Another Blog

Here it is, time for another blog. I have asked my d-in-l to come over and help me put pics in my blog but I haven't heard from her. Hopefully I'll be posting pics later in the week. Hubby has taken a few really nice ones around here that show off the beauty of where we live. (If you don't count the vacant lot next to us. It's not exactly a thrill to look at! Right now it's full of weeds.)

My friend, Ginny, came by and visited my last post. Thanks, Ginny! I don't expect her to stick around much because she has her hands full with six kids (three of them brand new!) and I think she does awfully good just to get her own blog posted. Here's hoping you do come back, Ginny, but I completely understand if you don't.

Our weather has been a bit colder the past few days and I've gone back to long pants (levi's or sweats, depending on my mood) and sweaters or hoody. We had climbed (or is it "clum?") up to 100+ degrees but that's really rare for this time of year. We don't usually start getting hot until late May, early June.

I read a book for Lent called The Carpenter's Cloth and was so glad I did. It's a beautiful little book. I mean, the book itself is oversized, but it's not a long book and the type is spread about over and around pics so it's not a difficult read at all. I can't remember the author right now but I'm sure you can find it by its title if you want to check it out. It was a wonderful book for Lent. My church has taken a verse-by-verse study of one of the gospels every year until this year. (I think we finished the gospel accounts.) And I had no plans for Lent so I just decided to read this book and I am thrilled I did. It really is a beautiful book. Read it if you ever get the chance. I didn't make it to church Easter morning because I threw out my back getting dressed to go. Bummer. Spent the entire day in bed. Speaking of which, I have no idea how I made it back to the bedroom under my own power. That was the worst my back has been in years.

No big plans for the week. I need to pick up doggy "treats" down in the yard and have a doctor and hair appts in the coming days but that's about it as far as responsibilities go. No that's not completely true. I have my knitting group tonight and Thursday I will juggle quilt making around my hair appt. so I've got a fairly busy week planned out. Our Women's Ministries is making these quick and easy quilts to give to those in need come Christmas. I think we committed ourselves to making a total of 50 blankets and believe it or not, we're making good progress at it. We'll have a pot luck this Thurs and that will add more fun to the mix. We're going to do our monthly shopping this coming Sat (so I probably won't get the car washed as planned) and then go over again next week to purchase tomato plants and flowers and the potting soil necessary to plant them. My quiet-time spot on the deck was so beautiful last year because of all the flowers. We hope to have the same look for this year. And the tomatoes? Well we decided to give them one more try. We say that every year and then when they bomb out we swear we'll never try growing our own again. But we always do. Our plants were so big and beautiful last year but nary a tomato. Zilch. Nada. None. We know we can grow them here because we grew some across town about 7 or 8 years ago, but we haven't produced any fruit since. And we so love fresh tomatoes. We're going to try just 2 plants though. An Early Girl and a cherry. Hopefully we'll be successful.

I've entered a knitted prayer shawl and a baby afghan in this year's county fair. I don't expect any ribbons because I'm just not that good yet but my friend/knitting-mentor talked me into submitting something. I learned to knit back in the dark ages back when I was still a very young girl (all of 15) but I didn't get serious about knitting until about 8 months ago. So far I've knitted 3 shawls, 2 afghans, 3 baby afghans, 26 dishcloths, 27 scarves, and 11 baby hats. I'm currently working on a summer scarf for my granddaughter and a white baby afghan. Kathleen has my afghan (she took it home after church to figure out a problem I was having with it) but she'll bring it to knitting tonight and I'll get back to working on it. Hopefully she will be able to explain the problem with the pattern. She at first thought the pattern was wrong (my thoughts on the matter too) but then figured out that it's just very poorly written and will show me how to make it past my problem tonight. It will be good to have something to work on again. I got the 11th baby hat made the other day and just about have Jamie's scarf done so I've still kept busy while my baby afghan was "in the shop." But I have, finally, released myself from my demon when it comes to knitting. I don't know what it is about me but any time I start something - be it blog or be it knitting or anything else - I always become consumed with it. It totally takes over my life and I'm completely absorbed in whatever it is I'm doing. For some reason when I start something, everything else gets pushed to the side until I've got it kind of worked out of my system. It's like being possessed by the knitting demon. No kidding. It's awful!!! But after a while, thank goodness, I settle down to a more rational pace. And I find that it is possible for me to knit and do other things in life at the same time!!! But it doesn't matter what it is I put my hands to work at, I've got to be doing it 100 mph, 100% of the time. It's much better doing things at a reasonable, more relaxed pace. But I always know I have to get the demon worked out of my system before I can make peace with whatever I'm working on. I will work feverishly way into the night then catch a short sleep and then be up again working on my project. Day after day. I'm surprised I don't burn out.

I'm reading What About the Big Stuff by Richard Carlson and I'm finding out all kinds of things. Most of which apply to me. He wrote the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff books and I enjoyed them too. Add to this my Woman's Study in Proverbs and I'm keeping busy lately. I'm glad our small group has recessed until the fall. I don't think I'd be able to add anything else to the mix. I'm not the kind of person who can do 35 things a day. I get 4 or 5 appts scattered about my week and I'm too stressed out to handle any more.

Guess I better get to my quiet time. I usually do it first thing every morning but for some reason I decided to blog first today. I'm using The Daily Bible for my time with the Lord and it's working very well for me. It's got the right amount of Scripture to read each day along with some commentary and devotional material. And it is set up chronologically so that adds a nice sprinkle of seasoning to my daily Bread.

I hope to have pics for you very soon!!! Stick with me, you'll be glad you did.

I finally, finally, finally got my car washed last Sat and hope to make that my Sat routine again this year. It was so nice to drive a clean car all summer long that I'm sure I'll pick up the habit where I left off last year. Except for days that we have other plans. My autosave is failing every time it tries to save so I have to keep my fingers crossed that this post will publish. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Well It would not publish so I'll have to just keep my fingers crossed that it will do so later today or I'm going to lose this post. But really it's not like it's a great post or anything.