The older women teach the younger women.

I have been blessed by a Mum and two Nanas that taught me so many things. Then I was blessed by some very good women who encouraged me and taught me along the way.

Now I realise these women had an important ministry that is very far reaching.

When I was first a young Mum, Chloe was tiny, I had a neighbour across the road, Dorie. She was a grandmother and adored her Grandchildren. They were a retired couple and her husband was always off fishing. Anyway I had just started to sew and she taught me how to stretch sew... I was making a little track suit size 1 for Chloe and she showed me how to get banding on and so on. Every time I was stuck I would run over the road and she would show me what to do next. I made the cutest little outfits and pyjamas for Chloe then. Any practical thing I wanted to know I would ask Dorie. Then she got a microwave, and she thought it was great and she taught me microwave cooking. She was so lovely. And I was far away from Mum so Dorie over the road was so nice! Also she had been a nurse so if I had a concern she was fantastic.

Years later after we moved I rang her up and thanked her for that time and how much she had helped me.

Then when I first went to Kingston where I brought up the girls I met Mrs. Starkey. She had an afternoon a week at her home for Bible study and ladies to meet together. Oh I loved it. And I loved her. She was just an encourager. The girls loved her too. I remember once I was sick and needed to go to hospital and I was hallucinating and I just wanted Mrs. Starkey.

Really she gave me a solid foundation in Bible study and so many practical things as well, cooking, budgeting, gardening and so on. What a blessing.

Also I had Rhonda. Rhonda was a much older lady, like 40/50 years older and died a few years ago now. But I knew her for 20 plus years and she was so amazing. She was just a wonderful example and friend. 

So I had these older women to teach me and now I see how important it was. And now I have to realise I am getting to be an older woman!

When I think about it Laine was also an older woman as she had much older kids than me so she was probably maybe ten years older than me. And boy did she teach me things!

Now I have Kath in the nursing home. She tells me she is praying for us everyday. How amazing to have met her in this way. Tomorrow I am off to visit her. Every week she writes me a letter and each week the letter is longer than the last. In her room she displays every card I have written her! Knowing this now I make them as nice as I can.

I have just finished my first cooler weather crochet project, a knee rug and I am giving it to Kath.

I learned this pattern from You Tube...

I want to tell you if you can do chain and double crochet that is all this is. It took about 20 mins to learn. It is a lesson by a great teacher Yolanda Soto Lopez called How to crochet romantic lacy shawl.... it works up so fast and is really lovely and so easy it is ridiculous! Plus it is fun learned new stitches. I am just learning a new one now. So there again I have a lovely lady teaching me. 

Then I sit and teach them to my Mum which is role reversal!

I'm adding a card since Kath loves them, one of these pink ones which matches the parcel and I just finished in the giant card making session (still ongoing!)

The time we spend teaching someone to cook or what ever it is, we just don't ever know how far reaching it will be. We all have people who have taken that time to help us learn the things that add up to the life we have now and the skills we have now. But never stop learning and take advantage of the skills we can learn each day that will help us. 

Laine always taught that the local library is a great place to gather new skills as you can learn almost anything from the greatest cooks (for example) and it is all written for you but the same for what ever you want to learn. Now we have every lesson imaginable free on the internet and lovely teachers like Yolanda to patiently teach us. How I love it!