here comes the brides...maids

My sister posted about me today on her blog. *blush* I love her so much. I'm so very very very excited about her special day coming up rather quickly. Brady is such a wonderful man for her and they are going to have a blessed marriage!

decluttering like a missionary

I'm pretty strange (or maybe not?) in that I need a visual, some sort of imagery, to really get me going. I need to have a mission that is outside of myself to keep me going in the right direction. Yesterday afternoon, as I was gearing up to declutter, I asked Pete to give me a pep talk. Just some sort of something that I could grab on to and run with and chase the stuff out of the house.

I would definitely not call myself a hoarder, but I tend to collect much more than we need. When I replace things I don't necessarily get rid of the item which I replaced. How many books could one need on parenting? or organizing? or time management? or?? You see what I am saying?

Pete's solution was not quite what I was looking for. He said that I should leave for the weekend and he would get rid of everything. Hmmm... I don't think that's going to work out very well from my side of things.

Here is what I came up with - I'm sure purely related to the fact that I was praying about it and really needed something. Just something!

Declutter like a missionary. That's it.

If I were a missionary, and I am, then I would need to get rid of everything except the bare essentials. Most likely some things would go into storage but we may or may not ever see those things again. Well I am a missionary of sorts. I minister to my husband and children every day. I feel chaotic and stressed when I have too much stuff to look at. I'm very visually sensitive and so are some of my children. Therefore I am going to have to pick the best parenting book (other than the Bible), the best time management book, best organizing book, best board games, best sewing supplies, etc. Those are the things that will really help me in my mission field. Having too much stuff is only going to hinder me and sidetrack me. I get distracted enough all by myself; I don't need any help.

When I say "best", that is relative, you realize. I mean "best" out of what I have. I'm so over having to have the best of everything. Nope. I do my research and buy what I believe will work. I have much to choose from, so I think I'm pretty safe. Haha.

Do you have to put something right in front of you to "see" it? Is it helpful for you to picture your goal in terms of something outside of yourself? Please share in the comments!

National Quilting Day

Today, March 19th, is apparently National Quilting Day. Am I quilting? No, not really. I did press the first set of blocks in my next big project. Completed my 3 hours on that project and now I am moving to something different - a block for one of the guild members and a co-member of my Needles Birthday Block Club (this is a club where you each person picks a block/fabric, etc. that they want made for their month. You make that block and turn it in. At the end of the guild year, you will have 11 completed blocks plus your own to sew into a quilt). But, I digress...

No, I'm not really quilting today. Instead, I have:

1. attended a board meeting for co-op.
2. made salsa for my son's student leadership development event this afternoon.
3. researched and found a recipe for making your own starch (similar to Mary Ellen's Best Press, which I love).
4. asked hubby, via text, to buy a small bottle of vodka for above starch - to which he quickly responded via phone to make sure of my purpose for the vodka. Haha.
5. made above starch using vodka, boiled water, and lemon essential oil. Will post recipe and results later.
6. and contemplated decluttering sessions in lieu of the painting that needs to be done. 

Productive day? Sort of. But I'm not quilting. Although after a 45 minute session of decluttering I believe I'll bust out the 30s fabric and make that block!

Christmas gifts done... for 2010

Finally. Finished. I decided to make these stockings for my sister and her fiance for their first Christmas together after getting married. That would be Christmas 2011. I got into my annual sewing fest and then Noelle came. I had not finished the stockings when everyone was over for Christmas. I gave them a sneak peak instead. Then I had surgery... Then I stitched them and they were messed up. Then I decided to do them differently than the pattern recommended because frankly the pattern was just goofy and there is no reason that the inside of a stocking needs to have perfect seams. I made a Power of 10 list and this was 2nd on the list. More about the Power of 10 list later. *I finally blogged about here*

So, I finished these up last night and I am so glad they are done. I can now given them to Brady and the future Mrs. Davidson (Kimbo) without guilt that they may have their first Christmas stocking-less. A good friend at church did the embroidery for me. Isn't it beautiful. It's GOLD thread!! The back fabric has the names of Jesus. It is really really nice!

WB #1 - Insights Through Investigation: Missionary Letter

There seem to be many opportunities for writing when it comes to some of the suggestions on projects for the Wisdom Booklets. That's great because we need more writing opportunities. Hmm, we need more writing. Ha. One of the projects my children did this week was to write to a missionary. My good friend, Jill, had sent me a list from a missionary board that had missionaries from Texas and the people groups they were serving. That really sparked an interest with them because we are from Texas and there was a connection there. I had them read over the documentation that was sent as to how they should be careful what they wrote and not use certain words. Those words are flagged by some government officials. Paige felt like she was in the middle of a mystery novel. They had to write out their email on paper and then we did some editing. Then they typed it up. What a great project. Hopefully they will hear back from the missionaries they wrote. If nothing comes of it, my children are praying for the missionary families and that is a "God" thing. Get it? Good thing. God thing. Get it?

Yap, time to sign off... :)

making God's business our business

Thought you might like this great quote from Elisabeth Elliot. Kind of goes along with my so busy, too busy post.

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."

~ Elisabeth Elliott ~

My challenge: what do you think?

Unsubscribing from emails - Just do it!

About every three months or so (sometimes longer) I go crazy and unsubscribe from a ton of daily emails that I get. It's not really spam, either. It's emails that I have signed up to receive and read - yet never do. I never read them. So, I just unsubscribed from 6 *update: 10, different daily emails that I receive. Nothing big really - emails for the Brookshire's daily deal or sales at Children's Place. I'm not a "shopper" (unless you count online and then I can "go to town" - haha. Get it? Go to town! On the computer! ... I'm a dork; I'm already aware.) so to receive random emails about specials from Brookshires today only means that I would have to get school done, load up the van, and drive 30 minutes to Brookshires to buy chicken quarters for $whatever, a pound. Not happening!

So, everyday I delete about 20 emails that I have voluntarily signed up to receive. Why?? Big P is on the computer for a living and he doesn't get as many emails as I do.  He laughs at me when he sees how many emails I get a day and I'm deleting 1/2 of them. Apparently this is such a problem that there is a service that you can pay for to take care of it.

My challenge to you (if you receive these unnecessary emails) is to evaluate which ones you actually read and/or act on. Unsubscribe from the rest. The fact is that we live in a technological age where email is the thing. It's the cheaper version of them filling your mailbox with junk mail. Do you (or did you) get irritated with all the junk mail you used to receive? Same thing. No, it's not a waste of good trees, but it is a waste of your precious time. Hitting the delete key takes brain power ladies! You have to make the decision if you are going to delete or read it later. Currently in my inbox, I have 3,226 emails that I haven't deleted, because, for some reason I feel that I have the time to read them. What in the world?!! 


I'm imploring you, dear ladies. Take the plunge. Unsubscribe. What is the worst thing that could happen??? You could have less email to read or make decisions on! You may miss out on girls tights for $3 a pair. Oh well. Your time is way more valuable than that.

WB #1 - Insights Through Investigation: Article

I've been learning a lot about notebooking recently and received this Holy Spirit inspired idea today when we were working in our Wisdom Booklet. We are just now moving onto the other resources outside of the Scripture Meditation, Character Quality, and Theme Song worksheets. Today we talked about why God chose Hebrew for the old testament and Greek for the new testament. A great learning experience. The project we did was list out ways in which sharing the gospel has changed - either been hindered or eased. I asked the big kids to write an article in a newspaper format telling about these changes. If you follow this link, you will be able to have access to the newspaper notebooking pages from Donna Young. Paige is typing hers in the Excel file that Donna offers. Christian is handwriting his. They are even going to include pictures that are on topic with what they wrote. I'm excited to see what they come up with!

Homeschool Notebooking Forms

Free Homeschool Stuff: Donna Young's Homeschool Resources and Printables

I have been using Donna's site on and off for a couple of years. I find myself coming back to what she has to offer (all for free) again as Big P and I put together school planners for the kiddos. She has put HUNDREDS of hours into these forms and one of the things I love most about her website is how organized it is! It is very intuitive. Have fun exploring it. :)

Donna Young's Homeschool Resources and Printables