Why Is It?

Why is it I always feel the need to write when I should be putting everything in order and getting myself into bed? Guess that's when things weigh on my mind. Things like the need to add a little exercise into my lumpy life. Since I took up knitting again a couple years ago (gee, has it really been that long! that wasn't meant to be a question) I have become less and less active and more and more a growing lump on my end of the couch! What's the matter with me? Didn't I feel great when I used to walk 6 miles a day? Yes, however now I whine such things as: Oh it's too hot to walk; or, Oh it's too cold to walk; or, any other of a million excuses I can come up with when pressed. So I have been thinking that I need to add a little exercise to my life. I can never stick with an exercise routine (my yoga mat I got two years ago for my birthday has never been unrolled) but I was able to stick with walking everyday (back then!) and, as I remember, I even looked forward to my time with the Lord. (I always talked with the Lord while I pounded the pavement. I didn't really pray. It was much more like just talking and I'm sure the people in the cars going passed me, thought I was insane talking to myself like that! Ah, if they only knew Who I was talking with, that would wipe that smirk off their faces. The God of heaven and earth! The Almighty Sovereign Lord of the universe! The King of kings! The Creator! God!) Where was I, oh yes, I need to start adding exercise back into my life (now that winter's right around the corner and it's going to be so tempting to whine about the cold) and the best exercise I can think of and will continue with, is walking. I've got some good shoes and I have plenty of clothes to layer on so I have no excuse, right. (Oh give me time. I'll come up with one.) Anyway I've been thinking about walking again for the past couple weeks. Then Sunday at church we were asked to take some flyers and distribute them around town. I thought that was right up my alley as it would get me out walking again. I could certainly canvas my neighborhood and then maybe I could just keep walking even after all the flyers were gone. So I did good. I took 35 flyers and wrote on the map that I would do the 2 blocks around my home. Yesterday, I was charged and managed to do a million things including walking around with the flyers. Only thing is I ran out of them long before I ran out of houses. So last night at knitting group I went upstairs to the sanctuary and picked up a big handful of flyers. (64 flyers! Yes, I counted) Today I meant to finish my 2 blocks and hit a few apartment complexes before going home. However one thing led to another today and the only thing I got accomplished was my bed and a nice long nap on the couch. Shame on me! But I have hopes for tomorrow. I'm going to get out there and walk and then I'm going to keep right on walking all winter long (except when it rains - now watch this be the wettest year on record) and shed a few pounds or at least feel a little better. When I finish with these flyers I'll go pick up more and walk again on Friday to distribute them. I'm hoping that by then I will be "in the habit" of walking and can keep it up. Sounds like a plan doesn't it? You see, that's the only negative I can find about knitting: You can't knit very well while walking. (Although my friend Ginny can knit quite well while she's walking, carrying her baby on her back!!) And if you knit as much as I do, you turn into a vegetable rather quickly. I know this to be a fact because it has happened to me. I have turned into a couch potato with a pair of knitting needles in its hands. But I am determined to turn over a new leaf. I will resolve not to knit until after I've walked if I must but I will start walking again. Nothing like 6 miles a day I can assure you but anything will be better for me than nothing. I will work up to an hour a day. That will be my goal. That's not hard. It really isn't. All you have to do is walk for 30 minutes then turn around and walk home. You can even walk the same route home if you want. You don't have to have a course to walk! Will I shoot for every day? I don't know on that one. I'll start out with three times a week and see where I go from there. I have decided that this absolutely must happen. I sit waaaaay too much while knitting. Yes, and I believe I am literally knitting my life away. It is not healthy to sit all day long. The thing is, I know this, so why am I having to give myself a pep-talk here? Because I'm weak. Because I'm spoiled and have grow lazy. Okay. I have my mind made up. I will start walking starting tomorrow. (Wait a minute, didn't I actually start yesterday? Yes, but I had not resolved to do so. And now I have.)

I'm going to start making a list every night of chores I need or want to do "tomorrow." I used to do this all the time and it really works for me. Yesterday is proof of that. I had 12 things on my list to do and I did all 12 of them. That's such a great feeling to cross that chore off and pick out another one! I will do this with w-a-l-k at the top of my list. And until it gets really cold, I will try to do my walking first thing, like it's the most important part of my day. I can't think of a better way to start a day off than to have an hour's conversation with the Lord. I wonder how many calories you burn talking to God. Anyone ever stop and figure that out? Someone, somewhere probably has documented that praying burns X number of calories per minute or per hour. But I don't know who or where s/he documented it.

These decisions are monumental stages in my life. I wish I could explain how sedentary my life has become so you would understand their magnitudes. Making a list every night = 6.5 on the Richter Scale. Walking = 9.9 on the Richter Scale. These are big events in my life. To me anyway. There's no way for you to feel the ground shaking the way it's shaking under me right now. But I resolve to do these two things. Do them right away and do them until they become second nature to me. Do them until a day without them would be hugely disappointing.

Another thing. I resolve to organize my knitting. This is a huge step for me too. My corner of the spare room is piled almost to the ceiling with skeins of yarn. Some full skeins, some partial skeins, and some just scrap. I am determined to get in there before this week is over and organize everything. I have boxes of balls of yarn and I have dozens of balls of yarn that have no boxes. Everything is just piled in there on top of itself. It's sort of layered though, I noticed that tonight when I was in there looking for a finished neckwarmer I had knit. On the very bottom is a layer of balls of yarn all in various stages of use and a few projects that I've started but haven't yet finished. On top of that is a layer of plastic bags and shirt boxes of finished projects. On the floor is the huge plastic bag that holds two afghans for Christmas presents (I think I'm safe here, I don't think they read my blog). But then on top of the layer of finished projects is another layer of jumbled up mess of balls of yarn, some new, some partially used. Then on top of them are more finished projects and then on top of that are several shipping boxes that are filled with new balls of beautiful yarn. I even have the project I bought them for, written right on the KnitPicks label! These are my treasures just waiting to be crafted into beautiful things. Mostly scarves and warmers and baby blankets (no I don't know anyone who is expecting) that will someday go to the hospital for babies along with the dozen or so baby hats I knitted last year. Now pretend you are really, really big and you have this equally big spoon in your hand. Now pretend you are stirring this mess. That, my friends, is what my knitting corner of the spare room looks like. It will take a full day to organize this mess but I vow to do it before the week is out! I will be determined because it really, really needs to be done and it will give hubby one less thing to nag me about. No, he doesn't really nag me. He just says things like, "We've got to get that room cleaned out." He says we but he doesn't mean we, he means me. That's the way he nags at me. we've got to do this or we've got to do that. And for some reason that really grates on my nerves. But I know it will please him immensely if I organize that area of the room. What I need are big plastic tubs in which I can organize all the different components of my "pile." (And it really is a pile, I'm so ashamed to say.) I mean, there's a desk in there somewhere, you just can't see it. And somewhere in that mess is all my Christmas wrapping paper and bows. Actually the bows are on top of the pile for some reason. They're in an opened shoebox, laying on it's side with bows spilling out onto my baby hats. When I was rummaging in there earlier this evening looking for that warmer, I saw the bows. I also found knitted things that I had forgotten I knitted. Yes, it's time to buckle down and do the deed. But how am I going to organize it without big plastic tubs to put stuff in? (There's really no answer to that question and I wasn't look for an answer. There is no answer.) Well, I will just get in there and do the best I can. Isn't that my mantra: I will do the best I can? Yes, this will please hubby. And it will also prevent me from having to go in there and rummage around looking for something. Yarn will be with yarn. Completed project will be with other completed projects. Works in progress will all be together in one place so I can see them and actually might even decide to finish them!

So anyway, how's that workin' for ya...

A Fresh Start

I know it's been a long while since I've posted on my blog but I wanted to give it another try. I don't know how often I'll post or exactly what I'll write about but I'm going to try again. I have been asked to give the congregational prayer at church on Sundays about every two and a half or three months and since I write them out beforehand so that I will have a record of these prayers, I thought I might copy those, if nothing else. I do want my blog to slant toward Christian topics and Christian living as that's what my life is wrapped around. Also there's the fact that we don't really do interesting things very often. We rarely go anywhere to speak of or do anything really exciting to write about. I did figure out how to put pics in my blog before taking my sabbatical but I've since forgotten how I did it. I have the instructions written down somewhere and maybe I can dig those out and send pics once in awhile. Yesterday, my granddaughter gave me a couple beautiful pics of her and her new hubby at their wedding back in August. When I figure out how to do that again I'll have hubby scan the pictures into his computer and then send them to me. (I don't have a scanner on my computer and he does.) Then I can post those on my blog.

Speaking of computers, mine has been down for a couple months. I really missed it. The first few days without it was awful. I don't think we realize just how much time we spend sitting at the computer! I know I didn't. Turned out my video card was bad. My son had a spare one in his drawer at home that worked on my computer and so he came over yesterday and installed it. Now I am up and running again. He is so good with computers and so gracious to offer to fix mine on his day off.

I went to a jewelry party yesterday afternoon after church. It was at my granddaughter's house out in the middle of nowhere. She's only about 35 miles away, maybe 20 as the crow flies, but the last 30 miles seem to take forever. She actually lives in Ione or Lake Comanche but it is desolate out there. It took me about 45 mins each way so I put a few miles on the car and time on my bottom end. This is the fourth jewelry party I've been to (counting my own) and I have spent entirely too much money on jewelry. But the jewelry is so beautiful and I do love my jewelry. I never get dressed in the morning without putting on my jewelry for the day. I just feel naked without it. But I really did get carried away especially considering it's very expensive jewelry. And it's costume jewelry at that! But I got several beautiful necklaces and 3 or 4 pairs of earring. Yesterday I bought a simple pair of pearl posts or studs and a turquoise and silver necklace. I really go in for the bling. I like lots and lots of beads and shells and stones and chains and anything else they can sting into a necklace. And I love multiple strands! It's lia sophia jewelry I've been buying and I had no business buying so much of it. But I got it at such great deals. $128 necklaces for only $20! Can't beat that. So before I knew it, I'd gone completely overboard and now I'm having the worst case of guilt!!! I bought like I was a glutton sitting down to an 8-course dinner affair. Shame on me!

Michael (usually referred to here as "hubby") had surgery on his neck in late August and things just haven't quite picked up for him yet. I actually think the surgery itself did a lot of good. It's just that he has so many other problems that have surfaced since the surgery that he finds it difficult to think of many positives in his life right now. He's still wearing his neck brace and I think he's getting very tired of it. He sees his surgeon in a couple weeks and I'm hoping he'll tell him that he doesn't need to wear it any longer because I think a lot of his pains are caused by him adjusting and guarding for the brace. He takes it off occasionally but he still compensates for it by keeping his neck and shoulders very rigid and tight. I think he's afraid his head is going to fall off and that's what the plate is in there to prevent. They implanted a 3-1/2 inch plate in his neck to stabilize those three or four vertebrae so he shouldn't need to "protect" or guard his neck as much as he does.

Fall is happening around us. I can't believe it's almost November. Thanksgiving! Then December and Christmas. Where have the months gone??? Trees are turning all over town and when I drive around to go to the store or the Post Office, there are always leaves blowing across the road in front of my car. The nights are cooler but the afternoons still get a tad bit too warm. I'm sure hoping for a wet winter this year to end the drought. Halloween is this coming weekend. It's usually raining lightly on Halloween night. Pepper and I will stay in the back of the house while hubby stays in the front to hand out candy to any trick-or-treaters who come calling. I don't think we had any come last year at all. If we did it wouldn't have been more than just a couple.

The curl is coming out of my hair. You'll remember that all my hair fell out over a year ago and when it came in, it came in curly and I absolutely loved it. It was a breeze to keep looking nice and was very easy to take care of. Everyone loved it, especially me!! Now it is almost as straight as a board. I am devastated to lose the curl I waited my entire life to have. When it came in curly, I really thought it was worth all those months of growing it back. In fact, I would have shaved my head if I'd known it would come back curly but now? Now I'm totally disappointed. I really am!

I'm still knitting but I'm knitting at a more relaxed pace. Lately I've been knitting neckwarmers (officially called neck cuffs but everyone says neckwarmers). I knitted several. Gave away5 or 6 to family members and then knitted 5 or 6 more to have on hand to sell should any of my sisters' golfing buddies want to buy one to wear on those cold, early morning tee offs. I figured I could sell them at $10 each and make a little money so that I could buy more yarn from KnitPicks. I've started a vest (really just a sleeveless sweater, not your typical vest) but I had to put it aside for the neckwarmers. I also needed to order more yarn as I didn't order quite enough the first time. I order most of my yarn from KnitPicks. They have great yarn and the very best knitting needles on the market today! If you're a knitter and you haven't checked them out, please go online (http://www.knitpicks.com/, I think) and check them out. I bought a double set of the wooden harmony needles and a variety of interchangeable cable sizes. And then they came out with the clear Zephyr needle points and I fell head over heels in love with them. I have a complete set now and will probably buy double needles of the most popular sizes. That should permit me to knit without having to move my points around so much. And when I knit in the round I'll use both the Zephyr and harmony needle points to make it easier to differentiate between the two needles. I still have the yarn for several more scarves that I want to do this winter. I'm also going to buy a few skeins from my friend Kathleen to use to make another scarf. She ordered it and didn't like the color and I'm crazy about the color. So rather than her sending it back, she'll sell it to me. I know just what pattern I want to use too. I actually have the yarn to do at least 3 of them. I'm not sure what I'll do with all of these scarves but knitting them will be fun. Kathleen and I are also going to knit ourselves matching hoods (not that we really wanted to match each other it's just that we both liked the same pattern and we both liked the same color yarn). The pattern was in a book I bought from KnitPicks which was just packed with wonderful patterns (so unlike the latest book I bought on scarves). I didn't find a single scarf in that book that I would want to knit. The blurb about the book said they were new and "original" designs. But it failed to mention that they were all ugly at the same time! Guess that's the risk you take when you buy books online. The first book I bought was titled Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders and apart from the fact that I haven't yet found one of them that could be knit with just one skein, all 40 designs were worth knitting. Of course, I didn't buy the luxury yarn. I simply substituted one of KnitPicks wonderful yarns and knitted away. That's what I like so much about knitting. It is so versatile. [For some reason that spelling bothers me but spell checker says there's nothing wrong with it. I apologize if my checker is in error.]

I think I have you about caught up with the things that are going on in our lives at the current time. I was going to post a prayer today too but I think I'll save that for tomorrow or the next day. There's no hurry. I wanted to catch you up with what we're doing and I don't want to write a really long blog. I do plan on continuing my blog in a more routine manner but I'm simply not planning on posting it nearly as often as I have in the past. If you check back every week or so, chances are you'll catch them all as they come out. When I was writing them every day, it was not only time consuming for me to write them but was equally time consuming for my readers to read them. Then as you well know, I took a sabbatical for a few months and now here I am, ready to go at it again but at a much slower pace. So I will leave you with this: May God bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you and may He guide your steps toward godly living. May He shower His grace upon you and may you learn to trust Him in all things and may everything you do bring glory to Him and Him alone.

Trying to Update

It has been ages since I've written a blog and now that I want to, I'm not sure I can because all my blog addresses were on my firefox (or foxfire) engine. So I'm writing this just to see if it will show up on my blog. Hopefully I'll be able to do this. I ask God to bless you today.