A birthday

My firstborn turned TWELVE. I'm amazed at how time flies-I well remember those newborn days-ditching the cradle notion and getting over(fast!)my uneasiness about having him sleep next to me. My mother said, "You hold that baby ALL THE TIME. " And she was right! But now I can't. At the rate he's going he'll be looking me in the eye in another year or so. He's already 5'7"! What a great young man he is becoming-Mark and I are so blessed-it's so wonderful to see God at work in the hearts of your children!

I bought some western-themed fabric a few years ago, intending to make a cowboy quilt for this boy, and I realized that I had better get to it before he's completely outgrown the rather juvenile style of some of the fabric. I had one big disappointment-my Elnasuper quit halfway through the quilting(I do all the quilting on the Elna since I have a walking foot for it) I suspect-and hope-it's just the foot control. Thankfully, I chose a low loft batting and the Viking was able to take over and finish it up for me. Now all it lacks is the binding!
Joshua likes it and is looking forward to adding it to his pile of blankets :~)

Some sewing

I finished Catherine's corduroy dress this evening. Nice and basic-I've used this pattern before, and have two more cut out for wearing this summer. Seems like all of a sudden, none of her dresses fit well. My mother is sewing some-it was supposed to be one, but then last time I talked to her, she said she was 'finally on the last one', and I was so surprised I forgot to go back and clarify :~) She still wears an 8 in this pattern-I'm so glad. In today's world, once we pass a size 8, suitable styles become harder to find, even in sewing patterns :~( But then I do confess to being picky...
I also sewed up some book covers-one for my GraceWorks planner and one for my Bible. My Bible cover has pockets on the front and back for note paper/pens. My planner cover just has one front pocket. They were not hard to do and I love having the straps for easy carrying!

Home improvements

Over our Christmas break I did a bit of work on our bathroom walls. This project started out in our tiny bathroom and then spilled over to the larger main bath. We had several areas on our bathroom walls that were very uneven/torn because of re-doing the shower area a while back.(We had a leak! Horrors!) They needed several layers of joint compound, then priming, and painting. (The $ for all this was one of our Christmas gifts :~) One of my favorites, actually) I sewed a new curtain and matching shower curtain to coordinate with the new paint. The actual color is hard to capture with my camera-the walls remind me of caramel sauce!
Since I already had the joint compound out...I decided to smooth out the walls of the main bath-which were painted to look like stucco(I think...) We took down the old mirror and saw this! A good sized hole! That's the brick of the chimney in the den! Looks like a medicine cabinet was once there. Thankfully, my dear husband had an extra piece of sheetrock in the garage, and he cut it to fit, and installed it for me. I used the paint that was left over from our bathroom and added a good bit of basic white to enable me to use it for the second bathroom as well.
These were big projects, bigger than I initially realized, but I am so glad to have them done! There are some imperfections-I am not a professional, but I learned a lot, and am pretty happy with how it looks. This one is my children's bathroom, and I know they are enjoying the "new" look.

In this new year

I have been leaning more on my GraceWorks planner. I began using the Beautiful Life Manager pages last year but had been skipping some things. So in December I began working on implementing more steps and am really enjoying the results! They played a big part in getting two big projects broken down to more manageable levels(redoing the walls of both bathrooms!)
I recently bought one for my older two children and they are enjoying using them as much as I am! The best part about using GraceWorks is the little reminders of our true priority sprinkled throughout the pages. When undertaking the goal of becoming more organized, it is so easy to lose sight of our true goal-honoring and loving our Lord. These pages are great about keeping this far more important goal in my mind.