Can you believe that this little baby

is now EIGHT YEARS OLD?

I couldn't believe it either but it's true!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

You truly are one of God's best ideas.

The Major Update

Whew!  November has been a crazazy month!  There is so much to update you on but I have a cold and my brain hurts if I try to form cohesive paragraphs so I'm resorting to bullet points:

• A wonderful and beautiful friend listened to me cry about all our broken appliances and gave me the sweet gift of encouragement.  She also has three boys and remembers the craziness of the early childhood parenting years.  I felt so refreshed and motivated to keep on keeping on after talking to her.  And then later that day she called me to tell me to look on my back porch.  Sitting there was a brand new vacuum cleaner!  It works like a dream and once again we are overwhelmed by the love and blessing that our community is to us.
• The MOPS bazaar was fantastic!  My friend Carrie helped me man my booth and I got tons of compliments on my display and jewelry.  I wish I had pictures to show you.  And a lady from a local boutique said her shop would love to sell my bloom brooches!  I need to figure out my wholesale price and talk to them more about it but it's so exciting and affirming to see people genuinely like my work.  I sold quite a bit of jewelry and came away with almost enough money to buy a Dyson.  But since were already given such a nice vacuum cleaner we decided to use the bazaar money to replace a different mutinous appliance...our computer! (Our other mutinous appliance, the dishwasher, has also been working beautifully--we're convinced that God healed it.)
• We went up to Seattle for Thanksgiving to have dinner with Geary's family, my family, and Geary's sister's husband's family.  It was so cool to have all the in-laws together!  The kids did recitations of poems and scripture and songs.  We had a balloon fight and quilt show and way too much dessert.  It may have been the best Thanksgiving ever.
• And the next day we had a little family birthday party for Miles and Noah.  Miles turned one on Thanksgiving day and we got to see him take a few steps!  Noah will turn eight on Tuesday.  We had silly birthday songs, a few gifts, and more dessert.  It was perfect--simple and easy.  
• After the party my throat started feeling a little funny and a few hours later I woke up from a nap with a runny nose and stuffy head.  We had planned to visit with my parents on Saturday but I was feeling awful so we just headed home so I could rest in my own bed.  This morning my nose is still runny but my throat feels better.  Miles has a runny nose now, too.  Hopefully the rest of the family will be spared!

As you can surely see, we have so much to be thankful for.  And we are.  We are exceedingly thankful for all the blessings we have been given.  And I hope you know that you, dear blog reader, are counted as a blessing to us.  Thank you for following along with us and encouraging us on this journey of life.  Does that sound cheesy?  Well, you can blame the Sudafed :)  (Although, somehow my bullet points turned into pretty  good paragraphs after all!) Happy Sunday!

Happy First Birthday, Miles!

We are extremely thankful for this little guy.  It is so hard to believe that he is a year old already.   I'm not even quite sure if I've unpacked my hospital bags yet.  But despite the whirlwind that this year been, Miles has added much light, laughter, and love to our little family.  We are each completely smitten with him.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Small Town Love

I'm in the final hours of preparing for the craft bazaar.  I do not feel ready (eek!).  I sent Geary to the bank to get some small bills so I can make change tomorrow. He texted me:

The bank teller remembered your jewelry and gave you a money bag.

Oh, how I love this small town!

Provision

Last month one of my tree necklaces was on display in a local coffee shop art show.  When I went to see the exhibit on opening day I was delighted to see that my necklace had already been sold! But when the art director brought my piece back to me at the end of the art show she didn't know who had bought it.  However, she did make an offer.

"I'll ask the people at The Coffee Cottage if they know anything.  And if we don't find out, I'll buy it.  It's beautiful!" 

It turned out that coffee shop people didn't know who the mystery buyer was, either.  So the art director stopped by with $30 and took the tree necklace. 

With that $30 I purchased fabric for Bloom Brooches and pearls for Poppy and Pearls necklaces.

A few days later, I needed silver chain, clasps, and hair clips.  And I sold a pair of earrings.  Another $20 for supplies.

On the day I decided to visit some thrift stores to get display items two more orders came in.  The money was provided.

I have one week until the Christmas Bazaar and Ruby Willow has $5 to its name.  I still need to purchase my packaging supplies and more chain.  I admit, I fretted about money last night.  Despite that list of provision above, I actually worried that I would not get what I needed.

This morning I recieved an email from The Coffee Cottage:

Jeana,

The mystery of the sold necklace is now solved! A youngster bought it, with her allowance! She will be coming in to the coffee cottage on Monday to get it.

I'll have $30 more dollars in my pocket on Monday (after making a new tree necklace of course!).

How awesome is God!

Vacuums and Bazaars

The appliance mutiny continues.  Our vacuum cleaner should simply be renamed The Vacuum Messer because it leaves more dirt on the floor than was there before the attempted vacuuming.   My neighbor let me borrow her Dyson vacuum cleaner and my floors look amazing...for now.  I asked Geary if we could get a Dyson with our tax return money.

I really enjoy my creative outlets of jewelry making and sewing.  My little etsy shop has given me a nice little bit of "pocket money" to buy new supplies or even a new outfit here and there.  It's nice to be able to get something for myself without interrupting the family budget.  I know Geary appreciates that, too.

My friends have been amazing advertisers for my work.  I now have two opportunities to sell my jewelry at local shops.  It's exciting but at this point still something I haven't faced head on.  I have not talked to the shop owners.  I have not made inventory to take to their shops.  I haven't had time to do any more than the orders that come in from my etsy shop. 

The Newberg MOPS group is holding a holiday Bazaar and I'm going to participate.  It's funny...I set up my etsy shop that so that I could replicate a few designs over and over and therefore not have my house full of inventory just sitting around.  But for the bazaar I need a lot of inventory sitting around.  The bazaar is on the 20th so these next two weeks are going to be full of creating stuff.  It will be good though.  Because once I have that inventory (and packaging, and display) I can send my work to other craft fairs and maybe even have some stuff to bring in to those two shops.

And maybe...just maybe, God will grant me success and I will make enough money to buy my own Dyson without interrupting the family budget and the little yellow Linhart house can have clean floors all the time.  Well...most of the time.

Pronunciation

Noah (almost 8):  Some of the native tribes Lewis and Clark met on their journey were the Oto, the Show Shone, and the Misery.

Jeana:  Good.  But they're pronounced shuh-SHOW-knee and mih-ZUR-ee.

Noah:  I know.  I was just being sar-TAS-tic.