The Duggars

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3

There is a couple living in NW Arkansas who just gave birth to their 18^th child (at the same hospital Eva had Gabe). Every time they have another child, lots of people have to tell me their opinion about this family and, of course, it’s always negative.

About 5 years ago, Eva and I were invited to a baby shower in another city. A woman walked in with 3 or 4 children and I remember being irritated because it was crowded enough without loud little children running around. As the shower progressed, I was drawn to this woman and her children because there was something different about them. Those children were the most well-behaved kids I had ever seen and even the baby (probably about 10 mos. old) seemed very peaceful and sweet. They seemed like happy people and were completely at ease around all the adults. The older ones helped with the baby but the mother had him most of the time.

Later on, when people were leaving, I told the hostess that Eva and Kevin had just decided to move to NW Arkansas and she insisted that we meet this woman because she and her family lived there too. She was very nice and gave Eva her phone number in case she and Kevin needed help unloading the truck or any other kind of help. After she left, the hostess told me that she was the one with all the children. She also told me that if Eva called her, they would have most definitely been there to help.

I wish people would stop judging this family. They don’t even know them. Yes, what they’re doing is very different, but they are godly people raising godly children who will be blessings in this world. They are able to provide for their children and are not on welfare or anything like that, so this is really nobody else’s business. Maybe God has told them that He wants them to have as many children as possible. Maybe that is their calling in this life. I pray that the Lord will help them withstand all the persecution and shine like stars for Him.

Life and Answers

Life can be a bugger sometimes. We found out this past week that there is something wrong inside of Eva’s uterus that is causing her to bleed. Hopefully, it can be fixed with a procedure in which the doctor goes in through a vein in her leg and “blocks” whatever is causing the bleeding, but there is a chance she will need a hysterectomy.

When things like this happen, you wonder why. Why is this happening to someone so young, especially when she wants another child? Why do things like this happen at all? It would be so nice to have answers, but life doesn’t work that way. The longer I live, the more I see that life is full of trouble and you have to learn to trust God like a little child during the hard times. Questioning will only bring more trouble because we don’t know why and most of the time we can’t know why until we get to heaven.

In times like this, what comforts me the most is to remember that God has promised to work all things together for the good of them that love Him. He has promised and it is impossible for Him to break a promise. So I will look for the good in this. The most obvious thing is that they already have two little boys - the most precious little boys on the face of the earth (I’m not biased)! If this had happened five years ago, she might not have been able to have any children at all.

Another very good thing is that the doctor was wise enough to do some tests before assuming she needed to do a D&C, which we now know would have resulted in making the problem a lot worse. I praise God that they have insurance, when so many of my friends don’t, and that Kevin has a great, stable, secure job which allows him to take off to be with her in situations like this. I praise God that I am also able to take off work to go and help her through this.

Yes, this stinks and we don’t know why it happened but God is still God and He still loves her and is taking care of her and will walk through this with her. May He shine as we walk through this with Him.

Giving Thanks

I know I’m a little late (because Thanksgiving has passed) but lately I’ve been thinking about things I’m thankful for. When Phil was in the hospital and hanging on by a thread and life was terribly scary, I discovered the incredible power in giving thanks.

Sometimes it would all get overwhelming and when I felt like I couldn’t take it any more, I discovered that the best thing to do at those times was to call a friend and pray over the phone with her. Only we didn’t ask God for things … we thanked Him instead. We thanked God for anything and everything we could possibly think of and then the fear would leave and I would feel like I could go on.

There are so many things that I am thankful for (in no particular order) …

* God took care of us … through $200/month of medical supplies, $400 for 2 tiny vials of medicine, 7 months of Phil being off work …

* the Internet - it has been an incredible blessing … communication … learning … fun … friends ...

* Kids - all I ever wanted was to get married and have kids and God allowed me to! I gave birth to 3 miracles who have given birth to 2 more miracles!

* Jobs - I had a great job for 10 years working for a dear friend. I’ve gotten to experience many different kinds of work since then and now have a job that is fun and fulfilling. And I have hope for the future.

* Husband - faithful, loving, kind, patient, very hard-working - no one else in his condition would still be working … and he listens to me!

* Mother - still alive … God kept her alive long enough for us to finally become good friends … a blessing.

* Church - a pastor who is very kind and patient, a man of integrity … a church that loves us, holds us up, gives and gives to us … we are very loved!

* Creativity - God gave me the blessing of creativity … cross stitch, scrapbooking, sewing, knitting, etc. - a wonderful and very important outlet

* Eva - my daughter is now my friend … how rich I am! - the only other woman in the family … how amazing to see this sweet little girl blossom into a woman … incredible strength I hadn’t known was there

* Jesse - lots of fun to be around … keeps me interested, growing, stimulated intellectually … a kind and giving heart … my little boy is a man!

* Worship - it’s something wonderful and fun that God has given us to express our love for Him

* God’s unconditional love and acceptance … no matter what

Ice

Everybody is safe and warm with a free day today. Once every few years, we get a day like this and I love it. It’s like a gift - an unscheduled day off to rest. Sleet came down for hours yesterday and yet this morning there is only a very thin layer of ice on everything. Enough to shut down the city but not enough to make the trees look pretty. Actually, the trees, bushes, and my love grass all look kind of sad, frozen in grotesque shapes. But I will still enjoy this day!

Making a Purse

The other day I was browsing in a Walmart that still has a fabric section and came across some wonderful navy, green, and taupe upholstery material, so I decided to make myself a purse for Christmas.

It is really fairly simple. You cut 2 pieces of fabric 15 x 17” for the outside, 2 pieces of lining fabric 14 ½ x 16 ½”, and 1 piece of lining fabric 6 ½ x 16 ½” for the pockets. If the lining fabric isn’t thick enough, you should double it. You will also need 1 yd. of webbing for the handles and a piece of 4 ½ x 11 ½” cardboard or plastic with rounded corners for the bottom of the purse.

First, attach the front to the back of the purse, sewing the sides first and then the bottom. Pinch the bottom corners so that the bottom seam of the purse meets the side seam. Sew across 4” to make a squared corner and do the same on the other side. Trim off the triangles. Serge or zigzag around the top of the purse, turn, and insert cardboard in the bottom.

Finish the top and bottom of the pocket piece (serge or turn and topstitch). Pin this piece onto one of the larger lining pieces, 2 1/2” from the top, and sew vertical lines to make the pockets whatever size you want them to be. Sew along the bottom of the pocket piece too.

Pin lining pieces together, pockets inside, and attach front to back, sewing the sides and then the bottom. Make corner seams, just like you did for the outside of the purse, and trim off the triangles.

Place the lining inside of the purse, wrong sides together, with the cardboard between the lining and the purse. Turn the edges under and pin the top of the lining to the top of the purse fabric. I always place the lining a little further down than the purse fabric (I don’t make them exactly even at the top). Cut the handles 18” long and insert them 4 ½” from the sides. Stitch, reinforcing the handles as you do. If you want to, you can sew on about 2” of Velcro to close the purse. You can also add trim around the top.

Here is a purse I made a while ago that has trim around the top:

Medical Expenses

I spent most of the day creating and updating spreadsheets for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 medical expenses. I am going to take the information to work to determine if it would help us to file amended state returns for the last three years. In the past, I didn't know that you can claim medical copays as deductions. For some reason, I had always thought that if you had insurance, the copays didn’t count. And I'm not sure that I included all the medical mileage. We'll see. It was a lot of work but fun - I love working with data.

I was amazed when I created the 2005 spreadsheet from my check register to see how very, very little we spent per month on medical expenses before Phil’s first surgery. Truly amazing and also sad. It was kind of like looking at a life that I had totally forgotten ever existed.

Cross Stitched Stockings

As I said in my previous post, when my children graduated high school, I gave them a cross stitched Christmas stocking that they could take when they moved out on their own.

Here is Jesse’s stocking:



This year I also stitched a stocking for my husband:




And for myself:

Photo Stockings

When my oldest child was small, I decided to make photo stockings. I got some red gingham (for my daughter) and some green gingham (for the boys), made Christmas stockings, and cross stitched their names near the top. Then I found photos of them from birth on, applied rick-rack around the edges, and whip-stitched them onto the stockings. I have pictures of them from their first Christmas through high school graduation. As each child graduated, I made them a cross stitched stocking to take with them. It’s fun to hang their stockings each year and see how they looked throughout the years.

Here is a photo stocking for Gabe, our new grandson. The first photo is always edged in gold.


Here is Alex's stocking (our 2 yr. old grandson), so you can get an idea of how it looks with photos added each year.

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking had become a burden and was not a joy anymore … but then I came across digital scrapbooking several months ago and the fun was restored! I hadn’t even known that such a thing existed! I bought some software that was fairly easy to use and never looked back. Here are some pages I just made of Gabriel’s birth and first two weeks of life. With the last page, I decided to print out the basics and attach a photo myself, instead of inserting it using my computer. I also enhanced it with stickers. Easy and cute!

Here are some pictures of a few of the pages.

eBay is Fun!

I waited months and months before listing an item on eBay for the first time - because it was something new and I was afraid of doing it wrong. They make it so easy that there is hardly any margin for error! And it's loads of fun to watch people "watching" or bidding on your item! It has helped me to have low expectations. I list almost every item with a starting price of $.99 which seems to serve to encourage bids. I have listed 25 items since the end of September and have sold all but 3. I think I've made close to $100 so far. Most of the items have been cross stitch, either completed designs or kits, but I'm beginning to branch out now.

I currently have 4 items listed under my user name: dianejh. Here are the item numbers in case anybody wants to look:

180308449143
180308451667
180308452900
180308453700

My Wonderful Spreadsheet

My daughter, Eva, helped me design a money flow spreadsheet based on her wonderful spreadsheets but tailored for my needs. I wanted to be able to look at the general flow of money in and out, see what our monthly income and expenses are, see what we are spending in certain categories such as gas and medical, and keep track of how much is in certain categories that need to build up over time and then be spent infrequently for things such as insurance.

My first sheet is for the categories that need to build up, such as car insurance, house insurance, Christmas, etc. My next sheet starts with January, with a separate sheet for each month. The columns are labeled: Date, Money Flow (where the money was spent - i.e. Walmart), Category (such as Medical, Gas, Food), Expense (the actual amount spent), and Income (for paychecks, etc.) Off to the side of each month's sheet, I listed the categories that I want to track (Medical, Food, Gas, etc.) and as I enter the expenses into the main part of the sheet, I copy and paste amounts into those categories I want to track. At the end of the month, I can easily use the spreadsheet to total them and to total the month's income and expenses.

I love my spreadsheet!

Church

Church was great. It was good to get out of the house and God spoke to me, which is always wonderful. It would be good for me to listen to a sermon every day. Gabriel did very well - he seems like a very calm, undemanding baby so far - and Alex loves church.

The sermon was about “detours” that God takes us on throughout our life and how we can’t see the purpose but He does. I feel like I’ve been on a huge detour the past few years. One thing that jumped out at me was: “I have ruined you for My purposes.” I can relate to that on so many levels. We must make a decision to believe that God sees things we can’t see and is leading us accordingly.

When you go down a familiar path, you zone out, but when the path becomes challenging, you have to focus back on God. It also challenges your perspective and you have to see that this thing you’re afraid of is something that God is walking above. God is using this to bring you to where He wants you and He is protecting you all along and will never leave you. He sees things you don’t see and didn’t bring you this far only to leave you.

O God, give me the ability to believe that You will take care of me no matter what!

The Joys of Technology

Kevin, my SIL, has expanded my way of thinking about my laptop. I have discovered the joy of watching DVDs on it and even TV shows online whenever I want to. I LOVE the Internet! Who needs TV? Speaking of TV, Cox Communication (which is the cable provider here in Rogers) is now going to make you pay $12/month above the basic cable fee to watch a Christian channel - ANY Christian channel. Figures. I wonder if SuddenLink (the Russellville provider) is going to follow suit.

Beginning

I need to write and have wanted to start a blog for some time. I tried Xanga and MySpace but they just didn't work for me. I also tried Facebook but it wasn't what I wanted either because on one level, it's too much communication (I don't really care that so-and-so is about to eat lunch) and on another level, it isn't enough.

My daughter gave birth to our second grandson last Sunday and I am currently staying with her family to help out, since she also has an active, wonderful 2 yr. old. It's been a lot of fun and a privilege. Being invited to the birth was incredible - I'll never forget watching Gabriel's head come out, seeing him turn pink as he took his first breath, or hearing his first cry.