My Daughter's Baptism

My daughter was baptized a couple of weeks ago at church.   My in-laws got to watch online, so good!   My parents and extended family got to attend.   The church had a photographer who took pictures.   We'll get those pictures in a couple more weeks.   Here a couple of shots she took on my camera.  

It was a beautiful moment in my daughter's life.   I love that we as a family got to share in it.  We love our daughter dearly and are so proud of her decision.   Our church encourages us to raise our kids according to Deuteronomy 6: 4-7.   

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.   

There have been so many people in my daughter's life that have planted and watered seeds of faith.   Everyone from the sweet people in Naperville who rocked her as a baby, to the wonderful people at Shenandoah Baptist church in Orlando who embraced and loved us.   I'll always treasure Miss Tommie, my daughter's Sunday school teacher when she was a preschooler.   Miss Tommie had my daughter memorizing scripture at 2 and 3!  All the wonderful people at HFBC from VBS workers to Sunday school teachers, ministers, volunteers, and friends have encouraged and taught her along the way.   Her Daddy is very intentional in leading our family with daily Bible readings before bed.  God has used many people to bring her to this point.  It will take many more to continue to encourage and grow her faith as her Daddy and I do our best, with a lot of help from the Lord above, to raise her.   We are so excited to see what God does in her life.  

Always a Project

My daughter likes to make little crafts.  She wanted to sew this little bow on this scrap of fabric.   She worked so hard. 

She was so proud of herself when she was done.

My husband asked me to hem some pants for him.   I agreed, then he asked me to make them more modern and make them slimmer at the ankle.   After all my various projects I've done for myself, I took this one on for him.  Here is the before:

Then, I got to work.   First, I ripped out the factory hem.

Next, I marked the narrowed seams and sewed them.  

Next, I marked the amount to cut off and cut it.  Finally, I finished the raw edge, turned it under and added the new hem.   Isn't he dashing???

My sister-in-law sells 31 merchandise.  She got a purse with an incorrect monogram on it.   She kindly gave it to me.   I took off the incorrect monogramming.

Then I added a flower for pizzaz!

Thank you Brenna.

My daugther has a class project where they are portraying famous igures in African American history.   She picked Ella Fitzgerald.    I went to Value Village to find her a dress for a costume.   After poking through the racks, I found her costume dress in the girls section.   Here she is portraying Ella.  

While I was there, I scanned to see what I might find in the ladies' section.   I found a cute sweater tunic and a vintage red dress.  It had a tiny hole under the arm.   I fixed that in 5 minutes.

I wore it to a baby shower last weekend.

The best part is that I got all three items for only $7.   I unintentionally almost matched the shower honoree, but she looks far cuter with her triplet belly.   Congrats Sydney!

I am working on a quilt now, I must finish in the next two weeks.   I'm finished piecing and now quilting it.   We're in the home stretch of finishing it!

A Wild Time!

Last week we traveled to Alabama to celebrate my nephew's 1st birthday and a late Christmas.   My sister-in-law planned an adorable Where the Wild Things Are party.  A friend of hers designed the invitations and cakes.

Brenna planned an adorable party complete with a wild rumpus.  I snapped this picture of her that I love.

My nephew was fighting a cold, but a trooper through it all.   

The kids had a blast riding their riding toys in the church gym.   They decorated crowns and their riding toys.   Then they had a wild rumpus parade.   My nephew got a wagon from my in-laws and had a blast riding in it.

  Happy Birthday sweet boy!

1st Book Review

I recently signed up with Multnomah publishers to be a part of their Blogging for Books program.   The program essentially sends you a book at no cost in exchange for a unbias review.  I signed up and they sent me my first book Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner.  The following is my review.

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner

This was my first time to read one of Meissner's books.   I generally enjoy historical fiction.  This book has parallel storylines.   It follows two characters, both named Jane, linked together by a special piece of jewelry.   One Jane lives in modern day Manhattan and the other Jane lives in 16th century England.  Transitions between the story lines are seamless and the reader is eager to find out what is happening with each Jane.  Sixteenth century Jane's story is told through the eyes of a personal servant.   Modern Jane tells her own story of self discovery.  

The story was very well thought out and entertaining.   There was one spot near the beginning of sixteenth century Jane's story that the narrative dragged a bit.  After that point, I didn't notice any more problems with the narrative.  I found it flowed nicely.   The inderlying theme of self discovery was intriging and would appeal to a wide variety of audiences.  This book compelled me read up a bit on a little known Tutor monarch.  I would reccommend this book to anyone.   It was a light, relaxing read that allowed me to take some time to escape into the worlds of the two Janes.

“I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”.