Category Archives: Stray thoughts

Snow, ceremonies, programs and challenges

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We had a light dusting of snow yesterday morning:

snow-09

(These are Jeremy’s pictures.) They were originally forecasting 1-2 inches Monday night and another couple Tuesday morning, but I don’t know if we got a whole inch all together.

It was enough to close the schools, though! You have to remember that here in the South they don’t spend the money to invest in a lot of snowplows and such (they do have a few) when they’d only use them maybe once or twice a year, plus people who aren’t used to it don’t know how to drive in it. And they have to make the call about school closings way early in order to get the word out, and they have to consider not just the main roads but the backs ones that school buses would be lumbering over. So usually any amount of snow causes school closings. But I do have to admit this one was probably miscalled. We could have gotten by with just a delay, but we probably didn’t even need that.

But it was nice to have a day off. Jeremy put together enough snow to make a 6-8″ snowman with a baby carrot for a nose:

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Even the baby carrot is a little big for him!

And it was neat the kids could be off for Inauguration Day. It made it seem like a holiday. I wanted Jesse to see it. He wasn’t terribly interested, but I turned the TV on anyway, just about the time they were introducing the former presidents. I probably would have had the TV on most of the day if I had been in the same room with one for the day. I was sorry I missed the parade. I don’t know why, but I really like that part.

I don’t have a laptop and my PC is in another room, but I jotted down some thoughts as I watched:

  • For a nation that has gone increasingly toward the casual, I am glad we retain a bit of pomp and ceremony for occasions like this.
  • They said the wind chill was 14 degrees. I just cannot imagine being out in that cold for that long! We joked about the trumpet players’ lips freezing on their instruments.
  • I also can’t imagine being way, way at the back. I was glad to be in my own warm house with my very own bathroom.
  • I enjoyed seeing the former presidents enter.
  • I hadn’t heard about Lynn Cheney being an author — will have to look up what she’s written. I was sorry to hear about Mr. Cheney’s accident.
  • I like that the mikes picked up a lot of side comments — one of the announcers said they were picking up more than intended, But that was fun.
  • It did this Southern girl’s heart good to hear Laura Bush say, “Hey there!” I enjoyed the announcers saying that she had really blossomed during her husband’s term in office. They said she had originally told him she didn’t want to make any speeches, but now she is quite an accomplished speaker. She has always been every inch a lady. I admire her a lot.
  • At some point they showed a glimpse of the moving vans behind the White House. I thought that was a little sad. Then I thought, you know how it is on moving day, even if you have professional movers, and I can’t imagine either Mrs. Bush or Mrs. Obama calmly sitting through a ceremony while other people are moving their things!
  • I was also thinking of Michelle Obama as her girls entered. I wonder if she would rather they entered with her. I would have. It must be hard in some instances to entrust them to other people.
  • It will be fun to have relatively young children in the White House again. I enjoyed watching Michelle Obama “mother” the girls and the older girl filming her dad on her camera.
  • I know some people would object to an opening prayer on this occasion at all, but it was a blessing to me to see a lot of people praying the Lord’s prayer out loud.
  • I’m glad Rick Warren did not refrain from praying in Jesus’ name.
  • I wonder why the vice-president’s contains a phrase about mental reservations while the president’s doesn’t? Either way — better not have any left at that point!
  • I really, really enjoyed the piece played by Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma and the two others (I wasn’t familiar with them). I have greatly liked Yo-Yo Ma ever since I first heard of or saw him years ago on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. (Don’t laugh — that’s where I got a lot of cultural enlightenment when the boys were little.)

No really deep thoughts there — I expressed those yesterday. I didn’t analyze the speeches — others can do that better than I can. We turned the TV off after people began disbursing from the area. I had it on again for a while last night to see some of the coverage of the different balls.

I also watched “The Biggest Loser.” This is my first season to watch it. I guess I am hoping it inspires me, and it is causing me to question some of my choices and say “no” a little more often. Just one thought so far: people don’t seem to be getting that Joellen isn’t motivated by yelling. She shuts down. I do, too. I don’t think she’s putting as much into it as she could, and I think her hesitation on the first “temptation” last time marked her, but I hope they find a different way to interact with her. She probably should have gone home last night, but, then again. Damien had the support and motivation to continue on his own. I think if Joellen had gone home she’d be done.

And that’s enough about that.

My blog friend Melli has started an ABC photo challenge over the next several Wednesdays. The idea is to find letters of the alphabet in the things around us — not in a letter on a sign or in something we manipulate to form the letter. She’s doing two letters at a time with today’s being A and B.

I wanted to look around outside to see if I could find something, but never did. Tese aren’t too exciting, but here they are:

This looks like an A shape to me:

A

And this turned on its side has a B shape in it:

B

The original picture:

House plaque

I’ll try to do better next time, Melli!

What my home says about me…

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Seen at Addie’s Random Rambling:


What Your Home Says About You


You come across as very intellectual. People take your wisdom seriously.

Your hygiene is passable, but you may be hiding some dirty secrets.

You are a very domestic person. You enjoy decorating, cooking, and making things homey.

You are not a nurturing person by nature, but you can easily take care of someone you truly love.

You feel settled in your life. You have enough time to focus on little details.

You are a very self sufficient person. You can get along well without much help.

Your friends see you as insightful, encouraging, and progressive.

I don’t know about seeming intellectual (and if so I would only seem so, not really be intellectual!), but I had to smile at the “passable” hygiene. Some of the middle sentences are spot on.

Stray Thoughts and Links

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  • I can’t seem to get enough sleep this week. I don’t know if it is “recovery” from the holidays and a busy last week or what. Well…it might have something to do with staying up too late and then getting up at the regular time to get Jesse off to school. 🙂 But even then, on Wednesday I took a good nap in the afternoon and still dozed off a couple of times in church (sorry, Pastor — nothing personal!!)
  • I was looking forward to getting some other obligations done last week and then having most everyone back to school and work this week so that I could really dig in and get some things done. But with feeling sleepy — and unmotivated — and spending too much time at the computer — and not being able to decide which project to start — that didn’t quite happen. I did make a to-do list and have most of it crossed off, but didn’t get to some of the things that have been reentered on multiple to-do lists for months that I was hoping to tackle this week. I plan to get myself in gear, though.
  • I had my first MIRL this evening! That’s “meeting in real life” of another blogger. Actually, Ann of From Sinking Sand and I knew each other back in college but lost touch over the years, then rediscovered each other online. She lives about an hour away, and our respective Christian schools played each other in basketball tonight, so we got a chance to catch up with each other.

    • DSC01764

Here’s some interesting reading from the last few weeks:

  • A Common Room, whom I seem to be quoting a lot these days, wrote about the difference between being against fornication yet supporting the choices of an unwed mother. One quote from it: “To me, an unmarried mother is a reminder to honor and say a special prayer of blessing for her and for those like her who make incredible sacrifices, sacrifices of pride, of financial standing, of self, in order to do the right thing and give the baby the gift of life instead of trying to hide the evidence of their fornication by dismembering that small human being in the womb.”

I don’t get political too often here, but wanted to share these few things:

On the crafty front:

  • I love these crocheted hearts. I can’t crochet and don’t know what I’d do with these if I had them but they’re sooo cute.
  • So are these felt heart ornaments. I am trying to think of other ways they could be used besides ornaments so I don’t have to wait til Christmas to hang them if/when I make them.
  • I might give this heart wreath a try — only in pink, of course.
  • Love this button tree.

Have a great weekend!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

1. A quiet week. I love the Christmas season, but it was nice to have a quiet week at home. Both our New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were pretty much quietly spent at home except for…

2. Going out for dessert New Year’s Eve. Our church had its usual midweek service on Wed. night. Our pastor doesn’t believe in “watchnight” services, and I am so glad. In the past when we’ve attended such things I’ve either fought sleep (especially when they show a film) or been cranky. Then I don’t like driving home after midnight when the alcohol-impaired party revelers are on the road. But on the way home after church my husband impromptuly (is that a word?) suggested going out for dessert. The service was veeerry slow, though the waitress was nice. But I thought at the time how much I enjoy being able to go out with near-adult children now and have such a good time talking and laughing. And we were still home by 10.

3. Inventory sale at my Christian bookstore. Actually I was quite perturbed with them when I stopped by about 5:20 Tuesday afternoon to get a 2009 calendar only to discover they had closed for inventory at 5 — and perturbed at myself because I had left that at the end of my errands that day: if I had gone there first, I would have made it. But, when I went back today, I got a whole new stack of books, some 40% off, some 60% off, on their clearance tables. There were some titles and authors I had seen mentioned often around blogland that I wanted to try, and I was glad find some of their books on clearance.

New books!

Add this stack to my TBR stack I posted a few days ago — and I’m going to be busy for a while!

The top one by F. B. Meyer isn’t one I have seen around blogland, but I have been wanting to read something of his. I keep seeing him referred to in other biographies I read.

4. Finding this plaque at the Christian bookstore — not on clearance, but I had a 20% off coupon! I’ve been looking for decorations for the family room with blues and tans and browns, and I love plaques with Scripture.

5 plaque

5. Filling in a new calendar. I take the old calendar and go through month by month to find the birthdays and anniversaries to record on the new calendar. I enjoy that quick look back over the events of the last year and looking at all those fresh, blank pages of the new year. It reminds me of Dr. Bob Jones. Sr., saying, “There are no stains on the pages of tomorrow.”

New Year’s Meditations

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NewYear But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. Deuteronomy 11:11-12.

I seem to start each new year with those verses. but I like to think of them in that way: that whatever “hills” and “valleys” the new year may bring, the Lord will be with us and take care of us.

Laurel Wreath is hosting a New Year’s Meditation Carnival, where she invites us to post our hopes, dreams, desires, and goals for the New Year (and she’s even awarding one participant a $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com.)

My friend Susan at By Grace posted several days ago about making goals instead of resolutions and examining every area of our lives to see what we need to work on. I’d like to use that format.

  • Spiritual: To “keep on keeping on,” to stay in the Word to be more attuned to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and more obedient more quickly..
  • Physical: I don’t want to just say generally “I need to lose weight” though I seriously do. But for specific goals I want need to go back to tracking what I eat through SparkPeople — that in itself curbs a lot of intake, plus educates and motivates — and either walk or use my low-impact aerobic video at least three times a week.
  • Marriage: I need to be more willing to lay aside what I am doing to focus on my husband. I tend to feel “interrupted” and need to remember that he is my priority.
  • Children: To pray every day for them especially as two are on the threshold of leaving the nest; to seek specific ways God would have me minister to them.
  • Homemaking: To get those curtains made!! To get back into planning meals. To make a master-list for grocery shopping to hopefully help me remember things so I don’t have to make multiple trips by the store each week.
  • Creativity: I want to organize my supplies so it is easier to work on a project and find what I need. I want to explore some ideas I’ve been toying with for an Etsy shop. I want to make time for some “serious” writing.
  • Ministry: I want to make up a questionnaire for the ladies concerning our group and what things they’d like to see us do. I want to be more faithful: I’m ashamed to say I’ve gotten distracted and begun some projects/events very late. God helped and blessed after prayer and repentance, but I want to handle these things better. I think I have also about decided to pass on the tract ministry to someone else — ordering tracts and making labels with the church contact information and sticking them on each tract. I have been thinking since Jim’s mom came that I need to pare down somewhere, and this is a pretty self-contained ministry that someone else could easily do.

We have a big year ahead with the college graduation and wedding of our middle son, another son just on the verge of leaving the nest, another learning to drive, along with the usual events of the year and whatever unknowns it may bring. We’ll have the adjustments of a new president who is very personable, likable, and inspirational, but who had views I strongly disagree with.

One of my deepest desires is that some (preferably all!) of my lost loved ones would be saved. My prayer for all of us can be summed up in three of Paul’s prayers:

Ephesians 3:14-19: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 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, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Colossians 1:9-12: “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light…”

Philippians 1:9-11: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

Retrospectives

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I like end-of-the year retrospectives. The Today Show on NBC had a prime-time hour-long look back at 2008 a few nights ago. Time Magazine has a list of the Top 10 of Everything. I am sure there will be more of that type of thing in the next few days.

My family experienced many firsts this year: My husband’s first trips to China and Brazil; Jeremy’s first trip out of the country accompanying his dad to Brazil; Jesse’s first time to make the JV basketball team; Jason’s engagement, the first of our children to take that important step. My mother-in-law moved to SC from ID, the first time we’ve ever had one of our parents living so near us.

At the end of the past two years I’ve taken a look back at my blog, reposting the first sentence of the first post of each month. So let’s see what ushered in each new month of Stray Thoughts:

January:

Biblical Resolutions: “I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions any more — not the kind you forget about by March.”

February:

A Winner!: “I used the Random.Org Integer Generator to determine the winner of my Bloggy Carnival Giveaway of the book The Greatest Love Stories Ever Told.”

March:

Whom God Has Joined: “Next to reading the Bible, reading missionary books has had the greatest impact on my Christian life. Isobel Kuhn’s books have been among the greatest of those to me.”

April:

Thanks!: “Thanks so much for your kind words and prayers concerning my earlier post. I saw the doctor today. She said I did still have cellulitis, but did not prescribe another round of antibiotics.”

May:

“You can’t say ‘No’ until you pray about it“: “I am “rerunning” this post because…I need it!”

June:

Prayer Request: “Heather’s daughter, Emma Grace. whom many of you know, appears to be in heart failure or rejection of her transplanted heart.”

July:

Caring for elderly parents: “I mentioned a while back that my mother-in-law is moving here to SC from Idaho.”

August:

Show and Tell: Paula Vaughan Collection: “Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts ‘Show and Tell Friday.'”

September:

A Laborious Meme: “Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is hosting a meme for Labor Day about labor — the kind that results in delivering a child.”

October:

Peace Child: “I first encountered Peace Child by Don Richardson several years ago in the Reader’s Digest Book Section.”

November:

A winner!: “The winner of the Christian Victorian Christmas novels via Random.Org is Katelyn.”

December:

Blue Monday & etc.: “We had a bit of drama this morning when Jim’s mom called about 7:30 a.m. saying her hearing aid was broken.”

Contests, memes, book reviews, thoughts from Scripture, prayer requests, family happenings, and assorted other stray thoughts — yep, that just about sums up my blog. 🙂

Updated to add: Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home is hostessing a Mr. Linky where those who do this exercise can link and enjoy looking back through the year together here.

Monday odds and ends

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  • We very much enjoyed our anniversary! Thanks for all your lovely thoughts and wishes. We usually just go out to dinner and exchange cards since it is such a busy time, but I look forward to that dinner out with just the two of us each year amid everything else going on. I’d recommend it even if it is not your anniversary.
  • Everyone is off this week, and I so enjoyed sleeping in!! I definitely needed it.
  • I think I am pretty well set for Christmas. I need to sit down and take stock and make a list, but overall things are going well with minimum stress, despite the late start. I know I have to go to the grocery store: we don’t have freezer space for something big like a ham or turkey, so I have to wait until a few days beforehand to get those. I also need to get my mother-in-law a stocking since she will be with us Christmas Day, and I am kicking myself for not thinking about it all the times I’ve walked through Christmas decorations the past few weeks and hoping there is something decent left. I need to get some stocking stuffers and round out a few things…but overall I’m feeling pretty well prepared. There is one thing I wanted to make for a after-Christmas birthday, but there are few places that sell fabric in town any more and none has what I want, so if there is time I may try to go to the next town to buy fabric.
  • The last of the Christmas events has been attended except for meeting my sisters and their families for dinner this week (we live less than an hour from each other but rarely see each other, our schedules just don’t mesh) and our church’s Christmas Eve service. Oh, and two sons have a Christmas party to attend.
  • I wanted to tell you about two new blogs. My middle son, Jason, just started a blog here —  mostly Bible study thoughts right now, but I think he’s planning to expand it as he goes along. And then I have so many quotes and poems in my files I decided to start a blog called Words Fitly Spoken. It’s mostly Christmas quotes right now, but I’ll add others after Christmas.
  • We’re all missing my son’s fiancee. 😦 It’s beginning to slowly dawn that, unless they live nearby, we won’t have that frequent contact like we’ve had the past year or two.
  • Many of you know Lizzie at A Dusty Frame, but if you don’t, her family is going through a trial right now, and she is trying to earn money and still stay home with her son. She has a post here about ways to help, but I wanted to especially mention her shop, called The Dusty Attic, and her Etsy Shop.
  • I do have one or two more things I want to share before Christmas, so I’ll be back before then. I know it is a busy time before then, so if I don’t see you again before Christmas, I hope you have a blessed, meaningful one.

Christmasy links

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Nannykim suggested I post some pictures of the “misfit ornaments” I mentioned the other day. I would so love to do that! I think it would be a lot of fun, and I’m in the mood for it. I’d love to do that today — but I must exercise self-disciple and get some things done. I’m kicking myself not so much because I am running behind, but because it is my own fault. So I am thinking maybe Saturday — though weekends are usually low blog-reading days for many — maybe early next week. If WordPress would support Mr. Linky I’d even think about setting it up where others could post links (but then that would be assuming that other people save their misfit ornaments like we do!)

This is a busy week — ladies’ group party was Monday (fun!), Jesse’s first basketball game was Tuesday (more on that tomorrow, hopefully), prayer meeting at church last night, Jesse’s piano recital tonight, then another basketball game tomorrow night. Plus some of my stuff to do from last week didn’t get finished then. So it’s been “lite” posting this week, though there have been some deep thoughts along the way. 🙂

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, my blog stats go way up because of several things I posted my first year of blogging. I had a lot of poems, quotes, etc. gleaned from several years of compiling our ladies ministry newsletter, and evidently people do a lot of searching for that kind of thing this time of year! I didn’t know some of you then, and I didn’t want to repost them but thought I’d post the links if any of you has time and inclination to look around. I’ll post some of my links first and then some other links around the blogosphere that have caught my eye recently.

My Christmas links:

Christmas links I have seen elsewhere lately:

One word about Christmas crafts: I see all these cute ideas during during December bur don’t have time to try them then. So the past few years I have made some in the week or two after Christmas. I’m still in the mood and the stores still have some Christmas supplies (though you could get the supplies earlier, if you’re afraid they’ll run out, and just make them when you can).

Happy reading!

Christmasy at last!

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No “Blue Monday” today. It wouldn’t take too long to put a post up for it, but I feel the point of those interactive memes is to interact, LOL! I have a whole list of things to get done today, so since I don’t have time to visit around for that, I’ll refrain this week. I’ve been by to see some of my regulars already and will see the rest later on.

We finally got our Christmas tree up this weekend. I say finally — it’s not terribly far into December yet. But when we had originally planned to do it earlier, it seems like we’re running late. We like to do it all together, so as long as we have family nearby to do it, we’ll arrange our time to do it together. It just gets so much harder as kids get older and have college classes and work obligations. So because of that we went to get the tree on Sunday, something we don’t normally do.

We have Grandma with us on Sundays through church and dinner and brought clothes for her to change into to go get the tree. She did that but then wanted to go home before we decorated it. I think she was just wearing out, plus she said even when her kids were small she never did much with decorating — her husband and kids put all the ornaments on the tree. I think if she had stayed she would have enjoyed watching the antics of the kids — it’s always a riot as they put the ornaments on. We always do some odd things — maybe it comes of having older boys. There is a hook in the ceiling that the previous owners had either a lamp or a hanging plant on that we’ve never removed. One year one of the boys put a snowflake ornament there. The next year I kept saying, “No, don’t put that there,” so now it has become sort of a family joke to get the snowflake up there before I tell them not to. We have weird traditions, I know, LOL! But to me that’s the best kind — the kind that just arise from the moment. Then we have this one angel that my husband and I bought our first Christmas together that came apart a few years ago, and I keep forgetting to either fix it or get rid of it (do other people do this? When we get ornaments out I find ones that need a little repair work and think I’ll get to it some time. Then when we put ornaments away in January I think I’ll get it next year. So they stay in the box unused — unless my kids get to them and find unique ways to use them. My oldest called them “the island of misfit ornaments.”) So one year they hung the head separately from the body. There are one or two ornaments that they do something “different” with every year. It sounds weird, I know, and it is. But it’s one of those things unique to our family.

At one point while we were driving home with the tree on top of the van, Jesse and Jason kept saying it was sliding. They had been talking about seeing the shadow of it while we were driving, so I thought they meant it looked like it was scooting backwards. Just as we were slowing down to turn into a parking lot to see what was going on, it slid off the side and was just hanging by the twine tied to the luggage rack on the roof. We could just imagine what people in other cars thought — a new way to transport your Christmas tree! The two older guys had cameras but didn’t think to take a picture. I would have loved to post a picture of the tree hanging down the side of the car with just the title “Ooops!”

So now the tree is up and the house is decorated and I feel all Christmasy. I love the pine smell in the living room and the way the lights look when the rest of the room is dark.

Last week was supposed to be my week to get lots done while this week has a lot of events to go to, but everything didn’t get done last week that I had planned — one task took longer than planned plus I didn’t use my time to the best advnatge earlier in the week. So…I’d best get to it. I had planned to do a couple of memes I’ve been tagged for, but I’ve chattered on so much I’ll need to save those for another day.

Happy Monday!

Blue Monday & etc.

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  • We had a bit of drama this morning when Jim’s mom called about 7:30 a.m. saying her hearing aid was broken. He had left already, and I told her to get her old one in the meantime, but she couldn’t find it. I went over, and thankfully figured out that the tube had just come out of the earpiece and was able to easily get it back in. It’s working fine but I am afraid it might happen again when she tales it in and out. Jim said we could probably take it in to get the tube replaced — it’s just probably gotten a little too flexible with use. Then when I went to look for her old hearing aid, I couldn’t find it, either, and almost started to panic. Turns out she had it in — but without a battery. So I replaced the battery in it and showed her where the case was and left a note for the people who work there in case it happens again.
  • Jesse’s home sick today with a pretty bad cold. I am hoping it doesn’t spread through the family.
  • Jason and his girlfriend, Mittu, have this one last day before they start back to classes, but they both have papers due, so I expect it will be a pretty quiet day. I had thought about making Christmas cookies today — I have kind of gotten away from that the last few years. But between the work they need to do and Jesse’s cold, it might not be the best time.
  • I was bummed that Toni and Dallas didn’t make it into the Amazing Race final 3. That was so sad! He’s going to be kicking himself about losing their money and passports for a long time, I’m afraid. The two guys have made so many mistakes I really felt it was their time to go. If they end up winning…I am going to be even more bummed.
  • The next two weeks are really busy both with stuff to do and things to attend. Sat. night we have out adult Sunday School Christmas party, Sunday is church as usual, Monday is the ladies’ Christmas party, Tuesday is Jesse’s first basketball game, Wed. is prayer meeting as usual, Thursday is Jesse’s piano recital, then Friday is his second BB game. I’m not one who likes to “go and do” that much — I am getting tired just thinking about it! So, since there are so many things to attend next week, I am hoping to get a bunch of stiff done this week. All I really want to do right now is sit here and fiddle around on the computer! But I need to make a master list so I can best use my time this week.
  • On to Blue Monday:

Smiling Sally hosts a Blue Monday in which we can post about anything blue — pretty, ugly, serious or funny — and then link up to other Blue Monday participants.

This is a Paula Vaughan cross stitch pattern: one of my sisters made it for me several years ago.

Close-up

I paired it with a quote of Proverbs31:24-26 in calligraphy from Doorposts which I placed in a blue frame and a partially blue mat.

Paula Vaughn piece my sister stitched for me

I thought they went well together not only because of the color but because of the reference to clothing in the verse and the dress in the cross stitch — letting our physical clothes remind us of the need to be clothed with strength and honor even in — especially in our homes.