Our Family Project

For Halloween this year, we went to two different trunk-or-treats.  Instead of trick-or-treating on Sunday, our church combined with another congregation to put on a trunk-or-treat on Friday, the 29th.  Basically, everyone who wanted to give out candy backed their car into a parking space and opened their decorated-for-Halloween trunks, then handed out candy to the children who were dressed up.  Oh, and it was also a kind of pseudo-carnival, and an announced but nothing was ever really judged chili cook-off. Then, on Saturday, we went up to Prescott Valley to visit our good friends.  Their church also organized a trunk-or-treat with some other congregations, so we got to go to another one!  Halloween is always better when you get to dress up twice!  Our children had a blast playing with their friends (and they still play/hang out well together after months of being apart), and LOVED decorating their truck and our van.  They did way b...

So many times I feel that I fail my children in so many aspects.  (Like today.)  That's when I need to remember my favorite scripture of all time (some of you may remember this one): "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

Today, being the last day before Halloween, some of my children got to wear a costume to school.  Eliza's class has been studying pirates all week, culminating in a class-dress-up day as pirates today.  Believe it or not, she got two homemade costumes this year!  All she has to do is swap out the bottoms!  She plans on being a gypsy tonight for the trunk-or-treat, but for today she is a pirate.  (And, of course, her costume is labeled all over the place!)  However, Poor Andrew!  He has a store-bought costume.  I HATE store-bought costumes!  No offense to anyone who buys their costumes.  My issue stems from the fact that my children actually like to play dress-up.  They will wear their costumes everyday leading up to Halloween if I'd let them.  Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the store-bought costume.  In my experience, they are very cheaply made (I'm talking HUGE stitches that pull apart at the seams, and nyl...

This may not be a "real" pineapple, but I drive by this tree everyday I take the children to school.  I just can't help but smile and think, "Check out that HUGE pineapple!"

For my birthday present this year, I got to order something I've been thinking about getting for months and months: fabric labels!  I know that may seem a little strange to some of you, but I love how "finished" a project looks with a label on it.  After doing lots and lots of research online, I discovered that woven fabric labels are actually quite expensive, and they come in huge quantities!  The first companies I found online would make the labels for over $300 in a minimal quanity of 1000 or up.  My first thought was, "Whoa!  That is insanely expensive!"  And my second thought was, "Yikes!  There's no way I'm ever going to use 1000 labels!" So, after looking at many, many websites, I finally found someone that would make woven labels (as opposed to printed, which can fade) in a minimal quantity of 300 for $30 (for just text, not graphic).  So, that's where I got them!  My kind sister designed my labels for me after I picked out t...

On Monday morning my computer crashed.  Grrrr.  I haven't recovered anything yet ... just been waiting to contact someone we know who we think may be able to help us out.  I'm kicking myself because months ago I'd thought about buying some external memory to backup all my files and photos, but I didn't.  Now, I've lost just about everything ... unless it can be recovered.  Thankfully, we have our laptops, but I'm not uploading any photos to those ... I'm waiting until I actually do get my external memory before I upload any more photos.  Anyway, there won't be any new posts until then; at least that's the plan for now.  Just a small hiatus.

I like to read.  I enjoy to read.  I LOVE to read.  And, so do my children.  Two out of five days a week, my three school-bound children walk off the bus and continue to walk home looking exactly like Eliza in this picture.  And, probably four to five days a week Eliza is reading on the way home.  She definitely loves to read as much as I do.  And, she burns through books just as quickly as I do.  She also rereads books again just because she doesn't have something new to read.  I love that she is starting to read books that I enjoy reading as well (like the Percy Jackson series, Princess Academy, or Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians).  It makes for some really great conversations, and I love that I can share one of my favorite hobbies with my eldest daughter .... with hope that I can strive to share it with all of my children.

I have been so excited to show everyone Maryanne's quilt.  I think it's because it's the first quilt for which I did everything: piecing, quilting, binding, everything!  Now, because I did do everything, I learned a lot.  One of the things I learned is to not try quilting on a small sewing machine which needs a repair (there's a piece of my feed dog that is missing so my stitches aren't all the same length when I sew through several layers of fabric).  But, despite all the imperfections, I absolutely love this quilt.  (Side note: did you know that most Amish women always piece in a part of their quilts upside down or put in some other form of "mistake" because they believe that nothing can or should be perfect?  Interesting thought.)   I couldn't decide which pattern to use, so I used two patterns and now one is the backing ... so it is reversible!  I still have a ton of fabric left over, so I'm going to make her some pillows, eventually ...

This last weekend we attended General Conference for our church.  Actually, we weren't really there in attendance because the meeting itself is located in Utah, but we did participate by watching the conference on the TV .  Our church leaders spoke to all of the members of our church during five general sessions on Saturday and Sunday.  Each session is two hours long and includes songs and speakers.  I think we got to hear from the prophet during each session. For me, General Conference is like going to the dentist for a hygiene appointment.  There are some similarities between the two: Each occurs every six months. During both a dental hygiene visit, and during General Conference I find myself evaluating how I am taking care of myself (with the hygiene visit it is purely about my teeth, with General Conference it is about my spirit). I receive instructions on how to do better (Hygiene visit: brushing my teeth and flossing; General Conference: making ...

Just a preview of what I've been working on.  Even though Maryanne's name isn't separated into two words, I liked how this looked better (as compared to her name going all the way across the bottom), I like that it's all on the right side of the quilt.  Look for the full project on Tuesday because I just can't wait!