Block 8 and something new to share...

August is almost upon us which means it's time to share the next pattern in this year's block of the month, and as you can see, pears feature in this design. 

I'm rather fond of pears and collect ceramic and glass ones, but I also have a gorgeous cross-stitched sampler pear a lovely blog reader sent me a few years back, a wooden pear covered in crochet and buttons from a friend, and a large framed Scandi style cross-stitch pear made by another friend. 

Now, when you're tracing this design onto your background fabric I suggest you follow THIS tutorial which shows you how to stitch a lazy daisy petal/leaf without drawing the entire shape.

The pattern includes numbers for all the embroidery threads I used in my block but before you rush out and purchase them just stop for a bit and consider what colours feature in the quilting fabric you're going to use when it comes time to border the blocks.

In December we'll bring all twelve blocks together as a quilt and the final display will be so much sweeter if your embroidery threads have been chosen to blend with your quilt fabrics.

Inside each month's pattern this year you'll find the full list of materials required to make the quilt and stitch the blocks.

Download the August block here.

The pattern will be free until August 31st and afterwards become a $2 purchase when the next free block is released.

If you've followed along with my Elefantz Facebook page for a while you may have noticed it's disappeared, and that's because I made the decision to delete it. 

Being a business page I began to feel quite restrained and limited in what I could share on it, though nudging 10,000 followers it was indeed a good platform for sharing photos and information about new patterns. I'd worked hard for a number of years to build that following but over the past twelve months or so have found the constant bombarding of Facebook to buy advertising from them quite wearing. 

From the occasional pop up and promotional email from them it had now escalated to a few each day and my mind could not get past the fact that the Elefantz Designs page was predominantly business focused. To be honest I'd felt a nudge from God for a short while encouraging me to close it down but had held back because of all the effort I'd given to building that following, however, once I made the decision it was easy to follow through because I had a bigger picture in mind.

My heart is all about encouraging women to live their lives with gentle grace, to be contented homemakers whether they stay at home or go out to work, to explore the domestic arts for pure delight and to live lives which celebrate 'joy in the ordinary'.  

Though I do design embroideries for a living and need the income my pattern sales supply, I feel my greater calling at this time of life is to encourage women of all ages and walks of life to be content in their own lives, in their own skin and in their own homes, to believe in themselves, to be kinder to themselves and to choose grace, mercy, generosity and kindness over bitterness, doubt and pride.

I am far from perfect myself and have learned many life lessons the hard way, in fact I'm still a work in progress, but I know the joy which comes from choosing the higher ground, being humble, forgiving others, taking personal responsibility even when it hurts, whilst also remembering to cherish myself and take time out for rest and reflection, prayer and praise. 

So after waiting 14 days for Facebook to permanently delete my business page I have now set up a personal blog page in it's place. 

Every day I intend sharing encouragement, hope, fun, ideas and whatever else catches my heart that may be of interest to you. This is not a group, it's a personal page, and I'd love for you to follow along and share your own thoughts about each day's topic because you inspire me.

follow Jenny of Elefantz personal FB page here

Here's a few other links you may like to check out if you're new to my blog or designs.

Instagram

Free newsletter

Pinterest

The Stitchery Club

Pattern Shop (all PDF downloads)

Tutorials

Helps on embroidery and sewing supplies

I'll be back blogging more regularly again now that the house hunting is over and our move is not till September, plus I have plenty to share with you - tutorials, cooking, homemaking ideas, sewing, articles and more.
In fact, sweet Blossom has written a letter to you from her heart and I think it will bless us all so look for that next week.

In the meantime, gather those threads, choose fabrics and open a fresh pack of needles because you have your free August block to stitch!

hugs and blessings

The simple ways...

To keep on top of things I always design a couple of months ahead for The Stitchery Club but what I didn't realise during that day in late May when I spent hours sketching this design, erasing it, sketching again and erasing it again until I finally sighed in satisfaction with what I eventually embroidered, was how deeply these words would be speaking into my life today as July draws to a close.

With my designs the words come first and then there's a day of sketching, scanning, cleaning up the sketch, choosing fabrics, tracing the design, selecting threads and finally it will be ready to embroider. 

I loved it from the start as living life "The Simple Way" means a great deal to me, and the simplicity of the pattern itself reflected the state of mind and heart that I yearn to embrace even further as I grow up (aren't we always growing up?).  Quietly hopeful this would hang in my new home one day I wrote the pattern, took photos and gently popped it away with the other August designs because I needed to begin drawing September and stay on schedule.

But then something happened.

Mr E and I have been run off our feet during these months of endless, seemingly fruitless house hunting and then we have to cram our work, family and home responsibilities around it. It's no wonder between us we've had head colds, pneumonia, a torn patella tendon, torn chest muscles, migraines and insomnia. Finding a home consumed our time, our rest, our appetites - which in turn affected every other area of life. We felt as though we were riding a never ending roller coaster; up down, round and round, up, down and repeat. The excitement we'd initially had when our quest began had waned and I think we lost our way.

So during the past week we quieted our minds and slowly put together a list of all the things we'd like in our very first home. Some were negotiable, some were not. As the days went by clouds of confusion cleared and we found ourselves with three choices, three homes which offered at least 50% of the requirements on our list. We drove to each house at night and parked in the street for around a quarter hour to gauge the traffic and the noise. Number one on our list was "peace and quiet" you see.

One house was crossed off fairly quickly which then left us with two. 

Of the remaining homes one tugged on our heartstrings like you wouldn't believe. It was in the prettiest and quietest area, had large shade trees and the character we love.

But it was tiny and though some people have said "oh you'll be fine there, it's so cute" it didn't have any space for a dining table, no spare room for our children and grandchildren to come stay, and it would have made working my business from home a struggle.

With heavy hearts we prayed that someone else would buy that house and be incredibly blessed living there...and we drove away.

Friday night we made an offer on the remaining house.

The owners rejected the offer.

Saturday we headed out in the Jeep at 8am and spent another day looking through open houses with no success. Then the phone call. The owners had not had any other offers and decided to accept ours. They did not know our offer was all we had, but God knew, and now we're praying He blesses them abundantly too.

So once we sign the contract this week we can honestly say - 

"We bought our first, and probably last, house"

Now back to that design.

'The simple way is usually the best way' was a statement I'd written in my diary and then transferred into a stitchery. I think we get it now, on a personal level with regards to the past few months.

If we'd made that simple list months ago we would not have strayed, wasting endless hours, days, fuel and energy looking at houses which were too far away, in high crime suburbs, out of our budget, had stairs (hubby cannot do stairs) or a pool (so many cheap homes had a pool), were unsuitable for a home business or needed expensive repairs - just to name a few issues.

In fact it was dear Annabel who suggested we write down the things we needed, and a few wants as well. How much simpler that made this task and it bore fruit quickly.

We're happy we found a home, though we weren't jumping up and down with excitement immediately because we'd given our hearts to the little house with character and needed to let the dust settle first. Like climbing off the roller coaster and waiting a bit to regain your balance.

Today we are excited. Today we are making plans for someone else's house to become our HOME.

All through this we've trusted God but having a few praying friends stand with us, as well as thousands of precious ladies in my Gentle Domesticity Group, really rallied our hopes when at times they were low. How very blessed we are!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, you made the world of difference. xxx

At home today it was such a delight to not have to leave the house, to potter around and simply enjoy being together. I had fun in the kitchen making flour from organic wheat grains using the NutriBullet's milling blade...

I've wanted to make wholegrain flour for ages and now that life will settle a bit before we move I can play around with new bread recipes...

There will be some experimenting and to ease myself along that road the bread I made this afternoon used 33% of the flour I made and 67% regular bread flour. 

Can I just say this - it was delicious!!

Now I'd best get off here and go enjoy the rest of the evening with my beloved. 

I hope and pray your evening (or morning) is just as relaxed and satisfying too...

hugs

PS: My pattern for "The Simple Way" is part of the August issue of The Stitchery Club. You can see all the patterns for next month over HERE.

Trust in the Lord (free pattern)...

Trust.

It's not an easy thing to trust another person and it's not always easy to trust God.

When life is good, when prayers are being answered, when miracles fall in our lap and the evidence of God's finger on our life cannot be denied, trust will come easy.

But when life is a tangle of struggles and obstacles, when prayers have not been answered in a while, when God seems distant and silent to our needs, trust can slowly trickle away and doubt will flow in to replace it.

This is humanity, the flesh and blood reality of God's people living in a broken world. 

Hearts broken, dreams shattered, obstacles which loom larger than life, illness that does not heal, relationships which crush you to the core, finances that barely keep a roof over your head...every life, every person, will find themselves in the valley at some point and some will revisit it over and over.

And some of us in that valley experience will struggle to trust God completely, at least for a while.

But the Bible tells us He is faithful and just.

It tells us He will supply all our needs, comfort us in sorrow, catch all of our tears in a bottle, lead us beside still waters and restore our soul...the Bible assures us we can trust God.

Don't feel guilty when you find it hard to trust His Word. He knows you are but dust and He has seen every second of your life and understands why you suffer and doubt in your time of trouble. 

He is gracious, merciful, forgiving, compassionate, wise and loving - and often that is why we feel disconnected from him, because we expect to feel those things and yet we see through a glass dimly.

Let me explain.

Many years ago I faced a very traumatic experience and after months of crying out to God for understanding, healing and resolution, I fell on my knees and declared to Him that I believed He did not care. I could not see His hand in my life or on the troubles which had torn my heart apart so I believed He had turned His back on me, that I had failed Him too many times and had no great value.

But I was wrong.

In the quiet stillness of that night, He gave me clear understanding about His perceived 'distance' and I never doubted His presence or plans again. 

You see, God cannot reveal all His plans for my life until the time is right. When He does reveal them He's not just telling me but he's making satan, the enemy of this world, aware too. 

And what General would share his plans with the enemy?

It was not until God had put all His plans in place that the fog cleared and I could clearly see what He'd been at work on all that time.

Have you felt that your prayers are going nowhere?

Have you been doubting God's care and concern for your needs?

Are you feeling alone in your trial?

Believe that your prayers are going straight to the throne room of heaven, to the very ear of God.

Believe that your heavenly Father cares about you more than you can ever in this life imagine, that His love for you has no limits, no expiration date, that every hair on your head is known to Him.

Believe that you are never alone, that Christ is alive in you through God's Holy Spirit and He will never leave you nor forsake you. You are of more value than a sparrow and God knows every sparrow which falls from the sky. 

I know it's hard to see other people's prayers answered, needs met and miracles come true while you stand by waiting an age for your own.

It can hurt and you might even think God loves them more than you, but my friend, God shows no favouritism. You are the apple of His eye and He is doing a very special work behind the scenes of your life, bringing about a plan that exceeds human vision, working all things together for good because He loves you and you love Him.

Please, take your eyes off the circumstances, take your eyes off the obstacles, take your eyes off your neighbour's blessings and keep them fixed on Jesus.

Our understanding is limited by what we see and hear right now which means we never truly grasp the life changing work God is doing 'quietly and unseen' in our life. And just because we cannot see it, hear it or feel it does not mean the will of God is not being done for our benefit, always our benefit, for He means us good and not evil all the days of our lives.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

This is a new free pattern which I pray is a blessing to your heart.

Download "Trust in the Lord" here

My prayer today is that you and I let go of doubt, negative thoughts and impatience; that we are filled with joy and hope and trust as we wait for God's good and perfect plan in our lives - because we can believe that He only has good and perfect plans.

Bless you heaps,

Sorting...

No house yet, but it will happen, and in preparation for our hoped-for move I've begun to go through each room very slowly, looking with fresh eyes at each item we own and evaluating whether we need it or even want it.

I've found as renters who regularly move we just tend to gather and pack what we have and move on, whether that be to the  next suburb, a new town or far across the country (and Australia's rather large).  Yes, there's habitually some culling of our excess and a thinning of books, clothes, coffee mugs and paper products, all which make their way to a number of local charity shops, but this time it will be so much more.

Because we're now preparing to buy a home of our own, a let's-put-roots-down home, a we-can-decorate-it-any-way-we-like home, it's time to gather only that which matters, has purpose, is beautiful or fulfills a need. 

This is why I shall be going along wall by wall, shelf by shelf, cupboard by cupboard, room by room here in our (hopefully) final rental house, and taking time to consider what's coming with us and what is not.

Yesterday I began with the cookbooks, of which I have many, two full bookcases in fact. 

Some came with me into our marriage almost 27 years ago and the remainder have come along since then. In fact, quite a few of the recipes I learned from the older books are still family favourites today and been passed along to my daughters.

But as I emptied the two bookcases I chose to consider each book on it's individual merits and after three hours of browsing pages and copying the odd recipe here and there, had reduced my collection of cookbooks to one small bookcase...

Sadly, a number of the rejected cookbooks I was packing into boxes for the charity shop had not been opened in many years so I did chide myself for what was obviously a series of impulse purchases.

But how exciting it was to place our little old bookcase (which dear Blossom had painted white ten years ago after we purchased it at a garage sale) in the corner of the dining room, full of cookbooks I was keen to keep and use! In fact, needing a rest after all that decision making and page turning, I brewed a cuppa and pulled this one off the shelf to browse as Mr E was sorely in need of a baked morning tea treat for his lunch box. 

Within the pages of Baking Day I found a wonderful collection of sweet recipes but when a bookmarked page fell open to Frangipane Jam Drops the decision about what to bake was clearly made for me...

Another thing I'm doing as we draw nearer to the lease expiring here and a home of our own looming closer is to use up the pantry supplies and the freezer items in order to begin fresh in a new kitchen when the time comes. 

Jars of jam, mayonnaise and pickles from the fridge are slowly being used up and as I had a quarter jar of apricot conserve on hand it made a delicious filling for the the jam drops.

With a pot of fresh chicken and corn soup simmering on the stove when hubby arrived home from work I thought the cookies could be a simple dessert later that night but he thought they'd make a nice pre-dinner snack as well. How can you disagree when your husband obviously loves your cooking?

Today I drove over to Blossom's and spent time with her and the babies. What a lot of laughter, deep conversation, twirling and sorting we did! 

Laughter at the two little girls and their funny antics, deep conversation about our shared interests in minimalism, organisation and house hunting, twirling like ballerinas for Cully May until I got so dizzy we decided to stop, and sorting through Blossom's bookcase for excess to donate because she, Ross and the children are moving next month and they've also decided just to take what they really love and need. 

My car boot loaded with boxes from yesterday's cookbook cull and now Blossom's donations as well, I waved goodbye to these three lovelies and headed to the Salvation Army store on the highway close to home to drop everything off.

Tomorrow I shall start on my office. 

And that will require much coffee, and surely a few cookies as well.

Have I ever told you how much I love a good seasonal de-clutter?

Well I do.

But this is better.

On the sewing front new patterns are being completed for August, including this Jane Austen quote which I love...

I have an idea to design a series of Jane Austen quotes.

This one will hang in my home soon, and perhaps many more to follow. 

Perhaps a wall of them? Mmm.

God bless you and keep you, 

May His love fill your heart, 

His Light shine through your darkness,

and His provision be generous in supplying all your needs.

hugs

New embroidery patterns are regularly added to my shop for instant download.

Shop HERE for Elefantz Designs.

Bubbling over...

Two punnets of strawberries had been waiting patiently in the fridge for a week to be made into jam.

For various reasons I'd not made time to follow through on that plan until Wednesday evening. With a chicken curry simmering away on the stove top, rice steaming and chapati bread being cooked one by one on the piping hot griddle, I thought to myself this would be the perfect time to get that strawberry jam going. 

Oh silly, overconfident me.

I did finely chop the strawberries, did put berries, sugar, lemon and dab of pectin in the saucepan, did bring it to the boil, did lower the gas flame to a simmer...and did walk away forgetting to remove the lid from the saucepan.

Too many things happening at once, and then I was distracted by a text from Blossom which triggered a series of back and forth messages. Oblivious to what was happening on the stove top we discussed the pros and cons of a rental home she and Ross had gone to see that day.

Then the smell of burning sweetness wafted past my nose and a light bulb came on in my head - the jam!! 

Cleaning a gas stove top is not my favourite chore but it's also not a hard one and can be done quickly every day or so. But a gas stove top which now holds a soup of bubbled over strawberry jam is not quite so easily brought back to it's shimmering stainless steel glory. 

Serving dinner, intent on ignoring the jam which was gradually cooling to a sticky red gel under the gas jets, I thought "this is like my life". 

Too many distractions, no clear cut plan most days, too many ideas often put into play at not the right time, and then everything bubbles over and becomes a mess which takes even more of my time to clean up and put back in order. 

I called this the strawberry jam lesson on life.

Fortunately I salvaged the jam which remained in the saucepan, a mere half pot, but jam nonetheless and though it's not as thick as I'd normally make it, it tastes good. Especially when it drips off your toast and you need to catch it on your tongue before it hits your blouse.

Earlier that day a parcel had arrived with my new day planner. I really like the one I began in January and it has truly helped to keep my business and some household things ticking over nicely, at least until the "house hunting in earnest" began and the pneumonia set in. Since then it has barely been opened.

So I ordered another one, but this time it's an 18 month planner which runs through to the end of 2019, and I'm keeping it open on my desk all the time. Regardless of this season of life with it's distractions and all the comings and goings from open houses or private viewings, if I want to avoid a bubbling over mess from too many distractions and hands that are over-full, it is vitally important that I look at each day as having 24 precious hours, and allow those hours to be considerately filled with sleep, homemaking, design work, book work, relationships, God and free time.

I'm a visual learner, hands on, who writes a lot of lists, but my lists would too often be on scraps of paper that got lost or put somewhere I later forgot. Slowly this year I had been training myself not to do that. Slowly I had learned to keep one 'to do' list on the kitchen bench and one in my planner.

But then the house thing, ill health, and a few other family matters which took time and energy.

And then the jam mess.

I was off track again and it was obvious, so unpacking the new planner I set it out on my desk, replaced the to-do list on my kitchen bench and bought myself a pot of lavender because lavender never causes stress...

The table on our enclosed verandah is now my permanent space for quiet Bible study, prayer, tea and cake and I've even made sure that time is written in my planner...

A new book is speaking to my heart during afternoon rest time...

...and Honey Murcott mandarins are my simple go-to snack.

Slowing down, pulling back, not over-planning, removing physical and mental clutter, simplifying - this could be a recipe for avoiding the mess of a bubbling over life, I think?

On another note, with great rejoicing and a little push from God, I have closed my 'Jenny of Elefantz' Facebook business page. It was a romping success, but I don't much like the way Facebook is going and the insistent push for business pages to buy advertising or be punished by your posts barely being seen by about ten percent of followers.

Nope, don't need that. Mental clutter gone. Burden gone. Stressful manipulation gone.

I still have the Gentle Domesticity Group on FB but may also make changes with that later in the year to a message board format. For now that's an idea, but it needs a lot of prayer and some time to create. God will guide me if it's the way to go.

How are you going with de-cluttering your life?

What have you let go of recently?

What do you find difficult to let go of?

I'd love to hear from you, to know this bubbling over life isn't just exclusive to me, and also to hear how you've been able to make changes for the better. 

hugs

Need something to stitch? I regularly add new patterns to my shop for instant download!

Visit Elefantz Designs here.

Lessons...

I think one of the events we shall enjoy not repeating when we buy a home of our own will be quarterly house inspections by the estate agents who manage this property.

Though I do believe it's an important service on behalf of the owners to check and see that their investment house is being looked after and maintained, it sorely wears on me to have people coming through taking photos four times a year. Perhaps it's the introvert in me, my need for privacy and a sense of security within these walls? Whatever, I shall be gleeful when we turn the key in our very own front door and know that none shall pass it's threshold without an invitation to do so. 

This morning's rental inspection was a bit harder than usual due to these past three weeks of ill health and the subsequent housework, which is normally up to date, lagging behind. Still, between us, Mr E and I were able to catch up yesterday afternoon and it was a nice feeling to have things put away,  garden tended, floors sparkling and life back 'as it should be'.

It's his final week of a fortnight's school holiday break so we're taking life slow before term 3 begins and the work pace picks up again. One of the things we had both noticed recently was the dwindling grocery bill, and not just because we had barely an appetite during the flu and pneumonia weeks.

Even when our hunger returned it was for very simple fare and not a lot of it. Soup and toasted sandwiches have hit the number one spot as my husband's nightly dinner request, and a hearty beef stew I made in the slow cooker last week has been served twice with mashed potato and greens, and will become meat pies further into this week. With all the bits and pieces that stew has cost a grand total of $5 per double serve. No wonder the grocery bill is reducing. 

Scones make an appearance some days for lunch and then carry over the next day as breakfast. Normally I make them with buttermilk but having not been to the supermarket lately I soured the last of the milk with lemon juice instead and the scones tasted just as good.

Knowing the lease shall be up at this house in about ten weeks and we will need to leave, a slow progression through the pantry and freezer to use what we have is underway.  I don't like taking a lot of food with us when moving house so those last weeks always require a bit of extra creativity to pair ingredients which had previously not had the pleasure of an introduction, and of course there's quite a bit of baking happening to empty the flour barrels.

Blossom will be moving in four or five weeks too and I think her plan is the same as mine. 

Actually, I think a good pantry, fridge and freezer empty-out every so often is good sense as not many foodstuffs have an indefinite shelf or freezer life and it's very easy to forget what you have when your pantry cupboard is deep and dark (like mine). 

Bob and Sophie spend much of the day lazing in the sun by the dining room window, or out on the deck in their beds lazing in the sun, or snuggled close to Mr E and I during a late afternoon nap.

I've been re-reading A Year of Slow Food (now out of print) each night before bed. It's broken up into a year of week by week chapters written in conversational manner about daily life growing food, tending to animals, and cooking your own produce on a small farmlet. It's been years since I first read it and remember at the time I could not put the book down. 

This time however, I'm savouring the journey, researching further about beekeeping, honey, greenhouses, crop rotations, cheese making, cows and chickens. I sincerely doubt we shall ever take on the kind of commitment the authors did, but it's in our mind to become partially self sufficient should we find a home with enough garden space for raised vegetable beds, fruit trees and chickens. 

One house in particular tugged on our heartstrings the other day when we attended the open viewing.

It's old, loads of character, a wonderful cook's kitchen and pantry, plenty of shade and garden, in a quiet leafy green area...but it has an asbestos roof. This is a big red flag for my husband and would require removal by certified professionals at some stage and a new roof installed, probably costing around twenty thousand dollars which we'd need to save for.

I doubt we'll follow through with this one, but my oh my, we certainly do know what we want now. 

The rain a week ago has given the bottle brush down by the side of my sewing room a rare burst of winter colour, but it wasn't enough to stir the frangipani into bloom.

Still, the bottle brush has attracted birds and as I potter in my sewing room around dawn each morning, sipping a fresh cup of coffee, their song is joyful and welcoming.  

Welcoming.

One of my new designs was created with welcome in mind. 

A welcome for a new home actually.

As I do not know the colour scheme our new house will have, stitching with a fairly neutral palette seemed wise and I'm so glad I chose these colours because they really have a soothing, calming appearance...just what is needed when you enter a home for the first time, yes?

The cream frame has a lovely weathered appearance and the variegated green spot fabric was perfect to border the design without closing it in. No idea why I stitched 476 as the house number but I'm sure it has no relevance whatsoever to the number we shall have eventually. Perhaps I will scour the Bible and see if there is a good 4:76 or 47:6 verse to compliment my 'welcome' embroidery.

Did you notice the key? More importantly did you notice the key fob? It may look like just a piece of lace to you but to me it is a treasure from the past. When Blossom was just 12 years old she learned to do bobbin lace and this was the first practice piece she made. Now you know why I hold it dear to my heart and why it shall hang with a key over the framed design.

This slow time, this season of recuperation, is still teaching me, drawing my thoughts deeper so that I find myself examining experiences, motivations, purposes and the things that need to go.

One such change this past week has been acquainting myself with the 'unsubscribe' button found at the very bottom of numerous emails and newsletters I have subscribed to over the years.

Have you found yourself offering your email address in order to obtain a free recipe book, free patterns, preview viewings of documentaries, special offers from shops and businesses. etc etc? 

Me too.

In fact I realised after being off the computer for a few days during the worst of the pneumonia that my inbox flooded over with emails which I subsequently deleted one by one as I had no interest in what they were selling or offering. 

Emails flowing over can be wearying enough to clear when they are valid and pertaining to my own family, business, blog and friendships, but add to them even more which have no bearing at all on life or distract me with purchase temptations and there's an extra  mental weight bearing down that should not be there. 

Every morning these past eight or nine days I go through each email not associated with family, friends, blog or work, block the few obvious spam emails which always trickle through, and unsubscribe from everything else. Now I no longer groan when opening Outlook on my laptop and after initially unsubscribing from about 15-20 per day, this morning there was only one. 

Aah, the satisfaction, and the removal of temptations (craft shops, book shops...)

You know, there is a deep knowing in my heart that God has been using this time of rest and recovery to address many hidden issues in my life, to draw my eyes upon them and consider each one carefully. Some have surprised me, causing me to declare out loud "How did I not see that before?", and yet others, which I'd previously chosen to ignore and sweep under the carpet for another time, were like neon lights that would not quit until they were dealt with. 

Attitudes and habits have risen up to greet me head on, a tsunami of emotions following closely behind, and to be honest if I'd been given the choice I'd not have opened the door to them, but God knew what was needed, He allowed me to be laid low in order to raise me out of the pit I'd dug for myself. Such love. Such deep abiding love. Exactly what I'd wanted to do as a parent for the betterment of my own children, yet was often too fearful to follow through with. 

I feel quite blessed today, lightened of many loads and with fresh clarity of purpose and hope, and so very grateful for the faithful prayers of daughter Blossom, my beloved husband, and dear friends like Allie, Annabel and Margaret. Never underestimate prayers.

May your week be rich in kindness, slow in pace, overflowing with goodness and generous in love.

hugs

Simple reflections from a crossword...

Though breathing is still not as easy as it was two weeks ago it is most definitely on the improve.

I think being housebound is wonderful for a convalescent's physical recovery, but it can also lead you into an almost depressed mental state, and so it was for me. Thankfully I recognised what was happening and discussed it with my husband, so this morning we packed plenty of water and headed north in the Jeep for a country drive ending up at Abergowrie, north west of Ingham, where the air was cool, and cows munched contentedly in the lush green paddocks scattered between cane fields ripe for harvest. 

It was refreshing to have the tropical winter air blowing through my hair as we drove along, capturing my mood of late and carrying it away, far from mind. As we passed through Ingham we stopped at Lou's Food Emporium for a package of Crostoli to nibble on and two cold bottles of mandarin cordial to quench our thirst. Very simple, quite delicious. 

Home again early in the afternoon I was tired yet satisfied we'd made the effort to close the door behind us for a bit and be reminded that life is more than the world within our house. Too often during illness, or in seasons where we're housebound for any number of reasons, an introvert like myself can find herself sinking further and further into a reclusive state of being, and though I do prefer to spend most of my time at home anyhow, it's also crucial that I 'get out' and come up for air every so often, to gaze with wonder at the beauty God has surrounded us with in this tropical paradise.

My desk has been somewhat neglected of late and I was not at all inspired to sit there and begin catching up on things until I placed a small white milk jug of flowers on top of the printer and then all of a sudden it felt welcoming.

Truly, one small thing can change an outlook, lift a flagging spirit, paint a smile on weary lips.

Out on the back verandah my schlumbergera cactus has also had a change of outlook. After more than a year without blooms these pretty deep peachy pink blossoms have appeared...

Chatting with Blossom the other day I shared with her my lack of creativity right now, and the sense that someone had pulled the plug on that side of my mind and drained it all away. 

She said, "Mum, go into your sewing room and cut into a favourite piece of fabric - then do whatever you like with it."

So yesterday I did just that, right before dawn when I had given up on sleep and the rain which had fallen softly on the roof all night closed the sky with clouds and ushered a chill throughout the house.

Padding into the sewing room with slippers, coffee and a thick cardie, I knew exactly what fabric to pull off the shelf.

I'm pretty sure they have sat in my stash, much admired, for about seven years. Two 1/4 yard cuts of pinkish red loveliness, waiting, always waiting.

Like all things in my mind at present, they needed a simple setting...

...and I'm very slowly enjoying moments of quiet sewing as I watch how they marry together in 

applique and embroidery. 

It's been a while since I worked with just one colour. How calming, easy, relaxing. Even beautiful. 

No hours, days even, of double guessing back and forth as to whether a palette of assorted pastels will play nicely...just unwinding one more length of pinkish red thread at a time, unhurried, sure and certain.

How reflective of me right now.

Needing to be unhurried, needing to be sure and certain, needing simple times for as long as I can have them.

When I was at the doctor's surgery the other day an older gentleman sat near me in the waiting room. The large area wasn't crowded but there were perhaps twelve or fourteen patients, some with children, scattered in seats awaiting their name to be called. I'd been there about twenty minutes before the older man set himself down just a chair's space from mine and I may not have given him a thought except for what he did next.

In a room where everyone, without exception, even mothers and fathers with babies and toddlers, were looking intently at their mobile phones, fingers scrolling through websites, emails and texts, playing games or making calls...the gentleman nearby pulled out the local newspaper from under his arm, removed a pen from his pocket, and turned the pages until he found what he was looking for. The crossword puzzle.

A contented smile spread across his face as he flattened the newspaper open before refolding it into a letter size so the crossword was the only section showing, and then with pen in hand he began.

I could not help myself. So engaged was he in answering the clues and filling empty spaces with answers that I simply had to keep looking over. In fact, at one point when his face frowned with deep concentration over what was clearly a not so easy clue I wanted to lean over and ask if he'd like some help! I actually found myself both in awe and envious of his waiting room pastime. His delight when an answer came was obvious, but mostly I was struck by how at peace he was unencumbered by technology, oblivious to the dozen or more phone fixated patients surrounding him.

 I was sick yes, agitated at having to wait so long, fearful of a positive pneumonia diagnosis...yet much of that drifted away once my crossword loving fellow patient sat nearby. 

When I came home the picture of him sitting at peace with the folded newspaper did not leave me, and though for many days afterwards I just felt ghastly ill and barely found a glimmer of delight in anything, my mind would keep wandering back to him. So struck was I by the simplicity of that meeting and I wondered if he would ever know how God had used him to remind me that I could slow down too.

You see, when I was young my grandfather would do the crossword each day in the newspaper as well. Breakfast over with, a fresh cup of tea made, pen uncapped and waiting in his hand, Pop's mind was ready to be challenged. There was no mindless scrolling of social media. There was intention to sharpen the mind, to settle for a while in your own company and feel mentally satisfied when the brain workout was done. Simple satisfaction.

I like crosswords, and I'd forgotten that. I like jigsaw puzzles too.

I do not like the ones that come as an App though. In fact, I just deleted the games off my iPhone because there's now a yearning to do things the old way, the tactile way, the no-technology way. 

I want to be reminded by experience that there's a gentler life to be regained, though my steps will be small and my way yet to be defined, and choosing to seek those older paths may in fact be the way of the future, my future at any rate.

Indeed, this season of enforced rest is not being wasted. God is using it to wake me up and there are many more things ruminating within my mind at present but I daresay this is enough pouring out of thought for one day, yes?

If you have something to share on this train of thought please write about it in the comments. Blogger still are not forwarding comments to me via email but I will do my best to respond here. xx

God bless you ever so much,