Change

Good Morning!  My husband, Gene, left on a medical missions trip to Guatemala this morning at 2:30.  He will be gone for 10 days!  I am very happy for him, but Ben, Gracie and I already miss him!  They will be working in various villages bringing medical help where needed.  He was very excited about going.  I think it will probably remind him of his Army days.  I'm praying he will come back all refreshed, because....

WE ARE MOVING!  We are moving closer into the town of Crossville, TN.  Our church is there and Gene's work is there.  We live about 30 - 40 minutes away, depending on if you get behind a tractor or not on the way in.  It will save us a lot of money on gas as well as give us a lot more time with each other.  We are moving, not into a tiny house, as we had planned, but a small mobile home, a bit bigger than our proposed tiny house!  It will give us a good idea, though, of life in a smaller space.  We will have awesome neighbors and a lot of property to have a garden and for the kids to play.  It is still somewhat in the country and it has a little shop already there, just waiting to be filled with yarn and spinning wheels and looms and bunches of fiber!  Speaking of yarn...

Valentine's Day is coming up.  Here is my first Valentine yarn of the year!  There is more coming! I call it Candy Hearts.
My shop is doing great!  I just need more time to spin!  I'm spending a lot of - too much - time on the computer marketing.  I would like to eventually hire someone to take that part over.  Perhaps I can talk my hubby into it after our move and things settle down a bit.  I am working with a wonderful lady, Heather a.k.a. "The Buzz" to help me with some improvements to Simply Homespun, so I'm looking for some good things from this.  She is wonderful to work with. 

I am moving along on the goals I set up in the last blog.  However, exercise is still lacking!  I have GOT to get on the stick!  Although, I wonder if packing and lifting boxes could be considered exercise??? hmmm.....  We are moving across from Cumberland Mountain State Park.  Lots of trails there.  Gene wants us to start riding bikes as a family over there.  That should be fun, right???  There is also a pool, so we can go swimming.  Now, I know that will be fun exercise.  No wait, I have kids!  I can't be swimming laps and watch kids!  Oh, well.  I guess I will just have to have fun with them.  Splashing is good arm exercise.  Pray for me in this area!

Homeschool is going great!  Gracie is learning to write her letters.  She is very good with numbers.  She also is doing very well in Spanish class.  Ben does great in everything but math.  He hates it.  We are finishing up subtraction with 3 numbers this week and moving on to measurement next week.  That should be more fun!  He loves to cook and build stuff.  So, I see projects...

I published this, then realized that I hand titled this "Change" and never really mentioned it again.  I feel like my life is going through change.  For one thing, I'm approaching the big "change" - menopause. Then we are moving - for the better, I believe.  My husband has been nominated for the board at our church.  If elected that will be a change in my church role.  I'm facing 2012 for the first time without my sister.  In packing, I've come across a lot of Karen's stuff and it brings with it both happiness and melancholy.  But one thing to remember, in the midst of change, both bad and good, God never changes.  He is always there and always the same.  He always loves me no matter what.  His love, His rules for living, His faithfulness never, ever changes.  I praise God for His strength in the midst of our changes.  His consistency is so comforting.  I love You, Lord!

Until next time!  Take care and may God bless you richly!

Kim

Goodbye 2011 - Hello 2012!!!!!!!!!!

So, it's 2012, and I just turned 50!  YIKES! Suddenly I can't think of anyone older than me!  I was speaking with a gentleman the other day and he was saying how at 40 things start going downhill - physically and mentally - and at 50 it just takes off!  Well, guess what!?  Not for me!  I am going to take a turn for the better!
I was reading a friend's blog this morning on Operation Twenty12.  It inspired me to have my own Operation 2012!  Not resolutions that will happen this year, but new beginnings of a healthier way of life that will take root and grow for the next 50 years!  Here are my top 5 areas:
1) Physical - Walk!  That's it!  No fancy gym memberships or aerobics tapes, or marathon training.  Just plain, old fashioned walking!  I enjoy a nice leisurely stroll and generally find that I start of slow and wind up fast.  A nice one mile hike with my kids through the woods would be a great place to start!
2)  Mental - LESS STRESS!  Stress is causing me to hurt all over and I'm afraid I have passed this to my daughter!  I am going to chill in 2012!   Life is way to short to spend it cramped up in a stressed state.  Less stress means less dis -ease. 
3)  Spiritual - Continue in my daily devotions FIRST thing in the morning!  God wants my first fruits, not what I have left at the end of a long day.  I am going to start keeping a prayer journal for all the answered prayer. AND...I am going to press through trials with HIM and praise Him all the way through!  This time on earth is just college for our responsibilities in eternity.  I am tired of having to take the same old classes over and over!  This year, I am going to pass the class on patience and having a quiet and gentle spirit!  Then I can move on to Patience 2 and Quiet and Gentle Spirit2!
4)  Family - Plant seeds of love and kindness in my home.  Take and pass the class of being a helpmeet to my husband!  The wife sets the whole stage in her home and I can either build my up or tear it down!  I choose to build it up!  We are learning to be thankful and content whether we abase or abound and I am very grateful to the Lord for that one - especially for my kids.  What an awesome class in learning to be happy even in the midst of trials. 
5) Simply Homespun - Finally, and yes, #5 on purpose is my shop!  I love my shop!  I love creating all of those great yarns - wacky and otherwise.  I love creating the colorways in my fibers and spinning them to see what comes out!  I want to, with God's guidance and blessing, grow my shop this year!  I want Simply Homespun to bless my family as well as my customers!

So there it is!  I will keep posted as to my  progress.  I would love to hear some of my reader's goals and progress along the way!

Take care!
Kim

Christmas Desire

I was taking a shower last night and thinking about how badly I wanted my 2 older kids to come home for Christmas, not necessarily on Christmas Day, but somewhere close.  How I would do almost anything to see them and hold them in my arms.  But, alas, I can do nothing but pray and wait.   I cannot make them come to me.  Then I thought about how God must feel this way toward the many who He wants to come home to  Him.  He's there for everyone - waiting with open arms to hold them and protect them in the shadow of His wing.  How He loves them so much and desires with all His heart for them to come to Him.  But, alas, He will not make them come.  He just waits.

Now, let me be VERY clear on this - my older children, Jessica and Robby, have in no way rejected me.  I just know how much I want them to be here.  I love them and they love me, so we are not estranged in any way.  Those thoughts and feelings, though, made me think of our Heavenly Father.  If you are one of those kids who have not talked to your Heavenly Father lately - take this time to do just that.  He's waiting right here!  Arms open wide!  He loves you and desires you. Give Him a call this Christmas.  He wants to hear from you.

An Interview With God

I just watched this video called “An Interview with God”. Something that really stood out was “a person is not rich who has the most , but the one who needs the least”. That really struck home with me. Also, something to the effect of we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow that we live neither in the present nor the future. We have scaled down our life a lot since I lost my job, almost a year ago. But I have experienced how God does provide our DAILY bread.

My goal for 2012 is to live in the present moment – not to gulp down my coffee, but to sit and enjoy the smell and taste of it. To see my children as the gift they are and, when they interrupt my spinning or knitting, to stop and play with them. Too soon they won’t ask me to play or read to them or hold them. I want to take a walk and just enjoy the beauty that is around me. To look at my husband like I looked at him when I first met him. To not take forgranted that he will be here tomorrow. To enjoy the talent that God gave me to create beautiful fibers and yarns and not look at it ever as a job, or a chore. To love the Lord and respect the choice that He made to die such a horrible death for me. To not ignore Him in my day, but include Him on everything. To take care of my body and not bring disease on myself by lack of exercising and bad eathing habits. To just enjoy life and be content with what I have for the day.

We are looking at Christmas a bit differently this year.  With money very tight, our family, kids included, are coming up with alternatives to normal Christmas toys.  Yesterday, Ben decided he would like as his Santa gift, an art party.  So we are going to invite some of his friends over for an afternoon of creating art.  Gracie is so content with what she has, she isn't in that "I want" stage yet.  Although, she is really enjoying preparing for Christmas.  She and Ben decorated our tree almost entirely by themselves!

Life is good in the ETSY shop.  Lots of sales and special orders!  Ben created his first yarn.  He got my fiber scrap box out and carded up a bat and then spun it!  It's really nice. 

Isn't it pretty?  I thought he did an excellent job.  His second one, I'm actually using as a border for a scarf.  I'll post that as soon as I'm finished.  I'm using his yarn on the ends and I'm knitting with roving for the body of the scarf.  It is very interesting.  Almost looks woven.  I believe it may be a Christmas present.  Not sure yet. 

I made peanut butter pie for Thanksgiving and boy was it good!  You take peanut butter, cream cheese, cool whip and mix that all together and put into a graham cracker crust.  Then top it  with chocolate syrup.  YUM!   Here is the recipe.  It's from Aunt Bees Delightful Desserts; p.158 Miss Crump's Peanut Butter Pie:
1 cup peanut butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons softened butter
8 ounces whipped topping, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 9 ounce chocolate or graham cracker crust
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, optional

Blend first 6 ingredients until smooth.  Pour into pie crust.  Refrigerate overnight or until pie is cold throughout.  Garnish with peanut butter cups, if desired.  I swirled a chocolate topping over the top, or you could swirl Hersey's syrup over the top.  Either way, the bottom is what counts and boy is it yummy!

Enjoy the preparations for Christmas with your family.  May God bless you with His peace and comfort.

Kim

Decluttering and Loving It!

I spent all of last week, well between spinning special orders :) , decluttering!  We were living in total chaos - piles everywhere.  Everytime you walked down the hall, something would fall off the bookshelf.  "Mama, where are my ....?" was a daily occurence.  "Kim, do I have any clean underwear?"  Boxes of fiber filled our bedroom.  The kid's playroom was so cluttered with toys that they didn't even play in there.  I dreaded everytime I had to go into the pantry, because I had to step over and on stuff in the floor.  And if I got a can off the shelf, 2 more would fall on the floor.  I had about 47 jars of pickles I had canned from 07 that had turned to mush.  My dishwasher and table were catch all places for more piles.  YIKES!  So, last week, I don't know if it's menopause setting in, or just the good Lord chastising me for this total failure in being a keeper at home, I decided "THAT"S IT!"  I wished I had taken before and after pics, but I didn't.  We have given 3 carloads of stuff to Habitat for Humanity and thrown out 2 truckloads of trash.  Now, I am seeing the light!!!  I love it!!  I can relax, well as much as I can relax!  When Gene came home and saw the bedroom with no fiber boxes or homeschool stuff, he started running from one wall to the other - jumping and skipping around like a school boy, saying "I can walk , I can walk, I can walk!" 
I moved the kids bedroom into the playroom and got rid of a lot of the toys they don't play with anymore.  They love it!  They are spending more time in there creating and reading!  Who would have thought??  There clothes are all folded and organized and Gracie comes out every morning dressed and ready for the day! 
I made their bedroom my fiber room and homeschool storage.  That room is a mess right now, but that's the only one!  I will tackle that this week.  Then deep cleaning and we are all ready for the holidays!!  

Pantry - note floor and organization of canned goods!

Cleared top!

No clutter!

My linen closet.  It has a floor!  I haven't seen that in years!  This is a closet where you would pull something out and close the door quickly by leaning into it with all your weight until it latched!

If I can do it, you can do it!!!  And I can't begin to say how much joy and peace come with the hard work.  Word of warning:  Your home will look much worse in this process before it looks better.  Decluttering is a messy business, but so worth it.  God made us women to be keepers of our homes and that is to be taken seriously.  When we have a clean home we bring honor and our Lord and to our family. 

Take care!
Kim

Oh my gosh, it's NOVEMBER!!!

Only 51 days til Christmas!!!  Where does the time go???  I declare every year time is faster and faster.   Why is that?  When you are a child and teenager, time creeps..then BAM!  What happened?  Kids, life, busyness?  Oh well, I don't care for the speeded up version of life very much.

I am in the process of spinning dog hair for a customer.  It is so beautiful.  It's from a Huskie and, while it is short, it is making beautiful yarn.  Unlike the matted mess I had been working on and am now expecting back from the fiber mill any day now. 

Homeschooling is going great...now.  Ben and I were having some attitude issues in math, but it's amazing what 2 superhero figures and a scrabble can do to boost enthusiasm!  I was the bad guy in one corner, and Iron Man was Ben's figure in the opposite corner.  The star square in the middle was the city I was trying to take over.  Iron Man had to beat me to it, or doom and gloom.  We are working on addition and subtraction with 3 digit numbers.  Everytime he answered a problem in his workbook correctly, he got to move the number of ones.  For instance, 100 + 209 = 309, so he got to move 9.  If he missed it, I got to move 9.  If he took longer than 1 minute to answer, I got to move a square.  It was great.  He made it to the city first and I had only advanced 4 squares!  Thank the good Lord for the inspiration!

We are doing pretty great on our budget.  I would still like to cut the food cost back some more.  I spent 64 last week and 46 this week.  I would like to make it to 25 or 30/week.  If I would sit down and do a plan, that would probably do the trick!  I need to get back into that. 

Next week, after I get my special orders done, is going to be dedicated to decluttering in a major way!  I'm going to document our progress.  We have wayyyyyyyy to much stuff!  Especially toys and kid's clothes.  Yikes!

Well, back to spinning!  Take care!

Kim