The Goose is Getting Fat...

Oh Christmas. It's going to be a new adventure for the Hub and I. No young 'uns at home to make us decorate... or even better, to decorate for us. DS1 used to do it for us in the old days. Maybe he'll do it for us this year now that he's moved back to the hometown.

With the girl child off preaching the gospel in "foreign" lands (California... it's like foreign, but with domestic shipping rates) I know how important the holiday season will be for her to feel support from home. She starts with her birthday, then skips right into Thanksgiving (she was born on Thanksgiving Day) then jumps on to Christmas. I'mjust getting started with holiday sewing. Here is my first free motion quilting project ever:

 

See the tutorial from Missouri Quilt Co HERE. I love YouTube... love it ...love it...LOVE IT!!
If you are a coward like me and don't feel confident free-handing a stocking, THIS is the template I used. It's a downloadable PDF and part of a nice text tutorial at fabricworm.blogspot.com.  

Let's see now...where were we?

OH right! We were blogging.

The girl child has been gone six weeks. She will be leaving the Missionary Training Center tomorrow. I hardly feel like she has been gone. I still find her stuff around the house. I pulled a pair of her shoes out from under the couch this morning. The Hub sees her every week day since he works at the MTC, so I get almost daily reports. I've also tried to write her twice a week. Trust me... my life has NEVER been interesting enough to write two letters a week to the same person.

That's not to say things haven't been happening. For example, Mr and Mrs DS2 have moved in to their very own house. DS1 has changed jobs and moved in to the house vacated by the DS2s. But really, how much can you write about other folks lives?

I did, however, finish the recipe book I promised her for Christmas. And I made a missionary apron for her. I tried to convince her to take the one DS2 took on his mission but she didn't like that it said Elder Boothe. Hers has Hna. Boothe on it; aside from that it's pretty much the same. I had hoped to paint it in a grape motif (since she is serving in "the Lord's Vineyard")  but when I finally got to it I didn't have the right color paint. So I went with handwriting instead. Best laid plans, and all that.

The "scriptures" written on it are food/cooking related:
To love his neighbor as himself is better than all...Burnt Offerings.  Mark 12:33
Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. John 21:16
Feast upon the words of Christ. 2 Nephi 32:3
Fasting = rejoicing and prayer.  DC 59:13
Food... for taste and for smell, and to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. DC 59:19
Wheat for Man D&C 89:17 Chocolate for Woman M&M 24:7
He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15
If thine enemy hunger, Feed him. Romans 12:20

HOLY COW!

Where did that six weeks go?!? I finished the wedding book and didn't even bother to get the photos because I felt so time crunched. As for memorize Monday? Well THAT fell beside the wayside even more than reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days. The sixty days has flown past leaving a whooshing sound hissing in my ears and, no, I didn't finish but I will before the month is out. Yes, I will.

So now the girl child is off to serve the Lord.  Right about now she is in her new room at the Missionary Training Center getting ready to spend that first night in a room full of girls. Because she is an only girl that bit will be an adventure all by itself.  She'll spend 6 weeks learning Spanish in the MTC and then she's off to Fresno California to preach the gospel in the "Lord's vineyard". It will be the greatest time of her life. I'm a little jealous.

Why isn't there a photo? I let Girl Child take my camera.

Memorize Monday - Temple Week - T-6 weeks

I'm giving the Girl Child a week off. Partly because she isn't really playing along; it's just me encouraging her by hanging stuff on the wall in the hall. (I really should write Dr. Seuss books.) And partly because she has a TON of reading to do this week so her time is better spent elsewhere. She'll be going to the temple for the first time this week. Pretty exciting stuff.