My Heart's Comforter

It was sixty-thirty on Thursday morning and I had been up with the baby ALL NIGHT LONG. I was tired and cranky and all I wanted to do was burn a CD of some music I had downloaded. But when I put the blank disc in, I discovered that the CDrom on my computer had stopped working--completely.

And it was at the moment that the baby began to cry-- again. Because she had spit up all over herself--- again. I had never felt so broken and helpless. Or so bitter and angry at life-- this was not how I had imagined it would be, back in those naive teenage dreams I once had.

As I changed the baby, I railed against everything that I believed to be wrong with my life-- nothing was right, everything had gone wrong, and nothing would ever be right again. My heart full of frustration, bitterness, and discontentment, and holding the baby, I sat at my computer, put in my head phones, and in desparation pushed play on the first song listed.

The song that filled my ears was in truth a litany--a recitation of Christ's titles. As I sat there, clutching my daughter to my chest, I sang those titles and clung to Him whom they described as if I had nothing left. As tears poured down my cheeks, I wordlessly poured out all of my frustrations, worries, discontent, fears and everything else that was in my heart. And you know what? My Savior, my Messiah, my Redeemer and Friend heard me, and my Prince of Peace gave my heart the peace I so desperately needed.

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear , O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.
Psalm 86: 3-5

I am Grateful....

I am grateful because God blessed me by making me the mother of this sweet baby girl....

....And the wife of this wonderful man.

Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

Psalm 31:19

The Best PB and J

A dear friend of mine wrote this story and shared it on Facebook recently. I thought it was such a sweet story that I asked, and was granted, her permission to share it with all of you. Enjoy!


The Best PB and J

by Kali Hayslett


All Millie every wanted was a crust-less peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread. Her parents were well intentioned in their parenting, and always made Millie a sandwich on whole grain, 12-grain, or multi grain wheat bread. With organic peanut butter that Millie found very difficult to spread when she forgot to pull the jar out of the fridge more than 2 minutes before she needed to be on the bus to school.

In general, Millie was an easy going, happy-go-lucky, playful attitude towards life kinda girl with good manners to boot. Sound like anyone you know? You wouldn’t know it watching the envy in Millie’s eyes at lunch time.

Sitting down to lunch on a very unsuspecting Monday, Millie was carefully eyeing the array of food as it spilled out of her classmate’s lunch boxes. Her friend Tina sitting next to her began to unwrap a piece of foil. She produced a yellow mound of what looked like play dough.

“What’s that?” asked Millie. “A pupusa,” replied Tina. “My grandmother was visiting this weekend. She taught me how to mix the corn masa into a dough and make patties from it. We filled each patty with lots of cheese and then grilled them on the stove. It’s like an El Salvadorian grilled cheese.”

As Tina bit into the corn patty Millie could see the cheese begin to ooze out. Across the table from her, Nora sat unwrapping some corn bread.

“Did you make that yourself,” asked Millie. “No, my mom made it from an old family recipe,” said Nora. “It’s the best thing there is to have with a bowl of home style Texas chili."

The intoxicating smell of chillies and cumin wafted into the air as Nora opened the thermos from her lunch box.The table conversation began to pick up with everyone telling stories of their weekend and endless plans for what they were going to do for Thanksgiving.From the far corner a girl began to walk into the lunchroom. The girl looked lost, maybe somewhat sad. She was hardly noticed by anyone, except Millie who happened to be looking up and noticed it was someone she had never seen before. Millie excused herself from the table but no one noticed. They were all too busy enjoying their own lunches and conversations, trading to get the best snack cake possible.

As Millie walked up, the girl stopped and turned her eyes to the floor (look down).“Hi, I’m Millie.” (stay bubbly)(eyes back down) “Ummmm, hi, I’m June.” Her eyes didn’t leave the floor and her voice seemed to quiver as she spoke.“Are you going to have lunch?” asked Millie.“I don’t have one,” replied June.“That’s ok,” said Millie “we can share mine.”June looked up and smiled.

They found an empty table at the edge of the lunch room. Millie pulled out her sandwich, already cut in two, and gave one half to June. They ate quietly, not sure at first what to say to one another, then June said:“This is better than the pb and j I usually have.”“It is?” said Millie. And to her astonishment, Millie realized it was the best pb and j she’d ever had.

Cutest baby ever

My sister requested pictures of her "favorite baby girl." So, without further ado, I give you the cutest baby girl, ever!

I mean, seriously, who could say no to this face?

Or this one? I love how she is smiling here-- smiles are definitely the new thing these days!

I think she has gone punk on me!

And finally, here is Daddy's little pumpkin!

Now is she, or is she not, the cutest and sweetest baby ever?!

My First Love

For my second post, I will share my first love—cross-stitch. I have tried my hand at many womanly arts over the years, but it was cross-stitch that first introduced me to a love of needlecraft.


Through out high school I played with it, not really making anything in particular but simply enjoying working the needle through the fabric. It wasn’t until I was twenty years old that I purchased my first pattern, a heart-shaped design for a bread cloth, and I have never looked back.

In all honesty, however, I am horrendously bad at actually completing projects once I start them. That heart-shaped pattern I started nine years ago? Still haven’t finished it. In fact, until this past year, I had only actually completed two pieces—and they were both small. This year, however, my goal is to finally complete all of my unfinished projects, and I vowed that I wouldn’t start a new project until the old ones were done. I have now completed four projects and am working on a fifth. I have gotten away from my vow not to begin anything new in the last few weeks, but that is because I am trying to make all of my Christmas presents, so it doesn’t really count right? ;) And beginning on December 26th, I am right back to finishing my unfinished pieces.

The above picture is of a piece I started eight years ago and finished earlier this year. It is a cute little sampler that, as you can see, says “Strawberries.” I cannot remember what count cloth I used, but I did follow a pattern from a book.

Here is a close up detail of the strawberries.

A close up of the letters.

The book also includes two other patterns that go with this one as a set, but I haven’t decided whether I want to make the other two and then frame them as a trio or simply leave this one all by itself. What do you think ?

This next picture is of a project that I am particularly proud of, as I made up the design myself, including the lettering. The words are the Catholic prayer before a meal (otherwise know as Grace), and I added a border of flowers and a little cross.

Here is a close up of the flowers

And here is one of the words

And finally a close up of the cross.

My intention is to have this professionally mounted and framed to hang in our dining room, but I haven’t had it done as of yet (it is rather expensive to do so).

The other two finished projects, as well as the one I am working on right now, I cannot show you right now as they are Christmas presents and the intended recipient might see them. I will, however, include these two details and promise to post pictures of the whole piece after Christmas.