Mission Trip-Building a home in Mexico

Colleen went to Mexico over Christmas break with the church she is attending while at college. They took a team of young adults and built a house through the group Casas por Cristo. This organization uses volunteer teams and donated materials to build houses for families in and around Juarez, Mexico. I was so nervous to have her going to Juarez, but I tried to hand my worries over to God while she did His work. I tend to be an overprotective mama, so this was a growing experience for me too.

Some neighborhood girls

Colleen was so excited to find that she spoke Spanish well enough to serve as one of the group's translators. She was minoring in Spanish, but now is thinking of changing to Spanish Education. She learned so much and was truly blessed by going on this trip.

Colleen and one of the littlest family members.

Here she is working on the inside of the home. They do not have running water inside the home, but they do have electricity. It's built on a concrete slab the team poured the first day. This home has 3 rooms and was built in 3 days. The homeowners were given instructions and supplies to mud the drywall inside after the team left.

Helping a little homeowner drive a nail.

Jill and Colleen stucko the outside. Jill also grew up in our church and is dating our son.

Done!

The family's children putting handprints on their new front stoop.

New homeowners!

This is what it's all about.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
~Galatians 5:14

How to give your christmas tree extra sparkle

Now, the information I'm passing on may seem obvious to you. I would never have thought to make these suggestions except for a visit from a friend. She kept gazing at our tree and finally she said, "I get it! You put lights on the inside of your tree...that's why it's extra sparkly."


So here's how I get maximum sparkle...'cause I'm all about sparkle in Christmas decorating.

• I use multi-colored lights, but I always add a stand or two of white lights up the inside of the tree. It really brightens up the tree. We use a real tree, but if you use an artificial one, you can wrap the white lights up the trunk before you put on the branches (learned that from my aunt!)
  
• Next, I hang a bunch of plain old glass ornaments all inside the tree...more sparkle from the reflections. I literally have a big shopping bag full of cheap red and gold and silver glass balls that I hang mostly on the inside of the tree.
• Then I add the garland...mine is reflective for more sparkle.
• Finally I hang all our special ornaments which we've collected through the years. Our tree has no theme...we hang everything from the ones the kids made in school to antique ones from great-grandparents, to the ones we've been giving to the kids each year.

My last tip is to buy your Christmas ornaments on sale. I love glass ornaments from Germany and Poland. I wait until the after Christmas sales and buy them at a huge discount with some of my Christmas gift money. I got the garland last year..it was still in the store at the end of January. Originally it was 17.99 for a strand 60 feet long. I got them for 1.99 a strand! Gotta love that!

Happy Hiefer International New Year!

I think our New Year's family fundraiser for Heifer International was successful. As you might recall our family decided not to exchange Christmas gifts among the cousins and aunts and uncles. We've had some lay-offs and downturns in business in the family this past year, so it was time to rethink the gift exchange. Instead, we threw cash into a basket...could be any thing from the change lying around the house to whatever you would have spent on gifts...totally up to the giver.


Then we had the kids sort and count the money. They took their job very seriously. It turned out to be a fun activity for them. I don't think most of them had ever handled so much money.


Here Jacob is using the cowboy's rifle to hold up the bank. LOL



Counting....

Counting.....We totaled up 580 dollars.

Then it was time to figure out what animals the kids wanted to buy. I put up pages from Heifer's catalog describing each animal, how it would help a family, and the cost. They picked a llama, pig, 6 rabbits, goat, sheep, flock of ducks, flock of chicks and honeybees. The adults were thrilled to have a more economical Christmas, less fuss trying to find presents for kids who already have so much, and we wanted to show the kids how important it is to help others. The kids seemed be excited that they were helping kids around the world have a better life. We were a little worried that the little kids would miss the presents, but they were excited about what we were doing and they want to do it again next year.


Of course, we were not just counting money all night....we were having a party too!

Handkercheif Curtain and Other Ideas from Mom

We went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas dinner, so I snapped a few photos to share with you. Mom and dad bought an old home that had been converted into apartments...thinking to live in the ground floor and rent the other apartments. Soon enough though, they realized they liked using the whole house. They left the apartments in case they want to rent them in the future...this creates a couple of mini suites in the upstairs of their home. These photos show the bedroom from one of the apartments upstairs. It's fun to go stay there...like staying in an inn!

The color combo you see here came from using the suggested color harmonies from the old Martha Stewart paint line at Kmart. Martha and her people did a great job of showing good color combos. Our Kmart doesn't carry paint any more, but I think Sears does have Martha paint.

Another corner of the room. My mom is the thrifting queen...almost everything in her home is a treasure she found somewhere. And my dad can repair most anything thing...so if she finds it and it needs a little work, between them they are able to fix it up better than new.

As you can see there is some work needed on the old plaster walls. Mom said they will get to it someday, but she went ahead and painted anyway...that way they have pleasant rooms to use in the meantime. I wish I had done that with my old house, because sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to some of those repairs than you would think.

Another part of that room. This house has neat some great features like the lamps on the walls. Some of the original shades had been replaced with cheap dime store shades... they found some more suitable vintage shades at garage sales and antique shops. We've found the antique shops are usually more affordable than some of those restoration places that sell new replacements.



These two photos show the window treatment in the kitchen of that apartment/guest suite. Mom has a huge collection of hankies... she pinned them to the top of a white valance using a straight pin in one corner of each hankie. It looks so cute and it's easy to take the hankies off when they need to be cleaned and ironed. My mom and dad have a ton of great ideas, so you will probably see me posting some more of their house in the future.

Christmas Day!

This is just a collection of random photos from Christmas Day. Please excuse all the pjs and such...we just stay in them while we open presents. We did stockings, had french toast and then opened presents. This is me handing out stockings...the part I like is Hawkeye watching closely.


Here's Joe in his new hat I knit him...and a cool cup I found at an antique shop.


The kids examining their gifts...new tools for Mike from Jill. Cool and crazy hat from the grandparents.


Relaxing and reading instructions by the Christmas tree.


Playing with the cameras.


Joe and me


Apparently Cowboy stuff is appealing to grandpas and grandsons!


Mike and Jill

Ice Storm

We awoke this morning to a very beautiful, but dangerous world. Joe made it to work, but I decided not to risk it....somehow, I don't think folks will be out hunting for antiques in this. I hope not anyway!

We didn't have any limbs down in our yard, but look at the redbud...it's touching it's toes!


The ice is so beautiful though.


We heard we could get up to an inch of ice...it wasn't quite that thick, thank goodness. Joe went out and bought a generator last night. Folks, those babies are expensive! My mom just had surgery the day before though and he didn't think we should be unprepared. We didn't need it so far, but now we are prepared if we ever do. The next town down the highway is without power this morning.


Hawkeye is not crazy about our patio being turned into an ice rink.


Want to come and sit on our swing? Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

How to Make Snowflake Ornaments

Last year I made some snowflake ornaments that have held up pretty darn well for paper snowflakes, so I thought I'd tell you about them. I made mine out of maps, just because I love maps and I have saved a ton of them from National Geographic Magazine. You could also use sheet music, old book pages, or pretty scrapbook paper. Personally, I love using things that usually get thrown away and this is a great way to use books or maps that are in very bad shape...just pick the good parts out and use them.



You fold the paper in the usual manner and make your paper snowflake. There is a great tutorial here if you don't remember how. Then iron your snowflake to get it nice and flat. Lay it on a piece of felt that you've trimmed to about the right size.

Then go to your sewing machine and stitch around the edges of the snowflake, holding it flat as you go. You could use some wonder under to hold it, but I didn't. You just can't pin it because, obviously, you'd end up with holes in your paper. I put blue thread in my machine to match the map, and white thread in the bobbin to match the felt. Hand stitching with embroidery floss would also be cute...kind of a primitive look.



After you have your paper snowflake stitched down take a sharp pair of scissors and snip out the openings in the felt and trim around the snowflake, leaving a small bit of white showing around each opening and around the edges. Add a floss loop at the top to hang it.

I wish I had some in process photos, but as you can see it's a pretty easy thing to make. Email me if you have any questions.

One more handknit Christmas hat..........

This one is done from Cascade 220 yarn also. The red was actually white and I dyed it red...through a process that I could not hope to duplicate. The color turned out ugly the first 2 times I dyed it, then I finally dyed the whole thing again using food coloring and vinegar. I finally got a color I like. It sounds like more trouble than it is. The crock pot does all the work. The gray is leftovers from my son's hat. I made this a little bigger because my hubby has a big head....my son is our model here.

Blagojevich Arrested

Wow! Many of us have been hoping and praying for the corruption to come to light. Now it is and hopefully our state is on its way to saying loud and clear, "This kind of politics is not welcome in Illinois anymore." You can read the story here.

For now our Lt. Governor is in charge, and I believe (and hope) that to be a big improvement.

ETA: Apparently there is no clear provision saying who will act as governor....how is it possible that we would not have that clearly spelled out? This state has a lot of work to do.

Christmas Decorating!

I thought there must be some mistake when this giant box showed up in the mail....I was looking for my prize from SC Johnson Right at Home for the Houseblogs.net contest, but I was expecting a little envelope with a gift card. Let me tell you I felt like the dad from A Christmas Story receiving the "significant award!"


They sent this huge basket of products and the gift cards...so nice! Thank you to houseblogs.net and to SC Johnson.

I knit up a hat for Mike's stocking and made the mistake of letting him try it on...he liked it so much he wanted to start wearing it right away. Well, I'm glad he liked it!

Then I used the left over gray from Mike's hat and some red I dyed (same kind of yarn) to start a hat for Joe. He's tricky because he has a much bigger head. I altered it to fit...and I hope it does!

Tonight we started decorating for Christmas....Hawkeye's pretty sure this is not where the wreath should go.


Joe got it done in the warmth of the house and then went out and hung it up. It's starting to look alot like Christmas!