How to make thirty-five cents and four "new" chairs

If you have a lovely table and chairs that God provided, but the cloth covering the chair pads looks like it's been through several chocolate pudding wars, here's what you need to do.

First make a trip to the fabric store. (As if you'd need an excuse to do that anyways!)

Choose a fabric that appeals to you. Then, buy enough to re-cover the fabric on half of your chairs. Be a good budgeter and wait till later to buy the rest.

Also buy foam padding, because you know the old stuff needs to be replaced. But this time only enough for one chair. Yikes! It's spendy. You can do this project over several months, so don't worry.

Now put your fabric and foam aside for two months. Maybe three. Every once in a while, think with satisfaction how lovely your new fabric is, and how nice it will be to recover your chairs once your child stops having accidents. And even though that last thought is true, be a big girl and 'fess up--you're really just procrastinating. :)

Take your supplies out again in summer. Find a few big helpers, who will be just as excited to use a hammer and screwdriver as play dress-up with the fabric.



Decide to reuse the old foam padding on your chairs. It's perfectly shaped to your chair anyways, and you really can't detect an odor emanating from it. (Eeew. Did I really just say that about my furniture?)

Recover two of the chairs with your little helpers, and be sure to have fun. Now here's where the money-maker comes in.

Remember that new foam you bought? Take it back. With the money you get, pay for enough fabric to cover your other two chairs. Hey, you made thirty-five cents in the exchange! Go to the hardware store to purchase that washer and screw set that's missing from the bottom of one of your chairs. Use the thirty-five cents. Get your kids popcorn. Boy, how they love decorating projects.

~ ~ ~ ~

What fun it was to realize that not only could I recover two of our dining room chairs, but I wouldn't have to spend any more money to finish the other two as well. I had to reuse the old foam in the process, but that's acceptable to me.

Amazing how much you can do with limited funds, and how good God is to satisfy even our desires to decorate our homes. :)

Caterpillar Hunt

My friend Kristen took us caterpillar hunting the week before last. It was wonderful!

We went to a patch of milkweed and began carefully lifting the leaves to search for caterpillars. We even saw a monarch butterfly flitting around, and wondered if she'd laid the tiny white eggs we found.


Sure enough, we began to find monarch caterpillars of all sizes, from large ones that would soon spin their cocoons to a tiny 1/4-inch long one likely just hatched out of its egg. We carefully broke off the leaves the caterpillars were on and placed them in our bug keepers.



Imagine our delight when, three days later, the largest caterpillar spun a chrysalis. The "cat" was hanging upside down when we left for the park; an hour and a half later when we returned, we found a green chrysalis, wiggling from the cat's efforts to finish it from the inside. It was Amazing!

The chrysalis is exquisite. It's light green and the ridge along the top is edged in black and shiny gold. I don't have a good picture of ours, but here's a fuzzy one of my friend Kristen's. It's in the butterfly house her family constructed out of wood and screening.


Now we continue to feed our other caterpillars with fresh milkweed leaves every day. I'm noticing milkweed everywhere now! Sometimes on bike rides I'll stop just to peek under the leaves and search for eggs or caterpillars, not to bring them home but just to stop and be amazed. I did not know that "growing" butterflies was this easy. I'd assumed we needed a fancy kit. What a blessing to be able to share this with our girls!

It's a thrilling experience to see a miracle of creation unfold before our very eyes! But then, we've experienced it before, as our little girls were both knitted by God inside me. How great is our God!

No Matter the Storms that Rage

I seem to have a way of getting caught in storms with the girls.

About a month ago, the girls and I were in JCPenney to spend a ten-dollar gift card, and it wasn't going well. I tried item after item hoping to get to exactly ten dollars, and it either wasn't the right size or I'd have to spend additional money, which I was trying to avoid. Poor girls--I led them around and around the store till we were all frazzled, and their actions began to show it. How frustrated I was at the situation, and then increasingly at their behavior!

All of a sudden, over the loudspeaker an employee warned us that the store would soon be in "lockdown" because of a tornado in the area, and we would all be moved to the staff lunchroom for cover unless we leave the store immediately. The thought flitted through my mind of just wanting to be home, and safe--and trying to make a run for it. Then I thought of how stupid (I use that word sparingly, but it's appropriate here!) it would be to place myself and our two girls in such a vulnerable place as a car on the road when a tornado was nearby! So, of course, we went into the staff lunchroom for the lockdown, where we packed in with the other customers and the employees, and I was intensely thankful for the Holy Spirit's assuring me all would be well. If I hadn't had that, how scary it would have been!

Of course, the moment I heard over the loudspeaker that a tornado was approaching our town, the girls' behavior and my petty frustration with the shopping trip were all put into perspective. Emergency situations help you see clearly, don't they. (By the way, this was the same night our state had the most tornadoes in a single night in our history, and one devastated a town just ninety miles from us.)

Did I say I have a way with being out with the girls in storms? Today we were picking raspberries at a friend's house and I noticed lightning flashing off to the north on our drive home. Suddenly, within 100 yards we went from no rain to heavy rain, and cars began to pull off the road due to the terrible visibility. Then it started to hail.

A bit incredulous that this was actually happening, I looked ahead and saw a crossover to the southbound lane. I pulled off the shoulder, took the exit, and saw hope ahead. Pedal down, and I was out of the rain in another hundred yards. But where to go?

Obviously not home. Jacob's work, where he was just then? A restaurant kitchen is hardly a good (or safe) place for children to "hang out" and wait out a storm. So I headed back to my friend's house from where we had just come, knowing even though her husband wasn't feeling well, they'd welcome us back.

By then she was at her in-law's home just next door, where they were enjoying a family birthday celebration. They graciously invited us in; fed us dinner; gave our kids stickers and toys; and made us feel at home until the skies were blue again.

I'm tempted to "draw lessons" from these experiences, but I don't want to take myself too seriously. :) I just know that I'm not sure what I'd do without the Holy Spirit giving me peace when I need it most. In those times when all we can see is what's right in front of us, He sees the big picture. He knows we belong to God. And no matter the storms that rage, we're in His hand.

Happy Birthday, America!

This was our theme this Fourth of July as we tried to help the girls understand the holiday. We read books about America and made our own little American flags--which I thought would teach the girls the shapes & colors of it, only it turned out to be very open-ended and creative. Both Kardelen and Sofia made their flags in all colors of the rainbow, and Sofia asked us to draw a duck on hers, spurring Jacob to give it the nickname "duck-ocracy." (I preferred "Duck Republic.")

At the fourth of July parade on Sunday, an hour and a half flew by in a procession of vehicles, veterans, candy-throwing rollerskaters, peace activists, and political campaigners. It's the one time a child will be seen wearing stickers from several political parties simultaneously, along with a peace necklace given to her by an activist shouting "Peace is a good thing!"

It was entertaining to see the personalities of our children played out during the parade. Our determined firstborn filled her bucket with four times the candy of her sister, making candy collection her determined focus during the parade. The little sister, on the other hand, could be seen walking into a spray of candy, picking up a single piece, and happily meandering back to the curb to plop it into her little duck bag.

It was a lovely day. We were able to watch the parade from our pastors' home, where our church had a potluck shortly before the parade began. We got sunburned, got to fellowship with new friends from church, got enough sugar for two weeks, went to the wrong address at first, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

too much candy to smile

I am thankful for those who gave their lives for our country, and those who are sacrificing themselves now, so we can live in freedom and fellowship with our fellow Americans, watching our fourth of July parade on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Bible Plays as a Family

Just one hour ago, our family had so much fun, it was a delight!

At Monica's recommendation, we bought a book of Bible skits to act out during family times. We hadn't actually used it yet, but today Kardelen requested it. We took it out and decided that we'd like to reenact the story of Adam and Eve. It worked well since there were four characters (Adam, Eve, God, and the snake), and there are four of us.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it! And at the same time, God's Word was being brought to life for our girls. I have no doubt they'll remember the story much better now. And such happy family memories along the way!

We all chuckled when the snake (Sofia) was determined to repeat God's lines after him (Kardelen), and when God kicked Adam & Eve (Jacob & I) out of the garden at the end of the play. She literally (gently) KICKED us out! (I think she's still learning about figurative language.) :)

To illustrate my point--Kardelen just came out of her room asking, "Mom, I wanna do the Noah one now!" I promised we' d do it this afternoon. I can just imagine all the pairs of stuffed animals in our porta-crib "ark" now. :)


Below: "God" and "the snake" discuss the fruit on the "tree" after the play is over. Actually, "God" is pretending the bananas are alligators eating up the orange, and then noting that there weren't really alligators in the story.

(In)Courage post today

Wow, this post was for me today (Something Has to Give). I don't feel tired, or overwhelmed, or like a dry well; but when Sarah cautioned against feeling like you could "do more, do better," and "work just a little harder to make more money," and "feel guilty because you just aren't doing enough," I couldn't believe how well she expressed what I didn't know I was feeling--until I read it.

I'd thought I was doing pretty well. Ironically, I just told Jacob yesterday how content I was. (Was it mixed with a little bit of pride, maybe?) Then I went shopping and found something I wanted but couldn't afford, and later got massively intimidated by another mom's homeschooling schedule. How could it take that little to throw me off kilter?

I think I'm going to go spend some time with the Father tonight. I could use it. :)

Coach John Wooden on true love

Coach John Wooden holds my respect for so many different reasons. Here's Coach Wooden talking about the love of his life, the love letters he continued to write to her every month after she passed away, and his hope when contemplating death.

Inspiring.