It is a recurring theme of this blog, and I suspect many others, to announce "Hello. cyber-world and online pals, I'm still alive."  Blogging is a lot like dieting for most of us--we can stick with it for a while but then something happens to interupt our good intentions.  I'd rather fall off the blog wagon though. Sorting backlogged email and touching base with friends is so much more pleasant than gaining weight.

I think I have had a pretty good excuse, though, for falling off the blog wagon yet again---health reasons.   That and the [deliberate] inconvenience of coming to the office to do computer work.  I've noticed that having the computer in a room too small for us all to fit keeps me from spending too much time there myself.

 Sans laptop, I have to make time to  wade into the office [the last remaining holdout of clutter from my pre-baby nesting/organizing craze], crank up the old console, sort email, catch headlines, and then try to come up with something to write.  Somehow, "the baby threw up in my hair last night" or "we are trying to learn verb tenses" or "I'm enjoying Mystery of History more than the kids" just doesn't cut it. So I stare at the page for a while and then move on to something more exciting. Like washing dishes, grading papers, or changing diapers.

I am wrung out--thus the lack of blog fodder. Slowly I'm bouncing back. My brain doesn't seem to be as quick as it was---even my dear husband commented on the lack of quick-witted conversation, a staple around Doehill.  He would quip something and instead of returning the favor all I could do was stare. Usually I'm a pretty good verbal sparring partner, but I just can't get my brain to react as quickly as it used to.

Ah! there is hope though--the cool brisk weather of fall and the bracing delight of hot tea may clear the mental fog. And if it doesn't, and If I don't blog worth a hoot anymore, at least the page is pretty thanks to  Home Sweet Home Graphics. 

I looked at my site meter this morning and about fell out of my office chair [at my size a twenty minute procedure].  13,899 visitors?  No way! And then I got to wondering in a paranoiac fashion, Why are so many reading here? Why don't they comment? Who are all these lurkers in the shadows stopping by this blog to read the rantings of a crazy mountain woman? Why won't they answer me?????

Oh well, Whoever you are stopping by, [1] thanks for visiting, [2] thanks for not leaving ugly messages, and [3] by all means leave me a NICE note. It won't hurt, really.

Oh, yeah, I took my Cbox down because it was becoming just a nother venue for my making an online fool of myself.  That and Suzanne was the only one who had mercy enough to leave a message. [Thanks, new friend!] 

What else? Hmmm. the hitch in my getalong is better, so it looks like we can have a pain-free school day.  Well got to go. These kids are having way too much fun without me. I think I hear the Benji theme song coming from the living room....

Hmmm...I didn't realize I'd been blogging for so long. I've been here at HSB since January 15, 2006!  I've really enojyed it, too. Meeting so many new folks, learning, and sharing the homeschool journey is a blessing. 

So, thanks to all my HSB friends and readers.  It's been fun! 

Lately I've been sewing again.  I really enjoy making clothes for the kids and myself. My skills aren't good enough to make hubby's clothes--he has company shirts for work, and needs dress clothes for church, but what I make for the kids and myself looks better than what I find in stores.

I like pretty clothes, and so does my daughter. Girls ought to have pretty things to wear, not the ugly, trendy, defeminizing things you find on store racks. It make me nauseous to see young girls wearing items with suggestive words printed across the bosom or behind. They aren't merchandise---I ache to see so many girls dress like they are. I wish they understood how special they are to the God who made them!

I've read other bloggers here at HSB who shared similar opinions. Clothes retailers sell items for young girls that are shockingly suggestive but instead called "cute" .   Belly baring, hip hugging jeans, too short skirts, and ugly slogans aren't cute. They are demeaning. I love my daughter too much to have her dress in a way that says something ugly about  her character. She is a precious gift of God to our family. I want her clothing to reflect her worth and dignity.

That's also how I feel about my dear son. Boys clothes don't seem to be as bad as the girls though. The worst I've seen for boys are the strange T-Shirts offered by stores, these days. We are teaching the children that skulls aren't cool. They are a reminder of death---death came upon man as a consequence of sin. It's not something to be glorified. The place---the dark, fearful place--where our Lord Jesus was cruicified was called "the place of the skull."  Skulls and symbols of death aren't something I want on my children's bodies to teach them that death is fashionable. It is something to be conquered by faith in the Risen Victorious Lord.

So my sewing is more than a hobby. It's part of my ministry as a mom to my children. 

I'm just generally disgusted with the clothes available today for little girls in stores. So I am making more of them for Thelma Lou.  Here's a Christmas plaid skirt I finished in about an hour and a half [with interuptions].  The pleats were fun to sew!  This is from McCall's pattern 4583. It's the simpllest set-in waist-band pattern I've ever used.

Front view:

Now the back:

I've been busy.  First, we've decorated the tree with handmade ornaments. The kids made pictures and paper chains. I made crocheted ornaments. The bell got smushed by Thelma Lou1

Here's one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever received. The year before my mother died, she made decorated sweatshirt jackets. She became too ill to finish the one she made her mother. Mamaw kept it and passed away a few years ago. My Aunt found the jacket  in Mamaw's things and gave it to me for Christmas. I was so excited!  All I had to do was finish the red trim around the jacket opening. Sweatshirt jackets aren't my favorite things, but this one certainly is!

ALL THE WAY BACK IN NOVEMBER....I won a contest over at Laura Williams' blog---a free pattern from Sew Sensible.  I honestly meant to get sewing before now, but Thanksgiving preparations and Nativity costumes had to be finished first.

Aimee's pattern is so cute and so easy. I made a pair of shorts and pants in less than an hour.  Her directions are clear and the pattern was easy to put together after printing it out. ANYONE can do this!

Here's the results:

I'd put a picture of the shorts on here, but Thelma Lou has them on and can't be still long enough for a photo!

Here's a purse that I made for me from a store-bought pattern:

And here's a matching tote that I made for Thelma Lou from a pattern I made up:

You can't tell from the picture, but it has a flat bottom and holds all her workbooks and other stuff very neatly.

I've also finished an angel costume, but didn't get pictures of it  [should have, though] before i gave to my hubby's cousin to use at her church. I've got to sew some skirts for Thelma Lou because I HATE the "fashions" carried for little girls at stores. It's almost like retailers want to turn a whole generation of little girls into....well, never mind. Just NOT MY GIRL!!

Thanks again Laura and Aimee! 

We have been looking up our family history. I knew our roots were deep here, but was surprised at what i found. This is a fairly new project for us. So far, we've traced back along my mother's family tree [thanks to work graciously share by other descendants] back to Scotland and England, but my father's seems to stop at the Civil War. 

We desecended from a James Henry, who was brother to the Samuel Henry state markers featured in the photos below.

It was South of this station that the Great American Sam Houston  chose to live with the Cherokees for a time. 

We also found out more information about one of our ancestors, Robert Everett who fought in the Revolutionary War at King's Mountain.  That's definitely a future field trip.  We visited the cemtery where other Everetts are buried.

It says, "Saphronia Everett'.

This cemetery is near the school I attended as a little girl, now closed.

Such scenery kind of gives "rest in peace' fresh meaning doesn't it? Anyway, the kids are enjoying studying the history of our area and seeing landmarks and such.

In an earlier post I showed the beautiful scenery around DoeHill.  It was just pointed out to me that something extra was in the picture...see if you can spot it.

Yep, that's a shooting target.  Now we don't go hunting [when do we have time for that? ], but just in case one of these days, we keep sharp.  And guess who the best shot is? It's not Thelma Lou, Earnest T. or dhubby--"Andy".  It's MOM!  aka--"Karen Moore" from TAGS. HA!

I also pressed a doily that my Great-Grandmother Rachel Cora crocheted in the early 1950s.  It was still stiff, but needed shaping. This doily was a present for her dauther-in-law, my Grandmother Margie. She passed it on to her daughter [my aunt] and i received it as a Christmas present last year. I cried when i opened the bag with this doily in it!

I also have one of Great Grandmother's crocheted bedspreads. She made it in 1944-45 while her son, my Papaw, was in France.  The story goes that folks said she probably shouldn't make something for his wedding when he returned. She would just smile and say, "Oh, he'll be back."  She was  Christian and believed that God would bring her son home. He did, and eventually became a preacher.

I have very few things crocheted by my mother. She gave everything she made away.  But I can immediately tell a piece crocheted by Granny, Mom, or me. The stitches are as unique as handwriting.

After I get all my Christmas gifts made for family/friends, I may host a contest to give away one of my crocheted items on the blog. We'll see.

Hello! It's official: I'm back! Praise God, He allowed us to have a new computer. It's so advanced I don't know  how to really work it yet, but as long as I can make worksheets for school, keep track of library books for church, check email, and blog a little why bother with the gizmos and gee-haws? 

My email had piled up ridiculously over the past 2 1/2 months. I had over 2,000 emails!!! Needless to say, I've already worn out the delete button on this baby.

Homeschooling has progressed so much smoother this year. Who knew that getting up really early and sticking with a schedule could help us accomplish so much? Not being on the computer has helped me establish better habits here at home. When the children saw the computer delivered to the front porch, they both told me, "Mom, we don't want you on that thing all the time!"

So, while I'm back, I will not be on the computer everyday. Mondays and Fridays will be the only days I go online to write or check mail--so all you folks who need to get "a-hold" of me for more urgent stuff [like church or school things]--just call me.

There's not a whole lot to say here today except I've missed all the sweet Christian online fellowship with so many of you. God is so good to us! One of my favorite sermons is called, "The Sweetest Fellowship This Side of Heaven" by the late Rev. Adrian Rogers. So many of you dear Christian ladies have borne that out in my life.

It's good to be back.

In Christ---Gin

Well, either I just have plain worn it out, or it's God's way of telling me not to fritter away my summer vacation on a keyboard, but my computer has died. The family can't decide whether to mourn its passing, or rejoice that Mom will finally be forced to emerge from the office!

So, email pals and blogger pals, since I have to go to the library now to check out my stuff, I won't be available online as I have been.  Soo---I'll be blogging less [ maybe a couple more entries today, depends on how the kids behave here at the library]. Bye!