Spirit of Service: Passing on Old Clothes

One of the Works of Mercy is to clothe the naked. A very simple way of sharing the love is by donating. We donate our old, unused, or unwanted clothing and household items. It's not a big thing, but as St. Therese of Lisieux and Mother Teresa say,

 "Do small things with great love."

A way to stretch our family's money, aside from shopping sales and scouting the clearance racks at department stores, is by frequenting our local thrift stores. Just about all my maternity wardrobe from this last pregnancy was purchased from them. We've also been very blessed to have a number of friends pass around their daughters old clothes to us. Not to mention donating, buying used, and passing around clothing and other items is a superb, easy, green way of helping the environment through reusing.

I am in the process of doing some house cleaning and organizing. This stash of clothing is headed today for CCAP, a local needs assistance center that gives out clothes without charge to those who need them.

Spirit of Obedience: What I'm Reading (from the doula book list!))

For the Childbirth International doula certification, you must read 3 books. I have begun reading my first book choice, Heart and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth by Elizabeth Davis.

I purchased this book a few months back when I was dying to read it but my local library didn't have it. I was delighted when I came across it on the reading list. Now I don't have to feel quite as guilty for buying my own copy since it benefits my doula endeavours ;)


**A little side note, only 3 more days until I shadow my first prenatal doula meeting. Wish me luck!

Staycation Day 3 ~ Skyline Drive

Our third day of staycationing was spent at the beautiful Skyline Drive. It's one of my family's favorite places to visit and come here frequently. It has some spectacular views!

I love, love, LOVE the Appalachian Trail. A portion of it runs through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park.

I've always said, in another life time if I couldn't be a Trappist monk then I'd walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. I touched that dream briefly, when my family got out of the car and walked a very short portion of it (lots of small kids make for short hikes!).  Here's the sign of the trail!

Here I am touching my beloved trail :) Sorry, I have a bit of a sense of humor and we were having a good time! AT love <3

Anything for the trail.

We ate lunch at one the many picnic sites and took loads of pictures throughout the day, too many to bore you with here. We had a fantastic day and wonderful time together as a family out in nature. Another one of the Goad family's special days to remember always.

Spirit of Service: Prayer Intention Board

 "I entrust to your infinite mercy, O Lord, those who have asked for my prayer, those for whom I have promised to prayer, and those for whom I should pray."

 ~Excerpt from LMC Morning Offering Prayer





Prayer is a part of my life as an LMC.

I love souls and I love praying for souls. It's a spiritual work of mercy, in fact. One way to assist the poor is through the service of prayer.

There are so many people in need of prayer. The list is forever getting longer and my heart and prayer goes out to each and every one of them.

One thing my family has begun to do recently is to create a Prayer Intention Board. It's simply a cork board dedicated only for people we're praying for. In this way we can keep them in our hearts and minds, being reminded of them each time we look at the board.









When the time affords me, I'd like to glam it up; maybe decorate the trim or something. Right now our intentions are written on a sticky note pinned to the board, but I'd like to create heart or angel shaped cut outs to give it a little special touch.

Spirit of Obedience: I'm a Doula-In-Training!

I took the first step!

I registered with Childbirth International to train and certify as a birth doula. I'm now officially a doula-in-training :)

To add a cherry on top of this wonderful news a dear friend of mine, who is herself a doula and childbirth educator, has offered to allow me to shadow her! A client of hers has agreed to allow me to observe and train during her pregnancy. Baby is due in October and the mother is planning a birth center delivery. How exciting and beautiful. Many prayers for this new little family. I am thrilled as I start on this new journey of service~assisting mothers and babies!

Spirit of Poverty: Birthday Crown FINALLY

Last year I began making a Waldorf-style birthday crown for my daughter, Julia-Ann, for her first birthday. I designed it, bought all the materials, sewed on the designs. . . pretty much the only thing left to do was to sew on the elastic portion of it.

. . .and then I got pregnant.

When I am pregnant, in the "morning sickness" phase of the pregnancy, I get some really strange quirks I'd suppose you'd call them. Instead of getting physically sick I get a very 'gross' feeling. The best way I've been able to describe it is as being green under the gills, but even that doesn't do the feeling I get during early pregnancy justice. It's not like a 'I'm going to get sick' or 'I'm nauseous' feeling, just a very icky, gross feeling. And it's not so much foods or smells, per se, that make me sick as it is visual and tactile stimuli. Pretty much I develop an aversion to anything I  was doing or interested in at the on set of my pregnancy.

For example, sweaters. It was winter when I became pregnant with my 5th daughter. I was out shopping, looking in the clothing department and there were sweaters EVERYWHERE. I felt so nasty I had to leave that part of the store! At home, I had to pack away all my sweaters so I could no longer see them or touch them. . . .or really even think about them. It's silly, I know! I'm not sure where that came from or why I get like that. Warm, thick blankets have set off the same response. And with this last baby I had what I term "pregnancy induced hair highlights". My natural hair color has gotten rather dark over the years. Never bothered me before, in fact, I kind of liked it. Oh no. While pregnant, looking in the mirror and seeing my dark hair made me sick. So sick, I went and got some highlights put in to lighten it up! Yeah, God left a screw loose in the "pregnancy department" when He made me.

So as I was saying this time last year I was making this really great Birthday Crown. I had found some natural wool felt at the craft store. I loved the stuff! I thought I was so lucky to stumble upon it. And I was making progress in the sewing department, only a little to go. No doubt in my mind, I was going to have the crown finished in time for her very special first birthday.

Well after getting pregnant and entering that morning sickness phase I could no longer stand to touch the wool felt. Or look at it. I tried to pick it back up and finish it--push past the ickiness--but I couldn't stomach the feeling. I had to resign myself to the notion it wasn't going to get done, despite what little I had left to do. It was tucked away.

Now that her 2nd birthday is rolling up on August 16th, it was time to complete it. I hate an unfinished craft. It makes me leery of starting another one. It' sits in the back of my mind, haunting me. Well, I'm happy to say I can scratch this one off my list!


So finally, at last, the year long Birthday Crown~~

The instructions for the Wool Felt Birthday Crown can be found on the blog Frontier Dreams by clicking here.

Sunflowers and butterflies symbolizing her bithday season, summer, with her intials.

Her Guardian Angel.

Fireflies, again, a summer symbol.

Spirit of Chastity: 10 Year Anniversay Surprise

10 years.

That is how long my husband and I have been married already.

Amazing how fast the years can go!

I'm planning a little something special for him on our upcoming anniversary on August 26th.

I have done lots of commissions and drawn a number of portraits of other people's kids.
And while I've done a couple pictures of our daughters as infants, I have yet to do a portrait with all of them together. He's mentioned in the past that he'd like one to put up on our wall.

That is my gift to him!

With summer staycationing, beginning a new year of homeschooling, and, well, just life in general with 6 kids, I wasn't able to start my portrait in time to have it completed by the day of our anniversary.
But it's the thought that counts.

And the old saying goes:
You can't rush a masterpiece!

So stay tuned. . .when I'm done I'll share the finished product :)