Sewing up a Storm

I love to sew.  I love making clothes and quilting.  I love putting colors together in beautiful ways. We've been doing a lot of sewing over the couple of months.  Hyrum, Hannah, Jonathan, Charlotte and I have all picked up our needles and thread or used the machine to create some "masterpieces".

Hyrum worked on his yearly textile project.  We filled three quilt blocks this year.  That's a record so far-one I'm ok letting stand for a while.  We only have one more row before we'll finish this quilt off.  We thought this would last us twenty years, we're only in 11 1/2 so far.

This is a pretty typical January Saturday--chores and sewing.

My mom and I have made the girls some clothes.  My mom helped Hannah with this skirt and then made Charlotte one too with the extra material.  I made Charlotte this cute dress.  The girls love to sew especially when Grandma is involved.

Grandma also brought material and showed Charlotte how to hand sew little pillows.  All of the kids have been at it, including Jonathan  They love going through my scrap drawer looking for the "perfect" fabric.  It started with pillows but now they have visions of purses and blankets.  who knows what they will create!

Along with Charlotte's dress, I made myself a dress--one day I'll post about that.  It was an experience.  I've also been working on a sampler quilt and another one I've had in the works for a bit.  I love the colors and though its tedious, I enjoy the time to do something I love.  I put the quilts away for the kids to choose from when they get married.  I'm hoping to have two for each of them. 

Sewing is a way of life for me since my girls are too tall and thin for most off the rack dresses.  Unfortunately, Charlotte hates jeans so I need to make her a bunch of jumpers and little dresses as she's grown out of those she has.  I'm thankful for my mom and her patience in teaching me to sew.  I didn't sew a lot of clothing as a teenager but at least I knew the basics and due to necessity, over the years I've learned to really love it.

Cub Scouts

Cake for our Blue and Gold Banquet.  Our theme was "Be A Super Cub".  We billed it as Superhero Training camp with activities geared around the elements of the scout law as the boys super powers.

Cub Scouts is fun, chaotic, creative, busy, and good.  I really am enjoying my time with the Cub Scouts.  Sometimes there is so much to do and not a lot of time to do it but I think the boys are learning and having fun.  We've had a service project, met the Mayor, had the Pinewood Derby, and Celebrated Cub Scouts with our Blue and Gold Banquet.  This month we're building candy dispensers.  The boys are super excited!

Jonathan loved Cub Scouts.  It has given him goals to work towards every week and things he can learn.  We are having a good time together. 

Jonathan's Pinewood Derby Car

Our Pack

Derby Night

Banquet Room with our photo stop in the background.

Blue and Gold Banquet setup.

2 months Home and Lessons Learned

At some point we will stop talking about our trip but in a lot of ways it has been a game changer in our lives.  The other day, the kids were talking how long we've been home from Europe.  It's now been just over two months.  That trip feels like a dream.  I am so glad we went because of all the wonderful things we learned and experienced.  There were lots of times we were ready to bag it and come home but I'm glad we stuck it out.  Not, so many of those rough moments have faded and we're left with rich and rewarding memories.  Not a day goes by that someone doesn't mention something from our trip.  Hannah and Jonathan have had enriched experiences at school already because of their greater context of the world.  

While we loved the trip, we learned a few things about how we would change it for next time.  For our family, it was hard and lonely to be away from home for so long without really living in one place.  If we do this again we've decided to either take a month and be tourists and experience all we can in a month, hit it hard and fast or take the plunge and move.  Sell the house or at least really pack it up and move for at least one year though I think 3 would be a better for cultural immersion.  There are perks to all ways of doing it.  It really depends on what work at the given moment.

Since coming home, life has gotten so busy.  There are home improvement projects to work on, church callings to fulfill, school activities and so many other endeavors to pursue.  We're trying hard to preserve the family time we had in Europe but find that we quickly fall into the old traps.  The trip has certainly given us a lot to think about and a new rubric to evaluate our time by.