Different project

I decided that before I went to the extra expense of ordering the pattern I wrote about last time, I'd try out a pattern I already had.

I am making the shorter length with a v-neck and plain short sleeves. 

I went ahead and used some old scrap fabric I had and sewed the dress almost to completion, just to make sure it fit right and I liked it. Then, went to the fabric store yesterday and got the fabric.

It's a cotton batik. I have a hard time envisioning the finished product of any project I take on, but mom seems to think it will do very nicely.

I got it all cut out last night, and hopefully will be done by Saturday. Depending on how it looks, I may wear it to church Sunday.

New project

I feel it in the air...a new project is coming up over the horizon... 

The 1940's 'Swing' dress from Sense and Sensibility patterns.

I guess the interest could have arisen from watching the Waltons and admiring the simple elegance of Olivia Walton. She always looks beautiful and put together, but very practical.

I only have a few dresses, which I like very much, but they are all long dresses. They don't really feel like summer. So, I've been wanting to find a cute little knee-length dress. Then I came across this pattern and thought, "That would be fun! I'll make it!" 

Now, to set aside the money for the pattern and fabric. I've looked at different fabrics and there are so many gorgeous, modern fabrics! Amy Butler has a gorgeous collection. I think I will be ordering from her website. I love these fabrics...

You can probably see I'm partial to greens and blues and browns. 

This is what the finished product *should* look like:

(Thanks to Anna at Pleasant View Schoolhouse)

I'd love to make more than one, if I get the idea of how to do it well enough. Maybe even one for each day of the week! Time to get the sewing machine fired up!

Potty-training

Natalie's done it! She has reached a new stage in her life and made ours a little easier. 

She is potty-trained.

We had tried earlier this Summer to get her started with potty-training, 

but she was very uncomfortable with the whole thing and mom realized she wasn't ready. 

But last Sunday, something told mom that Natalie was ready. So Monday morning, no more diapers. She wet several times, and didn't really go in the potty. But the next day was much better. 

She started catching on and feeling like a big girl. 

By the third day, she had no accidents and was acting like she had a new toy! 

Now she will not have a diaper put on her for anything! To go somewhere and at bedtime, 

it has to be a pull-up : ) I am so proud of my baby--I mean-- *little* sis!

God is so good!

Overwhelmed by the goodness of God this morning...and by the fact that, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

We were walking the same path as so many do now and nothing but God's Grace and Goodness has caused us to love Him and made us able to enjoy life in Him.

"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! --assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:17-24

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, 

although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. 

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:21-26

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5

Praise Him!

A question posed to me today...

"If you choose to be a stay-at-home daughter, how will you meet potential suitors?"

You better believe that question has crossed my mind a time or two. And just like other things in life, it requires faith in the One who can be trusted above all.

My answer to her was:  Obviously God brings people together in college, and so He, too, brings people together outside of college. 

On the practical side, a major way is through conferences - church and homeschool. I've heard of so many people marrying after meeting at a conference. And I'm heading to one in December! (praying)

Also, we've had several people visit and join our church because they found our website. A 24 year old just moved here a few days ago from Ohio and he knew to visit our church because he found our website. He's probably going to be joining our church soon. 

So, while I feel isolated sometimes, God knows where I am and where 'he' is too. As long as I follow His lead, if He intends for me to marry, He'll cause us to meet somewhere

 along the way!

Now, I don't have it 'down pat'. Ask me this question when I'm discouraged, and I may just say "I don't know!". But what I wrote above is what I know deep down.

I'm doing my best to make Jesus my focus now, because I know that if/when I do marry and have babies, it will be even harder to be focused on Him!

The article that inspired that question, you can find at the Raising Homemakers blog.

Update on the *two* mother hens

Okay, so it turns out, the other hen was not just going to lay an egg, she was going to lay on eggs.

Okay, so here's who we christened 'Ruby'. After this picture, she went for her 'break'. I watched her go out and I was waiting for her to so that I could count the eggs. But, somehow, after Ruby left, another Barred Rock snuck in and on to the nest! So that when I opened the door to count, there was a chicken!

She wants in on this maternal experience too.

So, here's Ruby, back from her 'break' and I guess their discussing the possibility of sharing the duty of egg-sitting.

They must've worked it out because Ruby's settling in.

Sometime after that, they even divided up the eggs. My dad eased them off the nest to count the eggs and he discovered 12 eggs in the corner and 5 eggs in the front!!! 17 eggs!

I think that's a good number, actually, because it's possible not all of them will hatch and also because we don't know how many are roosters! And if they are roosters, we'll want to get rid of them. We only need one rooster and we have a good one.

Digory and his hens.

More on Ruby and the other momma later...