I thought it was so precious and wanted to share it with you.

Well, I thought I would share some photos and hope you enjoy a stroll through my garden.  It is in my garden where I do a lot of praying and praising God for His many blessings and where I find new inspiration for my designs.

My husband found this garden saying by an unknown author:

When the world wearies,

And the world ceases to satisfy,

There is always

THE GARDEN

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

God bless.  Monika

As I am working on a design with the scripture “There is no greater joy than to hear that your children walk in the truth” (3 John1:4) my heart is filled with thankfulness that this is true of my two children today.   It wasn’t always that way.   There were years of deep pain and sorrow over the path our daughter had chosen.  But those days, thank God, are in the past and it is with great thankfulness today that I would like to share with you Kristy’s story in her own words.

I am posting this story as an encouragement to those who might have children who have chosen a path that seems self-destructive.  I want to encourage you to give that child to the Lord;  He does care and He does hear your prayers.

May Kristy’s story be an encouragement to you.

Kristy Brock testimony from Jeffrey D. Brock on Vimeo.

I look at my autistic grandson – he is so ruggedly handsome – his hair tossled, a piece of flowery silk fabric wrapped around his neck, his beautiful big blue eyes with long eye lashes looking sad and semi pleading.   On the one hand he hates parties,  big gatherings of people, loud places;  on the other hand, he longs to have connection with others, feel loved and appreciated – yet he doesn’t know how  to relate to others, how to enter into their world.  It brings tears and pain not only to him but to those who do love him – his family.    He asks often “Why did God make me like this?”  And I don’t know the answer.   Awkward as he appears socially, he has a heart of gold.  When his grandfather suddenly had to be taken to the hospital with a very rapid heart beat, it was Sid who went to his room to pray for Grandpa, it was Sid who lovingly offered to help Grandpa the next day.  He is full of extremes:  so beautiful, yet so uncaring about his appearance;  so verbal, yet so unable to establish rapport with others;  so intelligent, yet so unpolished in his behaviors.  He is loved deeply by his family and I pray that some day God will show him a very special place in life  where he can shine and rejoice in the fellowship he can have with others and God.

A customer recently sent me a slide show about an Autism Cruise that he organizes.  He sent it to me because the video shows the use of one of our Autism designs.  But I want to show it to you because I think it is very well done and depicts the great joy that so many of these children and adults seemed to have experienced on this cruise.  Thank you, Alan Fowler, for giving me permission to place this on my blog and for organizing joy and happiness for individuals with autism.

These burp pads are so fun and quick to make.

You use a small guest towel (I used a 6 pack from WalMart), apply a colored fabric backing, place your favorite burp design on it and add trim to your liking.  The terry cloth from the towel absorbs spills and burps very nicely and is soft to baby’s skin.  The fringes at the top and bottom add a playful touch to the burp pad.

You Need:

1 guest towel   (mine was 10.5”x16.0” – if yours is a different size, be sure to adjust the backing

fabric size.)

1 piece of fabric     12×16”  (for backing)

Trims, if desired

Instructions:

1.    Take your towel, mark the center, and place your choice of baby design on one side of the towel, about

4-5” up from the bottom edge (depending on how much trim you want to add under the design).

2.    After you placed your design, add trim of your choice  under design.

3.     Take your backing fabric, press a top and bottom edge seam of ¾”.

4.    Place the right side of the backing over the right side of  the towel, and sew ¼” seam along the long edge.

5.    When you have sewn one side, do the same to the other.  You will notice that the backing appears wider

than the towel.  That’s what we want.

6.    Turn everything inside out.

7.    Even out the backing fabric so that you will have an equal amount of fabric “overhang” on both sides of the

burp pad, creating a little decorative edge.

8.    Stitch in the ditch along the burp pad long edges.

9.    Stitch the backing to the burp pad front by topstitching along the top and bottom edges, close to the start of   the    fringe.  You could also just use Steam a Seam 2 and iron the backing in place.

Iron it – and there you are.  Isn’t this cute?  And so very functional.

I haven’t written in a while – life gets so busy, doesn’t it?   Today I want to share with you about a very special family.  Krista and Josh Carson have 4 children of their own, one of which was born with Down Syndrome.  The Carsons have felt lead by the Lord to adopt another child with Down syndrome and they need help financially to bring this baby (to be born in June) home to them.  To help out the Carsons I am going to make  available a Down Syndrome butterfly for sale.  All proceeds from this sale will go towards the Carsons’ expenses for baby Elana.

Would you like to find out more about Krista and Josh and their 4 precious children?  Please visit their blog:

www.mygoddoesntmakemistakes.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading this and letting me share.

God bless.

Monika

I decided that maybe I could do a little teaching about St. Nick  and bake a German style yeast bread.  It was fun – though there were moments of tension.  See, while the kids were waiting for the Nicholas’ to cool off so they could put icing on them, Grandma thought she needed to try one.  Problem is, Grandma got confused and ate Eliana’s Santa Claus.  Oh, the horror when I realized what I had done.  Now you need to know Eliana is one our little Aspies and meltdowns are frequent.  I just wanted to go and hide.  How could I have eaten HER St. Nick???!!!  Oh, Grandma spent many remorseful moments before ‘fessing up.  And Eliana was so gracious.  She was just fine with taking Grandma’s Santa Claus instead.  And Grandma sighed a deep sigh of relief! LOL.

The other moment of tension came when the children somehow thought they had made “cookies” not bread.  You know bread is just not the same as a chocolate chip cookie!!

Other than that, it was a fun filled evening and I am posting some photos of it.

Thanks for letting me share.

Waiting for Santa - a little different

Hope this info will help somebody.

http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-new-obsession.html

Here is a picture that shows one of the advantages of homeschooling:  Saarah surrounded by her beloved stuffed toys.  She is a joy to teach.  Like a sponge that wants to absorb all there is to learn.