Finish-a-Long 2015 - Quarter 3 Goals

Here we are again, ready to set some sewing goals for the next quarter of the year and link them up with Adrienne at On the Windy Side. Before I set my goals for this quarter, I would just like to point out that my Craft It Forward gifts are not on the list this time around!! They're finally all finished, though one is still en route to its recipient, so I haven't shared that one yet.

So, what am I hoping to finish over the next three months? Here goes:

1. The wedding quilt. I've started quilting it, so it's well underway. The straight line quilting will soon be finished and then I can move onto the fun free motion stuff. I can't wait!

2. I made this little skinny mini quilt top out of some test blocks for a baby quilt I'm planning. I have some backing fabric ordered, so I want to finish this one up once that arrives.

3. A baby quilt for friends who are expecting their first baby in September. The fabrics are ordered and the test blocks are made (see above), so I can't wait to get started! I'm planning to write up the pattern for this one, so if you're interested in testing it for me, just let me know in the comments. There will be no paper piecing or applique in the pattern, just plain machine piecing, and the test blocks in the skinny mini quilt are the only blocks. I also plan to have a couple of different size options in the pattern.

Well, that looks like a pretty tiny list, but we're hoping to do a fair bit of camping and hiking over the summer, and quilting the wedding quilt is going to take a lot of time, so I think I'll stop there. Maybe with only three items on the list I could actually finish everything? We'll see how it goes

Among Thorns

Devotion for the Week...

We have a wood furnace to heat our house. Shortly after we installed the furnace, we also bought a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is a sneaky danger because it is colourless, odorless, tasteless and potentially deadly. According to How Stuff Works, carbon monoxide is poisonous to us because it binds more strongly to our hemoglobin than oxygen does. That means that if carbon monoxide is present, it will bind to a person's hemoglobin where oxygen should bind, making it impossible for oxygen to bind there, and eventually the person will suffocate. The oxygen is squeezed out and replaced by the carbon monoxide.

I thought of this when I read one of Jesus' parables which I have read many times before. The parable of the sower goes something like this: a farmer goes out to plant seed. On the way, some falls on the road and gets eaten by birds; some seed falls on the rocks where it has no room to grow roots; some falls among the thorns which choke it out and some falls on good ground where it grows and produces a harvest. The meaning of the parable is relatively simple. The farmer is the person who sows the word of God. The seed on the path is symbolic of the person who hears the word of God but never accepts it. The seed among the rocks is the person who accepts the word of God, but has no depth so he falls away as soon as there is trouble. The seed among the thorns is also a person who hears the word, but they're so worried about the things of this world that the word of God is choked out of their life. The seed on good ground, of course, is the person who accepts the word of God, does their best to live accordingly and so lives a fruitful life.

Whenever I've read the parable before, I've always thought it referred only to those who are hearing the word of God for the first time, those who are hearing that Jesus died to offer them forgiveness for their sins. But this time I considered the application for those of us who are already believers. After all, we hear, or read, the word of God regularly. I was struck especially by the seed that is choked out by the thorns, or weeds. "The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful" (Matthew 13:22).

The worries of this life...the deceitfulness of wealth.

How much of life are summed up in those two phrases? How often do we not really hear a sermon because we are too busy thinking about meal plans, or company we'll be seeing later in the week, or the clothes our kids need, or the vacation we can't wait to take in a few weeks? Or how often are we more focused on earning/spending/saving our money rather than on how we could be living like Jesus?

It is harder for oxygen to bind to hemoglobin, so we have to take precautions to make sure carbon monoxide doesn't crowd out the oxygen. Unfortunately, it is also harder to live according to God's word. First of all, we have to spend time with His word, focused time and not just time sitting in a church pew not really paying attention to the sermon. Ideally, we should also be reading the Word for ourselves, and that's certainly not always easy. The worries of this life, the stuff that has to get done each day just to keep our households running, can easily take up every moment of our day. If we wait to 'have time' to read the Bible it likely won't happen. We have to make a conscious effort to make time to read the Bible. During the school year, I find this relatively easy because I set my alarm a bit earlier than I need to be up, then spend that extra time reading my Bible. Unfortunately, once summer vacation arrives, that plan goes right out the window because I'm no longer setting an alarm at all. I'm still struggling to find a time that I will stick to consistently.

Then, of course, once we know how God wants us to live, we have to actually follow through and live that way. But that's not always easy either. Living God's way will sometimes mean standing out from the crowd and acting differently. Are we willing to do that, or are we more worried about fitting in?

Seeds planted among thorns won't grow well unless the farmer pulls up the thorns. Carbon monoxide will beat out oxygen every time. In the same way, we have to be diligent about removing those things that would crowd out the Word of God.

Canada Day Treasure Hunting

Happy Canada Day!

Aiden is away at church camp this week (which he tells me is 'awesome!'), but the rest of us had a great time today hiking and looking for treasures along a nearby hiking trail and beach. Judging by how many pictures Paul and I took between us, we found lots of treasures! Here are a few I wanted to share.

These beach peas were so dainty and beautiful.

I love this shot of Nathan looking for creatures in the pool of water.

Zachary found a nice place to lounge for a few minutes.

I love looking for shells, pretty rocks, bits of coral and sea glass and these beaches have all of it in spades!

The rock formations in this area are really amazing. I can't get over how there are so many bends and folds in the rock (none of which photographed well today, of course). I'm not sure what kind of rock this is, or how it eroded in this way, but it looks amazing!

There are many places where there are veins of a different rock in the midst of the usual grey rock, which I think is shale, or maybe slate.

I like knowing the names of things, so I have a wildflowers book and a bird book to help me identify the different ones I see. I said today that now I need to find a rock book, because I'd love to be able to read about the different types of rocks and learn what I'm seeing. If you know of a good rock book, please let me know!

After the hike, we returned to the little picnic area, where there is another beach. The boys loved throwing rocks in the water while they waited for their hot dogs to be ready.

See the iceburg in that picture? That was our supper time entertainment. It slowly moved in closer, then started to roll. It rolled one way, then rolled back the other way, and back and forth and back and forth. Then it tipped backwards a bit, then started to spin around. It looked completely different by the time we were finished eating!

After supper we explored a little farther along the beach, climbing over more rocks, until we discovered this chunk of ice bumping up against the shore. Just think how cold that water must be!

This is my favourite kind of day - spent with family, exploring nature and coming home with beach treasures in my pockets.