Potpourri Friday

Another week gone. Another weekend ahead. Yeah!! I have had some good quality time this week with "Bernina" in my sewing room. I am busy making baby quilts - and enjoying every minute of it. The hardest part of quilting to me is picking out the fabric. It makes me break out in a cold sweat when I get to the fabric store and try to pick the right colors, prints, and values that in the end will be a treasured heirloom. Yikes! But I have learned some techniques that have helped in this endeavor. For instance, after you have picked out your fabrics, lay them on the counter, stand back, and squint at them. Squinting at the colors makes the darkness stand out more and you can tell if you need more lights, mediums, or darks. It really works! So I am happy with the two quilts I have started this week - I have finished all the blocks for one of them and am ready to piece them together. The second one is laid out, all ready for my rotary cutter. What fun! And I learned this week also that we have a new quilt shop in town that gives lessons on how to use a long arm quilting machine and then they will rent you the use of the quilter for $20 an hour. I have no idea how long it would take to machine quilt a quilt, so I don't know if this is a bargain or not. But I think it is worth looking into. Which I will do. Next week. I have to learn these things one thing at a time!

The poor maternity sweater that I was knitting for my daughter has been shelved forever temporarily because my goodness, it was just taking too long! I told my daughter it might be ready in time for her 4th pregnancy! I needed to get started on some projects like baby hats and scarves and mittens. Stuff that can be finished quickly and given as gifts for the grandbabies. Honestly, I have knit blankets faster than that sweater was going! I think I bit off a little more than I should have.

I don't know about you but I sure have been blessed and challenged this week reading BooMama's and Rock's in My Dryers posts of their experiences in Uganda. In fact I can't read a single one of their posts without my throat getting all thick feeling and my eyes getting all watery. Several months ago I suggested to my daughter Tara, who has always had a heart of compassion, that perhaps we should someday go to Africa and see what we could do to help the women and children there. She would love to do that. It would be hard for me, as I'm pretty sure I would have to fly to get there. But I would do it. I would. And then this week I was watching the Today show while getting ready for work. Ann Curry was there interviewing a woman in the Congo who had been brutally attacked, watched her parents be murdered, and then was violated horribly by many, many soldiers. She was injured terribly. She became pregnant but because her body had been so ravaged she delivered a stillborn baby girl. She said she wished her baby had lived. And then when Ann Curry asked her what she wanted to do with the rest of her life she simply said, "I want to serve God". I cried. I felt so humbled by her. What a remarkable woman. I stood in my room and asked God, "What can I do to help? As soon as I got to work that morning I was reading some blogs and came across this post from Dawn of Call Me Grandma Dawn. I knew God was answering my question. I am sending some money. It won't be much, how I wish it could be more. But it's something. Then to top it all off, last night, we were watching tv and out of the blue my daughter Jessica said "I want to go to Africa. I want to help the people there". I nearly fell out of my chair. So later in the evening I told my husband about it, certain he would talk sense into me. You know what he said? He said, "I think that would be a great idea". What in the world? Is God speaking? I don't know. But I'm willing to still my heart and find out. Some ideas have been going through my mind. I want to pray about them more before I tell anyone about them. The idea of us going to Africa is impossibly large - I can't even begin to imagine how it would come together. And maybe it's not the going that is what is important - maybe it is something else. But if you have some extra prayer time, and you think of me, I would appreciate you remembering this whole thing. Because I'm sensing a God thing here.

I'm looking forward to a nice long Saturday at home. I love those kind of Saturdays! Sunday is a big celebration day in our church with the service devoted to the Argentina team sharing their experience on the Work and Witness trip they went on. I'm looking forward to hearing it all at one time. I've heard lots of bits and pieces, and of course Jess and Chuck's experiences, but this should be really good.

And it's a three day weekend! We get Monday off next week. It's President's Day you know. That about sends me over the moon for sure!

Happy Weekend!