"He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God."Psalm 50:23 Last week was a very unusual week for us with Mara off to Iowa at camp and the boys attending day camp up here. It was a week of a lot of running around and also one which I got to spend more individual time with Megan. Then this past weekend Ken and Jonathan went down to the cities to pick Mara up and go to an amusement park while the younger two and I made and delivered wedding flowers and had a good time going to garage sales. It was a fun week but I am very glad to have things back to normal again with everybody home and on a more regular schedule. I am feeling very thankful for my family and God's care for all of us.Here are so more specifics on what I am feeling thankful for today:
#636 My little sunshine (not what is pictured above but rather Megan who wanted to take that picture). It was so fun running errands with her this week. One thing that was different about taking just one child with me is that people paid more attention to her. She was rather spoiled about everywhere we went. The big sunshine was a gift from the vacuum store lady and she got other gifts from other places as well.
#637 A letter from Mara. I love it that she took the time to write it while she was busy at camp.
#638 Having company over for lunch.
#639 Sunshine again! I appreciated all the rain but I certainly am enjoying the sunshine too!
#640 The 3 "M's", Margaret, Malia and Mara and all the fun they can have together.
#641 Mara getting to go see my Grandma along with my sister Anna and crew on their way to camp.
#642 Getting to see pictures that Mara took at camp, complete with some of the same teachers that I had when I went to camp. And actually I think it is possible that Bill Paine taught my Dad when he went to camp there. I loved hearing her tell about the people, the food, the activities and the place and remember all the fun I had there when I was a kid.
#643 All the beautiful shades of purple that God made!
#643 A little Aaron boy who asks me if it is okay if he vacuums the living room and clears the table while I am busy doing flowers.
#644 A sweet Megan that volunteered to wash the dishes while I was busy. (I did do a bit of check up on them later but she actually did a pretty good job.)
#645 Fun times with sparklers that Auntie Keren had.
#646 My hardworking husband! (Who can massage my neck and shoulders so nicely!)
#647 Getting Mara and Jonathan's test results back and they look pretty good.
#648 Sweet fellowship at church.
#650 Radishes!
#651 A new vacuum cleaner and a fixed one and being able to have clean carpets again.
#652 Not running out of gas even though I absent mindedly got very close.
#653 God watching out for me through all my absent mindedness like running a stop sign and leaving our home unlocked all night.
#654 The good exercise I was able to get while mowing the lawn.
#655 Times to work hard and times to just rest.
#656 God giving us safety through all the activities of last week.
#657 God's continually love.
What are you thanking God for this week?
Someone went shopping! Just look at these lovely dots !!! This dots on black would go great with something I have in mind . . . .
. . . . red & blue dots on white background . . . . 
. . . . yet some more colors on white background. All 100% cotton.
A lovely find on black & white as well. I have a lot of meters if anyone is interested?? Just email me y'all :-)
Three years ago he was a tiny baby.... well, if you call 9 lbs 14 oz. tiny.
Now he's three and busy, curious, affectionate, and funny. He's Charlotte's best friend and continues to teach her to be outgoing. He's Jon's partner in mischief.... they have the same cheeky grin when they're planning something funny. Evan is my snuggle buddy and the only person in the house, other then me, that can find things they've misplaced. I'm thankful for that one every day!
Evan loves anything that has wheels so I made him a car cake. I kept it simple since I was going to be baking at my in-laws house and then bringing it to their campground later. I made a kitchen-sink carrot cake since I needed a cake that would stay moist. It was really good and I loved the addition of the diced dried pineapple. I frosted it with buttercream icing that I colored green and sprinkled with green dyed coconut for grass. I made a road with black icing and added matchbox cars and road sign cupcake pics. The signs might have been overkill but I thought they were cute.
He blew out his candle like a pro. 
As you can see, Jon's family knows how much he loves cars. The wooden trucks/cars that Aunt Suzanne found are really cool. 
This was the fabric - sports shoes & rugby ball all over.
Decided on the 'slanting block' pattern, this way and that way. Put lime green fabric first and knew I wanted a 2" solid chocolate brown as first sashing. Did 12 blocks.
Yet another 2" tone-on-tone brown went all around and by luck, came across this green star on cream fabric that I thought suited well as the final 5" border.
A lite cream fabric was for backing fabric and returned to the tone-on-tone brown as binding.
Very b-o-y-i-s-h :-)
Name : 'Miko'
Name : 'Suzy'
Name : 'Max'
L saw the first "Love, Hugs & Kisses Quilt" and fell in love with it. She was however a wee bit late in purchasing as someone already reserved it. So she said PLEASE could you make me another . . . . so we agreed on the above color combination - RED, YELLOW & BLUE.
. . . . i love it! Not finished yet, but nearly there L :-)
The fabric was bought last December - it had little houses and ducks and little trees. Decided on a simple pattern of squares & 4-patch, alternating dark pink with lite pink.
A complimenting green with white flowers was perfect all around it to bring out the green flowers on the block.
Squares were cut at 6" and the strips & 4-patch were cut at 2". I simply alternated the lite and pink around the blocks.
Backing fabric was a lovely pink & green flowers and went back to the same green as binding.
Simple and lovely for a girl.
