A Day Late And A Dollar Short

Sorry about the no-post yesterday, we had a very busy (and tired) day. Of course the night before I've scheduled to spend the day out of town Addie decides to not sleep two hours together so she was *super* tired and cranky all day. Which was such a shame since she'd been sleeping through the night and being an absolute doll for the whole last week!

Let's see... well, yesterday (the out of town day) Mom was a sweetheart and drove Addie and myself to Olympia to run some errands. We stopped by Babies'R'Us to get a baby monitor (I had a gift card, woo!), I got a very nice new nursing bra (it's much easier to feel put together with a nice starting layer) and Costco, which, thankfully, Addie was asleep for so Mom and I got to browse through the aisles and discuss the marvels of warehouse stores. I cannot tell you how much I love Costco; my grocery budget would look a *lot* different if I couldn't get to a Costco once a month. (Back in AZ my apartment was only a five minute drive away from Costco. Amazing!) Some of the basics I always get at Costco are stuff like:

 Frozen Chicken/Ground Beef 
 Peanut Butter (have you seen how expensive this stuff is at regular stores?!)
 Chicken/Beef Base (their price on the Better Than Bouillon brand is awesome)
 Cold Cereal (Noel's breakfast of choice right now, as I'm still sleeping when/where I can)
 Lunch Meat (for Noel's lunches)
 Anything Dairy Related - Milk, Butter, Cream, Cheese, etc. I can get a pint of Half-and-Half for 3 or 4 dollars here in town and get a quart of it for the same price at Costco.
 Olive Oil 
 Coffee Beans (sadly, coffee is getting really expensive but it's still cheaper to make your own than to buy itfrom a coffee shop)

Basically, if I can get it at Costco I usually do. I can't actually remember finding something there that I could get at a better price somewhere else. (And their coupons are nice for the occasional splurge on something yummy!) What about you, do you like warehouse stores? 

 (Oh, and by-the-by, I finished another book and have already started a new one, so yay for that 2012 goal! I think muffins are next on the list.)

                          Scary/Amazing

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself." 

-- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

I love this quote. It's a reminder that even if I have an idea about how something should be, it doesn't mean it is correct. Humans can only see so far, God can see for eternity. Humans can only understand so much, God is understanding. God does not have to inch along to see if the ledge is safe, he built the plateau I get to walk on. It is not too dark for him, only me, which is why he is my light, holds my hand, and leads -- it is not that he is deficient,  it is that I am. In fussing it is like saying, "God, you think you know everything but do you, really?" It's obvious when put like that but it's the same thing as, "God, you should do this instead so that it won't hurt me." You might be wondering, 'Where did she get this out of that C.S. Lewis quote?' It's the bit when he says, "He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of..." He is building it to his specifications, to perfection, to something beyond human comprehension. In the process, I don't have to get in a tizzy about how everything is going to go down; I get to wonder, and marvel at his Majesty -- clapping here, praising there, giving a Huzzah! and a Thank you Lord! To us, what God is doing can be a bit frightening at times but in the end what God is doing is truly amazing.


Hopefully that all connected, haha, I am no theologist. I am sure that what I said can be expanded on or even clarified more so feel free to add with your own thoughts.You might even touch on that he is doing all this for himself, I would love to but my brains and eyes are a bit too tired now. :D 


~Kaitlin                                                        


P.S. It's so awesome that God is omnipotent and all-knowing, it fills my soul with peace just writing about it.

Quick Mix Tip

Nope, it's not music, it's.... Tea!

People tell us womens (yup) that drinking raspberry leaf tea is good for us, which it really is. But the sad truth of the matter is that raspberry leaf tea tastes like...well... leaves. With maybe a little bit of earthy dirtness thrown in for good measure. But *trumpet sounds* it doesn't have to! My trick for making raspberry leaf tea taste better is to make it per its directions and then, in the last five minutes of steeping time I add Raspberry Zinger tea bags to the mix (because I do like Raspberries), and then finish it off with just a dot of honey. Ta da! Better tea, just like that.

~Noble

The Crazy Things We Do For The People We Love

Like handstands. 

Bruises - Chairlift

Or making tiny felt pandas.

(That's one 2012 goal down!)

What I'm up to...

Over here in Idaho, Ryan and I have found a house to rent! And we're moving in on Saturday -- it's been a whirlwind adventure! I'll keep you posted (with pictures) as we get settled into the new place. God has really blessed us with this: it's in the perfect location, in a good neighborhood, it's much nicer than anything else we'd seen, it's bigger, and it's cute!

We are plotting how to set up our new kingdom...we even have crazy hare-brained thoughts of using the master bedroom as a studio. It has the most lovely window seat, which would be kind of wasted in a bedroom. It would be unconventional, but kind of nice... :)

Right now our apartment looks like this, and we feel about as tight as a snake in its skin. It will be so good to have a little room to stretch! Blaze will be glad when all the hubub dies down, too.

Next week in the new territory!

--Courtney

Embroidery Sites

It is January and I am looking around for projects to keep my hands busy (can't give you good reasons why I don't finish all that I have started first...perhaps because a new year makes me feel like new projects are needed!) I love embroidery and would like to do more of it so I have been searching the internet for inspiration. There are so many talented people out on the web! I thought I would share a bit of what I found

1
 
    This website is amazing! Mary has provided over 50 video tutorials, free patterns, tips and techniques and gobs more. I am hoping to work through her Hand Embroidery Tutorial:



2.
 
Feeling Stitchy is a great group of embroiderers and crafters. And they blog about all sorts of things. A fun thing that they do is provide a monthly stitch-a-long. I plan to join them on one of these soon!

3.

Wild Olive is a blog run by Mollie. I only just discovered her but oh-how-cute! are her creations. This is a simple but darling recent project:



4.
The tag line for Sublime Stitching is "This ain't your gramma's embroidery". Oh so true! Very contemporary and some of it isn't my cup of tea....but....there are a lot of really great patterns that I would love to try...like

Aren't these lovely?!

5. Don't forget Etsy.com. MY OH MY....the cutest patterns! Type "hand embroidery" into the search box, and don't forget your hanky in case you start to drool a little.
        
Like this from Bumpkin           Or this from FollowtheWhiteBunny

6.  Just one more......
Take a peek some great groups on Flickr.com.
The Embroidery Group - There are over 7,000 members uploading photos of their beautiful embroidery.
Hoop Love Vintage Transfers - thousands of scans of vintage embroidery patterns
Vintage Embroidery Patterns - another group of vintage patterns

Sow Grace

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

and the rod of his fury will fail.

Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, 

for he shares his bread with the poor.

Proverbs 22:8-9

"...God commands you to live graciously because he is gracious. He commands you to be patient and merciful because such things find their beginning in him. And you not only know him, but you know his grace. God has extended mercy to you, blessing and forgiving you when you deserved much less. As a child of God, represent your Father well by showing grace. Sow it." - Joe Thorn (Note To Self: The Discipline Of Preaching To Yourself)

This was especially convicting for me as I struggle (a bit) with being graceful/filled to people I think are wrong; being rude, mean, or generally annoying can get you a judgement call from me in a big fat hurry. ("What kind of awful person *are* you?!") Lots of times I try to chalk my "judgey-ness" up as righteous indignation but it's almost always just me taking an ego trip because I feel like I do a better job of not being those things. (I'm just the epitome of pleasantness, you know. Ha!) Of course, it's so easy to say "Oh yes, I'm going to work on extending grace to those people that just bug the snot out of me." but it is so much harder to do it when my un-graciousness comes out a split second after an offense. My Mom has a great description of *actually* succeeding at this as "flexing your grace muscles" and it's true! At first it's like trying to do a million push-ups when you've never done *one* before. But then you work at it, work at it some more, and eventually it gets a little easier and you get a little closer.  So, here's to a good workout!