Gratituesday for a New Year

Sixteen years ago, when our big kids were little, my friend Laura from Heavenly Homemakers started a Tuesday practice on her blog called Gratituesday. It was a regular posting each week about the things she was grateful for and hundreds (maybe thousands) of other folks on blogs and the interwebs joined in this practice for many years. I’ve been feeling a call to more gratitude and thankfulness in my life, especially after the year our family just experienced. There’s nothing like literally life-saving surgery to remind you of what’s important! But it was oh, SO hard. And it’s also easy to forget to be thankful for the life-saving, the progress, the light at the end of the dark tunnel. There were many moments that the walls of the dark tunnel became all consuming and the light ahead was just the tiniest of shimmers. So, all those words to say, I’m bringing back Gratituesday to my life.

Gratituesday - clarity, energy, love of family

Today I’m grateful for more clarity, energy, and the love of family. Over the last few weeks, I’ve felt my clarity of thought coming back (slowly!), and my energy for the things I love rebounding (also slowly!) And it’s totally a given, but I simply wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have the love of family (many of whom are not blood related). Their love has given me hope, sanity and peace… a determination to stick around and go through the surgery…and their love and prayers have given me clarity and energy!

So, what are you grateful for this Tuesday? I’d love for you to join me in this simple practice, whether it’s in sharing in the comments, posting on your own socials, or just in simple thoughts of gratitude each week.

Help Please!

As I work through a 2024 yearly plan for the shop, and especially for craft items AND classes we offer, I’d love some feedback from our friends and followers! Can you look through the list and comment with any of the ideas that appeal to you? (Feel free to private message me as well, if you prefer).

– Watercolor Kits and/or Paint and Sip Events

– Acrylic Painting – Paint and Sip Events

– Cross Stitch Kits and/or Events

– Fabric Embroidery Kits and/or Stitch Events

– Wood Embroidery Kits and/or Stitch Events

– More Wood Barn Quilts / Wood Decor Pieces

– Regular (Monthly?) Fiber Nights for crocheting/knitting (Bring your own project and/or work on something we might offer)

– Larger Door Hanger classes

– Smaller Door Hanger/Wall Art classes

– Paper crafting kits (cards, scrapbooking, etc)

– Kids crafting (share any ideas you might have!)

– Needle felting / Felt Crafts

– Macrame

– Jewelry making

– Bible Journaling

– Calligraphy / Hand Lettering

We will continue to add kits and items you can craft anytime to the shop. We LOVE when you come in and craft during the week when we’re open! BUT, we’d also like to offer regular weekly (or bi-weekly) evening/weekend events this year, if there is interest. If you have an opinion on dates/times, that’d be great to know. And if you have additional suggestions for crafty classes, I’d love to hear them!

And finally, if YOU would like to facilitate craft/art classes, please let me know!

If you aren’t local, I’d be interested in your opinions too, as we’re working on a revamp of the website for 2024 too!

2023 Recap

2023 will go down as one of the hardest years of my life, no question. We started the year with the knowledge that I would need open heart surgery if I wanted to live longer than 3-5 years. Surgery wasn’t what I wanted, but it was what I needed.

In January, I poured all my energy, angst, worry and fear into a project that I’m still very proud of – “The Heart Collection Prayer and Gratitude Journal”. I’ve been wanting to publish something like this for years, and the time was right. By the first of February, the copies were in my hands (and listed on amazon).

The months between February and June are a bit of a blur. Birthdays, graduation and trips. I was supposed to be slowing down to pace myself and not push too hard, and yet there was a true sense of “I don’t want to miss a thing”. To top it all off, I was dealing with a volcano of unresolved trauma from childhood surrounding my first open heart surgery. It was literally the best of times and the worst of times.

By June, I was as ready for surgery as I was going to get. And we found out later, it was definitely time. During surgery, my heart struggled and the surgery took hours longer than planned. Recovery did not go as I expected either. What I hoped would be just a few weeks away from my shop/office turned into a few months. I had to embrace the concept that the recovery process could take up to a year.

There’s no way to be prepared for the emotions, the trauma, and the difficulty you go through during a year like this. I’ve had to flex ALL my patience muscles, learn bucket loads of humility, swallow every bit of pride, and cry rivers of tears through anger AND thankfulness, sadness AND joy. Through it all, there have been some amazing experiences, joyful life-giving visits with family, and deeper connectedness with my husband and kids.

And that brings me to this last day of the year. I’m SO READY for the chapter that has been 2023 to be closed. I’m more ready than I’ve ever been to welcome a new year. I’m hoping to continue in my recovery, to regain strength and energy, to get clarity of mind back, to feel the creative juices flow.

Here’s to more growth, more love, and more peace in 2024.

The Heart Collection

As many of you know, I will be having open heart surgery in May to repair a birth defect that didn’t get fixed during my first surgery 45 years ago.

We’re expecting Allan and I will have at least one month with no income as I recover, while having additional costs with the surgery and week long hospital stay in Omaha, and medical bills.

While I’m waiting for surgery, I’m not supposed to be working too hard, but thankfully designing is not too strenuous. And so…I’ve been designing! I’m excited to debut “The Heart Collection” (see what I did there?), with Prayer/Gratitude Journals, vinyl stickers, wood signs. Still in design mode are encouragement cards.

https://www.delightaccessories.com/shop/heart-collection/45

This collection is something I’ve been brainstorming and thinking about for months, and finally getting to design the new products over the last few weeks has been so fun AND therapeutic.

“The Heart Collection” is the first of at least three new series of products I’ll be releasing in 2023, and every sale will help with my Heart Surgery fund. If you can help by sharing my Facebook page, Instagram, and sales pages, I would appreciate it more than I can say. My hope is that these products can be used to encourage others and bring glory to God, while also helping us get through what’s coming!

Stay tuned for more!!

https://www.delightaccessories.com/shop/heart-collection/45

No Fear Friday – John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

It’s not been the most peaceful week, anywhere.

But God promises… Jesus promises… we can have peace. HIS peace. He left it here for us, he gives it to us when we need it. And the peace is for always. It’s not a one-time gift or something that can be taken away. We don’t have to be worried or afraid because HIS PEACE is with us and in us.

It sounds easy. And in some ways it is. For me, it’s about focusing. Meditating. Remembering. I can’t create peace within myself on my own. But I can have HIS PEACE.

And I can have no fear.

You can get this week’s phone wallpaper by clicking HERE.