Using what's in my hand.

Budgeting, decluttering, tidying, pondering on the Etsy Shop, it's purpose and how my role in the family is going to change in the new year 2013 when Little Bun starts doing 2 days a week at the pre-school next year, I've been challenged to think again about using what's in my hand.

It feels like months since I've ventured over the threshold of Spotlight to buy fabric supplies and while I'm mourning not buying pretty things, things I 'need' or supplies to finish projects off, I'm enjoying the challenge of being resourceful and using what's in the cupboards before doing anything else.

About 12 years ago, when we were living in Brighton, I was moaning about not having this or that supply to do what I wanted around the house and I felt that quiet little nudge in my spirit saying what DO you have?  I looked in the cupboard under the stairs and realized I already had a stash of paint that I had previously bought and not used

Moses was the same.  He was faced with a powerful and scary Pharoah who didn't want to let the Israelites go and God said to him what do you have in your hand? Moses replied A staff to which God responds Throw it down on the ground  and the staff turned into a snake. (Exodus 4:2)

A simple stick becomes a miracle, the first of many that Moses would do to convince Pharoah he'd regret it if he didn't do what God had commanded him to do.

Someone recently spoke powerfully over our lives and said The little flour and oil that you have will feed many people.  Often I/we underestimate what we have in our hands, but as my kids come back singing from school, from little things, big things grow.

Our small, insignificant things can sit in the cupboard, ignored and forgotten, or they can be put to use.  When we put them to use, God uses them to do far more than we would ever believe possible.

What's in your hand that perhaps you've dismissed as not being of value?  God can add his super to your natural, whether it be creating and making, encouraging, writing, loving others.

This week I've been sewing, finishing off projects that were cut out or needed unpicking and starting again.

It all started with Lillipilli's need for her tops to be adjusted so that she could get them on over her cast.  We started with slicing up the sides of some older tops and putting velcro (hook and loop to you Aussies) down the side.  When I ran out of velcro, I realized I had a whole swathe of zips the perfect size sitting in my sewing drawer which make the job far easier, less scratchy and more professional looking.

Five or six tops later, she's loving wearing her normal clothes and not having to put her cast under a baggy top.

With an easy and satisfying project like that under my belt and the sewing machine once more revved up, I managed to get an hour or two to myself to think how I might use this vibrant blue and orange material.  Perhaps not this season's colours but I liked it enough to buy it when it was on sale so perhaps when I put it in the shop someone will like it enough to buy them.

After the purses came these little purses that were half cut out, one of which needed unpicking and re-doing. Would you believe, the cross-stitched fabric is from a strip of fabric that my arty friend used to tie up some large blossoming branches as a gift!  A little wash and hey presto, I thought it was rather sweet stitching, possibly vintage, who knows?!

These heatpacks were all cut out and stitched, just waiting to be filled and finished off.  They were from an offcut of a little girl's patchwork pillowcase dress I had made ages ago.  I have no idea why I didn't fill them and finish them on the spot.  Perhaps it was an interruption to go and calm a tantie or get a snack.

And finally, since our sojourn in Sutherland Hospital last week, I wanted to say thank you to all the people who blessed us so much.  I was thinking about the story of the lepers Jesus healed, only one of them came back to thank him.

When you first come out of hospital, you feel this rush of gratefulness but you can't always rush back to thank people straight away.  Then the feeling fades and you forget or you feel silly and yet they are there doing the same thing for others every single day.  I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to thank them so I made russian fudge in time for our post-op appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon and I made enough to thank all the people who helped us.

Paramedics Kelly, Tasha and Julie, Paediatrics A&E staff RNs Christian, Tallie, Drs Jihad, Zoltan, Ahmed, the night and day shift nurses on the Children's Ward and the Theater and Recovery Room teams including RNs John, Gwenda and Judith.  It's hard not to feel quite emotional thinking about all their kindnesses to us.  They could well have done their job and been detached about it but they weren't they were as loving and as tender as one stranger can be to another.

Remember those critical voices I blogged about the other day?  As I was making the fudge (and it wasn't coming out of the pan properly) I started feeling silly, imagining me bothering them delivering it when they were too busy, imagining them thinking What is it? It looks awful. I carried on anyway and you know what?  The first thing the surgeon said when we gave it to him was My wife loves fudge!  and he promptly tried and enjoyed some.  Stuff that critical inner voice, I'm not listening to it again.