In a nutshell: Florida wildlife, amazing food, educational and fun aquariums, gorgeous sunsets, silky sand beneath our feet, and perfect surf making us wave with the ebb and flow. So relaxing and perfect for making us realize how much God has blessed us this last year!!!
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Knitting and needle arts have always been a part of my life. My great-grandmother does it all. She’s made all her own clothes since she was a teenager; knits, embroiders, crochets, and does a few other needle arts when she’s bored. My grandma mainly focused on cross stitch, embroidery, and rug making, and my mom knitted, crocheted and cross-stitched thousands of little gifts for family and friends. Before I was born my mom made a huge sampler that had rows of geese, sheep, shepherds and shepherdesses marching in rows above and below a quaint little thatched roof cottage that housed a proverb. I would stand for hours and look at it, following the texture of the wool embroidery thread with my eyes. Other aunts and relatives quilt and sew and I grew up tracing the patterns of cotton cloth and vinyl quilting thread with my fingers as I fell asleep. So when I attempt at making a pair of socks for myself and they end up a child’s small instead of an adult medium, it is easy for me to get really discouraged. I am not the great master of fine folk arts that my great grandmother is, nor the machine that turns coffee into wall art that my grandma was. But I do what I can and my husband is very encouraging. Before I took the kids to camp I decided to make all the girls little knitted turtle stuffed animals. It was an easy pattern but I was really nervous that the kids wouldn’t like them. So I waited a few days at camp before giving them to the girls, and in the meantime knit a scarf for a Christmas present. One of the girls plopped on the bed next to me and stared. “Whats that, crochet?” she asked. “No its knitting.” I retorted, feeling defensive – and then guilty that a 10 year old could make me feel defensive! “My Grandma knits.” The girl continued. Then with a sly look she said, “Are you a Grandma?” Rude little booger! But as I continued more and more girls crept up and watched, still making snide remarks but obviously enthralled. Then the requests for things that I make THEM started coming in. The day I put the turtles in a place where they could find them was a really good lesson for me. “OH Ms Rachel! You made US something!” was the elated cry as they compared the colors and sizes and tried to pick turtle-appropriate names for their new toys. And you know, those poor turtles got dragged everywhere for the rest of camp? To the lake, to the cafeteria, to the swimming pool… I was terrified they were going to be ruined, but those girls took good care of their new little treasures. I compare my little projects with the great masterpieces the matriarchs of my family make, and I feel completely incompetent. But despite that, I use the gift and talent God gave me to touch others. What areas of your life do you feel inept in? Do you think God can use that to touch someone else in a special way? “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 'Hey, whatcha doin today?' was the innocent text I received about 10:30 yesterday. I didn't have much planned so I agreed to help my friend and former bridesmaid to navigate our bus system in preparation for the oncoming semester. She wanted to save on gas money, and her bus fare would be free now that she was a student. I'm always up for an adventure, right?? Well... Remembering that, overseas, the bus was NEVER on time, and it was quite easy to get lost on it, I asked if she knew the schedule and which routes we would be taking. I was assured that 'Here in 'Merica" the bus arrives on a dependable, consistent 15 minute interval at each stop, and the routes were clearly marked on the website. Ha. We got to the bus station where two African American gentlemen were already waiting, smoking. "Good mornin to ya, ladies." One said as we walked up. We both said hi. "Ya'll are looking exceptionally good t'day!" we blinked and made no reply. After trying to find out where we lived and where we were going (which we gave very VAGUE answers to and I asked them the same questions to which they also gave vague responses to) my friend and I started talking about all our mission trips and various means of travel in various countries. After a while one of the guys noticed my wedding ring. "I see you are married." I smiled and nodded. "When'd you get married?" he asked. "August. So we're still newlyweds." I said, grinning extra wide and hoping he would take the hint that Kyle and I are HAPPILY married. The man nodded and made no response but a few minutes later they both got up and offered us their seats. It was very interesting, because I felt like when we first walked up we were being hit on, and they were trying to find out where we lived to find out where the party was. But once they saw that we were polite, educated ( my friend talked to me in a bit of spanish) and they found out that I was married and happily so, they started being really helpful and gentlemanly. It was kind of touching but I felt a very interesting lesson. Act like a lady and you'll earn the respect and treatment of being a lady. But most people aren't used to girls being ladies anymore, so they treat them bad. Of course that's not to say this will work always, as you'll see as I continue in our adventure. A friend gave me this sweater a couple of months ago, and as I was switching my winter clothes and my summer clothes in and out of closet and storage bins, I came across it. A lovely light blue cashmere with delicate lace around the neck and cuffs. There is just one problem. The moths went after it. There's a large hole in one shoulder. I'm having a conundrum because its not really something I can mend and maintain the original elegance of the piece, and cashmere is too gorgeous a fiber to not be elegant. So I'm considering ripping it all out and knitting it into something nice again. But that means ripping out the lace on the cuffs and neck, which - even though its clearly machine-made, is still beautiful. On the flip side I've wanted to be able to knit lace forever... and here is a wonderful opportunity to learn. On the flip side, I have a feeling it will take a while to master the art of lace-knitting... if I ever can. Ah wel. If my mother-in-law can doggedly persevere through my feeble attempts at a crochet lesson (All I know is the chain stitch. And she's left handed and I'm right handed. yeesh. I did get practice at becoming ambidextrous in that lesson tho!) then I guess I could persevere through teaching myself knitting lace. We'll see. Still conundrum-ifying about it. Growing up, I can't begin to count how many shows, fairs, conventions, and festivals my mom took my siblings and I to. Sometimes we went just as spectators, but usually we went to Home school conventions and we had a booth ourselves. When I wasn't helping mom to sell one of the many different curriculum's we used ourselves, I loved wandering the various booths - meeting more people, observing the differences in their booth layouts, watching how they interacted with customers. Craft fairs were another big thing we went to, although after a few tries we weren't vendors anymore and just went and watched. While we made a few small purchases, the main fun was entering our names into ever drawing, sweepstakes, and goodie basket we could find, sampling the samples, and gleaning as much information from the vendors without actually committing to buying anything. We'd always leave exhausted but thoroughly satisfied.
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AuthorA normal woman learning to serve an Extraordinary Lord in Ordinary ways, and watching Him turn it into Amazing Grace! © 2014-2015 Rachel Hester. All rights reserved. Archives
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