Blessings

Last year Elisabeth and Emily went with me to our historical society's one room schoolhouse ending program just to see the fun.  We didn't think we'd ever be able to send the girls, but it would be interesting to see what the children did there for a week.

Forward a year.  Daddy committed to the payment by faith, trusting God to supply the money and the few extra things for the girls to go.  After all, this is both fun and educational and potentially a wonderful childhood memory in the making!

Betz has an old days dress (who cares if it's the wrong century), but we needed something for Emily.  A friend in Kansas picked up a cotton dress from Goodwill, something that was not made to be a prairie dress, something no fashionable person in her right mind would ever be seen wearing in public, but that might, with some tweaking, work out in a pinch.  She would not let me pay for it.  Plain Jane had generously passed her girls' bonnets down to us a long while ago, and the larger one still fits Em.  And, while perusing the web for free a smock pattern, I came up with something that would not only make that dress into a costume, but would also cover the too-low neckline!   Mom sent me a $.69 curve-making gizmo last week and I put it to use.  A quick dig in the fabric box, a trip to WalMart for two packages of bias tape, and voila!  A complete prairie dress for less than $4! And somewhere around here I have a very old petticoat...

Emily, who at first did not want to be seen in the dress either, is now in love with her new costume.

And I am grateful to the Lord for blessing us with these things.  He didn't have to do that.  We don't deserve anything from him, and yet he is pleased to grant us the delights of our hearts.  

School starts Monday.  And we are blessed!