Happy Birthday Ryan Craig!

My fourth grandbaby, my third grandson. I already love him to the moon and back. God has blessed our family yet again. We are happy, happy, happy. . . . .

This Lent Thing

Ah, this lent thing.

It's hard.

Really hard.

I keep slipping. I forget. I get frustrated. I have even had someone close to me laugh at me for doing it. "What? We don't practice lent. What in the world? Why are you doing that? I guess next you are going to have a black X on your forehead." When I tried to explain - "cricket's chirping". While I know the words were not meant to wound, I allowed them to slice clean and deep. It hurt.

This person was right. Our church background had not observed lent in the past. We are not a liturgical church. But lately, in my quest for renewal, I have had such a strong desire to draw closer to God and what I understood of Lent seemed like a good way to do that. I wanted to deny myself of something to remind me of what He gave for me. I wanted to enter into a sacred commitment that would cause me to depend on Him more. I wanted to do something that required more than what I normally give. I wasn't really sure what to expect.

But I know I didn't expect I would fail so soon.

I failed on the second day. What I had given up, what I had determined to sacrifice for 40 days, what I had promised to deny myself of in order to draw closer to God, well, I forgot. I forgot. On the second day I forgot all about it.

As I have been reading through my Bible in a year plan, I have spent the last several weeks in Leviticus and Numbers. Boring. Slow, Redundant. Legalism to the nth degree. So many laws to keep. So many rules. So much blood. So much sacrifice. So many harsh consequences for sin - intentional sin and unintentional sin. The Israelite people weren't allowed to forget the law. Many times as I have read the daily scripture allotment (without skipping any words), I have thought to myself: I am so glad I didn't live back then. I am so glad I don't have to try to keep all those rules. I couldn't do it. Are you kidding? I now know that by day two in the wilderness I would most likely have already been struck dead.

And that was when I realized that is precisely the point. I can't do it. I can't keep the law perfectly. Nobody can. We need a Savior. We need grace. We need the sacrificial Lamb that takes away all the sin in the world. We need an advocate, One who willingly paid the price of all the sin, all the wrong, all the forgetting. He did it for me. I am off the hook. I am saved by grace and grace alone! I am not going to be judged because I forgot a law. I don't have to keep a tally of all the rules. My relationship with Jesus is all I need. What a sweet relief! What a debt of gratitude I owe.

Practicing Lent is teaching me how inadequate I am and how adequate He is. It is teaching me how much Jesus loves me.

Oh this Lent thing. It is hard.

But it is good.

Checkin' In

Just checkin' in to say all is well.

I am. . . . .

. . . . enjoying the lent season. Not coming from a liturgical background, I am studying and delighting in the reach meaning of all the symbolism. Loving it!

. . . . knitting, knitting, knitting. I truly am obsessed:

. . . . longing for summer. I would just as soon skip spring. It is bipolar.

. . . . still memorizing scripture. This time is Hebrews 12:2. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. I am so humbled knowing that I was that joy. And so were you.

. . . . Reading and studying One Thousand Gifts. I cannot say enough about this book and what it is doing in my heart. Saying too much would only minimize it. You need to read it. Getting a library copy will not do. This is a book that requires highlighting and underlining and commenting. Trust me.

. . . .Amazed at how long and deep my prayer list is. It seems like suddenly there is crisis and hardship all around me. I am praying, praying praying for my dear friends and loved ones.

. . . . Loving my sweet grandbabies. What a gift and a blessing they are. Tyler and Ava Claire are now 2 1/2 and continue to be the best of friends. I love how much they are talking. Spending time with them is such a privilege and a blessing. Sweet Aiden is 6 months and is the happiest little baby ever. He snuggles and cuddles and smiles all the time.

. . . . Waiting patiently for our little Ryan Craig to arrive on the scene. His mama is sooooo tired and weary. He is due on the 21st and I cannot wait to hold him in my arms. Of course I have been working on some special things just for him:

. . . . Trying to get back into the habit of walking. Cold and nasty weather invaded my routine and why oh why is it so hard to get back into a good habit?

. . . . Wondering how high the price of gas is going to get. I drive a 'fer piece to work, and folks, this is getting just a bit ridiculous!

. . . .I dug my guitar out of my closet and have very sore fingers as I practice some chords over and over again. I am not musically inclined, and although I have had some music lessons I will never be good enough to perform for anyone. Except maybe my grandbabies :)

. . . . Hoping to work out in the yard tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be nice and I think it will be amazing to rake and clean and get ready for planting!

That's just a bit of what I have been up to. Happy Weekend!

Prayer

This morning I woke up in a fetal position, words flowing through my mind. Somewhere in the place between sleep and awake I knew I was praying. As words and phrases began to make sense I became conscious that I was deep in prayer for someone I love. I opened my eyes and I felt so awed that God is so approachable even in sleep. I had gone to bed with someone heavy on my heart and my heart was taking its' burden to the only Place it knew to go. I wondered how long I had prayed.

Sunday morning in the worship service I was so blessed during our corporate prayer time as children of all ages spontaneously went forward to pray at our church altars. Children. I love being a part of a church that allows children to sense God's presence in the service. No one prompted them. No one encouraged them. They simply wanted or needed to talk to God. So they did. Many of them. One young boy laid his hand on his friends shoulder. Tears fell. My own. And I felt His presence. I read this morning in my daily Bible reading that Jesus wants the children to come to Him. He wants them. They want Him.

Jesus loves me, this I know.

To love a God who loves us so intensely takes my breath away sometimes.

San Diego

So last week I got to do something I don't normally do. My daughter has been planning a trip to southern California to attend her BFF's baby shower. She planned to take her two little boys along. So I did what any normal grandchild lovin' grandmother would do. I volunteered to go and be the nanny! It took her approximately 2.2 seconds to take me up on the offer.

So on Wednesday evening we arrived at the airport. She and I, two little boys, a stroller, two carseats and four pieces of luggage. We were going to be gone for three days.

I wish I would have taken a picture - I'm sure we were quite the sight!

Anyway, we flew to San Diego. Let me just say that San Diego in February is quite delightful. I couldn't get over the green-ness of everything. Flowers were actually in full bloom in all the yards and landscaping. The weather was gorgeous.

I have always loved San Diego and I think somehow, someway, I really am a San Diego girl at heart. I just feel so happy there.

We stayed at Michelle's friends' house that was about a 4 block walk from the beach. So the next morning we loaded up the boys in the stroller, stopped at a Starbucks on the way, and headed to the water. Michelle sat with baby Aiden in the stroller and I took Tyler's hand to go explore the water. We kicked off our shoes, rolled up our pants and headed to the water. At first we just waded around in the waves getting used to it. Tyler was excited, yet a bit nervous. Suddenly out of nowhere a rogue wave came at us and knocked us both down. We were completely drenched! In my younger days as a mother I probably would have been a little uptight about it. Now we are all wet. What are we going to do now? The awesome thing about being a grandmother is you realize what is really important and what is not. We laughed and I thought "Oh well - isn't this what oceans are for?" And we played and we played and we played. Finally, I traded places with Michelle so she could enjoy her son playing in the ocean waves. It was such an awesome time.

We rinsed off and enjoyed breakfast in a little beachside cafe. What a perfect day. We had a great time and our three days flew by.

Another great thing that seemed to happen on this trip was regarding my struggle with flying. I did not take any medication. That wouldn't have made any sense as I was there to help with the kids. If I had medicated Michelle would have had three of us on her hands. I had nervous moments on the way there but overall did okay. On the way back we made three stops. On the third take-off, we were about half way in the flight when I realized we had taken off and I hadn't really noticed! I don't know if I was just so tired or if I am finally getting the hang of this - but I was elated! One thing I have learned is that knitting on the plane helps me tremendously.

Now that we are home, it has snowed, hailed and had wind that takes your breath away. Our three day get away is just a memory tucked away. I'm back to work and life's busy schedule. Summer seems a long way off.

San Diego - I'm coming back again, someday soon. I promise!

My Garden

I seated my patient as comfortably as possible in the hard, leather chair. She was elderly and long past nervousness in a dental office. I adjusted her head rest, gave her a pillow to snuggle into her middle and sat down to make small talk with her as we waited for the dentist to come in and begin the scheduled extraction.

We chatted and our conversation soon settled on her hobby of gardening. She told me of the many specimens of flowers she grew. "I love gardening", I told her, "I'm just not very good at it. I can't get flowers to grow."

She gazed at me for a minute and then in a non-accusing, matter of fact manner, she simply said,

"Well then, you don't really love gardening."

And our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor and we carried on with her scheduled dental work.

But her words stayed with me All these many years later her words have stayed with me. And I have to admit she was right. I love the idea of gardening. I love the results of gardening. I love the look of a beautiful garden. But the truth is

I don't love it enough to spend the hours of work and dedication it requires to have a stunningly beautiful garden.

That simple admonition has served me well over the years. Every time I consider a new hobby or adding a new routine to my life I ask myself how much I really think I am going to love it. Am I really ready to invest the time, the money, the dedication it will require. Most often the answer is no, not really.

Recently it has occurred to me that this same piece of advice pertains to my spiritual life as well. How much do I really want to be close to God? How much do I really long for His presence in my life? How serious am I about wanting to know Him more?

For many years my life verse has been Jeremiah 29:11. You probably can recite it by heart - everyone loves it. "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future". It's a great promise and many times in my life I have depended on it like a life preserver on a crazy, wild ocean. There is a verse that follows it that we don't quote quite so often:

"When you seek me you will find me, when you seek me with all of your heart."

Last year I joined many others in choosing a word to live by for the year. I lamented that my word for the year failed miserably. For some reason I guess I thought I would just pick a word and the mantle of it would fall on me. Like gardening, I expected beautiful results with not much effort on my part.

This year I entered into the new year tired, discouraged and worn out. I felt a measure of general unhappiness and dissatisfaction that overshadowed my days. I kept thinking I needed a change in my life - a change in location, a change in job, a change in friends - just a change in something, anything. The word renew was constantly on my mind and in my heart. I wanted renewal in my life. I longed for it. I began to realize it wasn't really change I desired so desperately, it was renewal. And suddenly I knew in my spirit that I needed to concentrate on renewal this year. So I claimed the word as mine for 2011.

But this time I did it differently. I didn't just sit waiting for God to pour some renewal over my head because I had been so kind enough to ask for it. I chose instead, to be an active participant in this journey. I chose to seek him with all of my heart, the best way I knew how. I chose some new behaviors in my life.

First of all, I chose to spend more time in His Word. Instead of just sporadic Bible reading I chose a regimented Bible In A Year program. I downloaded a translation that was new to me - The New Living Translation - on to my Kindle. I don't know if it's the Kindle, the fresh new translation or both - but this is working for me. I haven't missed a day and I look forward to each days reading.

Next, I joined Beth Moore's Siesta Scripture challenge. I have joined over 9000 other women in memorizing a new scripture every two weeks. My first scripture was easy to choose - I want to memorize scripture that helps me with the way I think and process things. I chose Phillipians 4:4-9. I focus on the verse that tells me to think about whatever things are true. My mind has a way of worrying about every single angle of an issue and then when that gets old, I venture into the land of "what if's". Things that aren't necessarily true. This scripture reminds me to stay centered on what is true. What is noble. What is right. What is right. What is pure. What is lovely. I love it! Memorization is not easy or fun for me. But like any other discipline it is good for me. My verse this time is perfect: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Oh yes I am!

I am participating in Bloom Book Club's book club and we are reading Ann Voskamp's book - One Thousand Gifts - A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. This is a most remarkable book and I can tell you that I have been reading chapter one all week. I mean I have read chapter one every day this week. It is so beautifully written and so full of profound thoughts - I just keep re-reading it so that I don't miss out on anything. I'm not sure when I will make it to chapter two. I don't really care. I don't want to miss a word of the message God is sharing with me.

I know that God is speaking to me because everything I am reading, everything I am memorizing, everything I am hearing has the same message to me. Every single thing. And in this process, in this manner that I am seeking Him with my whole heart - guess what? He is keeping His promise and I am beginning to feel the lapping of Renewal on the edges of my heart. I am sensing His presence as I seek Him. I am tasting the salt of change in the air of the fresh breezes that have started rustling by me. I find myself holding my breath as I anticipate what this year is going to hold for God and me.

This spiritual gardening project I have taken on is going to harvest much different results than the garden in my back yard. I know this because I have made the conscious choice to LOVE it with everything in me. I desire His presence in my life so much that I am willing to do whatever it is I need to do to love Him with my whole heart. I'm not so naive as to believe I won't have to be dealing with some nasty insects and weeds along the way. But I am prepared. I am ready.

And I hope you check in along the way to see some beautiful bouquets.

Catching Up

Life has returned to it's normal, busy pace. I am deciding I like January. There is something to be said for routine, for days that are filled with the normal things of a regular life. Back to work, a new Bible Study at church, kids back in school and a home that has been undecorated and cleaned are all things that just feel good and comfortable.

I got a new "smart phone". I have been eligible for an upgrade for quite a long time and was waiting for my phone service to come out with the iP[hone]. But my battery would no longer hold a charge so I went in to the store a month ago to ask how much longer I would have to wait for the iP[hone}. "Oh", they said, "a long time". And they talked me into a phone that is really a computer - a smart phone. Then, as we all know now, the long time was given a date. February 10. Figures. But I love my new phone. It is smarter than I am! It has so many fun features and so many useful features. For instance, there is an app called Google Sky. You point the phone at the sky and it names the constellations! Amazing. It has a knitting counter on it, a bar-code scanner that you can use to scan a price on something in the store and it will tell you where you can buy the same item cheaper. My favorite feature is google calendar. I enter my appointments and every morning I get an email on my phone with my daily schedule! I absolutely love it. I have never been the kind of person to live by a calendar - mostly because I didn't want to carry one around with me. But I always have my phone and I am using the calendar every single day. I really love it! But my very favorite feature about my phone is - I CAN SEE THE NUMBERS!
That is so important when your eyes aren't as good as they used to be. And I also love that it is purple. And I love all the apps I have downloaded. I love that I read my Kindle books on it. I love that I can speak into it and it turns my words into texts. I love that I can listen to podcasts on it. Are you getting that I love my new phone? :)

I just realized that I never really blogged about Christmas. We did have some really sweet time with our kids and grandbabies. Let me just say that having two two-year olds at Christmas time is the sweetest. Here are a few pictures of our celebration.

These two have quite the fascination with their Poppa's cowboy hats. Actually, Tyler has the fascination but if he is wearing one then Ava Claire must have one too. They are the best of buddies.


I think because Tyler and Ava are so rambunctions, sweet Aiden gets left out of pictures! Here his is with cousin Kylar. Aiden has the sweetest personality and is the snuggliest little baby I have ever held. He smiles all. the. time.
This picture is of the cousins we had for Christmas this year. Our quiver is full! We do look forward to Ryan Craig being in the photo next year!


These are my girls plus one. Jess's roommate Lyndsey was with us for our Christmas this year. One of the best things about college is all the girls we get to adopt. They are modeling the neck warmers I knit for them for Christmas.

Here is a picture of me and Chuck and my brother and my sisterchick/sister-in-law.


And this is the ornament I made for my girls this year. I apologize for the poor picture. I need a new camera so bad. We all loved these sweet ornaments. They were easy peasy to make. I bought plastic balls and put some fake snow in the bottom. I cut some twigs from the bushes outside and placed a couple in each ball. Then I took a tweezer and pushed a small little cardinal into each ball with some hot glue to sit on the twig. Voila'! Very simple and very pretty.

I have the day off today so I am off to get things done. My sewing room is calling me!

Ahhhhh!! Saturday!!!

Hardly anything thrills me more than waking up on a Saturday morning, knowing the day is a blank slate - ready to be written all over with the colored chalk of my choice. Examining my choices, I choose something - no, that's not good enough, yes! -that is something I have been longing to do - I mentally make my list of choices and plan out the day.

I suppose if I were a stay-at-home wife/mom/grandmother, I wouldn't appreciate Saturdays so much.

Here is my list for today:

Reading my Bible in a year portion.

Sewing some soft flannel into little blankets for our much anticipated grandson - Ryan Craig.

Finishing the knitting of my Happily Every After Fingerless Mitts.

Taking Jess, my knitting buddy, to the fabric store to choose some buttons to finish her knitting projects.

Watching On Moonlight Bay - a netflix dvd that has been sitting on the coffee table for 6 weeks. So glad there is no late fees with Netflix!

And I think that list will carry me through this day and bring me a measure of peace and fulfillment. These kind of days always rejuvenate me and make me, well, just happy. I guess the best word to use is - RENEWED.

Happy Saturday to you!

Welcome 2011!

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19


Welcome 2011! I have no idea what things you hold in store. I look at the fresh, blank pages of my new calendar and wonder what will be filled on them by this day next year. Life has taught me that there will most likely be some good things and some not-s0-good things. Today, I enter into your newness fearlessly, trusting the One who orders my days. I look forward to checking back here 365 days from now to see how far the Lord and I have come together. To wonder at His faithfulness and goodness. To see how he has RENEWED my heart.

Happy New Year!

2010- My Favorite Things

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been my most favorite week of the year. The hustle and bustle of Christmas is over but yet there is still a holiday feel. Not to mention after Christmas sales! I have the week off of work this year so that makes it even better!

Being on a mission to clean up all the holiday around the house (and this includes throwing away all the sugar!) I have been thinking about what 2011 holds in store. Much like a wrapped gift sitting under the tree, I like to shake it and examine it and try to figure out what could possibly be in it.

I watched The Sound of Music a couple of nights ago - how I love that movie. And I don't own it - that needs to change! There are about 5 movies that I will watch more than once and The Sound of Music is #1 on that list - I just love it! Anyway, I was enjoying the song "My Favorite Things" and I thought it would be fun to chronicle MY favorite things of 2010.

 This book had been recommended to me for quite some time and I kept putting it off. It didn't seem like "my kind" of book. How wrong I was. This book captivated me and all these months later I am still thinking about it. I didn't want to give the book back to it's owner. So imagine my delight when I found it FREE for my Kindle. It took 60 seconds to download it and now it's mine!

 Speaking of my Kindle - definitely qualifies as a favorite thing. I got my daughter one for Christmas this year and she loves it as much as I do. I can't believe how many free books I have downloaded - just that aspect alone has paid for my Kindle many times over. Still, it makes me sad that I can't loan my books to friends - and there will always be some books that I must have in paper copy.

 For our anniversary this year my husband and I stayed in a condo in the mountains for a week and it was pure heaven. You can read about it here if you like. What a special treat it was to get away together and have a blank agenda. This will definitely become a habit for us.

 In May, my husband and I began walking three miles a day. How I complained and resisted at first. But it became a time of the day we began to look forward to and enjoyed watching the seasons change on our little route. Walking is so much more enjoyable when you have someone to share in the pain with you.

 The Pumpkin Patch was so much fun! Can you believe this was my first trip to a Pumpkin Patch? What a fun day we had and the kids are still talking about it. On Christmas, sweet Ava Claire asked to go back to the Pumpkin Patch! This will definitely become a family tradition.

 Knitting! I really got into knitting this last year and I love, love, love it!

 Podcasts! Like this one, this one, and this one! They have added so much to my commute back and forth to work and home every day. I learn so much about yarn and technique and knitting. The Knit Wits is my favorite - I am seriously laughing out loud through each episode. This husband and wife team are hysterically funny - she is the knitter and he knows zilch about yarn or anything pertaining to it. You should try them out - you will love them!

 My third grandchild joined our family in 2010. Sweet Aiden Ryan is such a little joy. Over Christmas someone in our family mentioned he had never gotten to hold him because he was such a "hot commodity". Yep, it's true.

 I got a new cell phone this year and I love it. I had been needing to up grade for some time and I went with a smart phone. It has some really great features and a couple of my favorite are voice texting (I speak into the phone and it converts it to text), a bar code scanner (when shopping I can scan a bar code and my phone will tell me where I can find the item cheaper!), and the fact that the numbers are big enough for me to see! It also has a daily devotional app, I can read my Kindle books on my phone (not sure why I would need to) and every day I seem to learn more about it.

So that's it for today. Check back tomorrow for more of My Favorite Things from 2010.

RENEW

It is late Sunday night after Christmas. Everyone has gone to bed, the dryer is humming its cyclical tune and the Christmas lights on the tree are glowing in the background. It has been one of the busiest Decembers that I can remember and in all honesty I have to admit that this wasn't one of our best Christmases. In fact, I'm relieved that it is over. There were some real rough patches during this holiday season. Have you ever had a Christmas like that? I think everyone does once in a while. And it's weird because I was just looking at last year's Christmas post and it was so wonderful I couldn't decide what was best about it. I'm glad I blogged it because I got happy and all encouraged reading about it.

Oh, there were good parts to this year- the night my girls, all four of them, gathered in the living room for our tree decorating night was a highlight and was truly the Christmas of my heart. An unexpected afternoon visit on Christmas Eve from my mother-in-law was a special time. A slow and relaxing Christmas morning with two of our girls waking up to see what Santa had left was a sweet time together. And having three sweet grandchildren kept our eyes on the joy of the season. Two of them were old enough this year to open the gifts we gave them and that made it very wonderful. But this year it seems that more than ever I let the stress and the pressures get to me and I didn't do well in keeping my focus on Christ. For those reasons and others - well, I'm glad that it is all behind me. So very glad.

The positive thing is that I have already made up my mind about what I am going to do about it. I already have a plan in action for how it will be different next year. And not just for next year but for now. Starting right now I am choosing to make things different in my life. Here is my plan in bullet point fashion:

* I am going to make it a priority to stay focused on Jesus. He is my source of strength. When I let life get in the way of my Bible reading and prayer time I suffer personally. And even though that is not a new revelation - something that I didn't already know - I allowed it to happen and I had a difficult month because of it.

* Beth Moore has come up with the greatest idea for what she is calling 2011 Siesta Scripture Memory Challenge. I ordered her sweet little spiral note card set and have already picked out my first memory verse - Phillippians 4: 4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally *Robin, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (*slight paraphrase!)

I got such a kick out of reading how Beth was so excited to start this challenge personally and was on a search for just the right pen to begin writing her verses out! So January 1 is the day to start memorizing. Memorizing scripture is an area I always need to do more of.

* I am going to stop dwelling on the negative and difficult circumstances of life. I think that in my earlier years I was more blessed than I ever realized because life just never seemed to hand me difficult things. Perhaps it was all being stored up for these later years! Sometimes it sure seems like it. Apparently I never have had much practice at how to live victoriously through tough times but I seem to be getting a crash course now. I have a nasty habit of thinking too much about what is wrong and hard and being a "fixer" by nature I spend way too much time trying to make everybody happy. Of course, nobody ends up happy and I end up exhausted.

* I am letting go and moving on. There isn't too much I can share about this on my blog and it won't make much sense to most of my readers, but I need to write it down to imprint it on my brain. This will be big to me - personally.

* Perhaps this one will be the most difficult of all. I am going to try with everything in me to stop having such strong opinions. Or at least stop putting a voice to them. I come by it naturally - it's in my genes - and I am a first-born. Sometimes that proves to be a lethal combination!

* My friend Becky, over at Keys to the Cottage, inspired me last year to choose a word of the year. My word last year was "serenity". I can certainly see how God designed that word for me for the year. Unfortunately, I failed miserably at allowing the word to be a source of growth for me. I failed so much that I had pretty much decided to forget about this little tradition this year. But a word kept coming to my mind and as I look over my little list in this post I can see that by making these changes in my life I am putting this word into action already. So, I am going to try it again. My word for 2011 is RENEW. And in a nutshell that is what I have been talking about. I am going to allow God to RENEW my heart and my mind! That sounds so refreshing to me.

* This last year my husband and I began a walking and weight-loss regimen. I have not spoken about it on my blog because, well, so many times I have started this and failed. But we have really gotten into a routine (although we seriously slacked off this month) and now our daily three mile walk is something we look forward to doing together every day. We have both lost some weight and we are rewarding ourselves by dusting off our skis and boots and we are ready to hit the mountain again! We are choosing to make skiing our new winter hobby and even hope to get our little grandbabies involved with us. That sounds like so much fun to me. Yay! Hopefully I will have pictures from the mountain to post soon.

So, there you go. My little personal list of changes and improvements. I wrote this mostly as a form of accountability for myself but perhaps my list will encourage you to challenge yourself to make some changes in your own life.

Today, my son-in-law and daughter dedicated little Aiden Ryan to the Lord in a sweet ceremony at church. Sweet Aiden is the most adorable, good-natured baby I have ever seen. He is happy all the time and his smile absolutely melts my heart. He is a snuggle bunny and I just can't say how much I love this precious little child.


We are so excited about the arrival of our fourth grandbaby - Ryan Craig. He is scheduled to arrive the end of March and we all anticipate getting to see him. I love this moment that was captured on our tree decorating night. Two sisters and our sweet, unborn boy. Little Ryan has no idea how much he is already loved.


These sweet little lives are such an incredible blessing to their Poppa and Mia. We are so blessed and thankful that we get to be such an active part of their lives. How tenderly we guard the great responsibility we have to be such an influence in their lives. We don't take it for granted and we are blessed beyond measure to be in such close proximity to them. We keep asking ourselves if all grandparents feel this way about their grandchildren, or are ours sort of special! We never knew how awesome this grandparenting could be. I pray the Lord grants us the privilege of living close to them forever!

This wasn't the greatest picture of the kids - but it's the only one I had my eyes open in! And since it's my blog . . . . . .!

I am happy that I have this whole week off of work. I love slow starting mornings and coffee. I intend to enjoy this week to the max and look forward to catching up on all the posts I have missed this month!
Happy New Year!

Christmas Ornament 2010

Every year, for the past 22 years we have pastored in our church, I have made our board members a Christmas ornament. It's not much, but just a small token of our appreciation to the people who have cared for us so well over the years. In the early years I used to host a dinner for them in our home. As our church has grown and our board and staff have increased I am not able to do that anymore. Now we rent a banquet room at a local restaurant and share dinner together. But I still make the ornament.

It is more challenging every year to find an ornament idea. Twenty two ornaments can practically fill a tree! I was very excited this year when I found this blog. Besides a compelling story and excellent writing that is a joy to read, Amy is a most creative person full of whimsical and sweet little handmade joys. She publishes an online magazine, Inspired Ideas, that is full of fun things. That is how I found this year's ornament.

I made these charming little churches

( I am so not a photographer - and for the record, I work with two broken cameras, one takes the pictures and the other loads them on to my computer. Sigh. I know - it's very tragic.)

I just love them! They are so clever in their construction - they are made from miniature cereal boxes

I enlisted my husband's help his year as well




After all the pieces are cut out, they are painted and assembled. I used an assembly line - I made 20 churches in all.



(By the way, in the background you can see that I was watching the BSU/Utah game. That's Kellan Moore and Jeremy Avery - two of my fave's!)

After assembling the churches, I painted them with snow and covered them in glitter. They look like little candy churches.




I also make ornaments for my daughters every year. I'm not sure why but I make them something else, something special that only they get. I will be posting about those in the next couple of weeks.

Christmas traditions -- aren't they just the best?

Snow Day!!

So where I live in southwestern Idaho, we are considered a "banana belt". Our weather is fairly nice in the winter. It gets cold and we deal with nasty inversions, but overall it is dry and any bad weather we get is short-lived. We see the mountains from the valley we live in and there is lots of snow there - wonderful skiing and sledding kind of snow. But down here in the valley - not so much. So imagine the wonderment when I got up this morning and saw this:





My driveway was completely covered, the road in front of my house seemed to have disappeared and it took me exactly 2.5 seconds to decide I was not going to try the drive in to work today. I drive about 30 miles on narrow country roads that never see the blade of a snow plow. It would not be worth the risk. So I immediately heated up some water and made a cup of hot chocolate and settled down with my knitting. Pure bliss!

However, my little yorkie Willow doesn't agree:






But then she didn't just receive this delicious box of yarn in the mail:

Just Some Thoughts

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I am now sitting in my recliner, my yorkie Willow is tucked up next to me and my knitting is in the basket on the floor beside me. I have been trying to figure out how to use a sport weight yarn for a pattern written for a DK weight. I know it's all about changing the needle size and I have swatched more swatches than I care to say - and I still don't have the right gauge. So it's sitting in the basket for awhile. I have learned that it's best not to try to figure too hard when I'm tired - it never works very well.

We went to the mountains and spent Thanksgiving with my husband's mom, brothers and their families. Our kids and grandkids went with and we had a great time together. We ate good food, enjoyed each others company and watched the snow levels grow and grow. As we were saying our goodbye's my sweet mother-in-law and I were telling each other how blessed we are to have such a great family. My husband's family is just the greatest bunch of people and I truly love them all.

Jess is home from college for the weekend and our empty nest is enjoying having our youngest chick home for awhile. When it is just the two of us at home I do very little cooking. But since Jess has been home I have made potato soup, french toast and today I made cinnamon rolls. I am feeling rather stuffed as I sit here this evening.

No early morning shopping for me. Shopping isn't my thing in the daytime. I find I do more and more of my shopping online and that suits me fine. I love getting packages in the mail.

So last night we watched the BSU/Nevada game and what a heartbreaker it was. All our BCS bowl dreams were ended and we just watched in amazement as our kicker, Kyle Brotzman-

the leading scorer in Boise State and WAC history and soon the highest-scoring kicker in NCAA history, unbelievably missed two field goals, either which would have ended the game in a much happier way. It's kind of felt like a funeral around here today as I keep reminding myself, "It's just a game!" But I have found myself praying for Kyle today as I cannot begin to imagine how horrible he must feel. I find myself feeling even worse for his mother - can you imagine having a child hurting so much and there is nothing you can do to help? The whole thing is just so sad. My poor son-in-law has taken it pretty hard too. It's just such a bummer - we really thought we would be playing in a national championship game - and just like that - nothing. It's over. But the great thing about college football - there's always next year.

I hope to get some of my Christmas decorations up tomorrow. I was just too tired today from all the eating and traveling and football games. I am jealous of all the bloggers who already have their trees up! I did spend a couple of hours at the church this afternoon decorating my portion of the foyer today.

Well, that's it for now. I see an early bedtime in my future. It's 8:30 and that sounds good to me.

Books - For Free!

So, does the phrase "free books" make your ears perk up? Right now you can sign up to review books for Waterbrook Multomah Press. Just go here to get the details.

Basically, if you have a blog and you agree to write a review for each book you read, they will send you a book of your choice for free. After you read it and post a review, choose another book. The selections are awesome - both fiction and non-fiction.

I chose my book today and I can't wait to start.

Being Monogamous . . .

. . . . . in my knitting life, that is.

Knitting monogamously means just having one thing on your needles at a time, which is the kind of knitting I have always done. However, lots of knitters like to have several projects going at once. Listening to knitting podcasts as much as I do, and hearing all these women talk about their various projects, I started to feel a bit strange about my monogamous state. Like I wasn't quite measuring up as a knitter or something.

And so, in anticipation of Christmas and my seemingly endless Christmas-gift-knitting list, I decided to join the ranks and cast on for several projects at a time. I began Top-Secret project #1, Top Secret project #2, a sweater for a grandson and a pair of fingerless mitts for me.

It's not working so much. I'm not very good at being a polygamous knitter. I started Top Secret project #1 and set it aside to work on Top Secret project #2 when it got to a hard part. After finishing the fingerless mitts, I cast on #3. Eventually I picked up #1 again but I totally had lost my place and ended up ripping the whole thing out and starting over. I never did get back to project #3, it's still languishing in my basket. Oh, and then I started a pair of socks, don't ask me why.

It seems that monogamy works well for me in more areas than marriage.

November 1

It seems that I have been MIA for the last couple of weeks. No reason really, other than the busy-ness of life. In our world, September picks up speed with new or re-starting programs in our church. There is also some kind of internal alarm that goes off inside of me telling me it's time to start getting ready for the holidays. I love to make many of my gifts and I have to get an early start if I want to get all I want to do done.

So, life marches on. Funny, I always thought when the kids grew up, the crazy pace of life would slow down and I would have all kinds of time on my hands to be organized and competent and together. Ha! Not so much! But to be honest, I wouldn't trade the days of my life for any other life. I know how blessed I am. God has been so good to me when He didn't need to be and His love and mercy simply overwhelm me at times. I have done nothing to deserve it, indeed quite the contrary. But He loves me. And I am blessed!

This weekend was busy and fun. Our church hosts a fun Harvest party every year. It caters to the children who get to wear fun costumes and play games to earn candy. We have cake walks and random drawings. We serve chile and have apples and caramel dip. Then we all join together in the fellowship hall and play bingo. There are kid prizes and adult prizes. The people who are in charge of this get the most incredible prizes - nights in hotels, dinner certificates, tickets to sporting events - it's amazing and they get it all on donation. This was the first year that Tyler and Ava Claire were old enough to participate and we had such fun with them!

Ava was a sweet cupcake and won the costume contest for her age division! Tyler was a Bronco football player and he was SO excited. Sweet Aiden was his football! I knit his little costume as well as Ava's hat. Ava's hat literally came off my needles minutes before we walked out the door to go to the church! We invite our community to attend this party and we always look forward to Sunday morning to see new people who came to the party.

Saturday ended up being a very busy day as well. Our MOPS group at church had a presentation last month on once-a-month cooking. Some of the moms, including two of my daughters decided to give it a try. They decided to use the church kitchen which was a very good plan and they spend the entire day cooking. I donated a few hours to their efforts. It was fun but lots of hard work. I was so impressed with their efforts. They also cooked food for their MOPS leader, who is a young mom of two and having some problems with her third pregnancy. That really blessed me. Here is a link to one of the girl's blogs who gives a run down of the day. I was really proud of them!

Today is my birthday. I have made a decision that I never intend to go to work on my birthday again - a sort of pre-retirement benefit! So this morning I drank two cups of coffee in bed, read some blogs and watched a little bit of news. Perfect so far. I plan to spend some time in my sewing room and tonight my family is going to treat me to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant that I haven't tried yet. See what I mean about being so blessed? Having a husband that spoils me, children who love me, and grandchildren who think I hung the moon - what more could I ever ask?

So there's a re-cap of my weekend. The days keep rolling by. Fifty two years old will only last for a short time. I hope to make the most of it.

This Weekend, I . . .

* Since my husband and son-in-law are gone hunting for the week, Michelle and the boys moved in with me. So as you might imagine my weekend has revolved all around grandchildren! Yay! There's nothing better!

* A trip to the Pumpkin Patch was enjoyed on a simply beautiful autumn day:

Baby Aiden got his very own pumpkin:

Mia enjoyed spending time with all three of her grandbabies!

Ava Claire found a pumpkin just her size:

Tyler spent some time in the maze:

These two have a very special little friendship:

* The girls, grandkids and I enjoyed eating dinner out after church - a rare thing around here.

* Enjoyed a very lazy Sunday afternoon.

* Watched a little football - a high school game and of course, Boise State.

* Began knitting a new pattern - a sweater for Tyler. It's hard to find knitting patterns that I like for little boys so I knew right away when I saw this pattern it wouldn't take long to get cast on my needles. So far it is knitting up really fast and I am enjoying it immensely. I have to hurry and get it off the needles so I can get Aiden's Halloween costume cast on. He is going to be a football. A knitted football at that!

* Made a favorite autumn snack - peanuts and candy corn. Tastes just like a nut roll. Yum!

* Caught up on laundry.

* Finished a book and started another. More about that in a future post.

* Tried not to think about how short the weekend seemed.

How about you? Link up at Becky's and let us know what kept you busy.

Re-Runs

The other night my husband and I watched the movie, The Gladiator, for like the 1347th time. Seriously.

We got into a discussion about re-watching movies. He LOVES watching his favorite movies over and over again. Braveheart, John Wayne, The Sacketts, Lonesome Dove, and Wyatt Earp are just a few that he can quote line for line. It is definitely worth the money for me to buy him a dvd because he totally wears it out. He says he can rarely find anything worth watching on tv anymore and he loves, loves, loves having his "go-to television watching" right there at his disposal. You can imagine that he is a big fan of the dvr feature on our satellite system. Recently we upgraded our receiver to high def and after the technician left we realized that changing receivers meant that the HOURS of horse training programs he had recorded over the last couple of years was - poof - gone. Just like that.

I hate seeing a grown man cry. Just kidding. But there was a lot of whining around the house for a few days.

Anyway, I am not the type of person who loves re-watching something I have already seen. I rarely buy movies because they would just collect dust. Who has time to watch something already seen? I do have a couple of favorites like Father of the Bride. The Sound of Music, and Return to Me. And then of course there is the BSU/Oklamoma Fiesta Bowl game that I have watched several times - and even though we win it EVERY SINGLE TIME I never get tired of seeing that Statue of Liberty play!

So, anyway, it got me to wondering how many other people like to watch movies they have already seen. What about you? How about your husband?

It's riveting information I know.

This Weekend, I . . .

* Spent Friday evening around the firepit with all FOUR of my daughters, my sons-in-law and my sweet grandbabies. Special moments together that will be filed in my heart as a precious memory.

* Decorated and hosted a table at our church's Ladies Tea. My table was Beauty and the Beast.

* Said goodbye to my New York City girl. Sigh. Good-bye's are so hard for me. I hate them.

* Watched the last half of the Oklahoma/Texas football game - which marks the first time I have ever watched a non-Boise State football game. I am advancing!

*Attended an outdoor wedding on Saturday night. What a risk to plan an outdoor wedding in October - but the weather could not have been more perfect.

* Enjoyed our church service. We had a missionary speaker from Ukraine. The depth of commitment and sacrifice this precious family gives was very humbling to me.

* Found a couple hours of knitting time - so relaxing! I'm working on some top-secret Christmas gifts!

* Enjoyed a potluck dinner on Sunday with lots of good church friends.

* My husband's truck broke down in the church parking lot. It was making weird noises. Sounds like money to me :(

* Went to the local drive-in late Sunday evening and splurged with a cheeseburger and french fries. Yummy!

What did you do this weekend? Write a post and then link up over at Becky's so we can all read it.