God's {Ever So Mysterious} Timing

God's timing is incredible and always works in mysterious ways!

Daddy is the president of our HomeOwners Association. Because of this, he has different signs made and keeps them here at the house. The majority of these signs are delivered by the wife of the owner of our management company (did you follow that?!)...

Friday, she dropped off a new 'Yard Of The Month' sign. Since she had no kiddos and mine were playing quietly (!)we took the opportunity to catch up and chat. At one point, she mentioned her sewing room and bells went off in my head and I ran to m room to gather my supplies....

Aunt Maura's Nightgown created be her niece and nephews

As some of you may know, I have been searching for nearly 2 months for someone to help me create a blanket of sorts using some of my Maura Annie and John David's materials - most importantly the nightgown my kiddos made and the blanket John David used. Everybody that I have asked, does not feel comfortable with such memorable items. There was one lady I called that wanted over $150 for a simple small blanket. Because of these constant road blocks, I pushed it back to the dark recesses of my mind thinking that if it were God's will, the perfect opportunity would arise...

I returned and laid all of my goodies out for her to seep. She looked at the stuff and immediately had the idea of a memory quilt - something I had never thought of! We chatted a bit more and she asked me to gather a few more things and then we are a go!

When she left, I sat in my closet and sobbed. What she is envisioning is far better than anything I could have ever thought of! It was the glimmer of light that I needed after a very difficult week! God is SO good and His timing is so perfect - always!

Memory Quilt Exmple

Later that evening, I emailed my parents about this. I wanted to let them know about the incredible kindness that is still being shown. Well, my mom wrote back that she also looked into one, but the lady in MS wanted to charge well over $1000! Because of that, mama pushed it out of her mind. But, when I saw this, my wheels got to turning!

Since I live so very far away, there is not much I can physically do to help my family, but THIS was something I COULD at least try to help with. I thought about asking mama's approval first, but then decided not to in case it was not able to happen...

So, I thought of different ways to get the word out as to what I was looking for and decided upon social media - a.k.a. FaceBook!

This is what I posted at 5:09pm...
My Dear MS Friends: my mama is wanting a memory quilt with some of Maura Annie's special things. Do any of you sew or know someone that would be willing to help her out in this endeavor? She found someone who could, but wanted over $1000 - no bueno! This gift would mean the absolute world to her, and the entire Gray-Lewis family as well...
By 5:14pm, I had my first offer. Then, at 5:16 came the second!

Papa and Miss Hudspeth 2012

I called mama and informed her that I had 2 people willing to make a quilt! She was speechless - which NEVER happens! It meant the world for me to be able to help with this, however little my part may be! Hearing my mother full of joy is so incredible and after all that she does for us, being able to help in some way with this special project makes me SO very happy!

Mama and Maura Annie loved to snuggle...

During this call though, she informed me that had I called just 30 minutes later, she would have nothing left of Maura Annie. She had all of her clothes packed and waiting by the door and she was going to drop them at GoodWill when she out later!

God's timing is always perfect!

*Edible* Easter Crafts

(Lacy's Inspiration)

I took this idea from Lacy at Catholic Icing. I love her blog and all of the ideas that she puts out there..... and this was one that I could not pass up, so we did it! I wish that I had taken pictures during the process, but we were having too much fun......

Here are ours -  we have been passing them out to friends and family.... plus eating a few:

 **If you want to make some of your own, click HERE for complete instructions.

Daily Therapy

I I have truly been enjoying creating hair bows for Hannah. They are an easy stress less activity and a great distraction for the mind. . . especially when you want, need, or desire a distraction! So, the other night, I bought some flowers to see what, if anything I could create with them. I am WAY too cheap to go to a craft store, so whatever The Dollar Tree had, needed to make do and yesterday I went to work. . .

 Have I mentioned lately just how much I love this little lady?! AND, she is finally *somewhat* enjoying having her hair done and her nails did! My little southern belle is in the making!!

The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Last year around this time, the kiddos and I made candy corn/pumpkin rosaries. It was so much fun, that I made a mental note to do it every year. So, this year, I thought it would be perfect to make them today, October 7th, as it is the feast day for Our Lady of the Rosary.

We were all excited as we gathered all of the supplies - the candy corn. candy pumpkins. construction paper and poster board. hot glue and white glue. There was 1 big decision that needed to be made - do we make one big one (poster board and hot glue) or individual ones (construction paper and white glue). We took a vote and the poster board won - I think mostly because there would be more candy left over if we only made 1!
 
In making the Rosaries, we not only spoke about our faith and what the Rosary means to us, its history, etc, but we were also able to turn this into a math lesson as the kiddos counted out the candy corn and pumpkins. We also incorporated a bit of science as they ate the candy corn and tried to figure out what was in them - honey!

 

After we organized all of the candy corn into piles for the Hail Mary's and the candy pumpkins into piles for the Our Father and other prayers, we were ready to assemble the Rosary! The kiddos and I decided upon a shape and went to work. After we hot glues everything into place, Robert and Hannah decided to draw pictures of them and Holy Mary. Then, Robert wrote out Ave Maria for the center of the Rosary and it was complete. . .

 We are all quite proud of how it turned out and after nap, we will all say the entire Rosary using this as our guide.

Oh No!

I think that I have a brand new addiction - - -

Making Cute Little Girl Hair Bows - EEK!

This is how it came to be. . .

Robert and I decided to step back from the day to day routine and head to Gainsville tomorrow. While we are not attending the game, we thought the kiddos would like to see the Gators. Although if we were to somehow get tickets, it would be fun! Anyhow, I want the kiddos to be decked out, from head to toe in their gator gear. We already had everything that was needed, except bows for Hannah's hair. I searched everywhere for some Gator ribbon, but came up empty handed. This morning, we made a trip to Hobby Lobby and it just so happens that they were having a sale! BIG OH NO! We went straight back to the ribbon area and bought just 4 rolls! We settled on orange/blue for the gator bows and 2 others just for fun. Then we found the perfect clips and went to pay - For the 4 rolls of ribbon, plus the 25 clips, it was only just over $7!

We headed home and went to work. I had to research this as I had never even attempted a bow before. There were so many types of bows, so I had to find the most basic and break it down from there!

Here are the results - the orange/blue ones are for Hannah's for tomorrow and the other 2 are for Aahliya as I will do her hair before she flies to North Dakota today for her Uncle's funeral.

Let me know what you think! (I still need to tweak things, but I am mostly happy!)

Hannah's Go Gator Bows!

Aahliya's that matched her outfit.