A Few Saturday Odds and Ends

Today was full with sleeping in, paper routes, enjoying the weather, and in the evening half of the family up in Minnetonka watching the Aces perform so there was not a lot of time to work on sewing projects.

I am still plugging away at those 26 baby blankets I have waiting for me.Right now, they kind of feel like dreaded homework that I am putting off. There really is no reason why I just can not set them aside and move on to something else but the fact that I do not want to do them is all the reason to just get them sewn and finished.


I did do a little late night coloring



with my 5 year old night owl.



and I spent some time considering what to make out of these two groups of fabric in the coming weeks.

I think I will make a little halter top out of the white eyelet and maybe shorts out of the vintage balloon fabric for Lily. That would be so cute.



I will make something similar for Grace out of this fabric combination.



Of course,I am better at planning projects more than I actually have time to sew them! Maybe, having these waiting for me will motivate me to get those baby blankets done fast.


Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Alexandria Aces

Coach John who is the kids FCA HeavenWord Handlers Baseketball Performance Team coach and Jeff took some of the Waseca HeavenWord Handlers up to Minnetonka to watch the Alexandria Aces perform during the Special Olympics Spring games this evening. I think the kids came away with a few new basketball trick ideas.




Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Figures!!

Figures!

What is that all about Tina!!??

Figures? What figures?

*Sigh*

You might not have witnessed it but I fell totally, absolutely right smack on my face today. Figuratively that is,but I would have rather physically fell flat on my face instead!

What am I talking about?

Oh,it seems that whenever Jeff and I are looking ahead to the future and all the exiting great things we think God is leading us in...blah...I do some crazy stupid thing (or many crazy stupid things) that show why God should not be leading us in a particular direction or any direction at all.

Making no sense am I?

Well,we are taking the next four months to seriously seek God in a few areas that we feel he might be leading us forward in.

It is fun to dream and wonder. In times like that it seems like we can actually touch the clouds! God can do anything!

Then it happens...

I trip and fall hard. So hard.

So as I rub my smashed face,I am wondering what is the true 'reality' I should hang on to?

Is it the 'reality' that I am just who I am,and will always be a sort of goof up?Someone not really usable to God?

Or

Is it the 'reality' that God can use even a goof-up like me to do what he has planned?

I remember this verse:

The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

Which makes the second 'reality' the true reality, doesn't it?

'nuf said.


Even though, I fell flat in my face today I was able to take a few pictures of the day.

Here is my morning "coffee".




This evening was the first Waseca Blue Jays baseball home game. We live right across the street from the coolest ball field.

Jeff is walking over with Joel and Grace to catch the last few minutes of the game.



Poor Lily thought she was going as well. I think that her major temper tantrum in the front yard after she realised she was not going to the game was almost as exiting as the game.



I made homemade chicken soup for dinner tonight but I noticed the dish washing child did not wash the pan I use to cook noodles in after our lunch meal. I was way to lazy to wash it myself so I tossed in a bunch of ramen noodles into the broth instead. Pretty tasty if you are a fan of over-cooked ramen noodles. Lily enjoyed it.



Can you tell I photo shopped Lily's finger nails clean?



Notice the cute spoon Lily is using. The spoons were a gift from the Stahls when they visited China a few years back. I just love them!




One last thing.

If you are ever interested in reading about other large families like mine or even larger, Mega Families bloggers has links to many other large families.




Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

A Few Of The Joys In My Life

I ran across this quote on another person's blog a while back.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

~Mark Twain

Isn't it just the greatest quote!?

I think it sums up our family so well. Whatever gave us the fortitude to go forward in enlarging our family the way we did with adopting our Liberian children,I do not know.

How did we ever have the courage to "throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your (our) sails" I do not know. I am a wimpy coward most of the time.

No I do know...I know it was the Lord.

Most who know us would not have thought this would be our life.They are SO right!This isn't us.That is one of the things that make me laugh at times. This large family thing is just SO from the Lord.

The funny thing is even after we have come out of the last few years of adjustments etc... and seen God do amazing things I can still forget how to step out in faith and see God work in more current areas of my life. Maybe it is a little like the disciples who had seen first hand Jesus doing mighty miracles but still had many doubts.

There are still things that hold me back from jumping head first into my new mom of a large family privileged role . I still feel like I hold myself at arms length emotionally at times.

I still feel that my 'need' for the pieces of my life to all fall into a orderly place affects life around here.

I sometimes feel that God has dug miles and miles into my inner hidden fleshly self and trimmed,clipped,pruned, and majorly uprooted more yuck that I'm sure there can not be anymore. Then there are other days when I am sure he has only been using a teaspoon and dug no more than a few inches because I can feel the yuck of my selfish self oozing out.I beg him to just rip it all out all at once so we can move on.God has his plans and his timing even with character growth.

So why is this blog post called A Few Of The Joys In My Life?

Because I get beautiful flowers



from a very sweet boy



and I hear things like "I could eat 30 of these" over a meal that really did not turn out very well.

(New recipe.looks good but did not taste good. Who puts oatmeal in pancakes anyway.Way too healthy for my white flour taste buds)



And I overhear conversations like this "Dad,the Ferengi really do not obey the Bible because they steal..." Sorry Quark.The kids call them as they see them.



See sometimes the small details I almost missed make me see life is good.

Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Happy Birthday Alan!!

Happy 13th birthday Alan!!!

I love you VERY much!!

Alan's birthday was on Easter this year so we split his birthday festivities between Easter and this evening.

Wow! I now have four teens in the house.

Alan you have grown way too fast!

I hope your 13th year is your best year yet!








Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Let's Color Some Eggs!

Fourteen children times four eggs each...

Ok,let's color 56 eggs!!!

We were running a little behind on Easter so we colored our eggs this afternoon instead. I have never seen such an orderly group of egg coloring children!






Here are Elena's eggs. They are very pretty.



But she would not let me take her picture only a picture of her eggs.I tried to sneak a picture of her anyway but it did not work.



Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

He Is Here!!

Who is here?

Well, the Easter Bunny,of course!

The Easter Bunny waits patiently for the Frye kids to notice him.

The Frye kids did not notice him but all the neighbors did. (Hee Hee)



Finally the kids come out all ready to greet the Easter Bunny!




The Easter Bunny takes a few minutes to explain Easter Egg hunt etiquette and fare play.



Get ready. Get set.Go find those eggs!!



The store was actually out of plastic Easter Eggs (both Owatonna and Waseca Walmarts. Can you believe that!) so we used plastic snack bags instead. Worked great!



Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Happy Easter!

We had a very fun but busy Easter!

I finished all of my girls (and Joel's) outfits with time to spare. Imagine that!

They all look very sweet!



Here are all my big boys...and Lily.



A rare picture of all sixteen of us! Jeff crashed a neighbor's Easter party to find a willing person to come and take our picture.




HAPPY EASTER!!!

Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Over The Moon!

Who thought a simple Easter vest with puppy dog buttons would get a little boy so extied!







What do you think?



Cute buttons!!



it even has a secret inside pocket! Pretty cool!



Joel, you made my day!!!

Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy

Space...

The final frontier.

The boys finished up the last season of Star Trek: N.G. last night. I have to admit I'm going to miss Picard. The crew has felt like family for many months now. No laughing.I'm serious.

The ending of the series has inspired the boys to finish up some movie sets they have been working on.

Here is one of Grant's newest space ship creations.



Isn't it great!



The porch

as in

The view from...

Grace just learned how to ride a two wheeler. Odell is cheering her on.



Dad Joel is taking his 'kid' for a walk.



The decision.

Elena decided on her Easter fabric and outfit. It will look very pretty.



and lastly,

The chat

on the porch swing with Lids as bed time loomed close at hand.



Warmly,
A Patchwork Mommy