I want to begin by giving thanks to everything that the Lord has blessed me with and all the trials and tribulations he put me through.  I know I have posted pictures of my son on my blog, but my cup runneth over folks.  I cannot stress enough that being a single parent is hard and you have to put a lot of work into it.  What I want to say is that doing all my trials and tribulations with my son, I never gave up.  It is easy to kick our children out of our homes or send them to a boot camp, but why?  I had many people that I talked with say put him away, he is out of control and they would not be going through all that.  Really now?  I had enough Faith to trust the Lord to intervene especially after I gave my son back to him.  So I want to say to all the people that read my blog, keep Faith, hold steadfast and be consistent with talking.  Talking to me is a powerful tool (it will bring out the best or the worst in people).  I noticed when you speak the truth, a lot of people want to fuss and feel like you are throwing salt on the wound instead of taking accountability for their actions.  But enough on that, I am not hear to preach this morning.

Black History month (February) is almost over, but I want to give honor to all of the Buffalo Soldiers.  I enjoyed cross stitching this piece and the colors are brilliant.  With this piece, I feel like reaching out and softly stroking the side of this man's cheek.

Beloved

Lord,
Thank You for giving me a son.  Thank You for giving me unconditionally love, wisdom and lots of forgiveness and understanding in raising my son and also in growing me intellectually and spiritually to be able to raise my son.  I have tried to raise my son according to your word (and with the awesome help from great grandparents Walt and Alice) and I pray as he grows into a young man, he will always remember you Lord and remember your beloved son Jesus.  Thank You Lord for Blessing my home.  I love the Lord, couldn't have done it without you!

It is raining cats and dogs (literally not cats and dogs), but we are getting an old fashion down pour.  I know we need the rain, because over the weekend while washing clothes I was thinking to myself how much water was in my well because we have not had rain in a while.  With that thought, I limited my washing but tonight it is on.

I am posting a picture of Carolina Moon by Ginnie Thompson.  This is another piece that is on my list to be stitched.  This piece was featured in the 1978 American Cross Stitch Calendar Series.  What so amazing about this piece is that Ginnie Thompson must have been a well known household name back in 1978, so when I received the calendar I guess 3 yrs ago give or take, I did not know that for this particular piece I would have to use Ginnie Thompson threads and one DMC thread. 

So, I went on the internet and came across a flower thread converter, which helped out a lot.  So with all my cross stitch that I do not stitch right away, I decided to file this chart away. 

Couple of years later, I came across this beautiful case with lots of Ginnie Thompson threads, DMC cotton threads, etc.  You know my radar went up and I am one of those lurkers on Ebay that wait for the last minute to bid.  Yes, I won all this thread...

just to find out that for the above cross stitch piece there was only one Ginnie Thompson thread that I could use.  I am not going to call it a waste, because I paid a costly price for these threads and if I sold them again on Ebay, the price might be even higher. 

Today, I am at home suffering with a sore throat and a stuffy nose.  This weather, one day warm, next day freezing cold, has taken a toll on me.  I have everything I need old home remedies passed from generations to generations, so I will be back to new in no time. 

I went through my stash and came across two unfinished cross stitch pieces that I had started on many years ago.  I am trying to break an old habit of starting on one project, then another one, then another one.  It only clutters up my mind as to which one I want to finish first or maybe I can finish them both at the same time.  I am just that good folks.

This piece is called The Fisherman.  Good looking piece, don't you think?  Just looking at this piece makes me want to go sailing and fishing.  I guess you are asking yourself, what a great looking piece when can I see the finish product?  Ok, how about mid-March.  I will have it completed and posted on my blog mid-March.

This is the second piece, isn't this cute?  I am going to call this piece, Cinderella's Shoe.  I cannot remember where I received the chart or even how I came to have the chart (that's bad when your memory fails you).  OMG, I am going to have to remember where I put the chart?  It has been that long, but don't worry I will try my best to find it.  If I can recall exactly, I believe there are three mice on this piece.  The unfinished one is a female mouse, and standing to the left of her is a little porky mouse.  See I can remember things like that.  Time to give myself some TLC.  Be bless everyone!

A Tribute to Me

This is a brand new week, so whatever is going on in your life, today is a good day for a change.  The past is what it is, "The Past" and that's why it is called the past.  Unfortunately, we cannot jump back into the past to undo the wrong turns, because if we could a lot of us would jump feet first including myself (especially knowing what we know now and how it can affect our lives).  Our past failures (whether it be finances, drugs, some type of disorder) we all need to try to motivate our own self, because a lot of people do not want to see you succeed (so we need to figure out how we can motivate ourselves for Change and what make us feel good).  Sometimes we bring people into our lives thinking that man or woman can complete us, when we cannot complete ourselves, so how do you think someone else is going to complete you?  I talk to my son on a daily basis about my life experiences, the wrongs I have done and the wrong people I brought into my life (hoping that somewhere in his journeys if he is faced with a particular situation that I have went through, maybe what I have expressed to him can make him do things differently).  It can take one false move and years of fixing (if it can be fixed).

Moving to the present, I have been and will continue focusing on me and making sure my son succeeds in life.  The government and people can say our children are grown at age 18, but I am here to tell you differently (not so).  Our children will always need us in some form or fashion.  No need to throw them under the bus when they turn 18.  Some of us (grown-ups) still need help, hello!  So why figure our children are better than us. 

Over the weekend a great singer with the voice, Whitney Houston, passed away.  Beautiful, classy woman, full of grace.  Paragraph one describes her, me and all the other women that have succeeded and reached stardom.  Sometimes we have to get rid of obstacles in our lives to continue to succeed and hold onto that stardom.  I pray that Ms. Houston is at peace now.  Lets keep Whitney's daughter, Bobbi, and Whitney's mother, Sissy Houston, in our thoughts and prayers. 

Thank You Lord!

This is the most handsome pictures I have ever seen and not just because this is my son when he was 5 yrs old graduating from kindergarten at Heritage Christian Academy, the other is now at 18 yrs old s senior getting ready to graduate from Bunn High School.  I am one lucky Mother! 

We all have stories to tell if told truthfully, and I was a single woman at age 25 pregnant with a boyfriend.  Now boyfriend could have ran for the hills, but we put our hands together and got married.  Even though my marriage lasted 4 yrs (by my choice), I will not speak bad of my son's father because he was 22 yrs old at the time I became pregnant  (we were both very young), but he stood by me at a time I needed him the most and gave his son his last name.  I raised this young man from age 4 to present as a single parent.  As the slogan for the Marines (I believe it is the Marines) used to say, "It is just not a job, but an adventure"..... so true.  My son and I have had our ups and downs, but more ups then downs.  I am glad that I experienced all the teenage years, because my son dished them out but I also cleaned them up, stood firm, had a great grandparents system support and most importantly stayed prayed up and at times cried onto the Lord.  But look at us now.  I never gave up on my son doing some of those turbulent teenage years (I was considered the mean bitchy mom, and probably some more names that I don't know about).  Why you ask?  Well let me tell you......, doing those good times, remember God has to let us go through bad times to appreciate the good times.  Well doing those bad times and I knew of some of the places my son visited, guess what.... I was there too!  Yes, I was (no shame to my game to find where my son called himself hanging), cannot turn an ear or an eye to some things when trying to  raise our children to have character, morals, responsibilites do I need to say more?  I could write a book, but let me tell you when times get tough, I got tougher and that is exactly what I did.  I did not consider myself my son's friend (he has plenty of them), but I was mom and will always be mom. 

There are so many stories of parent(s) killing themselves and taking the lives of their childen.  There are so many stories of parent(s) not knowing where their children are.  So if you know where your children are whether they are going through a storm (hang in there with them, even if it means Tough Love) because after the storm has passed and that child is ready to change and do better, Let the Good Times roll. 

It has been a joy watching my son through his various stages of growing up.  Take a peek.....and enjoy the pictures because I have enjoyed being a Mom and taking the good with the bad.  It gets no better than this yall!!!

I am ready and looking forward to starting on the Buffalo Soldier.  As you can see I have my war gear ready.

This is so exciting, I can hardly contain myself.  This time instead of displaying bits and pieces of this piece, I will just display the whole piece at one time.
Sharon Barrow and I are the owners of the name "Heritage Crafts."  If you think I am good at cross stitching, you need to take a look at hers.  If you are interested in joining our online Yahoo group, please go to http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/heritagecrafts2011/.  We are not sure as to what directions we are headed with Heritage Crafts, but it is all in the making and if it is God's will it will happen. 

I have been an Ebay purchaser and seller for a while.  I am still looking for those out-of-print African-American cross stitch charts/patterns and if anyone knows of a great site that sells these, let me know.  I have lots of charts, but I know there are still more to be found.