A Recommendation

I love to read. I don't always have tons of time to read but I love to read. I think I love knowledge and Truth and being able to understand myself better as well as other people. I love to hear different perspectives on things. See how people view God, life, relationships.

I don't like analyzing books. I hated doing that in college. I remember a professor asking the class what the water represented at the end of this novel where the woman walked into it and killed herself. Apparently it's good literature but no, I didn't see how the water represented a womb...I don't look at books that way.

But I do love to talk about them. See what people learn from them. Process what I'm learning from them with others.

I've been part of a book club for several years now. It started out as a group of ladies who were helping out with youth group and we just got together and studied stuff. We called it a Bible study but we soon realized we didn't really study the Bible. We were reading lots of books so we called it a book club.

There are a few of us from the original group and we've added and lost a few. But we're still reading books. We've read a bunch of great ones and a few not so great ones. We take turns picking books. It was just too hard to always agree on one book we all wanted to read. So now we get to read stuff we may never have picked for ourselves and it's been wonderful!

We've read biographies about great Christian heroes (End of the Spear, Bonhoeffer, a couple more whose titles escape me now), fiction stories (almost always Christian), teaching books (Believing God, So Long Insecurity, Longing for More, Women Food and God...), spiritual warfare books (He Came to Set the Captives Free) and many more. All wonderful books that I've learned so much from.

And I've learned a lot from the wonderful women who attend!

Recently it was my turn to pick a book. Another friend had recommended a book to me that I knew I might have trouble finding time to read -but I wanted to read it so bad! - so I chose it for book club so that I'd have an excuse to read it. :)

It's called Nurturing the Nations by Darrow L Miller. And I highly recommend it.

In a nutshell it is about a lie that the world has believed - about as long as we've been around - that men are superior to women and how that has affected nearly every culture and religion on earth. It's about the horrors {and I'm talking horrors! Abuse, rape, slavery, "honor" killings, abortions, kidnapping, prostitution, sex-trade, female circumcision etc...} that happen to women everyday in all parts of the world and how that impacts women and the future of women. It's not a man-bashing book at all (in fact it was written by a man). It's about celebrating unity and diversity at the same time {yes it is very possible!}. It's about seeing us {women} as God created us. It's about seeing how God created us to be nurturers and why that matters. It's about understanding that feminism isn't about being as good as a man or doing what a man can do. It's about being created equal to men but being totally different in form and function from them and it's a glorious thing. It's about celebrating being moms, wives, daughters, sisters...women created in God's beautiful image. It's one of the best books I've read in terms of understanding what God thinks of us, why He created us and why that's important.

I highly recommend it.

I've read a lot of books that I'd recommend so if you need more let me know ;) But for now, if you need a new book to read go check this one out. It's worth your time. For real.

A sewing machine!

I don't really know what's gotten into me. I read a blog one time about things a woman was sewing. I looked at it and thought -- I could do that. So I tried. That's apparently how it got started. Just trying.

Last summer I made a quilt for my sister for her wedding. That was a huge undertaking but totally satisfying when it was completed -- not that I wanted to run out and make another quilt though. I needed a break.

Then I posted, a while back, about little bags the kids made out of t-shirts. That was fun too and they enjoyed coloring on them.

BUT THEN I found an adorable blog post about making baby stuff. Stuff like diaper clutches and diaper bags and more. Stuff people might actually use! I read them and thought, yet again, I could do that! So again, I tried.

This time I tried it out on my friend Jen. She's preggers and due to get that baby out on July 14th (scheduled C-section so everything is planned out!). I decided to try and make her a baby gift. This is what I came up with.

I made her a diaper bag, a diaper clutch and sewed some ribbon on burp cloths and washrags to match. She's totally a child of the 80's so I thought she'd dig the pink polka dots as much as I did! I think she does :)

Here's a better picture of the diaper clutch. It's made from a placemat and some fabric. Seriously! YOU can do this!

Here's a picture of the inside. It has 6 pockets on the inside and one on the outside. Plenty of room for everything. All of the washrags and burpcloths are in there along with the diaper clutch and a bottle to show how big the pockets are.

I loved her diaper bag so much I had to make one for myself. So I went back to the original website with the tutorial {CLICK HERE if you want to check it out} and then modified it a bit to fit into another type of bag. I was able to make a messenger bag. It's a bit smaller than the other bag and is obviously a bit of a different style, but it's the same basic concept. I found some way cute and funky fabric squares at Walmart and pieced those together for my little project. Here are some photos:

I took this shot cause I wanted you all to see how fabulous my underarms are -- yeah right! I just wanted you to see what it looked like on.

The front.
Here's the back. I sewed a large pocket onto the back for all of my things like keys and wallet etc..

Here the flap is open. The outside is all funky blue patterns and the inside is funky green patterns. I love all of them! It was hard to decide what I wanted to be on the outside but finally decided on blue since it's my favorite color.

And finally the inside. There are only 4 pockets inside but they fit everything perfectly. The red thing in the middle is my own diaper clutch I made myself as a practice before I made Jen's. I love it, actually, and use it all the time.

So there you go. I've been a regular sewing machine and I have no idea what's gotten into me! It makes me want to save up for a nicer actual sewing machine. I am thankful for the one I have, very much actually, but boy would it be nice to have a new one! *sigh* maybe someday ~~ when I'm really good! Ha!