Time Flies

I am always amazed how fast time goes by!

Before I knew it we were on a plane heading to Hawaii after months of planning and saving.  Then we were home (9 days later that went in the blink of an eye).  Then it was Thanksgiving.  So crazy!

Hawaii was beautiful!  We didn't do all we wanted but we did what we needed to, rest and relax and enjoy us time.  It was wonderful!

Now I am preparing for Christmas!  I can't believe it!  I actually started making Christmas crafts tonight for gifts. I am so excited for Christmas.  I am going to make many of the gifts for the people that are important in my life.  It is right in line with the Advent Conspiracy project we do at church but it also touches a deeper part of me.  My mom would stay up late at night for weeks leading up to Christmas working on our gifts.  She made wonderful gifts.  She was very talented with a sewing machine.  I wish she would have been around longer so I could have learned more from her.  Her life was way too short.

There are so many people who have touched my life and I want to be able to bless them with a piece of myself.  I know, that probably sounds pretty cheesy but that's me.

So, just wanted to pop in here and say I'm still alive and well and am looking forward to all this months activities and fun times!

What are you doing for Christmas this year?  Do you buy gifts or make them?  Which do you prefer to receive?  Do you like a combination of both store bought and handmade?

Those are the thoughts and questions running thru my head at the moment.

Hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving and had much to be thankful for!

Purging

Hi there.

I am on an adventure.  It is a doozy.  In addition to my steps towards starting an online travel agency and getting to where I look decent in a bathing suit for our trip to Hawaii, I am starting a mass purge from my house. 

I have a trunk load of things to drop at the Salvation Army and a pile of boxes by the front door to go into my trunk as soon as it's empty.  I have boxes of fabric that need to go to the church for the sewing team.  I have a box of books for the library at Billy's school.  I have boxes of clothes that I need to get out of the house but I can't pull them out until I have an empty truck to take them out of the house.  So much to do.  My goal in doing this is that I will have less to deal with and less to move when we eventually move.  I keep saying I want to move to the Gresham area but the idea of packing all our stuff stifles my enthusiasm. 

I have tons of crafts that I have bought but not completed.  I have oodles and oodles of sewing projects that need to be done.  And painting projects.  And who could forget all the scrapbooks I want to make.  Oh geesh!  My head spins as I think of it. 

To stop the head spinning and procrastination, I am simply going to take one project at a time and get it done.  If I finish one in the course of a week, maybe I can finish 2 or even 3.  Once these projects are done, I will have a ton of gifts to give and will be so very happy.  I love giving gifts to my friends and I think specially about them when I am putting the gift together, praying for them, remembering fun times we have had, thinking about how they will use whatever it is that I am making.

Boy, just thinking about all that makes me smile and motivates me, until I see the mess that is.  But I will wade thru the mess and accomplish good things.  I am determined that I will reclaim my house and make beautiful things from what we have.  I don't believe I will have to buy more than a couple gifts this year which makes me happy. I can use what we have to make so many fun and wonderful things.

The beautiful thing about making gifts using the supplies I already have at home is that I can get rid of things in the process because the gifts leave once I'm done.  Yeah!

Purging is so cleansing and healthy.  I really wish I did more of it, or didn't accumulate so much stuff to begin with. 

Oh well, life is good and it will be even better when I have less to deal with. 

Happy Tuesday!