Seven Years

Happy Anniversary, my Beloved!
As I look across the room at you, with baby spit-up dripping down your elbow, wrangling hair pretties on a giggling preschooler (who is insisting on being called "Fink the Pig" today), I love you more than ever. I know it's not a candlelit dinner, and we can't "get away" this year (as we're surrounded by moving boxes), but you are my Romance. It is a joy to tell our story to our children (with the amusement of explaining what a "honeymoon" is to a three-year-old over lunch!)

Thank you for holding me in your arms- whether it's a brief moment in between changing little diapers, or a cuddle at 2 am, as we juggle a needy little one. Thank you for walking alongside me during this season, the years past, and the years to come.

Photo by Sarah Grace Photography.

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

May you be blessed with many simple joys today, as you celebrate the birth of our Savior.

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Living A Simple Life-Part 83: Christmas Joys

This Christmas season has been such a joy to share with our little ones! The simple pleasures of going around the neighborhood looking a lights, smelling the tree, admiring the sparkling decorations, savoring Christmas cookies, and preparing gifts for family and friends are that much richer when shared.

I love to see their awe of experiencing these treasures! Calvin brought home a nostalgic set of "retro-style" colored lights for our tree, after I was reminiscing of my Christmas memories as a three-year-old, just so I could share the fun with my own dear three-year-old girl.

I've been busily sewing gifts in any spare moment, often wearing Enoch in my baby carrier, walking him as I stitch by hand. Or, stitching curled up in the quilts in Gen's bed (stopping occasionally to do the hand motions for Wee Sing Bible Songs!).

With the generous help of family and friends, we've moved most of our furniture into our new home already. So we're kind of "camped out" amid boxes, listening to Christmas carols on the laptop, and preparing to celebrate here before we move in January.

We had a treasured time with some dear friends the other day, as they stopped by to share the morning with us. It was so nice to "catch up" before having to say good-bye. We shared a pot of tea as I prepared a batch of "allergen-free" molasses Christmas cookies to share. They helped us get started putting up the Christmas tree (thankfully providing us with a tree stand!), and cuddled with our little ones. Ah, the blessing of friendship is so sweet. Parting with friends is the most difficult part of moving, even though we have excitement for the days to come.

Gen is thrilled to participate in our Advent readings this year, as she is understanding much more than last year. She loves to carry the "Advent book" around our home, telling us the "story" and proclaiming the joy of Jesus' birth. (She also shares many Christmas carols of her own invention with us, usually containing many "Hallelujahs!") :) Oh, I cherish this time with her.

Merry Christmas to you, dear friends!

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Simple Homemade Gifts: Family Heart

I'm getting this post up a bit later in the day that I usually do, since I've been busy celebrating my birthday today! After breakfast in bed, I was given plenty of time to happily sew away at Christmas presents! Then we had a lovely lunch together as a family. (Now I've been given some quiet blogging time at the library, before returning home to a hot dinner and homemade milkshakes!) Anyway... back to those homemade Christmas gifts...

As I was reading in Amanda Blake Soule's new book, Handmade Home, recently, I was inspired by her Family Heart Project tutorial. It is a small stuffed heart "pillow" to accompany a family member as they leave the home, as a reminder of the family's love for them while they're gone.

I had heard that my youngest sister was attempting her first sleepover at a friend's house, and immediately thought of her when I saw this project! I immediate got to work stitching one up for her as a Christmas gift.

I used some scrap fabrics that coordinated with her bedroom decor of pale blues. The pocket of the heart is from the collar of an old purple sweater. (The paisley fabric was a scrap left from creating this purse for my Etsy shop, and the purple sweater is also a remnant from a set of legwarmers from my Etsy shop. If you've browsed through, you may have recognized these fabrics!)

Gen had so much fun helping me create this gift for her auntie! She helped stuff batting into the heart, and savored the smell of lavender as I poured it in. (Lavender has always been a favorite smell of both mine and sister's.) Then she "practiced sewing" with some Sewing Cards while I embroidered.

The batting actually appeared rather serendipitously; Calvin found it on the street in the middle of an industrial district while driving an ambulance in the wee hours of the morning. He hopped out, and picked it up! It was sure amusing when he arrived home with that bag of batting!

I used a small piece of pale blue linen scrap fabric to create the "love note" to stuff into the pocket. I used a lavender-colored embroidery floss to freehand stitch "I love you." (I used four layers of the fabric, with a "turned and stitched" method, so that it would be sturdy enough to be easily taken in and out of the pocket often.) I purchased the embroidery floss at a local thrift store for a few cents.

I packaged it up, and sent it off in the mail! (Another bonus of this gift; it's lightweight, and not fragile! Perfect for a long-distance gift!)

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