Food For Thought

A quote from the book Ruthless Trust, by Brennan Manning - a book that I have been trying to read for several years now (yes, YEARS).  So full of insight, but the type you need to chew on for a while...

"The great weakness in the North American church at large, and certainly in my life, is our refusal to accept our brokenness.  We hide it, evade it, gloss over it.  We grab for the cosmetic kit and put on our virtuous face to make ourselves admirable to the public.  Thus, we present to others a self that is spiritually together, superficially happy, and lacquered with a sense of self-deprecating humor that passes for humility.  The irony is that while I do not want anyone to know that I am judgmental, lazy, vulnerable, screwed up, and afraid, for fear of losing face, the face that I fear losing is the mask of the impostor, not my own!"

Growing Up

Last winter we decided to get Natalie a duvet to replace the comforter that was on her bed. It was cute and she still liked it, but the seams had split in a few places and it was not a warm comforter. I bought the duvet, but had a very hard time finding a reasonably-priced twin duvet cover that Natalie liked. In fact, I looked everywhere I could think of and we were still unable to find something suitable.

Finally, I decided that if I was going to have to spend more than I really wanted to, it might as well be on something Natalie absolutely loved and would be willing to live with for quite some time. We started exploring fabric options and as soon as we saw Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room line, Natalie knew exactly what she wanted.
We looked at several fabric options in that line, but all she wanted were the birds. Since the print is so large, I decided to just let the fabric shine on its own and use as much of the aqua version as I could as the main panel. It wasn't quite large enough, so I got the same print in cream and used that as a 5" border all the way around.
For the back, I bought a good quality flat sheet and trimmed it to fit. Since flat sheets have that nice, finished, decorative edge on the top, I decided to use that as the top part of the overlap closure. I still need to get some velcro to help keep it closed, but that can wait. Contrary to how it looks in the picture, I really did iron the sheet!
My girl is growing up. Let's just hope she likes this now that it's finished.

For Baby

When Natalie and Ethan were born, I wasn't knitting yet so I made them quilts. Now that knitting has taken over my crafty pursuits, I decided to knit something special for the new baby. Obviously, this isn't the type of thing that will be used every day like a quilt would, but it is something we can use as a special wrap when she is tiny and then it can be put away and saved until she grows up.

So here it is - the Queen Anne's Lace Shawl - started in May and finished yesterday. The next time you see it, it will be wrapped around a sweet baby girl!

Knitknitknitknit

Just in case you thought I hadn't been doing anything...








Of course, there are other projects currently on the needles, too. Stay tuned.

Why It's Good To Have Children

I dreaded waking up this morning because my kitchen was an absolute wreck. It looked like some scary white trash people lived here! There were dirty dishes everywhere, the counters were both cluttered AND dirty, and the floor was just disgusting. It didn't take me long to fill up the dishwasher and get it started. After that, I hand-washed everything else so it was finished. The biggest issue was the floor. I knew it needed a good old hands-and-knees scrubbing, but I was really dreading it.

Enter one happy-go-lucky 7 year old girl who just happened to be looking for something to do.

Muwahahahahahaha....

In a matter of minutes, she was convinced that not only would she like to try scrubbing the floor, but that it also sounded FUN! I'm not one to waste an opportunity like that, so I gave the floor a good sweep, got her a bucket of diluted Lysol and a sponge and showed her what to do! Of course, it didn't take long for her brother to wander in and want in on the action, too.
All things considered, they did a very nice job for their first time scrubbing a floor! I rinsed it with a mop and clean water and let it dry. There is still de-cluttering to be done and the counter tops need a good wipe-down, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

Locks of Love

My daughter inherited my hair. It grows thick and fast. Several months ago I explained the purpose of Locks of Love to her and asked if she would be interested in letting her hair grow for a while so she could donate it. She liked the idea of being able to help another child and agreed to grow out her hair.

Now, several months later, we were both more than ready to be able to get her hair cut since it was getting ratty as soon as it was brushed. So we were very happy to learn last week that her hair was finally long enough! Today was the day of the big cut and Natalie couldn't be more pleased...nor could I.

Before:

After:

Getting the ponytail shaved off (it was too thick to use scissors):

A typical Natalie face:

And my new, short-haired girl:

Better Vision

I have horrible eyesight, as do several members of my family. So I figured it was only a matter of time before one of my children needed glasses. As it turned out, this was the week! Natalie has never mentioned having any trouble seeing, but after the pediatrician did a vision screening on Monday, he recommended a trip to the optometrist. After a thorough eye exam, it was decided that Natalie definitely needed glasses.

We just picked them up and she seems to think they help, so that's a good start.

Have You Ever Made A Phoenix?

Well Natalie did.

For Christmas, we decided to encourage Natalie's creativity with something new and different: the LaQ Building Set. I had only seen it in the Mindware catalog, but knew it would be right up her alley. At first it was overwhelming, with so many tiny pieces...oh, and the instructions are only in Japanese. Natalie made the recommended basics like a flat strip of repeating patterns, a box and a sphere, but it took a lot of trial and error for her to begin to feel confident enough to try some of the other designs that are shown in the pamphlets. Before long, she was able to figure them out.

There was one in the pamphlet, though, that was elusive. And complicated. And she thought she could never do it.

Then, one day, she did.

I proudly present to you, Natalie's phoenix:
Here is a close-up. LaQ's are comprised of squares, triangles and various connecting pieces.
And here is what Natalie had to work from:
She's pretty amazing, I think.

Big News in a Tiny Package

I was really hoping to have a picture to share in this post, but alas, I was not given one. Part of the reason why the blog has been pretty quiet lately is because I have been exceedingly tired. Beyond tired, actually. But it is all for a good reason, though.

We're having another baby!! (See, this is where I would post an ultrasound picture, but the tech didn't offer to give me any.)

I'm due September 8, which puts me at 12 weeks now. Actually, I have known for about seven weeks already, but we waited a while to tell family and wanted to make sure everything looked good on the ultrasound yesterday. Everything did look good, and since I am 12 weeks, the baby definitely looked like a baby! There was a lot of curling up, leg stretching and flipping over, which is to be expected since there's still room to move around in there.

As for me, I am doing well. My first two pregnancies were very uneventful, with only tiredness and mild nausea at the start, and it looks like this one is following the same path so far. I am very excited to get to do some baby knitting this time! I wasn't knitting yet when I had Natalie and Ethan.

So that's the big news. Hopefully I'll work up the energy to start posting more often.

This Alone Was Worth $89.99

My kids pooled their Christmas and birthday money to buy Wii Fit last week. It is SO fun, but when I came around the corner yesterday to see Ethan doing the ski slalom like this I had to run for the camera:

Seven Years

Today is Natalie's 7th birthday. I can NOT believe it has been seven years already!! She arrived looking like this:
And has grown into a lovely, extremely creative and artistic girl:
The only trouble is, now she says, "I can't wait to be 10."

Fashion Plates

I am not a fashion plate. I am not fashion forward. I would like to be, but honestly I just don't care that much. I try not to look like a frumpy slob when I'm out in public, but sometimes it can't be helped.

As a kid, though, I would spend hours drawing dresses and dreaming up designs. Then, one Christmas, these came along and I was in love:
Did anyone else have Fashion Plates?? They were THE BEST. EVER. I don't know what became of mine, but I miss them.

It Continues

Wow. I didn't mean to be gone that long! We had a great Christmas and New Year with our families, although I was very disappointed by the total lack of snow in the Midwest. Now that the holidays are over, I can show you a few projects that I finished:
The Danica scarf, for Chelsea.
This is a sort of cowl, big neckwarmer, accessory sort of thing...technically, it's a mobius.

Now that I am home, the knitting obligations do not end. I am working on a scarf that will be a thank-you gift for a friend who helped us immensely on Christmas Eve:
This is Anne Hanson's lovely La Novia pattern.

I am also working on one last for-hire scarf for a child who wanted stripes:
There will be lavender in it, too - just haven't gotten there yet. No pattern, just making it up as I go.

Since we were gone for over a week, we had our mail held. When I picked it up, I was thrilled to find a package containing yarn! Some time ago, I had purchased some roving and later had the brilliant idea to ask my friend Erin to spin it for me since she has a spinning wheel and I am very slow with my drop spindle. She obliged and now I have this lovely yarn waiting to be knit up:
Thanks for hanging in there during the hiatus. I promise to be back again soon.

An Unintended Hiatus

Hm. I didn't mean to keep the blog silent for so long. It was those darn scarves! Since my last post, I have knit 6 scarves (all different patterns), 35 felted fortune cookies and 3 hats. Oh, and a mobius/neckwarmer thingie (twice - first time it was huuuuge).

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and holiday season. Greg and I will be participating in the Christmas Eve services at Cross Point, so if you by some strange chance are just looking for somewhere to go in Nashville, come! 2:00, 3:30 and 5:00. Then our family will be leaving after the last service and heading into the night to Missouri. We'll spend a few days there, then head to Illinois to visit my family before coming back home.

I may post from the road...we'll see!

Finally, I can share

I've had this wee outfit finished for weeks now, but wanted to postpone sharing it until I had given it to our friends, Matt and Holly. They are expecting their first baby in a few weeks (or so) and I knew I wanted to knit something for her. I figured they would be inundated with cute little pink goodies, so I wanted to make it both cute AND cool. Matt is the creative director at our church and happens to be a self-admitted Mac geek.

It didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted to do:
I got a lot of hugs.