The Next Thing--Is it Cutting Up Pineapple?

With all the anxiety about what is happening in the world around us, 

it's easy to get caught up in the worry and frustration and fear. 

For me, usually the best way to cope is to simply

do the next thing

right where I am--

in the kitchen,

cutting up pineapple Carrie got on sale, for example.

Doing the next right thing right where I am, 
which obviously is home right now. 

Can't go on a Mission Helps trip, and we haven't been supposed to even go visit friends.

Can't shop at a Goodwill, and can't assemble in a crowd. 

So--I vacuum the floor,

fold laundry.

and help make meals. And do dishes afterward--and in between, and nearly all day long it seemed one day!

And for days I sewed masks.

I had some quilting strips I'd gotten at an estate sale, and I turned a bunch of those into masks.
It's a good thing I had these because our Walmart ended up being completely out of any cotton fabric. It must have all been bought up for masks or sewing projects during the shut-down.

I sewed two or three of those strips together and then cut out the pattern.

It was fun. Hardly any two masks were quite alike. I did that on purpose, because twenty of the masks were to be sent to the orphanage in Papua New Guinea, whose head had asked me for masks.
I wanted the children to be able to distinguish whose was whose.
The only problem was that when I took the package to the Post Office, I was told that as of April 10, they are not shipping to Papua New Guinea,
probably because of the virus.

We have a layer of fusible interfacing between the cotton layers to add somewhat of a filter.

I spent hours working on masks for ourselves, our pastor's family, the orphanage, and others.

It seems we never ran out of someone needing masks for a while.

And in the evening after supper and chores, I would read out loud. This book from TGS, Int'l, subsidiary of Christian Aid Ministries, is outstanding. The two younger children love to listen to these stories from Merle Burkholder's missionary adventures in Canada and Haiti.

One of the most fascinating missionary books I have ever read.

Very honest.

 The day before Easter, I was helping Hannah gather pieces of a new skirt for her to sew together.

She did almost all the sewing on a new, three-tiered skirt, with me helping her pin and gather.

I also started sewing a table runner with more of the quilting strips.

I just love using quilting pieces to make things, though I don't have the time or patience or perfectionism for quilts.

The Saturday before Easter, the men of the family worked around here, putting a big window into the side of the greenhouse, a window left over after a construction job.

Timmy stripping unnecessary stuff off the greenhouse we got last year and never fixed up yet.

Sam getting ready to put window in.

A friend had seen Timmy's American flag painted on a pallet, and wanted him to make him both an American flag pallet, and a Colorado flag. 

So Timmy made a Colorado flag by painting an old pallet.

I'm thankful the children keep busy with many projects like this besides their other work.  

And here is a link to a very cute blogpost of amusing advice from "Aunt Dorcas" Smucker in Oregon regarding how to deal with corona shutdown issues, including whether to send a gift to a wedding to which you have been UNinvited because of the social-distancing and shutdown.

Read to the end. 

https://dorcassmucker.blogspot.com/2020/04/abc-post-8-ask-aunt-dorcas-advice.html