Still Waters

I'm excited to finally be accomplishing a goal I've had for SweetPea for years...sewing! God's timing is perfect, too.  She's old enough to really want to do this, and it's worked out for us to do it as a little class with our dear friends, a mom and two girls.  I'm teaching what I know and using a wonderfully helpful book, Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing as our text.    Man, this book has everything!  I'm learning a lot of new info myself and getting freshly inspired to sew again.  I used to make most of my own clothes, but then I started homeschooling...   In our first class we covered all the tools of the trade, setting up our sewing baskets, going over terminology, etc.  We learned about patterns in our second class and took our measurements to see what size we wear.  And yesterday the fun really began--we took a 'field trip' to a fabric store to get the lay of the land, and chose fabric for the apron project we'll begin next t

What happens when you give a compulsive organizer a handy-dandy labeller?  Labels, of course!  Lots of them. I had such fun a couple of days ago.  I buy spices, herbs, grains, and beans in bulk from our local health food store, but over time all semblance of order has fallen apart.  Some were in bags, some in jars, some upstairs in my kitchen, some in my basement pantry, and worst of all, some had ancient masking tape labels on them, curled and sticky and gross. But my dear sister gave us the latest, greatest computer-style Dymo labeller, and no one could get lost in my Spiceville now!  I redid a cupboard also to store my beans and grains that don't need freezing, and it has left me wondering why I didn't do all this before!! I used three different sizes of canning jars to bring about this order:  pint-sized for spices, quart for beans, and half-gallon for grains and flours in the freezer.  (I didn't even know they made the half-gallon size, but my friend Lisa found some f

A cool, rainy weekend was just what I needed to 'take me off the hook' for doing yardwork!  Not that I don't enjoy it, mind you, but we had a FULL week helping out with VBS at our church.  If I told you I had a class of 15 6 & 7-year-olds, that might clarify things a bit, huh?  :-)  But as is typical of the goodness of the Lord, He had all sorts of graces and mercies on a challenging few days.  First of all, the kids were great!  Our topic was wonderful--the Covenant.  We had a terrific group of volunteers to make it all happen.  And when I was scrambling to pull together a lesson (I was a last-minute fill-in teacher and so had no time to prepare ahead of time), I was relieved to sense the Holy Spirit's leading...something workable for each day.  Praise the Lord, it got done. I made a funny observation this week.  Every time I needed my group to gather together and head off to our next activity station, there were fifteen little bodies lining up in a flash next to m

It's finally here!  We're warm, it's not snowing, and it's very green outside.  You can't tell me that I might still need gloves and boots.  Please. And the other good news is that we finished school!  (Almost.)  We actually met all our state requirements for hours and days, and will just do a bit of wrap-up this month, then truly have a few weeks off.  We're in the middle of our last read-aloud for Sonlight Core 7, God's Smuggler , about Brother Andrew.  My goodness, what a wonderful example of being led by the Holy Spirit, of being truly sold out to Jesus and living every day by His heart.  It's been a fresh challenge to my own faith. SweetPea finished Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, and we certainly both have to give that program a huge thumbs-up.  She loves it.  And it's a relief to me to have found the right thing for her that we can track with now throughout high school.  Yay! Having already done a big vacation in April, we're looking forw