Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

Today I found out that the red pen I bought the other day works just great for transfering patterns. There are two pieces of the winter wonderland pattern that are quite large and I wasn't sure if I had enough white Kona cotton, but I did.


Winter wonderland pattern from www.crabapplehill.com~

*(I believe if you click on the photos they will enlarge and you can see them much better)




The two large patterns are the holly border and the one that says walking in a winter wonderland.

I found out they would be too large to transfer on my small table I normally use so I found another way to do the transfering of the large patterns...



I used the large window in my living room~








Here is a close up of the pattern all transfered~




The only problem I could find with using the window was the fact that it is such a detailed pattern it really hurt my back to stand there and transfer it. I ended up doing it in sections with rest periods in between.


I have had this pattern for a while and normally only think about doing it when it is already Christmas time. Maybe if I can get started on the embroidery sometime this week I can get this done before Christmas :)


Today is also June 15th wich means for me reading chapter 15 in Proverbs...sometimes it seems like God is certainly using His Word to get my attention. I have just recently been very harsh in my speaking and this chapter humbled me to the core. I love this chapter of Proverbs because it always seems to speak to me and I always learn something from it. I love being in the Word of God everyday and it helps me to get through the day. We also used our Air conditioner for the first time in quite a while today, yesterday the outside temp was almost 100' and it got up to 87' in the house, even with the ceiling fans it was unbearably HOT!!! I do not do good in the heat so today Roger turned the air on for me and it was most comfortable all day.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today, may you have a wonderful tomorrow and rest of the week. May you find many blessings along your road in life....

Blessings,Joann

Created to be his help meet....

I have just recently started reading this book again, Created to be his help meet. I have had the book for a few years and when I first got it I just sat down and read the whole thing without really taking the time to absorb what it is saying. Through the counsel of a wise and wonderful friend I am starting to read it all over again with a completely different attitude.

The first part is entitled~

The Help Meeet

Chapter 1 God's Gift~

"A Wise woman doesn't take anything for granted. She is thankful to be loved and seeks to make herself more lovely."


"Do you wake each morning ready to make your husband happy and blessed, to serve him to the best of your ability-- to be his helper?"

"When you honour your husband you honour God. When you obey your husband you obey God.

The degree to which you reverence your husband is the degree to which you reverence your creator. As we serve our husbands we serve God, But in the same way when you dishonor your husband , you dishoner God."

My first time reading this book, I was very defensive thinking that maybe my husband doesn't deserve to be honoured or reverenced and then this time around this particular sentence caught my eye....
....because it is so weird to think that your husband deserves you as his help meet. But who said anything about what he deserves??


It is much more a realization that I need to do what I was designed to do and to honour God while doing it.


Character traits to work on ~

1) Virtue

2) Graciousness

3) Wisdom

4) Goodness


I am being honest here, as I always try to be...Marriage is sometimes hard work and if people say that they have the perfect marriage I wouldn't believe them. To be a good wife has little to do with your husband and so much to do with what the Word of God says about being a wife. Trying to live as much like Christ as possible but knowing that I am so far from that and that I have a long way to go all I can do is start every day with a prayer and do my best to honour God throughout my day. Do I fail at this, yes I do almost daily but thankfully I have a God who forgives and gives me the next day a new day to live for Him.

Anyone who would like to join me in reading this book you are so very welcome. I am reading it with a friend and we will be emailing each other our thoughts on each chapter. Things I will share here will not be the personal things that I will share with her but mainly my thoughts on the chatpers. Please email me if you would like to join me, if you don't have my email leave a comment with your email and before I publish it I will remove the email part.

Have a blessed day in the Lord, Joann

Updating.....

I haven't blogged in quite a while so will try and update what has been going on here at home.



Last Sunday I had a Bridal shower for my future daughter in law, I was so excited about it and put my heart and soul into making it just right. With Roger being out of work I had to do it on a budget, wich was challenging. Sara's (the bride to be)Mom Annette asked me if it would be okay to bring the cake and I said yes and told her what a blessing that was to me. She brought a beautiful cake and it tasted so good!!


Here is Sara with the cake~






The day of the shower came and instead of being worried about it being 100'+ I was worried about rain and cold. Who would have figured there would be rain on the first weekend in June in CA. The weather turned out okay but it did rain quite a bit during the bridal shower. Luckily we were under the patio cover and were safe from the rain. At one point I was thinking we may have to build an ark it came down so fast and hard :) Sara got many wonderful gifts and we had 14 people come. The day was fun and turned out fine. Sara came by our home on Thursday this week to pick up some pictures from the shower I had for her and her mom. We chatted for a little while talked a little about the wedding in October and then she left. She left CA friday to go back to Las Vegas (where she is living right now) and I thought all was well and good. I wasn't sure if we could go to the wedding in Texas or Vegas since money is tight but if there was a way I would be there!!!! Friday night I checked my facebook page and now Sara has listed herself as married to Mattie, changed her name and everyone is congratulating her on her recent marriage!!! What, when did this happen, my son is in Iraq, I talked with her on Thursday afternoon and here friday evening she is now married and she didn't even mention it to me, this really made me MAD!!!! I feel like she was lying the whole time. Now I know Mattie has a big problem with lying but I thought maybe Sara could break him of that. I guess not since she seems to have no problem lying either. First I was mad then I just got very sad and dissapointed that I had been left out. Mattie has done some not nice things to me in the past but nothing this important and sadly right now I am to the point of I don't care anymore. You think this catches you up with what's been going on around here?? YOU couldn't be more wrong......

Chapter 2 :)
I have been having some personal problems the past few month and had confided in two very good friends. I won't call them my BFF's because I am an adult and that is a teenage term :) One of them is a true sister in Christ and the other well just a good friend I have know for over 15 years. I emailed both of them and one of the responses I got just gave me a wake up call as to who is really my friend and who isn't. Both of these friends emailed back within a day and gave me some advice to think about, I was sick at the time and didn't get right back to them, it was probably like 3-5 days before I got back to them. In the meantime I get a second message from one of them about me not being a good friend and that all I do is come to her with my problems all the time and that I am not there for her. I couldn't believe what I was reading, this is the same person whom I have visited in her home with her many times and even though we lived very close to where she was living she never once came by my home, she moved I think 3 times and she never even let me know, I found out by either calling or going by and finding no one there. And she has the nerve to say I am not there for her. My other friend doesn't think this way, she knows that that is what friends do for each other, they listen and try to say the right thing and to just make you feel better.


Chapter 3, don't worry this is much more fun :)

I went to the library yesterday and picked up books I had requested. I love the fact that I can go online pick out books and request them and then just go to the library and they have them all ready to pick up sitting in a stack.

THese are the books I picked up~




When I was out yesterday I also went by the fabric store to look for a pen for transferring patterns, I usually use a black micron pen but since I am doing redwork I wanted a red one. I couldn't find a red micron pen but I found this and am hoping it works~



I plan on starting on the winter wonderland embroidery project this coming week. Lots of transferring to do..

Please have a very enjoyable week ahead, and I will try and be a little more consistent with my posting.

Blessings,Joann

Today is My daughters 30th Birthday....

HAPPY "30"TH BIRTHDAY TO MY DAUGHTER Jennifer~


Jennifer Marie Price was born in Manteca California at 2:28AM on May 18, 1981. I am so sorry but I don't have any pictures scanned in from when she was little as I have been sick for almost a week now and just don't have the energy to do much...

I will try and post some pictures either later today or tomorrow if I am feeling better.


Jennifer you are a wonderful wife and mother and a great homekeeper.

She is currently working as a nanny which she has done for quite a few years now. She loves working with children and treats them as she does her own children.

Happy birthday to you Jennifer, I love you very much and am very proud of the beautiful woman you have grown into. Love, Mom

Jason Crabb, one of my favorite artists

I seen this song performed when I watched the Dove 2011 awards and just fell in love with it. It just speaks to how I feel sometimes.....

I am up and it is almost 5am, waiting for sleep to come. Still finding it hard to sleep. end up awake all night and sleeping most of the day.
Have a wonderful day :)


Enjoy~

More deaths in Iraq...

I was just reading over at the facebook page of Mattie's unit the 3rd squadron of the 3rd ACR and they put up a post about the fact that they lost 2 young men on Sat. April 2, 2011. That means that there are two families out there who got that horrible news that no one ever wants to get. Please keep these soldiers in your prayers.

I have still not been sleeping well, didn't go to bed until after 5 am this morning and so my nights have become my days and I don't like it. We are still waiting to hear news of any job offers for Roger and it is just so hard waiting and waiting!! Right now we really don't care were the job is we are willing to relocate pretty much anywhere. We have been praying about it and we know that God already made his plans for us, but sure wish he would share it with us so we wouldn't be so stressed out all the time.

I am trying to talk Roger into taking a vacation because it would be good for both of us right now, but he says it's not the right time to take a vacation when he has no job. Okay I am sure he is right but to me him not working is the best time, he won't be missing any work days. Of course we only have unemployment to live off of right now and it is only a fraction of what his pay used to be so I guess I understand his thinking I just wanted to go to the Midwest and visit a few friends, take our doggies and rent a motor home and just drive and see where the road takes us.

I am giving Mattie's soon to be wife a Bridal shower in June so I have been busy with all that entails. I found some real pretty bridal shower invitations at party city the other day. She, her name is Sara lives in Las Vegas so I only really have contact with her through the computer, Sara sent me a list of names for the list and then I added my families names and right now I have 14 people on the list. That's a nice amount knowing that not everyone will be able to make it I am hoping to have maybe 10-12 show up.

I am still not in a crafty mood but keep seeing things on other peoples blogs that have peaked my interest. I also want to make something special for Sara for the shower it's only a few months away so I guess I better get my behind in gear and get going on something. Sara sent me some choices they have made about colors for their new place. Red for the kitchen (I love red) Black and white for the bedroom and green for the bathroom.

I have asked Jennifer to help me with the shower and she is in charge of games, I am trying to think of cute things for gifts for the winner of the game and thought about making some homemade dishcloths but not sure what else to make. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog may your day be greatly blessed.
Blessings,Joann

Blogging again......

The other day I had deleted my blog because I just wasn't finding that joy that I used to feel in posting on my blog. After many emails and some friends on facebook I took some time to think and pray about it and have decided maybe I wasn't looking hard enough to find the joy in it. The joy is there it just needs to be looked for and I wasn't doing it. There was also another reason and that has to do with the name of my blog Titus 2 keeper at home with a name like that one would come to the conclusion that my blog is written by some one who lives the Titus 2 life and they would be WRONG!! I am just like everyone else out there trying my best and struggling every day to be a keeper at home. I read other people's blogs and look at what they do and I don't even come close to measuring up to them and then it hit me I don't need to measure up to other people I just need to do my very best to live as God intended for me to. I have been struggling so hard these past few years just to get the minimum things done as far as housework is concerned, I have looked back through my blog and when I read some of my old posts I wonder who the heck that person was and where is she now! Since Roger has been without a job (end of February) I have been doing nothing except getting up really late and I mean late, wathcing tv all day and going to bed really late. I am starting to hate doing this, so with much prayer, lots of encouragement from my good friends and just getting up and doing it, I WILL get up and get back to my old Titus 2 lifestyle, I will still struggle daily but hopefully at the end of the day I will be able to hold my head up high and be proud of what I accomplished that day. I hadn't been posting very much because I felt like a failure. I so much want to be that Titus 2 proverbs 31 woman and I just wasn't achieving it but then was I really trying my hardest probably not. I pray that the Lord will give me the strength to get the things done that need to be done, the wisdom to work efficiently in my home and the courage to tell the truth about my not so wonderful life when it needs to be told.

I am a Titus 2/proverbs 31 struggling late 40's woman who loves God with all her heart, also I Love my husband and children and grandchildren.I want to be someone who my husband and children are proud to call their home keeper. I want God to use me and my home keeping to bless everyone I can.

Are there any struggling women out there?? I have also noticed on blogger that there aren't many women like me, I find lots of women who are younger and have children at home or women my age but still have children at home. My life is way way different than it was when I had small children at home and that has also been something I have been dealing with. Empty nest syndrome is something very hard to just get over. My youngest child Mattie has been gone now for oh about 3 years and I still miss him everyday.

I want to be the best home keeper I can and I plan to do this,it may take me a while and I may struggle everyday but I will do it!

I thank everyone who sent emails about my blog and the encouragement I get from some of my great friends some have blogs and some don't but they are all my friends and I love them for being there for me when I need them the most.

Blessings,Joann