planned, when he connected the two of us.


So, Stephanie, thank you for being my dear friend. You are a gem and a blessing to all who cross your path. Thank you for sparkling my life.

Now...here are some fun pics through the years. Love you! Happy Birthday!









With her Momma.











WIth her sister.














With her man, the love of her life!


































































With her girls.... such lively, lovely ladies!

"and they shall rise up and call her blessed."

Happy Birthday, Stephanie......

The Games we play....

Cris had a great post yesterday about their favorite games....and it got me to thinking and wanting to show off what my Papa has done!

We love games, especially board games and card games... So my dad, has one by one, handmade us different board games and I have them on a wall with some pottery barn chalk boards in between and have to show them off.

He even customized them in the colors of my family room.








The first was Pollyanna. I went onto ebay and found a picture of an old Pollyanna game for him to duplicate.


















Then came checkers.....with gold and cranberry checker pieces to match.





























Then in honor of my dear Princess QIng QIng, we HAD to have Chinese Checkers!



















And then my add, was to beg for backgammon, which I had to quickly teach Nicholas to play. One of my very favorite games.














And the latest is a homemage game, that Nicholas has named Homebase..and we seem to change the rules each time we play. :)

The Grande Dame of them all, which is on the opposite wall, is a handmade RISK board. Can you imagine all the work this took! ??

We love playing games and it brings such good memories of my childhood and building memories for my children. Lately, however, seems every Saturday night, which I LOVE, our current favorite game is playing ROOK with Nanny and Papa. Nick and Papa are one team, and Nanny {mom} and I are the other. So far, Nick and Pappa are the winners. We plan to mix the teams up next week.

So those are a few of our favorite games.... What are yours?

Knitting in the Park.....

{and a little crocheting too}

After church yesterday, my friend Kristy asked if I would like to meet them at the park. She was taking her 3 boys to a park near our house, and it was such a gorgeous fall day...I jumped at the chance. After packing a lunch and grabbing my "yarn bag", we headed off.

Two mini-vans parked in a row...six kids spilling out to conquor dragons and turkey sandwiches.

I sat down on a bench, in shade by Kristy. She had her knitting in hand, hat number 6 out of 20 and with a smile of fondness for the look and feel of yarn, I pulled out my crocheting, (working on a cute zombie amigurumi from Nelly Pailloux's Crobots book). We talked about projects, looked at patterns in a couple books I brought and
enjoyed the fall day, kniitng in the park.



Our wild gang would stop by from time to time to refuel or plea for mediation in a disagreement, and ask for a push on the swing.

I think knitting in the park, is such a grande idea....we MUST do it again...and again.

On that note, here is a little purse I crocheted this weekend. I sewed ribbon on the backside of the shoulder strap, so it would not stretched, added a few buttons, and on Kristy's suggestion, lined the inside.







Now who should be the recipient of my little purse? I made the shoulder strap shorter than I wanted, but I think it is just the right size for a little girl! :) One I know with long dark hair and beautiful almond eyes....maybe a stocking stuffer.















































And Kristy send me a link to the cutest bowl and acorns....I may have to make these for our Thanksgiving table this year. You can check out the free patterns here for the bowl and here for the acorns.








Happy "Yarning" as my Mary calls it. {FYI, I have tons of cool knitting and crocheting sites linked on the right side of this blog. Scroll down to the section called "Yarn in my pocket"....}

Fill me with your love again. ...

The words to an older song on a CD by Amy Grant come to my mind....

"fill me with your love again,
fill me with your love again,
open my hearts door so you can enter in
and fill me with you love again."

I am hearing, from more than one place, the message of God's grace. And that it is not by following the law, but by believing God, that I am saved. Not my works, goodness (or lack of goodness). I need to hear this so desperately, to get this.

Yesterday I read something that said: "God, my father, is able to look past my shortcomings, and see the good in me. ""God, my father, is able to look past my shortcomings, and see the good in me. "

and it just hit me in a wave of sadness.

I am so under it...so oppressed by my own failure, by my desire for perfection and my struggle with mediocrity or worse. And I walk, feeling my in ability to do it right, puts a distance between me and God. And when I read that my heavenly daddy is able (and willing) to look past my shortcomings and see anything of worth in me to love, it floors me. Crumbles my heart in a bucket of tears.

And when I read Beth writing about how we can get captured by all the little things that try to master us...I know I try to assuage the pain of the distance I presume between God and I with all those little things.

Today, in church, the sermon was on Galatians 3:1-14 and 5: 16-26. About just that...that we have the Holy Spirit in us, given to us, for a purpose...and he is not given by our observing the law but by believing. That our believing in God is what is credited to us as righteousness, just like Abraham, and it is foolish to think by performing well, doing it all right, is the why to live.

I long to be controlled by the Spirit, to hear and respond. To be dependent on the Holy Spirit, not a set of rules, or performance guidelines I set up for myself. To daily surrender to God, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead me. I want it I want it I want it. To respond and wake up each morning realizing, sensing that I am not alone... It is not by my might, my power or ability, but by God's Spirit. I spend to much time on my effort.

I love the verses in first Kings 19:11-12, I remember them from the movie Nativity...where they share one God is not in the thunder, or the earthquake or the fire....but after the fire came a gentle whisper..and that is where God is. That gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit in me, I need to quiet down and listen to. Teach us Lord to walk by the Spirit. So the fruit of the Spirit come out of our walk, not out of our effort.

As I sat in church, something was happening with my sons as well. I noticed in church, during the worship singing, my Nick, rather than being distracted was actually singing and focusing on what he was singing. I thought then, hmmmm...I try to force him to stand and sing and he wants nothing to do with it. I let him come and I say nothing, and the Spirit woos him. God knew this day and what He had planned for my sons.

While I was listening to the sermon on God's whispering Spirit, my sons where in Sunday School class experiencing it. Their leader put on worship music. They have been studying the spiritual gifts, and he had each child go to a private corner of the room, with a blank sheet of paper and pencil. And pray to God asking what is his spiritual gift and then write down any impression they got. My sons, both of them, shared sweet things to a mother's heart that they felt God spoke to them. Prophecy and a word of truth for others, a direction to pray for something, a prompting to speak to another about Jesus and a sense of God. How precious and awesome is that. That God would whisper to my sons! Taddy was so touched by it, that he carried his paper and pencil to the park, hoping God would speak more, and has it now in his bedroom. Nick, after the class, told me he felt he was closer to God than he has ever been!

Ah, yes Lord, capture my sons. God is faithful when we cry, and will fill us with His love again. What a blessed Lord's day it has been for us. After church we met a friend and her three sons at the park and played, knitted and crocheted. Then one of the boys came home with us, and Nick went with him to a youth service this evening. Another blessing, friends and companions on the journey to God.

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Some trivial this and that:What is on the "hook" (crocheting at the moment, instead of knitting)


















My cute little chicky salt and pepper shaker find at a thrift store. Aren't they just too sweet?















And I am so proud of myself. I went grocery shopping and used all reusable shopping bags! My bit for the environment! YEA!

I pray you have a blessed day and that God's Spirit woos you to a closer place with him. me too, Lord, me too!

"Strangled by a thousand threads..."

Beth had a great post today...well worth the read : here. About all the little masters in our life.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

I need to go think on this.

Pretties

I finished the little project I was working on. :)

A coffee pad. Made from a dishtowel, an old sheet, some ribbon and a little embroidery.

and then I made a seond little pretty for my apron, but haven't sewn it on yet. My children are very picky eaters!!! So this has become a joke at our house.