December Sock Swap

Okay, sock swappers...  This sock swap will be Christmas themed.  You will send one pair of socks to your partner no later than December 15th.  Hopefully, this will have the socks to their designated areas before the Christmas rush.:)  If you have preferences, please post them in the comments section.  For instance, if you only want patterns or Christian-themed Christmas or Santa/reindeer type socks let us know, that way your partner can be on the lookout.  Again, if you aren't particular just say so.:) Sign up deadline is going to be November 30th.  Just sign up in the comments section.

November Sock Swap

Well, I thought I'd go ahead and put feelers out for a November sock swap.  Again, the socks need to be sent out by November 15th.  We can add preferences this time, or we can again just be okay with being surprised.  If you have an opinion on this, put in a comment.  Also, I would like to know if there is any interest in making December's swap more interesting.  We could send a pair of socks and an ornament or we could do two separate swaps and have two different partners to send to.  Are there any ideas/preferences on this?  If you want to be involved, please comment as soon as you are able so that I can get everyone paired up and we can get going.  You can click here for last months sock swap and see pics and I am going to post the two sock sites I found online, if anyone is interested.

sock dreams

Pippi's Longstockings

*****Okay,I guess we've got four this month. Here's the partner list. I will be sending address info to you by email. Since I'm getting this out so late, I'm going to push the send out date back to the 20th. That will still give us all 14 days to get our socks in the mail. This time, if you are able to remember, please leave a comment when you send out, that way the person will know its on the way. The more I do swaps, the more I learn about what to ask participants. :) Without further ado....

Yellowbuttercup sends to Mzzterry

Mzzterry sends to Dyessfam

Dyessfam sends to Vanillafrog

Vanillafrog sends to Yellowbuttercup

If you want to contact your partner to find out favorite patterns or colors or size, please feel free.  If you are just fine being surprised, let your partner know.  Again, all that is required is one pair of fun/unique socks sent to your partner by the send out date.  If you want to include more stuff, go for it!  Happy sock swapping!

****Reminder note  - Okay, Ladies, today is the day to get your socks in the mail.  Looking forward to seeing pics of socks soon!:)

Here are the links to pics of our swapped socks:

Mzzterry 

Yellowbuttercup

Mine - (haven't uploaded pics yet, but will soon!)

I found the motorcycle I want...

Not that I will get one anytime soon, but Sam saw one and then he took me to see it and as soon as I sat on it, I was in love.  It was actually someone's private one that was in for repairs, but we didn't know it until after I had sat on it.  Ooops!  Anyway, its called a Ridley and its 3/4 the size of a regular motorcycle.  Here's their website for more info.  This is the model that I like the best.  I like the fenders on it.  I wouldn't choose this color combo and this is a new model.  I would be looking for an older model.  Anyway, its a perfect fit and size and its highway worthy. Who knows, maybe someday.

December Ornament Swap

I went back and forth about whether or not to combine the sock and ornament swap and decided against it.  The ornament swap will be separate.  I'm also posting this early so that there is enough time for anyone who wants to be involved to get the info and get signed up.  Here are the guidelines:  You will send one ornament between the price of $5-$10.  (If you find a really neat one on sale that you think your partner will like, that will NOT be held against you.  Yay sales!:) Handmade ornaments are just fine as long as your partner likes that sort of thing.   Please make sure that when you sign up for this swap that you also include what theme and color- scheme you decorate in, i.e. country or old fashioned Christmas, modern (more pattern type stuff), hand-made, Victorian, etc.  If you don't care and would like to be surprised, please add that, too.  When you send your ornament, please make sure it is well protected so it doesn't end up damaged at its destination.  When you have sent your package, please put a note in the comment section, so your partner knows to keep a lookout.   Final sign up date is November 30th.  Send out date is December 15th.  I will assign partners on December 1st and email each partner's details.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to comment.  Happy swapping!

Another Braden-ism

The other day we came home from grocery shopping and we had to stop by the front office to ask a question.  One of the ladies that runs the office smokes and she was outside taking a smoke break.  We chatted with her for a few minutes and then went to our site.  As we were getting out of the van, Braden asked, "Why did that lady have a candle in her mouth?"  Well, as you can imagine, Sam and I had a hard time not laughing, but Sam quick as can be answered, " Some people just like the taste of wax."  Yeah, fun times.  I'm glad we didn't have to have an in depth discussion at this time as that answer was enough for him, but its probably coming soon.

Having some issues, would love some prayer!

So, I've been dealing with some stuff for a while and now feel I should share and ask for prayer.  This place is getting to me.  Several things have accumulated to "help out" with this situation.  First, I'm pregnant.  I have been very blessed with extra energy and encouragement this time around to keep up my shield, but when I don't get enough rest and things get hectic, my ability to combat the emotional results of my hormones wanes.  Second, we went to Sedona and I'm telling you the flat out evil presence there is near next to tangible.  Yuck!  Then, I was being bombarded by all this fear mongering by the devil and his crew regarding the election, not to mention other things going on in the world that just amounts to craziness.  I have definitely been seeing similar things in this area in the lives of some people very dear to me. It also didn't help that I was getting a lot of this from church of all places for a while!  (That has tapered off and I'm very grateful.:)  For the past couple of weeks, I haven't been able to have our vehicle, so I haven't been able to get me and the kids outta the motorhome and that's not good cuz then we end up driving each other crazy! :)  Then, seriously, I have felt like I have been under spiritual and emotional attack for the last few weeks and I hadn't been sleeping very well as a result.  I was also experiencing tons of anxiety and had a couple of panic attacks.  Totally not a normal thing for me!   I had a similar experience  regarding my emotional and spiritual well being in Hawaii, but the circumstances are just way different here.  There is definitely a feeling of despair or apathy or something here and I think with my guard being weak when I get so tired, I'm just getting very sensitive to it all.   Anyway, I just wanted to "voice" these things going on in my life as it were and ask for prayer from you.  Whenever, I start feeling like I'm coming under attack, I immediately start praying and asking for renewal of my mind and spirit and that my guard be strengthened.  Sam and I have also been praying for each other every night.  Its amazing what strength God gives in the team of a husband and wife!  Also, I keep quoting 2 Timothy 1:7 - For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Powerful stuff right there!  

I do actually believe that I'm having victory over this because of God's provision and blessing.  I still feel that I need my fellow Christian's prayers because here where we live it always seems like the presence of evil is always right there waiting to pounce in moments of weakness.  I know that that is always true wherever you are, but I do think something here is just wrong in general and the Christian presence either isn't praying to combat it, or there just isn't a large Christian populace.  So, in turn the evil presence here is more prevalent than it would be in a community largely made up of believers.  I really hope I'm making sense here.

Another thing is that Sam and I both are feeling like our time here and in this motor home is coming to an end.  God has been so gracious with giving us complete contentment, but we both believe He has something else for us and soon.  We are waiting on Him to reveal what that is.  Its pretty exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. :)

Baby stuff

This pregnancy has been so interesting.  I am now around the 5 month mark and I have had so many people react with surprise when they learn I'm pregnant.  I look at myself and think, how can they not see the belly?!  Sam says its cuz I wear a lot of big t-shirts and people can't really see the belly.  Okay.  I still get nauseated if I don't keep up with my eating, which is also strange.  In my other pregnancies, by the time I was 4 mos. I didn't get nauseated if I went too long without food, I just didn't feel very good in general.  Interesting.  What else... I still haven't gained any weight.  Still a very strange phenomenon to me and apparently my care providers as well.   Just so you know, I have many witnesses that have gotten to see my eating habits throughout the day and no one can accuse me of not eating, that's for sure!  I still haven't gone to the hospital to check it out yet, but I think I'll probably try and do that next week before my next appointment.  Oh, by the way, I have five friends who are currently preggo and 3 of them are around the same stage!  Isn't that cool?  Two of them have had previous miscarriages and "Praise the Lord!" they are now feeling their babies wiggling around!  One also went the way of the fertility clinic route with her first baby and this time God totally healed her body and Oh, yeah!  Arrows for God, I'm tellin' ya!:D  More later.....

Thoughts

Even though the election didn't turn out as I had hoped, there is still hope. There is still cause for rejoicing! First of all, the marriage propositions in California, Arizona and Florida all passed! Praise God!!! Second of all, we as Christians still have a voice. We can pray. We can pray for the Obama family. Here is an excerpt from the Randy Alcorn blog and it just expresses so nicely what we can be praying for:

"The election is over. Followers of Christ, regardless of who they advocated and voted for, should now pray wholeheartedly for our new president and his administration, as Scripture instructs us in First Timothy 2:1-4:

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be
made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Nanci and I were just talking about President Obama, and how we wish him well. I have a profound sorrow that I could not vote for the first African American president in U. S. history. In two past elections I voted for Alan Keyes, an African American with a deep respect for the civil rights of unborn children, and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman. How I wish he could have become our president. How I wish that Barack Obama believed God's Word in these fundamental areas. How deeply I wish I could have voted for him.

But not being able to vote for someone is very different than not being able to pray for him. I pray him, his wife and those precious daughters. (To see black children living in the White House will be to me a dream come true, despite my profound regrets that their father doesn't stand for every child's right to live.)

I pray that in those areas where President Obama does advocate what is right, God will richly bless him. I pray God will give him wisdom and strength in negotiating with international heads of state. I pray God will change his mind in areas where he's wrong, and restrain him from keeping his promises to Planned Parenthood concerning the Freedom of Choice Act, which would dramatically set back the legal cause of unborn children. I pray that, by some heart-changing miracle or providential human miscalculation, the next Supreme Court justice would be someone who would vote for the right to life of our smallest children, God's smallest children."

His post continues with some great food for thought and I would encourage you to read the rest of it as it was a great encouragement to me. Click here for the rest. The election may be over, but our perseverance should not be.

Just remember, our Dear Lord hears His childrens' pleas.  We can be intercessors and truly get on our face before God and pray for repentance for this country and for a revival of abiding in the Truth that this country was founded on: God's Word.  What an amazing gift and tool God has given us in prayer!!!  I hope you all have a blessed week and rest in Him and find a place of contentment and solace knowing our Lord God is in absolute control and He isn't surprised by anything that has happened or that will happen! :)

Mom's Visit and our trip to Sedona with pics

I did say that as soon as I get around to it, I'll post the pics from Mom's visit and our sojourn to Sedona.  We did have a really good time, but it was as others had warned us very new agey.  There are psychics and palm readers and new age stores all over the place there.  We went on a trolley ride which gives you an overview of Sedona and for a good portion of it, the driver talked about the various "energy vortexes" there.  Apparently, Sedona is known worldwide for its abundance of these areas.  Of course we don't believe in any of that and after the driver continued to go on and on about these vortexes, I just turned around to Braden and prayed protection over his ears!  The irritating thing is that there is an actual tour you can go on that is specifically geared toward all the new age stuff there in Sedona including the vortexes and we specifically did NOT want to go on that type of tour.  RRRrrrrrr!  Also, at one point in his spiel about the vortexes, we were going by where the airport is located and he just happened to mention that there was one at the end of the runway, known as the airport vortex.  Yeah, I nearly lost control of myself.  I had the hardest time not bursting out laughing.  All I could think of was all these airplanes getting sucked up into the vortex.  Talk about a delayed flight! :)  Anyway, we did get to do some other fun stuff.  We went to a Native American Arts Fair.  My mom really wanted to look at some Native American jewelry and stuff, so this was just perfect for her.  She bought me and my sister a pair of earrings.  Here are what mine look like.

Aren't they gorgeous?!  Then, on Saturday night, Mom kept the kids and Sam and I went on a date...for the first time in over 4 months. We ate at a Mexican food restaurant called Oaxaca.  It has really good food.  Lots of variations on traditional Mexican flair.  It was funny because about half way through our date, we were both feeling like we should be getting back to the kids.  We stayed out a bit longer and went into a couple of stores that were still open.  There was one called Del Sol.  It is a very neat store.  All of their products change color in the sun.  They have t-shirts, rings, hair barrettes, bags, toys and even fingernail polish that changes color when you get it in the sunlight.  Anyway, Mom got the rest of her Christmas shopping done in there and got a free tote bag to boot!  Here is their website if you are curious. We ended up staying through to Monday morning, but Sam went back on Sunday night since he had to work Monday.  On Sunday afternoon, I took Mom over to Flagstaff and just drove around so that she could see what it looks like.  Yeah, we both prefer it to Sedona.  By Monday, we were very ready to leave Sedona and come back.  For Christians, there is almost a palpable darkness and evil there.  Yuck!  The longer we stayed the more the deception that shrouds that little city became obvious and we just wanted to leave!  Anyway, on to the pictures!  Just so you know, all of the rock formations have names and some of them are said to resemble certain things.  We all decided that somebody had way too much time on their hands!

This is me on our date being a nut.

If you look at the smaller formation immediately to the right of the large one in the middle, its supposed to look like Snoopy laying on top of his dog house.  It does kind of, but .....whatever.

Part of the trolley tour included the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Here is the website if you are more interested.  Basically, this lady built it in honor of her parents and anyone is welcome to come there free.

The two tall spires there are called the two sisters and the little knob immediately to the left of the larger one is supposed to look like the profile of Charlie Brown in his cap.

Sweet Zekey.  He and Sam sat outside the Del Sol store while we looked around and Sam decided to do a little photo shoot.

Lately, when he wakes up from a nap, his hair has been doing this funky fuzzy thing and it refuses to be tamed!:)

Mom and Braden chillin' at the Chapel.  Mom brought two digital cameras with her, but couldn't get either one to work.  She ended up using her phone some and we are going to send her the rest.:)

This is the entrance to the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

This, if I have my info correct is Cathedral Rock.  Apparently there is a vortex there, too.  I wonder if it could be called a wind tunnel instead? ;)

This "house" is directlly beneath the Chapel.  It is the vacation home of a family of four.  Its something like over 5000 sq ft. and it has an indoor pool with a waterfall.  That greenish dome on top is an observatory.  The driver made sure to point all of this out to us. Its not even finished yet.  Its been a five year project apparently.  Talk about nosy neighbors! hehehe

This is the inside of the Chapel

Mom sitting still trying to get her cameras to work.  By the way, that is the free tote bag she got from Del Sol.  The picture on the front is black and white inside and then it turns all those pretty colors in the sun.  Cool, huh? 

Sam and the boy-os. Yeah, just so you know, there is not gate or wall to keep you from plunging over the side of that low edging there.  Fun, huh?  Good thing my boys weren't interested in base jumping!

The front of the Chapel.

Inside the trolley in the very back.

The front of the tour trolley.  The boys really liked the trolley ride.  There were no windows.

This is from our little jaunt over to Flagstaff.  I took Mom up to the Sno Bowl area.  The road to the lodge was closed, so we just stopped for a minute to admire the scenery, snap a few pics and then drive back to Sedona.

More Flagstaff.  I love the trees.  It reminds me of the Durango, CO area.

More Flagstaff.  There was a couple of people who had brought their lawn chairs and were just chillin' out in this field.

Mom and Zekers on the Trolley.  Sorry, got the pics out of order. :p

Sewing Machine and other crafty things

Sam and I have been going back and forth about what kind of sewing machine to get lately.  The problem was that the one that I have is in storage in East Texas.  Since we don't know when we will get to get back there to get it, I was thinking that I would just get one of the little mini cheapy ones.  Well, for some of the things we are wanting to try out, that kind won't cut it by any means.  For instance, I'm wanting to try and make my own version of the Robeez baby/toddler shoes and Sam is wanting to try out some things with leather, too.  Yeah, that would be too much for one of those tiny sewing machines and as we got to looking, it would be a lot for a regular machine to handle well, too.  So, we ended up at a sewing machine/vacuum store and got to looking at all the different models and had actually thought of getting one of those old school semi-industrial ones.  The lady had one and though we really liked it, it was a lot heavier duty than we need at this time, not to mention heavy and super bulky.  Then I got to looking at some singers that she had that were heavy duty.  They cost less and had more options on it.  The other one only did a straight and zigzag stitch.  We both really thought that the heavy duty singer was more what we were looking for, but we have decided that any decision we make for a larger purchase should and would be slept on and prayed about and then talked to death.  We went ahead and did that, plus I looked up heavy duty sewing machines online to see if her price was comparable and it was actually less than what they normally go for.  We gave it a couple of days and then decided it was a good purchase to make.  The lady at the store was very generous with us and gave us an even better deal than we thought we were getting going in.  She had a floor model of the next model up and said she would sell it for the same price as the one we were going to get.  The floor models are set up along the wall on tables to give a demonstration of what the machine can do.  Yeah, we were all over that deal!  First of all, it has more options on it and of course that applies to my love of gadgetry and it was a better model for less which totally appealed to Sam.  So, we got that one instead and also got a case for it.  I never did have a case for my other one.  She also gave us extra needles and the feet that go with it and some other things for it.  The case cost about five dollars more than we could have gotten at Walmart, but with all the other stuff she just flat out gave us, it more than evened out.  Oh, by the way, my other one is a hand me down from my mom.  It is also a singer, so I'm familiar with their sewing machines.  If I'm not mistaken, my old one is over 20 years old and I've had it for over 7 years.  Also, I'm not planning on getting rid of it.  I think it will work just fine for our kids to learn on.  Braden has already been trying to get us to let him use our "new" one.  Not to mention it would be great to be able to use two machines at the same time if we needed to.  Fun times!:)  I do intend to get a case for it, too though.  Its important that little hands not be able to get a hold of it.  I went ahead and took a picture of it for your viewing enjoyment:

I also made a crochet wash rag.  This is my first "masterpiece" :p and I thought I'd share.  I'm actually thinking about embellishing the edges with a different color yarn, so when that happens, I'll take another picture.  Right now, I'm making a kitchen towel and I'm gonna make the kind that has a flap with a button so that you can hang it on a handle.  As soon as I'm done with that, I'll take a pic of that, too.  I'm thinking of trying a scarf or blanket next.  I'm still working on reading the patterns, so I'm probably going to have a headache after that project.  Michael's and Hobby Lobby were having a sale on yarn, so we now have a stash and I also got some more crochet needles and an instruction kit for knitting, though I'm not quite ready for that yet.  I also found a bag for keeping our yarn in and a little bag for keeping my current yarn and project in and a case for all our needles.  Yep, they were all on clearance!!!!  I love clearance stuff, especially when its something I've been looking at and comparing prices on.

The other thing of note in my crafty world is I got my tea towels from my swap partner.  They were sent from England.  I really like them.  The pattern and colors are perfect.  Here is a pic of what she sent:

No dig gardens

Sam and I came across this in Mother Earth News Magazine and thought it was very interesting.  Its called a no dig garden.  What you do is go and get bags of potting soil, poke holes in the bottom for drainage and root penetration, turn them over, cut out a rectangle in the top, lay it on the ground and plant your seeds or seedlings directly in the bag.  Voila, instant garden!  Isn't that cool?  There is more information on the following web sites for anyone this appeals to.  It really makes me want a yard, but I'll just have to wait for now.

Mother Earth News Article

Pinedale Online

The following two sites are buy a kit type.

Send a Cow

Gardens in a Bag