{ She Seeks Wool }

Upcycling Wool Sweaters

Ten years ago, I found a book that inspired me to make things out of old wool sweaters.

(Warm Fuzzies by Betz White)

It’s rewarding to sew something pretty and practical out of a castoff “holey” cashmere sweater, or Uncle Ralph’s vintage plaid wool cardigan.

 

After accumulating stacks of sweaters and a few handmade patterns, I started an Etsy* shop: (Wool Soup)

Things got a little better after the first disastrous order.

I had sewn the mitten thumbs on backwards.

The customer had said, “These just don’t seem to fit right.”

Here are some of the creations I have made and sold over the years:

My Etsy shop Tagline:

I enjoy taking something discarded and unloved, and making it into something useful & beautiful.

My desire to do this with scraps of wool is just an imperfect shadow of what God can do every day with people like me…and you.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”– 2 Corinthians 5:17

Shop Sale

• I am running a coupon now — good on all products in my shop.
• The HEART15 coupon code will give 15% off the cart at checkout until Valentine’s Day ~ 2/14/20.
• I don’t have a lot left in stock, but I’m adding new items regularly. And, I promise you won’t end up with any backwards-thumb-mittens.

More Etsy Shops

This week I have visited a few delightful Etsy shops hosted by other WordPress bloggers, such as:

• Encore Old Pianos — Gifts & Decor for Teachers, Musicians & Music Lovers
• ArtSnehal— Handmade watercolor painting of birds and flowers
• LePetit Saint Crochet — Making small things with great love

• TiffanyArpDaleoArt— Colorful paintings

• OBriens Bees— When a chemist and an engineer become beekeepers

 

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*Etsy is an online marketplace that sells unique handmade goods and craft supplies.

 

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{ This Valley }

This valley does not go on forever.

Just keep walking.

One step at a time. 

While you are walking

While you are praying

While you are looking up

The ground will rise to meet you,

The wind will suddenly be at your back

And sunlight will fall tenderly upon you.

You will know that God

Has been

Holding you gently

  In His loving grip.

~~~

“May the road rise to meet you, and the wind always be at your back. May the rains fall softly on your fields. May God hold you gently in the palm of his hand. — Traditional Irish Blessing

~~~

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. — Numbers 6:24-26

~~~

Photos:

K

Jeremy Bishop

Wolfgang Lutz

 Marc-Olivier Jodoin

This is one of my all-time favorite devotional books: Streams in the Desert.

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{ Better Than }

God’s steadfast love is better than life. ~ Psalm 63:3

A good name is better than great riches. ~ Proverbs 22:1

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. ~ Ecclesiastes 4:9

The end of a thing is better than its beginning. ~ Ecclesiastes 7:8

The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. ~  Ecclesiastes 7:8

To obey is better than sacrifice. ~ I Samuel 15:22

But God treats us much better than we deserve… ~ Romans 3:24

Consider others better than yourself. ~ Philippians 2:3

Photos:

 Annie Spratt

 Michal Janek

 Tim Marshall

{War Declared on Sin Today }

War declared on

SIN

today.

Zero tolerance.

No exceptions.

No questions asked.

No holds barred.

No ifs, ands or buts.

The enemy–

Including but not limited to–

Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth,

Will be apprehended and arrested

Without a phone call,

A trial,

Or a last meal.

Offenders will first be

Drowned in light,

Then beheaded with a double-edged sword

Followed by hanging from the highest gallows.

–The Management

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For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life. — Romans 8:13 TPT

~~~

I am reading this book,thanks to Brenda, who recommended it. 

Photos:

Museums Victoria

Henry Hustava

Aaron Burden

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{ Who Was Norma McCorvey? }

When the lawyers found her in 1969,  she was, “ill at ease, incapable of small talk, pale and unkempt besides. She looked like she got out of bed and forgot to comb her hair.” [x]

The pregnant plaintiff, Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey adopted the legal pseudonym Jane Roe in the 1973 Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade. 

Norma speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1998.

180 Degree Journey

Years later, Norma was working at an abortion clinic. An aggressive pro-life organization called Operation Rescue (OR) moved to the office next door. Amazingly, the two polarized groups coexisted on the site for more than a year. One of the OR staff members routinely brought her daughter in to work and she’d give Norma consistent hugs and invitations to church. This touched Norma McCorvey, and she finally accepted a request to join the girl’s family at their church.

What happened next could only be explained by a miracle; Norma’s life made a 180 degree turn.

Here are her words:

“I was sitting in OR’s offices when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. ‘Norma’, I said to myself, ‘They’re right’. I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby! It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth—that’s a baby!

I felt crushed under the truth of this realization. I had to face up to the awful reality. Abortion wasn’t about ‘products of conception’. It wasn’t about ‘missed periods’. It was about children being killed in their mother’s wombs. All those years I was wrong. Signing that affidavit, I was wrong. Working in an abortion clinic, I was wrong. No more of this first trimester, second trimester, third trimester stuff. Abortion—at any point—was wrong. It was so clear. Painfully clear.” [x] 

New Norma

In 1995, Norma embraced God’s love and forgiveness and her life completely changed. [x]

Norma McCorvey passed away February 18, 2017 at the age of 69. 

Her life has been discussed in books,  films, and many articles.  She tells her own story in the books:  I Am Roe and Won By Love. 

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Today is Sanctity of Human Life Day.

~~~~~

Baby feet photo:  Eric Froehling

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{ My Psalm 139 }

Dear God,

You have searched my heart

• Inside and out
• Up and down
• All the way through

(and that would scare me a little, if the searcher was anyone but You)

Because there are some:

• Cluttered corners
• Dusty nooks
• Untidy spots

In this heart of mine.

But because YOU are the One pointing the spotlight,

I know that you see it all and love me still.

Your searching light doesn’t drive me away…instead it draws me.

So go ahead and search –

(I can’t escape that loving lens anyway.)

If I try to hide under a pile of feeble plans and works

You smile and shine bright on me.

If I disguise myself in one of my favorite masks,

You lift it off and embrace me.

Using toys, tricks, and hopeless distractions

I cover myself.

But you know I’m there.

You saw all my thoughts and future words

even before I was born.

You scrutinized it all when you were:

• Secretly crafting me
• Masterfully molding me
• Uniquely carving out my days and ways

And you keep on weaving, sculpting and sovereignly decorating me from the inside out.

Your work makes me

• Stand up and celebrate
• Kneel down and weep
• Glad to praise you forever

And while You keep shining Your light,

We will keep clearing out the clutter.

I will grip Your hand and

Follow Your path into eternity.

~~~

Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.

{ Blizzard-Ready}

We enjoyed Homeschool Ski and Snowboard Day last Monday.

Hyland Hills in Bloomington, Minnesota is a tame spot for beginning skiers, and the 26 degree January day was perfect.

Anyone walking in to the chalet could tell it was a homeschool event — crockpots were everywhere, and the air smelled like patchouli and lavender essential oils.

Now, we are bracing for more snow, and true to our nature, Minnesotans are frantically storming the grocery stores to stock up, like we may be snowed in for months.

I confess I left the house at 6:00 a.m., determined to beat long lines and the blizzard.

After being urged last night by one of my teenagers to get some “fun food,” (as opposed to gloomy, drudgerous food?) I grabbed a few essentials:

• meat
• kombucha
• microwave popcorn
• hot chocolate mix
• coffee and herbal teas
• heavy cream for the coffee
• makings for soup and homemade no-knead bread. (Not the boring soups I usually make from leftovers) but Copycat Olive Garden soups, like Zuppa Toscana.

In addition to these staples, we are armed with *anti-cabin fever* activities:

• Season 2 of Gilligan’s Island DVDs, purchased at GoodWill
• Crispin: At the Edge of the World. I love the Crispin books by Avi, and I wish I’d known about these when we were studying the Middle Ages.
• A new puzzle. This is our third Mudpuppy puzzle, and it’s Kaleido-Beetles! I like Mudpuppy puzzles because they have three pictures of the finished puzzle for reference as you go, making it easier for 3 or more people to work on the puzzle.
  

  

Other Mudpuppy puzzles we have ordered are the 1000-piece Ocean Life, 500-piece Songbirds and 500-piece Butterflies of North America.

I’m glad we are ready, because it’s starting to snow…

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{ A Full Cart }

You’ve probably never encountered this embarrassing situation, but have you ever seen anyone come up short of cash at the grocery checkout?

It could happen to you. You enter the store, hoping only to get a few necessities. You add prices as you go:

Romaine….almond milk….unsalted butter…shredded cheddar — we’re at $12.50 now…

But when you arrive at the checkout tribunal, the cashier pronounces the total and you know immediately that you are convicted. Although you frantically rummage around in the bottom of your purse and find a warped and forgotten checkbook, the cashier shakes her head. “We don’t take checks anymore.”

Moments before, your fellow customers were on your team. You eyed the long checkout lines together, rolled your eyes and waited as one.
Now, you are the criminal, holding up the line, found financially wanting. Although you definitely don’t make eye contact with them, you know they are judgmentally and impatiently tapping their toes.

How have you come to this place?

Somewhere between the frozen broccoli florets and the applesauce squeezies, things started to break down. Perhaps you mindlessly tossed a quart of spumoni into your cart, followed by a bag of artisan coffee beans instead of the generic variety. And maybe your ten-year-old slipped a discounted Lego set in there at the last minute. Either way, your budget has gone unheeded.

Thus begins the humiliating process of deciding what to put back — starting with the Lego figures, followed quickly by the spumoni.

This is highly humbling, which is actually the silver lining to all this. Like a dentist’s drill, it’s something you resist, but it’s good for you in the long run. The flesh cringes at the thought of being humbled, but the God-seeking soul craves it.

This is the point: I woke up at 3:00 a.m. last night, with dozens of thoughts, which tumbled out in rapid succession as prayers to the God who never sleeps.

It suddenly occurred to me that I could keep adding requests to my prayer cart and it would never be too much for Jesus. He is like a welcoming cashier that would be saying:
“Get some more! There’s a BOGO on requests today! Go grab another — right there! Fill up your cart and put ‘em all down! Don’t worry, you have all the time in the world — there’s no one behind you!

A full cart. An unlimited supply. A generous God who has already paid for everything. I never have to decide if it’s too big or small to bring something up to the Throne of Grace…and I never have to put anything back.

~~~
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. — John 14:13-14

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. — Philippians 4:6

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! — Luke 11:13

{ Like an Eye-Opening Ride Through An Undiscovered Village}

We are studying similes and we are trying to avoid the trite cliches that are “as old as the hills”, so we are making up our own. Everyone chose five abstract nouns and wrote two similes for each one. I thought these were some of the best:

 

• He felt freedom like a feather in the open air.
• Hatred melted away like a stream in the spring.
• Reality is like a punch in the face. 
• Forgiveness is like a safety net.
• The crime was as big as a bonfire.
• His anger was like a house-eating wildfire.
• He was as dishonest as a killdeer.
• Their romance was like a budding flower — ever changing.
• His anger bubbled up like a volcano.
• Accepting defeat is like trying to know somebody you’ve never met.
• His adventure was as fun as a ride at ValleyFair.
• The moonlit snow sparkled like a thousand tiny jewels.
• Jealousy is like hair loss; it might take someone else to point it out.
• He was as calm as a painting.
• His hatred was as hot as a burning furnace.
• Music is like a therapy session.
• He was as fast as a full-grown cheetah in the desert.
• The lion’s power was like a legion of angry dragons.

 

“Reading these similes was like an eye-opening ride through  an undiscovered village.” — Me

Feather photo by Alexander Sinn

Crazy Like A Fox Simile Story

Similes Dictionary    |        Figures of Speech Poster   |  You’re Toast  – Metaphors

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{ Finally Learning or I Get to Go to School 11 Times }

We are finally in the 1970’s in homeschool history, and this will shine a spotlight on why — for us —  homeschooling has been the best way to go: 

this may be the first time in my life I will truly understand what was happening in my childhood when I was too young to comprehend or care. 

Questions like the following will be answered for all of us: 

• What is Watergate and why did they call it that?
• Where and what was Camp David?
• Who was the Shah of Iran? 
• Why did they put yellow ribbons all over fences and buildings?

As I assigned a few reports to my oldest homeschoolers yesterday, they didn’t get why I danced around the kitchen, singing “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Tree” and got busy reserving “All the President’s Men” from the library website. They didn’t understand why I told them to: “Write the first paragraph of the report like a newspaper article — like a summary; like “Watergate for Dummies.” Explain the start of the Islamic Republic of Iran like you were explaining it to a child. 

Hooray! I might finally understand all this stuff. More soon.

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Images:

Richard Nixon: Image by gfk DSGN from Pixabay

Foshay Tower, Minneapolis, MN.  January 25, 1981

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