What an interesting weekend! As we sat at home in a dark room (no electric, no water) and waited out the storm, we had an "am I in Kansas/somewhere over the rainbow" kind of moment when my husband saw the neighbors shed go flying through the air and come crashing down. As the debris started pelting our home and I watched numerous pieces of siding almost hit my car (then skitter away at the last moment), one of my favorite quotes came to mind....It's from "The Young Ladies Friend" published in 1837. "A woman who does not know how to sew is as deficient in her education as a man who cannot write. Let her condition in life be what it may, she cannot be ignorant of the use of her needle...There is a soothing and sedative effect in needlework: It composes the nerves, and furnishes a corrective for many of the little irritations of domestic life."
They're right. Needlework does soothe my soul. I have used it countless times to take my mind off situations and events. It was my steady friend while dealing with a difficult pregnancy while awaiting the birth of our first child, being with my dad in his last months when I sat and did bobbin lace by his bed, waiting and praying through the four deployments my sons were on, and all those times in between. So again I turned to my needle and stitched by candlelight. It was exactly what I needed to do. It's been a few weeks since I've had some time to stitch so it was the "soothing and sedative effect" that I needed. It composed my nerves and furnished a corrective for the irritation of watching Hurricane Irene do her work.
Irene has passed through and done her damage and now the clean-up begins. We were blessed to not have any damage besides a multitude of tree limbs that were strewn about. We are still waiting for electric, and on a side note....did you know it's possible to take a "bird bath" and wash your hair with approximately 2 cups of water?
We know that others are not as fortunate as we've been and we keep them in our prayers.
You might want to know why there is a Canadian flag at the top of this page. I had a request several weeks ago from a grandma who wants to stitch it for her grandchildren. They have dual citizenship, so she's going to use the US flag chart on my website and this one to create a pillow for them. I was able to finish it all yesterday and even got it graphed with time to spare on the battery of my laptop. It will be posted as a free chart at the website: www.brendakocherdesigns.net. Go to the right side of the website and click on "Free Charts" It will be at the bottom of the page.
I have a friend that I correspond with quite often. We always close our emails with 3 things we're thankful for. Here are mine:
My 3
Gods hand of protection for our family and home
Beautiful day today
Needlework
