humanitarian projects...

Recently I attended a fireside featuring a woman from South Africa. She spoke of her experiences as a child, as a refugee, as a survivor, and of her strength she gathers from her Scriptures.
I was amazed at her story. I am fascinated by her ability to take very negative, terrible things and apply a positive outlook to them. She has the ability to take every thing we would say, "woe is me to" and apply a scripture and a learning experience from it. Blessings are what she finds in every tragedy in her life. She has an amazingly positive outlook on life, and a happy attitude.
She talked of receiving a hygiene kit and using it for 3 weeks with 20 other women to help their lives. Hard for me to imagine two bars of soap, two hand towels, four toothbrushes, two combs, a tube of toothpaste all in a plastic bag being used for 3 weeks. Something even more amazing...ten years later she still carries this bag and its remaining treasures with her.
I am being blessed to have the opportunity to help assemble some of these kits on Saturday. I have been excited and thrilled to be able to help prepare for this event. So now, on to finishing towels for Saturday...

ric rac and ribbon and lace

Sounds extremely girly...and it is.
I need. Hard to believe when you walk into my "sewing" room, but...
I have used almost all of my bolt lace, I have depleted my large yardage supplies, I have gone into panic mode. What will I do if I don't have any lace? I know Gunne Sax dresses will be coming back into style and I need to be prepared.
Needless to say, I have been searching and searching. I even talked to Roar about perhaps picking some up for me next time he is in China (desperate I know, can you imagine Roar lace shopping?)
Finally, someone on Ebay knew I was going to be in a bind and listed lace at a price I could tolerate. Yippee!! Now, if I can win the auction and the shipping doesn't kill me...I will be all set for the next round of pink flannel (if there is one) and Gunne Sax when that happens.
And Ric Rac, I just love the way ric rac looks, but I'll be danged if I can afford to stick everywhere I want to. More searching...I may have found a supplier, I placed an order and it should be here before the end of the week. Keep you fingers crossed...I want it to be perfect and I am hoping it is exactly what I want it to be. If so, I will be in Ric Rac Heaven. Meaning, I will be putting ric rac on everything. (I ordered several colors.)
And ribbon? Yes, ribbon. I know I have a huge bag of ribbon hanging on the hook and another interesting group hanging on the wall and an additional odds and ends bag which seems to be endless, however, when it comes to yardage there just isn't enough. Little projects, sure. But not big ones.
And I found a supplier for gimp. Very exciting to find this, possibilities. Gimp just kills me with how pricey it is, this supplier may be the solution. Keep you fingers crossed. It is getting to be Christmas time and you all know how I love to sew for the holidays.

Thunder and Lightning

Finally, after several days of a promising 30% chance of rain (as in 30 days out of 100 when it looked like this we could get rain).
We got rain!
Yippee, Skippee!!!
Rain...
A wonderful downpour.
A lovely lightning show.
Fantastic crash, bang, thunder.
Loud, amazing thunder.
It started yesterday afternoon.
I went and sat in the swing till my blanket was soaked.
I watched the rain as it changed from a drop,
to a light sprinkle, to a thundering explosion of sound.
I love the rain.
I love thunderstorms.
I love the smell, the sound, the chill.
Thunderstorms have got to be one of my favorites.
Sometimes, when it rains I make cinnamon rolls. Not yet though, I am still enjoying the rain.
I think it would be fantastic if it could just drizzle all week. Or give me a great big downpour a couple of times a day. And, if I am really wishing....
a fantastic lightning show after dark could be wonderful.

Nothing...

Every now and again it is wonderful to just do nothing.
Hubby says to me last night,
"I really got a lot of things done, I washed the truck, split wood, went to lunch" you get the idea. Then he says to me,
"what did you do?"
My response,
"Nothing".
Every now and then, it is nice to be able to say,
"Nothing".
How often do we actually say,
"Nothing"?
Now I realize I should have said...something,
but it was really, really nice to do...
nothing.
I washed dishes, I washed a load of laundry, I went and bought some groceries, I watched a couple of shows, I went to a family dinner, I researched some things on the internet, essentially I did nothing.
And nothing was wonderful...

Navajo Tacos Anyone?

As we finish up a weekend of complete and total organized chaos I have a few observations.

• two or three working cars would be nice
• it is wonderful when family listen and then pitch in to assist
  
• I allegedly use positive reinforcement when I talk to my family
• it is possible to do the splits and not be on the floor
• it is possible to chop lots and lots of onions and not shed a tear
• it pays to look at receipts/register tapes
• it is possible to use only elbows and feet to open and close refrigerators
  
• it is fantastic to have left overs so you don't have to "cook" the next day
• and it is fantastic to have a family who is supportive, patient, understanding and willing to do much, much more than asked.

Thank you family for all of your help. You enabled me to focus on my church responsibilities and didn't make me feel bad for missing things I didn't really want to miss.
And just a question, are you sure you want to do this as a family next year?