Unfinished Projects....

Many of us have those unfinished projects.....and I have lots of them also. I am showing a few of them here.............

Our 2nd son was born with many medical problems and we had to travel for his surgeries - we traveled about 12 hours each way for these surgeries.......and stayed anywhere from a couple of days......to 5 weeks. We took all of our children and started these trips when we had 3 children, then as more were added to our family, we kept taking all of them. Lots of kids,medical supplies, luggage, and more. We decided that we had to be apart during surgeries, but we were a family and we would be together when we could, so we chose to keep the kids with us rather than with a babysitter hours away.

  Trying to keep the kids interested in travel after we went on the same trip again and again.....was hard. After a while, "Oh, Kids, LOOK at that ______." ceased to be exciting.

We took these trips between 1 and 7 times every year...........and we did this for about 11 years. That's a lot of trips........that's a lot of travel time.

I didn't want the kids to just think of these trips as horrible trips of sitting in the van, not able to move around.... to go to the hospital and sit in waiting rooms, so we tried to make them fun - as fun as a hospital trip CAN be. :)

 We have stopped at free things along the way - parks, fossil beds, lakes, rivers, historical and educational places - mainly whatever we could find that was free.  Money was tight already and so many trips, hotel costs, medical supplies and more limited things greatly........but God provided places for us to visit and we had fun. Of course, we always took our schoolwork also.....one of the benefits of homeschooling.

 I bought little fun toys, activities and surprises at garage sales and saved them for trips. I would make up baggies of trail mix for each child....and they loved being able to make it last....or eat it right away.

The funny thing is that the kids have fond memories of these trips....they don't seem to remember the hours and hours we sat in the waiting room as much as the fun of the trips. What a blessing. :)

 I also read books on tape and we played those in the van....or listened to music....or messages. Sometimes I took craft project materials....like the time I took some yarn with us and I cut out circles from a cracker box after we ate the crackers and taught the kids how to make pom pom balls.....they LOVED it....my husband had to make one when it was my turn to drive. :) Then we used these little yarn balls to play catch in the hotel room....they were soft and didn't hurt things so it was a really good project.

My husband and I shared the driving duties....and I tried to take projects to make my time useful....so I would cut out some quilt pieces and start on a quilt top....all by hand.  

 I would work on these mainly while we traveled, and I didn't work on them at home as I was way too busy there. It was pleasant to create something pretty and keep my hands busy and still be able to interact with my family.

There was a problem, though. Eventually, the quilt top would become too big to spread out and work on in the van or the hospital.

 So........I would start another one, which was smaller and more manageable........I didn't buy new fabric, but used what I had to save money, so sometimes I would run short and had to change plans....sometimes I would make them bigger.

My husband teased me that the one that was "supposed" to be for our queen sized bed would maybe be far enough along to finish for him to use as a lap robe when he gets old. :)

 This quilt is one that I ran out of fabric while doing - the blue floral on the off-white background......I ran out. Remember that some of these were planned and cut out while riding in a van....and I had to work on my lap, so planning wasn't perfect. Many times I would take a few pieces of fabric and see what I could come up with. God provided some fabric that was a REALLY close match, then I had to adjust the pattern so that the 2 fabrics weren't right next to each other, which is why there is a yellow border around the central part....but this is part of the creative process. :)

One time when we had to go on one of these trips with a 4 week old newborn.... and I forgot a bonnet - in the summer. :(  I checked my sewing bag and I pulled out the fabric and made this cute little simple bonnet w/ ruffles, lace and ribbon. It was cute and protected that sweet little scalp from sunburn as we walked back and forth to the hospital.

Well, anyway......I realized again lately that I have many unfinished projects....I need to make time to finish them..........someday.  Once I started them all by hand, I just didn't want to use a sewing machine on them. I took the pictures of these and put them back away........I did work on this one during a ladies video series at church and made some progress, but it is a long way from being done.

It is fun to look at these again....and someday I plan to finish the tops and then make them in to quilts (or lap robes!!! :) . For now though, there is much more to my life and I just don't have time.....and that is okay. These projects are worth the space to save and finish at a later time. Right now, raising kids, making meals, gardening, herbal research, being a good wife and mother, etc are more important.

I have had projects that I worked on years ago, but decided not to finish....like things that were popular at one time, but weren't really what I liked....so it felt good to give them away and not keep them around. Sometimes I wondered WHY I even saved certain projects as I really didn't have a use for them. Others I finished up and I was so glad to have it done....like the braided rug that I finally finished up about 3-4 years ago and my girls love using in their room.

It is good to evaluate these things periodically -  but not just in our craft cabinets.......we also need to evaluate our lives....is it time to go back to working on some old "projects"....... like being kind? being more frugal? learning to love more like Jesus wants us to? being better than the neighbors? having more than others? Hmmmmmm.........some of those "projects" need to be thrown out. As we grow and realize that being better than the neighbors or having more than others is not something we should ever do again, we can get rid of it......and turn our attention to more worthy pursuits...those that will honor the Lord. Do you have some unfinished "projects" that need to be evaluated? I think we all do and need to keep checking to see that we are only keeping the ones that are worth keeping.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23,24

Thank you for visiting my blog today......and I hope that you have a great day!  :)

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