Yes, you read that right! I'm coming back to my blog; I'm just not sure exactly when. Probably in May sometime or sooner if I can get my act together. Thanks to all of you ... especially Sharon ... for being so faithful to keep checking my site to see if I'm still alive. Well I am and I thank you all. I will leave this for now. I just wanted to give you a head's up tonight with a big thank you to Sharon, ever faithful reader/friend. Have a lot to talk about if I can decide the direction I want this blog to go when I come back. Let me know what interests you, what you'd like to read in my blog. I don't do those clever, well-done blogs with cute animations and whing-dings. I just write. But I don't want to be a "teacher" so don't expect devotions like I did before. I am not well so this may be the direction my blog takes. I don't know exactly what's wrong. I just know somethings not right. So this may be my personal pilgrimage through the unknown. Who knows??? See you soon!!!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
God Gives Us the Desires of Our Hearts, Ps 37:4
In the believer's life, the Lord is to be the greatest passion. A person who claims to love God should value that relationship with Him and should give Him priority over everything they have ~ their possessions, vacations, hobbies, and even other relationships. Yet some people miss the true message of Psalm 37:4 because they focus only on the part that says they can get what they want. But the qualifying statement attached to that promise is a call for devotion to God: "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart" (emphasis added).
Believers can and should savor pleasures when they are biblical. And the heavenly Father desires His children to use the resources He gives as a way to enjoy and add pleasure to their earthly life (1Tim 6:17). For instance, God has made it possible for me to write and I have written some good works. But, for me ~ and you ~ the key to enjoying life is to first delight in Him above all else. God's rightful place, as the Lord of my life. is to be before and above all things; to put anything else in that position is to be fail to give Him the proper honor He is due.
Unfortunately, the human heart is naturally selfish and quite often destructive. Without God as top priority, without giving Him His proper place and honor, we will most likely be governed by the pursuit of earthly goods. But when He is our first love, those warped and sad cravings are replaced by a proper desire to fit into His purpose and plan for our lives.
King David, a man who faced great tragedy and heartache, understood from experience that a heart committed to the Lord also knows blessings and delights. Psalm 37 was his attempt to encourage us to seek God as diligently as he had done. Let's take David's words to heart and let the Lord be our obsession. I think we will be amazed at how He will bless us and our efforts.
********
It's been a lazy day around my household today. I managed to get my bed made before I settled down on the couch with my knitting. I knitted until I got sleepy and then stretched out on the couch with my dog and caught a few z's. It felt really good, too. It had been awhile since I'd taken a nap on the couch. M is still asleep in his chair, reclined back and covered with a throw. Speaking of throws, I almost have my first throw finished. I need to knit a few more rows and then bind off. Then the work really begins as I begin to create the fringe on both ends. I'm not looking forward to that but I've promised myself that I will not get down on the floor and do the job. (I did that with the last prayer shawl I knitted and ended up so sore in my muscles that I could barely move for a few days. This time I will take it up to the table and work on it.) But I got tired of working on the throw and decided to knit a pink "fuzzy" scarf for my sister's granddaughter. It's made with that "eyelash" yarn. Hard to work with but fun to create. There's no going back with that yarn. You make a mistake and you live with it. Period. Once a stitch is knitted into place, there's no moving it around. It took me probably 3 or 4 hours to knit that scarf, if it took that long. (It was only 16 stitches and was worked with a size 11 needle so it went really, really fast.) Then I had some blue baby yarn given to me and I decided to start Stacy's baby afghan that I planned to make for her baby she's carrying. This will be her 11th child (all hers naturally except for one) and she gave away or sold everything she had after the last baby. So I thought a really nice afghan would be nice. So I got it started and have worked about 13 or 14 inches of it. It's supposed to be about 44 or 45 inches long but I don't think I have that much yarn and it is from a dye lot so I doubt I could buy more of it to match (but I may try). So I will either make it shorter or see if I can find a match on that color. I was able to do that once. But it is rare. You can usually tell where one skein left off and the additional skein was started. I also have some soft green yarn that is without a dye lot and I'll buy more of that and either make another afghan or blanket. I found the cutest baby blanket pattern. It's mostly stockinette stitch but has eyelets in the shapes of butterflies all over it. It's really cute and I think the green yarn would work really nice in that pattern. We'll be going across the river on Saturday to play games with my sisters and I'll make it a point to go by WalMart and pick up more green yarn and some blue too if the sample I take in matches.
Our weather has been beautiful. We started off the new year with an overcast that hung around a few days and then we cleared up and have stayed clear since then. But it's cold at night. Last night we dipped into the 20s again. We need rain. We need rain really badly or our summer fire season could be disastrous this year. But I'm not ready to give up. One year we were heading toward a drought but had a "March miracle" and got all we needed in just the month of March. So things can still change.
I gave away one of my scarves to a new (poor) woman who's been attending church regularly for several months. They had been living out of their car and as a church, we helped them with the deposits they needed to get into an apartment. She doesn't drive and as far as I know doesn't have any friends. She has her two kids only on the weekend and she always brings them to church with her and her husband. Anyway she asked about getting another scarf and I told her I'd do her one better. I'd teach her how to make her own. I picked her up last Tues night about 6:00 and took her to the knitting group with me. Then I got her started on some practice yarn and had her take it and a book home with her to work all week on it. I talked briefly with her Sun after church and she's been working on it. She actually seemed excited and proud of herself about her knitting (just exactly what I was hoping for!) and she seemed eager to go again tomorrow night. She needs something that will make her feel good about herself and she needs to socialize with the rest of us and that's what we're striving for. I just love that she seemed excited about it. She mentioned that she just can't quite figure out the purl stitch but she'll pick that right up after I go over it with her. I hope she's been trying to hold and "throw" her yarn and isn't letting go of the needles and using her hand to bring the yarn around instead of throwing it with her finger. That will prove to be seen tomorrow night. Annie starts all her girls out by having them drop their needles but I disagree with that method. I think you need to learn to hold and throw your yarn from the very start. Otherwise you're just "putting training wheels" on her efforts. If you're going to knit, you need to learn how to hold your yarn. It was the way I was taught and I've been forever grateful that that's the method used with me.
I have a very busy week this week. I have meetings and knitting and a luncheon and our small group is forming again on Wed morning. I have mixed feelings about that. I want to and I don't want to at the same time. I'm sure you've had the same feelings over something in your own life. Can't put a finger on why I don't want to meet. The only thing is that it means another weekly "commitment" and I think that's where my negative feelings originate. Once I make myself go it will be fun and informative.
I got two new Bibles for Christmas. One is the New Living Study Bible that I had mentioned I wanted and the other a new leather thin line that I bought with my gift certificate at the Christian book store across the river. I also bought a few study booklets too. Boy! those things aren't cheap any more!!! Seven or eight dollars just for a booklet! Prices are really getting out of hand.
Speaking of which... my sister took me to the Social Security office across the river and got me all signed up for my Social Security. It's only about half of what M gets each month but it's twice the money that I was getting on SSI. The money won't been coming in until April but it's already burning a hole in my pocket. I see yarn. Lots of yarn. LOL! It will be so much fun to get more money!!! Yippee!!! And this will be money I have coming to me and no longer a governmental handout. That's gonna do a lot for my self-esteem! I can guarantee it!
Guess this will do it for my blog today. I really don't know if I'll keep it going. Maybe I'll be off until this summer. It's kind of unfair to have you checking repeatedly when there's nothing there for you to read. That was my last written devotional (I thought I had a couple more but can't find them) so I'll have to write more of them before I blog again. Best thing for you to do is not count on anything until around May. And if I've not written anything new by June, you'll know that I've resigned from my blog. That's the best I can do for you at this time. It's just not fair to have you checking and checking and checking. Hopefully I'll see you this summer ...
Believers can and should savor pleasures when they are biblical. And the heavenly Father desires His children to use the resources He gives as a way to enjoy and add pleasure to their earthly life (1Tim 6:17). For instance, God has made it possible for me to write and I have written some good works. But, for me ~ and you ~ the key to enjoying life is to first delight in Him above all else. God's rightful place, as the Lord of my life. is to be before and above all things; to put anything else in that position is to be fail to give Him the proper honor He is due.
Unfortunately, the human heart is naturally selfish and quite often destructive. Without God as top priority, without giving Him His proper place and honor, we will most likely be governed by the pursuit of earthly goods. But when He is our first love, those warped and sad cravings are replaced by a proper desire to fit into His purpose and plan for our lives.
King David, a man who faced great tragedy and heartache, understood from experience that a heart committed to the Lord also knows blessings and delights. Psalm 37 was his attempt to encourage us to seek God as diligently as he had done. Let's take David's words to heart and let the Lord be our obsession. I think we will be amazed at how He will bless us and our efforts.
********
It's been a lazy day around my household today. I managed to get my bed made before I settled down on the couch with my knitting. I knitted until I got sleepy and then stretched out on the couch with my dog and caught a few z's. It felt really good, too. It had been awhile since I'd taken a nap on the couch. M is still asleep in his chair, reclined back and covered with a throw. Speaking of throws, I almost have my first throw finished. I need to knit a few more rows and then bind off. Then the work really begins as I begin to create the fringe on both ends. I'm not looking forward to that but I've promised myself that I will not get down on the floor and do the job. (I did that with the last prayer shawl I knitted and ended up so sore in my muscles that I could barely move for a few days. This time I will take it up to the table and work on it.) But I got tired of working on the throw and decided to knit a pink "fuzzy" scarf for my sister's granddaughter. It's made with that "eyelash" yarn. Hard to work with but fun to create. There's no going back with that yarn. You make a mistake and you live with it. Period. Once a stitch is knitted into place, there's no moving it around. It took me probably 3 or 4 hours to knit that scarf, if it took that long. (It was only 16 stitches and was worked with a size 11 needle so it went really, really fast.) Then I had some blue baby yarn given to me and I decided to start Stacy's baby afghan that I planned to make for her baby she's carrying. This will be her 11th child (all hers naturally except for one) and she gave away or sold everything she had after the last baby. So I thought a really nice afghan would be nice. So I got it started and have worked about 13 or 14 inches of it. It's supposed to be about 44 or 45 inches long but I don't think I have that much yarn and it is from a dye lot so I doubt I could buy more of it to match (but I may try). So I will either make it shorter or see if I can find a match on that color. I was able to do that once. But it is rare. You can usually tell where one skein left off and the additional skein was started. I also have some soft green yarn that is without a dye lot and I'll buy more of that and either make another afghan or blanket. I found the cutest baby blanket pattern. It's mostly stockinette stitch but has eyelets in the shapes of butterflies all over it. It's really cute and I think the green yarn would work really nice in that pattern. We'll be going across the river on Saturday to play games with my sisters and I'll make it a point to go by WalMart and pick up more green yarn and some blue too if the sample I take in matches.
Our weather has been beautiful. We started off the new year with an overcast that hung around a few days and then we cleared up and have stayed clear since then. But it's cold at night. Last night we dipped into the 20s again. We need rain. We need rain really badly or our summer fire season could be disastrous this year. But I'm not ready to give up. One year we were heading toward a drought but had a "March miracle" and got all we needed in just the month of March. So things can still change.
I gave away one of my scarves to a new (poor) woman who's been attending church regularly for several months. They had been living out of their car and as a church, we helped them with the deposits they needed to get into an apartment. She doesn't drive and as far as I know doesn't have any friends. She has her two kids only on the weekend and she always brings them to church with her and her husband. Anyway she asked about getting another scarf and I told her I'd do her one better. I'd teach her how to make her own. I picked her up last Tues night about 6:00 and took her to the knitting group with me. Then I got her started on some practice yarn and had her take it and a book home with her to work all week on it. I talked briefly with her Sun after church and she's been working on it. She actually seemed excited and proud of herself about her knitting (just exactly what I was hoping for!) and she seemed eager to go again tomorrow night. She needs something that will make her feel good about herself and she needs to socialize with the rest of us and that's what we're striving for. I just love that she seemed excited about it. She mentioned that she just can't quite figure out the purl stitch but she'll pick that right up after I go over it with her. I hope she's been trying to hold and "throw" her yarn and isn't letting go of the needles and using her hand to bring the yarn around instead of throwing it with her finger. That will prove to be seen tomorrow night. Annie starts all her girls out by having them drop their needles but I disagree with that method. I think you need to learn to hold and throw your yarn from the very start. Otherwise you're just "putting training wheels" on her efforts. If you're going to knit, you need to learn how to hold your yarn. It was the way I was taught and I've been forever grateful that that's the method used with me.
I have a very busy week this week. I have meetings and knitting and a luncheon and our small group is forming again on Wed morning. I have mixed feelings about that. I want to and I don't want to at the same time. I'm sure you've had the same feelings over something in your own life. Can't put a finger on why I don't want to meet. The only thing is that it means another weekly "commitment" and I think that's where my negative feelings originate. Once I make myself go it will be fun and informative.
I got two new Bibles for Christmas. One is the New Living Study Bible that I had mentioned I wanted and the other a new leather thin line that I bought with my gift certificate at the Christian book store across the river. I also bought a few study booklets too. Boy! those things aren't cheap any more!!! Seven or eight dollars just for a booklet! Prices are really getting out of hand.
Speaking of which... my sister took me to the Social Security office across the river and got me all signed up for my Social Security. It's only about half of what M gets each month but it's twice the money that I was getting on SSI. The money won't been coming in until April but it's already burning a hole in my pocket. I see yarn. Lots of yarn. LOL! It will be so much fun to get more money!!! Yippee!!! And this will be money I have coming to me and no longer a governmental handout. That's gonna do a lot for my self-esteem! I can guarantee it!
Guess this will do it for my blog today. I really don't know if I'll keep it going. Maybe I'll be off until this summer. It's kind of unfair to have you checking repeatedly when there's nothing there for you to read. That was my last written devotional (I thought I had a couple more but can't find them) so I'll have to write more of them before I blog again. Best thing for you to do is not count on anything until around May. And if I've not written anything new by June, you'll know that I've resigned from my blog. That's the best I can do for you at this time. It's just not fair to have you checking and checking and checking. Hopefully I'll see you this summer ...
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bye, Bye 2008; Hello 2009!
Finally I am finding time to blog. Christmas and the New Year celebrations have gone by and I'm facing a brand new year with its challenges and disappointments and its successes and surprises. The last of the company left this morning then we did what needed to be done. We bundled up against the cold and wandered out to do our shopping. God has been so good to me lately I just can't tell you of all the times He has stepped in a rescued me from myself. Even today when I backed into another car in the parking lot at CostLess. Not a ding on her car. Thank you, Jesus! And only a little bit of chipped paint on mine. I don't know where she came from. I had just looked and the way was clear. The thing is, I hit her hard enough for damage and there was none. She could have been a very nasty person with grounds to yell at me but she was very nice and simply told me to drive more carefully in the future. This was a blessing from the Lord. A reminder that I should not be looking anywhere else except WHERE MY CAR IS HEADING! I should not have been backing up if I wasn't turned around and watching. That's the key. We all get that way. I watch my husband all the time when he looks and then just turns away and continues to back up. But I was unaware that I too do that at times. But we get lazy and forgetful and try to cut corners, forgetting that those "corners" are put there for our protection. Anyway the Lord was definitely with me this morning. And I made so many MAJOR knitting errors in the last couple days and He stepped in and fixed them. A couple I was able to figure out after awhile (even though one mistake still shows if you look closely enough) and then there were a couple that just disappeared in the process of going back to see what I had done right. With one in particular I know I was visited by the Lord one of those times because I fixed what I didn't even know was wrong. We have an awesome God! And you may think me silly for believing God intervened in my knitting but I don't care. I know He did because He made the problem go away without me doing anything. My God is so big He even cares about my knitting. Everything I knit is for His glory and He knows that I know that. What an awesome God!!! He really does care about anything and everything that happens to us in this life. I am especially thankful that He took care of the "fender bender" in the parking lot this morning. I really did hit her hard enough for some damage (especially considering how our cars are made these days) but there wasn't even a scratch on her car. Thank You, Father! I won't have to explain to my son (who pays for my insurance) how I managed to create another insurance claim against his account. I felt so bad for hitting her. The Lord knew it was an accident and He protected me. She said she honked twice but neither I nor Michael heard her do it. There was no one behind her so she could have shoved it in reverse right quick and saved me from having a heart attack. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not shifting the blame. I BACKED INTO HER, not the other way around. But I couldn't count on both hands the number of times I've backed out of someone's way to avoid a crash.) And truthfully, I don't think she honked. I mean, chances are I wouldn't have heard her honk but Michael has good ears. He would have heard her I'm sure.
It has been cold and dreary for the past couple days. And we got a half an inch of rain yesterday which was a surprise for me. I didn't hear that we had rain coming in. I went to Sonora across the river and into the next county yesterday afternoon with my sister and it was raining when we came out of the SS office building. I don't think we're due for rain again for a few days. The river was really low under the bridge. I sure hope we don't go into another drought problem like we had a few years ago. We stayed in that pattern for several years. Way too long and I'd just as soon not do it again.
Well we have the shopping all done for now so we won't need to worry about that. Although WalMart was out of a lot of things we normally buy and chances are we'll have to make another trip later in the month. I got a $30 gift certificate for the local Christian bookstore and I forgot to take that with me so if we do end up going back, I'll spend that money before it burns a hole in my pocket. I love Christian bookstores, don't you? The only problem I'll have is too many books to choose from. I had thought about buying a new Bible but my son and daughter-in-law bought me the one I was thinking about buying. I still need a good "formal" Bible for Church. Mine is falling apart but those things are like $75!!! Ridiculous prices, if you ask me!
We had to buy a new toaster today. Our old one just almost gave completely out. It only got hot on one side of the bread and it took forever and a day to make a simple piece of toast. We bought that one to replace another one we had that was as slow as molasses on a cold day. This time we bought a Hamilton Beach. The one before the last one that was so slow was a Proctor Silex. When we got tired of waiting all day for toast we bought a Toastmaster toaster. We thought it would be a good one but it was every bit as slow as the old one had been. Then when it died on one side we thought we'd check out a new brand. We thought someone named ToastMaster would make good, quick toast, wouldn't you? Well it was as slow as the 7-year itch and I'm glad the heating elements finally went out on one side so we'd have to get another one. Of course we haven't tried it out yet to see how slow it is. Maybe they're all slow these days. I'll let you know how well it works, if it works well. The thing is, we won't know until we use it and then we can't take it back once we've used it.
Well, I'm going to go to my knitting now and see what kind of shape it's in. I don't remember leaving it a mess to be worked out so hopefully I can just sit down and knit and rest awhile. The sun is coming out!! Here it is after 4:00 and the sun finally sticks its head out. We don't have many dreary days up here in the foothills. Just enough to be bothersome. And it's time for me to feed my cats so I better get on the stick and get them taken care of so that I can knit in peace. We're warming up left-over lasagna for dinner so there's no real cooking required. Just a min or so in the nuker and we'll be set. I hope you had a great New Year's holiday and I hope you also have a great new year! Until next time...
It has been cold and dreary for the past couple days. And we got a half an inch of rain yesterday which was a surprise for me. I didn't hear that we had rain coming in. I went to Sonora across the river and into the next county yesterday afternoon with my sister and it was raining when we came out of the SS office building. I don't think we're due for rain again for a few days. The river was really low under the bridge. I sure hope we don't go into another drought problem like we had a few years ago. We stayed in that pattern for several years. Way too long and I'd just as soon not do it again.
Well we have the shopping all done for now so we won't need to worry about that. Although WalMart was out of a lot of things we normally buy and chances are we'll have to make another trip later in the month. I got a $30 gift certificate for the local Christian bookstore and I forgot to take that with me so if we do end up going back, I'll spend that money before it burns a hole in my pocket. I love Christian bookstores, don't you? The only problem I'll have is too many books to choose from. I had thought about buying a new Bible but my son and daughter-in-law bought me the one I was thinking about buying. I still need a good "formal" Bible for Church. Mine is falling apart but those things are like $75!!! Ridiculous prices, if you ask me!
We had to buy a new toaster today. Our old one just almost gave completely out. It only got hot on one side of the bread and it took forever and a day to make a simple piece of toast. We bought that one to replace another one we had that was as slow as molasses on a cold day. This time we bought a Hamilton Beach. The one before the last one that was so slow was a Proctor Silex. When we got tired of waiting all day for toast we bought a Toastmaster toaster. We thought it would be a good one but it was every bit as slow as the old one had been. Then when it died on one side we thought we'd check out a new brand. We thought someone named ToastMaster would make good, quick toast, wouldn't you? Well it was as slow as the 7-year itch and I'm glad the heating elements finally went out on one side so we'd have to get another one. Of course we haven't tried it out yet to see how slow it is. Maybe they're all slow these days. I'll let you know how well it works, if it works well. The thing is, we won't know until we use it and then we can't take it back once we've used it.
Well, I'm going to go to my knitting now and see what kind of shape it's in. I don't remember leaving it a mess to be worked out so hopefully I can just sit down and knit and rest awhile. The sun is coming out!! Here it is after 4:00 and the sun finally sticks its head out. We don't have many dreary days up here in the foothills. Just enough to be bothersome. And it's time for me to feed my cats so I better get on the stick and get them taken care of so that I can knit in peace. We're warming up left-over lasagna for dinner so there's no real cooking required. Just a min or so in the nuker and we'll be set. I hope you had a great New Year's holiday and I hope you also have a great new year! Until next time...
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas 2008
Merry Christmas to every single person reading my blog. Can't believe it's really Christmas but that's what the calendar says. We went to the candle light service tonight at the church and M went without my asking him. Wow! Oh and I couldn't believe I had taken so long but I suddenly remembered to invite my son and daughter-in-law. I sent a quick email and Ken was on his way home from work, got the email on his i-phone, and drove straight to the church. First time I've seen him in about a month! It was wonderful sitting there between my guys. Michael on one side and Ken on the other. Daughter-in-law had to work so I got to enjoy them all by myself. But Ken was really tired so he left quickly for home after the service. His new job is working him like crazy. Last week he worked 77 hours! (No wonder he doesn't have time for mom!!) Again...
Merry Christmas to all...
Merry Christmas to all...
Saturday, December 20, 2008
A Quick Post
Here it is going on midnight and I'm just getting to this blog. But I wanted to touch bases as I'm going to try for balance here as Robin recommended. I'm such an all-or-nothing kind of person that I forget other people manage to keep abreast of several interests at the same time. There's no reason I can't knit AND blog. It's just a matter of balance. That's what I need: balance. I'm striving for it and hopefully I can do both things.
My friend, Kathleen, came up to me at church yesterday morning and invited me to ride down to Stockton with her today. I was torn. I wanted to go but then I wanted to stay home too. Ever have that sensation. We left her house before 9:30 and we got back about 4:15. Whew! Long day! But it was fun. Rain had been forecasted for the day but we drove down in bright blue skies and sunshine. Our first stop was Office Depot, then we hit Joann's (arts/crafts) Bed, Bath, & Beyond (just what it sounds like) Best Buy (electronics/computers) Michael's (arts/crafts) and we made a trip to Bud's for a wonderful cup of steaming clam chowder with San Francisco sour dough bread and real butter! And I spent way too much money. This is money that I'd been squirreling away for many months now for just such an opportunity to go to a big city and shop. That is a rarity for me. It has probably been 3 years since I spent any time off the mountain and down in the Valley. I have decided to make my sisters' afghans/throws for Christmas next year and I internet- ordered the yarn for one but I needed to find the yarn for the other one. So I bought what I think she will like (I hope). And then when we got to Michael's I found the knitting dept by accident (I really didn't know Michael's carries yarn) and came across some beautiful yarn for only 1.99 a ball. I bought 6 each of two different colors. One a really nice blue (in fact I've been kicking myself for not buying enough of it to make BJ's throw and use the yarn I bought at Joann's for something else) and one a darkish camel. Really pretty yarn and I couldn't let the price slip by me. I just wish I'd bought more of that blue. Oh well. I didn't. I'll live with it. The yarn I ended up buying for her throw is brushed varigated blues with white. Nice and different than that I ordered on the internet for the other sister. Her livingroom furniture is a deep blue. I can't remember the color of her bedroom and I'm not sure where she'll keep the throw, whether in the livingroom or the bedroom so I ended up going with blues. But the blues in the varigated yarn are really nice blues; nothing bright just subtle shades of blue. And I think she'll like that. As I said, it's a brushed yarn which I hadn't thought about but it was listed for a price I thought was fair for a throw and it will make a very pretty one.
Traffic was horrible in town not bad going or coming much at all but downtown? I was ready to scream!! I've lived up on the mountain too long to be comfortable in all that traffic. I'm always amazed at all the businesses though. I always feel like a little kid that's gone to the big city and just hypnotized by all the stores; just store after store; it was endless. Up here we have only one of what we have. In the Valley they have 12 of everything. Art supplies stores, department stores, computer stores, bookstores, the list is endless. And people!!! I've never seen so many people! Best Buy had enough people it in to qualify for a county! One like ours anyway. And the lines. Bear in mind that I am not a patient person and these lines were unbelieveable. At Michael's the line snaked back almost the length of the store. (I'm exaggerating but only a little.) And Kathleen wanted to purchase some white T-shirt ribbing and so we had to take a number and wait there too and then go stand in line there at Joann's. The only place we didn't have to wait in line for service was at Bud's. We went in and went directly to our table, ordered the chowder, and had it in front of us within 5 mins of walking through the door. I guess you'd be stupid to think there wouldn't be lines and people, people, people this close to Christmas. When I agreed to ride down with her I really hadn't thought about how frantic it would be being Christmas and all. I'm so stupid. I absolutely amaze myself at my own stupidity. No, actually I had a good time today. I hate to shop and I hate to be away from home and I did both and enjoyed myself. I think Kathleen's about as in need of a friend as I am. She's the only friends I have. Oh I have people I know real well from church and all but as a true friend I'd have to say that Kathleen is my only one and we just started our friendship. That was back when we had the heart 2 heart thingie at church and she and I agreed to email each other to get better acquainted (which was the purpose of the program or ministry) and when our 6 months were up we just kept on emailing each other. She and her husband took their vacation and she took me along via email (and I had a blast!) and then I joined the knitters group which she co-teaches and she offered to meet with me on Friday afternoons for more knitting and we have just really hit it off. We're so much alike even our birthdays are in the same month.
I finished Laurie's prayer shawl (can't remember if I mentioned that) and I have my pale green shawl almost finished (the body of it) and I'm excited to see it fringed and blocked. It's going to be very pretty. I only need about 4 more inches knitted and it will be long enough. My burgundy shawl is about 2 feet long already. Bear in mind that these are the same two shawls that I knitted out to about 3 feet and then ripped out and started all over again from scratch. I do feel like I've been with the pattern for ages. The thing is, it is a beautiful pattern and I just can't see making only one thing in that pattern. I want several things. So I'll have the two shawls and then my other sister's throw to make all with the same pattern and then I will move on to something else for BJ's throw. And whatever I find to make out of the solid blue and camel I bought. It's terrible to buy yarn and have no idea what you're going to make out of it but it was just so darned cheap!!! I would have kicked myself even harder if I'd passed up that bargain. The other thing I bought was a rotary cutter. It's like a big pizza cutter that I can use to trim the fringe to the proper length and even and all. Kathleen and I used her cutter when I did Laurie's shawl and since I know I've got at least 3 fringed projects to do yet, I could certainly use one of my own. And those aren't cheap. I did manage to find one for $12 and I bought a spare blade to keep on hand and it was $5, which I thought was pretty high but I didn't want to buy the cutter and then not be able to use it because I couldn't find replacement blades for it. Although is is a fiskar blade so that should be pretty easy to find. I hope anyway! Last month at the quilting clinic is the first I knew of rotary cutters and I was so impressed by the ease with which they were able to cut yardage. And then when I put the fringe on Laurie's prayer shawl Kathleen used hers. It worked perfectly for the fringe. Michael has a heavy, thick steel cutting edge I can use . Now all I need is a long cutting board. I've got a couple smallish cutting boards and I'll just have to keep moving it along underneath the edge I want to trim.
It rained on us coming home and has been raining here since I got to my house at about 4:30. We got .98 of an inch yesterday. I don't think this storm is supposed to give us much at all but we'll see because it has been raining for hours and hours. Well I know this has been very boring to you I'm sure. This is a great time in the life of our church. Our attendance is usually low but the month of December just packs them in. And I love that. I love to turn around and see a crowd of people sitting behind me. My son has been working 7 days a week since he started his new job so he hasn't been able to attend. I'm so proud of him. He's only been with them for a month and already they've promoted him. He is just so talented in what he does. I'm still in shock that the last place let him go. I bet you anything they're kicking themselves in the backside for letting him go, especially the way they did it. He had 14 years with that place and they just threw him away. Oh well, he likes this new place so much better.
We'll have our candlelight celebration Christmas eve and Michael is planning on going with me so that will be nice. I wish I could get him to come on Sundays but he would much rather stay home and watch TV, which wouldn't be so bad if he'd watch Charles Stanley or something other than NASCAR and football.
Okay this was supposed to be short and quick because I am really tired after that shopping trip today but I wanted to say something before the holiday gets here because everyone's so busy around Christmas. We actually won't be celebrating until the 28th and 29th this year. The 28th is for the entire clan and that's at the clubhouse across the river and the 29th is just our immediate family with my son and grandkids, etc, and that's just across town. So Christmas itself isn't going to feel special at all.
I have neglected my quiet time lately and I really need to get on the stick and get going with that again. I let knitting get in the way. I just need to do the quiet time BEFORE knitting because once I pick up those needles, it's all over for everything else. But I'm going to strive for that balance Robin spoke of. It's just my bipolar getting in the way of my life. This is it. I will rattle on forever if I don't be polite and just shut up. I have a couple devotions written that I will try to put out soon. Until next time...
My friend, Kathleen, came up to me at church yesterday morning and invited me to ride down to Stockton with her today. I was torn. I wanted to go but then I wanted to stay home too. Ever have that sensation. We left her house before 9:30 and we got back about 4:15. Whew! Long day! But it was fun. Rain had been forecasted for the day but we drove down in bright blue skies and sunshine. Our first stop was Office Depot, then we hit Joann's (arts/crafts) Bed, Bath, & Beyond (just what it sounds like) Best Buy (electronics/computers) Michael's (arts/crafts) and we made a trip to Bud's for a wonderful cup of steaming clam chowder with San Francisco sour dough bread and real butter! And I spent way too much money. This is money that I'd been squirreling away for many months now for just such an opportunity to go to a big city and shop. That is a rarity for me. It has probably been 3 years since I spent any time off the mountain and down in the Valley. I have decided to make my sisters' afghans/throws for Christmas next year and I internet- ordered the yarn for one but I needed to find the yarn for the other one. So I bought what I think she will like (I hope). And then when we got to Michael's I found the knitting dept by accident (I really didn't know Michael's carries yarn) and came across some beautiful yarn for only 1.99 a ball. I bought 6 each of two different colors. One a really nice blue (in fact I've been kicking myself for not buying enough of it to make BJ's throw and use the yarn I bought at Joann's for something else) and one a darkish camel. Really pretty yarn and I couldn't let the price slip by me. I just wish I'd bought more of that blue. Oh well. I didn't. I'll live with it. The yarn I ended up buying for her throw is brushed varigated blues with white. Nice and different than that I ordered on the internet for the other sister. Her livingroom furniture is a deep blue. I can't remember the color of her bedroom and I'm not sure where she'll keep the throw, whether in the livingroom or the bedroom so I ended up going with blues. But the blues in the varigated yarn are really nice blues; nothing bright just subtle shades of blue. And I think she'll like that. As I said, it's a brushed yarn which I hadn't thought about but it was listed for a price I thought was fair for a throw and it will make a very pretty one.
Traffic was horrible in town not bad going or coming much at all but downtown? I was ready to scream!! I've lived up on the mountain too long to be comfortable in all that traffic. I'm always amazed at all the businesses though. I always feel like a little kid that's gone to the big city and just hypnotized by all the stores; just store after store; it was endless. Up here we have only one of what we have. In the Valley they have 12 of everything. Art supplies stores, department stores, computer stores, bookstores, the list is endless. And people!!! I've never seen so many people! Best Buy had enough people it in to qualify for a county! One like ours anyway. And the lines. Bear in mind that I am not a patient person and these lines were unbelieveable. At Michael's the line snaked back almost the length of the store. (I'm exaggerating but only a little.) And Kathleen wanted to purchase some white T-shirt ribbing and so we had to take a number and wait there too and then go stand in line there at Joann's. The only place we didn't have to wait in line for service was at Bud's. We went in and went directly to our table, ordered the chowder, and had it in front of us within 5 mins of walking through the door. I guess you'd be stupid to think there wouldn't be lines and people, people, people this close to Christmas. When I agreed to ride down with her I really hadn't thought about how frantic it would be being Christmas and all. I'm so stupid. I absolutely amaze myself at my own stupidity. No, actually I had a good time today. I hate to shop and I hate to be away from home and I did both and enjoyed myself. I think Kathleen's about as in need of a friend as I am. She's the only friends I have. Oh I have people I know real well from church and all but as a true friend I'd have to say that Kathleen is my only one and we just started our friendship. That was back when we had the heart 2 heart thingie at church and she and I agreed to email each other to get better acquainted (which was the purpose of the program or ministry) and when our 6 months were up we just kept on emailing each other. She and her husband took their vacation and she took me along via email (and I had a blast!) and then I joined the knitters group which she co-teaches and she offered to meet with me on Friday afternoons for more knitting and we have just really hit it off. We're so much alike even our birthdays are in the same month.
I finished Laurie's prayer shawl (can't remember if I mentioned that) and I have my pale green shawl almost finished (the body of it) and I'm excited to see it fringed and blocked. It's going to be very pretty. I only need about 4 more inches knitted and it will be long enough. My burgundy shawl is about 2 feet long already. Bear in mind that these are the same two shawls that I knitted out to about 3 feet and then ripped out and started all over again from scratch. I do feel like I've been with the pattern for ages. The thing is, it is a beautiful pattern and I just can't see making only one thing in that pattern. I want several things. So I'll have the two shawls and then my other sister's throw to make all with the same pattern and then I will move on to something else for BJ's throw. And whatever I find to make out of the solid blue and camel I bought. It's terrible to buy yarn and have no idea what you're going to make out of it but it was just so darned cheap!!! I would have kicked myself even harder if I'd passed up that bargain. The other thing I bought was a rotary cutter. It's like a big pizza cutter that I can use to trim the fringe to the proper length and even and all. Kathleen and I used her cutter when I did Laurie's shawl and since I know I've got at least 3 fringed projects to do yet, I could certainly use one of my own. And those aren't cheap. I did manage to find one for $12 and I bought a spare blade to keep on hand and it was $5, which I thought was pretty high but I didn't want to buy the cutter and then not be able to use it because I couldn't find replacement blades for it. Although is is a fiskar blade so that should be pretty easy to find. I hope anyway! Last month at the quilting clinic is the first I knew of rotary cutters and I was so impressed by the ease with which they were able to cut yardage. And then when I put the fringe on Laurie's prayer shawl Kathleen used hers. It worked perfectly for the fringe. Michael has a heavy, thick steel cutting edge I can use . Now all I need is a long cutting board. I've got a couple smallish cutting boards and I'll just have to keep moving it along underneath the edge I want to trim.
It rained on us coming home and has been raining here since I got to my house at about 4:30. We got .98 of an inch yesterday. I don't think this storm is supposed to give us much at all but we'll see because it has been raining for hours and hours. Well I know this has been very boring to you I'm sure. This is a great time in the life of our church. Our attendance is usually low but the month of December just packs them in. And I love that. I love to turn around and see a crowd of people sitting behind me. My son has been working 7 days a week since he started his new job so he hasn't been able to attend. I'm so proud of him. He's only been with them for a month and already they've promoted him. He is just so talented in what he does. I'm still in shock that the last place let him go. I bet you anything they're kicking themselves in the backside for letting him go, especially the way they did it. He had 14 years with that place and they just threw him away. Oh well, he likes this new place so much better.
We'll have our candlelight celebration Christmas eve and Michael is planning on going with me so that will be nice. I wish I could get him to come on Sundays but he would much rather stay home and watch TV, which wouldn't be so bad if he'd watch Charles Stanley or something other than NASCAR and football.
Okay this was supposed to be short and quick because I am really tired after that shopping trip today but I wanted to say something before the holiday gets here because everyone's so busy around Christmas. We actually won't be celebrating until the 28th and 29th this year. The 28th is for the entire clan and that's at the clubhouse across the river and the 29th is just our immediate family with my son and grandkids, etc, and that's just across town. So Christmas itself isn't going to feel special at all.
I have neglected my quiet time lately and I really need to get on the stick and get going with that again. I let knitting get in the way. I just need to do the quiet time BEFORE knitting because once I pick up those needles, it's all over for everything else. But I'm going to strive for that balance Robin spoke of. It's just my bipolar getting in the way of my life. This is it. I will rattle on forever if I don't be polite and just shut up. I have a couple devotions written that I will try to put out soon. Until next time...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
I Need a Break
I guess you've probably figured out by now that I've taken a break; only this time I don't know if I'll be back. Ever. I just got bored with blogging and I spent so much time with nothing to show for it. Now I am into knitting again. I was a knitter 2o years ago and have just recently decided to take it up again and I am really enjoying myself. I knitted a prayer shawl for my niece who lost one of her sons a couple months ago. I thought when grief really washed over her she could wrap up in the shawl and cry her eyes out. It could be her grieving place. We've going across the river tomorrow so I can give it to her. Actually, I'll leave it with my sister since my niece will be at work in Sacramento. I'll let my sister give it to her. But anyway, I've knitted that shawl (that we blessed at prayer meeting last night) and have two other shawls in the works as well as several other projects like a hat and a scarf. The yarn I had ordered came in today's mail and I am so pleased with the color. It is exactly what I wanted. And how often does that happen? Not very. Usually you order it and when it comes in it doesn't look anything like the picture you saw in the catalog or on the Internet. I'm going to use that yarn to make a throw for one of my sisters for next year's Christmas gift. I plan to make one for my other sister too. P's yarn is a dusty antique rose, if you can envision that. BJ's will be a soft blue if I can find the right shade. If I can't find the right shade of blue I'll go with another shade of rose. They both have blue and rose/mauve/pink furniture and accents so I'll try to stick to their color choices. I have a year to make both afghans and I think I can make it work out. I will do other projects while I'm working on the throws or afghans but I imagine it will take me quite some time to do them. I meet with a group of knitters from my church and from the community every Tuesday evening for an hour, immediately after prayer meeting (we meet in opposite ends of the church) and joining this group has gotten me back to prayer meeting. I went every Tues night for years and then they decided to change the time to 5:00PM. That's the time I'm usually in the middle of preparing dinner so I stopped going. Then when I decided to go to knitting at 6:00, I thought why not have M put something in the oven for me and we could eat when I got home. He said that would be okay with him so I now go to both meetings on Tues nights. I meet at my friend's house on Friday afternoons for knitting too. She teaches me things and we knit together for a couple hours. A nice, fun, relaxing time. Doing this is something I've never done ... in my entire life! I've never just gone over to a friend's house and visited or did anything else. But we enjoy our Fri afternoons.
A bunch of us knitters met at a restaurant at 1:00 today and said goodbye to one of our group who is leaving to go where it's warmer. That too is something I've rarely ever done. Go to lunch with friends. I'm really trying to open up and come out of my protective world inside my house. There are so many things I don't do because of my hearing loss. They take me out of my comfort zone. But I am trying. I am really trying to open up and be vulnerable. The knitting takes a commitment and I hope to continue. I'm a little frustrated right now though because I keep making mistakes and have to keep ripping it back out. I had one of these shawls about 38 inches long and ripped it completely out and started all over again. There were mistakes in it and I was not happy with it. My niece's shawl has a big mistake in it that she'll probably never even see but I know it's there and it was so obvious when Kath and I blocked it that I really couldn't feel any real satisfaction in having knitted it. I regretted letting that mistake go through so much that I decided I couldn't let that happen again. That's when I came home and ripped it out and started from scratch all over again. I now have it about 33 inches long and I've got a problem with it that I couldn't solve tonight. I hate it when that happens. I use markers that break it down to a workable number of stitches for each marker so I'm able to determine immediately if there's an error I've made but I'm not really very good at defining exactly what the problem is so I can fix it. I had the same thing happen Sun night and I just put it away and then in the morning, with fresh eyes, I was able to distinguish between the stitches and located my mistake and fixed it. I am really, really hoping that that happens again for me. I won't be able to look at it in the morning because we're going across River, but when we get back and I have had a sufficient break from the project, I'm hoping to solve my problem. One thing about knitting, it keeps you on your toes. I was so hoping to go over to Kath's house to knit on Fri without taking a problem with me for her to fix. I went so long without making a lasting mistake and I just want to fix it myself. I want to be able to go over to Kath's and just knit for a change. I am hoping and praying that the Lord will show me tomorrow where I've done the wrong stitch, dropped a stitch, or YO'd when I shouldn't have. You may think it quite strange for me to bring the Lord into my knitting but everything I do is for His glory and when I make a prayer shawl for someone, well, it reflects on Him. I don't even know who these shawls are for. I will knit them, block them, and box them and have them on hand for when someone really needs a prayer shawl. It is a ministry for me to knit and give away these shawls. And they're not necessarily reserved for members of my family or my church family but for anyone who I determine needs a place to cry. When my son died I would have loved to have had someone give me a prayer shawl. I would have wrapped myself in it and cried my eyes out in prayer.
The temp has really dropped tonight. Right now it's 25 degrees outside. The cold front that moved in after the rains we had the other day brought in very cold air behind it. We are due for more rain in a day or so so it will warm back up quickly. I hope.
Well, it has been fun blogging and you might want to check periodically just to see if I've posted. Getting back to blogger tonight has stirred things inside and I recognize the fact that I have missed blogging but I've only got so much time. Maybe I could find a way to blog once a week or so. I do enjoy it very much! I think somehow I'll be able to work in both blogging and knitting into my life. This past month I have saturated myself in knitting because I have forgotten so many things I used to know about it. You know the old phrase: Use it or lose it! How true that is. It frustrates me that I can't go right to a mistake and fix it. I used to be able to do that. So I have spent the past month trying to learn to read my knitting stitches all over again. I have made progress but I still can't do it all by myself all the time yet. I mean, I know where I make a mistake (between 2 markers) I just struggle with reading what I did as opposed to what I should have done. That's the tough thing for me. I really hope I can solve this problem tomorrow. I so wanted to go over to Kath's with no problem for her to solve. But I will swallow my pride and ask for her help if I can't get it done before then.
I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner. I made myself sit down and write out my Christmas cards this morning and then took them to the Post Office after lunch. I have all my gifts bought and wrapped. I did that last week. All I still need to do is attach name tags and bows. I always do the bows just before giving them out. (They stack well in the car without bows and the bows don't get all smooshed.) I decided on what day last week I wanted to shop and then I got up early. But before leaving my driveway I took out a few mins just to sit and pray about my day. I'm not good at shopping. The truth of the matter is that I hate shopping. I get absolutely no enjoyment out of shopping at all. So I prayed for the Lord to go before me and prepare the way for me to find the right gifts for the right prices and for a safe trip over and back. In two hours I was completely done and on my way back home. Then when I got home, rather than just take all the newly-bought gifts into the spare room and deal with them later, I got out everything I need and wrapped them while I was still in the mood to deal with gifts. I figured I had planned on taking all day just to buy some of the presents, might as well dedicate more of my day and get them wrapped. And I had everything wrapped and put away before I had even hope to have them done. What a nice blessing. Did my prayer make a difference? Did it help? Sure didn't hurt any that's for sure. And yes, I think prayer does make a difference. I had asked for a calm spirit and a right attitude and God gave me both and He threw the location of the gifts while He was at it. Prayer always helps and I firmly believe the Lord wants to be included in every detail of our lives. Whenever I start to make a mistake knitting and catch myself, I always say "Thank You" to the Lord. And I always try to remember to pray each day before I start my knitting.
Well it is late so I think I'll let this be it for now. I really can't say when or if I'll be back. I kind of feel like it's a "when" rather than an "if" just by the way I feel after writing this post. I do enjoy blogging. And truthfully I was getting a little bored by it but it's still in my blood. I just can't see me never blogging again. So check my site every week or so and see if I have anything posted. Until then, stay close to the Lord in everything you do. He so desires a close, real relationship with us. He wants to be involved in our lives and that means involving Him in the nuts and bolts of our lives. He wants us to share our lives with Him and He will never reject our attempts to involve Him in our efforts, whatever they may be.
Oh. oh, I have more to say. Last Sun morning I went to church without a hat!! Milestone!!! My hair is still very, very short and you can see scalp in places but it felt good to go and not wear a hat. (Of course now with the cold I'm back to wearing a hat again; go figure.) It is only about an inch long on top but it's long enough now that it's only sticking straight up at the very peak of my head (I can't remember what that's called; the apex??) And I didn't feel too horribly self-conscious about it. It's the first time I'd gone anywhere in public without a head covering in almost 6 months now. That's a bit of a shock to me. I haven't really thought about it but it has taken almost 6 months to grow 1" of hair. Hummm. That's a long time to grow so little. But I'm grateful for getting what I have now. Who knows; it may never be any longer than it is right now. And I'll manage. It may all decide to fall out again. And I'll manage. I have always been the type of woman who is fussy about her hair. Then I had no hair to fuss with. But I'll take what I can get and praise God for every single hair strand.
Until next time...
A bunch of us knitters met at a restaurant at 1:00 today and said goodbye to one of our group who is leaving to go where it's warmer. That too is something I've rarely ever done. Go to lunch with friends. I'm really trying to open up and come out of my protective world inside my house. There are so many things I don't do because of my hearing loss. They take me out of my comfort zone. But I am trying. I am really trying to open up and be vulnerable. The knitting takes a commitment and I hope to continue. I'm a little frustrated right now though because I keep making mistakes and have to keep ripping it back out. I had one of these shawls about 38 inches long and ripped it completely out and started all over again. There were mistakes in it and I was not happy with it. My niece's shawl has a big mistake in it that she'll probably never even see but I know it's there and it was so obvious when Kath and I blocked it that I really couldn't feel any real satisfaction in having knitted it. I regretted letting that mistake go through so much that I decided I couldn't let that happen again. That's when I came home and ripped it out and started from scratch all over again. I now have it about 33 inches long and I've got a problem with it that I couldn't solve tonight. I hate it when that happens. I use markers that break it down to a workable number of stitches for each marker so I'm able to determine immediately if there's an error I've made but I'm not really very good at defining exactly what the problem is so I can fix it. I had the same thing happen Sun night and I just put it away and then in the morning, with fresh eyes, I was able to distinguish between the stitches and located my mistake and fixed it. I am really, really hoping that that happens again for me. I won't be able to look at it in the morning because we're going across River, but when we get back and I have had a sufficient break from the project, I'm hoping to solve my problem. One thing about knitting, it keeps you on your toes. I was so hoping to go over to Kath's house to knit on Fri without taking a problem with me for her to fix. I went so long without making a lasting mistake and I just want to fix it myself. I want to be able to go over to Kath's and just knit for a change. I am hoping and praying that the Lord will show me tomorrow where I've done the wrong stitch, dropped a stitch, or YO'd when I shouldn't have. You may think it quite strange for me to bring the Lord into my knitting but everything I do is for His glory and when I make a prayer shawl for someone, well, it reflects on Him. I don't even know who these shawls are for. I will knit them, block them, and box them and have them on hand for when someone really needs a prayer shawl. It is a ministry for me to knit and give away these shawls. And they're not necessarily reserved for members of my family or my church family but for anyone who I determine needs a place to cry. When my son died I would have loved to have had someone give me a prayer shawl. I would have wrapped myself in it and cried my eyes out in prayer.
The temp has really dropped tonight. Right now it's 25 degrees outside. The cold front that moved in after the rains we had the other day brought in very cold air behind it. We are due for more rain in a day or so so it will warm back up quickly. I hope.
Well, it has been fun blogging and you might want to check periodically just to see if I've posted. Getting back to blogger tonight has stirred things inside and I recognize the fact that I have missed blogging but I've only got so much time. Maybe I could find a way to blog once a week or so. I do enjoy it very much! I think somehow I'll be able to work in both blogging and knitting into my life. This past month I have saturated myself in knitting because I have forgotten so many things I used to know about it. You know the old phrase: Use it or lose it! How true that is. It frustrates me that I can't go right to a mistake and fix it. I used to be able to do that. So I have spent the past month trying to learn to read my knitting stitches all over again. I have made progress but I still can't do it all by myself all the time yet. I mean, I know where I make a mistake (between 2 markers) I just struggle with reading what I did as opposed to what I should have done. That's the tough thing for me. I really hope I can solve this problem tomorrow. I so wanted to go over to Kath's with no problem for her to solve. But I will swallow my pride and ask for her help if I can't get it done before then.
I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner. I made myself sit down and write out my Christmas cards this morning and then took them to the Post Office after lunch. I have all my gifts bought and wrapped. I did that last week. All I still need to do is attach name tags and bows. I always do the bows just before giving them out. (They stack well in the car without bows and the bows don't get all smooshed.) I decided on what day last week I wanted to shop and then I got up early. But before leaving my driveway I took out a few mins just to sit and pray about my day. I'm not good at shopping. The truth of the matter is that I hate shopping. I get absolutely no enjoyment out of shopping at all. So I prayed for the Lord to go before me and prepare the way for me to find the right gifts for the right prices and for a safe trip over and back. In two hours I was completely done and on my way back home. Then when I got home, rather than just take all the newly-bought gifts into the spare room and deal with them later, I got out everything I need and wrapped them while I was still in the mood to deal with gifts. I figured I had planned on taking all day just to buy some of the presents, might as well dedicate more of my day and get them wrapped. And I had everything wrapped and put away before I had even hope to have them done. What a nice blessing. Did my prayer make a difference? Did it help? Sure didn't hurt any that's for sure. And yes, I think prayer does make a difference. I had asked for a calm spirit and a right attitude and God gave me both and He threw the location of the gifts while He was at it. Prayer always helps and I firmly believe the Lord wants to be included in every detail of our lives. Whenever I start to make a mistake knitting and catch myself, I always say "Thank You" to the Lord. And I always try to remember to pray each day before I start my knitting.
Well it is late so I think I'll let this be it for now. I really can't say when or if I'll be back. I kind of feel like it's a "when" rather than an "if" just by the way I feel after writing this post. I do enjoy blogging. And truthfully I was getting a little bored by it but it's still in my blood. I just can't see me never blogging again. So check my site every week or so and see if I have anything posted. Until then, stay close to the Lord in everything you do. He so desires a close, real relationship with us. He wants to be involved in our lives and that means involving Him in the nuts and bolts of our lives. He wants us to share our lives with Him and He will never reject our attempts to involve Him in our efforts, whatever they may be.
Oh. oh, I have more to say. Last Sun morning I went to church without a hat!! Milestone!!! My hair is still very, very short and you can see scalp in places but it felt good to go and not wear a hat. (Of course now with the cold I'm back to wearing a hat again; go figure.) It is only about an inch long on top but it's long enough now that it's only sticking straight up at the very peak of my head (I can't remember what that's called; the apex??) And I didn't feel too horribly self-conscious about it. It's the first time I'd gone anywhere in public without a head covering in almost 6 months now. That's a bit of a shock to me. I haven't really thought about it but it has taken almost 6 months to grow 1" of hair. Hummm. That's a long time to grow so little. But I'm grateful for getting what I have now. Who knows; it may never be any longer than it is right now. And I'll manage. It may all decide to fall out again. And I'll manage. I have always been the type of woman who is fussy about her hair. Then I had no hair to fuss with. But I'll take what I can get and praise God for every single hair strand.
Until next time...
Monday, December 1, 2008
Uniting Belief and Behavior (Acts 24:14-16)
If we fully understand that we are sinners saved by grace, we may struggle with the idea of a "blameless conscience" (Acts 24:16). After all, we know our own hearts and motivations, don't we? Yet the apostle Paul found a way to ensure that his conscience commended rather than condemned him. Paul had a secret: Paying close attention to his beliefs and his behavior.
Paul went before the Roman governor Felix to plead his case in Acts 24, offering the consistency of his faith and behavior as evidence of innocence. His actions were determined by his convictions ~ namely, that he served the God of his fathers, and God would raise the dead to judgment. Together, these two firm beliefs helped him maintain a clear conscience.
Paul knew, as a student of Christ, that our deeds flow from who we are on the inside. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described conditions of the heart and illustrated with practical applications. He was saying His followers would be "the light of the world" because of their work, but the work begins in the heart (Matt 5:14-16; Luke 6:45).
Far too often, Christians focus on doing the right thing, rather than on the underlying beliefs that drive such behavior. We can give, serve, or in some other way act "good"; but unless we pay attention to the convictions motivating our actions, we may end up with an unclear conscience after all. If, however, we submit to God and allow Him to transform us totally from the inside out, then our consciences and our testimonies will be strong and clear. We will be able to speak the truth with our deeds.
********
Just a short little devotional today as I am pressed for time. I have so many things I want to do and so little time to do them in. I finished my first prayer shawl last night. (I still have to bind it off and braid the fringe on each end but the body of the shawl is done.) I hope I can figure out how to do the fringe. If I can't, I'm sure Kathleen will help me out. She's already said she would help me block it over at her house where she doesn't have any inside animals and we can put it on a sheet on the carpeting in the livingroom area until it is blocked and dried. I'm so excited to see what it looks like in it's proper shape. She's done a prayer shawl and that's how she blocked hers. I've never blocked anything so she'll be teaching me how to do that at the same time. I'm hoping we will do that this next Friday. Tonight I'll bind it off and try to get the fringe cut and figured out. It's kind of complicated looking. I'm hoping it's one of those things that look complicated but are really as simple as can be. This prayer shawl will go to my niece whose son, Merle, just died a month or so back. I know I mentioned her to you. I started knitting it for a blogger whose little 2-year-old strangled to death a couple months ago. But the Lord pressed Laurie onto my heart and I made the decision to change it and make it for Laurie. It was funny. As long as I prayed at the end of each side, it came out right. If I forgot to pray, I'd mess up and come out a stitch short or a stitch too long. (Thank God this is a forgiving pattern and yarn to work with because you can't see the mistakes, except for one. That one I mistook the number 6 on my row counter for number 9 and so I have only one row of YOs instead of two. You can definitely see the mistake if you look at it, but unless you really get down and start analyzing it, you won't really notice the mistake. I didn't notice the mistake until I was about 6 inches beyond and there was no way I was going to rip it all out for a mistake that no one's going to notice anyway.) But, as long as I prayed I'd stay even. Also, I had a miracle happen while knitting this prayer shawl. I got near the end of my pattern row and only had a few stitches left on my needle and I counted it out and I was one too many stitches. So I prayed, and voila! it came out even! I had just counted them and I was one over. Then I prayed and that extra stitch disappeared! Honest! It really happened. I'm glad the Lord told me to give this to Laurie because she needs the Lord so desperately in her life. She just got through a divorce from a deadbeat (sorry for being judgmental but that's was he was), then she lost Merle, and now she's kind of teamed up with another deadbeat. (No job with a history of drug use.) Someone she really doesn't need in her life right now. And I'm thinking that all the prayers that went into the making of this shawl will help her find the Lord. She needs the Lord so desperately right now. She was raised a JW also and she's since left that cult but she's like my sister who was a JW; they aren't doing anything spiritually at this time in their lives. We all need the Lord and we need Him ALL the time. Once the Lord led me to make this for Laurie, I prayed for her repeatedly throughout the making of this shawl. So this is a prayer shawl that has had dozens of prayers prayed during the knitting process. So it is truly a prayer shawl in that respect (or is it aspect?). I'm hoping that when she is down and hurting, when the sorrow of losing her firstborn bears down on her, she will be able to wrap herself in this shawl and feel all the prayers and find healing in the Lord. I have offered to share the gospel with her a few times and she's never taken me up on it. But this shawl has power. God made this shawl using my hands. This is God's creation, not mine. I anticipate seeing great things happen.
My hair is really growing out now and I've been going without a hat most of the time around home. You can still see my scalp in a lot of places (okay, most places) but it's looking like a short, short pixie cut. Depending on what it looks like in another month or so, I may keep my hair this way. Live dangerously! I've always wondered what I'd look like with really, really short hair and I'm being forced to experience it. The hair on the crown sticks straight up but the rest is now long enough that it's lying down on my head. The only problem I have is that I have what I consider a round, fat face and a pixie might not be the best decision to go. We'll see. I'm going to make an appointment with my hairdresser and get the sides and back cut with the clippers so it will all be the same length and then just see how I like it as it grows out. (Well, not quite this short. But short.) I've decided to be brave and try going the really short way and see how I like it. It will be wonderful to not have to worry about how it looks and always having to schedule in time needed to fix my hair before we could go anywhere. Some women can get a style to last a few days but mine is an every-day redo and only really looks good for the first couple hours. I hate my hair. It's so hard to work with and there's so little of it, even before it all fell out. It's taken 4 months to get to this stage and I figure it will probably take another 2-3 months to get to the pixie stage. And we'll just see how it goes. Once people get used to my short hair I won't look funny to anyone. Maybe not even to my worst critic: Me!!
Well, my computer is telling me that the autosave has failed and that blogger is down and publishing might fail so this post may just disappear when I try to publish it. Gee I hope not.
We've been having beautiful weather here in our corner of California. Lots and lots of sunshine. Right now the valley fog has moved up and enveloped us. I don't know how long it will stay with us but probably for the rest of the day. Sacramento has been having really dense fog this past week or so. We rarely get fog here although we get more here than when we used to live on Summit. The "kids" were here over the weekend and we had just beautiful weather. John was wearing shorts and tank tops most of the time. Of course they're used to really cold, ocean temps so this was balmy for them. They will be back for New Years. Then Easter. I don't mind because I just go on to church and leave them with Michael, I mean, they are his kids. They don't mind me leaving them for an hour and a half anyway.
Well I've got prayer meeting and knitting tonight so I really should get away from this computer and get a few things done around here. Lots of things to do. I'll go back to knitting the baby blanket as soon as I get my chores done. Sorry I've been so bad about writing lately. Until the next time... (now lets see if this will publish)
Paul went before the Roman governor Felix to plead his case in Acts 24, offering the consistency of his faith and behavior as evidence of innocence. His actions were determined by his convictions ~ namely, that he served the God of his fathers, and God would raise the dead to judgment. Together, these two firm beliefs helped him maintain a clear conscience.
Paul knew, as a student of Christ, that our deeds flow from who we are on the inside. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described conditions of the heart and illustrated with practical applications. He was saying His followers would be "the light of the world" because of their work, but the work begins in the heart (Matt 5:14-16; Luke 6:45).
Far too often, Christians focus on doing the right thing, rather than on the underlying beliefs that drive such behavior. We can give, serve, or in some other way act "good"; but unless we pay attention to the convictions motivating our actions, we may end up with an unclear conscience after all. If, however, we submit to God and allow Him to transform us totally from the inside out, then our consciences and our testimonies will be strong and clear. We will be able to speak the truth with our deeds.
********
Just a short little devotional today as I am pressed for time. I have so many things I want to do and so little time to do them in. I finished my first prayer shawl last night. (I still have to bind it off and braid the fringe on each end but the body of the shawl is done.) I hope I can figure out how to do the fringe. If I can't, I'm sure Kathleen will help me out. She's already said she would help me block it over at her house where she doesn't have any inside animals and we can put it on a sheet on the carpeting in the livingroom area until it is blocked and dried. I'm so excited to see what it looks like in it's proper shape. She's done a prayer shawl and that's how she blocked hers. I've never blocked anything so she'll be teaching me how to do that at the same time. I'm hoping we will do that this next Friday. Tonight I'll bind it off and try to get the fringe cut and figured out. It's kind of complicated looking. I'm hoping it's one of those things that look complicated but are really as simple as can be. This prayer shawl will go to my niece whose son, Merle, just died a month or so back. I know I mentioned her to you. I started knitting it for a blogger whose little 2-year-old strangled to death a couple months ago. But the Lord pressed Laurie onto my heart and I made the decision to change it and make it for Laurie. It was funny. As long as I prayed at the end of each side, it came out right. If I forgot to pray, I'd mess up and come out a stitch short or a stitch too long. (Thank God this is a forgiving pattern and yarn to work with because you can't see the mistakes, except for one. That one I mistook the number 6 on my row counter for number 9 and so I have only one row of YOs instead of two. You can definitely see the mistake if you look at it, but unless you really get down and start analyzing it, you won't really notice the mistake. I didn't notice the mistake until I was about 6 inches beyond and there was no way I was going to rip it all out for a mistake that no one's going to notice anyway.) But, as long as I prayed I'd stay even. Also, I had a miracle happen while knitting this prayer shawl. I got near the end of my pattern row and only had a few stitches left on my needle and I counted it out and I was one too many stitches. So I prayed, and voila! it came out even! I had just counted them and I was one over. Then I prayed and that extra stitch disappeared! Honest! It really happened. I'm glad the Lord told me to give this to Laurie because she needs the Lord so desperately in her life. She just got through a divorce from a deadbeat (sorry for being judgmental but that's was he was), then she lost Merle, and now she's kind of teamed up with another deadbeat. (No job with a history of drug use.) Someone she really doesn't need in her life right now. And I'm thinking that all the prayers that went into the making of this shawl will help her find the Lord. She needs the Lord so desperately right now. She was raised a JW also and she's since left that cult but she's like my sister who was a JW; they aren't doing anything spiritually at this time in their lives. We all need the Lord and we need Him ALL the time. Once the Lord led me to make this for Laurie, I prayed for her repeatedly throughout the making of this shawl. So this is a prayer shawl that has had dozens of prayers prayed during the knitting process. So it is truly a prayer shawl in that respect (or is it aspect?). I'm hoping that when she is down and hurting, when the sorrow of losing her firstborn bears down on her, she will be able to wrap herself in this shawl and feel all the prayers and find healing in the Lord. I have offered to share the gospel with her a few times and she's never taken me up on it. But this shawl has power. God made this shawl using my hands. This is God's creation, not mine. I anticipate seeing great things happen.
My hair is really growing out now and I've been going without a hat most of the time around home. You can still see my scalp in a lot of places (okay, most places) but it's looking like a short, short pixie cut. Depending on what it looks like in another month or so, I may keep my hair this way. Live dangerously! I've always wondered what I'd look like with really, really short hair and I'm being forced to experience it. The hair on the crown sticks straight up but the rest is now long enough that it's lying down on my head. The only problem I have is that I have what I consider a round, fat face and a pixie might not be the best decision to go. We'll see. I'm going to make an appointment with my hairdresser and get the sides and back cut with the clippers so it will all be the same length and then just see how I like it as it grows out. (Well, not quite this short. But short.) I've decided to be brave and try going the really short way and see how I like it. It will be wonderful to not have to worry about how it looks and always having to schedule in time needed to fix my hair before we could go anywhere. Some women can get a style to last a few days but mine is an every-day redo and only really looks good for the first couple hours. I hate my hair. It's so hard to work with and there's so little of it, even before it all fell out. It's taken 4 months to get to this stage and I figure it will probably take another 2-3 months to get to the pixie stage. And we'll just see how it goes. Once people get used to my short hair I won't look funny to anyone. Maybe not even to my worst critic: Me!!
Well, my computer is telling me that the autosave has failed and that blogger is down and publishing might fail so this post may just disappear when I try to publish it. Gee I hope not.
We've been having beautiful weather here in our corner of California. Lots and lots of sunshine. Right now the valley fog has moved up and enveloped us. I don't know how long it will stay with us but probably for the rest of the day. Sacramento has been having really dense fog this past week or so. We rarely get fog here although we get more here than when we used to live on Summit. The "kids" were here over the weekend and we had just beautiful weather. John was wearing shorts and tank tops most of the time. Of course they're used to really cold, ocean temps so this was balmy for them. They will be back for New Years. Then Easter. I don't mind because I just go on to church and leave them with Michael, I mean, they are his kids. They don't mind me leaving them for an hour and a half anyway.
Well I've got prayer meeting and knitting tonight so I really should get away from this computer and get a few things done around here. Lots of things to do. I'll go back to knitting the baby blanket as soon as I get my chores done. Sorry I've been so bad about writing lately. Until the next time... (now lets see if this will publish)
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