My Website Has been Hacked!

Ok everyone, please do not visit my website for the next few hours..we have been hacked!  I’ll update as soon as we get it back up and running!

Recovery…More of Life after a Tornado

Here are some pictures as we began to start over…starting with the demo of our old home…can you see me in the edge of the photo…looking for anything we might could still save….as the house was torn down with contents still in it….couldn’t get them out…many a tear shed that day…

The end of our house...contents and all..by the time 25 in. of rain fell, there was a foot of mud inside the house!

 This is the front of the new house next door…our daughter couldn’t wait for the porch to be done…that meant we’d get mail again..

The front porch on the new house!

Getting ready to hang a new french door…. 

If you give a wife a door......

The roof took the majority of the damage…we had to fix rafters and decking.. 

Repairing the roof

Shiny new Metal Roof

Kitchen is almost finished!

The house is further along now, but I haven’t uploaded more pictures yet…but this gives you an idea of what we have been through!

Life After A Tornado?..Yes, there really is!!!

Well, it’s been a long time since my last post…needless to say, I was shell-shocked, in shock, confused, dazed and utterly and hopelessly lost for a while..we all were.

However, God is good and we clung to our Faith like a life raft (it was literally all we had left!)

Things worked out for the better..and now 4 months after the tornado, we have a new home…well, used/new to us!…which is larger than our old one, a new garage (really new)..that’s larger than what we had, we have more property (kept what our house was on and bought the house and lot next door). 

Tornadoes are funny things…one house is destroyed, the next only damaged,..but fixable..that’s the situation we found ourselves in…our house was NOT repairable…but the one next door was.  The owners had decided to tear it down anyway though..as they had a different one they lived in…(long story there)…so we asked them to sell it to us instead..which they did..and that began the long journey to recovery.

Here are some pictures we took along the way…we are not finished..but at least we have a home! 

A view of our old house from the street

A view from the back yard--we bought the house on the right...that's what we are remodeling now...ours is gone..the pool sits there now..saved the deck though!

This was my side of the garage...

 

Next post….see the recovery stage..pictures of the remodel on the new house…

Tornado Hits Small Town of Mena, AR

I’ve been out for a while.  Thursday, April 9th, 2009 was a day like all others, the kids colored Easter eggs in preparation for Easter..I cut out some of the items for their Easter outfits.

We planned for Easter dinner and Holy Thursday mass that evening.  The kids were serving the mass..so they were excited.

Thunderstorms came rumbling in, but they are common for this area…even the tornado watch they issued for us wasn’t uncommon…it’s April in Arkansas..the weather is just weird that way.

We went on to church…it was truly divine intervention on the dear Lord’s part!  We had everyone safely in the basement of our church when the tornado struck.  Praising Jesus for our safety was an understatement!

When we emerged from the basement, our little hometown looked like a war zone.  We were unable to even get to our cars, so we had to take the kids and walk the 3 blocks to our little house…it took 35 minutes…only to find that our house and garage/sewing room had been totally destroyed.  In the stroke of about 15 minutes…hundreds of families were left either homeless or with badly damaged homes.  We were homeless.  We gathered a few things we could in the dark and continued to walk another 12 blocks to my mother in laws home.

Our kids were terrified…so were we….daylight the next morning brought pain, tears and anguish..but also a small ray of hope.  All of our pets had survived the storm unscathed…not a scratch on them.

We found that the house, while totaled..was still standing enough for us to salvage some things….and the work began.

Now, 2 weeks later, we haven’t found a home, my sewing business is down indefinitely, we are still living with my M-I-L, and the kids are as stressed and upset as we are.

We have had so much help from friends and parts of our families…it is sad that it takes something so devastating to show you just how much some of your family and friends care about you and how little others do.

I am without Internet access on a regular basis for now…I am able to get on a few times a week to check email and such…I’ll try to update as I can on our home situation and such.

You can see pictures of our little town here:

http://photo.accuweather.com/photogallery/content/PhotoDetails.aspx?pid=76557&pfrom=us

The above link is the best I found at the moment…the tree they are showing was not too far from my house…it was really spooky and sad to drive by that tree and see all that metal tangled and twisted in it.  They just got it all out in the last few days.  Our little town will never look the same in my lifetime.

http://www.talewins.com/arkansas/tornadodamage.htm

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1638984/tornado_slams_mena_arkansas_fires_assault.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/arkansas/232432-pictures-arkansas-18.html

The Beauty of an Apron

An apron is something we saw on our grandmother..or in my case, my great grandmother.  I can remember as a child….the amount of things that would fit in her apron pockets…a small paring knife, a napkin or towel, a hair pin or two, sometimes even a hairbrush…depending on what she was doing.

My mother didn’t wear aprons that I can remember.  She isn’t here any longer, so I can’t ask her if she ever did…but I doubt it.

As a newly wed..I didn’t even own one…thought they looked old fashioned and tacky…LOL!  My how things change! 

About a year ago, as our lives began to shift toward environmental consciousness and a more simple life, I started collecting aprons.  I would find them at our local thrift store and at yard sales.  I was amazed to find that my daughter absolutely adored aprons. 

Thus our collection grew!    We have aprons for Christmas, vintage aprons, tie dyed aprons, half aprons and full aprons.  Then I started making them…half aprons are my favorite…I’m still trying to work out the pattern I like best for a full one.

But now, I look back on my grandmother and great grandmother…and realized that those aprons were so much more than just an apron…they were a uniform…it meant that they were a mother, grandmother, homemaker, nurse, cook, bottle washer, fire tender, seamstress, and a home builder.  The apron didn’t do it, but it was such an important part of what they did…they wore them every day…those aprons helped gather food from the garden, protected clothes from cooking and cleaning, held cleaning supplies, cooking supplies, clothespins, hankies, safety pins, sewing supplies, and sometimes even a treat.  They wiped children’s faces and hands, they wiped away dirt and tears alike.  They helped get hot food out of the oven.  Then at night, they were hung on a hook by the door of the kitchen until morning.

Now, I wear an apron…I have one especially for hanging out clothes..it holds all my clothespins.  I have ones for cooking…washing dishes, etc.   But most of all, these aprons…they tell people…what I do, who I am. 

Aprons are a part of our heritage…a part that is disappearing in today’s fast paced world.  Grasp this piece of history…embrace it as a mother…and put on your apron…wear it with pride! 

The practical side of it makes since…fewer stains on your clothes, pockets to make up for those extra 4 hands that you just don’t have…they work as a portable basket if you have a garden…a comfort for that little child that needs a face or hand wiped.  Have fun…have several….choose them to reflect your own style…Fancy ones, plain ones, half ones, full ones…pick one for the holidays too! 

They are not only useful and practical, but also feminine…which we need to cling to!  Aprons fit in with my modesty theme…they make you feel more feminine…and remind you of the importance of what you do..what God has called you to do and be!  A mother, a homemaker, a woman of God!

Don’t know where to start?  Check out my aprons in my Etsy store…