Sewing for the Soul

One little lady has changed my crafting life- my squishy, sweet little niece. I happen to live in an area with a J.Crew Warehouse which frequently has sales. It is a crazy scene of adults who wait in long lines in the rain, and pillage through huge boxes of random clothes, hauling along trash bags of their spoils. But the best part to me is that most of the kids clothing is less than $6! I have two boys and they love the preppy shirts they think are "cowboy", but the hunt has become a little more fun now that I can dig through the adorable girl's clothes. So the challenge I have given myself has been to find pieces I can add to, making the ubiquitous 4/5 size shirts into 2/3 size dresses for little J. Here are a few of my latest, but I am sorry some are not modeled. Most often I have to ship them off and hope they fit!

I like buying a shirt so I don't have to make sleeves, so I added lace to this to make longer for a dress. I was going to add another layer beneath, but liked the simple beauty of these colors together.

For this sweet shirt I took in the sides a little and added the denim band and a few button accents.

I loved this little ruffled shirt and added fabric beneath it to look like a shirt over a skirt.

But trying to find time to sew or craft each week is a challenge with home-schooling, part-time work, and other responsibilities, but I feel for me it has slid more into the category of NEED (as I wrote about here).
I remember the first time I make a little orange tote bag with a flap and a button and I couldn't believe I MADE something that looks like it might have come from a store. I was so proud and impressed by the silly thing, hanging it up in the dining room. In a funny way it gave me a glimpse into the pride, delight and enjoyment that God must have upon His creation. I looked at that little bag and somehow felt more loved. It's amazing how personal my God must be to bring revelation into that simple moment of honestly, unimpressive handiwork. But He did.
And prayer-crafting became intertwined and an addiction.

I think I have figured out that in my little world of repeatedly washing the same dishes, and clothing, and floors, that creating gives me an opportunity to make something more lasting. Outside the cycle of the monotonous, something I work on just might be worn and kept and loved. And that is very satisfying. It has become an intentional need. Does anyone feel the same way?

Returning the Meaning to Easter

Before it gets too far away from the season, I want to share our passion for celebrating Passover. There is such a richness to becoming part of a service that has been observed for thousands of years, and a meal that Jesus Himself sat down to eat. It has normally been an elaborate part of early spring for us. We have low tables we set up, long tablecloths to iron, hand stamping placecards with the kids, hosting 10 guests, and planning a meal and driving all over our scarcely Jewish area to gather what is needed. But this year with too many major things going on, we decided to observe a simple dinner with just our children on Resurrection Sunday. We spend the week with mid-day and evening readings of Jesus' last week and this is a good culmination, tying in His work of redemption for us, as also characterized in the rescue of God's people through Moses in the Exodus.

There are several things I appreciate about this evening and its part in our lives. Like my role as a woman lighting the Passover candles, giving light to the table, just as Jesus was born of a woman, giving light to the world. The toughness we learned last year of Why the youngest is chosen to answer the 4 questions when it would be easier to chose the oldest. So they are not left out of being taught! This exercise is such a good reminder.
And the humbling ritual of my husband washing our feet as Jesus did for His disciples. It's awkward and freezing and hard not to giggle, and we come to the table with relatively clean feet, but sobering to think of Jesus stooped to wash the dust of this world off the feet of His closest friends that did not understand why and did not fully appreciate what He was doing.

I appreciate the small moments like my 7 year old putting on a wrinkled white button up shirt and tucking it in, to look "special" for the occasion. The joy in hearing him read the responses for the first time since he has learned this year to read. Their excitement for the chocolate coins (which I bought instead of making this year, cutting corners everywhere I could!) given in exchange for the hidden matzah. And ending the evening on the floor as we took requests for hymns and my 3 year old chose the "Grow, grow, grow" song.
It wasn't big or perfect or the best thing I have ever organized but it was special for us. And its meaning and significance has easily replaced other distracting traditions of this season. I pray it will be something my children will grow to understand and always remember.


"Truly, we can say Hallelujah for the great redemption which God has wrought on our behalf."
We lift the cup of Praise because He has made us His people.

What my heart asks for

It amazes me how hard it is to write the first word.

I can’t imagine being a novelist with my mind filled with characters, conversations and plot twists that have all been thought out and are just waiting their turn to be exposed, that they can’t type fast enough. I am only one character and can barely narrow down my own story. 

But this year has been one of great self-revelation, guided gently by my Holy Spirit. I am learning to ask Why? in these moments of paralysis that halt me from doing the next thing I know I ought to do. And the answer is always traced to one culprit. A lie. In this case, as I sit staring at the screen it is, What have you got worth saying? And while many might casually agree to this after reading my ramblings, I realize this question is not posed in my heart by the Lord, Who has done so much and said so much that His encouragement would not be to be quiet.  And I am finding more often that all of my negative thoughts, discouragements, and excuses are all traced to their own individual lies. Lies that I am ready to exchange for freedom one by one. Now that I am aware of them, and that is the key.

So if you are interested in walking with me, I am determined more so to be focused on the Truth in my life and sharing it. To give the true life-giving parts of my life the attention they deserve.  I hope that I can encourage you to find the same - the things that come easily, that you could stay up all night to do, and make your heart race at their thought. And then doing them. But that takes intentionality.  What I have discovered through paying attention to my own heart and what friends say of me is that my weeks NEED to be filled with Intentional:

*Time with my children, teaching in everything
*Time alone with God’s Word, loving it, making sense of it, and sharing it

*Creating something tangible with my hands and giving

*Considering and incorporating meaningful, Christ-centered days/holidays

These excite my heart and I hope each happen often enough that I can write about them, because I guess I like that too.

~Jen Love

for mandi