"I have a peace about it" : do you really?

There seems to be a common trait within most of us.

The need to do or have or be - as soon as we can.

Regularly we're told via social media, magazines, friends, famous people and 'inspirational' posters to push through our doubts and fears and forge ahead to achieve our dreams or desires. 

And sometimes that's the right thing to do.

But other times it's not.

A good idea may not be a God idea, and just because you have a 'peace' about it doesn't mean it's God either.  

After all, remember Jonah? 

He was God's prophet, and after disobeying a command the Lord had given him he fled, taking passage on a ship that (he believed) would take him away from the presence of God. 

Now I think I would have been pretty freaked out if I'd run away from God and not done as He'd instructed me, especially if I was one of His prophets, but once Jonah got on that ship he wasn't rattled at all.

In fact, he went down to the bow of the ship and promptly fell asleep. As a 'mighty tempest' raged across the ocean and scared the wits out of everyone else on that boat, Jonah did not stir at all. The storm was so wild that the crew were tossing cargo overboard to avoid sinking, yet Jonah slept soundly until the Captain, angry and fearful, shook him awake and demanded Jonah cry out to his God.

 Jonah's peace had came from his own decision to do what he  wanted, from separating himself from God's plan and command. 

Jesus is another example of how following the right path doesn't always bring peace.

In the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion Jesus knew what the Father required of Him and He was in anguish, sweating beads of blood and asking three times in prayer if there was another way. 

Yet He obeyed His Father to the Cross despite His anguish, reconciling God and man through His death and glorious resurrection because it was the right path, the only path, the God way - not the peaceful way.

Grasping this was a huge thing for me, a life changer. Once again I understood that I am clay, a cracked earthen vessel which is blessed to carry the Holy Spirit inside, yet will always mix holy truths with human failing. Therefore I must not act rashly on a decision because I feel  a sense of peace but always question my motives and consider the uncomfortable option as well because everything I do in life must glorify God above anything else.

I must practice the art of waiting on the Lord until I'm sure the path ahead of me is the one He would have me follow - then even if I do make a mistake, as long as I've put my own wants aside and done what I truly believe the Lord requires (as hard and not-peaceful as that can be at times) I can trust Him to work it out to His glory.

Let's not be so comfortable with our "I have a peace about it" feelings?

It won't hurt to question them.

It may even help us hear more clearly the promptings of the Holy Spirit in the future...

hugs

Medical Note on Luke 22:44 : “hematohidrosis.” “Around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form.” Under the pressure of great stress the vessels constrict. Then as the anxiety passes “the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture. The blood goes into the sweat glands.” As the sweat glands are producing a lot of sweat, it pushes the blood to the surface - coming out as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.

Pie, stitching and some news...

After showing some photos earlier this month I was asked to share the recipe for this simple Lemon Meringue Pie I made for a family dinner recently so if you're one of those lovely ladies you'll find it over HERE at my food blog...

There's a link in that post for you to download the recipe and save to your computer, or maybe you'd like to print it up and store it in your recipe folder for easy access?

I much prefer to have recipes printed and waiting for me because I browse my home-made recipe folder the same way I'd browse a purchased cookbook. This is especially useful on Monday mornings when I write out the week's menu plan and create a shopping list.

Turning the pages of my battered folder reveals many family favourites that go back further than I can remember, as well as recipes I've found online which now sport scribbled notes down margins and across the ingredients list because I've 'tweaked' them to our personal taste. 

As I shared the other day, my plan this year is to create personal hand written recipe folders as birthday gifts for my daughters, but first I'll compile a new one of my very own as this can be the definitive 'spine' I'll refer to when putting their folders together later.

The nice thing about this project is all the practice it will take.

After all, each family recipe MUST be tested before I add them to the girl's books, right? 

If you like, I'll share a few here along the way.  

Behind the scenes I'm stitching new patterns for the February issue of The Stitchery Club...

...as well as having discussions with my sweet Blossom about her joining Elefantz!

I can't say much right now, but it's no secret we're very close and having her 'here' to work alongside me on a new arm of Elefantz Designs (that will be hers to oversee and run) is giving me a mile-wide-smile.

I've always loved the idea of family businesses. Those "Smith & Sons" kind of signs that swing from the eaves in old western movies appeal to my sense of tradition and keeping people you love close. 

Not at all sure what our sign could be, but working side by side will bless our socks off! 

We can even set up a crib close-by for bubby when he or she arrives in 26 weeks time.

Oops, I am running ahead of myself - better slow down, catch my breath, and let this unfold one small and joyful step at a time.

Good things take time, people take time.

In the meantime we can have as many 'business meetings' over coffee and cake as we like, and when the time is right and if the Lord is leading, things will just fall into step with our lives.

This will be a gentle direction for sweet Blossom, which is perfect for her health needs.

 

...for your prayers over my girls, Aisha & Blossom, and their various health issues this week.

All is well, and though they both need more medical treatment and careful monitoring through the remainder of their pregnancies, they are fine and dandy and taking life much easier.

Right now I'm off to change before I pick up Blossom for our first 'business meeting'...at a cafe with great coffee and delicious cake. Such a chore....yeh, right! LOL!

Have a fabulous day!

hugs

 

Family and recipes...

Family: 

The people God placed us within the midst of, the ones who know the nuts and bolts of who we really are, warts and all. The blood-bound-hearts who can cause our own hearts to ache, break, or flourish.

Family has been on my mind a lot this past week. 

I remembered my mum on the 23rd as it would have been her birthday, and realised that all my daughters are now older than she was when a drunk driver took her life back in '62.

Mum was 21, and my dear Blossom is almost 22. I hugged Bloss tight that day and thanked God for her milestone and the first new life she carries now within her womb. 

Yesterday it was Nana who came to mind, the loving 'mother' who in her fifties and after raising three children of her own and her sister's two babies as well, gathered me close and started over again with a toddler.

Nana loved forget-me-nots, watching sport on the telly with Pop, and scones - so I baked scones, drank coffee from my forget-me-not-in-honour-of-nana-mug and watched the tennis with Mr E.

And I thanked God for the privilege of having her love me through 22 years...

This is where Mr E and I eat lunch on the weekends (or public holidays like yesterday) and dinner every night. Perched on footstools and chatting across the well-worn coffee table he made me back in his University days...another precious family memory and memento.

 After a call from my daughter Aisha this morning I remembered a plan I'd had before Christmas and decided today was the day to follow through on it.

You see, Blossom and I had been shopping at KMart for her maternity clothes and my 2016 diary when we found a beautiful recipe folder for storing hand written recipes. It was $10 and very pretty with dividers, recipe sheets, stickers, a zipped compartment, pen, and pad of shopping lists...

I bought one for myself and planned to return and purchase more so I could make all my girls a family recipe book for their birthdays this year, but as I've not been back to KMart since that day I hadn't yet moved forward with the idea.

With my mother and Nana close in my memories this past week, Aisha in hospital and Blossom quite unwell with scoliosis triggered back pain and nausea in her pregnancy, I feel the need to gather my loved ones in my heart and smother them with love and care and wonderful memories - to remind them we are family, we are here for each other and they are not alone.

So, it's just a recipe book, I know...but, it's OUR recipe book. 

And I can write individual little notes to my girls all the way through, messages of love, memories of their childhood.

It's one we shall each have a copy of, a record of all those treats they call me about while standing in the baking aisle at the supermarket having forgotten what ingredients they need.

As an addition to the family recipe book I'm going to add one of these retro Women's Weekly cookbooks to their birthday parcels...

They're full of all the oldies but goodies my Nana made, and I had a giggle when one of them fell open at Corned Beef & Pickle sandwiches because that is my most favourite lunch in all the world for road trips and picnics and bedtime snacks...

A set of pretty pink measuring cups and spoons will complete my gift plan rather well, don't you think?

Did you notice my blue tablecloth?

It's a vintage sheet that my friend Rosalie sent me a few years back and I'd planned to make a quilt from it at the time, but found I just couldn't cut into it as it made a perfect table covering - the kind that makes you want to brew a pot of tea and eat scones with someone you love. 

So it's still in one piece and I'll treasure it always.

Hold your loved ones close.

Pray for them often.

Treasure precious memories and perhaps think of ways you can preserve them for the next generation.

hugs

"LOVE" : free for Valentines Day celebrating...

Mr E is not the Cary Grant 'hollywood' romantic type but because he loves me he 'indulges' my  romantic side, so over the last little I've been slowly stitching a Valentines Day table setting for us, something I can bring out on that special February day as well as on our wedding anniversary each year. 

I chose to use some of the cheery Flower Sugar fat quarters Lecien sent me last year...

...and then I thought you might like to use the L O V E templates and the little bird and heart embroideries for a project of your own?

My set is a simple table runner with two matching napkins...

You're welcome to download my free 'Valentine's LOVE' pattern sheets HERE.

What will you make with them?

 

Happy Australia Day! 

We've got the lamb ready to make kofta balls and a whole day off work to relax and unwind. 

I'm sure we'll kick back and watch the tennis later so I'd better trace something to stitch between points, and  maybe bake some yummy rock cakes for that afternoon cuppa...

Hope your day is relaxing too...

hugs

Who is Jesus...

Hebrews 1:3 set my heart a-flutter yesterday and gave me goosebumps all over.

I was speechless, in awe.

Who is Jesus you ask?

HE is the name above all names.

HE is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

HE is Saviour.

HE is Redeemer.

HE is Counsellor.

HE is Comforter. 

HE is Truth.

HE is Light.

You can trust Him, you can fall into His arms and let it all go.

You can reach Him when you can't reach anyone else.

He listens to your every thought even when the world around is deaf to your cries to be heard. 

He gently takes your heart when it's been shattered and binds every piece to His.

He is your Answer, your Hope, your one true  Love.

He is Jesus.

And I love Him more than life because He saved me almost 25 years ago - me -  a screwed up mess with a scattered path of broken life pieces that made me believe I was dirty, shameful, worthless and without hope.

He took a suicidal, depressed and broken young woman and with the gentlest of all loves He carefully and lovingly pieced her back together.

Through all these years He never walked away, and He never gave up on me.

Piece by fragile piece He gathered the shards of a sorrowful life and breathed healing love upon every one.

Perfect? No, I'm not. 

Still broken? Yes, the Potter's loving hand is till mending the cracked clay of my life.

Sorrowful? No. Not even about the relationships that remain unchanged and the ones that have been damaged since I became His. 

His timing, His way, and in His LOVE...I trust. 

The gift of hospitality...

For the longest time I've held back from inviting people regularly to our home.

Not because I didn't want visitors, and not because I don't enjoy making a meal and serving family and friends with a hearty repaste.

I hold back because of silly things like we don't have enough chairs; the table is too small; there's no room in the narrow galley kitchen to keep it tidy with all those pots, pans, plates and people...I could go on, but I won't. 

 

I knew at the beginning of 2015 that 'hospitality' needed to be high on my list of things to address during A Year of Gentle Domesticity and as it turned out I actually needed that whole year to find a peace with opening our home as it is, to whom ever. 

 

Maybe I had placed too many high expectations on my family and friends? 

I'd created a picture in my mind that they would be disappointed with our cramped and unusual seating, and wonder why we didn't make the effort to obtain a decent size table with at least four chairs.

For the past few years I've been having the girls (Heather, Barb and Wendy) over for a sewing day every 5 or 6 weeks and though I always felt overwhelmed the day before and the hours leading up to their arrival, those feelings would vanish within minutes of their first hug and beaming smiles. Not once have I failed to enjoy our time together, but still, my trepidation returned with every sewing date made in my home.

Last December something unexpected happened.

I made a deliberate decision to let it all go.

The concerns, the embarrassment, the panic - gone.

It was as though an unwanted stranger had been secretly residing in my home and now that I'd discovered him could swiftly kick him out the door and out of my life. The sense of purpose and joyous expectation towards hospitality which flooded my heart afterwards has never been brighter.

Actually, I've kicked a few unwelcome things out recently that have dramatically changed my life and in the next few months you'll hear about them, but this 'hospitality' thing was a biggie for me because we had family planning a visit in January and with one small dining table, three chairs and eight people I knew the 'joy' factor of our time together hinged on whether or not I was relaxed and oozing genuine unforced hospitality.

And you know what? That's exactly what happened. 

I had a smaller family dinner, the first of many to come, a few days earlier, which was so much fun, so when the big day of the larger gathering arrived I can honestly say there has never been a happier heart than mine. 

Some of us sat around the table, a baby balanced on one knee, others pulled up footstools and ate in the living room on the coffee table, whilst another rested back in the recliner and joined in the conversation between spoonfuls of Moroccan Lamb and rice.

It was a 'serve yourself' dinner with large bowls spread down the centre of the table, so when those in the living room returned for seconds (and thirds) the conversation naturally moved easily between the rooms.

Later that night after everyone was gone my heart felt like it had grown so big it would burst sunshine, and even though I came down with a mystery virus just hours later nothing could extinguish the joy inside me.

Something wonderful had been birthed and I was not going to lose it.

 Yesterday the girls arrived for a sewing day and I knew I was different.

There had been a spring in my step for two days beforehand and my, did I have fun setting out my mis-matched tea cups, plates and saucers on an old tablecloth before they knocked on the door!

 My sewing room chair was wheeled out and placed at the table, sour cherry & cranberry cakes baked, a packet of family favourite 'pfeffernusse' opened, and the kettle put on the boil for coffee...

We laughed, sewed, ate, and laughed some more. 

And I realised something.

Hospitality is not about what you don't have; it's about what's in your heart and the people you're serving.

Like the beauty of mismatched tea cups and saucers. As separate pieces they are lonely and not very useful - but together they create warmth, beauty, and purpose. 

Here's to something new, something wonderful, something that makes your heart expand like sunshine over the horizon at dawn...genuine, heart infused hospitality.

(Heather & Wendy)

(Barbra)

hugs,

 

The gentle art of crotch-et...

Okay, I shouldn't call crochet 'crotch-et' but the truth of the matter is that this is what Blossom and I have always called it. 

It's not said in a derogatory tone, but with a lovingly familiar air such as one might call their precious toddler 'munchkin'. Know what I mean?

Blossom is naturally good at crochet, I am not.

2007: 

By age 13 Blossom could create teeny tiny one inch granny squares from Perle #12 cotton...

...and then she lost interest. 

She gave her squares to me when she moved her craft focus to beading and soon I'll be using them in a simple project you and I can make - but that's a blog post for another day.

Back to crotch-et, um, sorry, CROCHET.

2012:  

My kind of crochet is simple lines of treble (I think) to create face washers. Once I even got adventurous and added a row of single and double crochet (I think) around the outside edge...

Before losing my rather nice yellow crochet hook I made four face washers in varying bright cotton yarns and promptly gave them all away. Unable to find the lost crochet hook after turning the house upside down and inside out, I lamented not keeping one face washer for myself but chose to put aside any more crochet hours and simply mourned my loss for the next few years.

But on my bookshelf stood a constant reminder that I truly adored crochet and would one day indulge again. 

Kath Kidston's 'Crochet' is actually a tin in the shape of a book and once opened reveals a promise to the hopeful crotch-et crochet apprentice that she can create something rather cheery in no time at all!

Armed with a how-to book, pattern, crochet hook and six delightfully gelato-ish balls of yarn, the mastery of this craft is to be hers (apparently)...

 And why, you ask, do I have this sudden rush of crochet-thought? Why have I pulled my 4 year old and never-used Cath Kidston tin of yarn off the shelf?

Answer: I was doing the weekly grocery shop.

My eye had caught the current Better Homes & Gardens magazine at the supermarket checkout.

I rarely buy this magazine but I saw that crochet rug on the cover and inside were more delicious crochet things, and well...a spark ignited and I had to have it.

 I mean, these are gorgeous things to make, right?

You can see why this issue had to come home with me, yeh?

Driving home in the car my thoughts turned to colour choice, how big to make the rug, what yarn to use and where to get it...

...but then reality knocks on the slightly dehydrated brain cells and I asked myself, 

"What in the world are you thinking?! You cannot do this, silly girl. What a waste of money it will be to buy yarn that will never be used because it will be too hard, take too long, and remain a barely attempted UFO forever."

Good advice to self.

I pack the groceries away, brew a coffee, slice a thick piece of Amish Cinnamon Cake, and examine the crochet pages of the magazine.

Yes, this is way beyond me at the moment.

So I open my favourite gentle domestic tome, Jane Brocket's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity", to see what she has to say about the gentle art of domestic crochet...

 

...and my spirit lifts.

So I take the Kath Kidston "Crochet" tin from the bookshelf and decide to begin at the beginning.

One afternoon a week I will gather yarn and hook and choose a good audio book to pop in the stereo.

From there a journey shall be explored, a craft shall be learned properly, and finally I shall know what a treble and a double chain really are.

 Delightful.

Not overwhelming at all, I'm thinking.

I should confess that I have been admiring from afar a few beautiful crochet-esque blogs for years.

If you'd like eye candy, inspiration, crochet-alongs or patterns (because you're already accomplished with hook and yarn)  here's a few of my faves:

Lucy @ Attic 24 

visit her here

Vanessa @ Coco Rose Diaries

she stopped blogging on new year's eve but there's still so much to see here

  Annette @ My Rose Valley

visit her here

Anazard 

find her here

 If you'd like even more inspiration visit my Crochet Dreamin' Pinterest Board HERE because it's loaded with sumptuous handmade temptation.

News:

 Today I'm spending time with my sweet Blossom-girl, and I guess it's okay to tell you now that she's in the 'mothering way'...3 months along in fact.

Am I excited? YES!!

Is she? YES! YES! YES!

She's going to be the most wonderful mummy ever, I'm sure.

Prayers for a safe, healthy and happy pregnancy with an armful of baby joy in six months time would be much appreciated. 

gelato-yarn love,