Dave preached a sermon on Sunday.

About a blind man.

And Jesus.

And it became about Ashlyn.

And my heart in caring for a little girl with special needs.

And was still about Jesus.

Dave has a gift in that.

God uses him to dissect texts I’ve read over hundreds of times

and breathe new life into them.

But it’s always about Jesus.

Why was Ashlyn born deaf?

So God can be glorified in her life.

Period.

Why was your son born with autism?

Or your daughter with Down Syndrome?

So God can be glorified.

Why did He give them to YOU?

So God can be glorified in your parenting.

We make it so complicated.

And it’s easy to complicate.

We mourn.

We question.

We turn our backs on God.

We blame.

Hear this.

Christians should not live burdened by their child with special needs.

We should live looking for chances for God to be honored and elevated in our situation.

Sure, there are hard days.

Exhausting days.

And it’s perfectly acceptable to be exhausted.

But let’s also be joyful in our purposeful lives.

He gave us our sweet little girl.

That He may be made known through imperfect ears.

And imperfect lives.

And imperfect, overwhelmed parenting.

That His works might be displayed.

I have decent handwriting.
And I once made festive PJ pants with Christmas tree fabric.
I never wear them because I can’t tell the front from the back.
And.
That’s about as crafty as this California girl gets.

My friend, Kim had traveling to Kansas on her bucket list.
So she put herself on the wait list for Meg’s Craft Weekend.
She was picked via random lottery.
And could bring a friend.

And that is how I ended up crafting in Kansas.

Strap on your craftalicious seat belts.
Here’s my recap.

We were scheduled to leave SFO at 7:45 on Friday morning.
Technical difficulties kept us on the runway for over an hour.
Our layover in Houston was 50 minutes.
Bad news.

We missed our connecting flight and spent 12 lovely hours at George Bush International.

We charged our phones in some interesting places.
And ate 30 United voucher dollars worth of airport food.

We arrived at Meg’s around 11:30 pm and were greeted by 12 new smiley faces.
Who were still furiously crafting away.
Serious biz in Wichita.

Exhausted, but not wanting to feel left out, I got my midnight ruffle on.
And started with my apron.
The women were sweet and friendly.
And didn’t make fun of my uncraftiness much.
Except for Karen from Houston.
Figures.

We also had some serious swag waiting at our table.

I think we finally closed our eyes around 3 am that first night.
In super comfy brand new beds.
With happy vintage quilts.
Dreaming of ruffles and bunting and lemon fabric.
Definitely delirious from our day of travel.

We were up early the next morning.
Kimberlee prepared a lovely breakfast with fantastic cinnamon rolls.
We chatted.
Ate more.
Laughed.
Bloggers are fun people.

We packed up the caravan and headed to an antique store and barn.
And I’ll just be honest, old stuff is not my favorite.
But when in Rome…
You buy hand-painted orange-shaped ceramic California salt and pepper shakers for $5.
And a Girl Scout pocket guide for Kayla from 1947.
My house already smells weird.

Also, Kansas is windy.

Quick stop at Sonic for lunch and back to our ruffles.

We also made bunting.
And painted on canvas.
And decorated totes.

We stopped only to eat.
Yummy enchiladas ala Kimberlee.
Peanut butter cake with chocolate ganache.
Which I didn’t enjoy as much as I should have because I was stressing about my inability to rethread a sewing machine.
Which is now on MY bucket list.

Chicago Jenny, sensing my troubles, came to the rescue.
With a screwdriver.
Standard.

We crafted into the wee hours of the night.
And shared stories.
And laughed some more.

We loved our Read Roomies: the very literate/no-blog 2 Karens and a Tara.

I enjoyed meeting Jade.

And chatting with Ashley Ann about their pending adoption.

And realizing that Amy and I had both guest posted for Jeannett’s special needs series.
She’s from Alabama. I’m from California. And there we were crafting in Kansas.

We shared technical skills.
Converted a few to Instagram.
And Pinterest.
My work there was done.

Overall, such a wonderful time and happy memories.
And a much-needed break for this busy mama.

Thanks, Meg, for letting crazies invade your home.
It was lovely.

Thank you, Kimberlee for the food and desserts.
It was all so delicious.

Thank you, new friends for a whirlwind, craftabulous weekend.

I loved every ruffly second.

Kayla gave a speech last night.

And had great motivation thanks to a “risk taker” ice cream social that’s taking place at school today.

And a no homework pass.

Either way, we are super proud of her.

There were well over 100 people in the room.

And she did great.

Here’s the video.

She was called sooner than I anticipated and

I missed the hook.

Because I was fishing my phone out of my black hole purse.

I have a dream that I’m going to clean it out one day.

She started by saying: “Love is more powerful than hate.

Dr. Martin Luthur King changed the world so people can have more equal rights…”

In case you were wondering.

A certain little girl has a big day on Monday.

She will share with her whole entire school.

Her favorite color.

Favorite animal.

Favorite food.

All subject to change on a daily basis.

She will also share her birthday.

Which she just mastered the other day.

Kind of.

We love our little star.

We can’t wait to hear all that she has to say.

My dad signed her up when they ordered the rainbow wolf cake.

Kathy of Kathy’s Kreative Kakes is the mastermind behind this genius summer idea.

But I barely made it past the sign.

I have BIG issues when wrong letters replace right letters.

Do you get what I’m saying?

Like, for example. My name is Jessica. But If your name is Jessyka. We can’t be friends.

Horribly shallow. I know. It’s my problem. Not yours.

Back to camp.

It happens to be Grandma Yellow Cee Cee’s birthday today and we celebrated last night.

Lucky her.

She got a mermaid, marshmallow crab, orange-slice-on-a-toothpick, beachscape buttercream extravaganza.

Which was better than the other options.

Like the boy with the huge lump of red buttercream, anxiously looking for “bodies” in the plastic figurine bin.

In addition to Grandma’s delicious cake, they made chocolate chip cookies.

Dave said they were better than mine.

And I think he really meant it.

They also made sugar cookies with royal icing “like all the princesses use.”

Kobi ate those.

Camp lasted 3 days.

Which I think is all Kathy could take.

It was krazy kool.

Kayla is on Spring Break this week.

And this morning we went on a special adventure.
She set the agenda.
I set some mild perimeters.
Her first choice was to “go to Hawaii to open coconuts.”

Oh how I love my biggest girl.
I love her heart.

I love that, in the bookstore, she noticed the Max and Ruby section.
And reminded me how much Ashlyn would love one.

I love that, in Build-a-Bear, she chose the weird looking, not-so-cute wolf
because a portion of the proceeds go to the World Wildlife Federation.
And named it Jazzebella.  Not to be confused with Jezebella.

I love that, at CPK, she insisted on sharing the bread with me, even though I said she could have all three pieces.
I gave her 1/2 of the piece back, because I am size 122.

I love her compassion and regard for others.

It challenges me.
In such a good way.

I love my girl.

Some of you may recall our Tadpole Release Party?

It was a bad, bad party.  Things did not go well.  At all.

Luckily, saying goodbye to the ladybugs was much, much easier.

Fun, almost.

Kayla got them as a party favor the day before.  Cute idea, right?

And yes, she’s wearing dog PJ’s and it’s nowhere close to bedtime.

I don’t know.  I just take pictures.

Peace out, ladybugs.  Peace out.

Pop Pop bought Ashlyn a tricycle a few weeks ago.

And the only time she’s not on it is when she sleeps.

Really.  24/7.

It’s like public transportation in our house.

Hungry?

Hop on trike.  Peddle to kitchen.

In Minnie costume and birthday hat.

Open fridge.  Grab snack.  Place snack in trike basket.

Peddle to living room.  Run over dog’s tail.

Harass Kayla that she missed out on one of 40 free bikes given away at school because mommy was in Vegas and daddy was “Mr. Late Pants” in getting the form in.

Ready for church?  In the rain?

We’re taking the trike anyway.

And falling off curbs and in puddles.  And returning to change pants.

Bathtime?  Peddle to hall closet.  Run over dog’s tail.  Grab towel.

Continue on to the bathroom.

Remove hearing aids and place in trike basket.

Hop in tub.

Hop out of tub.  Ignore towel.

Take a quick spin around the room and give your bed the big stank eye.

Then drippingly peddle to the living room to catch a little Jesus TV before bed.

Actually.  Can we discuss the cartoons on Jesus TV for just one minute?

I let my kids watch it more than anything else because it’s better than most everything else.  But BARELY.

Who exactly does the casting?  And is time travel to 1987 involved in the process?

I wonder who sits behind the camera and approves these gems.

I wonder if they’re 3 years old and ride a bike around the studio.

Oh and speaking of gems, this is what happens when mama works on picture day.

And dad picks the shirt.  And Kayla picks the lovely floral background and ornate name plate add-on.

Hmmmm.  I think I need to go ride a bike.

My daughter’s got it.

Current faves: Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Tinkerbell and Tap Zoo.

This important notification interrupted our date night last weekend:

And just a few moments ago I received the 411 on the Mighty Eagle:

The girl is kind of out of control.

Last night, no different.

Dave and I were at a meeting

and Kim offered to babysit.

And introduced her to a new game.

Kayla wanted to text Dave.

But Kim made her go old school with her request.

A hand-written note.

And a sad, pathetic face.

My kid has a mouse problem.

And it’s nearing epidemic status.

All Minnie.  All the time.

Today I’m linking up with Lindsey @ The Pleated Poppy

and probably breaking the rules a bit.

But who wants to see my boring mommy uniform?

Minnie is WAY more interesting.  Just ask Ashlyn.

Oh and in case you were wondering…

Night time?  No better.