She's Here! Victoria!

Its been an exciting week! Victoria arrived on Monday and I kept her brother for 3 days. Only bad thing is that today I am home from work with Strep Throat! Antibiotics are good things, that's all I know. I've had strep throat so many times in my life and I have to say my throat has never hurt this bad. Here are a few glimpses of our beautiful baby girl:

Have a great weekend!

The Fabric and Yarn Fairy has been!

The fabric and yarn fairy has been to my house! Well.... actually it was my sister. She is cleaning out the area where she stores her craft supplies and is not doing much sewing and crocheting any more. So, I am the happy and lucky recipient!

I haven't had a chance to really go through it all and see all the treasures, but laying right there on top is a Moda Layer Cake and a Moda Jelly Roll!  There are packs of matching fat quarters, and all kinds of wonderful scraps and large pieces of fabric.  Even the basket was included in the gift.

I see lots of sewing and quilting in my future!

 

I am also going to be looking for ideas for using the yarn and looking forward to crocheting in the Fall and Winter this year.

Do you have any easy crochet Christmas gift ideas? 

Thank you sister!

Memories Around The Kitchen Table

I've been doing a Bible Study this summer called "100 days of Pressing Pause".  This is a book written by Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk which is made up of "100 Quiet Moments For Moms to Meet with Jesus."  

One of the devotions this week was called "Gathering Around The Table".   The Bible Verse was:

"When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of  God"  Luke 14:15.

This got me to thinking about all the memories associated with our kitchen table. 

Here's what I see today:

There are recent crayon marks made by a special two year old.  These will be easy to clean off.

A wooden tray made for me by my step son-in-law.

Round rattan place mats from Dollar General.

Pioneer Woman plates from Walmart.

Red and White checked cushions in the chairs.

But more important is what I see in my mind's eye.   There are bits and pieces of memories, traces of love, sad things, bittersweet things, happy things, and more, associated with the table.

I remember the day the table was delivered back in 1984.

I remember my children sitting around this table eating.  They ate lots of spaghetti!

My son, Josh, who died at age 2, sat in his high chair at this table.

Lots and lots of HOMEWORK was done at this table!!!!

The broken place that was glued back together.  Wood glue works good!

My son, Jacob, broke the table and it had to be glued back together.   You can't tell it now and its as sturdy as ever.  Bet you are wondering how that happened!

I've seen my husband wipe off this table about a million times! 

My daughter, Lori, played with a Christmas ornament at the table and accidentally broke it.  I wish I had not gotten upset with her... sigh.

My husband and I played lots of cards at the table, once upon a time.

Numerous holidays, birthdays, ordinary meals, decorations.  A baby shower.  A wedding shower.  The Thanksgiving turkey that I roasted with the bag of stuff still inside it.  Vases of flowers from loved ones, or zinnias picked from the yard. Grandkids eating watermelon. Lasagna.

Plates of food wrapped with plastic wrap, left for a loved one to eat when they got home late.

Doing taxes with a calculator borrowed from work.

There is no telling how many quilts I have pin basted on that table!

Holding hands with family while saying the blessing before a meal.

The thought has crossed my mind to replace the table with a more current style, but you know what?  I don't think so.  Now that I've thought about it, our table is a sacred space.

What about you?  Does your table bring back special memories? 

And then there were six!

Grandchild number 6:  Skye, 8 pounds 7 ounces

I love that she is using the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt and burp cloths I made.

Without going into the details, I wanted to share that prayers were answered for this child.  When she was 2 days old, she experienced some problems and in the middle of the night was air lifted to UNC Hospitals at Chapel Hill, NC.  You can imagine the anxiety this caused with her parents and family.  But, Praise the Lord, she was only there for about 12 hours.  The problem was diagnosed and she was sent home and is as healthy as she can be!

Update from the Farmhouse

We have five grandsons. Isn't his little Mouse cute?

My stepdaughter is expecting again. She will have three children age three and under! (Bless her heart) This is the color of the icing when the cake was cut.

Yes, that's right.  Its pink, so we will soon be able to say that we have five grandsons and a granddaughter.   If she's half as sweet as our grandsons, she'll  be pretty darn sweet!

I'm hoping your Monday is wonderful and blessed!

Sweetie Pies are growing.

We now have 5 grandsons and as the old saying goes, "As soon as they are born you start losing them" These two are growing and changing so fast.

Eli sopping up spaghetti Os with watermelon.

Legos for a 7th birthday gift.

Eli in constant motion.....

Lots of falling and getting right back up.

Wow, I didn't realize how tall those soybeans are.

Interesting flower.

Standing up in the swring.

Brothers

Running

Climbing.

I really need to get in better shape!  I need to be able to keep up with them and that's not easy.....

Signs of Fall at the Farmhouse.....

Of all the Summer months, my favorite is August.  The reason for this is that its the closest one to Fall!  During August I start dreaming a little bit of Autumn...... I will start enjoying the scent of a pumpkin candle.... note that a few Dogwood Tree leaves have fallen..... enjoy the purple spike flowers of the Lirope that always bloom in August and other harbingers that signal that the end of Summer is coming.
 

This year I have enjoyed a Sunflower and some pumpkins from God.  The above sunflower and the below pumpkins grew with no assistance from me.  The pumpkins volunteered in the spot where some pumpkins had been discarded last winter.  Pumpkins don't grow well around here but these managed to grow to maturity.

We've had a lot of nice rain this summer and haven't hit 100 degrees on a single day.... yet.   Lots of days have been down right Fall-like.  I snapped the below picture of some grape tomatoes early one morning between showers.
 

When I saw these "three" heart shaped Morning Glory leaves I couldn't help but think "Father, Son and Holy Spirit".

Dogwood Leaf:

Leaves of Three, Leave it be?

Another nice thing about the end of August,... Baby Jake will soon be here.

Enjoy your late summer!

Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own.....

How can it be that my first born is 34 years old? It happened while I wasn't looking. It reminds me of that old song: Turn around and you're tiny. Turn around and you're grown. Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own....

She was tiny.

A young wife with babes of her own.

Her youngest babe.

Her oldest babe.

Happy Birthday dear daughter!