Hemmed In

Hemming is one of my least favorite parts of sewing.  The first garment I made in 4 H was a brown print cotton skirt.  Best I remember I was 10 or 11 years old.  I pinned the fabric together as Mom had shown me, matching seams, etc.  Still somehow the turned up hem and the skirt front just did not sew together correctly in my novice hands.  To make up the difference I gathered the material of the front to match the length of the inside hem.  Mom looked at the hem, frowned, and I had the pleasure of ripping out the mistake.  I could not tell you how many times I reworked the hem on that one skirt.  I to this day can still have difficulty with hems.

My life feels a little hemmed in right now.  I do not want to start anything that makes much mess.  Saturday started with our getting things ready for a noon showing.  A little wipe down of the bathrooms while Gene vacuumed.  I wanted to get a cake in to bake while I showered.   I had just started mixing the batter.  No problem until the phone rang at ten with a call saying some realtor wanted to show the house at 10:30.  The person had been calling my cell which was in my purse in the back seat of a car in another town.  Crap.  So finish mixing the cake, set the timer, quickly dress in yesterday's clothing and head out the door.  No shower time, uck.

The realtors never let us know when they finished looking the place over.  We finally came home about 2.  The cake was well done.  If there is not enough time to bake a cake, pretty sure there is insufficient time to say rip down a room full of wallpaper.  And no one wants to buy the house with wallpaper.  I feel like a 10 year old kid ripping out the hem over and over to get it right.  And getting nowhere quickly.


There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Romans 5:3-4 MSG