Faithful to the End

She was my age when I met her. That is hard to believe because she seemed much older that I feel now. Time is a funny thing. 

I was about ten when she invited my family and another family for dinner. She was brave and warm and welcoming to all 9 of us kids. I don't remember many events in my childhood, but this one has always stuck out to me. Maybe it was the Kinder Joy Egg that she gave us at the end of the evening (the official kind from German with the chocking hazard parts inside). 

She had a pool at her house. Anyone was welcome to use it at anytime. One time I went with some of her neighbors while she was on vacation. 

It is incredible to me how many people knew and loved Mary. But she treated them all like family and it was a joy to be around her.  

--- I want be a joy to be around and open my house like Mary. 

She had a job with FexEx in management or something (10 year-olds don't remember these details). But what I do remember is that she left all of that to go back to school to be a math teacher at an under-privileged school in our area. She taught 5th, 6th, and 7th grade math and I can guarantee you that she was the best teacher that they had. She loved her students and was involved in many of their lives. 

--- I want to love others like Mary. 

My brother was born on Christmas. And I don't know if she felt sorry for him because he was gypped the birthday or because he was an only brother with four sisters. She came from a large family and she understood these things better than most people. Whatever the reason, she brought him a homemade pizza for many of his teenage birthdays.  

When I had my fourth baby she was one of the first people to hold her.  Shortly after she called and said she had a meal for me - I expected some of her famous pizza, but instead she brought authentic German noodles and chicken. What a treat. 

My sister is in the Air Force and would bring the boys these chocolate stuffed Hippos from Germany when she went.  One day I ran into Mary at a baseball game and we were talking about my sister and I mentioned the funny hippos. Several months later she showed up at my door with a huge package of these chocolate Hippos.  

--- I want to take the time to let people know I care with thoughtful gifts like Mary. 

Mary helped to run a ministry that built ramps for people with disabilities. We had discussed the boys coming to help her in a few years when they were a bit older. It is a huge loss that they will never get to serve with her. 

When ESL was short a teacher she would sub on short notice. She loved the ministry and would talk about volunteering more when she retired from teaching. We will miss her cheerful face.

In high school Mary asked me to join a committee at church. It was one of the first times someone had treated me like a member of the church and a soon-to-be adult. I really respected that and it made a huge impression on me.  

--- I want to spend my time serving others like Mary. 

Mary loved baseball. Maybe we both loved a deal; we often ran into each other at $3 Monday nights at the local baseball stadium. We would chat about how we had eaten dinner before we came to avoid buying the overpriced food and laugh about how few people came out on Mondays. It happened so often that we made plans to sit together in the Spring of 2020. It never happened. So we started planning for Spring of 2021. Now it will never happen either. I will miss her every time I go to a baseball game and expect for her to pop up and say hello. 

There are very few people that I can think of that I would have all good things to say, maybe that says something about me more than the people around me. But I can honestly think of nothing about Mary that was bad. I have never heard her complain. She always showed up and she always loved people well and showed us all the love of Christ. What a wonderful example. 

This weekend my kids will receive their own Kinder Eggs (the fake US kind without the chocking hazard parts) in memory of Mary.  She was faithful to the end. I wish they could have known her.  I want to be more like her. 

I will miss her until we can meet again. 

Warm woolen mittens

Aren't these the cutest?!? And the warmest too! I'm in love with these mittens that I made using this pattern from IkatBag: 

http://www.ikatbag.com/2021/01/mittens-for-grownups.html. 

I keep them in the car and use them for driving and loading groceries, but I keep stealing them out for daily walks around the neighborhood too.  They are wool on the outside and pink fleece on the inside.  It was a super fun pattern to make and you might see a few more pairs in the future (probably the Fall) once I get my hands on some more fleece. 

Garage - Before and Afters

Four years ago when we moved from a much smaller house (that had a big shed and attic space) to a larger house (with a little tiny shed and no attic space) we just dumped everything in the garage. As we have done more and more house projects it has progressively gotten worse.  Here is what it looked like: 

For years we have been meaning to clean up the garage and organize it better and throw away anything that we don't need for projects anymore. This is in hopes of starting a mudroom in some of the garage space in the next few years. 

1. Take a load of trash to the dump (expired carseats, doors that we have removed, old paint and light bulbs that the previous owner left us...etc.). 

2. Move all the Christmas stuff to the weird closet space.

3. Build a workbench and mount old kitchen cabinets to the wall. 

The after pictures: 

We still need to scrap the rest of the old flooring off the floor.  

My outside plants winter in the garage. 

But just look at all that space! And it is so easy to find things now. It almost makes me want to start a new house project. 

Doll

The baby's Christmas present. 

A few frugal things

1. The button that turns on/off the tea pot broke (after 11 years or almost daily use). The plastic dry-rotted where it was meeting the switch contact. I disassembled it and everything else was working well, just I had no way to turn it on any more. My oldest son wanted to whittle something and I asked if he could make me some sticks to insert into switch contact. We are about three weeks in and his little whittled sticks have worked out great! 

2. My sister gave me a printer for Christmas last year and I love it. I have printed so many free worksheets and purchases PDF workbooks for the kids school this year. However, the toner ran out WAY before the specified number of pages. So... after a bit of research online I found out that I could manually reset the gears on the toner to trick the printer into thinking it was still full.  And that still didn't do the trick so I found our that I could reset the printer by pushing an odd combination of buttons in a weird order while opening and closing various drawers. And then I waved a magic wand and the printer started working again and has given me another 300 pages of prints since then. 

3. I ordered a toner refill kit for $8 instead of a new toner cartridge for $58.  

4. I made italian bread twice this week. Once to go with soup and make chicken salad sandwiches. The other two loaves were turned into french bread pizzas for a quick dinner. 

5. My neighbors left for Florida for a few weeks and gave me a box of random opened perishable food. For example: I used up two opened bags of shredded cheese on the pizzas, half a bag of spinach and some romaine lettuce in salads, some bits of extra bread in french toast, and heavy whipping cream in a soup and on top of french toast.  

Sheep

Two stuffed sheep that I sewed for a birthday and Christmas gift. The one on the right was the first one, but it was deemed not soft enough, so I remade it in a different fabric (sheep on the left).  The original sheep has been given to the baby and she likes it and hasn't complained about how soft (or not soft) it is. 

Felt ornaments

These are a few felt ornaments that I sewed for one of my sisters for Christmas. 

Hats

Speaking of Williamsburg... the boys all have hats that were given to them, but on one of them the trim was falling apart.  So I picked it all off and sewed on a new blue and gold ribbon.  I am also trying my hand at the rossettes that are sometimes seen decorating them.  I have made a blue and green one so far. 

I need to get a picture of the vests and capes that I have made this year.  They were inspired by reading the Hobbit and studying the vikings. 

Books of 2020

I started keeping a list of the books that I read 5 or 6 years ago challenged by the Tim Challies reading challenge.  I decided that I could probably read 26 books (which is one every two weeks) even with two small kids in the house. That year I read 30-some books. The following year I challenged myself to 35 books and made it into the 40s. 60 in 2018. 57 in 2019. And thinking that I had topped out about one book a week while I have 4 young kids, I set my goal for 52 this year.  Instead, I read 75 books.  

2018 List

2019 List

2020 List

A few notes on this year's list:

a) The number of books that I have listened to on audio book has increased this year. We have used the library to download a bunch of books and listen to them as we drove around. Jared also read books out loud to us and I have counted these 3 books in audio books.

b) I read more fiction then ever this year (24 books), but of those books 92% were read to the boys (22 books). Some were for school and some were for fun. 

c) C.S. Lewis tops the year again for most read author. However, I also read Cal Newport and Maxwell Gladwell often. 

d) I only abandoned three books that I can remember. By abandoned, I mean that I read a few chapters and didn't want to continue. Usually I pick up a book from the library and can tell pretty quickly if it is good or not. One was Hannah Anderson's Humble Roots. She started off and ended every chapter with a fluffy story and the book could have been half as long, but still made the same points. I disliked it from the first chapter where she describes being awake in the middle of the night and staring at her husband (I have included the google preview of chapter one in case you also want to read the start of the chapter). Do I care that there are chocolate smudges on her pillow? Or the type of quilt that they own?  

e) I used the library for 45% (up from 37% last year) of my books. Note: The library in my town did not have a lot of these books, but inter-library loan did - if first you don't succeed try try again.

f) I tried (really I did) not to buy as many books this year. I really should unsubscribe from WTSbooks emails. 15% were bought (down from 19% last year). 

g) The two books that I borrowed had been lent to my 3 years ago and I just finished them. I am usually much better at reading and returning books... Serious fail on my part this year. 

h) I have enjoyed several commentaries this year and will write about those in a separate post. 

i) I include my Bible reading in here only if I finished the Old Testament (which I only read parts of this year - so I did not include it in the page count) or Psalms (which I did three times) or the New Testament (which I did 4 times). I read and reread Hosea, James, and Isaiah this year, but I haven't included them. If you take those away from my book count, I only read 68 books.  

2020 Best of (Favorite Books)

If I had to pick my absolute top books of the year I would have to go with these (in no apparent order):

1. Safe and Sound: Standing Firm on Spiritual Battles - David Powilson

2. Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport

3. Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman

4. Robert Murray M'Cheyne - Andrew Bonar

5. God's Light on Dark Clouds  

But these are all really close to the top. I could argue for almost all of them to have a spot in the top 5, but I can also argue a reason why they didn't make the top 5:
6. Deep Work - Cal Newport
7. Watchfulness - Rediscovering a Lost Spiritual Discipline
8. Untangling Emotions
9. Gentle and Lowly - Ortland
10. The Heart of Christ - Thomas Goodwin
11. Protecting Your Child From Predators
12. The Lord's Supper - Thomas Watson
13. Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
14. The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis
15. Love Divine and Unfailing - Commentary on Hosea
16. Wayward But Loved - Commentary on Hosea
17. The Hobbit - Tolkien
18. The Christmas Carol - Dickens
19. Family Discipleship - Matt Chandler and Adam Griffin

And these books I liked, but not quite enough to make it on the favorites of the year, but they all excellent books, if you choose to read them:

20.Stepping Heavenward
21. Teaching From Rest
22. A Grief Observed
23. Blink (The Power of Thinking Without Thinking)
24. Outliers
25. Instructing a Child's Heart
26. Knowledge of the Holy
27. The Day the World Came to Town - 9/11 in Gander Newfoundland
28. The Death of Experience: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
29. The Best Christmas Pagent Ever
30. The Mysterious Benedict Society

2020 CHILDREN’S BOOKS

I wrote down how many books that I read my kids in January and February.  It averaged out to 3-4 a day. I also do a bunch of pre-reading/skimming of books for the boys to read and for history. The library is only doing book pick-up this year, which while convenient for picking UP the books, it is not convenient for picking OUT the books. I have spent entirely too long on the library's web page looking for interesting children's books. I miss browsing the library shelves and picking books for their artwork.  

Extrapolated out this equals about 1000 - 1500 children's books.   

Boys' workbench

The boys all get their own set of tools when they are 4. These tool sets and the projects that they have inspired have taken over much of my fireplace/den room. So for Christmas we bought the material and the boys helped to put together an area that, hopefully, will contain their creative mess. Jared designed it to be movable because we hope to one day carve out a spot in the garage for them when we build the mudroom. 

Sunset on the James River

Between Jared's one-week break from his two classes this Fall we spend two nights in a cabin on the James River. The sunsets over the soybean and peanut fields were stunning. We took the kids to Jamestown and Williamsburg as part of our history lessons for the year. Fewer than half the trades were open in Williamsburg, but we still enjoyed watching the ones that were around. The boys' definite favorites were the blacksmith, cabinet maker, printer, and wheelwright.  

Since our trip our house has been turned into a print shop (which produced all the boys' Christmas cards and some of our tags for presents) and a wood working shop.  They also found scrap metal pieces in the garage and banged away with their hammers until they had several trays created (which ended up being my Christmas present). 

Gnomes

This Christmas Aldi was selling these adorable little Gnomes. They didn't look too hard to reproduce so I bought two (the last two they had in the store) and brought them home to study them. The first one I made took about 2 hours, but I got it down to almost an hour by making several at a time. These are the first four that I made and I failed to take pictures of any of the other ones. 

We decided to name them after the dwarves from the Hobbit. 

Thorin Oakenshield and Dane Ironfoot - We are keeping these two per the boys' request

Balin, Dwalin, - To my sister

Fíli, Kíli, - To my sister-in-law

Dori, Nori, Ori - To my sister

Óin, Glóin, - To two different friends

Bifur, Bofur, - Not made yet

Bombur - To my mother-in-law

And here is a little tree that I made for a friend. It was a fun project, but it took entirely too long to make more of them. The fabrics are all from projects that I have made for her in the past (an apron and quilt). 

Apron for a niece

I sewed this little apron in a few hours the morning of a birthday party.  The boys had picked out a cooking set for their cousin and while we were wrapping it I realized that an apron would be perfect to go with it.  I love the ruffles on the bottom! 

Evenings at the beach

I am just now getting around to emptying photos off my phone.  This summer we spent a lot of time at the beach.  It is a lot of work to pack up four kids and all their stuff, but they love being outside and exploring.  And we saw some amazing sunsets that reminded us of the glory and faithfulness of God. 

New quilt

I started this quilt two or three years ago and was about 1/4 of the way finished when I set it aside. I picked it up a few weeks ago, hoping to finish it in 30 days (by September 15th)... but other things have gotten in the way... mainly that my almost four year-old asked for a couple stuffed animals for his birthday and I have been working on making those. Pictures to come of those when I finish. And then maybe I will get back to this one. 22 of 30 squares are finished. It shouldn't take too long to finish the last few squares. 

burp clothes for a friend

I made these burp clothes back in May for a friend. It was the only boy fabric that I had left in my stash, but thankfully, she loves dinosaurs. 

A quick project

I'm currently painting my downstairs bathroom. It is just going to be pink like the baby's room because it is the paint I have. But I also painted the ceiling and it looks so much brighter and cleaner. 

The sconce in there is so ugly. But have you looked at the prices of a good attractive sconce? I'd rather save the money for a full bathroom gutting in a few years. I wondered if I could paint a geometric design on it... I followed the rabbit trail of craftman and mission style lamps. Then I fell in love with this Tiffany knock-off lamp. 

I sketched the pattern on with a Sharpie and filled in the color with paint. It took me about an hour. It didn't turn out too bad for free handing it. It is better than it was. 

I'm avoiding cleaning out my dresser. :) I should have been working on sorting clothes that fit me and clothes that don't. That's my next project. 

Quilt top finished

My mother-in-law offered to quilt it for me. She is way more talented at quilting. It will be so much fun to see what see does with it.

This top probably took about 8 hours. None of the blocks are complicated and they are nice and big.  So, it went fast.

Sneak peak at a new project

It should be a twin size quilt for the baby when I'm finished. :) 

A little sign

I used to sing this to James as a baby more than any other song. Now he likes Holy Holy Holy and For All The Saints better.  I was going to just put the words from the first line one the board, but hymns are written to be understood for and appreciated as the whole thing. The line felt off without the rest of the verse. Originally, I started this to hang in the baby's room, but then I used paints from the boys' walls and it just matches so much better in there. 

So the boys get some new artwork for their room.