Fall Cleaning

You hear about Spring cleaning, but what a deep clean in the Fall? I enjoy cleaning, I find it very therapeutic. Having a tidy home is important to me.  I find myself cleaning like a mad woman when I'm stressed or frustrated about something. 

I came across this Fall cleaning list, and I really like it. I'm going to start working on this list each day after school. 

It's always more fun to do things like this with other people. So, who wants to clean along with me?

Hello from Missouri!

I realized the other day that I never updated you all on our move!

As you know, we lived in Hungary as missionaries, and we came home on furlough. During that furlough, due to several different things, we knew the Lord was calling us back home to America.

So, in March, Marty officially resigned as a missionary. Talk about an adjustment! We have been missionaries almost all of our married life, going on 17 years!!

Marty began calling supporting churches to let them know about us resigning. One of the first churches he called was Grace Baptist Church in Chillicothe, Missouri. You see, Grace Baptist church has always had a special place in our hearts. We couldn't explain it, but of all our supporting churches this one always stuck out to us. Not saying we didn't appreciate all of our other supporting churches, this one was just special to us. We have known the people here ever since Eli was two and Maryanna was a baby, so at least 12 years! They had been without a pastor for nearly 5 years. 

 Before Marty called them, we prayed that if this was the church we were to be at that Bro. Snow, the deacon, would bring it up. Low and behold he did! He asked Marty to pray about coming up to candidate.

Grace Baptist church building

We took some time to pray about Marty canidating there, and on March 31st he did. The church took two weeks to pray. Then at the beginning of April the church called Marty to be the new pastor. We were beyond excited! Our first service was April 21st, Easter Sunday and also the churches 16th anniversary.

The welcoming cake!

Our family!

We got busy looking for housing. We traveled up every weekend from Arkansas, which was about a 5 hour drive. Thankfully, The Lord opened up housing very quickly, and on April 28th, we secured the nicest house we have ever lived in.

Our new home! 

We went back down to Arkansas to begin packing up our house. We packed it up in two days! Granted, I had a majority of it packed up already. We left Arkansas the night of April 30th, and got home here in Chillicothe on May 1st, at 3 am, during an awful rain storm. We have a running joke in our family, that every time, and I mean every time we move, the weather is awful!     

Loading up the moving truck!

We have now been here for four months now! The time has flown by. We have settled in nicely and have enjoyed serving alongside our church family. It has been odd not traveling as much, but we have enjoyed having a place to call home and a place to serve. 

Sewing!

Sewing is something I enjoy doing but don't do very often. My kids are heading to camp in a few weeks, so that means the girls needed new culottes! They are super simple to make yourself! I was curious as to how much they cost online, and the cheapest I found were $18, for one pair. But, I was able to get the material and supplies for right around $20, and I will get a few pairs of culottes made.

I thought I would put myself out there and show you guys how I make my girls culottes! 

 *DISCLAIMER* 

   I am by no means a seamstress. I know how to sew basic things. With that being said, ignore my not perfectly straight lines, and my nontechnical lingo!  :)     

Step 1~Materials! 

You will need, fabric, elastic, scissors, pins, sewing machine, and a pair of basket ball shorts. I use the shorts as a pattern, they work great! 

Step 2~Cutting!

Lay the shorts out on your fabric. Leave some room on the side for extra wide legs. 

I cut about 2 inches longer than the shorts, just to give more length for hemming. 

Don't cut right up against the pattern. You will want the extra room! 

Not the best picture, but then you take the piece you just cut out and cut out another one just like it! 

You should now have four pieces cut out. 

There are two panes shown, but there are actually four! When you cut them out your material was folded. I hope that makes sense!  :)

Step 3~Sewing! 

Now comes the fun part, sewing them together! You are going to sew along the inseam first, the curved part. :)  Do this with both of your pieces. 

I use a zigzag stitch. 

Now you put the two pieces together. You need to put the right sides together. 

Now you are going to pin the legs together. Sew these first! 

All pinned and ready to be sewn! 

After you have sewn the inside seam, you then sew the outside of the leg, do that on both sides. 

Now you measure for the elastic! You don't want it too tight, they won't be able to pull the culottes  up if the elastic is too tight!:) 

I then pin the waist band to be about an inch and a half. Enough room to run the elastic through.

Leave a space to thread you elastic through! 

Pin one side of the elastic down, so you don't wind up pulling it all the way through. 

Use a safety pin to thread the elastic through! 

When you come out the other end, make sure that the elastic didn't get twisted as you threaded it through. Been there done that! 

Overlap the two ends and sew them together! I sew them in a couple of lines so that the elastic doesn't come undone.

To keep the elastic from twisting, I like to sew it down. I find the side seam, and just sew the elastic down on each side! 

Then you hem them to the desired length and you are good to go! Please ignore my raw edges. :) 

And there you have them! 

Eryn and cartwheel approved! 

I sure hope this post helps someone! Most of all, I hope it made sense and is easy to follow along!