Home Away From Home

I'm spending this week in LaFollette, TN at Galilee Bible Camp where the kids and I have served during the last several summers.  It's Middle School week and Will is a camper and I'm leading worship each evening at chapel.

The staff and volunteers here pour themselves into the campers week after week during the summer.  They are dear friends, and they have been a wonderful influence on our family.  We are blessed to be a part of the ministry here.

This week, I'm not as active as usual at camp.  It's a kind of retreat for me, as there are memories of Sam everywhere.  Emily and Will, too -- so it's sweet and sad to be here with Sam gone, Emily grown up, and Will so quickly growing, too.

One of the missionaries, Rebecca, gave me a couple of heart blocks for Sam's Darling Hearts quilt.  She is catching the quilting bug (YES!! :-D), and rightly so with Selma Jean and I helping her catch it!!

Selma Jean, a prolific wonderful quilter, also made a heart block. And she surprised me yesterday with beautiful handmade ornaments, each embroidered with my children's names.

On Sam's she included the dates of his birth and death.  It struck me that from now on, people will see Emily and Will and think I only have two children.  But I have three.  I'll always have three. :-)  So three ornaments!! Selma Jean understands!!!

I brought projects to work on while at camp.  It's a nice quiet time for me, and I have some deadlines approaching....the Hands-2-Help quilt for Romania, for one!  I've got the blocks laid out and ready to be put together. The deadline is the end of the month....so yeah! Onward!! LOL

I also have another project that is short on time (aren't they all! LOL)!  This one, I can't reveal just yet, but here is a hint....

 

I have the rest of that quilt in my head...and it's gotta get outa there and onto fabric in the next couple of weeks....Let's hope I can make that transition from vision to concrete reality! LOL

Between the heat and my working on projects, I'm ready for sleep tonight.  I'm resting on a beautiful pillowcase made by my friend, Lil.  She makes dozens of pillowcases to share with friends, family and people in need.  She knows my colors (red, green and gold!!), and I love that she included a label on the inside, too.

It's an oasis here, a home away from home.  Maybe because I take "home" with me! :-D  My sewing machine!  My pillow and my quilts.  My Pepsi! :-D (and a bit of zucchini bread).  My family. My friends.  My memories.

And the God of all Comfort and Peace:

Psalm 139:7-10

⁷Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?
⁸If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

There's no place like Home!

Blessings!

No Place Like Home!

I had a wonderful week in Mississippi and points south of KY, including a daytrip to New Orleans.  Thanksgiving dinner with the Carter clan -- my friend Jennifer's extended family -- was a blessing of hospitality and fantastic food, including my personal favorite, chicken 'n' dumplin's made like my momma's!! I couldn't help but miss her -- she would have loved such a gathering of family and friends and food!

We stayed in a sweet little cabin just outside Hattiesburg, MS.  Jennifer and I managed to hit a sewing shop, a quilt shop (Kelly's Pins and Needles -- I remember the name because on the web, the listing included gunsmith service!! I didn't see any guns in the shop, though!! :-D), a Hancocks and a JoAnn's with only minor whines from the teenagers.  (It helped that the JoAnn's was close to a Guitar Center, and lunch was next on the agenda!! :-D)

Not that the teenagers needed shopping therapy....

They kept each other and us entertained.

I was very disciplined (for me!! LOL) in my fabric buying.  Kelly's shop had a nice red Thimbleberries that I got yardage of and the Simpler Time line from Holly Taylor that I got a charm pack and enough extra to make a lovely Schnibbles.  Not sure which one, yet...but something will speak to me, I'm sure! :-D

I also managed to get three Circuit Rider blocks done during quiet mornings at the cabin.  Looking out the large windows at the lake beyond provided the perfect peaceful setting for hand work.

Since getting home on Saturday, I've not managed to sew a stitch, although Step 2 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Roll, Roll Cotton Boll, was calling my name! :-)  I'll get to it sometime this week... perhaps later today.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the simple pleasure of being home -- of walking through my house and rummaging through my cabinets to find something to eat, and using the Reading Room at my leisure. :-D Of ACT prep for Sam and school work for both the boys.  Of walking in my sewing room and planning a shift in the furniture, organizing projects and getting back into the joy of accomplishing something!

The Psalmist writes, "How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts.  We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple." (Psalm 65:8 NASB)

It is good to be home!

Blessings!