New Beginnings

It has been awhile since I posted, so I thought it was time. 

I had a wonderful Christmas at home with my parents, my brother and his girlfriend.  Unfortunately it was much too short a time, as I worked until 6 pm on Christmas Eve and 9:30 am the day after Christmas-with an hour drive to get to my parents home.

I had made homemade goodies for everyone-and they went over quite well.  The pumpkin pie I made for my brother was the first pie I had ever made and I am quite proud of how it turned out.  It was quite a "sacrifice" for me to make that as well because I detest the taste and smell of pumpkin foods.  But it was worth it since it turned out so well and I know that my brother enjoyed it. 

Anyway, on a different note; I got a new sewing machine!  And a very large cutting mat and very long ruler.  I also got a nice light for my sewing area-so I don't have to use a lantern meant for camping.  I got a nice carrying case for my new machine as well.  In my stocking on Christmas morning were some fat quarters in pretty brown and blue patterns.  Another gift I got was the Taste of Home-Winning Recipes cookbook; I can't wait to try some of them out!

Today I did a lot of cleaning and organizing in the kitchen.  After all the baking that was done in the few days before Christmas, there wasn't a lot of time to clean beforehand and both my roommate and I worked right after Christmas as well.  So today was the first day I could really spend time on it.  I also have tomorrow off so I will be cleaning the rest of the apartment as well as doing laundry-then I'm going to pack for going home on Saturday morning for my mom's side family Christmas.  Then on Sunday we are going to visit some cousins who can't make it on Saturday.  On Monday morning I have an eye doctor appointment and then hanging out with mom (she is going to be my chauffeur after my eye appt. because of the drops that dilate my eyes so I can hardly see.  I have a regular doctor checkup in the afternoon, then I'll probably head back to EC since I work at 7:30 Tuesday morning.  So it will be a good few days.

My roommate left Monday morning for home and is gone for 2 weeks.  So next week after I get back and done working, I'm sure I will be bored.  But it will be nice-I'll maybe do some sewing-I have some clothes to mend and I can work on my quilt too!

As of today, it has been a week and a half since I had a soda-and as a result, caffeine.  I don't plan on completely cutting out caffeine-but it might end up that way-we'll see how that goes once I do have some caffeine again and how it affects me and my system.  It has also been about a year and a half since I had any alcohol.  I feel really good too.  I'm drinking more water, I'm sleeping better at night, I am eating better as well-my body isn't craving soda like I thought it would.  It started last Monday-I didn't have any more soda...and I just didn't feel the need for it-like the Lord was guiding me towards healthier choices.  Last Tuesday and a little of Wednesday I had a headache because of the caffeine withdrawal-but by Thursday I was back to normal.

But sort of on the note of sleeping better, it's bedtime for this lady.  Have a wonderful New Year's and weekend. 

God bless.

Domestic Thursday

Today I'm spending the day doing laundry, baking and sewing.  I baked Oatmeal Raisin cookies yesterday, they are my dad's favorite.  So today I'm baking Turtle Bars for my mom, pumpkin pie for my brother, and chocolate chip cookies for my brother's girlfriend.

Then I'll be sewing sweater mittens to give to family and friends as part of their Christmas gift.  Then I need to wrap gifts and I think I'll be done and ready to go home right after work tomorrow!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.  And remember the reason for the holiday.  Remember that our Savior Jesus Christ was born and has saved us all. 

"Snowmageddon"

Here in Eau Claire (and certain parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin too) Saturday and part of Sunday brought 22 inches of snow within 24 hours.  The previous record for a 24 hour period was 14 inches.  When I was at work on Saturday, we heard news that the Mall had closed, that Best Buy had closed, banks closed, fast food places closed, many churches canceled their Saturday and Sunday services.

Here are some pictures I took on Sunday night.

This is my roommate as she is all bundled up to make the trek to her car and dig it out.

The "steps" up to my apartment building's front porch. They are just caked with snow so the steps have just disappeared.

An area where a car used to be-until the owner was able to dig it out.

A sidewalk about a block away from my apartment-someone used their snow-blower and this wall is how much snow we got in 24 hours.

A different but similar sidewalk.

My roommate's "snow" shovel. It was literally the only type of shovel of any kind in the store-a fireplace shovel.  She had even looked at other stores first but everywhere was sold out.

Our friend's door from their kitchen out onto their little porch area.  Snowed in!

My roommate writing a note to leave for the church whose parking lot her car was stuck in. 

We are planning on baking them some cookies or muffins to say thank you.

The wall of snow after the snowplow went by.  Up to the windows on the car.

 The alley on the right got plowed, but when the big plow came through on the street, it created a nice big wall of snow at the end of the alley.

Standing in the snow behind our building-up to my roommate's knees.  

My roommate showing the car behind her-buried under lots of snow!
















This is just some of what the Midwest has dealt with.  It pretty much went straight through the middle of Minnesota, then Wisconsin.  Friends in the northern areas of the states hardly got any snow.  This just shows what God is capable of when He wants to show us.  This weekend definitely tested my patience.  I just tried to pray my way through.  I made it through and now I'm studying for a final that I have at 8:00 tomorrow morning!

Terry Cloth Caddy

So for some of the Christmas gifts I will be giving away, I want to sew some things for family and friends.

I found some good ideas from Martha Stewart.

One is a terry cloth caddy-using a simple bath towel. 
The second is just some sweater mittens using old sweaters.

I went to Goodwill and bought some inexpensive towels and some neutral colored sweaters that seemed like they would make good mitten material.

I will be working on them intermittently along with my final projects and exams.

If they turn out well, I will post pictures!

But until then, here are the links to the projects online.

Terry-Cloth Caddy

Sweater Mittens

A Chest of Hopes addition...

Another frugal way to "prettify" notebooks would be to find some inexpensive wrapping paper at a dollar store.  Then you could use one solid piece for the whole notebook, rather than 2 different pieces.

Just a thought I had on my last post subject.

A Chest of Hopes

I was feeling inspired after reading a post over at Feelin' Feminine.  I decided to beautify one of my extra notebooks that I had lying around.

Before: boring and somewhat ugly.

After
This is the front.  I used some leftover scrapbook pages I had from a set of pages I got at a garage sale.

Here is the back.  This was going to be the front, but I cut one of the corners a little too much, so I put it on the back instead.













I am going to fill it with items I want in my hope chest, skills I want to learn, craft project ideas, perhaps some recipes as well.

If anyone has some ideas they'd like to share, I would love to hear them.

Hope Chest

I have asked my parents for a hope chest and my mom and I have discussed it briefly; but I am starting to compile a list of items that I would like to include in it.  Once I have a good start on the list, I will post it.

I would love to hear any ideas (especially ones that most people would overlook) on what to include.

This helps me look forward to my future life, I get excited and eager when thinking about this and my future family.

End of semester stress

Now that it is December, the increasing pressure from classes is starting to get to me.  I need to stay focused on the Lord.  He knows what's best for me and He will provide for me and get me through this stressful time. 

I have a very important communication and journalism project due next Tuesday-that is the most pressing and important thing right now.  I also have a blog post due for that class and several quizzes coming up in my History class the next few days.

I will be prayer overload along with school overload for the next few weeks.  If you could pray for me also, I would be so grateful.  I need to do well and I have been pretty good all semester-but I start feeling myself slipping and I'm afraid that it will spiral out of control. 

Lord please be with me in the remaining weeks of the semester and help me through so I can continue on next semester in good standing.  I pray in your name, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.