guess who got a digital camera for Christmas?

There's my wonderful family in all the fun things I made them this Christmas. Glow in the dark PJ's and bathrobes, no sew ponchos, big fat pillow and agloriously bright quilt. I am so excited to have a digital camera, I will probably be a big pain in the butt now that I have this thing, but I don't care. I will enjoy it!!!

What a fun last couple of days we've had. The best part was watching the joy on the kids' faces as they gave the gifts that they had gotten for each other and for us. What fun to see the joy of giving on their faces. Lots of good fun and food and friends and family. Give the letter 'F' a hand for helping us out with the holidays! We're off on travelling adventures tomorrow morning. Better go get some sleep! 

Merry Christmas everyone!

1. I am thankful for encouraging friends like Lloanne, Connie, Linda, Krista, Holly, Ninette and Sarah.
2. I am thankful for my moms and my sisters; Marie, Velma, Donna, Darlene, Denise, Sonya and Tamara.
3. I am thankful for glow-in-the dark flannel and beautifully soft fleece, that's on sale!
4. I am thankful that I can say I have girls - plural and boys - plural - and husband - singular!!
5. I am thankful for Bec Abbot and her song, "Thrive"

This is what we sang and danced around to this morning as we 'secured the atmosphere' in our home this morning (S and S loved that we were playing the CD so loud!)

Gonna Thrive,
Be,
Live Abundantly
Walk through open doors
Celebrate this life I'm livin'.............

1. I am thankful that there are moments when I really love being a mom.
2. I am thankful that there are moments when things actually go better than you plan.
3. I am thankful for Tetley tea.
4. I am thankful for clean, sweet smelling little boys fresh from the tub.
5. I am thankful for my sister.

babies, ponchos and thanksgiving

more things to be thankful for:

1. A husband who loves me and is gorgeous to look at besides (believe it or not he thinks the same thing about me!)
2. A forgiving God who shows me my error and loves me anyway - like when I lose it and yell at my son - there is no excuse for that - but God, and my son both forgave me.
3. My new nephew - Sonya had a baby boy in the wee hours of this morning. Welcome to the world baby Joshua
4. Fabricland - the source of all my Christmas goodies so far.
5. On-line ideas for simple, creative, wonderful and inexpensive gifts - like the one I'll tell you about below.

NO-SEW PONCHO - this was an idea from frugalmommy, but I have Canadianized it and added in a few more ideas and sizes to make it my own!

Really and truly, this takes no sewing and looks fabulous. I wish I had pictures but I still don't own a digital camera (hint, hint). I made seven of these in about 1 hour!

Materials:
1 m of lovely fleece (on sale right now at Fabricland) - this will make 2 30x30 fleece ponchos
a pair of scissors
a measuring device

1. Fold the fabric in half and cut.
2. Trim to make it exactly 30" x 30" for a younger girl (K- gr 4 age or so) for toddlers - 27" x 27" for baby girl 20" x 20" is good (note: if you're making them for babies you can get more ponchos out of one meter of fabric.
3. Fold fleece diagonally.
4. Find the center by folding diagonally again (mark center with a pin)
5. Unfold one fold so that the fleece is still folded once.
6. Mark 2.5" on either side of your center pin (a little less for baby size)
7. Cut a semi-circle from outer pin to outer pin - you may want to use a small bowl or cut out a semi-circle from paper to have something to cut around.
8. Personalize your poncho:
a. cut a fringe around the edge
b. cut a fringe around the edge, slide a bead on and knot it
c. cut a fringe around the edge, knot the fringes
d. cut out a flower, heart, star or something other shape from another coordinating fabric and use fabric glue, Heat 'n' Bond, or sewing to add it to your poncho

That's it - so fun and so easy. My girls are gonna look so cute in their matching bright lime green ponchos!

Have a lovely day!

oh to be thankful

Maybe I should write 'unencouraged' posts more often.

While the world hasn't changed much in my four walls, I am feeling a little less down. Reading in Hebrews 12 where is states that this is the race that was marked out for us made me stop and think. God planned for me to walk the road that I'm walking on. He has arranged for me to experience all these things to make my character what it needs to be so that I will be able to fulfill the call He has placed on my life. (that's in James) He's also surrounded me with witnesses and friends to cheer me on so that I can keep on going.

Nin wrote about what happens when you quit feeding your body and how it gets used to being fed a certain way. I realized that I need to make sure my spiritual self is getting fed if I'm going to be able to endure. I don't want to be a race drop-out.

Sonya asked in the comments if I need to be encouraging...I think I do. The word of God asks me to encourage people and here at fresh flowers I want to be that. It was the original intent of this blog, and even though it isn't a widely read blog at least for those who come here, I want to think that they've read something that will at least bring a smile to their face and pick them up a little. It also forces me to think 'happy thoughts' and not dwell on the negative - which seems to be what I'm doing too much of the time lately. So maybe for the rest of December if I manage to get to the blogging world I will commit myself to writing what I'm grateful for.

Here's the beginning of my grateful Christmas list:

1. I am thankful for the people who come by and read - whether or not you leave comments!
2. I am thankful that I am living a life I've dreamed of - being a wife, mom, teacher.
3. I am thankful that I have wonderful friends and family who love me and encourage me.
4. I am thankful for the creativity God has given me and the ability to make some of my ideas come to light.
5. I am thankful for the skills I've gained from my mom to make Christmas gifts for my friends and family in a frugal, yet beautiful way.

that feels much bettter! smile

blathering

feel like writing something but don't have much to say...not sure anyone reads this thing anyway

been cooped up with sick kids for three weeks - haven't been to church

feel

isolated
want to get out for awhile

i'm an introvert constantly surrounded by people

way too much stress going on around here

waiting for a phone call that hasn't come yet

it will

just taking time

waiting for my entire life to change is not easy and i'm not doing well at being peaceful

would like to scream and throw things for a brief moment

crying is good, less damaging

hard to find time to do all the things that need to be done
only one of me
so many of everything else

house is quiet, tree is pretty in the dark
relative cleanness - as clean as it can be with 8 people constantly running around

without corporate worship, every day is the same

spending time with Sam was rather wonderful this morning, I will cherish those memories...doesn't happen very often

not very encouraging am i?

guess i'll go to bed
tomorrow is another day
more of the same
sigh

Sabbatical

I have been reading alot about sabbatical and rest and all that. After the last year of high stress and such I'm feeling a wee bit drained. I've been writing fresh flowers for quite some time now and it seems good to my husband, the Holy Spirit and myself to take a rest. So there won't be much around here for the next three months. However, I would appreciate your prayers as I do the following:

1. Rest from writing

2. Refresh my spirit so that there is more to give

3. Ponder the process of huge life changing decision making that we are in the middle of.

Oh yeah, we have 4 gift sets of Fresh Flowers - an inspirational journal and King of All Creation CDs left. That's all they'll ever be, we aren't making anymore. So whoever yells first will get them. $25 for both - a steal of a deal!

And now, I am going to eat late night KD with my wonderful husband and begin resting...aaaahhhh

fresh flowers for Nov 15

This is an excerpt from "Heart to Heart" - a newsletter I receive. I don't think I could say this any better!

Lani


THE APPLE SERMON
Thanks to Annamarie Kresge in Virginia for this devotional!

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples.
Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. All but one. He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved goodbye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.
The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly." As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister....." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?"
Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world (shopping, working, reacting to others that are serving us) that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit. Let us live like we are worth the price He paid.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

Our lives are full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful, except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives.

Make no judgements where you have no compassion.

Yeah for Oxy-Clean! Mr. Sketch markers do come out with soaking and prayer!! My couch covers look lovely once again. My fabric therapy led towards making lovely cushion covers for my couch and my bed. My baby screamed all night so I wasn't so chipper today. More fabric therapy...family birthday party. Hangin' out.

fabric therapy time

4 of my 6 children are away at sleep-overs as ov 1:30 pm, Friday, November 10, 2006. My eldest has a friend over for a long-overdue promise to have a LOTR video marathon. Just the babe to contend with! Fabric therapy may actually happen.

Definition of fabric therapy - I go sew something pretty that I don't have to sew, just because I want to and it's fun!

The dirty bathrooms will wait, won't they?

mindless posting

why am I up and blogging at this hour?

- cause the alarm system went off
- realized the dog chewed through the wire
- blogged while my multi-talented honey fixed the problem
- blogged while my very awake honey drank chai and read over my shoulder
- blogging while doggie goes out to do his business

need to get doggie in before doggie wakes up entire neighborhood - must be responsible pet owner
-really tired, long day, need to figure out how to remove purple Mr. Stinky marker from couch

ok done now

fresh flowers for Nov 10

3 for 1 event
copyright 2006, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

Fresh flowers continue to pop up regularly in my day, however, getting them to the display case seems to be a bit of a difficult thing to do since my baby showed up! So, here are a few tidbits that have been running around in my head until a fuller bouquet can be made...

Halloween - a blessed event

Yup, I think I've converted. I think that there are probably more people who act Christ-like on Halloween then any other day of the year. When else do people go out of their way to spend money on total strangers? When else do people fling open their doors and give to whoever asks? When else do we have the freedom to knock on our neighbor's doors and invite ourselves in, be it ever so briefly? When else do we have the opportunity for the world to come to our door so we can love them? Hide in my basement with all my lights off and be miserly? I think not...

Home - truly where your heart is

As we contemplate the possibility of moving again, not just across town but to a whole other life style and area we have have to make some mental adjustments. What is a house after all but four walls and a roof? Any place that is warm and dry will do in the end. When we looked at the faces of our six children and each other, my husband and I realized that we can be home wherever we are as long as we can have these that are most precious with us.

Then we contemplated moving on a far more eternal scale as we said good-bye to our friends' young son. Home is really not here at all. We truly are just passing through in these temporary shells. Home is in heaven, where we'll be all that we were created to be, finally.

Dehydration

It's amazing how exciting a pee-filled diaper can be after waiting for over 12 hours to see one happen. We had some nasty flu and cold bugs running through our house over the last two weeks which hit the girls the hardest. The process of rehydration is tedious and lengthy. We needed to feed Elizabeth every 15 minutes a tiny bit of liquid, hoping it would stay in her system long enough that eventually she would absorb enough liquid to eliminate wastes once again. Dehydration in babies can be a serious, even deadly thing. While I was going through this process I realized I was feeling a bit dry myself, but in the spiritual sense.

Re-hydrating my spiritual self wasn't that different than what I was doing with my daughter's physical body. Little bits, very often and soon the wastes start coming out. Then you can handle greater volumes and then finally back to solid food again. It isn't good for us to get spiritually dehydrated, unfortunately the symptoms present themselves far too often. I have no tears left, I'm listless and have no energy to fight against the onslaught of the enemy that is trying to take over my system. My mouth is dry, there is no praise or thanksgiving being offered, and the toxins aren't being flushed out of my system. Won't take long and I'll wither up. How's your hydration level?

LARGE FAMILY BONUSES: While it's true that in a large family it's difficult to find time to yourself, it's also easy to find someone to talk to or to get a hug from because there's always someone around.

Sad and Glad

Our dear friends Carebear and Firestarter had to say good-bye to their oldest son this morning. At 6:30 AM, Caleb got his first chance at singing, "Hallelujah", he got to run and jump and dance today. He got to test out perfectly clear lungs and taste things for the first time. Best of all, he got to run and jump around with Jesus and express his heart like never before.

We will miss you Caleb, but you've done your job, you have touched all of our hearts...

fresh flowers for Oct 27

The Kingdom in My Garden
©2006, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

I should have a green thumb if it could be passed on genetically – but I don’t. In my own defence I have actually kept several house plants alive – one even has about a 5 year span in my house, it’s even moved once. No, I have never claimed to be an excellent gardener but those living green things certainly teach me a lot of lessons. Here’s what I’ve learned this summer…

The zeal of the immature does not necessarily produce a good crop. There was a very obvious demarcation line in my garden between where I seeded and where I let my kids seed. Too much of a good thing doesn’t allow the seed to grow. Too little seed doesn’t provide sufficient companionship to the struggling loner – they tend to get ripped out along with the weeds or trampled. Of course no seed produces no crop at all. The spiritual application is pretty obvious. The kingdom needs us to be wise, mature and discerning in how, when and where we seed the gospel into the soil of people’s lives.

You can’t judge a potato by its skin. We have garden soil that is overly rich in nitrogen (that Soil Science degree does come in handy sometimes). This produces very scabby potatoes. They aren’t pretty to look at, their skin is rough rather than smooth. That roughness makes them difficult to peel but once you get passed that you have a potato like any other potato. It cooks, smells and tastes like every other potato. I must confess that I was prejudiced against my scabby potatoes. When someone suggested it wasn’t worth the trouble to dig them up I did just that. A little later someone suggested I really ought to make the effort, after all they are the same on the inside. I realized that this advisor was the wiser and decided I better get them in. Still I procrastinated. My dad warned me that I had only three days to get them in or I would lose them to the frost. I lost them friends. I lost my potato harvest because of laziness and prejudice. I didn’t make it a priority and I have no idea what kind of harvest I may have had because of my own neglect. Sad isn’t it? We do this every day. We say that the color of a person’s skin determines their worth and we don’t bother to go after the good stuff inside. We wait. We procrastinate. We’re lazy. The kingdom loses a harvest because of our neglect. Rather sobering isn’t it?

We are all in need of support. I couldn’t get at my tomato cages when we transplanted so they never got caged. Those plants grew to great proportions and their fruit and branches sagged to the ground. They needed a little propping up, a little support under the laden branches, some encouragement to lift their heads. We lost a few tomatoes to ground rot because of that. Thanks to my mom’s observations she was able to prop up a few with boards, but it was a good lesson.

Lack of wisdom combined with laziness will rob you of provision. We gathered in a great many tomatoes, they were great producers (thanks to my parents who grew them from seed). We grew a little tired of picking, washing, coring and freezing tomatoes. There was a lull when the cool weather struck and so we had a break from picking since they weren’t ripening as quickly. Then the frost warnings came out. We knew we should really get the rest of the crop in or we’d lose it. We sent the boys out to pick. They were not the owners and do not like tomatoes, they had no love for the crop and did a haphazard job, not fully bringing what they picked into the house but leaving them outside. The frost hit that night and all was lost. We lacked wisdom in sending out immature harvesters. We lacked wisdom in not supervising what they had done to make sure they finished the job. We did not put a high enough value on the crop (once again) to do it properly and again, lost some of the provision that could have been ours. Those poor tomatoes, left to the elements became food for birds and weaponry for young boys who like to throw things at each other. They were utterly destroyed.

My garden misadventures stand in sharp contrast to the way in which the harvesting at the farm took place. Following his dad’s lead my husband worked from sun-up till well past sundown taking the crop off the field. They persevered through daily breakdowns because they knew that this crop was their bread and butter for the rest of the year. They did not slow or take breaks until it was done; everything in the bins or on the ground in rings and under tarps. I can’t imagine what disarray the farm would be in if my father-in-law treated his farm like I treated my garden this summer.

I didn’t do it all wrong, I got a very nice crop of beans, peas and corn. I canned many jars of applesauce, plums, apricots, cherries and peaches. While there is more that could have been mine, I have learned some valuable lessons. The old saying, “make hay while the sun shines’ can be applied here, or perhaps translated, ‘take in the harvest in its season’. Harvesting is tiring, back-breaking work, but it is only a short season. There are many souls that have not yet been harvested for the kingdom of God, let’s not lose them to do immaturity, lack of wisdom, laziness or prejudice, they are our inheritance and we don’t want to lose that!

CONCERT OF THE HEART
Presents
Jaylene Johnson

Saturday Nov. 4th 7:30
Hope Fellowship Church
809 32nd St. W
A love offering will be taken.

Jaylene Johnson takes a deep breath and tours again.

It was two years ago that Winnipeg singer/songwriter Jaylene Johnson crossed Canada on a solo tour that took her from Campbell River to the Maritimes by car. This is the first tour Jaylene has undertaken since then due a terrifying and near fatal car crash at the end of her 2004 tour.
“The accident was a literal crash-course in what really matters in life…It’s scary to travel so extensively again…But I’m still here, and maybe part of the reason is to keep getting my songs out there.”

Jaylene’s music has moved well beyond the realm of local acclaim. Songs have found their way to several placements through SONY Pictures TV, for shows such as CBS’s Joan of Arcadia and ABC’s Beautiful People, and the DVD release of Season 6 for Dawson’s Creek. “Finding Beautiful” also took off when she registered with CD Baby and received a glowing review on their front page. More recently, her music has been used in two independent short films by new York based director Joyce Storey, and her song “Butterfly Girl” has been recorded by a new trio called “Braided”, formed by three of last year’s Canadian Idol finalists and woven together by Canadian Idol music director, Mark Lalama.

Jaylene will be performing at Hope Fellowship Church on
Saturday, November 4th at 7:30

Murder and Mayhem

This is what happens when you combine the following ingredients:

2 moms
11 children
2 sewing machines
2 quilts
1 deadline
1 pot of hamburger soup
1 batch of carrots that needs to be processed
unlimited number of Thomas the Tank Engine videos
uncountable number of Mini Wheats injested
1 dog
1 trespassing cat
1 neighbourhood kid
1 computer
2 dads (they came later)
1 chicken dinner complete with dessert
3 sleep-overs
1 evening of harp and bowl worship

then take away
1 mom
2 dads
2 kids

So........WHODUNIT....who was the murderer and who got murdered?

Those of you who know the answer are not allowed to guess!

Been Farmin' Long?

Since my big hunky husband was out a men's ministry meeting last night (was supposed to be our date night)...I had a date with my oldest son, kept him up ridiculously late playing The Farming Game - a remarkably realistic board game where you harvest various crops and can invest in diversification crops like cows and fruit.

My son cleaned up on me. Normally the winner is declared after a set period of time (who has the most net worth) or the first one to reach $250 000 in net worth. Welllllllllllllllllllll, when all was said and done my young tycoon had over 3.7 million in net worth. He just couldn't do anything wrong. It was so fun to watch him.

I did rather well myself with just over 2.7 million, my harvesting didn't pan out quite as well as his. He kept bugging me that he could buy my assets with the cash he had on hand (at one point that was almost, but not quite, true, then the market turned and I made some serious coin).

We have so much fun playing that game. Have had a few friends over lately to play, too. Might have to make a habit of that.......having friends over, playing games....way too much fun!

So anyone wanna go farmin'?

things and stuff

Feeling the need to post something. Not much to say. WAs down for a whole week with a whopper headache due to locked up muscles in my shoulders and neck from nursing. Who knew my sweet girl could cause such pain after she was delivered.

We have an honest-to-goodness mystery in our house. All of our kids piano books went missing. Between bedtime on Tuesday night and 9:00 the next morning they disappeared and no one knows anything about it. We even offered the kids a reward for whoever 'found' them, but they aren't offering anything up. Maybe the dog ate them. Kinda frustrating since we just got back into the piano lesson groove.

Got curriculum for the big guy! Lovin' that. He has to set goals for himself and then try to meet them each day. He's systematically studying something. His Social studies unit is on stewardship - I love it!! He loves it. We're happy. Homeschooling as a whole is going well. There is a lot to be said for consistency in small things. With boy #2 it's simply readin' writin' and 'rithmetic every day. That's a good thing for him, he's beginning to feel more confident and less contrary.

BIG NEWS!!!!! (no I am not pregnant.........but I know a lot of people who are!)

Jaylene Johnson

is going to be in concert at our church on Nov 4 at 7:30.

Price of admission: 0$$$$$$$$$ (we'll be taking an offering for her though)
She is such an excellent musician. And all this is because a dear young friend of mine liked her music and so she e-mailed her, she e-mailed back, etc., etc.

Anything else? hmmmmmmm...wanna go touch some fabric. Got a lovely little quilt developing on my sewing table and can't wait to cozy up under it. Lots of soft, muted colors, punched up with some rich blues and reds...yup, gotta go and sew......

fresh flowers for October 8

Doors
copyright 2006, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

Thanksgiving weekend is here. I am thankful for many things today, in particular....doors. Yes, doors. How do you feel about doors? You see I've been thinking a lot about doors lately. People often talk about opportunities as doors. There is the door to your heart, to your home, closed doors, open doors and locked doors. So many different kinds it's enough to make your head spin.

Before our family is something that looks like an open door, an opportunity. We won't know for sure if it's truly an open door unless we walk through it and see what's on the other side. But should we? (We'd appreciate your prayers in this.) This is what got me thinking about these crazy doors.

Sometimes when you come upon a door it is closed, or at least appears to be. Then you feel in your pocket and remember that some time ago, a key was given to you that might just unlock that door and you should probably use it. On the other hand there are times when a door is closed because you're not supposed to go there at all. Then there's that pesky third hand that says you should test the door and see if it opens for you and if it does, to go on in. Now for the open doors....

Sure that door looks open, but wisdom will tell you that treachery and temptation can be just on the other side of that open door (take a look in Proverbs if you don't believe me). There are times when a test of our faith is underway and God is seeing what we will do in certain circumstances, ask Abraham and Isaac about their trip to Mount Moria. And, of course, there is the truly open door, the invitation of the Spirit to walk this way. This all gets a little confusing doesn't it? So what is a body to do?

Fortunately, God has given us His Spirit and His Word to guide us. He's given us the map. In Jeremiah 6:16 its says, "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for you souls." We must ask for direction. The rest of that verse says, "and you would have none of it." Ooops, that sounds a little stubborn and rebellious doesn't it? Guess if we're gonna ask, we better be prepared to obey. James also says that God will not withhold wisdom from us. He gives freely to those who ask. He also urges us to seek counsel from godly advisors, there is wisdom in it.

Ask, seek and knock. God will surely show you (and us) where the good way is. He has no desire to see us banging our heads against locked doors. He has no desire to see us get caught in temptation (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). Ask for the good way......and walk in it.