A recent blog comment asked for more information concerning the jumpers that we sew. Most of the jumpers aren’t too difficult to make if you have some sewing experience. We usually purchase our fabric from JoAnn’s when they are having a sale, or we have coupons we can use. We buy fabric from the calico section.

If you are interested in learning to sew, here is a link to a Mom’s Corner that I wrote about teaching my girls to sew. It references a resource we have used and like for some basics on learning to sew. There is much information on the Internet about sewing, and you could research in your community for local sewing classes.

As far as altering the patterns, we will leave out a zipper if we think we can get the jumper to go on over our heads. When we do that, we simply sew up the seam where the zipper would go. We add length to the pattern. Because most patterns come with several sizes on them, we trace the size we need onto tissue paper, taping pieces of tissue paper together for the skirts, and labeling each piece after we trace and cut it out.

Concerning the fit, we simply experiment. If it doesn’t fit one of us, it might fit another, although we are all pretty close in size. If it is too big, we will take in the seams. If it is too small, we are in trouble.  If we haven’t serged the seams, we can let it out.

Here are the pattern numbers for some of our more recent jumpers:

• McCalls #3129. This jumper takes a little more skill than a simple A-line would. We do not put in the zipper on this jumper. Because there is no zipper, we wait to sew up the back seam where the zipper would be until we have the facing attached.
• Simplicity #5917 is a very simple pattern. It is quick and easy! It’s no longer being produced, but you can often find it being sold on the Internet.

McCalls #3129

Simplicity #5917

“She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands” (Proverbs 31:13).

Sweet Anna H.

So many projects were accomplished this past week:

• Polishing all the cabinets
• Cleaning blinds
• Washing curtains
• Washing walls
• Taking nails out of the walls downstairs
• Preparing the walls to be painted, which involved a lot of mudding and sanding (thanks, John and Michael!)
• Weeding
• Running conduit for network cables
• Finishing out the shed (a huge project: Matthew and Joseph spent several days working on it)
• Painting, lots of it!
• And talking…

Polishing cabinets.

Gracie helping...

Mom

Mrs. H.

Anna

Joseph doing the electrical.

Matthew

Michael and John

Jesse painting.

Family Bible Time--the whole group, including Grandad, Grandma, Nathan, Melanie, and Abby!

Working at Christopher's house...

Gracie (her nickname right now, since she's also a Sarah )

John and Michael did a lot of mudding and sanding on the downstairs walls.

Matthew and Joseph finished out Christopher's shed this week. They put in lots of hours, and the shed looks incredible. Good job, guys!

The sweet couple.

Mr. H.

Mr. M.

Someone's initials!

Smile.

The two Sarahs

We are very sad to see the Hamiltons go, after such a blessed time of fellowship. But, we hope to see them again in August, so the parting is only temporary!

Sarah

“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus”
(Romans 15:5).

Our visit with the Hamilton family continues to be a blessing. Tuesday, Dad had planned for all of us to visit Jamesport, Missouri, a small Amish community two hours from here. We also brought Abby along, since Nathan and Melanie had a full day of doctor’s appointments, and they needed someone to take care of her. She was a joy to have along!

We visited several stores, and the one I found the most fascinating was a furniture store. Because the Amish do not use electricity, the store seemed dark as you stepped in, but then your eyes adjusted to the dimness. The wood furniture and hand-crafted items were interesting to look at, and the quality is wonderful.

Sarah

Anna H. and Christopher

Mr. and Mrs. H.

One of the helpers at the auction.

On our way to the furniture store, we drove past an auction, which we stopped at on our way back into town. It was a produce auction, with many locals attending. I guess it was obvious we weren’t from the area, as someone came over and asked where we were from.

Mom and Anna

We ate lunch at a little restaurant packed FULL of people. In fact, when all sixteen of us trooped in, it became a rather entertaining sight.

The guys' table.

The aunts' table (Aunt Sarah was taking the picture). Abby had a great time , and she provided much enjoyment to the people at surrounding tables.

The courters' table.

Downtown Jamesport

A neat sight!

Walking

“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:16-17).

Our summer has been busy, and will continue to be that way, but we’re squeezing in our annual summer projects. One item to be tackled is cleaning the windows! Yes, we know they get dirty again as soon as a north wind comes along and brings rain, but that’s okay. Clean windows are nice while they last! These summer projects are in addition to our normal Saturday morning organizing time.

We’re looking forward to an upcoming visit from the entire Hamilton family (arriving this Saturday, July 3rd), although I know there are two people in particular who are very excited. Thank you for all the comments left under Christopher and Anna H’s announcement. We are all thrilled.

Sarah for the rest

First, the inside ledge must be vacuumed.

These windows pop out so we can lay them on a chair, making it quite simple to clean!

Good job, Anna!

Mary

And hoping more spiders don't show up.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

It’s called Organizing Time! Last fall Dad asked that we begin, as a family, to spend one hour every Saturday morning organizing various areas of the house like the garage, basement, and attic.  That one hour on Saturday is the equivalent of nine man hours since we all work together. You’ll often find us in groups: Dad, Joseph, and John in the garage, Sarah, Anna, and Jesse in the basement, Mom and Mary either in the garage or basement, and Christopher where needed!

Although we’ve been gone over two months already this year, we’ve still accomplished a huge amount. Those working in the basement usually don’t lack for something to do, since there is constant attention needed to reorganizing the ministry things, unpacking from trips, and organizing shelves. In the garage, there was much sorting/categorizing to do (even including gathering some unused items from our house building project, which netted a very nice return at Home Depot!). A project Mom worked on this past Saturday was organizing our paint shelves in the basement. One Saturday some of the boys sorted scrap lumber that had been pushed aside into the corner of the basement. When our city offered a free “dump day,” the boys loaded scrap metal from our bus remodel project and took it to the dump. Another project has been to organize the storm shelter, which tended to be a “catch all” for items (you can tell we’ve not actually had to use it as a storm shelter yet!).

Maybe this will encourage you as a family to see what just one hour once a week can net for your home!

Joseph working in the garage

See what I mean about the storm shelter?

Sometimes we find interesting things. As I was going through old conferences tubs, I found a printing calculator a very special niece would enjoy (side note: we then discovered the only number it would display was 0, so I guess it won't work as a toy).

The Lord provided a large, high speed copier (not sure the exact use we'll have for it, but we know the Lord gave it to us!), that Jesse has nicknamed the Aristocrat. He was setting it up and checking out the manual.

It just thrills Mom's heart to have her family organizing together!

As we've changed our book table set ups over the years, we've collected the items we no longer need in tubs, so we're sorting through those.

Cleanin' up!

Dad working with wood scraps.

Mary

Dad reorganized some wood that HAD been organized before. Hmmm...

“In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury” (Proverbs 14:23).

As I start to write this long overdue post, it’s hard to wrap my mind around all the things I want to share.

First, I know many have been faithfully praying, even as I have failed to keep you updated. I apologize. Thank you for praying for us and the baby Melanie is carrying. Melanie rejoices in the privilege of being pregnant again. For a couple that spent five years wondering if we could have children, this is a wonderful blessing.

We have now passed the 30th week! This is the farthest Melanie has ever made it without being on hospitalized bedrest. While for several weeks earlier in the pregnancy, she was on home bedrest, in the past month, she has been able to be cautiously up and around. Although each day we wonder if this little feeling, or that twinge will lead to bedrest, for now, even though she’s significantly restricting her activities, she’s not on bedrest. We are thrilled with that.

To illustrate God’s hand of direction in this pregnancy, we had a bit of surprise a couple weeks ago. Melanie is supposed to be on Hydroxy17 progesterone. The compounding pharmacy we purchased it from somehow had the wrong bottle inside the protective plastic bottle – outer bottle read correct, inner not. For ten weeks, she had been on the wrong type of progesterone, and a dosage much lower than prescribed. Had our confidence for this pregnancy been in progesterone injections, we would have been devastated. Instead, we thanked the Lord for letting us discover the problem, switched her to the correct, and sat wondering what His purpose was for her being on the “wrong” medication.

We continue to battle with fear and concern. We are grateful with each day that Melanie is not on bedrest, and particularly that we don’t have a baby in the NICU. However, everytime my phone rings and I see it’s Melanie calling, my heart skips a beat as I wonder what, if any, news she has. We wrestle with what an appropriate amount of activity is. We wish we had a way to know whether the contractions she’s having are benign or not. All that aside, we pray and ask God for the privilege of raising this child. There are so many emotions and yet our prevailing one is, “Thank You, Lord, for this (very active) baby.” Children are God’s gift (Psalms 1237:3), and we are grateful to Him for this one.

Nathan

Abby

Baking with Aunt Mary

Yumm.