The $1 Quilt Challenge

I write often about the wonderful bargains found at my favorite thrift shop. Since we are moving in a month and downsizing, I have been trying not to buy anything. But,.......earlier in the week I bought a large bag full of cotton fabric for $1. When I opened it up, it had a LOT of fabric. Apparently these cotton fabrics were laid across your shoulders to determine the best color clothing for your complexion, hair color, etc.. They probably were purchased by a "Colors" consultant to use for home shows.

I have been making a tumbler quilt from my reproductions scraps. What a fun, super easy quilt to make. I want to see if I can make an entire tumbler quilt with the $1 bag of fabric I purchased. Do you want to play along? Can you figure out a way to make a quilt for $1 or less? I will have to piece together batting and maybe piece the back in order to make the price cutoff. You can use any fabrics from your stash, and maybe add a 99 cent fat quarter in the mix :0)

Look through your fabrics, find an easy pattern, and let's start sewing!

Madelyn, the 4 Year Old Princess

Today is Madelyn Grace's 4th birthday! What a fun day we have had making her day special. First a trip to the dollar store for a balloon bouquet, then to the cake store to pick up the very colorful My Little Pony Cake. We met Dad, Meemaw and Granddaddy at Madelyn's favorite restaurant for lunch, and then her sweet grandparents took her shopping. She chose a crown, a purse and some new princess slippers. Have I mentioned lately that she is a little "girly"? Molly, Mason and I finished up the rest of the gift shopping (more sweet girly things), then the real excitement began. Michael, Matt, Missy, and Dan all came home today! I haven't had all of my children under one roof since Christmas. I feel like it is my birthday :)

It has been fun watching Molly and Mason's reactions to all of the attention Madelyn has received today. Molly sweetly convinced (manipulated) Madelyn to share all of her new toys, and Mason tried all day to not pout and act jealous. At bedtime tonight, he realized that his birthday is next :0) It is going to be a looooooong month as we countdown the days until September 30th.

We have a fun long weekend planned with cookouts, a Texas Tech football game, church, movies, croquet in the front yard, and more. I love, love my family.

First Day of School

I wouldn't give our first day of homeschooling an A+, but it wasn't bad. Our sweet little Madelyn doesn't ever want to play by herself, and her attention span for school is very short :) Today she had a little "alone" time on her bed while we finished math and reading. Madelyn will be four years old this week - I am a little sad! I am cleaning out every closet before the big move, and today I sorted through her baby things that I can't bear to part with. Childhood goes much too quickly for me.

On the first day of school every year, I have the little ones draw self-portraits. Here are today's masterpieces. Just wait until tomorrow - they are drawing family pictures!

The boxes are piling up, there is a huge stack of "stuff" in the garage for the women's center to pick up, the trash bin in the alley is full, and I still have many more closets to go. How in the world did we ever get sooooooo much stuff?

What's a Quilter to Do?

The boxes are starting to stack up! The house is looking a little sad as the decorating "stuff" is being packed for the new house. It is hard for me to go from super-clean while we are showing the house to super-disaster as we pack. What a let-down! So.......I did what any good quilter would do. I went to Jo-Anns and used my 40% off coupon to buy a new template for the tumbler quilt I have been wanting to make. Now another mess has ensued as I have pulled out my scraps and started to cut zillions and zillions of little blocks. OK - maybe not zillions and zillions, but a LOT of little blocks are piling up on my sewing table. I even had a cute little helper organizing my pin cushion. Notice the very cute glasses on my helper? I have learned to only spend a $1 a pair on these because Madelyn has broken numerous pairs of sewing glasses. I asked her tonight how she had broken so many. She said she couldn't tell me because it was a secret :) Mason and Molly are very excited about school starting on Monday. We bought the last of the curriculum I needed today, so I think I am ready too!

Thanks for being patient with a tired blogging friend. I know posts have been sporadic and not very inspiring lately. Maybe I will have some pictures soon of the new quilt! Have a a fun and relaxing weekend.
Mary

We Are Back and Ready to Pack!

We returned home tonight after spending 5 days with my wonderful parents in San Antonio. Whew! We crammed a lot into our few days of vacation. Our middle son, Matthew, was able to join us for the entire time - we love you Matt!

We spent the first morning at a wildlife park. We got there just as they were feeding the animals, so we saw hundreds of deer, zebras, giraffes, ostriches, and more. You drive slowly through this park and feed the animals as you go. Obviously, these animals were extremely tame - they would come up to our car and eat out of our hands! Molly, Mason, and Madelyn giggled and squealed the entire time we were there.

Yesterday we spent a wonderful, rainy day at Sea World. My very wonderful brother, Steve, got us free admission tickets which made the day even more enjoyable :0) We fed dolphins and seals, saw Shamu, rode roller coasters and water rides, and left very wet and tired.

After a looooooong car ride home today, we are ready to start the mammoth task of down-sizing and packing this house. Moving day will be September 30th. That sounds so far away, but it will be here in no time!

A Few "Before" Pictures

We were able to spend a couple of hours at the new house measuring and making plans to remodel. I am so thankful that we actually liked the house even more when we saw it today. The main projects will be the kitchen and master bath (now tiled with lots and lots of orange tile!). We will spend several hours in the car tomorrow planning and deciding what to tackle first. The upside of a long car trip is having time to talk to Randy for hours and hours :0)

Quick Update!

We think we have the roof situation resolved on the house we want to buy - whoopee! We are going to look at it one more time this afternoon and will then finalize the contract. We are leaving in the morning to see my parents for a few days. Friday is my sweet mother's birthday! Our older boys are going to join us for the weekend, and we have lots of fun things planned. I need this little break before I have to start homeschooling, packing, cleaning, moving, .......

I will take my camera to the new house today and hopefully post a few "before" pictures this afternoon. Now I am off to do laundry, get haircuts for the little ones, and try to put our house in order. Have a wonderful morning!

I Need a Looooooong Nap!

I haven't slept well this week with all of the house "stuff" swarming in my wee little head :0) I decided last night that I would just stay up and visit with Missy until she went to bed. At 3:00 (yes, in the morning!) I gave up and went to bed. Missy stayed up even later working on her summer school class. Of course, she could sleep in this morning, but I had sweet little Madelyn at my bedside at dawn wanting her "bwekfast."

The house we are wanting to buy is still in limbo. The roof needs to be replaced, and the current owners are struggling with the $10,000 - $12,000 it will take to put to new roof on. We thought we might know something on Friday, or that we would definitely hear something today - but we didn't hear a thing. Tomorrow is a new day, and I am needing to work on patience anyway :0)

The upside of not really sleeping last night is that I got a LOT of my homeschool planning, copying, and laminating finished. Mason loves to learn using centers and manipulatives, so I have made 40-50 "Take It To Your Seat" centers for 1st grade. They are fun to use and a painless way to squeeze writing, science and geography into our homeschooling day. I love fun and painless!

I also love swimming pool pictures. Here are 3 cuties enjoying another hot Texas day.

Yummy Bran Muffin Recipe

We have had a great day! We found ripe veggies all over the garden, and our sweet Missy came home to spend one last week with us before school starts. Obviously, we planted the pumpkins a "little" early :0) I will be canning pumpkins tomorrow..and the day after that..and the day after that. The vines are still producing many new blossoms, so the new owners of our house should have some pumpkins that are ready to pick in October.

I made my favorite bran muffin recipe today. You can mix this up and leave the batter in the refrigerator for several weeks. You can have fresh muffins every morning, or you can bake them all and freeze them like I do. I am giving you a half recipe, but it tastes just as yummy if you make a huge batch. I know some people who read this blog don't live in the US, so I am showing you a picture of the All Bran cereal boxes. Maybe they are called something else where you live :0)

Mary's Bran Muffins:

1 cup boiling water

1 cup Kellogs All Bran - Bran Buds (these are little granules)

1 stick butter plus 1 Tbs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk ( I always just add a little vinegar to our regular milk)

2 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat but you can use white)

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups Kellogs All Bran - original (these are noodle-like)

Pour the boiling water over the Bran Buds. Add the eggs and buttermilk over the soaked Bran Buds and stir. Cream butter and sugar and then add the Bran Bud mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt - add to the mixture. Add the Original All Bran and mix well.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. This will make 30 regular-sized muffins.

New house update tomorrow!

What I Love About Adoption

We have a precious family - 3 biological children and 3 children born in China. I would love to have more, but that's a story for another day :0) When we first felt called to adoption, we had a few (many) apprehensive moments. Could we love any other child as much as our "homegrown" children? Were we too old? Would this child someday be offended because we didn't look the same? The questions were many, but the answer to all of them was that God told us to adopt and He would be faithful to prepare the way.

Randy and I are often asked to speak at various adoption seminars and conferences. I will never forget a seminar in Dallas as we sat in a room of prospective adoptive parents - we were the only couple in the room that had not dealt with infertility. A reminder to me again that adoption begins with great loss. I had focused on the loss of birth parents, birth country, culture, etc. for my own children, but the parents in that seminar had endured great loss too - the loss of the dream of having biological children.

I love the way God takes the hopeless situation and infuses it with the miraculous - I think He does this with every adoption. An orphan now has a forever family. A childless couple now has a child to hold and love. What was broken can be made whole only by a God who loves and cares deeply for each and every one of His creations. What a beautiful picture of perfect love.

A Done Deal!

We got the exciting news this morning that our house has sold - REALLY sold - no contingency or anything else that might put the brakes on. We also found a house that we both love. We know that God led us to this house because it is much smaller than we originally wanted, in fact it is not at all what we were looking for at the beginning of this journey. We will have to make some major "life-change" decisions as we proceed in the next few weeks.

We will sell much of our furniture, then go through EVERYTHING else and sell or give away most of the smaller things we own. We are amazed at how freeing that sounds to us! I have always had a picture in my heart of my yellow cottage house with white trim and black shutters. This house doesn't look like that now, but in a few short months, it will be the house I have always dreamed of.

We will also be able to pay off this little house in 4 or 5 years - what a blessing to not owe anyone anything. I love how God always brings the two of us into agreement on the bigger decisions we make. I was almost afraid to tell my sweet husband that I wanted this little house, and he was almost afraid to tell me he wanted the same thing! I am married to a precious man :0)

We will have one dining area, one living area, a large beautiful kitchen, 3 smaller bedrooms and 2 smaller bathrooms - everything we need and nothing we don't. Now, pray that the sellers think our offer is as wonderful as we do!

Once we finalize everything, I will post the "before" pictures of the new house. Here is a parting picture of the current house. I am praying that it will be such a blessing to the new owners.

A Fun Day With Friends

Mason and Molly attend a summer program at our local deaf church. This is something they look forward to all week. They make crafts, see Bible stories signed, go swimming, and more. Yesterday we all took a road trip to a nearby children's science museum. I love this kind of place even more than my children :) We saw robotic dinosaurs and watched a dino movie on the big omni screen. A perfect day for dino-loving Molly! The museum was not well lit so the pictures aren't the best, but the 3 M's are precious nonetheless :0)

Our house is still on the market - ugh, but we are praying it sells quickly and that a wonderful house in the country will be waiting for us.