Virtues for your hope chest

More Cs

Contentment

Cleanliness

Courage

Chastity

Vices, anyone?

Do you have any of these vices? Think of them in their mild forms too (that's when it really gets you!).

Anger (in a negative sense)

Aggressiveness

Absent-mindedness

Arrogance

More Virtues

Three ABCs of getting along with other people?

Appreciation (being appreciative)

Benevolence

Compassion

Are you a virtuous woman?

If you have not been here recently, please read the previous post as this is a continuation of it.

Or, perhaps . . .

Deference

Discernment

Dependability

Are you a virtuous woman?

If you haven't been here recently, please read the previous post first.

What about . . .

Cheerfulness

Courtesy

Confidence

Are you a virtuous woman?

How much of these virtues do you have in your hope chest?

Assertiveness

Attentiveness

Awareness

Ah! Sweet Victory

I only wish I had more of it. But that's beside the point. This is about what I do have!

Did I mention that I finally decided what color to paint my bathroom? You know it took me longer to decide that than it took me to decide whether or not to go to college? Anyway, it's done. Whew! And the paint is on so I can't change my mind. Now for my bedroom . . . .

I am also working on putting the Christmas stuff away. Now, before you laugh, I must tell you that there are reasons that it's February and I still haven't done that. 1) I have a bad memory, I rarely spend much time in the rooms wherein such things were located, and I am often unobservant. Thus, I didn't think of it very often. 2) I wanted to do it right. You know, organized so we can actually find things when we need them. It has never been that way before. There were numerous boxes of miscellaneous stuff and it was hard to find things. I designated this year the year to get everything organized because now that we're in the house I have room and this was the first year we had all of the Christmas stuff together (although I honestly think there is another box hiding somewhere). 3) I need more storage containers so I can get my own stuff organized and I can't afford to buy many, so booting family stuff out of my personally owned plastic storage containers that have been housing Christmas stuff sounded like a great idea.

The good news is, the stuff is getting booted--at least as much as will fit in the large blue plastic tubs Mom and I retrieved out of storage. She emptied them of the old food they contained (think rancid flour and old pasta, not old refrigerator contents). I scrubbed them up. Progress is being made. I may still have to use some of my boxes. At least it will all be organized and away. Some of the stuff belongs to me personally anyway.

There is hope. :-)

The Hungry Beast

Lately my hope chest has been demanding more food (really politely requesting, but it seems like demanding to me). It's hungry, it says. It reminds me of this, smiling innocently while I inwardly cringe. But I do have an obligation--I brought the creature into existence.

And, what does it want? Action. Simple as that. Not so much, it says, the action of putting things into it, but of putting action itself into it. Sigh. How dare it. How dare it remind me of one of my worst faults. How dare it tell me what I need to hear.

I am really not a very active person. Well, to be honest (I think it would appreciate that too), I am simply not an active person. That is just the way I am: putting things off--sometimes for an understandable reason, sometimes out of mere habitual laziness--indecision, shrinking back in fear, avoiding everything, moving as little as possible.

The way I am is going to have to change. Not all at once with a big bang. That would be impossible. But the hungry beast must be fed, right? I've got to get moving, make some decisions, stop avoiding work, stop putting things off--if it kills me (and really, putting away the nail clippers that have been lying about for weeks on end mere inches from their home in a drawer, putting away the remainder of my Christmas gifts and carting the box they were in out of my bedroom, clearing the odd bits of thread and fabric from a recent sewing project off my sewing table, and all the other little treats I gave the beast this afternoon were really quite painless).

Wish me well. I'm off to do something. Decide something. Anything (though I'm sure my hope chest does have some very specific tastes--I'll let you know if I find out what they are).

--Your rebuked and slightly worried Hopeful.

What?

Where have I been?

I think my absence initially had something to do with me working in the Christmas trees (tying on tags). But since I only did that for about a week, that doesn't quite explain it all does it? Hehe So much for being consistent. I really need to work on that.

I would like to say that I have been really, really busy but that isn't true. What I've been is depressed and I think that's my best excuse! I am chronically depressed anyway but lately I've had a particularly bad spell of it. I think I'm among the living now. :-)

And now I am busy! Getting ready for company this weekend, Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday (no, we're not confused), and a tree-trimming party Saturday night. Making and buying Christmas gifts with very little money, too! Practicing songs to sing for church this Sabbath and next. Or at least I have been practicing this week's ("O Holy Night"). I haven't even found the music to next week's ("Mary, Did You Know?"), and I am supposed to play and sing both. Eek! It's around here somewhere. I sang it last year.

I'm seriously contemplating something interesting to post in the near future. You never know, it might happen!

Fear of the Needle . . . and Thread

Sewing is supposed to be fun. It scares me. When I think about it I start breathing hard. Whenever I see a needle I nearly faint. I have nightmares about encounters with my sewing machine.

Okay, it really doesn't scare me quite that badly. I admit I made the last three sentences up. But I do fear it. I can just never seem to quite conquer it.

I have no clue why except that:

I'm a fearful person.
I fear failure
I fear frustration
I fear difficult learning tasks

And I'm a perfectionist.
It has to be perfect
The first time
And if it can't be perfect then I'm not even going to try

I have to laugh at myself, because, of course, that is a perfect explanation of my problem. I have no need to continue wondering why I fear sewing. Now, what to do about it.

I am not very good at it yet--not much practice--so therein lies the frustration. Lots of new things to try to comprehend. I also lack supplies and the money to buy them.

I have this fabric but no thread to match it, that idea but no pattern, another project I can do without a pattern and with the thread and fabric I have, but I need another kind of needle. (Okay, I do have some money but I fear I will buy the wrong thing or won't be able to finish a project once I have bought the stuff and will thus waste money.) Such a dreadful state of affairs, and I'm sure my entire problem is just a lack of money.

Yeah right. When I took sewing in college ( I got an A or A-, which is clear evidence that I don't have a clue what I'm doing, right?), a lady who could already sew took the class just for easy credit. She was past "college-age" and had been sewing for many years. She showed us some pictures of things she had made. She told us about her first sewing project too, when she was a little girl: she made a skirt out of an old umbrella!

I guess what I really need is some creativity and a good sense of adventure. I had some creativity around here somewhere, but I have looked under every book, between all papers, in every box, and under every piece of furniture, and I have not found one sense of adventure, good or otherwise. What shall I do? I don't have any old umbrellas from which to make skirts!

I guess what I need to do is get the right kind of needle to finish my terry-cloth apron I am making out of an old towel. Except that I don't know what kind of needle to get. I'll have to research that. Thoroughly. Next week. And then compare prices to make sure I'm getting the best deal. And then reevaluate to make sure that is really the project I want to finish next. And then double-check to make sure my research findings were accurate.

See? I face my fears squarely, don't I?