Hopeful Homemaker

Joy, week 38

September 23, 2012 jennifer JOY in 2012

Here, we are, another Sunday night, another week gone. The air is cooler, the sun rises later each morning, and our outdoor evening activities end earlier. It was a productive week, yielding success in many small projects around the house. I cleaned out cupboards that aren’t any fun, like the cleaning cupboard, the medicine cupboard, and so forth. It feels good, though, to be digging out in those little problem areas that bug you when you’re in too big a rush to stop and fix it.

The week was also full of activities. Parent/Teacher conferences at two different schools, practices, games, social commitments. I’m so grateful that we’re making this all work. Yesterday my awesome husband took over all the games for the day, taking the whole family with him to Tooele to give me several hours alone at home. I did a deep cleaning on all the bathrooms and wow, did it feel good!

My parents came to town this weekend and we had a great day today. My sister came down from Logan and we all went to my brother’s house in Spanish Fork to celebrate the blessing of his baby. A really great night. We’re still in the thick of it tonight, so I’m going to be brief here. There’s much more I’d like to write, but it is enough to say that this week I felt joy, lots of it, for lots of reasons. More than once tears of gratitude pricked at my eyes, tears of laughter were wiped from my cheeks, and smiles were abundant. We turned the music up loud, danced and sang to our favorite songs, spent peaceful minutes quietly reading together in the same room. We ate good food, shared conversations, prayed together, joked together. In short, we were a family, and it was awesome!

Have a great week!
Jennifer

Sashiko Embroidery

September 19, 2012 jennifer Stitching

Once upon a time I loved embroidery and always had a project going. Then all of a sudden I had so many little ones who wanted my lap every time I looked like I might sit down that I let the hobby go. Lately, however, (and also as my children get bigger) I’ve found myself looking with interest again at various embroidery projects.

Early in the summer I came across some photos of Sashiko embroidery samplers. Sashiko is a Japanese style embroidery and I was intrigued, so I ordered a couple of them. It wasn’t until we went to the beach that I finally started one. Interestingly, as I took my first few stitches I was sitting outside near the sidewalk watching my children play and a woman in her 70’s walked by in a group. She glanced at me and said, “Is that Sashiko?” I was completely surprised by her comment, answered that yes, it was, and it was my first attempt. She said, “You’ll love it!” and kept walking.

So I finally finished it and she was right. I love it. It’s easy, relaxing and fun. I like the graphic design and it was really fun to stitch something on navy colored linen.

The question now is what to do with it? I was originally planning on a pillow of some kind, but when I’m honest with myself I have to admit that more pillows in this house merely means picking more things up off the floor. They NEVER stay where I put them, and they usually end up with something unsightly wiped across them. Making a pillow sort of flies in the face of my mission to simplify everything in our house this month.

So now I’m wondering how it might look as the center block in a quilt. Hmmm. It might just work. What do you think?

2 comments stitching

A harvest I don’t deserve

September 18, 2012 jennifer Gardening

I’ve spent very little time tending my gardens and flowerbeds this summer. In fact, I’ve hardly glanced at the vegetable gardens and have cringed as the weeds in my flowerbeds get larger and larger. It just wasn’t the summer for yardwork, and that’s ok.

Saturday evening I wandered around a little to see how things looked, and while the work awaiting me is daunting, I was amazed at how well things have done without any attention.

Tomatilloes. I planted these from seed! I’m more than a little awed that they made it. It turns out we have four thriving tomatillo plants and I’m just so surprised and happy and excited to pick them. I planted two varieties, a green and a purple.

The tomatilloes may be the most beautiful plant in my garden. They seem graceful to me, and the way the husks form before the fruit grows inside them is amazing. Every time I look at them I feel like I’ve got dozens of little lanterns draping themselves delicately around the gardens. It’s lovely.

The tomatoes continue to grow and ripen. It’s been wonderful to skip buying them at the store and head to the garden instead.

I love this perfect miniature tomato. It made me smile.

I planted an heirloom purple tomato from seed and to my surprise, it’s got some fruit on it!

This one is starting to turn purple… it will be fun to watch what happens!

I planted five varieties of peppers and my toddler promptly removed all the markers from them when we came home. It’s been fun to see which is which, and we’re having our best pepper harvest ever, lots of bell peppers, jalapenos and banana peppers. Of course we’re enjoying the usual haul on zucchini, which I never do get tired of.

This wasn’t the year of the garden at our house. It was the summer of the surgeries. I am so thankful that I managed to do a little planting and that these wonderful plants have thrived in spite of my neglect. We don’t deserve this bounty, but I’m grateful for it!

And speaking of blessings I don’t deserve, today is my Mom’s birthday. I’ve been thinking about her all day, hoping she’s having a great birthday. I’m so blessed to have the most wonderful mother in the world. I don’t deserve her but I sure do love her!

Jennifer