August 10th, 2012 by Kristi Stephens

I vividly remember my childish question. I’m sure my mother gave me a reasonable answer but I don’t remember what the answer was. The question lingered.

“Why do I have to make my bed every day when I’m just going to get back in it tonight?”

I mean, really. My brother in law had his own solution to this dilemma – since he was ‘hounded’ into making his bed every day, he simply laid his sleeping bag on top of the bed and slept in it for a couple of years. I surely hope it was washed at some point.

As a homemaker, I find this question magnified.

One day I wrote Ecclesiastes 1:1-9 in the “homemaker paraphrase” and posted it on the facebook blog page. By the responses I got it was obvious I was not alone! =)

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
Says the woman.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
What does the woman gain from all her labor
At which she toils in the house?
Laundry gathered and laundry folded,
Yet the laundry pile remains forever.
The table is cleared and the table is set,
And the dishes are never put away.
The dust is cleaned from baseboards
And grime wiped from the ceiling fan,
It falls to the carpet and blows up in the vacuum,
Ever returning on its course.
The toys are put away,
Yet they somehow appear again.
From the floor where they were just removed,
There they return again.
What has been will be again,
What has been done will be done again;
There is nothing new under the sun.

It’s tempting to make the whole family sleep in sleeping bags and eat poptarts and mac n’ cheese for every meal. So why not? Is there any glory in this ordinary and mundane routine? If you are a fellow weary mom battling chaos in your home, here are a few ways to see His glory in your ordinary.

• As I work in my home, bringing order from disorder and creating an environment in which my family can thrive, I reflect part of God’s character as Creator. I was created as an image bearer, and entrusted with work to do. (Genesis 1:27-18)

• When I am doing other things – writing, leading, teaching – I can start to believe I am more important than I am. As I lead my children on my knees (not just in prayer, but also in scrubbing toilets!), it humbles me and puts me in my place! God does a lot of sanctifying in my heart in those irritating and repetitive tasks! (Matthew 23:11-12)

•  Work was part of our created purpose – but frustrating, futile work was part of the curse.  (Genesis 3:16-19) The fact that our “domains” rebel against us is like a mirror exposing the state of our own souls. As I wonder to myself if my laundry pile breeds when I’m not looking, it’s a reminder that my own heart is quick to wander away from Him, harboring “little things” that can grow unchecked rebellion. You can read more about the curse as “hidden grace” here.

• We all know that a home is more than where a family lives. Our home is my family’s habitat – the physical environment that nurtures and sustains their growth and development. It is the laboratory where my children learn about life, the gym where they develop physical, emotional, and spiritual ‘muscles.’ It is the launching point for our ministry as a family. The more chaos I allow into our environment, the more it affects our willingness and ability to show hospitality, be flexible with our availability, and even the way we speak and interact with one another. It’s interesting and challenging to me that the descriptions of the infamous Proverbs 31 woman revolve around her home – and it leaves a legacy that impacts her husband, children, the poor and needy, and surely many more who experience the “habitat” of home she created.

At first glance, the fact that I scrubbed a ring out of my bathtub yesterday doesn’t seem to have much lasting significance. But there is glory in the ordinary. I am reflecting the character of my God as an image-bearer. My character is being formed as I learn to submit myself to hard and humbling work. That never ending housework is revealing to me the state of my own soul. And as I scrub on hands and knees and fold laundry and do dishes and prepare meals and change sheets and decorate walls, I am creating an environment where I, my family, and those who are introduced to our “habitat” can thrive.

It feels ordinary, and small, and insignificant. But be faithful in the little things – and do everything for the glory of the One who made you. {If reading via email, click over and listen to this great reminder from Steven Curtis Chapman!}

November 9th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Today I thought I’d take a little break from the heaviness of the Revelation judgments and give you a little update on our daily life, along with some sewing/crafting info – it’s been a long time since I did a post like this! ;)

I realized a few days ago that I never updated my blog readers on my bedrest situation. Thank you so much to those who have been praying for us – after two weeks on bedrest and no further problems, my doctor lifted all my restrictions and I haven’t had any problems since! Praise the Lord!

Since then, we’ve been in full baby-prep mode in the Stephens house (I can’t imagine how we would have been ready for #3 if I was on bedrest this whole time!). LB has moved into AG’s room and they are loving their new bunk beds. The crib and changing table have been cleaned up, organized, and prepared. Clothes have been pulled from storage, washed, folded, and put away. Bouncy seats, swings, car seats, bottle warmers, toys, the baby bathtub, and all manner of baby items have been located, washed, and de-funked from their stay in the attic. ;)

My sewing machine has been in high speed the last few days, finishing up some flannel pj’s for the big kids as well as polishing off two more items from my baby to-do list: making a slipcover for the boppy pillow and sewing some new burp cloths.

I’ve never loved our boppy pillow… but to be fair I bought it for $5 at a garage sale and it also came with some toy bars that clip onto it to make a little baby gym, so I can’t complain that I thought it was rather ugly!

After finding this great blog post with patterns and instructions for making a boppy slipcover, I found some flannel on sale for $2.99/yd and bought two yards. An hour or so of work later…

Ta-da! Much better!!

I had about a half a yard of flannel left over, so I decided to sew some much-needed burp cloths. My daughter was one of those babies who made me somewhat of an expert in burp cloths, if you know what I mean. ;) These are so EASY to make and can also be great gifts, so I thought I would give you a little tutorial.

Cut flannel pieces into rectangles – I like my burp cloths to be on the large side, so I cut them into approximately 16″x8″ pieces. [I have often used surplus receiving blankets to make these in the past... we seemed to have WAY more than we needed! They also seem to be easy to find in good condition at consignment stores, which is a cheaper way to get fabric than buying new off the bolt, usually! If you're making baby gifts, you can also purchase receiving blankets that match the bedding they registered for.]

Cut the corners to make them rounded.

I like to make these burp cloths with terry cloth on the back, which makes them both soft and extra absorbent. Again, instead of buying terry cloth off the bolt at the fabric store, I’ve found that the cheapest way to do it is to buy gently used baby towels at the consignment store – as an added plus, the terry on those towels is a finer weave and is nice and soft!

Lay your rectangle on the terry, right sides together, pin, and cut out a matching rectangle.

Sew around the two pieces with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving 4″ or so on one straight side open so you can turn it right side out.

Turn right-side out, fold unsewn edges in to be even with the remainder of the fabric, and top stitch all around about 1/4″ from the edge.

You’re done!

So, for about $6 of flannel, plus some terry cloth that I already had on hand, I ended up with a new boppy cover and 7 great burp cloths! Not too shabby!

But, the side effect of a day of sewing is that the house now looks like this…

Oh, well.

So, that’s what’s new with us… what’s new with you? :)

November 24th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

No deep thoughts to write today… they are floating around in my head, but my hands have been busy. My sewing machine and I have rekindled our relationship during the month of November! Starting with that pilgrim hat project and the pilgrim dress, we have plunged headlong into crafty wondrousness in anticipation of Thanksgiving.

I really love Thanksgiving and wanted to spruce up our decorations a little more with some nice things that I will enjoy pulling out for years to come. (Not that AG’s construction paper/feather turkey isn’t GREAT, but you know… we’re looking for classy.) :)

I started with this banner – I must say that I love how it turned out!!

I had seen an idea in Family Fun for making a glue batik banner. It looked easy and fun – so of course I made it more difficult. That’s the way I roll.

I wanted to paint the background of the muslin a darker brown, but didn’t have enough paint. We resorted to staining it with leftover coffee [grounds and all!]. My husband is brilliant! After we had finished step 2 of Family Fun’s project, we then went over all of the background area with strong coffee and let it dry.

It isn’t drastically darker but it did make it look more brown and weathered, which I like.

After I finished step 4 of the directions I ironed it flat, cut the edges more precisely, and then cut strips of 4″ wide fabric long enough for each side of the banner. Next, I just ironed everything, pinned the strips of fabric on, and sewed them with a 1″ seam allowance. Now I pressed the seams flat, and hemmed the outside edges with a 1″ seam allowance again.

To make the letters, I took a letter stencil we had and painted the letters on backwards with a sponge brush. I didn’t want the paint to show on the finished project, but this was way easier than trying to trace out all those letters with a marker or something on that dark felt.

I let AG help a little. Ie: long enough to take this picture. Mommy was having hard time sharing her project. ;)

After cutting out all the letters, I just glued them onto the banner with liquid stitch and then hot glued a dowel rod to the back to hang it from! Time consuming, but easy project considering how much I like the results!

I liked it so much that I started thinking about placemats!

We all trooped back to JoAnn fabrics (affectionately known as “the green store” at our house) and I got 3/4 yard of dark brown, 3/4 yard of heathered brown, and some pumpkiny orange thread and embroidery floss.

I cut the dark brown to the finished size I wanted using another placemat I had as a template, and then cut the heathered brown rectangles slightly smaller. Then, using my paint/stencil technique I stumbled onto with the banner letters, I painted leaf shapes onto my leftover medium brown felt (from the banner project) using a leaf template my husband drew. I covered the paper with packing tape so that the paint wouldn’t bleed through while I used it. Drawing the leaf was a bit of a pain, so if you want to make these, feel free to download our leaf pattern here.

After painting the leaves, I ironed on some two-sided heat-n-bond to the back and then cut them out. Then we adhered them to the heathered rectangles with the other part of the heat n’ bond, and then I hand stitched around the leaves with embroidery floss.

Yes, that was more work than I had anticipated. [Hence, no thought provoking blogging coming from here lately!!] :)

After the leaves were stitched on, I pinned the heathered rectangles onto the dark brown rectangles and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine. I don’t know how to describe these stitches… so – to make the edges look like this:

I used my machine’s D and G versions of the “SS stitches” – D around the heathered, G around the edge of the dark brown.

Now, I must say that I am not good at cutting out rectangles that are perfectly square and even. Just doesn’t happen. The stitches around the outside not only helped these look more finished, but they also helped camouflage my weird shaped placemats.

While sewing around the dark brown edge, I kept my presser foot lined up with the edge of my stitches around the heatered rectangle. Sometimes I was right on the edge of the fabric, sometimes I had almost an inch to spare. :| After I had stitched around the entire perimeter, I carefully snipped the edges even with the outside of my stitches, being cautious not to clip the threads. So, my rectangles might be a little wonky, but visually they look good since the width of the dark brown is even all the way around.

I have enjoyed having a home project to work on, and I love how the banner and placemats dress up the dining room for Thanksgiving.

And don’t they look stellar with my new fabric napkins my sister made me?

Hope you’re enjoying your Thanksgiving prep! God has blessed us abundantly – give thanks to Him and praise His name!

To see what others have been tackling, click over to Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom!

August 12th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Looking for a cheap and chemical-free way to soften your clothing?

Me, too. You know how I like cheap. But cheap doesn’t count if it doesn’t work.

First I tried Nellie’s dryer balls – I like these spiky little gadgets that you throw into your dryer with your clothes, but I thought the clothes still seemed a bit stiff and static-y if I didn’t use any other type of softener.

Enter: vinegar in a downy ball.

I use a vinegar rinse on my diapers since I had read it will help soften fabrics, so I started using it with my regular loads. Tada! The combination of the dryer balls and the vinegar rinse works wonders – our clothes feel like I used a chemical softener!

If you’ve never used vinegar in the wash, don’t worry – your clothes really will not smell like vinegar when you’re done. I promise. Put about 1/2 cup of vinegar in the downy ball (I eyeball it – 1/2″ or so above the fill line), drop it on top of your clothes when you put them in to wash like you would with liquid softener. Finish off the clothes with some dryer balls in the dryer (I found “nellie’s” at Aldi a while back, but you can find dryer balls pretty much anywhere in the laundry/ironing section, it seems) – you’ll never miss the softener!

For more “works for me Wednesday” tips, head over to WeAreThatFamily.