Another Year Flew By

Highlights of this year:

Finalization of our daughter's adoption in October!!!! (we waited two years and 4 months)
Conversations with my mother about my Vovo
Sewing, Scrapping, Crocheting and Quilting with my friends
Scrapbooking Retreat in November
Weeks at the beach with my awesome Husband and 6 kids
Carol Ruvolo Bible Study with the women in my Church family
10 Standard Poodle puppies born on December 10th.
Going to the BirdMart with Pegi
Cookie Day in December
Reading Christian Historical Fiction with my daughter
Long walks on the Coast with my Husband, little coffee shops along the way
Camping with our good friends and family throughout the summer
Seeing how much my kids have grown in home schooling and music lessons
Getting closer to Jesus by attending to the excellent preaching at our church
Watching God gently bless my friends that are close to Him

God bless you everyone; may you all have a wonderful 2011 and may you taste and see that He is good.
~Amleht

Did I mention we have a new litter of AKC Standard Poodle Puppies?

My Dumpster Is Coming!!!

OOH I just cannot wait for the dumpster to arrive. I have so many things I want to throw away ( to hopefully make more room for my increasingly eclectic and creative lifestyle)!!!!!! Goodbye old textbooks, home school stuff, pillows, clothes, yada yada. Hello more simplicity and focus on the many wonderful things I love like scrapbooking, knitting, sewing and painting... I am planning on this being more liberating than exhausting. If you are reading this and you have faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior and King of everything, please pray for me because I am handicapped and it is hard for me to do lots of physical work, but I desire a home that is a little more simple and pleasing to Him. I have so many things I want to accomplish while I am still mobile.... a bucket list if you will. I love to create things, and for so long I have kept everything so as to always have it at my disposal  - for example "oh - I might use this one day, or I can't throw away this shirt because that is good quilt material" yes pray that my brain expands.... I saw the Hoarders show and I thought oh boy, I can see my own pathology in those people. Don't worry I am not that bad. lol.

As we plow through the season of stress, family, baking and endless parties, my encouragement to you is to take time every day to be at the feet of Jesus and as Psalm 46:10 tells us: be still and know that He is God. Forgive others as He has forgiven you.... Visit the widows and orphans.... Serve at your local church... Meditate on the Ten Commandments... Love God with all of your heart..... as Christians we will give account for the way we live our lives...

Christmassy Aprons for 18 Years of Cookies

I guess I just love aprons... I am trying to recall what Vovo's aprons looked like. I shall check with my mother I suppose.

I got a bug In my bonnet to make some aprons for my dear friends, the Cookie Girls. The Cookie Girls and I have been spending the second weekend in December together for the last 18 years. We met in college and started making cookies together... now we have over the years added dinners, movies and even a couple daughters to the mix. Together we have supported each other through trials and triumphs, illnesses, aging parents, sick children, TEENAGERS, marriages, divorces and I consider them to be a part of my family. I laugh with them, cry with them and pray for them regularly. We store up a lot of conversation all year long for this very weekend, and I am so blessed that they love me like I love them.

FOR CLARITY: I made one apron especially for my Cookie Gal Terri who is somewhat recently divorced and officially a wonderful candidate for a relationship. I had a dream that she got married and when I spotted the 'Young Lad Christmassy Fabric' I just had to use it for her apron.

                                                                      Terri's Apron                                                  

             THE COOKIE GIRLS!!!