In Over my Head

Great Aunt Patsy. She's soft-spoken, loves to go garage sale shopping, and she's my Papa's sister.
She's also one heck of a quilter. A Jedi-Quilter.

And then there's my GiGi, who made my favorite pair of pajama pants ever, my prom dress my sophomore year, and all of my bridesmaid's dresses. She's a Jedi-Seamstress

So somehow I got this crazy idea in my head that I've got sewing skills in my blood. Surely, quilting skills are hereditary, right?

I stumbled upon this quilting blog one day, purely by accident I guess. And decided she had some great ideas for something crafty to do this winter.

I found one of her easier/beginner ones, The Ragged Squares Quilt, and figured surely anyone with a little spare time and some common sense could do it.

I was half-way right. It just takes a little common sense really.
But I was wrong on the spare time thing.
It took wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more time than I was thinking it would!

I followed her instructions almost exactly, so I'll spare you all the pictures of that process.

First of all, all those little tiny squares don't just appear out of nowhere. I think that was the most time consuming part. 80 squares of each size.



Those little rotary cutter things are awesome. I guess at first I thought I could do it with a pair of scissors. Quilting no-no #1. Scissors don't cut it. hehe

After getting all those little meticulous things cut out, it was time to lay it out.
Quilting no-no #2. You can't be all crazy picky and anal about color preferences and patterns...otherwise this process takes forever:



The pattern recommended sewing the squares together then laying them out and deciding the order of the  squares in the blanket. I'm not that go-with-the-flow though. It took me days. yes DAYS. to get the layout how I wanted it.

And then the sewing together of all the squares began.

And then the pinning, and quilting began.

And then the hand sewing of the binding.

All in all, WAY more time than I was originally planning on committing to this project!
But once I started, I couldn't stand giving up on it.
Plus, my motivation was for Salem to have a special quilt that he could use on his big boy bed someday in China. Eden has one that's special and I wanted that for Salem.

All that time and effort was worth it.








A lot of the quilting part of it was done with Salem sitting on my lap. Which is kinda sweet, but at the same time, any imperfections in the sewing, I get to blame on him. :)

Ragged edges:

Another Jedi-Seamstress that I know, embroidered Salem's name for me, adding just the right touch to the quilt!

Duck...It's the other Dark Meat

We celebrated our first of four Thanksgiving meals this evening.

Yes, you read that correctly. Four.
That's one of the benefits of living near family this year at Thanksgiving.

Tonight, we shared it with 32 other people. 28 of those people are from China, making this their first, possibly second, Thanksgiving meal ever.

So we pulled out all the stops. Recruited lots of help. And rounded up:

21 pounds of Turkey
2 green bean casseroles
2 pans of dressing
2 sweet potato casseroles
1 corn casserole
4 lbs of mashed potatoes
68 deviled eggs
3 cans of cranberry sauce
48 rolls
3 pumpkin pies
1 pumpkin roll

And none of it stood a chance against 28 Chinese college students.



One of our sweet friends, Angel, has trouble with pronouncing her "R"s in English. She tried to help Brandon pass along the info that one pan of Turkey was white meat and the other, dark meat. By the end of the evening, several people thought Brandon served some mean "Duck meat."

A surprising hit among the asian crowd...deviled eggs. Awesome!






I really thought I'd done my part to be completely prepared to host 36 people in our home. But then we ran out of forks.

oops.

Fortunately, when you're serving Chinese friends, there are alternatives to forks.



Try eating cranberry sauce with chopsticks.
It was like a very cruel game.



Do you ever really need an excuse to come together to talk about Jesus?
Answer: No.

But turkey and dressing is a good starting point.

Does it get any better than Turkey, Dressing, and Jesus all in one evening?!

All About Salem

We live about 150 yards away from railroad tracks. At least every 15 minutes a train passes by. (read that sentence with a bit of annoyance to it!)  For the little boy though, this is AWESOME! It's made him develop a huge love for trains. Well, it's either that or just the fact that he's a boy. But the above picture is him making his surprised, "look mom!! Another train!!!"  Imagine that face every 15 minutes. :) LOVE it!

He also loves shoes lately. Lest you be worried about him maintaining a certain "man-code" about this, let me assure you it's purely all about the fact that he knows he needs shoes for going outside. And outside, he LOVES!  So he's got it figured out that shoes = outside. But he doesn't have it figured out that he needs his shoes. So all four of us have shoes scattered around the house from Salem getting a pair out, shuffling around the house in them a bit, and then giving up on that pair only to move on to another.


He's nearly inseparable from his NUK, despite our best weak efforts.
and he prefers a certain corner of his blanket.


And like his mama, will eat anything chocolate.



He's saying lots of words now, most of which are probably unintelligible to the non-mama-trained ears. But the beginning stages of talking are some of my most favorite times!


He's like his sister. We're 0 for 2 in the mashed potato department. Thought I haven't tried it, I think he'd eat boiled cabbage over mashed potatoes.

But he will literally shovel fruit into his mouth. To the point that it's dangerous to leave him in the same room with fruit or he will gag himself by eating so much of it at once. Fruit, beware!

And he's cute. Cute. Cute. Cute.



Salem, we love you more than words can describe!!

All About Eden

Eden, please stop smacking your gum.
"But mommy, I have to smack it."

Her gum-chewing style describes her life.
She does everything to the fullest.
She's an all out smacker. A go-getter. A non-stop, don't back down, never-give-up, 3 year old.

Which is a little terrifying for me occasionally.

Like yesterday, when she climbed across (on top of) the monkey bars at a playground, passing by a 6 year old boy who was crying because he was scared.
We're still working on fearlessness.
And manners, apparently.



She's a good mommy to her babydoll, Baby Laura, the only toy of hers which has maintained the same nickname. The rest of them go through daily name-changes. Even ones that actually COME with names, like Dora.

She loves her new cowgirl boots, and wants to sleep with them.

She thinks jelly beans are a food group.



Most of the time, she's really patient with Salem, already mommying him to his heart's content.

She sing-talks a lot. Still. Mostly in the car about things that she sees while we drive. A few recent songs have been about: cows, Sonic, marshmallow clouds.

She wants to watch Toy Story 3 every day. The part that frightens her? No not the part where the toys are nearly chopped to pieces or burned alive. It's the janitor of SunnySide. Apparently the part where he cleans a spit wad off the mirror is what gets to her. But I've already told you about her irrational fears.



She would literally starve if all I fed her was mashed potatoes. She hates them with the fire of a thousand suns.

She's hilarious. Even when she's not trying to be. Recently, a friend asked her where all the pecans were going when she ate them. She said, "Into my mouth. Down to my tummy. And out my drain."
She understands her anatomy well. :)

She's a handful. A challenge. But such a delight from our amazing Father! Wouldn't trade her for the world!

Trick or Treat --- In Photos

Is there anything cuter in the world than kids in costumes?!





This is a classic Eden face...


The most unhappy but still adorably cute Butterfly, Emory!


Heading out to do some damage...


Woody and Jessie and A Cowboy Dressed as Granddad joined our gang.


Audrey Jessie


Every Granddad needs a Tinkerbell sidekick.

It's Hereditary

Lots of people have "SD Card Disease."

They let their pictures pile up on the flash cards on their cameras to the point where they get so full that you have to stop mid-pose when they realize, "OH NO! My card is full...Hang on! Hold that smile while I erase some pictures from 5 months ago so I can capture this moment right now!"

I don't have that disease.

I can't stand having pictures on my sd card from even last week. I put pictures on my computer pretty regularly. Or if I don't do it, then I just delete them...assuming that I didn't need them anyway.

That's kind of how my life is really. You will never. EVER. see me on that Hoarders show. Sometimes when I need a little "pick-me-up" I just go throw something away and it makes me feel all better. Getting rid of stuff is therapeutic for me.

This afternoon was no different for me.

I emptied off my SD card from the past few days.

I moved them from the camera to the computer. Then therapeutically, pushed the delete button on my camera. That little button is like medicine for my soul. Purging what's not needed anymore.

There are always lots and lots of pictures of the kids. Occasionally a few of cousins. Grandparents. Sometimes Brandon.
But never me. As a mommy, I'm coming to grips with never being remembered in photo albums. I think it's a duty as a mommy to be the permanent fixture behind the camera.

Brandon took the kids yesterday to get a bunch of pumpkins for this pumpkin carving thing we're attempting. (more to come on that)
While they were at the pumpkin place, he took the token Fall-ish Hay and Pumpkin pictures.
He did pretty good. As well as you can do with a 3 and 1 year old.

The process of getting those pictures is tough though.

"Smile!"
"No look at the camera and smile!"
"Say cheese!"
"Say cheese and look at the camera, Eden!"


"No look HERE, Salem."
"Now smile, please, Eden."
"No a real smile, please."
"Salem, this way buddy! Smiiiiiiiiiile!"


"Look here, please."
"Salem, where's the camera?!"
"Smiiiiile...."
"Eden, look here!"


"Salem! yoo-hoo!!"
"Eden, look at the camera!"
"Over here! Smile!!"
"Ok Eden. He's crying now. Get off your brother!"



and then eventually you just don't care anymore and either take their picture anyway, or give up altogether.

That's probably the way all kid's pictures look.
Half-smiles.
Staring at birds in the distance.
Grumpy from saying "cchhheeeeeeeeeeese" too long.

I guess it's too much to ask for a 3 year old and 1 year old to both be looking at the camera AT THE SAME TIME and both with pretty, plastered, smily faces on so we can remember them in photo albums for years to come.

And then that's when I saw it.

The ONE picture on the SD Card with me finally in it.



I guess it's too much to ask for a 27 year old to be smiling normally and looking at the camera.
I'm afraid that's the way most of my pictures look.

It all makes sense now.

No wonder my children find it hard to make normal smiles when the camera comes out.

It's in their genes.

Purse Party!

Some of you read the title and think someone hijacked my blog to write about purses.

Or maybe you think I've gone and completely lost my mind.

No, no. It's me. April. Writing about purses.

There's a first time for everything in blog-land.

Be encouraged though. I'm not talking about Coach, Gucci, Juicy Couture, or whatever-other-name-brand purses there are out there that I'm completely unfamiliar with.

I'm talking about burlap purses. Rice bag purses.

And these purses are way too cool for school. Not just because they are made out of burlap.

But because these purses have been sewn by Haitian women in Heartline Ministries.

I'm quickly learning about this ministry, it's purpose, and how it's reaching out to women trapped in poverty, struggling to find truth, struggling to feed their children... Scratch that...struggling to KEEP their children.

I first learned of this ministry from the Hendricks living in Haiti. They are friends of a friend from our Virginia days. (wow that seems like a long time ago!)

She gets to be involved with this incredible ministry, changing lives one woman at a time. One baby at a time. One boob at a time. (they teach them how to successfully breast feed! awesome!)

And one stitch at a time.

They teach them to sew. They teach them to make purses. They teach them to make purses to sell so they can provide an income to house, clothe, feed, and ultimately, keep their children.
PLEASE go read more about this ministry by clicking the link above!

So I was moved. Beyond moved. I wanted to pack up the family and move to Haiti. I was ready to learn creole. I was ready to be a lactation consultant. I was ready to figure out how to work a Haitian sewing machine...as if they are completely different.

Since we're in that waiting period of returning to The Big Chicken though, God's making me be patient.
A purse party was a way to be involved with impacting these women's lives without changing our plans to move to China.

So I ordered 22 purses. They sent me a box full of them and a few other goodies.

They included some recipes. We made the Bananas Flambe served over ice cream. Which was awesomeness in a bowl.

Included in the box was a dvd of this short video. Go watch it.

Did you watch it?

No?!

Stop it. Just do what I told you to do. Go watch it!

We had 14 women come. 17 purses sold.

At $20-$40 a purse, this helps the women move out of poverty. (you'd know that though, if you'd watch the video. :)

It also helps Heartline Ministries continue to provide the materials for the women to continue to sew purses. It helps Heartline Ministries continue to minister to pregnant women, nursing women. It helps Heartline Ministries share the TRUTH of God's word, about Christ's blood spilled for them, and about his redemption!

I got sooooo caught up in the excitement of the evening that I didn't even pull out my camera to capture the moment. Which is incredibly shameful for a photographer to admit.

But it was so much fun. The purses. The fellowship. The bananas flambe. The prayer over the Haitian women whose lives we want to impact...all the way from Texas.

I chose a burlap purse made by Suzanne A.

source

And it's so cool. Thanks to Suzanne, I look hip now. Everyone needs a little burlap slung over your arm. Me and my Haitian Couture.

I've got 5 purses left. They are sitting on my dining room table. They aren't burlap. But they're still hip.

Interested?
You've got a week to let me know before I need to ship them back. :)

God's word commands up to care and provide for the poor. the oppressed.

Supporting them in their efforts to make a product (these purses) gives them more value as a woman.
It empowers them to know THEY are working and providing for their family. And it allows them to keep and care for their children.