Headin' Out

Watch out, world!  Here he comes!

(And we are so happy to have some warmer weather!  Love it!)

Solution!

How I solved the "I hate the vacuum" stage:

(Picture taken by Bella)

Tutorial: Re-purposing a Baby-doll Shirt into a Girls' Skirt

I'm on a roll this week.  When I have vision, I just have to make it happen!  And now, you get to benefit from it, since I actually took step-by-step pictures this time around :)

Just FYI: This skirt, as I made it, is probably a Girls' size 6.  Bella wears a size 5 now, and she has some growing room in this one. (Just the way I like it!)

This is what I started with.  I accidentally cut it before taking a picture, but I did the best I could to get the same affect...imagine with me:

Cute Baby-doll style shirt.  It just looked kinda weird on.  It hit in an odd spot in the length, and the bodice was just awkward.  So...a skirt for Bella...

First, I cut the bodice from the bottom of the shirt.  I just used the seam-line as a guide.

This fabric was a bit thin.  I didn't have any other shirts in the stash that I could use for an underskirt, but I had some extra white fabric sitting in my closet, so that's what I used.  You can use whichever.

If you use another shirt:

 make sure to use the bottom edge as your bottom edge of the underskirt (so you don't have to do a hem), and make it so that the bottom edge of the underskirt is a little shorter than the outer skirt.

Turn the bottom of the baby-doll shirt inside out and use it as a guide to cut the inside fabric (extra fabric or another shirt), so that you are able to include seam allowances. (you'll need to cut 2 layers!)

Next, sew the two pieces of the "inside skirt" fabric on both sides, using a 1/4" seam allowance, and serge to finish seams (if you don't have a serger, you can use a zig-zag stitch on the outside of the seam.  The point is to finish the seams to make them more durable, and less likely to fray.)

Turn the inside skirt fabric right side out, but keep the outer skirt fabric inside out.

Put the "inner" fabric inside the "outer fabric, so that the right sides are together.  It should look like this:

Pin together at the top, matching the side seams, like this:

Sew a 1/4" seam along the top edge and serge.

Turn right side out.

Using a zipper foot (I refer to it as my top-stitching foot), top-stitch the top seam, along the top edge, using the right side of the zipper foot as your guide.

Mark the middle of the back of the skirt with a pin.

Starting about 1/2" from the pin, sew a casing large enough for your elastic to pass through easily.

I used 5/8" elastic and made a 1" casing (I had to make my own mark on my machine for this one...)

Don't connect the beginning and end of the stitching!!  

Make sure to leave about an inch for an opening.  Like this:

Measure your elastic, based on waistline measurement (where your little one wears her pants/skirts) +1 inch.

Bella's measurement was 21", so I measured 22" of elastic.

Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and use it to guide the elastic through the casing (in between the two skirts).

Make sure not to lose the loose end!!

Check to make sure the elastic isn't twisted anywhere.

Now, overlap the ends of the elastic about an inch, and sew together, back and forth, to secure.  Do this in two places - just a bit from each of the ends.

Tuck the elastic into the casing, and secure in place by making a stitch from the top-stitch seam down to the casing seam, and back.

Stretch out the elastic to evenly distribute the gathers.

Make a stitch on the side seams, over the elastic, from the top-stitch to the casing stitch, just like you did on the back of the skirt.

Don't skip this step!!

This secures the elastic, and keeps it from rolling and twisting. 

Complete the casing seam in the back of the skirt.

If no hemming is required, then ignore this next step.   If, however, you used extra fabric for an underskirt, and you need some help with hemming, here's what to do:

Fold the bottom edge of the fabric over 1/2" and iron in place, all the way around, using a measuring tape to make sure it's even.

Now, fold this over again, with the edge of the fabric now as close to the fold as possible.  Press and pin in place.

Use a zipper foot again (but use the left side as a guide this time) and stitch along the top edge of the hem.

It should look like this when finished:

Turn it all right side out, and look what you have:

Just makes her want to twirl around and dance barefoot in the grass...

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll try to answer them the best I can :)

Enjoy!!

Taking a Moment to Brag: Bella

I'm taking a minute to brag on this beautiful girl:

Isabella has been doing so, so well lately.  

She really does try her hardest to listen and obey (Right away, all the way, in a happy way).   If I mention that she's having a hard time with this, she stops, goes and sits down, and talks to God for a while...then she comes back and tells me "Mommy, I asked Jesus to help me listen and obey better today."

She has been doing her "special job" every week without complaint - getting the laundry basket out of the laundry room, putting she and Balian's dirty clothes in it, taking it to the livingroom and separating the lights and darks, putting the first load in the washer, and helping me start it (really she can do everything - even knows what buttons to push - she just can't reach the detergent and sometimes needs help pushing the button to dispense it.)

Bella makes her bed by herself every morning when she wakes up...on the top bunk.

She has been incredibly helpful with so many things.  She helps me put drinks and plates of food on the table before and helps me clear the table after meals, without being asked.  She helps Balian with so many little things like putting socks and shoes on, and even helps him wipe his booty! 

Don't get me wrong, this little lady is by no means perfect.  She understands though that nobody is perfect.  Only Jesus was perfect, and that's why we need Jesus to help us every day.

So when she knows that she is having a rough day - arguing, complaining, disobeying, being too rough, whatever it is - she knows who can help her to do better.

I can't wait to see what God has in store for this little beauty.

May she grow to live out her name and be "Devoted to God" in all that she does!

Sew Fun: Upcycled Play Dress

What you can make out of two of your old shirts:

She loves it and wanted to wear it immediately!
I've got a stack of stuff I took out of my closet that has potential...I'll be posting them as I make them :)

Project: Kitchen

Gleaning

The Lord is filling me to overflowing.
Is it possible to stop time just to be able to take it all in and really chew on everything that He's teaching me?

The past couple of weeks, I have been bombarded almost with opportunities to glean what others have planted as far as how to better disciple my children.
I've been amazed as I have witnessed the possibilities.
From Bible lessons to memory verses.  From activities together to teaching children the discipline of spending quiet time with the Lord.  A whole new world is opening up before my very eyes - a world that I not only never thought was possible, but a world that I never even knew existed - or COULD exist!
And God continues to pour out on me.
It's not a certain formula.  It's an attitude of the heart.
And I'm no longer content.  I'm bursting at the seams.

For the first time, I think I'm truly beginning to understand the calling of motherhood.
The gravity of that calling.
The legacy that living out that calling can mean.
and what does it mean to leave a legacy?
When your sons and daughters can glean what you have learned the hard way.  When they "just know" how to truly teach their children how to walk in the Lord because they are simply repeating what was taught to them.
That is a legacy.  And there is something amazing about that.
Because unless we choose to be different, to stop what has been done generation after generation...the natural thing to do is repeat what we know.  repeat what we have been taught.  We, as parents, tend to repeat how we were parented.  Sometimes it isn't a good thing.  However, when children are taught the Word of God and are taught how to apply the Word of God to their lives, that will be what they repeat with their children.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6)

Nobody is perfect.  Nobody does it perfectly.  We all need the Grace of God everyday to empower us to do anything good.
And that's where it has to start.  Everyday surrendering my heart - my thoughts, my words, and my deeds - my attitude, and my mood - fully to Him - so that He can give me the full measure of Grace that I need for that day.  It's learning what true love is - putting others first.  Putting our children before ourselves.  Choosing Joy.  Choosing contentment.  Jesus knows that I am so far from attaining this that it almost seems as far as east is from the west.  But through Him, nothing is impossible, and as far as the east is from the west is how far he has already cast my sin.
It's an attitude of the heart.  And being filled with the Holy Spirit anew every day.
His mercies are new every morning.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds...teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up."
-Deuteronomy 11:18-19

Word for Word

"Ok, Bella, circle everything that starts with /d/."
"But Mama, the doughnut is already a circle."

"Mommy, why is the sun not showing?  Is it still sleeping?"
"Well, Bella, the sun is awake, but the clouds are covering up the sun so we can't see the sunshine."
"Why are the clouds being so mean to the sun?  That's not nice!"

Shabbat

The beginning of the year is always special.  It reminds us of new beginnings.  A fresh start.
God seems to use this time of endless resolutions - the time when people are actually thinking about what happened in their lives over the past year, and what they want to change in the next, to help us see where we need to grow - to change - to be pruned.  He also uses it to show us where we need to focus, what we need to pray more diligently for, and also where we need to step out in faith - or just simply have faith as small as a mustard seed so that we can see the power that a small bit of faith holds.

Again, as I've stated before, I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions."  It's not that I think resolutions are bad.  No, just the opposite actually.  I just feel like I am consistently making resolutions - setting goals - tweaking and changing through trial and error - and I should be listening to the Lord constantly to hear what he has to say.  Because honestly, if I don't see somewhere that I need to change about a million times or more throughout the year, then I'm probably not as close to the Lord as I should be.  If I'm not in His Word, then I won't see that there is any need for change.  I won't see how far I am from the perfection of the Lord, the very One that I need to represent with my thoughts, words, and deeds each and every day.  And if I'm not spending time in prayer, then nothing around me, or inside of me for that matter, is going to change.
We don't receive because we don't ask.
So God works at the beginning of the year the same way that He works throughout the entire year, and sometimes (most of the time, really) there is something that He shows us at the beginning of the year - to kind of focus our attention - our affections - on Him.
In years past, He has called us to fast.

This year, He has called us to eat.
sort-of.

We celebrated our first Shabbat with our Church Family on New Years Eve, and we have continued it since, every week, at our home.  Neil and I had been learning a lot about Jewish Festivals - The Spring Festivals (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits - that Jesus all fulfilled) and the Winter Festivals (Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles - that are "practice" for what has yet to be fulfilled).  While studying this, we also were learning about the Sabbath (Shabbat).

How many times had we really thought about the fact that obeying the Sabbath and keeping it Holy is a command, not a suggestion?  Yup.  One of the 10.

Jesus says that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27, Matthew 12).  What I think he was condemning was the Pharisees extreme legalism about the Sabbath.  They got onto Jesus for healing on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10-14).  They got onto Jesus for letting his disciples collect grain to eat on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23, Matthew 12).  And he's saying "Look.  God didn't say that you couldn't move a muscle.  He said to honor the Sabbath.  to keep it Holy."  That doesn't mean you become bound by it to the point that you can't lift a finger (or a dish, or a diaper), or take care of things if a circumstance arose, but you need to have a reverence for it.  To treat it as a special day.  If you have a job, you need to only work the first 6 days, and rest the 7th, just as God did.  When you're at home, you need to try to set this day aside for rest, and time with the Lord.  Spend time with family.  Have fun.  Relax.
But in our culture, even this is difficult.  Sometimes it's out of our control when we have to work.  Most of the time, Neil works 10-hour days Monday-Thursday.  But when it's outage time at the plant, he could be on days, he could be on nights, and when he works is based on a rotation, so you just never know.

What we feel God is showing us is this: set it apart, if and when it is at all possible.  That's the very definition of Holy, isn't it?  Set apart.
And the Jewish culture has a beautiful way of doing this.  It's called Shabbat.  A celebration of the Sabbath.
We have a special dinner together.  Think along the lines of Thanksgiving - just not so gluttonous, but still a lot of food - and every week.  Neil has learned to smoke a chicken to amazing perfection.  I make Challah bread (pronounced Halla, with an "H" like you're clearing mucus out of the back of your throat).  It's a rich egg & honey bread, braided with 3 strands of dough (a chord of 3 strands is not quickly broken).  We use 2 loaves to represent the double portion that God promises to the Israelites for the Sabbath - and he provided a double portion of Manna on the 6th day so they would not have to collect it on the 7th day. (we definitely always have a double portion or more of food...leftovers for the day of rest, for sure!)  We have 2 candlesticks that I light as I open in prayer at the beginning.  We wash our hands.  We thank God for providing.  We break bread.  We pass the cup.  Not the cup of suffering and sacrifice that led to salvation, as in communion, but a cup of Joy.  It's a time of rejoicing.
But the part that really stuck out to us when we were learning about it is this: the blessings.
Part of Shabbat is that the husband/father speaks blessings over each of his children.  It's a special time that he takes them, lays hands on them, and speaks blessings over them - and encourages them in accomplishments, character that has been built, or other things worthy of praise that the father has witnessed in the child's life that week.  Then, he speaks blessings over his wife (I'm rather fond of this part).  He prays Proverbs 31 over her, and encourages her - and encourages the children to praise her (to "Rise up and call her blessed.")
Yes, we praise our children as part of everyday life, but this is a special time - to make a point to say things that maybe you didn't get an opportunity to do throughout the busy week.  To Bless them - to speak things that are not as though they were.  There is power in that.  If you call a boy a knight or a warrior, and speak to him as though he were one, he will rise up and become one, because that's what he comes to believe about himself and his abilities. We name our kids intentionally.  We want them to grow into their names, and live out what their names mean.  Balian means "warrior".  We want him to grow to become a warrior for God's kingdom.  A prayer warrior, and one that will fight for God's Truth.  So we bless him - "May you become a warrior for God's kingdom - one who, like Stephen, loves the Lord more than his very life."  That's a good place to start anyway.

It's just beautiful.  We follow a Messianic version, so everything that we do puts Jesus as the focus.  It's not just some ritual that we do just because.  We have a reason.  We love it.  We look forward to it, and our kids do to.
One day, while my kids were playing with dried beans and Tupperware (yes, they can do this for about an hour), Bella was pouring beans over Balian's hands, saying what we say at Shabbat when we wash our hands:  "I dedicate my hands to you, Jesus, to serve you only."  Yes, they are just repeating what they have heard, and what they say, but there is profound truth to that.

Bella gets excited about our "Special Dinner".  She likes to help me set the table and get everything ready.  Balian's favorite part is sitting down to dinner and saying "Shabbat Shalom!"
Isaiah's favorite part is eating the bread.
All three kids are all smiles as Neil lays hands on them and blesses them.  It's a special time.

Most of the time we end up breaking out into spontaneous songs of praise at some point.

And I can't help but think that God smiles as he sees us setting this time apart - to remember that we should have a day of rest - making it easier to consciously have a true day of rest the next day.
I can't help but think that this may have a lot to do with breakthroughs and changes in our house.  As we honor God, he honors us.

There's still one part of Shabbat that we aren't so sure about though - The specific day.  As Christians, most of us make Sunday our day of rest.  When did this change, and why?  The early Christians still went to the synagogue and observed the Sabbath on Saturday - the 7th day of the week (and Messianic Jews still do), so it couldn't have simply been because Jesus rose on the First day of the week.  It's not my wish to be legalistic.  I just want to honor God the way he has asked me to.  Commanded me to.  If he says to rest specifically on the 7th day of the week, then why did everything get changed to Sunday?  Are we breaking God's command?
For now, we've been celebrating Shabbat on the day of rest we have been accustomed to (Saturday night, for a day of rest on Sunday), until we get specific guidance on this one.
But no matter the day - it has been so, so special to our family.
Just wanted to share.

Responsibility? What's that?

I've been searching for responsibility charts for my kiddos, but I haven't found one that I like.  Neil and I don't like the idea of rewarding our kids for things that they are expected to do as part of a contributing member of our family. However, I do like keeping a record - if for no other reason than the child being able to see what they have and have not accomplished.  Perhaps not now, but eventually, we want to reward them (with money) for chores above and beyond their normal duties.  And we want to use this as a tool for teaching money management - saving, tithing, and spending wisely.

Well today I found a stinkin' awesome tool to do this.  It incorporates all of this.  A list of chores each child is expected to do as a contributing member of the family, the chores that they can choose to do for pay, accountability for doing those tasks and reporting it (kinda like a time card, so to speak), and then how to manage the money they are given on their "payday".  If you want to buy it, you can.  I think it's about $40 or so.  I think I'll use this as a guide to make a system for our family.  Either way, I think it's great.  check it out:

Fisher Kids Responsibility System