Creative Homemaker

I see a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. There may be a job for Bear as a Chaplain. Things are still pretty undecided and up in the air, but for now there is hope. I'm convinced that God never gives us more than we can handle. Yet, it is never an easy road, for what good would an easy path do for you, there would be no growth, no stretching, and no muscle toning. This past year has been very hard, with unemployment, deaths, reposseessed vehicles, utilities disconnected. But it has also been sprinkled with grace. He has been there in the midst of the storm, gifts from friends, assistance with bills, gifts of food, and much much heartfelt prayers for our situation. Bear was ordained in February, he graduated from seminary in June and was commissioned as a Chaplain in the Individual Ready Reserve last month. I'll keep you updated as soon as we know the situation for sure, in the meantime, we would covet yur prayers on our behalf.

Beth Moore you have once again chipped away at what's eating me. Deep down in my heart of hearts, in the deep dark places of my soul, I am afraid that God is a taker and not a giver. Beth, why is it that whatever I am feeling, comes out in your study. For instance; you say, "Sometimes when you want to go on the ride of your life with Jesus, you have to let go of where you are right now." (or somehing like that, ok, I'm not the fastest note-taker ever...) and this: "what is keeping us from the ride of our lives with God? Ok, so, yes. I maybe having a hard time letting go of somethings. Well, like, income for instance, a house, schools for my kids...etc. And another thing: Abraham didn't know beforehand that he wasn't going through with Isaac on the alter. But we do. Hindsight is always 20/20. That's hard for me to put into perspective...how would I have handled the situation? Probably not without much screaming and falling on my face before God, and wh...

I had this post written earlier in my head and now it doesn't come easily for me. I had gone to a Beth Moore Bible study last night at my church and was feeling very lost and alone. The topic was inheritance. How in God's word it says that I am an heir with Christ. We discussed afterwards how sometimes you just don't feel this way or that and that is when you have to just believe the Words of God, even if you don't feel that way. Well, what if you can't even just believe that anymore. What if, you don't trust those words any longer. So what if God says he will never leave us of forsake us, if I feel left or forgotten, that makes it awfully hard to trust and believe then doesn't' it. What if God says He will give us the desires of our hearts, but the waiting period has been too long and you have lost the joy. What if it just takes too long and in the process you just can't take another step in any direction because you don't even know which way to...

I feel like I am the rag hanging in the middle of the rope in a giant game of tug of war. (Great picture, huh?) Back and forth, tugged here, yanked there, drug through the mud a little, squished by the teeming masses, ripped backwards only to start the whole process all over again. In order to save what is left of my little brain power, I'm just copying my facebook post, I'm too tired and discouraged to do anything more than this. "Due to a Department of the Army administrative glitch, Bear's packet did NOT make it before the board!! The next board meets June 23rd. We are slowly sinking...into despair, into debt, into the muck and mire of self pity. The DA is transitioning to a paperless board system, Bear's packet was there and complete, but for some reason did not get transmitted, (along with many other packets as well.) Big DA SNAFU!! I am so jealous of everyone else who has gone through this process. Why did it seem so easy!? Why is it so hard for us? Bear keep...

My sweet little great-nephew, Michael, has had serious brain issues. He had a tumor which was partially removed through an operation last year. He has been having chemo radiation therapy once a month to shrink the remaining portion of the tumor. It was surrounding his optical nerve and couldn't be completely removed. On Thursday, April 30th, he will be having another MRI to see if the tumor is shrinking and then later that afternoon he will have another chemo treatment.(Two weeks after that his Momma will be having a C-Cection to deliver a baby brother for Michael, please pray for her too.) Please pray that God will cause the tumor to shrink and no damage to the optical nerve has occurred. He is such a sweet little babe. I know that God can work miracles. I've seen Him do it.

I hung my clothes lines today. In honor of this springtime rite of passage, I'm reposting the rules, for those of you who don't know them already... 1. Wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes. Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the line. 2. Hang the clothes in a certain order and always hang whites with whites and hang them first. 3. Never hang a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail. What would the neighbors think? 4. Wash day on a Monday...........never hang clothes on the weekend or Sunday for heaven's sake! 5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you can hide your 'unmentionables' in the middle. 6. It doesn't matter if it is sub zero weather.............clothes would 'freeze dry.' (Too wet in my part of the world!) 7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes. Pins left on the line are 'tacky'. 8. Hang the clothes up so that each item does not need two clothes pins, but share o...

Bear's Chaplain packet will go before the board on the 13th of May; our anniversary and also two years to the day from when Bear got out of the military to pursue becoming a Chaplain. We are very excited that the packet has been pulled out of the recruiter's bottom drawer and will be submitted. It is with much prayerfulness that we have gotten to this point, and we are asking for prayer during the selection process. God is indeed sovereign and we are trusting Him for the outcome.

Is this what I'm not doing? I thought that I held loosely to what was in my hand. Apparantly, I have not. I guess if it feels as if part of me has been ripped away, I was clinging pretty tightly to it. I'll try Lord. My hands are open Lord. I'm letting loose. Take what you want.

I've been sorting through oodles and gobs of pictures. (ha ha, my mother used to say that!) Anyway, a lot! Been trying to edit, crop, identify pictures to go in a memorial album for my brother Clarence's family. I think we are up to 24 copies so far. I'm doing them digitally with a great program from Creative Memories called Storyook Creator Plus. It makes me look like I'm a graphic designer, which clearly, I'm not! But anyway, it's great. I came across this funny picture of my Daddy and brothers. Thought I'd post it here. Clarence is on the right standing next to Dad. I guess they were playingping pong. Although I don't remember that there was a ping pong table in that room? Hmmm, maybe they were just being weird, which is tipical behavior for the men in my family.

While we were away at my brother's funeral in Idaho, Bear and I drove to the house I lived in for the first 14 years of my life. It is a very old (120 years?) home in Meridian Idaho. It was called the Wireless Ranch, there was a wireless radio tower on the property when it was first built. I loved the home. My dad had done so many great improvements, there were built in cabinets, drawers, shelves, special display shelves for my brothers' model cars, drop down desks, etc. Dad and my brothers built this huge drop down train table with pipe legs that screwed on when it was down. There was always something fun going on, and I loved living there. Bear and I drove up to the home to take some pictures. Bear drove up the driveway and I started snapping pictures. Mr. Todd Owner, (not his real name...) came out of the house. ”May I help you?” he said somewhat reservedly. I told him who I was and that we once lived here. He remembered us from a few years ago when we had driven by a...

My brother Clarence was a keeper. Those of you who knew him well know that he was also a pack rat, but I’m not talking about that. He was a word-keeper, a memory-keeper, a journal-keeper. He was faithful in writing in his journal for most of his adult life, at least from the time he went on his mission. I remember when I was younger, we stayed overnight at his house, it may have been in Twin Falls or Rigby, I don’t remember which, but when I went into the bathroom there were volumes on journal on the back of the toilet. I guess most people use that as a reading room, Clarence used it as a writing room. Clarence told me to keep writing when he found out I had started a blog. He encouraged me to submit a few of my stories to an online newsletter, Heroic Stories. It was with his help that I became published. I cherish the history of my father, and my children have read it too. It is a great legacy to leave behind for family members. Because Clarence has set such a good example for me, I...

My heart hurts tonight. I can barely even express my thoughts. My dear eldest brother was in an accident and died this evening. The details are few, and too painful to even express. My immediate family, nearly 60 of us, are in deep sorrow. It is tragic. It is painful. The remembering hurts and makes new tears surface where I thought none existed. My dear brother once told me he thought my writing was pretty good and that I should keep it up. He encouraged me to submit a few stories to newspapers for publication. I write from the heart, how I feel usually comes out on the paper. Not tonight. I may be silent for a while. We may be travelling to a funeral. Oh, how I hurt just now... Please pray, he leaves a wife, 6 children and several grandchildren, 6 brothers and sisters, his mother. Oh, he was dear to me. I can't believe he is gone.

Many years ago I made a lovely "coat of many colors;" a quilted jacket made from many strips of fabric from various quilting projects and homemade clothing. It is warm, comfortable, but getting worn and raggedy. Bear forbade me to wear it any longer. So, I took it apart and made a pattern out of the pieces. I'm going to make another one with strips, crumbs and strings I've collected in the past 20 years. I'm looking forward to the finished project. I found a flannel sheet at the thrift store for 25 cents that will serve as the filling. It is quite toasty with the lining and fabric on the outside. It will be such a thrifty, yet beautiful jacket when it is finished. But what do I do with the old one now? It is in six pieces, two sleeves, two fronts, the back and collar. The sleeves and front are sort of worn through in places and the collar is probably heading for the trash, but any ideas what to use the good quilted pieces for? Any ideas are welcome.

At Thanksgiving we had company, good company, the kind of company that doesn't FEEL like company, but more like family. We love them. We are uninhibited when they are around. We sometimes let it all hang out. While they were here, Bear walked down the stairs and drug his hand absently along the wall as he turned the corner and knocked the candle out of the sconce on the wall. He exasperatedly hung it back in its place and told me if it happens again he would rip the sconce off the wall. Later that day, our friends and I were sitting in the family room, chatting, enjoying each other's company when Bear came down the stairs a second time, and again knocked the candle out of the sconce. After a Bear-like growl, he ripped the sconce, candle and screws out of the wall. We all sat there dumbfounded and looked at him with jaws dropped and saucer eyes. "I told you I was going to rip it off." He calmly replied. So, I told him, I would have to make a quilt to go in that spot, b...

Bear asked me to make this for Sunday. I messed up the first one, making my own pattern wasn't easy. It's just a sash, straight lines, how hard can it be? I ask. Well, the second one turned out better, plus I made it reversible with purple for advent season. I like it. I'll be a proud wife of my Ordained Pastor husband on Sunday. Wow, that sounds so strange. I'm now married to the clergy. Or rather, I will be after February 8th at 11 am. BTW, the brick wall that we ran into see here , wasn't so much a brick wall afterall, more like a mountain to be climbed, and we are scaling it's heights right now.

When filling out the enormous amounts of paperwork for his Chaplain packet, my Bear discovered that there is a moral clause stating that a Chaplain Candidate cannot have any bills that are over 90 days delinquent. Unfortunately, we have one. We have a 20/80 split mortgage and while my Darling, hard working husband was temporarily out of work between his enlisted stint in the Army over a year ago, and the job from which he was just laid off in December, we fell behind on our 20% mortgage. We were on a repayment plan and fulfilling it, when he was laid off. Now the repayment plan is in default. Now the Chaplain Packet is defunct. Ka-bloo-ey. For at least one year after ALL our past due bills are paid current. He will then be able to get a moral waiver. At which time, he will be too old to enter the military as a Chaplain unless he then gets an AGE Waiver! Not to sound ungrateful; and knowing in my heart that God is still in control over the situation; but we never would have been in thi...

You're all welcome to come!! Cake afterwards, you know you want cake.

I've been bad. I've been ignoring you. I've no excuses. I've been swamped with life. Not to mention an unemployed husband at home, who thinks I should be keeping house instead of sitting at the computer... Nuff said.