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Well, I got the the thread that I was missing and have since made some progress on Adair’s Jillian’s Stocking (from Shepherd’s Bush)… it’s so pretty. I filled in the Angel’s dress and the stems on things, as well as the black for the shoes, sleeves, etc, and made the cute little lamb come alive.
On Alec’s I’m ready to fill in with the threads that I just got, and then that will shape up quickly and make this King look more dressed! These are moving right along! I’ve brought one or the other to soccer games and stitched while watching the kids play. 
Some days reading this really speaks to my soul…
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.
It’s opener there
in the wide open air.
Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.
OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’ t
Because, sometimes, you won’t.
I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.
You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.
You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.
And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.
You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?
And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.
You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
NO!
That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.
With banner flip-flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!
Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.
Except when they don’t.
Because, sometimes, they won’t.
I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.
All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you’ll be quite a lot.
And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.
But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.
On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
—Dr. Seuss
Found this at Monique’s stitching blog, don’t know exactly where she found it at, but I’m so glad to see it. I am in awe. This is SO amazing. Can you believe the size of this piece? How many yards? How many skeins of red? How many years to complete this? Just astounding. I would love to create something like this, just for the mind numbing ability to gaze upon it after it was done!
“Faith thrives where there is no hope but God.”
Ernest Gordon
Well, I have set aside Adair’s “Jillian’s Stocking” by Shepherd’s Bush, to work on Alec’s “Brett’s Stocking” for a little while, as hers I seem to be waiting on several floss colors (a few different greens which I need for many things, as well as the black, which will fill in the missing rows on the sleeve, as well as at the base of the dress and dots on the Angel’s wing.
I just started Alec’s as well, and so far have only just a little to show for it, but still, it’s a start none-the-less ; ) I told them that I would work one of their stocking, then the other, so eventually I’d finish them both at the same time so they wouldn’t feel left out. What we mothers will do to excuse our desire to start multiple projects at the same time. (*wink*)
I really am enjoying the speed of how these work up. The 18ct. linen is so nice for tired eyes and the perle cotton is fun to work with for a change. A stitch or thirty a day is what I’m aiming for to help make progress on these, afterall, if I can complete them, then I have an even better excuse to start the stocking for my husband and myself!
A friend of min gave us their gently used trampoline. This is such a genrous gift, it’s really hard to believe. My husband assembled it yesterday, the last day of the kids short spring break from school, and boy oh boy… what a treat. It has an enclosed netting around the outside, and a ladder to climb up, and the kids are in literal heaven. Bounce, bounce, bounce, giggle, bounce, smile, laugh, bounce, bounce, laugh. That sums up the afternoon yesterday… what a gift.
Today it’s snowing/raining, and thus no bouncing will be had, but you can bet that the first chance that the weather warms up, I’ll take some time on it and bounce as well. What could be more fun?
My mom is visiting, she came in on Monday and is staying through till Monday. On our way home we stopped at Shepherd’s Bush stitchery store and spent way too much money. BUT, on the bright side, I got some great projects to work on that should last me a long time, probably till her next visit. haha. I got the patterns, linen, and perle cotton to do stockings for the kids, Adair picked this one, which I started on Tuesday, and an nearly done on the angel’s dress, just need to do her wings and sleeves, head and a few of the leaves on the dress. Then I am going to do this one for Alec… and after I get the two done, I’ll buy the embellishment packs and affix those, then send them off to my mom in Oregon to do the finishing, she’s much more the seamstress than I. My car project (what I work on while I wait in the car for my kids during soccer practice or picking up from school etc.) I started Fear Not, by La-D-Da… it’s so pretty. I changed the flosses and linen, but it’s working up so lovely. One strand over two is such a delicate look, and also inwardly I love it because I know I’ll have lots of floss left (*wink*).
I think after I finish the kids stockings, I’d like to do this one for Mike and this one for me. They really go fast with the 18ct. linen they are on… seriously, it’s like a stiff burlap, but it’s a fun change from 32ct. linen! I don’t even have to use a magnifyer. And the perle cotton floss is lovely, so nice to not have to divide floss for this, it really makes it fast!
My brother and his wife are expecting their second baby in September, and I’d really like to make a set of these for their family… I’ll already have the patterns, and some of the floss, only having to buy the certain ones needed that you use most of. Plus the embellishment packs, which are like $20 per stocking, and the linen $17 per stocking, it would be a really nice gift/heirloom for their family. I have lots of good intentions, but will it actually manifest, we’ll see. I hope so… I think a handmade gift is much more precious than something storebought, so I’d really really REALLY like to do this.
THEN, the project I spent the most for (and am waiting for some of the things to be mailed to me because SB had to order it) is for the Quaker Virtues! This thing is going to be huge and beautiful! It calls for 38 skeins of Old Blue Paint (Cresent Colors), and three skeins of Wisconsin Woods (Cresent Colors). They are ordering 40 skeins of the Old Blue Paint for me so that they are all from the same dye-lot, and I am waiting for the over-dyed linen I got too… it’s a beautiful light creme with some antiquing… I forget the name, but I hope they include that when they send it to me. : ) I cannot even begin to imagine how long this project will take me, so therefore I’m not putting a time limit on it, and will just rotate it in when I feel like it. This one is certainly going to be a keeper and definetly NOT something I’ll give away!
Well, the kids start their short spring break today… lots of stuff to do, and probably little stitching time, (wink).
When I stitch, I pray. I have had a lot to talk to God about the last few days… and so then too, I have been able to work on a lot. Here is my progress on Angel’s Song… I have changed out a few lines of the Shepherd’s something something color (verigated creme to gold silk) for another more soft creme. Tina helped me pick the color as a subsititute, mainly because I want to stitch the largest section calling for the golds in the creme instead.
I also started “An HuMble Heart” yesterday as a distraction and side piece to Angel’s Song … here is the progress of that so far. I’m so far not sure if I want it to say “an humble heart” like they have it in the pattern.. mainly because when I read it I think an? An… humble heart? Or “a humble heart”? I know that it you have it say “an humble heart” it’s a silent beginning of h, and meant to be said more like umble but that somehow stresses my brain.
My mom is coming to visit tomorrow, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Honestly, I am so happy to have her come and stay.
I am thankful today for the small things I can do with great love…
My dear friend’s sister died yesterday after a long and couragous fight with breast cancer. So young, and so loved. Life is so dear and amazing… I am blessed by the opportunity that we have daily to live it and to love it and one another…
I have a tendency to chew fast… I shouldn’t, but I do. Yep, that’s me, the one who inhales food. Or, it was me… or well, maybe I’m working on it not being me anymore. You miss stuff when you are in a hurry to eat… someone told me once that you are supposed to take 20 minutes to eat a meal, AND you are supposed to eat sitting down, not on the run, not standing in the kitchen, while the kids sit at the counter, but s-i-t-t-i-n-g down. What do you miss you might ask? I haven’t fully grasped it yet, but I think it has something to do with both experiencing the full flavors of your food, and more importantly the time spent actually sitting at the table with others, you know, the really meaningful part of experiencing a meal with someone else. Connectedness. Through connectedness with others, I believe you also experience oneness with God. If you chew fast and inhale your food, I’m certain that you miss out on the experience of oneness and connectedness, enriching the deeper flavors of a meal.
I know where I picked up this ‘eating fast’ behavior. I know exactly where and when it came from, and why I adopted it. I can pinpoint the reasons why I felt I needed to do it, but… now the question arises, why do I still do it? Answer: habit. Answer: avoidance? Answer: ambivalence about what a meal actually can be.
Let’s explore this. I started eating quickly when I was a pre-teen… and I did it for a couple reasons, one being that my parents were alcoholics, and if we were having a meal together, it was best for me if I didn’t have to stay at the table too long. The alcohol effected them, and therefore it effected me. They would argue, and I would get stuck in the middle, BUT… if I ate fast, then I had no reason to stay at the table! Voila! Great trick. Such wisdom at my age, learning that to eat and run meant safety! I really was brilliant.
The second reason why it helped me to eat fast, was because it was my job to clean the kitchen up. My step-father always prepared lovely meals, but we didn’t have a working dishwasher, and so I was responsible for putting the leftover food away, and cleaning up after the meal. If I ate faster, then I could get started cleaning faster, and if the kitchen was clean, then I could go hide in my room faster. Voila! Great trick. Again, what a brilliant girl. Eat and run. Well, more like eat, clean, then run. You get the idea.
Exxxxxcept, that now, I don’t really need to eat fast.
I have a lovely family of my own, and the dinner table for the most part is enjoyable, albeit the complaints of my young children regarding having to eat things that have batatoes on them (tomatoes or anything to do with tomatoes, like spaghetti sauce and the like), or eat things such as meat with heaven forbid- gravy on it. Truthfully, once in a while eating fast comes in handy, especially when the kids were a smidgen younger and you have to eat on the go if you want sustenance. All parents know exactly what I’m talking about, because when a meal starts with youngsters, you have to get up from the table no less than 100 times to get everything from more milk, more napkins, another fork because one got launched onto the floor, or a washcloth to clean up spilt milk, or you name it. It is seriously one interruption after another. But now… it’s really not that vital. My kids are a bit older, so I have to get up less for other things, but, eating fast is still habit.
After beginning a serious attitude on better health (I began shortly after Thanksgiving 2007, one of the biggest eating holidays of the year) I am now down -20 lbs. I am assessing what has prompted me to need to lose weight to begin with, and among many many things I have discovered, not savoring my food would be in the top five. Since my youngest is six years old now, I can no longer use the excuse that I have baby weight. He’s no longer a baby. The weight has stuck around for reasons. Inactivity, comfort eating, avoidance of making changes, you name it.
It’s hard to take things slowly that you used not to. S-l-o-w-i-n-g yourself down takes focus. It takes consciousness. It take awareness. And, it takes a desire to want to change.
Savor… pause… take in all that there is… and enjoy. S-a-v-o-r. I don’t have to be who I thought I was or who I needed to be when I was a teen. What a gift.
