The Sweetest Moments

Back Story: Jessi has been struggling with carnality, specifically hot emotions and a quick temper. I heard a marvelous teaching back at the beginning of our MOPS year and as a result, Jeff and I knew we had to do something to curb this behavior. It was certainly NOT an overnight fix, but has been amazing to witness the power of Scripture in the life of 4 year old. After much prayer I decided that she had to memorize, understand, and begin to apply several scripture verses. Her verses are:
2 Corinthians 10:5b ... we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Phil. 4: 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

Proverbs 25:28
A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls.


What has been beautiful to see is that even a four year old can begin to control themselves with Jesus' help.

So, current story. Joy is two and beginning to experiment with "having fits", we are of course intervening and training for this. (True confession: I often have to turn away and giggle before I can properly intervene. She wants a fit, but she also wants comfort. She will start on the floor, get up and lean on the wall, and finally go recline on the couch... all during the same fit.) I honestly hadn't even thought yet about teaching her any verses... she's 27 months. Apparently Jessi realizes that the earlier, the better, and has no compunctions about age or limitations. The other night I was in my room and Jessi proudly marches Joy in, tells me to listen, and then word by word, guides her through saying the Proverbs verse.

I cannot tell you how my heart melted.

Moments like that are truly life's sweetest treasures.

shameless plug

I'm hosting a charity benefit event, there are some really amazing items up for sale, auction, and raffle. Please stop in and check it out.
http://hyenacart.com/purplecowcustoms/

He is Risen!

I haven't posted for a few weeks, as we've been going through a little bit of "stuff." Nothing too awfully major, just, you know, stuff. Today was a great time to get my eyes off of the stuff of life and onto the wonderful, amazing reality that we serve a God who is ALIVE. We've been saved by a Savior who walked as a man, was tempted in all points as we are, remained sinless, and sacrificed himself to pay for all of our sins. We are kept by a Lord who faced death and emerged victorious. We are empowered by the same Holy Spirit who was present at creation and anointed the apostles with fire.

I mentioned in my halloween rant (which... as I write this, I think back and wonder if I ever actually posted?) that due to my business dealings, I frequent online circles that are widely populated with people of "alternative" religious beliefs. Not just other sects of Christianity, but pagans, wiccans, atheists, and various eastern religions. At halloween I was angered by the wool that has been pulled over our eyes to think that halloween is harmless fun (it's not, it's a REAL holy [unholy?] day for those belief systems), but that is another post (which I'm really beginning to think I never posted!). It is interesting to me that the same facts, the same discussions, that had me feeling so frustrated and powerless 5 1/2 months ago, now, today, leave me feeling excited and Victorious!

You see, their holy day was a celebration of dead people, dead leaders, dead ancestors. Our Holy Day is a celebration of LIFE, of the fact that our faith is founded on LIFE, on a RISEN SAVIOR! Yes, there is an "alternative" of Easter, Ostera, but that is merely the celebration of spring bringing new life, a worship of the new life that nature has brought; but ours, ours is the celebration of the God who created nature! A celebration of the CREATOR, not the creature!

I know I'm using the caps and exclamation points rather liberally today, but seriously, we don't face life bolstered by "healing thoughts" or "positive vibes", but on prayer, a relationship directly with the God who has conquered, on our behalf, all of sin and death!

He is Risen Indeed!

Spring is springing in our yard. We love these tiny wild violets!

and our pink crab apple tree.
Joey and Joy in Easter morning finery

Jessi and Joy, Easter Sunday
All the Luck Ladies

The easter bunny came to our yard today! Seriously, this was so cool, Jeff saw this bunny in our back yard and called the kids to look, a neighbor cat scared it and it ran around front, where it stayed long enough for me to sneak around out the back door and the side of the house and take its picture.

Of course, I then had some fun in PhotoShop...
Some of our celebration eggs! And just because she's a pickle....

Man Down, Man Down

With a heavy heart I share this from my sister, Julie Shinn. Julie is a paramedic for Rowan County and works closely, day in and day out with these firemen. For her, and for so many others, this loss is very personal.

I thought yesterday was a bad day.

We burried Lt. Tim Hand of Liberty VFD and Rowan County Rescue Squad, Tim was a 32 year veteran of the FD and had 25 years in with the Squad. He lost a long battle with cancer and died early Monday morning.

Today...our worst fears were realized.

A five alarm blaze at a lumber yard.

A chilling yell of 'mayday' followed by 'firefighter down'.

Capt. Rick Barkley was badly injured with 1st-3rd degree burns, the worst to his arms and legs. He was transfered from our local hospital to a burn center at North Carolina University Baptist Medical Center. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Victor Isler "Yankee Vic", 45, transported emergency traffic to Rowan Regional Medical Center with CPR in progress. A cricoithorotomy was performed by the crew due to extensive airway burns. He was pronounced dead at RRMC.

Justin Monroe, 20, as unaccounted for during a par check. He was later found burned to death in the structure. The hose he carried was burned in half and his turnout gear was consumed by the flames. He was a sweet kid, who was always grinning. The only thing he ever wanted to do was be a fireman. He did it and did it well.

Two paramedics were treated for smoke inhalation. They went through the heavy smoke to treat and transport Capt. Barkley.

Multiple other Firefighters were treated for minor burns and other various injuries.

The flag is at half mast and the down mens pictures, helmets, and other equipment are arranged as a memorial in the bay at Salisbury Fire Station 1.

It has been more than 20 years since a firefighter was lost in the line of duty in our county. Two in one day within an hour of each other is unimaginable.

Please join us in mourning our great loss.

Pray for those who remain.

Thank a firefighter for being the "Thin RED Line" between you and the dragon that lives in the flame. The Green Line of Rescue, The Orange Line of EMS, and The Blue Line of Law Enforcement. These are the men and women who give their lives to save yours.

Juliana M. Shinn, EMT-P

Joyana and the Dentist

I've posted before about Joy's dental problems. Poor baby, she's two and has already had more dental work than the other two kids combined. In fact after her next apppointment in two weeks, she'll have more fillings than I do!

So today was one of her 10 week checkups-- we don't mess with 6 months, in fact we can hardly make it three months most times. Today was her first "real" cleaning, you know with the vroom vroom and the beep beep. Ok, no beep beep, but she did have the little spinny tooth polisher thingy, the water spout and even Mr. Thirsty. Usually it's just a little brushing and her treatments. She did SOOO good. The hygenist was completely taken with her and said she should come give big kids some lessons on how to sit still and keep their mouths open. What a trooper. She looked so cute laid back in the chair with the tiny pink sunglasses on... no I didn't have my camera, sorry.

Apparently the treatments every two months are slowing down her deterioration rate, so that is great. We are just SO thankful that we found this dentist who is so awesome and so is his entire staff. Seriously, they should give customer service seminars.

So we go back in two weeks for some drilling and filling. I'm not looking forward to that. Her last major work was when she had the four extractions back in the fall. That was pretty awful, hopefully this will go ok or at least if it doesn't, she'll be able to blank it out like she did last time.

Jellyfish

Here is my latest, it goes live tomorrow. I used a different dyeing technique and really love how it turned out. Hopefully it will sell out immediately, :-)
What I'm really hoping is that I can turn buyers on to this yarn. There are certain "trends" in the very small world that I market to, and it can be hard to introduce something new. I LOVE this yarn, it is from a small farm right here in Virginia. It's not organic, but is humanely grown. It's so soft and durable, and unlike many other popular wools, doesn't require a lot of babying for its care. To the touch, it is very like a soft cottony chenille.
In fact, I bought the yarn right from the farm early this year.

This picture of Joey and sheep giving each other the eye, makes me laugh. Who knows, maybe "jellyfish" came from one of these guys right here.

keeping busy

so despite all the traveling back and forth to mom's, i've been busy here too.

For my shop, I introduced three yarn colors, all of which sold out right away, for which i was SO thankful. I needed the money as well as the ego boost!



This one is called "Salmander"

I posted a teaser a while back for Brandy... here is the finished product. Custom dyed, knit, and embellished wool soaker. I have photographed this wool and the soaker so many times, I simply can't get the colors to show accurately. It's a very subtle mix, ranging from brown and bronze, through reds, and down to light peachy pinks. The leg trim, drawstring, and flowers are done in a red overdyed yarn of the same colorway.

Also for Brandy, some critters. Here are Fishy and Octopus, Snake and Lizard are in the works.

I'll be listing more things soon, including a great new colorway that I did in bulk after doing up that small amount for the octopus.