The Joy is in the Journey

Some exciting things are afoot at the McIlrath home. Amy is officially crawling! Lookout world here she crawls. She just loves this newfound way of exploring her surroundings. It is so fascinating to watch her and one can almost see the smoke coming out of here ears as a result of the wheels spinning in that little brain of hers. She laughs and squeals when she crawls, too. I think its because she is just so excited to be moving toward something that is interesting to her. Take last night for example...she crawled from our family room all the way into the kitchen. Then she proceded to explore this wonderful new object called the dog water bowl. To us, it is a plain ordinary bowl that holds water for the dogs and gets in my way. Well to her, it was a vast ocean on new sensations. She cautiously began to reach her hand out to touch it. Then she sort of hit the rim over and over. Then, once confident that this is truly an object worth more exploration, she began to hit the water in it an splash it all around. Eventually she was soaking wet and so was the floor. The funniest thing was when she crawled away leaving a wet trail of water behind her.
The floor needed a good mopping.
The other new thing worth mentioning is that I am an official beginner quilter! I finished my first quilt top last night and I LOVE IT! After that last stitch was made, I held up my finished creation of evenly cut squares of color and smiled a proud smile. I didn't know I could do that sort of thing. Even though that one moment of satisfaction was indeed real, the true joy came from the process of making that quilt top. I am a part of a little beginner quilting class that meets in the home of a dear friend. It is just a few of us from my church, but we are loving learning together and being together. Three hours can fly by and seem like minutes when you are creating something along side other precious women who also have the gift of gab sewing. (that is talking and sewing at the same time)
I think I was born a century too late because I would have LOVED to be a pioneer woman who, apart from the daily grind of running a family on the prairie, would have been a part of a quilting circle. I can totally understand the whole quilting circle concept and how necessary that was in so many different ways.
I will eventually give this quilt away and I hope that the receiver will love it. But you know what; it really doesn't matter. The recipient could just fold it up and keep it hidden in her closet forever and it wouldn't matter to me. The joy was in the making of it. I have better friendships, I have learned a skill and I had some good clean fun in making this quilt.
My little Amy crawls around squealing and laughing at the fact that she is simply not sitting anymore. She loves her little journeys around down the hall.

Yes, we all have our destinations we want to get to and goals we want to achieve. There will be a moment of satisfaction as we hold up our 'quilt' and smile that proud smile. Nevertheless, remember there is joy in the journey. It may take some effort to find it, but it is there. I hope you will join me in taking the advice from my 8 month old and be joyful in my journey and not forget to squeal and laugh along the way.