Change

Our little nest has had so many changes in the past months that it's hard to keep up!

   Most sadly,  I lost my Mom to a very fast cancer that took her life in less than 4 short months.  We buried her a month ago today.
   This photo was taken just a little over a year ago. My little girl still talks about this and many other things about "Mom-mom" that I wouldn't think she remembered! What a blessing that she has been gifted with a great memory!
   We have moved again too. Like Joseph in the Bible, what someone intended for evil God meant for good!  The whole family likes our new house much better. Only God can do things like that. It's counter intuitive to think that when you move into what society at large would think is  "worse" house that your whole family would be happier and like the place better! That is exactly what happened though.
   God is tenderly carrying us through all these tragedies. Focusing on Him is what comforts me the most. His justice, His mercy, His love. Looking to Him and keeping my eyes stayed on Him! Nothing but God Himself. Many people have come alongside to wrap their arms around us both literally and figuratively. I appreciate all their love, tenderness, care and comfort. But it's knowing that the Lord Himself immutable, omniscient, Omnipotent, Faithful, Holy...on and on the list goes. Only these things could truly begin to heal the deepest wounds of my broken and battered heart.How can I do anything but praise Him!
    Our sweet boys are doing great! They are kicking and playing as all boys should. Baby "B" is to be named  "He has  heard" and baby "A" is to be named"laughter". I chose to surprise my husband by giving each son one of his names as a means of honoring him. He is the best father a child could have and worthy of the compliment. We chose one name together. Husband chose Meerkat’s. We both love both names but then came the task of deciding which baby got what name! Their big sister settled that in the Dr's office. The perinatologist handed her a picture of Baby "A" and soon after she was asked what the baby's name was. She claimed him as “Meerkat”! She had done in seconds what her Dad and I had struggled to do in days. The sweet part is that the more I thought about it the more it fit him. Meerkat is the baby that I feel most often. I can easily see him laughing. And Listener seems to be the more quiet of the two, always listening. So many of the ultrasound pictures have shown them with their heads very close together as if they are planning. I can easily imagine Meerkat filling Listener in on just how they are going to get some trick accomplished, or cajole us into letting them have their way.
Lastly, today is the very last day of this tiny doll of a daughter being 3 years old. I can hardly believe she really will be 4 tomorrow! How can it have gone so quickly? How did this tiny babe grow into the tender hearted, sweet, smart, little sinner that I have the pleasure of raising??? Again, only God! What a wonder! Happy Birthday my treasure!

My reader friends, may you draw closer to Him who comforts today and draw strength and joy from His love.


 

Two? Two!

Lots of change for our family. I'll just let the picture explain...

 I have removed my personally identifying information  and added 

"Twin A/B" where appropriate.

Some questions that have come up from folks and our answers...We do plan to cloth diaper, just as we did for their big sister. We plan to home school all of our children. These babies are a true blessing from God and we love them very much. 

Baby Blessings!

Husband  and I have a wonderful announcement to make... God has blessed us with another baby! After trying to conceive for 3 years God surprised us with a positive pregnancy test on Monday. I think both Husband and I had really given up on the idea. But God had other plans. I'm looking forward to perusing the internet to watch baby's development and figuring out what God wants this baby's name to be. Boy names are harder for us so it's going to take a while. Please feel free to offer name suggestions (meanings are important to us) but don't have hard feelings if we don't choose the name that you've suggested. So far I feel tired but good overall. I'm only about 4 weeks along so I have a long way to go and lots to do in the mean time. Who can resist embroidering for a baby! I also have some really endearing baby bonnet patterns and baby booty patterns (and clothes too!). I've been working on Sparrow’s birth sampler. I'd really like to get it finished before baby 2 arrives. Here is a peek at the elements:

 This cross is the center bottom element. It's across entwined in a flowering vine. The cross will be long and short stitched in off white. The vine and flowers will be done in green and pink or shades of pink.

This scroll element is in each corner. I now realize (after finishing 2) that they are not perfectly even - and that's okay. I'm all for the theory that only God is perfect and it's okay if my art is not.

This is the central element of the piece. It has all the normal birth information and it's stitched with #80 Crochet Cotton in a verigated pink.

This is the top central picture. It's one of Sparrow’s newborn pictures. I plan to needle paint it. It will be my first needle paining of a person. We'll see how it comes out!


Thanks for sharing in our joy of expecting a new baby and have a blessed day!

Great Day!

   I couldn't figure out why I'm so stressed and tired all the time. I'm every bit as tired now as when my little nestling was a newborn. But then I stepped back to take a look and - I'm busy! Embroidering, Correspondence school (guess I haven't mentioned that yet!) adjusting to a new schedule in a new house. Fixing things around the house...oh and all the regular things too. Raising a 3 year old, keeping house. Never mind that pesky insomnia!

 I've been hearing a lot of criticism too. When you follow the God of the Bible you will more often than not go against the things of this world. People don’t understand that so they attack. Follow Christ anyway. Not a God of your own making but the God of the Bible. 

So, for the last couple days Husband and I have taken a step back to remind ourselves that we serve an audience of One. We took the time as a family to read the children's book "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. and started telling each other how much we appreciate about the other. Everyone has shortcomings. No person is any better than another. Everyone has faults. But we love each other "warts and all". It's such a refreshing exercise in truth and reaffirmation of why we got married. Marriage represents the relationship between Christ and the church.

I don't have any embroidery to share today. I have a pillowcase kit started. A beautiful gift from my Mother-in-love. In fact I have lots of projects started and one I may revisit soon is a crosstitch verse that I started some time ago and really need to find and finish it(I think we'll be unpacking for the next 10 years!).

In the mean time, I challenge you to talk with your spouse (or God if you are not married) about all the ways you may compliment each other in what may appear to others to be flaws.

P.S. I'm sharing this post in a link up over at Wholehearted Home, you might want to pop over there and look at the other great links that glorify God! 

Hey! Why the change?

There is an actual place called Sparrow Cottage. I didn't want to plagiarize that name so I changed my blog name.
I hope I didn't mess anyone up to badly!

Burgundy Rose

   Once again this is a Trish Burr pattern. This time however I didn't alter it in any way.  I think there are a dozen or so colors in this rose. I finished this one in a 4" wooden hoop. Backing the piece with cream flannel. It needed a little something but since it's a gift for a man I needed it to still be masculine. Rope worked! This is the kind of rope that you might use to hold your drapes back. and a crisp green bow and loop for hanging and covering the hoop screw. 

   My Mom is putting the binding on my dear friend's baby blanket but pics of that may be coming soon. My next big project (I think) will be a monogram piece. I'm just now in the brainstorming phase though. 

  I'm thinking about using a Sajou design for the Monogram. Speaking of which I'd like to thank Ramzi for his generosity in putting so much time into getting these antique patterns to all of us and for sharing them with all of us. Once I decide on a monogram pattern there is the question of what to put it on. Pillow cases have been suggested and they are a real possibility. The only exception to that is if I decide to use metallic threads.  I was looking at my own monogram today and realized that there is an un-filled dot that I never noticed! I'll probably do another one...someday!

   That's it for tonight, now scoot over and look through Ramzi's monograms!

May God bless you

Ugly Truth About Envy

   Today's post is not earth shattering news. You already know it. Envy is bad no matter what form it takes. 

Proverbs 23:17 says:

 Let not your heart envy sinners,

but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

   We normally think of a sinner as one of "the Others". Those who are not Christians. We are all sinners, all of us. Saved and unsaved alike. There is a huge difference though. We as Christians should be bothered and may I say increasingly bothered by our sin. If you are a Christian and live in your sin, make excuses for it, minimize it - your relationship with the Lord is off kilter. You need to stop where you are, confess your sin, repent of it and receive sweet forgiveness. We have to do this moment by moment, not once and never again.

   So there it is in Proverbs we are not to envy other Christians even. We are to continually look to the Lord for our guidance and be grateful for all that He provides.  

   Here is an illustration from life: A friend asked me to pray for another friend of hers. This poor woman endured years of abuse from her mentally ill husband. After he was committed, her daughter was able to open up to her that her father had abused her. (please pray for this family - no need to mention names, God already knows them)

   So I was thinking on these poor lambs and God brought the thought to my mind that at sometime, someone probably looked at that family and envied them. 

   Were they to be envied. Of course not, we know that now don't we? What if the husband had never done those things? Well, he still did some kind of sin didn't he?  

   I want to stress that it's okay to model your behavior after a godly person's behavior. It's a fine line but that's not the same as envy - just don't let it cross the line into envy! 

Envy says that you are not thankful for what God has given you. That you know better than God does what you need or should have. If God wanted you to have that object, attitude, attribute...then He would give it to you. If you ask for it and He with holds it, there is a good reason.  Even if you don't understand what that reason is. 

Finally, here is today's update on a project for a friend. It's a memorial for her sweet child, River.

      The foundation fabric is a stark white. The lettering and booties are #12 perle ecru. Sweet flowers and foliage that surround the central element are done in one strand of DMC floss in barely there pastel shades. 

The other baby quilt I am working on is now packed up. All the embroidery is finished and framed in chocolate brown cotton that has teensy-tiny white polka dots on it. Just now I'm thinking both of these projects will be backed in soft creamy flannel. 

Count your blessings!