God With Us

"God with us.  Don't we love the word 'with'?  'Will you go with me?' we ask.  'To the store, to the hospital, through my life?'  God says He will."
- Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life

Blue Ribbon!

I entered this quilt in the Etown fair this week. It represents a significant milestone for me – I had pieced this particular quilt when I was in the middle of surgery and treatment in 2007. Quilting soothed my soul during that season and probably did more good for my health than any supplement or pill I could have swallowed. I had so much trouble sleeping a lot of the time, so sometimes if I was wide awake in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep, I would get up and sew until I was tired enough to go back to bed. I had finished piecing the quilt and prepared it for the quilting process, but then folded it away and never had the chance to finish it once I was working full time again and trying to keep up with life. Then, 2 weeks ago I spent the day at the beach with my friend Brenda. I hadn’t been there in 2 years because of not feeling well – a crime for me because I love the beach! That day was so restorative and made me realize that I needed to make life-giving activities a higher priority in my schedule; finishing that quilt got bumped to the top of the priority list. I was happy to get it machine quilted in time to enter it in the fair (even though I had to stay up Sunday evening to get it finished)!

Banana Candy

My 6-year-old nephew LOVES dehydrated bananas - could it be because we call them "Banana Candy"??

I stumbled across a case of organic bananas at Root's this week for a steal and couldn't pass up the bargain. Needless to say, I have all the dehydrated bananas I'll need for quite a while! Just a tip - if you decide to try drying some bananas, be sure to use organic ones - the flavor is so much better!

Is there anything better...

...than a day at the beach?!