doing other things

I realize that at times it may seem that I don't do much more than sew :) but it's not so! In fact, I've decided to slow down on the sewing to allow for other things and to take the pressure off myself a little bit. I love making gifts, but I can no longer keep up with making every gift that comes down the pike, so from now on I will be gifting books most of the time, something else I absolutely love to give. Ya know, there really are books out there for everyone.

Speaking of books :) I have had a lot of them on my current reading list, so I want to share some with you.

I don't usually have this many books going at the same time, but I'm finishing up one of them and I've barely started to others.

1. What is a Family by Edith Schaeffer--I've only read one chapter of this book, but I know it will be a winner. It was written a few decades ago now, but the things she has to say about why the concept of family is going the wrong direction in America today and what we can do to change that with our own family legacy.

2. The Mentoring Mom by Jackie Kendall; 11 way to model Christ to your child. I bought this just the other day and the first page said something that stuck with me.

"God put Noah in an ark that had no rudder, no sail, and no motor and sent him into a horrible storm. yet he was in the safest place possible, because it was God's will." (pg. 9)

Encouraging words in my current circumstances!

3. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell--This is one I've been itching to read since my friend Katie let me borrow the movie North and South from the same author. I've been really loving the classics this past year. I recently finished the Count of Monte Cristo and absolutely loved it (very different from the movie!) and before that I read every Jane Austen novel there is :) Love her.

4. Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster--I have talked about this author before. I really loved his book, Celebration of Discipline, but didn't like this one quite as much. I was looking for ways to introduce simplicity in my daily life and how to foster of spirit of simplicity, but most of this book felt like a solution for the whole world, instead of for individuals and families. Maybe I'm not explaining this very well. However, I did enjoy the first part of the book more. I was convicted in areas of generosity and honesty and began praying for ways to offer generosity with our somewhat limited resources. God truly answered that prayer, as my eyes were opened to many ministries and opportunities to share what we have.


In other reading, I'm going to be getting the children's church ministry up and going again at our church. I've been thinking about this for awhile and last week it sort of fell right into place, so I'm thrilled. I'm on my own for materials and lesson plans and it just so happens, my Mom brought back all these object lesson, craft and puppet books, yay! Then, I had no trouble finding full lesson plans online. Here's my favorite site: http://ministry-to-children.com/
Also, Casey was cleaning out the garage and found a big "pin-the-smile-on-Larry" game from our days working for Family Christian Stores. That will be tons of fun :)

P.S. See that pretty mug up there, holding my latte?? Casey bought me that from Anthropologie as a sweet little surprise for me. What a guy :)

Oh, and one more thing! I have started a GoodReads account and it's over there on my sidebar so you can see what I"m reading. Feel free to befriend me too so I can see what you're reading. Thanks to my sister and to Katie for opening my eyes to GoodReads, what fun!