Two Challenges for 2012 and some Emily Pictures

The Day Each Year I Dread

Yes, that's my hubby up there!!!

I'm sure many women beg their husbands to get on the ladder and hang the Christmas lights.  Every year I tell Mike we can just decorate the lower half of  the house.  Mike says we aren't in the Christmas spirit if we don't decorate.  I only say not to hang the lights once (each year) after that I bite my tongue because this is important to him. 

I love you honey and I appreciate all you do for the family!

Now you are all probably wondering why I'm not holding the ladder for him!  I snapped a quick picture and got right back to bracing the ladder.

How do you decorate for the holidays?  Do you put up lots of lights?  Do you hang them from the top of a two story house?

Blessings,
Nancy

Finish What I Start

I have decided to make my mantra for 2012 "Finish What I Start."  I have so many unfinished projects.  Not finishing projects is not making me a happy camper and it does NOT glorify God.

I'm so good about getting big ideas and being excited about them, then I lose my enthusiasm and it never gets to completion.

This leads to clutter, unnecessary spending, guilt over having spent time and money to get things started, which in turn leads to feelings of low self-esteem because I feel poorly about myself.  I also feel overwhelmed. 

I see so many unfinished projects I don't know where to start.  I feel like people in the TV shows "Clean House" and "Hoarders" who have so much stuff they can't even start cleaning their homes.  They are too overwhelmed to even know where to begin.  I feel like that because I'm being pulled in so many different directions to this project or that project.  Then a great idea hits and I want to start yet another project.  "Oh this new project will be different," I tell myself.  When I finish this latest project it will bring me happiness and fulfillment.  This project needs to be started and it will make me better in some way.  (I'm going to say right now that in no way does my home look like a home of a hoarder, but I have the same feelings of overwhelm that they feel.)  You know, right now I'm looking at my Christmas tree.  It is beautifully decorated except it is missing one thing, the star at the top.  We decorated the tree before we left for Thanksgiving.  I wanted the house to be done when we returned.  I just ran out of time and the star was in another box and I just haven't made the time to dig it out and put it on.  It's just lots of little stuff like that.  Sometimes though it is big things like huge craft projects.  It's just too many things that just aren't done.  Ugh!

Why do I stop working on the project?  Good question.  Sometimes I get bored.  Sometimes the project seems too big and daunting.  Sometimes other commitments pull me away from it and then I lose interest.  Sometimes the prep work is overwhelming like the area is cluttered.  It is easier to walk away.  Sometimes I lose something necessary to complete the project. 

You know, many projects could probably be finished in a day or less if I put my mind to it.

You know what else?  God loves me anyway, just who I am.  It is me who doesn't love myself so much when I think about these failed attempts.

So I focus on NOW, not even waiting for 2012 to concentrate on my motto of finish what I start.  I will look at each project I come across.  If I need to finish it, I will take steps necessary to do so.  If its not necessary and I have no desire, I will get rid of it.  My goal is to finish two projects for every one I start.  To say I won't start any new projects until I finish what I already have would be unrealistic.

I'm also going to try and record my accomplishments.  I'll try to finish my daily tasks before doing other things like the computer.

Thank you God for helping me do this. 

Dear God, through your divine grace and mercy, help me be highly successful in my projects and that throughout doing them and upon their completion you are glorified.  ~Amen~

Thanksgiving in Kansas

Hi Friends,We are back home in New Mexcio after our visit to my parents in Kansas.  It was a nice but very short trip.  We celebrated an early Christmas with my side of the family.  For my new readers, here is who is in the picture.  Front row, our Emily, age 16, who I talk about all the time, my mom, our son Timothy who is now 14.  Back row, our oldest Katie who is 18 and my dad.  Mike and I are behind the camera.

What a blessing it is to have family.  My parents are in their mid 80's now.  My mom is a breast cancer survivor and my dad has finished chemo for prostate cancer.  His hair is so thin and gray now and since the chemo it has come back in with some curl.  Funny how things related to health change our hair.  With every pregnancy of mine, my hair got curlier!

I love my family soooo much!  We enjoyed your traditional turkey dinner with all the fixins.  On Friday I took mom shopping after lunch.  After the crazy black Friday crowds had died down and helped her get her Christmas shopping done.  Then yesterday we had an uneventful car ride home.  Katie drove the entire 10 hours home!  She wanted to!!  I pulled out my laptop and organized my photos on it as well as an enormous accumulation of documents I'd created over the years.

Today is quiet.  We'll be going to church in about an hour and I am going to make a menu plan and grocery list for the next couple of weeks.

I hope you all had a truly blessed Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm thankful for each of YOU!

This is just a pretty picture I took from the car during our ride home.  It was taken in New Mexico as the sun was setting.  This week I had time to reflect and think about goals and what I want for 2012.  One of the things I'd like is to become a better photographer and to document more of my life.

Baskets of blessings,

Nancy

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,
I am thankful for YOU!  As I bowed my head today in thanks, I am so grateful to our God for you and I treasure you with my heart.  You are loved both by Him and by me.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Nancy

Free Basket Pattern

Oh Friends, Have you seen the latest sweet pattern from Baskets of Joy?  It is an adorable little pocket basket.  I LOVE making these.  They weave up so quick and easy and it uses one of my favorite embellishments, a basket buckle  CUTE!  The pattern can be found HERE.  Baskets of Joy is offering the kit for this cutie for only $11.95 and that can be found HERE.  I've woven little pocket baskets like this one for teacher gifts.  They are a great size for those little list note pads.

Are you weaving baskets as Christmas gifts this year?  I'd love to hear what you are weaving.

Blessings,

Nancy

ps.  More quick prayers for Emily please.  Now on top of everything else she has gotten strep throat.  She is a sad and discouraged little girl.   :-(

Fall

The Albuquerque balloon fiesta is over.

The colors of leaves are just beautiful, especially along the Rio Grande.  (Our Rio Grande really isn't too Grande, more on the small side if you ask me.)

So it's time to get in gear for the holidays.  That's what's on my mind these days.  I've been busy making lists, cooking and my sewing machine has been going every day. 

I STILL have a few tomatoes, mostly green ones, on my plants!  I'm going to go out and pick the very last of them this morning because it is supposed to freeze tonight. 

I ran across this recipe for Green Tomato Relish from Allrecipes.com.  It is  5 star review with almost 100 reviews so I'm anxious to try it and will work on it tomorrow after church.

I had bought some pumpkins for Halloween and the kids never got around to carving them.  Guess my babies are growing up as they were all busy and didn't have the interest this year.  So yesterday I spent my day cooking these big suckers and getting the meat out and froze it.  I used THESE directions for cooking and freezing my pumpkin.  We will have enough pumpkin for any recipe I want to make throughout the year!

Today is certainly colder and very cloudy with a little rain this morning.  I have to pick up some contacts for Katie, pick those remaining tomatoes and then spend the rest of the afternoon inside where it is warm.  A cup of hot tea and a good book sound wonderful.  I finish off tonight by having a Scentsy party.  A great day!

So Happy Fall ya'll and stay warm!

Blessings,

Nancy

Emily Update

Dear Friends,
This picture was taken 6 weeks ago.  Emily was so happy to be selected for the high school dance team.  The tryouts were back last May.  In this picture she was in pain.  Over the last two weeks she has spent much time in bed and there are few days she can make it to school.  She has constant pain throughout her body and sleeps most of the day.  For those of you new to my blog Emily, our 16 year old daughter, has been suffering from Lyme's disease. 

It has been over 27 months since we have been dealing with this and things just seem to continue to get slowly worse.  (Maybe things are actually getting better, but it sure feels worse right now.)  It was last May when she started getting treatment for her Lymes.  For such a long time we didn't even know what it her mysterious illness was.  We've had good days and bad days throughout, but the bad days have become really bad days and are the norm.  I was hesitant about her trying out for the dance team, but I said nothing as I wanted her to be like the other kids and have the opportunity to do the fun things that girls her age get to do.  The doctors all say that it is important for her to keep exercising as well.

We were back to see her Lyme disease doctor a few weeks ago.  We see a specialist out of state for this and it was our second visit to him.  Lyme just seems to be like a game, some sort of a sick game where the bugs play hide and seek in a person's body trying to do their best to evade antibiotics.  Emily's medication changes monthly and I know it's hard on her body.  They, the doctors, say that because she is feeling so poorly that is actually a good sign as it means the Lyme bugs are dying off.  As those bugs dye they release a toxin in her body that causes the increased pain and fatigue.  Still, it has me second guessing myself every move I make with her.  She's got a box of prescriptions for this or that regarding her Lyme and pain pills don't seem to touch it.  Emily is so over all this pain, we all are.  It has been extremely discouraging lately.  Even though the increase in pain is supposedly a good sign, to be in such all over constant pain has led to some incredible depression and frustration.  There are many days Emily doesn't want to continue this life.  Still, as hard as this is, I give God thanks as I have to put my total faith that He is working behind the scenes and we will see evidence of this soon.  What else can I do?

We've gotten Emily on a plan at school that allows kids to miss days due to medical conditions.  In the past two weeks she has only been in school two days each week and since school started this fall she has never made it all five days each week.  I don't know how she can keep up.  That gives me stress, but I guess I just need to forget about that right now.  Education can always come later or with summer school, or whatever if needed.

So please, I sound like a broken record here, but continued prayers for Emily.  Pray that the pain leaves her body.  Pray for ultimate and complete healing.  Pray that she can fight the depression she is feeling and not take matters into her own hands and do something stupid.  Pray that each medication choice is the right one for her and pray for her doctor and his staff.  Also, pray for our other kids, Katie 18 and Timothy 14.  We do our best to spend quality time with them but they often get the shaft because of Emily's needs.  They understand, but it's hard on them too.  I think that's all.  Thanks friends.  I love you.

Nancy

ps.  Sometimes in the back of my mind I think that God is preparing Emily for something really great.  I picture her at an older age speaking to other children in pain with empathy in that she knows what they are going through.  I even picture Emily finally understanding why she had to go through what she is dealing with now and thanking God for it so that she was able to gain the knowledge and understanding to help others.  I guess this image helps me deal with it all.  I can't wait for the day that I can write you all a praise report.

A Work of Art

We might feel as meaningless as this blank canvas.  We might feel like we are a mess as with this painter.  But God is continually shaping, molding and creating us.  The video is only 2 minutes.  I hope you will take a moment to watch and remember that we are a work of art in God's hands.
I love this!
Blessings,
Nancy

Woven Sunflower - Check out the Petals!

This morning I was bouncing around from blog to blog.  You know how that is when you click on a link and it leads you somewhere and from there you see something of interest that leads you elsewhere.  Well, that is what happened this morning and I ran across a blog called My Great Finds.  Linda, the blog owner found this woven sunflower at a thrift store.  I thought it was neat.  The petals are made from coconut shells!  I can't quite tell about the rest of it though.  Looks like the center is made of twine or a cord but I'm not sure.  Anyway, I thought it was inspiring to incorporate coconut shells into a piece like this.  Can't you just imagine a free form basket that has some coconut shells added for interest? 

Hope you are all enjoying your fall.  We are gathering the last of our tomatoes over this next week.  The leaves on the trees are turning just beautiful right now.  God's paintbrush is in full swing with yellows, oranges, and reds.  I love the colors, but it means that winter is just around the corner.  (yuck).

Have a blessed weekend everyone,

Nancy