Trust in Jesus

Finally.  A contemporary Christian music song that has a good clear gospel message and Biblical perspective.  I have to say that this is one of my favorite songs out there lately.

One of these days we all will stand in judgment for
Every single word that we have spoken
One of these days we all will stand before the Lord
Give a reason for everything we’ve done
And what I’ve done is

Trust in Jesus
My great Deliverer
My strong Defender
The Son of God
I trust in Jesus
Blessed Redeemer
My Lord forever
The Holy One, the Holy One

What are you going to do when your time has come
And your life is done and there’s nothing you can stand on
What will you have to say at the judgment throne
I already know the only thing that I can say I

There’s nothing I can do on my own to find forgiveness
It’s by His grace alone I trust in Jesus
Trust in Jesus

Pet Peeve

A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to him or her, to a greater degree than others may find it.  [Wikipedia]

I never thought that I really had a pet peeve.  Sure, there have  been little things that bother me, but none that I could classify as a pet peeve.  Well, now I have one. I think I've had it for a while, but I just recently realized it.

My pet peeve is when people leave the windshield wipers going too fast for the amount of precipitation that is falling.

Strange, I know.  I guess that's the thing about pet peeves - I find it annoying to a greater degree than other people do.  I know all of the settings for the windshield wipers in our car.  The fast ones, the slowest ones, and all the ones in between.  If it's just barely raining I'll even go through the extra effort to simply hit the wipers once as needed to keep it clear in order to avoid over wiping. 

I think what made me notice it is that whenever I'm riding in the car with Kevin (who could care less how fast the wipers are moving as long as the window is clear)  I find myself at times asking him to turn the wipers down, or even just reaching over and turning them down myself.  The only way I can not be annoyed by excess windshield wiping is to try to not pay attention to them.  It's hard, and takes self control, but I can sometimes do it.

Cheese in the Living Room

I think Evelyn likes to do all of her naughty things right away in the morning - she must dream about it all night and then try to do as much as she can right away. 

This morning while I was washing dishes I started to wonder why Evelyn was being so quiet in the living room.  I walked into the room to find a bag of shredded cheese dumped all over the coffee table, couch, and floor.  Evelyn was holding the salt grinder - which had signs of being licked and also had cheese on it.  There was also cheese stuck to her face all around her mouth.  Oh how I wish I could find the charger for our camera battery so I could have taken a picture of it all. 

After a little thought, I realized what had happened.  Last night I had to feed Elsie right after supper and so I didn't put the food away right away.  Evelyn must have grabbed the cheese and brought it into the living room while I was busy with Elsie.  We left right away after dinner to visit a friend in the hospital and didn't get back until late.  The cheese sat in the living room all night.  Then in the morning, Evelyn found the cheese again after breakfast when Mommy wasn't around.  Since cheese is one of her favorite foods, what else was she to do but eat it?

Needless to say, it gave me an immediate reason to vacuum our living room which was in dire need of being vacuumed anyway. 

Random Thoughts

Sharp Photo sells life-sized cardboard cutouts.  I'm thinking I should have one made of myself so that I can stand it up in the hallway outside the door to the girls' room during nap time.  That way Evelyn will think I'm standing there and won't get out of her bed.

I ran the dishwasher at our new house today, and it. was. AWESOME.  There was an entire counter full of dishes that disappeared in a matter of minutes.  And I didn't have to wash any silverware. 

Have I mentioned that I hate washing silverware?  I think it's because you wash and wash and wash and your pile of dishes doesn't get any smaller.  You have to wash every nook and cranny of each piece and it just takes a long time. 

We made home made apple cider two days ago.  Man is that stuff good.  Warm it up on a cool fall day and sip away.  I also have 5 more gallons of it in our freezer for the winter. 

I washed 5 loads of laundry today.  What did people do before they had washing machines?  I guess they had a lot less clothes.  I am thankful for my washing machine.  I put in a bunch of dirty clothes, turn a couple of nobs, walk away and a little while later they're all clean.

I've been really emotional lately for no apparent reason.  Yesterday Evelyn pinched her fingers in a closet door and I started crying because she was crying.  Last night my brothers ate some of the pizza I had gotten for our dinner so I didn't get to eat as much as I had wanted to and when I got home that night I cried about that too.  Really?  I cried over pizza?  What's wrong with me?

I ate a salad for lunch today. 

I emptied 3 containers of moldy food out of the refrigerator. 

I like baskets.

Evelyn did a dance while she was eating her lunch meat today.  Kevin and I both laughed at her, but she just kept on boogieing. 

I had to use my spell checker to figure out how to spell that last word.  I don't think I've ever written it before: boogieing.

It's a rainy day here in Eau Claire.  I think I'm going to take a nap while the girls are sleeping and then drink some cider and fold clothes. 

New House

So yes, we are now living in our new home.  We really like it a lot, and are excited to start working on it.  Here are some pros and cons about our new home:

PROS:
*More bedrooms and bathrooms
*Much bigger yard for Evelyn to play and run around in
*Babysitting-aged neighbors just next-door
*A DISHWASHER!!!!!
*Lots of puppies for Evelyn to see and pet
*You can actually put a crying child in one part of the house and not hear them in another part
*2 fireplaces
*A built in hutch
*At least double the cupboard space I had before
*A 3-car attached garage
*We're 1 1/2 blocks from a park
*There is more storage here than we'll ever be able to fill up
*Close to the mall and grocery store
*Only 2 miles from our storage shed for work
*Lots of big windows facing east and south

CONS:
*Evelyn can't tell where the driveway ends and the road starts as they are both blacktop.  This means I have to watch her closely when she plays in the driveway.
*I don't want to even see the first heating bill.
*Bigger house means a lot more to clean and keep picked up.
*We're on the opposite end of town from family.

As you can see, there are a lot more pros than cons about our new place.  We love just about everything about it. It'll be a great home for us to grow into - one neighbor even offered to sell us their cedar play set for the girls.  We've moved into a higher class neighborhood than we were in before.  It's been fun to meet some of the neighbors and get settled in.

Moving to the South Side

It all happened so fast.  We now own two houses.

My grandmother passed away three months ago.  My uncle was living in her house, but a few weeks ago he moved to another place.  We wrote an offer to purchase my grandmother's house from the estate a couple of weeks ago.  We had the closing yesterday, so now it's ours!

When will we move?  Well, There's quite a bit of cleaning that needs to get done at the new house, so as soon as that gets done, I will start to gradually move the 'non-essentials' over the course of probably a week.  Then we'll take a day probably the weekend after labor day and move all the big stuff.

We still have a few things left to do on our current house, but it makes more sense to finish them after we are moved out. [refinishing floors, refinishing kitchen cupboards, and a few little things.] 

Where will we be moving?  We'll be on the south side of Eau Claire, but still in town.  Between Golf Rd. and Hamilton Ave. not far from State St.  For the first time in my life I will live on the 'south side' of Eau Claire.  Our new house will be just 2 miles from our storage shed where Kevin goes every day.  We'll be much closer to where I do most of my grocery shopping, and we'll still be close to a Menards.

The house needs quite a bit of work.  Another fixer-upper you might say.  We have so many ideas of things we want to do, and sometimes stay up late drawing maps of the house, and talking about all of our ideas.

At first I was sad to be leaving our current home just when we've gotten it mostly fixed up and nice.  Now I am just so excited to have a bigger place (going from a 2bed 1bath to a 3bed 4bath) with a bigger yard, and the closest neighbors are across the street instead of 10' from our bedroom window. 

What will happen to our current home?  We're hoping to have everything finished and put it on the market by the end of September.  We can't actually sell it until Feb. 1st 2012 because we took the first time home buyer tax credit.  We just want to get it up sooner so that people can see it before winter.  If someone were interested in renting it, we may consider that option until we are able to sell it.

So, needless to say, we have a crazy couple of weeks coming up.  I've started boxing a few things up and sorting things to get rid of.  I forgot how much work it is to move.  When we moved before it was just Kevin and I and we were going from a small apartment that couldn't hold much and we were newly married so we didn't have much either.  Now we have 2 kids and a house + garage full of stuff.  Let the fun begin!

Cutest Kid or Facebook Junkie?

So, Evelyn didn't win the cutest kid contest.  Another girl (who was cute too) won by almost 30 votes.  Kevin and I were talking about the results the other day, and decided that this other girl only won because her parents must be the kind of facebookers that are friends with everyone they ever met or knew in their entire lives.  Kevin and I on the other hand, have both purged our friends (a couple of times) and limit them to people we are actually currently friends with.  Kevin has 222 friends and I have 158.  103 of those are friends we share.  In order for us to have won the contest, we would have had to have gotten every one of our mutual friends to like Evelyn's photo.  Most of the people we are friends with are not facebook junkies either, and don't like other pages just because one of their friends tell them to.

I pretty much knew going into it that we wouldn't win, but thought I would give it a shot anyway.  It was a good ploy for the photographer to get lots of people to like her page.  Before the contest when I looked at her page, 175 people liked it.  Now there are over 500 people connected to her page.  At any rate, Evelyn's still the cutest in our book (besides her sister of course).  And we wonder how she would do in a contest judged by people completely unrelated to the children.  Guess we'll never know.

Those Eyes

Yesterday I stopped and found myself staring into Evelyn's eyes.  She was goofing around and being silly, and I noticed the joy and excitement that shone through her eyes.  I had to just stop and stare into her eyes for about 5 minutes while she played.  I guess I've never really taken the time to just sit and look into her eyes - those beautiful eyes that every stranger comments about.

Since really noticing her eyes yesterday, I have been watching them more closely.  They are such a means of expression.  The way they well up with tears when she is hurt or upset, the way they light up when Daddy comes home or treats are mentioned, the way joy and excitement shine through them, the way she discerningly stares at a stranger or something unfamiliar, they way they look at you when she gives a hug or kiss.

Her eyes show a lot.  If she got enough sleep, if she's trying to tease, if she likes something, if she doesn't like something, if she's not sure about something, if she's ready for bed.  I could go on and on.  I guess I just haven't taken the time to enjoy some of the little things about Evelyn, like her eyes, and now that I have I really enjoy it.

Cutest Kid Contest

Well, I've done it.  I've entered Evelyn into a Cutest Kid contest on facebook.  If her photo gets the most 'likes' we win a free photo session and free prints.  And of course bragging rights that your kid won a cutest kid contest.  Now to get all of my facebook friends to vote for Evelyn.  The contest goes for 10 days, so we'll see what happens in that time.

This is the photo I entered:

44 Books

Just a couple months ago, my cousin and his wife were at our house, and as we were showing them what we've done in the basement, our attention was turned to our bookshelf.  He asked me about some of the books on the shelf and whether or not I've read them.  I had to say no.  There are in fact 44 books on our bookshelf that I have never read.

So, I got to wondering, "What if there are some books of those 44 that aren't worth the read?"  How will I know if we should keep the book unless I've read it?  So, here embarks a bold endeavor.  My goal (however long it may take) is to read all 44 of those books and decide if they earn a spot on our shelf.  The ones that do will be put back in their spot.  The ones that don't will be given away.

The rules:
*Before reading one of the 44 books, I must: spend time in God's Word, spend at least a half hour playing with Evelyn and Elsie, and wash the dishes.

I don't want my reading to take priority over the things that are truly more important.

Book #1 is "Be Your Own 'Doctor'" by Rachel Weaver.  After I've finished it, I'll let you know what I think and whether it stays or goes. (Although I'm guaranteeing that this one will stay).

John Ploughman

Every year for Christmas, our pastor gives every family in the church a book.  Two years ago he gave us "The Complete John Ploughman".  It took me two years to finally pick it up and read it, and I actually just finished it this morning.  

In case you don't know anything about it, it's a book by C. H. Spurgeon written from the perspective of a simple farmer giving practical advice for every day things. I found so many things he said helpful, and many gave me a new perspective on the particular subject.  I have copied down some of my favorite quotes from the book, and hopefully it gives you the itch to read the book and find the context for what he says.  You can even borrow my copy if you like!

It is never worthwhile to do unnecessary things.

All women are good - either for something or for nothing, and their dress will generally tell you which. 

God sends every bird its food, but He does not throw it into the nest; He gives us our daily bread, but it is through our own labor.

If after all our being sober and thrifty, we cannot get along without pinching, let us still be patient and contented. 

A man never listens to reason when he has made up his mind to act unreasonably. 

Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin.  Children are what they are made: the pity is that so many are spoiled in the bringing up. 

Men are neither suddenly rich nor suddenly good. 

A good husband will generally have a good wife, or make a bad wife better. 

Be not concerned with that which concerns not thee. 

Many are sorry they spoke, but few ever mourn that they held their tongue. 

To work hard for success makes us fit to bear it: we enjoy the bacon all the more because we have got an appetite by earning it. 

If you cannot get along honestly, be satisfied not to get on. 

When a man thinks that he is to make himself good before he comes to Jesus to be saved, he is planting the fruit instead of the root, and putting the chimney pots where the foundation should be.  We do not save ourselves and then trust the Saviour; but when the Saviour has worked salvation in us, then we work it out with fear and trembling.  Be sure, good reader, that you put faith first, and works afterwards; for, if not, you will put the cart before the horse.

Hanging Out to Dry

When we first moved into our house, there was a clothes line across the better part of the backyard.  It was right in the way of the main open area, and it was ugly.  We took it down, and the first summer we lived here I kept trying to figure out a place to hang up a line.  I never could figure out something that Kevin would agree to.

The second summer, I got enough guts to ask our elderly next door neighbor lady if I could use her clothes line that ends right by our garage.  I had observed that she never used it the summer before, and she's a nice lady (the kind that randomly brings over some cookies or brownies just because), so I thought my odds of her saying yes were pretty good.  Sure enough she said to go ahead because she never uses it.  Well, that was great, but I didn't have any clothes pins.  So, I only hung Evelyn's cloth diapers out there because I could fasten the snaps around the line so they wouldn't fall off.

This third summer I found some clothes pins at a thrift sale for fifty cents.  I guess it's just quicker and easier to throw the clothes into the dryer, because last week, I hung a load of clothes out on the line to dry for the first time.  It was so FUN!  It was extra fun because it was the girls' clothes and seeing all of their cute pink clothes waving in the breeze just made me grin.

Gardening

There's just something about sitting down to a meal of produce that you grew in your garden.  It gives me (at least) a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that my hard work is literally putting food on our table.  Not only that, but the healthiest and freshest vegetables around.  This year with a new baby, a small yard with no room to plant, and barely enough time to wash dishes and get laundry done, gardening was put to the wayside.

Back this winter as I thought forward about not being able to garden, I got disappointed about it.  I know that Kevin loves fresh vegetables, and I could really help our grocery bill by growing it myself.  After sharing my disappointment with Kevin, he encouraged me by reminding me that it'll only be a couple more years that we live in this house, and a couple more years until Evelyn can help me more, and a couple more years that we run our lawn care business, and until then the farmer's market is close by.  As he put it, "It's not worth killing yourself for some carrots and lettuce when they're only a couple bucks at the farmer's market."  This really helped me because I truly want to please my husband in all that I do, and it was reassuring to know that by not attempting to garden I was not disappointing or letting him down.

Someday I will have a garden that produces enough to put away food for the whole year.  It will be a family affair with all the children helping.  I'm sure they will all whine about having to weed the garden, but years down the road they will look back and count it a blessing that they know what carrot plants look like, and what weeds look like.  Kind of like how it was for us growing up.

Until then I will have to settle for a few tomato and pepper plants in pots alongside the garage and whatever others give me out of the abundance of their own gardens.  But oh how my tomato and pepper plants are flourishing in their little pots of dirt and compost.

Here's a tiny peek into my "garden".

The first little green tomato.

 

The first little hot pepper.

 The first of the blossoms on my regular pepper plants.

I didn't do anything special to them, but all of my plants are doing very well.  On one pepper plant I counted 16 little blossoms.  And that's just one plant!  It looks like we will have a bountiful harvest even if it is only peppers and tomatoes.

Look Alike Contest

The second question everybody always asks is, "So, who do you think she looks like?"  Like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words" so I'll save myself the thousand words and let you decide who you think she looks like.

All of the pictures of Elsie are on the left.

Elsie vs. Evelyn

 

Elsie vs. Anna

Elsie vs. Kevin

 

We think she looks a lot like Evelyn's baby pictures (as you probably saw).  The two have the same hairline, eyes, nose and mouth.  She has more of my head shape and definitely my toes, where Evelyn has Kevin's.

So, who do you think she looks like? 

Baby Button

Today I am thankful that Elsie's belly button has completely healed up.  The cord part fell off when she was about 1 1/2 weeks old, but there was a little part that wasn't healed up yet that kept oozing. Today it is no longer oozing and that last little part is all healed up.

And what a cute little button it is!

Now this sight of oozy onesies to be sprayed can disappear from our bathroom. Yay!

Hospital vs. Home

An acquaintance asked me the other day, "So, did you like the hospital birth or the home birth better?"  When I told her the home birth, her response was, "Everyone I've talked to that has done both likes the home birth better!"  After my experiences, I don't doubt that.

It's not to say that you can't have an awesome birth experience in a hospital, but after having two non-medicated, no complication births, I would pick a home birth over the hospital any day.  Here are some of the differences (from my two experiences):

Labor starts.
     *Hospital: Make sure all of your things are packed, get someone to come over to watch your other child, wait for contractions to get strong enough to go in.
     *Home: Eat dinner, put other child to bed, call midwife to let her know what's happening, relax.

Contractions get stronger.
     *Hospital: Get in the car, travel to the hospital while still having strong contractions (very uncomfortable by the way), check in, get hooked up to a monitor to see how the baby is responding to the contractions.  See which midwife is on call, and meet 4 different nurses.
     *Home: Midwife arrives, explain how things have been going, go back downstairs and continue relaxing and breathing through contractions.  After a while, get in the tub.

Baby is ready to be born.
     *Hospital: Turn on bright lights, pull out all the instruments, and push, push, push.  Everyone just standing there watching it all happen.
     *Home: Turn off all the lights, light candles, and relax letting my body work the baby out by itself.  Midwife and assistant coaching me through contractions and instructing me on better ways to breath and relax.

Baby is born.
     *Hospital: Put her up on my stomach, after a while cut cord, put goop in her eyes, give her a bath, weigh and measure her, then dress her in a hospital onesie.  Meanwhile, I get stitches, take a shower and eat a hospital sandwich.  Then get moved to another room to sleep on an uncomfortable bed.
     *Home: Put her on my stomach, let me hold her as long as I want.  Then cut cord and give her to Kevin.  We don't give her a bath because vernix is great lotion.  Weigh her and dress her in our own clothes.  I take a bath, no stitches necessary, and go lay on my own bed. Then snack on fresh fruit, cheese and crackers.

The next two days.
     *Hospital: Nurses in every hour to check baby's temperature and my blood pressure.  Baby gets her foot pricked to run blood tests, has hearing screening and vision testing.  Nurse shifts change every 8 hours, so we have a total of 6-7 different nurses taking care of us.  Continue to eat hospital food, regulated visiting hours limit who can come and when they can come. On-call pediatrician comes in a few times to squeeze the baby's belly and pester us about not giving her vaccinations.
     *Home: Family watches other child, family and friends bring home cooked meals, sleeping in my own bed with 1-2 caretakers (husband and sister-in-law).  Friends and family can visit whenever it is convenient for us, and there are no tests and no pediatricians.

Going home.
     *Hospital: Make sure the baby has passed all of her tests before we can leave.  Get the nurse to check us out and take off the security bracelet.
     *Home:  What?  We're already at home!

Overall, birthing at home was so much more laid back, less invasive, and just more comfortable.  If and when the Lord chooses to bless us with more children, if everything is going well, I will definitely do another home birth.

Evelyn and Elsie

One of everyone's first questions when they first meet Elsie is, "So how does Evelyn like her?"  If you had asked me that question a week ago I would have given you a different answer than I would today.

Evelyn has always been interested in babies.  Whenever we see one in the store or at church, she is quick to say, "baby".  So at first she was excited to see a baby every day.  She would give her kisses and gently touch her.  Then she began to realize, "Wait a minute - what is MY mommy doing holding that baby all the time?"  After the first few days, she got tired of having her mommy preoccupied with this other child and started to avoid us.  When she would wake up from her nap, she would come to our bedroom door and if I was holding Elsie, she would make a face, make a little 'humph' sound, and keep walking down the hallway.  Normally she would run into our room and climb up on the bed beside me.  She looked at me like I was a stranger when I would try to play with her.  She rarely asked me to pick her up, and if Daddy was around, she hands down chose him over me every time.

After a few days of this, I was starting to feel like I had lost my little girl.  She seemed so distant and disconnected.  It was probably just post-pregnancy hormones, but I just felt like she didn't like me anymore.  (which of course is silly because I'm her mother and she's only 17 months old).  I wasn't really sure what to do.  I had to feed and hold Elsie, and I was making special efforts to play with Evelyn and include her in everything I was doing so that she wouldn't feel neglected.  Nothing seemed to change her attitude towards me.

Then all of a sudden a couple of days ago, it was like a switch flipped.  Now when I'm holding Elsie, she climbs up next to me to see what she's doing.  If I lay Elsie down on the couch, Evelyn climbs up next to her and lays down beside her.  When I'm burping Elsie after she eats, Evelyn will come over, move my hand, and pat Elsie on the  back.  When Elsie is sitting in her car seat waiting to go somewhere, Evelyn will come up and start rocking her. When I gave Elsie her first bath, Evelyn was right next to me helping pour water over her.  When I need to change Elsie's diaper, Evelyn will pull a wipe out of the container and hand it to me.





So, needless to say, despite our 'rocky' start, Evelyn is becoming a great big sister and a great little helper for mommy.

Elsie Kay Misner

There were days I didn't think it would ever happen, but it finally did.  Almost a month after her original 'due date' Elsie Kay Misner is finally here.  She was born at home on June 1st at 2:00am.  Weighing in at 7# 7oz and 19 inches long.  She is a darling little girl with little dimples who keeps us cooing over her every day.

So, why the name Elsie Kay?  Well, there are several reasons we chose that name.
1. We just plain like the name.
2. It's very feminine sounding.
3. It's old fashioned.
4. Neither of us know anyone by that name (it's unique).
5. It's a family name. (My mother's father's mother's name)

And Kay is Kevin's Mother's middle name, so she is named after her.

And no, at this point we're not planning on naming all of our children 'E' names.  They just so happen to both start with E.

Funerals

Funerals.  I've never really taken time to really think about them before.  With my grandma's recent passing, and all of the funeral stuff going on, I was forced to think more about the whole process.

It has become such a commercialized, money-making, quote on quote cultural thing.  You just have a visitation, and you look at the body, and you talk with all of the people who knew the deceased, and you have a fancy coffin, and you have a nice funeral service, and you eat a meal afterward, and you have a big procession to the cemetery, and you have a little burial service.  And at each place people pray, and quote Bible verses, and say nice things about the person who died.

Why?

Why do we do all of these things?

Why do we "have" to do them? 

Our society has turned something that happens every day into a big production.  People make their entire living working in funeral homes and helping families swim through the ocean of things that they 'have' to do because a loved one has died.  People just don't question it anymore.  This is how our society deals with death.  It's just 'what you do'.  You stand in line where you're supposed to and participate in everything, but in the end does it matter?  Will the deceased be more honored by that than if you had a simple burial at the cemetery and skipped the rest? The fact of the matter is that they're gone.  Everything you do after they're gone is just to help yourself cope and grieve.  Maybe it makes you feel better to do these things, and if that justifies all of the time and money spent to do it, go ahead.  For most people, I just don't think they cope and grieve the best going through all of the rigamaroll.  You do it all because you're 'supposed to', but you're just exhausted at the end of the day from putting up a front, and holding back emotions, and talking to tons of people you don't really know that well. And you're really relieved when it's all over and you can try to get back to 'normal' life.

Personally, I'd rather be alone and with my husband.  Maybe have some close friends and my family around so I could be able to really grieve.  I don't want to spend hours staring at the dead person's body.  In fact, I don't really want to see it at all.  It's not them.  It never looks like them.  It's just their empty body.  It's dust.

For a lot of people, it's a new thought.  Nobody really likes to think about death, and dying and the fact that they themselves will someday die.  I don't know yet exactly what I want to happen when I die, or what I would want to do if my husband or one of my children died, but the thought process has to start somewhere.  A lot of these thoughts are incomplete.  Many of them I haven't completely finished processing yet, but I hope to.  Stay tuned.

Grandma Kleven

My Grandma Kleven passed away this past Monday.  Her health had been failing over the past several years, and we all expected her time was coming, but the way she hung in there and kept fighting made it seem like she would live forever.  Throughout the past week of funeral preparations and then the visitation/funeral/burial, I did a lot of reflecting.

I am very sad that my grandmother is no longer here with us, but I am so happy for her - she's with Jesus!  To truly grieve her leaving was somewhat difficult for me for three reasons:
     *She was saved, and therefore going to heaven.
     *She was 95 years old and lived a very full life.
     *Her mind and body were failing at the end.
I'm not saying I don't miss her, because it's definitely strange to have her gone, but I don't see this being a long grieving process for me.  It was her time to go, and God saw fit to take her when and how He did.

Another thing that really stands out to me about my Grandma (and Grandpa) Kleven is the legacy they have left behind.  Three sons (two with spouses), nine grandchildren (five with spouses), and five great-grandchildren all who have professed faith in Jesus Christ.  (Well, those who are old enough and able to.)  What an amazing thing!  I feel so blessed to be a part of this family.  I know that it's not something you see every day. 

This gives me encouragement as a mother staying home with my child(ren), that teaching and training them in the ways of the Lord is not in vain.  If "all" I do in my life is raise up all of our children to follow after and serve the Lord, I will have done an amazing thing!  Some days I feel like I'm doing less than others because I'm not on the street corner preaching the gospel.  It is good for me to realize that it is no small thing to be a mother.  It is no small thing to 'train up a child in the way he should go so that when he is old, he will not depart from it.'  God has called me to be a wife and a mother, and I intend to do them with all that I have and to the best of my ability. 

Thank you Grandma Kleven for your example and for helping me to see just how important the work is that I am doing.

Teach Me Lord to Wait

Being now 10 days past my "due date" it can become at times difficult to wait patiently for this baby to come.  This morning I was seeking some comfort from God's word about waiting, and found some verses that really encouraged me to keep waiting.

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Lamentations 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

Daniel 12:12a Blessed is he that waiteth.

Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

Habakkuk 2:3 Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Zephaniah 3:8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD.

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

I know that this baby WILL come, and that I need to patiently wait upon the Lord until that day comes.  In the meantime, I want to enjoy my one-on-one time with Evelyn and doing things around the house that will have to be put off once the baby is born.

Ready for Baby

Yesterday I shaved my legs and painted my toe nails.
I'm now ready for the baby to come....

Yesterday I also washed all the floors in the house and washed the rugs.
I'm now ready for the baby to come...

Today I picked up a cute little newborn dress if it's a girl.
I'm now ready for the baby to come...

Little annoying non-painful contractions keep interrupting my days.
I'm now ready for the baby to come...

Every time the wee one decides to squirm around, I get a butt and feet jabbed into my ribs and a head pushed on my bladder.
I'm now ready for the baby to come...

For goodness sake, today's my due date.
I'm now ready for the baby to come...

Any time now squirt - I'm ready for you!

Washing Dishes Sideways

Entering into the final weeks of pregnancy, I am realizing once again how inconvenient it is to complete basic household chores with a baby belly in the way.  Just the simple act of picking up the house at the end of the day, or putting a pair of shoes away takes extra effort. 

The place I notice it the most is when I'm washing dishes.  In the early stages, my belly was small enough that I could still lean against the counter while I washed.  Now-a-days, I have to turn my body sideways so that my belly doesn't hit the counter.  If I were an inch or two taller, it wouldn't be a problem, but the bottom of my belly hits the pointy corner of the counter, which is quite uncomfortable.

I know that once the baby's born, it'll feel strange to wash the dishes and be able to lean all the way up to the counter, but until then I guess I'll just have to wash them sideways.

 

My Latest Crafty Project

A few weeks ago, I picked up a little chair for Evelyn.  I got it at a thrift sale for $2 because she doesn't have any chairs that are her size.  Even though it was a little ugly, I decided to get it and give it a makeover. 

First, I took the ugly pad with orange yarn sewn through it and cut off all of the orange yarn.  This is where I took the above 'before' pictures.  I forgot to take pictures first I was so excited to get started on this project.

Next, Kevin took the chair outside and pressure-washed it to get the flaking pieces of plastic off of the arms and legs.

Then came the fun part.  Making a new pad/cover for the chair.  I decided to use the old pad and just cover it because there was really nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it was ugly.  It's a good thing I went through a purse-making phase in high school where I bought all sorts of upholstery fabric because I had about six different options to choose from.  It was a toss up between a light blue with yellow and navy stripes, and the one I chose.  Kevin liked the blue better, but I wanted something a little more fun, plus this one will hide the dirt better.

Because of the specific nature of the project, and the fact that I've never made anything like this before, I had to invent my own pattern.  The main thing I wanted to be sure of was that it wouldn't slide around (much) on the chair.  With Evelyn it's always up, down, up, down, and I wanted to make sure the pad/cover would stay in place.  I determined that the best way to accomplish this was to have the cover slide over the back of the chair and have ties along the sides of the seat.  Both were easier said than done, but in the end turned out exactly as I had planned. 

It's kind of hard to tell in the pictures below, but I did add four little sewn through dots on each half of the pad to give it that 'patio chair cushion' look as well as hold the pad inside in place.


















After getting almost to the end of the project, I realized that I had sewn one section shut too soon and as a result, I was going to have to sew the front seam (shown below) by hand.  I really don't like sewing by hand, but what I don't like even more is having to rip out perfectly good stitching.  It's tedious to take the stitches out, and in the end you have to do it all over again.  I decided to just leave it as is and hand sew the front seam.  Somewhere in my brain, I pulled out the name 'slip-stitch' and knew that that's the stitch I needed to use.  I just could not remember for the life of me how to do it.  With a quick google search that led me to this blog I was stitching away in no time.

And the project is now finally completed.  It took a little longer than planned partly because I had to figure out each step as I went, and partly because I was trying to sew upholstery fabric with sewing machine needles meant for sewing lightweight knits and broke every needle I had.  Since I didn't want to run across town just to pick up more needles, I waited until we were going that direction which wasn't for 3-4 days.

The finished product and Evelyn enjoying her new chair:

We still have to paint the frame of the chair to cover up some rust, and then put the little white plastic feet back on, but other than that, Evelyn now has a chair her size to sit on!  (And she loves it too!)