Spring...

  I love the springtime.  I love the budding trees, the new color showing up everywhere, the way the Lord combines those colors and that everything is coming alive.  I have always loved spring in Tennessee because of the warmth in the air and the sweet smell of the honeysuckle during late April and May. 
  I also love spring because my mind begins running with ideas.  I order seed catalogs (which I usually can't afford to order from) and I pull out my patterns and begin to design clothing for the children on paper and in my head.  I dream of what project I might want to take on to make the house look more cheerful.  I sat the other night and clipped magazines with beautiful spring bouqets and birds on the nest and beautiful downy little chicks.
  This year I am hoping for a clothesline so I can hang my sheets out to dry like I did when we lived at Swan Pond.  Hanging things on a clothesline is some kind of therapy for me.  I love the smell of the sheets after they've been out in the warm sun and summer wind.
  In the spring I begin pulling out my favorite recipes for desserts with strawberries and lemon and other fruit flavors.  I go through my cookbooks looking for lighter fare for our meals and I make a "wish list" of meals to try on my family for spring and summer.  Cierra is now old enough that she and I enjoy sitting together and going through cookbooks and planning what we think would be fun to try.
   As part of my "therapy" for my last real battle physically my husband wanted me to do a sewing project that wasn't because it had to be done but just for fun.  My favorite sewing is for children so I took a 1953 pattern that had never been cut out and made it up.  Because I couldn't physically get out of the house Esther chose the fabric for me by sending photos back and forth via the computer and then buying the one I liked the best.  (Thank you, dear Esther!)
   I'm all done except the buttons.  It truly was good for me to have to plan, design, cut and sew as it kept my mind busy.  Here's the pattern (and the link to where you can buy it on E-bay).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Simplicity-4407-Childs-Jumper-Blouse-Sz-2-UNcut-Patt-/390282736051
   And although I'm not finished with putting the button's on (since I have yet to get back to town!) I'm going to include a picture of how it looks so far.  It has a tied bow in the back that is darling too. 

  Didn't that turn out so precious?  This would have been the type of dress my mother would have made me when I was little.  I have a passion for sewing vintage patterns for children but not much time to indulge in it so this was fun!
   I have a spring sewing list (longer than I can possibly get done.) but just going through my patterns with the little short sleeves or little matching linen coats over the dresses, the little boys rompers, all the beautiful new tote and purse patterns I'm seeing, the twirly skirts for the little girls and the list could go on and on.
  I have to remind myself that they will not all get done and that I need to decide which of my many ideas really matter to me, which are beyond my reach, which would take so much time I would end up neglecting my family, etc. but yet it is still so much fun sitting with pen and paper and planning it all--even if I have to put little astericks beside some of them showing that they are very likely not going to happen and are on the bottom of the list!  That doesn't change the fact that I pray about them and ask the Lord to supply all that I need for that project if it is His will!  (including strength right now!)
  Isn't it wonderful the way the Lord made us to love the changes of the seasons?  When I feel the changes coming for the new season I am so ready for that season.  I pray that you are enjoying that new warmth in the air, the rainy days, the little buds coming out and the tulips pushing their way through the garden soil. 
  I trust that you too have a case of "spring fever" and are enjoying it! 

Love,
Mom

Springtime Sewing...

I've been bitten by the sewing bug again! Every time the season changes two things make me dig through fabric, patterns and get me to lugging my machine onto the table. The first is just wanting new outfits for my growing daughter and grandchilden and the second is when I go shopping and see the high prices for such flimsy, poorly constructed garments.

This year the sight of polyester and outfits that made you look 7 months pregnant or those that had the wildest 70's look in their patterns and color was a big push to the sewing machine!

Besides I keep thinking of the little baby girls and how fun it would be to design just one more little baby dress. I also look at Cierra's culottes and decide either she's growing or those culottes she's wearing are shrinking. Then there's those cute, cute skirt patterns I have that can be sewn up in a matter of a couple hours...and I'm off and planning the new clothes for this spring.

This spring I found a 1952 pattern that had been reprinted and I pulled out a lovely green fabric I had and cut Adalyn out a dress, bonnet, slip and bib. I had so much fun making this little dress. I love to embroider and so I hand-embroidered little flowers on each piece. Since I'm not much of a tv watcher the embroidery is a good way to be in the room with the family on the nights they decide to watch a movie but keeping my hands busy at the same time.

I've started on Cierra some new culottes out of cute seersucker patterns. I also made her the cutest skirt out of some scraps I had in my fabric stash. I bought her and I matching fabric to make skirts out of and today cut out the cutest bright knit fabric in another skirt. Each time they turn out so cute and prettier than anything in the store it motivates me to make just one more thing.

After digging through the patterns I'm in the mood to make just one more apron for my

apron collection I've been working on in my kitchen. I want to have aprons on the hooks in every size so that no matter who is with me in the kitchen there's an apron their size to wear.

(this includes my little granddaughters!)

Next week Niki will be here as Brian preaches our Redbud Bible Conference and her and I are designing beautiful little dresses for Halle out of bright prints with ric-rac roses on them. If you would like to see our inspiration look at the dress on the cover of Kari Mecca's book "Sewing with Whimsy". http://www.karimeaway.com/products/482 We're going to have a fun time sewing on this one!

Sewing is just one of the wonderful facets of being a homekeeper. There is no joy like being a designer/artist/seamstress. How thankful I am that my mother didn't listen to my moaning and foolish promises that I was going to marry a man that would buy everything we were going to wear! I also swore you'd never catch me tearing a seam out! As a teen at home I sure

wasn't a real good student or listener. So I got to spend money on long distance phone calls to my mother as I worked on sewing projects for my two little daughters. I'm sure she had to resist a little chuckle every time I called!

I have often told my daughters that being a keeper at home is the most beautiful and varied life. The Designer never makes a mistake in putting us to work in the place He designed for us.

Rather it's cooking, cleaning, sewing, laundering, decorating my home, preseving food or teaching school to my children the chosen path God has given me is a wonderful tapestry of life for me.

I hope that you find as much joy in being a "keeper at home" as He planned for you to! It's a path worth taking.

The Christmas Season

I love the Christmas season from the first day to the last. I love it during hard times and good times and I love it no matter who I'm with or where I'm at.
Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and afterwards we had to stop in a couple stores to get some supplies for my many Christmas "projects". When we came out of the last store it had got dark and the many lights, the busy-ness of the shoppers, seeing store windows with the colors and decorations of Christmas all gave me a contented and excited feeling at the same time as we drove down the city streets.
I have several books I get out at Christmas time and scan just to get myself into the mood and spirit of the season. One book helps me to get my devotional life in place, another gets me in the mood to bake, create and open my home.
Christmas time takes me down memory lane and brings back warm memories. I can go back to my grandmother's cozy living room and remember the smells of Christmas dinner, the warmth of her kitchen, the tastes of her food. The sweet memories of her at Christmas help to shape the grandmother I want to be to my grandchildren and the memories I want them to have of me.
I can go back to when my children were little and during an especially frugal year the fun we had making a happy birthday cake for Jesus and eating chocolate cake with hot Tang (an orange drink) by the light of the Christmas tree with my babies. I was so concerned about only having Tang (which was given to me) to serve with the chocolate cake and the next year they wanted the same thing, and the next and the next. Tang and cake became a Christmas memory and tradition for them!
Christmas means hours spent at my sewing machine making little aprons, cowboy costumes, pirate costumes, tiny dresses, doll furniture and the list goes on and on. This year's list includes a Union soldiers costume, a Roy Rogers cowboy shirt, a little girls very fancy dress-up dress (with lots of tulle), a military outfit, and a brand new superhero invented by my grandson Caleb named Sylvester man! That one required Caleb's art sent to his grandma so I knew what Sylvester man looked like!
Christmas means the cupboard decorated, the village set out on the buffet, all the nutcrackers standing at attention on the dry sink, and the nativity in the living room ready to move.
Our nutcrackers have been known to attack and kill mice more then once. This began after we watched the Nutcracker on a cartoon and our son Asher was convinced that we needed them to catch the mouse that we had been after for about a week in our kitchen. Sure enough the night that he put the nutcrackers on patrol by the kitchen cabinet the mouse was killed and found dead at their feet. Isn't that amazing? Our son John sets the trap every year now just in case a mouse is lurking in the cabinet.
As for the nativity it is my favorite part of Christmas at the Neal's. It all began with a book given to one of the children that opens out and forms the stable. One at a time nativity figures were added. First Mary and then Joseph and then the baby in his manger.
Now we have shepherds in their fields with little campfires that actually flicker, and we have wise men on the other side of the living room far, far away from Bethlehem.
Along with that, the children and I built Mary and Joseph a house in Nazareth which is on one side of the living room with Bethlehem on top of the piano.
Tonight, Mary and Joseph have had a decree left on their door which states that they have been commanded to pay taxes in Bethlehem. The Roman soldier is standing outside their door.
In a few days they will take their little burro who patiently waits outside and put a blanket roll on him and each morning they move just a little further across the living room. At long last they end up in Bethlehem. And of course, on Christmas Eve the baby appears in the manger.
Within a few days of Christmas the wise men end up with all the others. (Although I know that doesn't follow the Bible I put everything away before they would actually appear!)
We also have a pocket calendar at our house hanging in the hallway that has treats in it every morning up to the 25th. The kids never get to old to check the pocket calendar each morning to see what's in it. It might be a candy bar, a pack of gum, a new mechanical pencil, or all their battery operated toys lined up down the hall with batteries put in them!
Isn't Christmas wonderful! And yes, at our house we have the stress of it too.
We have the weeks we don't know how we're going to make it financially, we have the late night sewing, we have the lights that don't work, the time when one more batch of cookies to make is almost revolting but when I see the look on the children's faces, or get a letter from my daughter saying how sweet the memories of Christmas are all that is quickly forgotten and I know it's worth it.
So pour your heart and soul into making this month a month to let people know how much you love them and to put your silly deer antlers on (like I did today!), play the jolly music, tell the Lord how thankful you are He was born and celebrate His birth all month long!

Responsibilities...

As a wife and mother I have a lot of responsibilities. I have always felt so blessed to have a job that has so many varied aspects to it. When I read Proverbs 31 I see a very busy, talented woman! The Proverbs 31 woman has always been my goal and role model, but as I look at her I have a feeling there were some things she enjoyed doing and some things that were more of a duty than a joy.
When I was a teenager my mother tried to get me interested in learning to sew. She was a very good seamstress and so was her mother. I'm sure she wanted one of her daughters to enjoy sewing like she did. I had little to no interest in it and although I would try every once in a while I remember telling her that I was going to marry someone that could buy my clothes so I didn't have to sew. I also remember watching her rip out a seam and telling her I would throw that thing in a corner before I'd sit there and do that.
After having two little girls and a very limited budget sewing began to look like a way to dress my girls in the boutique look I liked without the boutique price tag! I wanted them to have matching dresses and I didn't want them to look like they were dressed from a rag bag. So, "yours truly" got a pattern and some fabric and began studying pattern sheets and library books. I also would call my mother (long distance now) to get advice when something went wrong.
To this day I think of my precious mother every time I rip out a seam and think she probably had to hide a smile sometimes when she saw me tearing out a seam.
The miraculous thing is that as I continued to sew I developed a deep love for it. I began to design dresses in my head and plan the next project. I began sewing for my home and sewing gifts for Christmas. I even learned how to smock and to this day a smocking project is a luxury that I am thrilled with. It's a way I reward myself--sit down and spend some time smocking a little dress.
What happened? Well, when you accept something as your responsibility and decide your going to learn to do it the very best you can you develop a love for it.
Pay close attention to what I just said and think of it in every area of your wifely, motherly, homemaking and other duties. If I am supposed to do something then I should determine I'm going to be as good at it as I can possibly be.
That includes laundry, washing dishes, cleaning my home, cooking meals, homeschooling or reading bedtime stories. Remember the verses, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;" (Eccl. 9: 10a, and "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;" (I Cor. 10:31)? When we think of what we're doing as a service to God it makes us want to do it properly.
Have you ever tried praying over each person as you fold their clothes? Try sitting memories verses on index cards in your kitchen window to memorize as you wash dishes. Get out of the rut of making the same foods just because they're quick. Learn to make food from scratch to save money and make it taste good too! (I've been asked for the recipe more than once from items that were leftovers put together to make a meal for unexpected company!) Pray over your duties and ask the Lord to help you get good at it, to be a wise steward of what you have and to be creative and excited about what you do.
My grandmother told me that some of the most beautiful pieces of creative work came during the depression when people had to use items that were not normally used to decorate with. I still have a piece of embroidery work that when held up to the light has the writing from a feed sack on it. Don't think you can't do a proper job if your income is limited.
And always remember--the more you do it and the more you practice it, the more skilled you are going to become and the more joy you are going to get from it.
The season for family and giving is here and I always have this little feeling of excitement growing in me as it approaches. Now is a wonderful time to start practicing to do all that you do with enthusiasm and a determination to do the very best job you can do rather it's a job that you enjoy or one that you hate.
Don't get in a habit of only doing what you like and sloughing on those things that you aren't particularly interested in. Many times I see wives do a good job at keeping a clean house but a halfway job on teaching and training her children. Or maybe she's a wonderful decorator but her cooking is half-hearted or non-existent. They're all our jobs--so let's make our families (but most of all the Lord) pleased with the fact we do a good job on every job. The jobs we love and the jobs that require patience and persistence!