Richard is on the 9th or 10th day of his bout with COVID-19. We don’t know where he was exposed. The illness has a new character each day, but his oxygen levels have been fine, so I am grateful for that. He has stayed isolated from us, and no one else at home has tested positive. The worry I have felt is a small thing compared to what others have gone through with this illness so I hesitate to even mention it. I will say that although Richard’s case can be termed as “mild” and he has not complained, this is a different kind of illness and unpleasant at best.
What is helping us get through quarantine? Entertainment. Empathy from an employee of the attendance office at the high school. Dedicated teachers who make education happen. Surprises left on our porch from friends. Sunsets. For me, it helps to have routines I can do without thinking and something to look forward to each day. On Tuesday, it was the arrival of our 2020 photo book. I wrote before that creating this album helped me see that 2020 was a great year for the Ross family. God gives us eyes to see sometimes.
There is something I need to fix, but her face is almost the way I like it. I love how her smile turned out. The next step is hair, and I will take some pictures of that process. I think the hair is the biggest hurdle. The trick for me is not to think too much and get trapped in a planning loop. It really just takes some courage to BEGIN.
I finished a really good book this week called Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis, which is about the journey toward the right to counsel. It’s only the second book I have ever read about the Supreme Court, and you know what, I loved them both. The other was called The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind and changed the History of Free Speech in America by Thomas Healy.
Law literature and facial features. These are just two parts of the odd mix knocking around in my head.
I’m trying a different outfit and have more progress on the face to show today.
The book that I used to learn how to make dolls is called Storybook Toys by Jill Hamor and it is gorgeous and thorough. The embroidery stitches that I use for the face are very basic, the backstitch and satin stitch, and sometimes a French knot for a shine on the eyes. I will use several shades of blue and gray and flecks of gold for the eyes. Right now I have the base shade of one eye finished. Every thread is anchored on the back of the head with tack stitches as I showed you before.
My week will be spent at home, stitching a doll, reading a book about a Supreme Court case, editing more stories for my dad, and cleaning out a bedroom. I will post more progress on the doll when I can. I am still reading more than anything else… good job, me. I wish you the very best week. Let’s hope that you can do something that feeds your soul between the mundane and stressful things.
This week, it’s been a battle for me to work or move or get going. I haven’t neglected anything important, but every task feels like a chore, and that is a word I do not use. This doll project that I proclaimed would be so great has mostly felt like a burden. Even shopping for doll clothes just made me tired. I think it is common enough to need to slow down in winter. Maybe I should listen to my body and put less on the to do list for a few weeks. I just want to read, and for some reason, I have termed reading an indulgence. Sometimes I don’t realize what an enemy I am to myself by not listening to my needs and pushing through projects that aren’t essential.
Another hard truth is that I am blogging about a doll because it feels safer than writing about the things I am really thinking about. And yet, the thing I decided to embroider first was the smile. That was genuine and reflects how I feel, just as much as admitting to you that I feel sluggish. We can be going through some sad things and still feel joy.
I am trying to learn that it is okay to be a complex person, with deep, marathon thoughts and a spectrum of feeling. I find that reading makes me feel less tired, old, and foreign, but it is often last on my list! 🤦 I doubt I am the only one who regularly denies herself of something good to match an ideal that only exists in the mind. The trick is identifying what feeds your soul and having the courage to make it a priority. I’m so curious what that “something” is for different people, knowing that it likely changes now and then for each of us.
To embroider a face on a premade doll, I use a doll needle, which is about 5″ long. Thread it with a single long strand of embroidery floss. Working on the back or side of the head, insert the needle and pull it out a few inches from the original entry point, leaving a tail of thread sticking out. Create a small stitch to anchor the thread on the back of the head and repeat the tiny stitch. Next, insert the needle through the existing stitch, through the head, and out of the face, exactly where you want to begin stitching. I am beginning with red thread for the lips. Last, cut off the tail on the back of the head, and remove the doll needle and replace it with an embroidery needle.
For the lips, I will be doing a satin stitch, which is a series of semi-vertical stitches very close together. Since I am working with a single thread, I make a lot of stitches to give the exact effect I want.
This process of making an anchor stitch on the back of the head is repeated in reverse when I am finished with the thread. I rethread the doll needle on the face side and insert it back through the head and make more anchor stitches on the back of the head. Then I insert the needle through the anchor stitch and exit a few inches away and cut off the tail of thread at the surface.
The natural light in the house is fleeting these days! I used the 15 minutes of light we got today to take these photos. I hope to have the face finished by Friday. Hopefully, the sun will come out a little more tomorrow so I can show some progress.
I spent time this week picking out her clothing and narrowing down eye and lip color. I already know she will have orange hair. ♥️
We made this video eleven years ago, and I’m so glad that we did the work. I blinked, and the kids were too old to do things like this, so I am grateful for record. Hope fuels so much of parenting, and when you’re in the middle of it, you can’t always see the wonder happening in front of you.
This December, my Advent theme is Hope. It’s my plan to share something each day leading up to Christmas. Today, I want to share something Daniel showed me that is hopeful and happy. Remember those feelings?
Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
As far as I can tell, they leave the meeting up on YouTube for a while after the meeting, so you can watch at your convenience. If you do watch, I hope you will let me know. I will be speaking to just a few people and a camera. As a young friend said as he spoke to the camera from the pulpit, “I never thought I would be a televangelist!” 😁
“I am optimistic about the future. It will be filled with opportunities for each of us to progress, contribute, and take the gospel to every corner of the earth. But I am also not naive about the days ahead. We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation. “Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
-President Russell M Nelson, Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives, April 2018
This is the phrase that stood out to me most from this passage:
“Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again.”
This is an exciting time to be alive. There is hope and comfort to be found in Jesus Christ. Some days I live from prayer to prayer, trying to stay focused on light and goodness. This week has been mentally challenging for me, and the message that kept coming to my mind was to humble myself and reach out for some counsel and comfort from Richard and my parents. As I did this, I found the stepping stones I needed to cross this deep water I am navigating.
I am going to California tomorrow with my parents to bring my grandmother to Utah. This will require finesse, love, and angels. I don’t like to leave my family, but my illness this year has taught me that they are strong. I have done all I can to prepare and to be healthy as we take this big step. Our extended family has come together in prayer and fasting to prepare. My prayers for my grandmother are for her comfort and peace, and that we will know, step by step, what to do and say. I lay my burden at the Lord’s feet, his glorious feet, every few hours, all day.
Isaiah 52:7-10:
7 ¶ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. 9 ¶ Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God
