It's Good to Be Back

So... THIS is the sewing room...

We've been in our house for almost a month and a half now. The boxes have been unpacked since week 2 or 3, and we've already had 10 or 11 overnight guests and many more dinner guests.

What has taken much longer is getting into a regular routine and making time for sewing. I've owed projects to people since spring, but our move really did set me back quite a bit. Now that school has started for us & I have our schedules ironed out, I've purchased some sewing time for myself.

A while ago, I posted "before" photos of the sewing room, followed by photos of Caelyn, who ended up being the first to use it. I can now begin to make up for lost time.

This nursing "bib" (as I like to call it) is for a friend whose baby was born around the time of our move. Sadly, I wasn't able to make it before our transition, and that friend has already received a cover from someone else. Still, I wanted to keep my word; so now she'll have a back-up "bib" for travel.

I felt super guilty for making my sweet friend wait so long for the nursing bib, so I decided to throw in a couple of bonus items:

A reversible baby bonnet, from this tutorial

An embroidered burp cloth

All of this was made possible by my two new favorite tools:

Quick Turn tool (for turning fabric tubes right-side-out) (Fabulous! Nigh miraculous!), and OLFA Rotary Circle Cutter
The best things since the Vita-Mix

It's good to be back in the sewing room again. Now I can begin to check off that pesky list of "owed" projects, as well as some brainstorms that keep me awake at night.

Thanks for visiting!

The Sewing Room

I haven't had a sewing room since I used Gabriela's nursery back in '99. We didn't even live in that house for a full year, so it was a brief privilege.

Some nice family member unloaded a box and tossed some fabric onto the shelves for me to organize. Thank you, Person.

When we first saw this house and walked upstairs, Craig took one look through the little French door and said, "Your sewing room!"

Have I already said that I'm really glad to be married to him??

When we moved in a few weeks ago, I began to despair of ever getting around to organizing my work space. There was such a huge mess, and we've had so much fun visiting with relatives and helping out where Craig works, that it's taken a WHILE to get to it.

I've tackled it in stages, and it's coming together.

Wait a minute! How'd SHE get in there before me?!

Don't try to look all innocent!

The story continues in a future post...

Moving: Part 3

Right around 1400 miles is the distance between our old and new homes. Caelyn was my sleepy-time driving relief, but the guys got no such luxury.

Jon has been a blessing to our family in many ways, and in this case, he agreed to drive one of the 26-foot U-Haul trucks ALL the way to Houston, help to unload both, and fly back to the 'burgh just in time to be in his friend's wedding... in Ohio. That's some kind o' tough.

This was one of our frequent stops for food/fuel/potty. Many thanks to Kaitlyn for assembling our sandwiches while I finished packing.
(We miss you, Kait!)

Morgan's even adorable while eating a sandwich at the side of an interstate highway!

We received the tremendous hospitality of friends in Tennessee. Truly, their homes were an oasis to us. At the first home, where we actually slept, the chocolate lab had a litter of puppies.
AH-dorable!
At the second home, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and wise counsel, a calf had been born the day before.
I. Love. Tennessee.
If we weren't so thrilled to be in Texas, I'd be bugging Craig to take us to the Volunteer State.

This family really ministered to ours, and our children had a wonderful time talking, playing with the dogs and seeing the farm.
After a refreshing breakfast & lots of stimulating conversation, we were off...

... Sadly, after 20 miles or so, Craig's U-Haul had a blow-out.
But!
Praise be to God for His marvelous works!
As we approached the interstate, a torrential downpour ensued, then stopped & made way for glorious sunshine, just minutes before the tire blew.

We stood on the roadside of I-40, about halfway between Nashville & Memphis, for close to three hours. It was a perfect opportunity for family bonding & more stimulating conversation.

The dogs traveled very well. I'm sure they were relieved by our own frequent stops for potty breaks.

Rhodes wasn't the only one in need of exercise after so many miles.

I'm so thankful for Caelyn, who served as my relief when I got sleepy behind the wheel. Unfortunately, our three hours on the roadside created an imbalance in my schedule. This, in turn, made it necessary for me to stop and sleep twice when Caelyn was also too tired to drive. In the end, we arrived in Houston about eleven hours later than we had hoped.

BONUS:
*Having family in Houston*
We were pleasantly surprised to find that they had already been to our new home.

I love the sign they made. Notice Chloe's clarification of where "Home" is located.

And so it begins...

Moving: Part 2, Saying Goodbye

On Memorial Day, we went for a walk by one of the rivers, enjoying the sunshine (that arrives so late in Pittsburgh each year).

On one afternoon, the girls & I visited Aunt Marion, who was temporarily staying in a nursing home for rehabilitation on a hip injury. Aunt Marion is the only sister of my late Grandma Betty.

One of the children's special requests was to have one last visit to Kennywood Park before moving. This ended up being Gabriela's birthday treat, since her birthday was spent packing our house a week later. Jon, Kaitlyn and Zach went with us.

Mom and Daddy met us at Kennywood, as well as our "nephew", EJ. It was so fun having them with us, and Daddy LOVES rollercoasters!

Zach & Jon had a moment of silliness with the prizes won by Craig & EJ at the basketball toss.

Several people stopped by our house on our last day in Pittsburgh, including "Aunt" Paulette, who was smitten by our cute little Penelope.

We were especially excited to see our great-niece, Ava (who apparently wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us). We don't see much of her, now that she lives in NC.

Kaitlyn has been such a blessing to us. She's a wonderful friend to Caelyn, and our entire family has come to love her and Zach as our own. The two of them, as well as Jon, spent an entire week coming to our house in the evening to help us pack.

To loosen things up a bit, the guys had a wrestling session in the living room. 

It's not all fun and games with these guys. They carved out intentional time to get into the Word of God together, even in the midst of moving.

We were so grateful for the meal that Kaitlyn fixed for our family. She's a very thoughtful and generous friend.

Gabriela worked so hard on packing her own room and helping in other areas. Kaitlyn & Zach thought it would be fun to give her a manicure and pedicure.

Our time in Pittsburgh was rich with fellowship and fun experiences. We thoroughly enjoyed our neighborhood in Mt. Lebanon, and it was wonderful to spend time with family, even for a brief season.

It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone, but we are thankful for this new chapter in our family.

Moving: Part 1

It seems like it was last year when I posted about our upcoming move.

It has now come to fruition, and not without just enough adventure to keep us on our knees.

Praises be to our great God for His providence!

We learned one week before our moving date that a mistake on the part of the moving company left them unable to arrive for packing on the date we had determined. The new homeowners needed us out by a certain date, which meant that we'd have to resort to drastic measures.

By "drastic measures", I mean that Craig called me on Tuesday, June 7, around 6 p.m. from Houston, and spoke these words:

"You know how we're always telling the children that they should rise to new challenges and do hard things? Well, that's what we're going to do. We're going to pack ourselves and take two U-Haul trucks to Houston."

Gulp!

At 6:30, Graham and I drove to the U-Haul store and bought boxes. By midnight that night, our kind, generous, reliable, faithful friends, Zach, Kait, and Jon, had already made good progress packing, with some help from the children.

Several others came to contribute lots of hard labor on our behalf, getting everything packed just in time to load the trucks on Sunday and Monday and drive away on the morning of Tuesday, June 14.

The girls' friend, Meghan, donated several hours of her time to helping pack. 

This is drama, but Caelyn really was tuckered out! All of the children worked so hard to make the move possible.

I could write a book on all of the things that my parents do and have done to make life easier, but I'm especially grateful to my mom in this case for packing my sensitive antique items.

Daddy carefully wrapped all of our glass shelves, among many other things.

Here's how the loading crew looked:

One 26-footer down, one to go

To be continued...

Blessed Day

One of the perks of homeschooling is that we have the option of taking our work outside whenever the beautiful weather calls to us.

We've had intermittent storms rolling through here lately, as has much of the country; but in calm moments, the sun has shone gloriously.

When we lived in Alabama, we would often do our school work on the back patio or in the yard. I'd sit on the hammock with my binoculars, nature journal, and bird & insect guides, and the children would surround me with their school books.

I'd read aloud to them from my perch, taking frequent breaks to photograph or observe a particular bird or butterfly.

Each day, one or another of the children would take a turn sitting on the hammock with me, while the others sat on a blanket or at the patio table.

Sweet memories.

Yesterday and today, we've taken advantage of some choice moments to spend on the patio with our school books.

Rhodes has been pleased to join us.

He even afforded us an occasion to meet a neighbor yesterday.

Jill was very calm as Rhodes, ignoring the warnings from the shock collar, rushed to meet her little dog in the street.

It was a pleasant encounter, and no animals were hurt in the process.

Speaking of Rhodes, he has a new friend, sort of. This little guy recently moved next door to us from Slovakia:

Apparently, he's a mixture of Schnauzer and Vizsla. I don't know his name, but he greets me through his new fence when I park in the driveway.

It's been wonderful to see the leaves taking shape little by little.

A special bonus yesterday was having my parents pay us a spontaneous visit. This is a privilege we'll certainly miss when we make our move to Houston. 

Dad and I have an agreement that whenever he visits, he automatically wants coffee.

I'm happy to oblige.