Day 18, 19, 20

Here's where we get to Advent- mobile edition. We will be traveling until Christmas day and if you are following for plans, there may be more details after Christmas. We pack everything that we use with us and include our family, but time does not permit much more elaboration.


Day 18: The branch of Jesse- This prophecy in Isaiah is I believe, the basis for the "Jesse Tree".

"A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit."

There is no specific story about this in the Bible in Stories and the passage is worth reading from - Isaiah 11


Day 19: Jonah

If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - pages 432-435

If using the Bible or another Bible reader - Jonah 1-4





Day 20: Daniel
This ornament is a picture of the Babylon gate, from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar. We actually got to see this gate moved and re-built in a museum in Berlin, Germany which was an incredible experience.

If you are following along with the Bible in Stories - summarizing pages 408-415, 422-425

If using the Bible or another Bible reader - summarize Daniel 1-6

More than Baggage

Traveling always makes me want to make a new bag. There's something fresh about picking out fabric and creating something new for a new place. I wanted something flat to pack, lightweight and not too hot, and big enough just to carry a few things as we walk around the camp where we will be working in Germany the next few weeks.

Figuring this one out made my head hurt but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. You can find a link to the pattern in English HERE. I fell in love with its picture on Pinterest. I complicated mine by placing my stripe at the bottom of the bag, using one-directional fabric, and added an inner pocket.

Lining and inside pocket

But my main motivation for sewing this week was that I my son and I have been suffering from eczema for years and his pediatrician suggested going on a dairy-free diet, so I needed to be prepared perhaps to carry my own food wherever we go (and well a new bag makes it a tiny bit more bearable!) He also tested allergic to egg, peanuts, and walnuts (and the cat). I haven't been tested yet myself but decided to cut all of these out in case they affect me too and so I can sympathize and cook for him. Stopping all of these cold-turkey while traveling has been sooo hard! But the surprise more was all of the feelings and fears that rose out of me. And I say rose because that implies that they were always there.

One of the first mornings I cried because we went out to breakfast and I could not find a single thing to eat. I cried at Wal-Mart because they had none of the dairy substitutes I could find at home. I cried when we got to our destination because the week ahead with my tiny bag of groceries seemed so bleak. My stomach began to quiver and feel anxious on the way to the cafeteria. Beneath it all I was resenting God for our issues and growing bitter at how narrow (and tasteless) my world seemed. Irrelevant lies began to fill my thoughts about God's fairness and my ugliness and my job as a mom. And I think I was actually grieving the loss of freedom knowing I was headed to Europe soon and wanted to be able to pick up anything delicious-looking without reading any labels.  I know, so dramatic and self-pitying; evidently the sleeping giants in my heart. I sought a few faithful friends to lift my weary heart before the Father and experienced the reality check of surrendering my relatively small trials to Him in exchange for peace. Light again shone through the gray skies that had smothered me.

I recently read "Waking the Dead" by John Eldridge and have been chewing on his idea of caring for my heart or for the heart of others. If anything from this month I want to walk away with a sensitivity to the heart issues that may cling to anything that we go through.
I could have just paid attention to my hunger or inner pity-party, but the real issues stemmed from my heart, not my stomach. There were lies to reject, confessions to be made, and hope to receive.
Isn't that the way it always is? With anyone around me, what am I doing to check in on and care for their heart? It's not just a "bad day with the kids", but a longing for stillness and peace and a return to thoughts that are eternal and not just attending to immediate needs. It's usually not "just a sickness", but the anxieties and lies that chase after you in your weakness. I have been asking God to give me ears to really hear what is going on at the heart-level when others speak. We are such complicated beings of body, soul, spirit and emotion. Too often we carry on like we are one dimensional beings because it takes too much time to ponder the heart and lay all that lies beneath before the Lord. But through the evident multi-layers exposed through my own problems I ask Him to help me discern them clearly in the stories of others. And care enough to address it.

Apparently a little ice cream withdrawal is food for the spirit.



 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." -Proverbs 4:23 

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?