So, here I sit... it is pushing past midnight. I should be snuggling into bed, but I have been once again blown away by a gracious loving gift. I knew if I did not write this blog I just wouldn't get around to it. I know that some of you know this about me but some may not...I love to surround me, my home, my family, my friends with handcrafted made with love items. The older I get and the more I live in the last frontier the more I embrace the hard work it takes to make quality. Tonight I was once again reminded of how blessed I am to have people that love me enough to spend so much time in making me something they thought I would enjoy.
We got home from Anchorage to find a package in the mail from Jesse's Grandma Pilch. June Pilch is and AMAZING woman whom I have been honored to call Grandma these last eight years. She always remembers to pray for her family whether near or far, and has spent a lot of her free time making things for someone in her large family. Just the other day I pulled out a sweater and pants she made for Auden when she was a baby, and now it fits Caelis perfect, all the while I was sitting on a bed that was draped in a quilt she made for Jess's graduation. Anyway back to my package. I opened it wondering why it was just addressed to me. Upon opening I found an awesome cardigan that she had made JUST FOR ME! I can't even imagine how many hours she put into it. I also know that while she was making it she was thinking of me and praying for me. I love it.
This got me thinking to how very blessed I am to have things in my life I truly cherish. There are a lot of people that have "things". "Things" they really like, "things" they think make their life worth living. Well I got to thinking about my "things" and I realize that the most important "things" to me where not the things themselves; they are the people those thing represent. So, here are a few of my favorite things...
I love the blanket I wrap up in every morning to do my devotions it was knitted my a fun-loving women that I admire a great deal. I love washing my hands with the soap that may crafty friend makes. I love walking into my house and the first picture you see is my birch trees painted by one of the most talented women I know and I am so happy I can call her one of my best-friends (oh and while I walk into the house I am probably wearing a pair of earrings she made me as well). I love the dish towels that where made by my brother-in-law who now is a husband and father, and I love that his sister has step in a filled his dishrag making shoes. I love that I can snuggle all my babies up in a quilt that was made for me and Jesse for our wedding and I can tell them about her and how she worked hard to become the surgeon she is now, and about how much fun we had in college together, but mostly about how proud of her I am. I love that I get to put a polka dotted bow into my daughter's hair that was made by the woman who has become a sister to me and who loves my children almost as much as I do. I love that when I have a baby I can count on their being a quilt that I can lay them on made with love from a preacher's wife who loves me like a daughter. I love that when I am bundling the kids up to go outside I can pull on there warm fleece hats that their aunty from MN made for them, I get to tell them how she became part of our family after she married mommy's sidekick.
I love the scarfs that keep the snow off my children's little necks that were knitted by a not only my terrific mother-in-law but also my friend. I love that my kids step up on the stools my father made almost every waking hour of everyday to look into the mirror that he made so they can see if they are clean. Not to mention that I get to be reminded of what a talented man I have for a father when I use one of the many cutting boards I smuggled home in my suitcase from his workshop...all made from the benches that everyone who attended our wedding sat on. I love that when you walk outside and see the flowers and gardens that are there they happened because a mother took the time to research and plan a garden for a daughter that decided to move 3000 miles away, and still needed her help and advice. I love the cabinets that my husband made for me when we were living in a tiny apartment and needed a pantry, I have moved them across the country and they daily remind me of the way that he will do anything to met our family needs. To me they represent how far we have come and yet they remind me how simple we want our life to stay.
Needless to say my house is full of "things" but if you look deeper it is filled with all the people I love, though they maybe down the road or across the country they fill my home and my heart. I am humbled by the fact that so many people love me. I feel that love everyday when I use the "things" they took the time to make or think up. Just as they have decided to think and pray for me while they made it, I have decided to think and praise God for them every time I use it. So, here I sit wrapped in my new cardigan, blessed beyond measure. Thank you to all who share your love and talent with me. I love you all.
