Mommy Moments: Sharky

 4-Year-Old: (waving a stuffed animal shark around) Its name is Sharky!

Me, a nerd: Ah, Sharkey. From the orkish word sharkû meaning "old man".

Journey to Easter

Hi friends, I just wanted to tell you about the most recent project that I have finished - another prayer walk devotional, this time for Easter. You can download the booklet on my website: Journey to Easter

I pray that this resource will provide an opportunity for us to slow down, meet with God, and reflect on the heartbreaking and glorious story we celebrate at Easter.

Update

As the new year began, I realized that I needed to make some changes. In my desire to build my work as a writer, I had started raising support through Patreon, built my own website, and tried to upkeep this blog, while still trying to actually write and advance the different projects I had in the works. It was too much.

The first decision I made was to close down my Patreon account. Instead, I am accepting monthly support on my website, which lets me focus on maintaining my website without also having to maintain a Patron newsfeed. If you are interested in learning more about what that looks like, you can check it out here: leanewinger.com/support

You also may have noticed that I haven't been posting as frequently here on my blog. Since my website also has a blog, I will primarily be focusing on sharing my writing through that platform. I invite you to check it out, and subscribe to my website newsletter if you don't want to miss out on what I've been sharing there. I will still be posting occasionally on this blog, but it will primarily be things of a more personal nature (pictures, family updates) and topics that are not related to my writing (arts and crafts, other things I'm up to). 

Thanks for your understanding, and I hope to see you again soon, here and on my website!

Christmas Journey

 

This Christmas I had the opportunity to write the material for a Christmas Prayer Journey, which invites people to a time of reflection and prayer while walking around a beautiful acreage. I shared the booklet on my website, and I would like to extend an invitation for anyone who is interested in checking it out:

Christmas Journey

This Christmas season has been really hard for me, as I am sure it is for many others. I really miss my mom, and it's hard to process having our first Christmas without her. I am also very thankful for everything that I do have this Christmas, and it is good to be able to have a quiet, restful Christmas this year. Working on the prayer walk has been very meaningful for me, and I pray that it can be a blessing to you too.

I hope that you all have a very special Christmas!

Handmade Skirt

I'm so excited to be finished my most recent sewing project! It is a plaid skirt, stitched entirely by hand, and roughly based on a drafting pattern from 1895.

This past summer I discovered the joys of sewing by hand. There is something about it that I find very peaceful. It is slow going, (the skirt took me almost two months to complete!) but it is something I can do while life carries on around me. I can bring it outside and sew while the boys ride their bikes or dig in the gravel pile. I can sew while curled up on the couch listening to my husband reading Discworld. I can even sew while I listen to the sermon on Sunday, because church is online for us these days. And I know that it will take a long time. There is something about using the sewing machine that makes me feel like I should be able to whip something up in a couple days. When I am hand sewing I know that it will take weeks, and I am okay with that.

Having received a small stash of fabric in the summer, I knew I needed to make a few things, and I loved the idea of using this lovely plaid fabric to make a skirt. I've had an increasing interest in historically-inspired fashion, so when I found a historical skirt drafting pattern from 1895, I knew I wanted to try it! (Check it out here: An 1895 Skirt.) I didn't have enough fabric to make it exactly as instructed, but it was fun to try to decipher the directions and make it work with what I had. My end result is not nearly as long or full as it should be historically, but I am impressed with how comfortable it is and how well it fits! I found joy in making it as well as I could, taking the extra time to make small, even stitches, and finishing the seams in a historical fashion. It looks just as nice on the inside as the outside!

It was my first time trying to work with a historical pattern, so there are a few things I would do differently next time, but overall I am very pleased with how it turned out. I think it's going to be a favourite of mine!

Tender Heart

Tender heart,

you bleed all over

this broken, hardened world,

holding the shards

of yet another hope,

shattered beyond repair. 

Aching heart,

drawing so tightly 

within your paper-thin walls—

an illusion of shelter

between a cruel world

and your lifeblood.

Courage, dear heart,

your spirit bears

within this gift of pain

a gentleness so strong

to die a thousand deaths

and still know how to cry.

A New Song

 

The journey of grief is a cyclical one. I keep finding new thoughts and perspectives on my mom's death that bring the grief back to the forefront again. A few weeks ago it was the realization that I didn't really get to have a birthday. So I wrote a little birthday song for myself.