Begin Again

Hello Friends!

If feels good to be writing again! And I am creating lilugas again! Must be the warm, sunny days of summer that are inspiring me. Ismael and I are taking lots of walks and soaking up the vitamin D.

So much has happened since I last wrote. Hard to believe it's almost been a year since our NJ/NYC trip!

Last fall our landlord put the house up for sale. We were renting floors one and two in a three unit house. It sold after Christmas and we found out early February that the new landlord would be moving in to the top floor on April 1st. We thought, no problem, we'll just look for a new house to rent. Oh my, the current rents were a few hundred dollars more than what we were paying (our previous landlord of 9+ years never raised our rent).

The friendly ants don't want us to move!

A realtor friend suggested we look into buying a home, because the monthly payments could actually be cheaper than renting. So in early March, we began house hunting. Us and every other disgruntled renter in town. We liked a house, made an offer, and lost it to another bidder. We wanted to put a bid on another, but someone beat us to it. Then, nothing seemed quite right. We hoped we'd be moved by April, then the hope moved to May, then to June.

As we were house hunting, I can't say I had peace with moving forward with buying a home. I just couldn't convince myself it was the right thing to do. Caleb has only one year of high school left, so we were only looking in the school district boundaries. I didn't want to move him his last year of school if I didn't have to. However, most homes in our price range were in neighboring towns. I was conflicted on where to go and when.

On April 1st, we moved our entire upstairs to the first floor. Crazy. Well, it really wasn't so bad. Lots of boxes everywhere. Mary was sleeping in the front porch. Then, end of May, Max moved out. So Mary moved into his room and most of the boxes moved to the front porch. We adjusted.

Back in June, Ismael lost his job. Poof, it was gone. Are we thankful we didn't buy a house? Absolutely. Throughout all of this, we were praying and submitting the situation to God. That peace I never felt? I believe it was from God.

I wanted to move, and badly. I wanted my own home to decorate and do as I please. I was even scouring Pinterest for decorating ideas. I was pushing that nagging feeling aside. I am thankful God did something drastic to stop us.

 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6:31-34

Of course, that's not all that happened the past year, but it was what consumed me most. No wonder I forgot all about my lilugas!

Hey, don't forget about me!

Once we were settled downstairs and doing our best to make it our "new" home, I got the itch to stitch. The need to create. Little problem though, all my sewing boxes were in the front porch. And each one was only marked "sewing" (I truly thought they'd only be in boxes temporarily). So I did what I had to do and pulled all the boxes out and found what I needed.

I have always sewn my lilugas on my sewing machine, with only the faces being embroidered. However, now, every time I sew, I have to pull out my machine and all accessories and move them from the  porch to the dining room table. When I am done sewing, I move it all back. No big deal, really (I'm leaving for the chiropractor in about 15 minutes). Instead of all that back and forth, I decided to hand stitch the entire liluga.

Good decision. It has become my stress-buster. I love to embroider and no more fights with my sewing machine.

What a good looking bunch!

I have these four liluga's made so far. I also made one for my key chain. He wasn't part of the photo shoot, though. I actually like these hand stitched guys best. Of course, I think I always feel that way when I create new lilugas.

I already know who the pink guy is going to be given to, and I will pray for who the others can be given to. And I will make more, cause it is the perfect thing to do on a hot summer night, right?

Still have the official liluga "L" on our behinds!