Since I caught the quilting bug a couple years ago I don't have much time to crochet any more. Well, that and maintaining blogs and websites! :o) When I was pregnant with my first baby, Nicole, who now lives with our Lord, and even when I was pregnant with Joshua I crocheted ALL OF THE TIME! I loved it and still do! Jeff's mom taught me to crochet while we dated. Next to her son, the gift of crochet is the best thing she has ever given me! Not only is it something I truly enjoy, but I have had the thrill of teaching so many others this same skill. In addition to that, I have made MANY items that I have sold and even more I have been able to give as gifts.
Here is a baby blanket I finished this week. It took me about 3 weeks on and off to finish. This one is for sale for $30. It measures 37"x39". If you are intersted you can just email me at Kathy@TeachingGoodThings.com
I also have a blue one ready that is very similar to this one.
Olivia has recently started some hand embroidery and is really enjoying it. I think I'll give that a try next. We do most of our handiwork while we listen to school tapes/CDs or watch TV. It is rewarding to use your idle time to be productive and enjoy it!
The flexibility of being self employed and home educators has allowed us to do many things (outreach and personal) we would not have been able to do otherwise. Our kids are learning right along with us. Because our lives do not revolve around Jeff punching a time clock (although he works more than 40 hours a week) and we homeschool, our days do run not on a typical American schedule. Freedom is a wonderful thing, even when it is hard, and we've had some hard times the past couple of years!
Our 17 year old daughter is starting her own all natural bath products business. We received an e-book from a friend of ours who has been successful with her bath products. We have allowed our daughter to do everything herself (with a little oversight from us). She has written a business plan, researched the best places to buy products (bottles, jars, oils, goats milk, etc…), opened a checking account, set up her Quick Books account, inventory, storage, sales and marketing, business cards, brochers, labels, a domain name, EVERYTHING! She is working on a website. Even if she does not make alot of money, she is receiving a REAL education. Her goal this year is to be able to save enough money to pay for her college courses online, to get a teaching degree. These are all things that she can do from home without compromising her convictions of being a keeper at home. She is learning how to work with the public without leaving her Dad's authority and protection.
This same daughter is even co-chairing the Quilt Show Committee for our quilter's guild. She is learning TONS from this; organization, working with the media, 'dealing' with women (I can say this since I am a woman! lol), finding vendors, etc… No one can say that our kids are not socialized. They interact with all ages. They attend every group meeting we attend. If children are not welcome, then we just don't go. Even when our son was younger he went everywhere with his Dad.
Our 13 year old is looking for places to put 2 gum machines that she is buying from big sister. :o) Both girls take turns working with their Dad. The things they are learning in the real world are just as important as what they read about in their textbooks, if not more so. There are so many things our kids can and should be doing that will give them skills to be productive adults! We operate as a family unit, not only within our 4 walls, but everyday as we go out into the real world, teaching our kids as they walk and sit beside us.
Hope this will encourage someone to just keep on keeping on…or maybe it is time to think outside the box?
While my 83 year old grandmother was visiting the doctor a couple months ago , the nurse asked her when she retired. My little, gentle, very soft spoken grandmother just looked at her and kind of chuckled. My grandmother was widowed almost 30 years ago. She and my grandfather were dairy farmers in upstate New York. In their early years my grandfather would usually work another job along with the farm work. Other than a couple of small jobs when she was young, my grandmother was always the keeper of her home, or should I say, the keeper of her hundred acer farm. Truth be known my grandmother spent more time tending to the animals and land than she did the house. I believe that this is a beautiful image of a helpmeet (Titus 2:5). This is how she made her husband successful. She was a kind and submissive wife.
I LOVED going to my grandmother's almost every weekend growing up. As long as I can remember she always let me have free reign in the house, I'd cook up a storm, clean and 'organized' for her, while she'd be out milking the cows.
My grandparents were excellent managers of their money and belongings. After almost 30 years my grandmother has managed to keep the farm without debt. Although her savings has dwindled down to almost nothing she still has the house and land. The main barn burned several years ago and it was like we had all suffered a death when we lost the barn. My uncle has rebuilt a smaller barn to keep the hay in. My grandmother STILL gets out on the tractor to cut, rake and bale hay. I admire her strength and determination. She could have easily sold the farm years ago and lived comfortably in a small place for her remaining years. But she loves her home and she loves to work AT HOME. It is my hope and prayer that her children and grandchildren (and now great-grandchildren) will do whatever we can to ensure that she can stay on that farm, and WORK until God Himself calls her home and says to her, "Well done".
In Genesis, God's first command to Adam, even before He gave him Eve, was that he had to "cultivate and keep" the garden. This represents work. Maybe not by the sweat of the brow or fighting thorns and thistles, but it was still work to do.
I hate when I hear people talking about when they retire they will live a life of ease. What a sad existence. Now to retire from a certain job and then pour yourself into a real passion of serving others, or a different kind of work, that is wonderful. But to spend your life making and investing money just so you can live your last 20-30 years doing nothing, that is missing the whole point of LIFE! So what was my grandmother's answer to the nurse's question about when she retired? She just laughed and shrugged her shoulders, because there is no such thing as 'retirement' for people like her. :o)
