January Visiting Teaching

So starting tomorrow i will have been on maternity leave for 6 weeks already ; the first 3 weeks didn't count as we were down with family and it was Christmas, but the past 3 weeks have been ever so slow.. I am full term starting Saturday and this little guy could come anytime - and that gets me SO excited!

Anyways, for Christmas I got a bunch of cross stitching stuff and my Mom got me a sewing machine ; I thought actually owning a real live sewing machine was going to turn me into this awesome seamstress. turns out I haven't touched a sewing machine since grade 7 .. and it shows!

With all my spare time I thought I would spend it being crafty and such but instead I spend my time on pinterest hoping I was crafty enough to try all the really cute stuff I find out there. okay not all my time - "blog bouncing" has become my new thing - especially blogs of new moms and their adventures of adapting to a whole new life.

Well this month I was in charge of the lesson for Visiting teaching - might I add I love the ladies I visit teach and I absolutely love my companion Cynthia who just so happens to be from Lethbridge and her husband is a civil engineer and so Colin and Blake share a common interest as well! its always nice to have a couple you can hang out with sometimes the guys get along and not the girls or vice-versa but she is so awesome and is also in Primary with me as well.

The lesson for visiting teaching this month was on visiting teaching and the importance of getting to know the ladies in your ward and not just reading the message and leaving. Before November  I  had never been visiting teaching before.  I  was put on a day route but  I  was always working during the day so my companion just went with out me. So i was super nervous as  I  felt incompetent ; especially with there being lots of older ladies in our ward that are more visiting teachingly seasoned.. but  I  got stuck with 3 awesome ladies and its a blast to go and chat and have some meaningful conversation.

I am a visual learner  I  can't just be told something and remember it;  I  need to see something so it can jog my memory a little bit.  I decided to have a visual aid of some sort to go along with the lesson that  I  teach every other month . This month I was going to make home made heating pads filled with rice that you can just pop in the microwave ( Blake was super nice one day and made me one out of a pair of his socks - which he insisted had only been worn once or twice.. somehow I thought my visiting teachers wouldn't appreciate the sock gesture as much as I did, but I am grateful for a very thoughtful husband who even though has a whole lot going on always thinks of me and how I'm doing). I incorporated it into the lesson ; that as visiting teachers we can be like that heating pad; if ever they are feeling cold or sad remember we are there for them to warm them up. This may sound cheesy but  I  was destined to try out my new sewing machine..
here are some pictures of my adventure!

so  I  tried to wind the bobbin but instead of winding it around the bobbin it wound around the post you put the bobbin on.. and  I  didn't notice.. for quite some time...

I put the rice first in muslin material; which is breathable in hot conditions and seems how these will be going in the microwave  I  thought it was a very clever idea as  I 'd hate for it to catch on fire or something!
(  I  had heard about muslin material before and  I  knew it was called muslin but when  I went to the fabric store and asked the nice East Indian lady where the Muslim material was... yeah definitely made my list of top 10 most embarrassing things to come out of my mouth.  I  had to chalk that one up to pregnancy brain she luckily knew what  I  meant and pointed me to the corner where it just so happens everything was 50% off!)

I then fashioned a nice bag to go around it; slid the rice bag inside and sewed up the top!

I'd say all in all they turned out pretty darn cute!!! after a few not so cute trial runs;  I  didn't take pictures as  I  didn't want to document that embarrassing moment in my life - times like these I wish I had my sister in laws sense of creativity and craftiness!