Pic of New Machine

     Doesn't it look just like the picture of the other two 301's? Yes. Now we have three. We picked up the sewing machine on Monday with NO problem with the directions. I went the new "loop" and didn't have any problems at all. Mapquest didn't have these directions. They still showed the old way.

     DD had a 301 that was portable. The bed was longer so it didn't fit into a cabinet. It was sitting on top of a old pedal cabinet and was to high for dd to sew comfortable. Dh and I talked about the situation and I traded the "301" for her portable 301. The new machine has a nice cabinet and she is "sew" happy. The new machine was mine for about 24 hours. Now dd is the very proud owner of a 301A with a cabinet and I am now the proud owner of a 301 portable machine. All is good. It was like Christmas morning. Last night, We cleaned all the machines, oiled them and lubricated them. It was like an assemble line of 301's. I have a picture of the new machine. Hope everyone has a blessed day. I

This is the "Old" 301's. The one on the right is the portable on top of an old sewing table.

08:06 - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - comments {0}

crafts

I was out lurking around for a doll pattern and I came across this blog.. She has a lot of crafts things listed. When you have time check her out.. @

http://calamitykim.typepad.com/calamity_kim/advent-elf-pattern-free-p.html

Have a great day ! Blessings Brenda

08:02 - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - comments {1} - post comment

Monster raisin cookies

I made these the other day and they were big and yummy!! Of course I do have a few people in my family who are partial to chocolate chips  so this cookie was not really for them

Ingredients:

~1 cup margarine

~2 cups brown sugar

~3 eggs

~1 1/4 cup peanut butter

~1 tbs vanilla

~5 1/2 cups quick oats

~1 tsp baking soda

~1 tsp baking powder

~1 1/2 cups raisins

Method:

Mix together like any other cookie dough and form into golf ball size balls. Arrange on greased cookie sheet and flatten with fork before baking. Bake at 350F for about 7 minutes. Do not overbake! Enjoy!

12:56 - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - comments {4} - post comment

Christmas Tags for LESS!

Tags for Christmas packages can be fairly costly, but it is important to label each package properly so each recipient gets their intended gift, right?  Well, I have a few tips on how to keep the cost of these items to a minimum. 

• Print your own using address labels.  Try these links for Christmas printables.  Gift Tags, Christmas Printables. 
• Consider making your own labels.  A little sticker on an address label, children drawing on address labels, etc will make the most adorable unique and personal labels for your gifts
• USe last years Christmas cards.  Each year I have a few cards left over from the previous year,s mailing.  I also save the fronts of all cards sent to us.  These make excellent and FREE labels.  Use a hole punch so you can attach with packaging ribbon or simply adhere with tape on one corner.  Sign the back and you have a FREE Gift Label.
• Use a photo.  We all have photos that have been printed that we will never use in a scrapbook, photo album, or frame.  Punch a hole in a corner and attach as above.  Sign the back and a little line about what the picture is.  People really enjoy these labels.  They aren't free because you paid at some point to have the pics printed, but they cost nothing extra.  These are always a big hit with our friends and family.

Happy Gifting!

These are my thoughts.

Leslie Valeska

~Contributing Writer~

Leslie Valeska is the lucky wife of Thomas.  With children ranging in ages from 4-16, she has had a lot of time to learn and experience much of the fine art of homemaking. She is a writer, speaker, and vintage seamstress. For FREE daily tips and a FREE E-zine on simple and frugal living visit her blog Journey to Simplicity. Need a source of encouragement, inspiration, and support on your journey to Godly womanhood? Visit Simple Journey Ministries (she has a FREE E-zine too!) Of course, don’t forget to visit the Simple Journey Bookstore!

09:48 PM - Dec. 2, 2008 - comments {0} - post comment

My Two Year Old Knocked Over the Christmas Tree!!!!!

Ok, stop laughing already!  LOL  Ok, it might be a little funny today but let me tell you, this mommy was not too happy when it happened earlier today!!!  UGH!!  But this pretty much explains my day today in a total nutshell.

I think Noah woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something.  He was whiney and grouchy and crabby all day long.  When he is like this he doesn't want to snuggle and calm down, he just PUSHES EVERY BUTTON HE CAN until you bust.  LMSO  So, it started off with the fabric Christmas doll on the back of the couch.  He picked it up, looked at it, hugged it, and then threw it on the floor, and jumped off the couch and pounced on it.  I was shocked because normally he is not like this.

Then started the whining for POP!  We have a few 2 liters left over from our late Sunday Thanksgiving dinner and he saw them in the kitchen and wanted some.  I said no way!!  So, he turned to get the broom (I forgot to put it away last night after breaking a plate and sending shards of glass everywhere) and was using it as an entended limb to turn the light off and on, and hit me in the leg.  The part of using it to turn on the light really impressed me, but I was a little annoyed he was banging me in the leg and I took it away from him and told me to follow me into the living room.  Well he refused!  So he got in trouble.

Then he refused to do something else, stood on toys he knows he is not allowed to stand on, and he climbed up on his little table and stood there looking out the window.  About the time I hollared for him to get down, he reached up and decided to hit my expensive stained glass angel hanging in the window.  (It is huge,a nd I love it so!)  Well, he sat in the chair and had a talking to AGAIN.

FInally about that time, was when I decided I might need to calm down, and get him to calm down for a few minutes before his nap (in about 15 minutes).  I called his dad to check on him and low and behold, while I was picking something up I had dropped, he jumps up from the naughty chair and then BAM.  Down went the tree.  Before I knew it the tree was on the ground and Noah was under it.

After lifting the tree off of him, and accessing the boy for any marks I picked him up and took him directly to bed for his nap.  It was either that or I am afraid I might have lost my cool!!!  So he was upset that I didn't do the naptime routine and I was upset that there was my tree angel laying on the floor in the corner.  I was praying her porcelain face was not broken because my mother gave her to me the last Christmas she was alive.  She was intact and ok!  I put the ornaments that were scattered around the living room floor back on the tree and by then the phone was ringing off the hook.  It was hubby saying, I heard screaming in the phone and then the phone went dead.  He wanted to make sure we were ok.  I told him what happened and we talked for a few minutes before getting back to work.

As I sit here now, looking at the tree, I realize there are still a few "dented" areas in the greenery that need to be fluffed more.  LMSO   Geesh.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.  I didn't get much of my list of items done today either.  I did get some tidying up done, but the dishwasher wasn't set correctly last night for some reason, so when I opened it to unload clean dishes today, they were still dirty!  So I ran them again, and will put them away in a bit when they cool down.  

07:29 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment

A busy season

This is such a busy season. Not only because it's Christmas soon but also because of the intense season of life I am in right now. It's very interesting and I am never bored but get sooooooooo tired and often "sick and tired". However I do not want to dwell on feeling "sick and tired"!!!!! I can waste so much time wishing to make things slow down or different but I just know it isn't going to for a while. About 5 years or so before I can say it's going to be a tad easier. But you know what? Instead of wasting those 5 years or whatever number of years dwelling on how insanely busy life is and stressing out about how complicated it is to run this home I am going to just embrace this time. Let this be my public announcement to that end!! I WILL enjoy my life. I WILL enjoy my children just the way they are and I WILL enjoy my hubby too!! The purpose to my life isn't that I can do everything perfectly. I do not want to beat myself up about not having my life just so.....................

And in the meantime I am simplifying!!!!!!! Christmas is one area that can be totally overwhelming. I am buying the kids one gift each and we picked names so each of them will buy for one person in the family. The older kids use their own money for this and for the younger ones I pay. This way they get 2 nice gifts each from our immediate family. Today I took my 3 and 6 year olds to pick out the gift for their sibling that they are supposed to buy for. Then when we got home I helped them wrap the gifts.  Then they got to find a spot to hide the gift until it's time to put it under the tree. It was such a nice time to just take some time to do that  and not doing it last minute before Christmas! Hubby said I can go shopping tonight without the kids so I'll for sure buy a few presents then as well. I bought some frozen tart shells and will just fill them with something simple. Grandma will bring lots of baking anyways.

I'm just so happy that I can just chill out and give up my expectations on life and just go from there, thankful for the many blessings that are in front of my nose but would otherwise have missed!! Complaining robs you of joy and I've done pleanty of that even if unspoken!!! God has chosen to ENTRUST me with extra busy children. It's not that God has cursed me with BAD children. It's that He has ENTRUSTED me with these children knowing that he will also supply my every need to raise them and point them to Him. So many times I just marvel at how busy they are and wonder why me??? Just the other night it just came to me. I've been ENTRUSTED with a precious treasure. 9x!! How lucky am I??? That kind of thinking sure puts a different spin on things. I will pour myself into blessing these children instead of thinking of myself. There is a crushing in the inner man that takes place. God knew exactly what he was doing for I would otherwise most likely remain the same selfish person I always was !!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

5:16 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - comments {2} - post comment

A sanctuary from the world

" The family meal table is a sanctuary.  It is a secret place from the daily word of strife.  On of the Hebrew words for "secret" is sod which comes from the word "yasad".  It means to "sit down together , a talk session, an intimate friendly convesation or a serious consultation, a company of persons in close secret talks. "  Families can enjoy this special time together at each evening meal.

  Psalm 23:5   " You prepare a table before me in the presense of mine enemies."  

Mothers we can prepare a table that is a sanctuary from the filthiness of the world.  Our husband and grown children may spend their day out in the work place. More often than not they are surrounded by filthy talk, jesting, immodesty an humanistic reasoning.  If they come home and turn on the TV, this conatimination of the world will only sink deeper into their spirits. But if they arrive home to a waiting table  -- a table  that welcomes them with good food, love, and fellowship, the filth of the day washes away.  As you communicate and talk about the things of the Lord, their souls and spirits are washed clean. "       ~ Nancy Campbell, The Family Meal Table & Hospitatlity Study guide, pg. 20

                  _______________________________________

I was blessed to grow up in a home where the family gathered each day for dinner together. It was not just a " Sunday meal" that we enjoyed once a week, but each night we would set the table and sit around as a family and share our day. I remember when I got old enough to have friends and eat at the homes of other families, I took notice that many did not eat together as a family. Kids grabbed something on their own, or families would sit in front of the TV.   I didn't appreciate the family meal table when I was a child in my family home, but now years later I look back upon that time as a treasured time in my life.

In talking to my 88 yr old father about the meal table he shared that he felt very strongly that it was so important for mother & father to sit down with the children and share a meal each day. He told me that is where values are passed down and where parents can get a feel for what their children are thinking and feeling.  I am grateful to my parents who in wisdom, chose to follow the "old paths" and held family dinner each day of the week.

Today, statistics show that families eat only a few days a week together. 

What has happened to the family meal table?

I am currently leading a study of Nancy's book on the Family Meal table and I have been blessed to read her thoughts on this special time of day. 

I have chosen to follow the tradition my parents gave me and we do eat together each night.  I too agree with Nancy and my dad that it is a wonderful time .  It is a sanctuary for us! It is a time to share our hearts and thoughts, and to put aside the world.

I do hope many of you are blessed with special moments around the meal table.

~ gloria ~

04:24 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment

Looking for?

I'm looking for used ma&pa kettle movies used..Does anybody out there have any they would like to sell?

Brenda

04:31 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - comments {2} - post comment

Giveaway At ACOAH - Handmade Earrings!

04:17 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A nice walk around our yard...

We had to get up early this morning so we finished school early Yeah! When we finished school I went out to put some bird seed and decided to take a nice walk around the yard. I love the winter monthes! We have finally put our garden to bed. We did have lettuce, brocolli and cabbages a few weeks ago, but now everything that is left is for the compost bin.

You are going to think I am strange but one reason that I enjoy the winter monthes is the leaves are now gone and I can actually see what is around me. I knew our one neighbor had chickens and a rooster and now I can finally see them. They have a small back yard but keep alot in it...a few chickens, a rooster or two, and  two miniture horses/ponies. I love it when people actually use their yards. You can tell they like their yard.

We are hoping to add to our gardenbeds this coming year. We might add to the greenhouse to? We have thought about moving to a few more acres but then we see we can barely manage what we have. We also don't want to add any debt at all and lots of times when you move you can add debt. Unless we come into some big money we will be in this home for a while:) We want to honor God. I am not sure it would be honoring God by adding more debt?

As I walked around our yard I could see us adding more garden space and maybe some animals someday. (a small hobbie farm?) We only have about an acre and I hope we are using it wisely. We are hoping to plant extra this coming year. I would like to be able to go to the farmersmarket a few times.

Now that it is cold outside it is time to work on a few home improvement projects. If we don't get them done soon spring will be here and then it will be planting season:)

We are working on a place to put our shoes in our kitchen. There was a set of drawers that we removed and we are going to wall that place in to make a cubbie of sorts. We also would like to paint this spring but we will have to wait and see about that. I would like to paint my kitchen cabinets but again that might be a mess so we are just putting that on our to do list:) We are also working in our garage we are adding some cabinets to put somethings away for storage. I would like to add some cabinets in there for some stock-piling:) We have been going to a new grocery store and they always have 10 for $10.00 If I had a place to store some can goods and such I wouldn't have to go to the store as often:)

Well I have written to much and my tea is about to get cold.

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Ma

03:30 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - comments {1} - post comment